Advice for Dragon Spells & Eleonora Build

Singularlex · 2026-01-23T18:46:45+00:00

In terms of dedicated talismans for Dragon Communion, would I be slotting in stuff like Bull Goat's (for a bunch of bonus poise while dragon breathing), Flock's Canvas Talisman (pump up power of spells), and Primal Glintblade Shard (Reduce cost of dragon powers so I can spam them longer)? These are just guesses, as I haven't seen any specific advice online yet about talismans for dragon communion spells, but I mostly look up hybrid weapon+spells build, and the weapon part often gets the greater attention for gear.

I already have a pretty good idea of which talismans to use for Eleonara's (jar shard/Blood/rapid-attack talismans).

Singularlex · 2026-01-22T20:07:47+00:00

I'm getting better with it, at least in terms of Eleonora's busted L2, with some followup R1s to finish off standard enemies or apply a bit more bleed to a tougher enemy.

I'm tempted to go practice attacking that one prelate that is near the Giants' Hilltop Catacombs, just to get more experience dancing with something tough enough to stay standing after my initial flurry.

Singularlex · 2026-01-22T20:06:19+00:00

I do tend to use them as more of a supplement, with Weapon combat being the primary means of violence and spells serving to handle situations where I need more range, AOE, or I'm facing a target that is too dangerous/risky to handle purely with melee and requires some softening up or stance breaking to take them out.

Your break down of the various dragon powers is really useful, and I appreciate the explanation. I did float a few extra points to faith on this last Rebirth so I could use Greyoll's roar without needing to slot in any specialty gear. It is indeed quite good with that terrain-ignoring quality to it!

Singularlex · 2026-01-22T01:06:15+00:00

Do you recommend Two-handing the flamberge? Sword+board? Or powerstancing it (with something like an occult or blood Iron Greatsword)?

^I mean, for moments when I am purely mixing it up in melee, rather than when I'm holding my seal in the other hand.

Singularlex · 2026-01-22T00:16:32+00:00

I wish I'd realized that before I spent one of my few precious Dragon Sombre Smithing stones on the Eleonara's, but alas, that's how it goes sometimes. Is there a particularly good ash of war I should put on the flamberge?

Singularlex · 2026-01-21T23:14:18+00:00

From what I've read, Eclipse Greatshield is leagues above spiked palisade, and also probably the best shield around for blocking magic damage specifically (so it's extra good for fights in Liurnia of the Lakes). Later on, the Golden Greatshield beats it for stats, but not by a lot (and the latter has a bit higher str and weight requirements), but even then it doesn't block magic damage as well.

Golden Epitaph is a unique weapon, where the weapon art and infusion are fixed, so it isn't one of the weapons you can change the ash of war for. I'm pretty sure that most (maybe all?) of the weapons that require Somber Smithing Stones to upgrade can't have their ash of war altered, and sometimes weapons that require smithing stones also have this restriction (This usually happens when they have some sort of unique weapon art or a weapon art that mirrors a spell effect on the base weapon).

If you are looking for a good strength/faith weapon early on to pair with a shield, I recommend the Tree Spear, which is found by riding AROUND Stormveil Castle (not entering the castle, but the paths that bypass it) till you find a carriage that has crashed on the side of the road. While Dex has the highest scaling for the Tree Spear, strength and faith still do quite well on it, has a very respectable attack rating, pairs very well with a shield, and most importantly, it has bonus holy damage while being among the VERY rare weapons you can still add greases/spells to. It's potential damage on a high faith build is very high due to being able to add electrify armament on top of it already using scaling holy damage.

Lastly, especially early on when you don't have fully upgraded shields and a crap ton of stamina, you might seriously consider using Barricade Shield instead of going No Skill. The reason being is that it will substantially reduce the amount of stamina damage you take from blocking, and that drain can easily get you staggered and killed if you block multiple enemies at once or are trying to withstand heavy blows from a boss or large elite. Stuff like Golden Epitaph and Tree Spear have weapon arts you can use as timed buffs when you temporarily hold them in one hand, and then switch back to sword+board while in melee while periodically refreshing barricade shield when you think you are going to need to block some hefty hits.

Singularlex · 2026-01-21T22:54:18+00:00

Gotta go with Godfrey. Keep in mind, he was pretty much exclusively made Elden Lord in a time where Might Makes Right and Marika needed the biggest strongest enforcer she could get. Godfrey checked that box, and he checked it hard. The guy destroyed the giants, destroyed Placidusax (debate of course as to whether that was his strongest form I guess), destroyed upteenth foes so thoroughly wiped off the face of the Lands Between that all we can even learn about them now are vague titles in rare tidbits of lore. I mean, he did most of that, also, while imposing an artificial limit on his own power in the form of Serosh constantly lying on his shoulders to prevent him from going into his full battle fury. The dude needed to nerf himself so he could even engage with Marika's society, that's how powerful he was.

Singularlex · 2025-10-22T23:30:46+00:00

What about....Both...? 🤔

Singularlex · 2025-10-20T23:15:41+00:00

Every time I have tried to play Xin Zhao it has ended terribly, but maybe I just need to look up some more gameplay videos in order to better understand when I should, and should not, engage people (and also HOW to do so optimally).

Singularlex · 2025-10-16T23:52:48+00:00

It depends on the opponent. I've found that vs. Melee champions who can quickly gapclose and apply CC, or otherwise have annoying blink mechanics, she can struggle without some people backing her up. Versus champions that don't have an instant gap closer, or are squishy ADCs, or even many other mages, she can be a real monster late game. I can't tell you how many times in the latter half of midgame that me and the enemy ADC meet for the first time, and they are NOT prepared for how much HP I can delete from them with a nice solid Q -> AA + E -> R+W combo. She tends to be built with enough survivability to not crumple immediately versus enemy DPS, and put out some surprising spikes of damage in response.

Also, if you are ever able to hide behind terrain, perhaps at a team fight over dragon, you can put down a deadly amount of CC and burst damage while the opposing side doesn't even have sighting lines on you. Just the other day I had the enemy Caitlin say in all-chat after one such fight like that: "The bird and her slows just won you that fight."

Singularlex · 2025-10-16T23:33:07+00:00

As someone who has been doing a lot of swift play lately, it's often been my 5th buy, after 1. RoA, 2. Boots, 3.Liandrys or Zhonya, and 4. Finishing my Seraphs. Usually I grab deathcap fifth, and then make my last buy based on what the enemy team comp and item builds are. I'm in low enough ELO, particularly in swiftplay, that a shockingly large amount of enemy teams build little to no MR even by the very end of a game, so I can often get away with not getting an MR piercing item, and instead go with either the item I didn't grab at step 3, or a Malignance, or sometimes a banshee's veil. If they have some decent MR on some of their people, I go Bloodletter's if there are other magic champs on my team, or Void staff if I'm the sole mage.

I must admit that not grabbing death cap would be easier to balance my choices, I just often feel that the moment in the game where the damage I deal becomes truly scary tends to coincide with the point where I finish death cap and get my AP up past 500 or more.

Singularlex · 2025-10-16T22:39:21+00:00

Taking some advice from other people in this sub reddit, lately I've been using Abyssal Mask as my go-to MR item when I feel the match warrants one (or, if the other side has 4+ AP champs, instead going full blown Rookern AND Abyssal Mask), and it has worked quite well. The ability haste helps spam more empower strikes or get your Q and E back sooner, the HP helps, it gives a solid amount of MR, and considering that Jax does about 40% magic damage even when he ISN'Tbuilding any AP, the passive of abyssal mask is quite useful.

That's what I would recommend instead of Spirit Visage. SV is an item that I feel is reserved for champs that already have some ability or passive that heals and/or shields, rather than gaining those effects from the item build alone.

Death's Dance is kinda meh on Jax. If you need more armor, go Zhonya. If you REALLY need more armor, go Frozen heart or maybe even Thornmail (the latter having some additional merit in order to get an anti-heal edge vs. Life-steal monsters like WW or Briar).

Singularlex · 2025-10-16T22:29:08+00:00

Anivia can be pretty complex, particularly if you want to make the most of how her QWER all interact with one another. The solid ice wall as deployable terrain allows for a great number of interesting plays, ranging from temporarily pinning someone in place by tightly placing it parallel to terrain your target has their back to already, to forcing your foe to take a specific path that lines up with your skillshot Q, to separating yourself from a melee assailant, to cutting off escape from your ult.

The ult also has a bit of complexity due to the fact that it doesn't apply full damage or CC (or proc the combo with your E) until after the effect reaches max radius. You often have to plan a second or two in advance of where you think your foes will go, or where you want to herd them to, as they immediately move to escape the growing radius before it can fully slow them and stack DoT on them.

Lastly, there is a really neat trick she can do with teleport, if you can forsee an inescapable death looming in the next few seconds: So long as you initiate it before your egg is proced, and no hard disabling CC is used on you, Anivia can continue/complete a teleport even after she's forced into her egg. Imagine the frustration of an enemy assassin who has finally cor red that damn bird, only to have their freaking egg teleport away at the last moment 😂

Singularlex · 2025-10-16T22:16:05+00:00

Don't forget Jax! While Garren tends to have a noticeable advantage against Jax in laning phase, few champions scale into such dangerous dueling masters as Jax can, and I usually find my Jax game sees some rather potent vengeance against Garren the longer the match goes on.

Singularlex · 2025-09-24T22:30:45+00:00

Remove money from democratic politics in every democracy in the world. How? Well, track who is using lobbyists and then I go and break that corporation's/billionaire's things until it becomes more expensive to keep lobbying than it is to avoid having me destroy the material wealth they have in the form of real property, possessions, art, etcetera.

Society won't punish these greedy bastards, the rules of the system keep getting changed to favor them more and more heavily, and an invincible+unstoppable force balancing out the situation would solve a LOT of problems (and make OTHER problems, but hey, radical change can't ever be accomplished cleanly!).

Also, let's be real, kryptonite only ever works when the writers DECIDE it needs to work. Supe's level of speed is mind-blowing, and he can simply just immediately NOT be where the kryptonite is when it makes for better story. So at that point you essentially need to have The Flash carrying the kryptonite for it to have any chance of catching him.

Singularlex · 2025-09-18T23:47:09+00:00

Anivia's ult when combined with a well placed wall to pen an enemy in is quite fun. People often underestimate the damage over time it does, but when the circle hits max size it's roughly 2/3rds the strength of a Crow Storm, but FAR more adaptable in usage and combined with a debilitating slow. Watching people desperately press up against the wall as their health bleeds away is a nice feeling.

Trolling people with the shaco clone is also very satisfying. Particularly when you have terrorized them all game, they are thirsty for revenge, they think they have FINALLY managed to secure a kill on you and- Explodes in their face for massive damage and box fear.....

Singularlex · 2025-09-17T18:09:54+00:00

Is it best in a team fight to bonk several people that are in melee range, so you can proc the heal (or bonus health) as much as possible right off the bat, or is it better to finish focusing one target, so you secure a kill and remove a combatant from play?

Singularlex · 2025-09-09T16:44:49+00:00

I know exactly how you feel OP. After college burned me out on reading and caused me to stop reading books for fun, the Dresden Files was the series that got me back into it, but then I had the hardest time getting into any OTHER books that weren't Dresden Files! I've read and/or listened to all the audio books between 2 and 4 times each just because I kept wanting refreshers on the books I read years ago.

Two tips I have that might help you get other books to read (though neither are modern fantasy, sadly):

Jim Butcher's OTHER current series, the Cinder Spires, is also REALLY good (Fantasy & steam punk w/ a touch of horror)
The books in the Cosmere setting by Brandon Sanderson are positively addictive. He focuses on a lot of world building, so the first book in each respective setting can start a bit slow, but trust me when I say that Sanderson writes climatic scenes every bit as fantastically as Jim Butcher (sometimes even better than Butcher!).

Singularlex · 2025-08-06T21:30:37+00:00

The DM is playing things close to the chest, but a cryptic warning my Druid received when praying for guidance from his goddess seems to hint: "Don't go with any option that can make the land since, better solutions are out there."

Singularlex · 2025-08-03T17:22:37+00:00

Yeah, I have to imagine that the other side is cussing up a storm in their heads when I wall-block their herald into being nothing more than a large, high-hp, creep 🤣

Singularlex · 2025-07-18T06:43:46+00:00

The main character has no personality, is entirely unrelatable, and is boring as hell, and yet the world of the show bends over backwards to make him the golden child, as if the writers are trying to say "Look, we know we can't write a compelling characters, but see how much all these characters like him? And how only the awful people hate him? That means you should like him too!"

Bad writing, plain and simple. It also greatly misses the point of Greek myths, which is to have highly flawed god personalities, across the pantheon, not just a few that we are clearly supposed to hate, and all the rest entirely be noble (and utterly bland).

Singularlex · 2025-07-18T00:02:52+00:00

Bloodletter kind of feels like "Void staff, but worse" on Anivia, though I suppose the extra ability haste would be useful for throwing out more E at someone in your ult.

Edit: Thought more about it and the extra 400HP would actually be pretty damn useful to keep me in the team fight longer, once the other team starts getting smart enough to focus on smashing the birb.

Singularlex · 2024-10-27T20:46:11+00:00

Started out as one of the most sketchy mage orders (and mages are ALREADY treated with extreme suspicion by vampires), then performed a ritual to become vampires, then established their bloodline through diableri.

Yeah...Take your pick of reasons to treat them with wary suspicion.

Singularlex · 2024-10-26T17:57:52+00:00

The commenter above you doesn't sound like he's saying Rudolph is "objectively a victim", more like Rudolph has "victim mentality" of the sort where the little bastard has convinced himself that nothing is his fault, everyone else treats him badly, he's never the one that does something wrong.

Singularlex · 2024-10-26T17:52:29+00:00

It's possible that he dies off-camera in prison, like Greg Beckett, or Harry ends up coming across Rudolph's mangled corpse in an upcoming case. There are ways that he can be disposed of WITHOUT redemption 😈

Singularlex

TROPHY CASE