Elden Ring Lamenter Build Guide: Intended Trolling - VULKK.com (2024)

A complete Lamenter Build for Elden Ring, an extremely cheesy, yet still effective playstyle that can bring even Radahn to his knees with ease.

This guide is up-to-date for Elden Ring Update 1.12.3

Introduction to the Lamenter

The Lamenter is a mini-boss in Shadow of the Erdtree imprisoned at the bottom of the Lamenter’s Gaol in Charo’s Hidden Grave. He’s a Hornsent who has been blinded by horns growing out of his eyes and chooses to laugh about it.

Inside Lamenter’s Gaol, you’ll find the Lamenter’s Mask, Lamenter’s Visage, and Prattling Pate “Lamentation”, which he uses to torment his fellow inmates by concealing and then popping out from the shadows with an overgrown head.

You’ll be able to do the same to unfortunate souls by slinking around in the shadows and jump-scaring your victim with the suddenly enlarged head of the Lamenter. While you can’t make copies of yourself, you can group up with your buddies and use the same build to create the same experience.

To round out the playstyle, you’ll incorporate the Visage Shield and support Incantations from the base game that allow you to deal substantial damage while blocking. You invest heavily in Strength, Endurance, and Faith.

Lamenter Appearance

The Lamenter’s Mask and Lamenter’s Visage in Elden Ring are available exclusively in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. The Lamenter’s Mask is a reusable transformation item like the Rock Heart and Priestess Heart, but it turns you into an emaciated demonic Omen instead of a dragon. He’s holding the Lamenter’s Visage, a Torch.

Lamenter’s Reusable Items

The Lamenter has 2 reusable items, the Lamenter’s Mask and Prattling Pate “Lamentation”.

Lamenter’s Mask

The Lamenter’s Mask is a reusable transformation item, so you have to take off your armor to activate it, and then the appearance persists until you die.

You receive +8 Arcane, and like the dragon transformations, you get some Damage Negation and Resistance to compensate for the lack of armor.

When you use the Lamenter’s Mask while already transformed, it makes his head increase in size for a moment as he lets out a “Lamentation”, which deals a decent chunk of damage to enemies nearby. This attack scales with Strength (B) and is not upgradable.

You receive the Lamenter’s Mask for defeating the Lamenter himself, locked away at the bottom of the Lamenter’s Gaol at Charo’s Hidden Grave.

Perhaps it should have been called Lamenter’s Mantle.

Prattling Pate “Lamentation”

Prattling Pate “Lamentation” is just like the other Prattling Pates, except it’s blue and emits a wonderful noise. It’s in the same Gaol, so I thought you’d want to pick it up while you’re there.

You can loot Prattling Pate “Lamentation” from a corpse at the end of the top level of the Lamenter’s Gaol in Charo’s Hidden Grave.

Right Hand: Shield and Dagger

You’ll be using the Visage Shield as your primary way to deal damage and protect yourself. When you stagger your target, you’ll swap to the Erdtree Dagger.

Visage Shield

The Visage Shield is a (semi-)portable version of the obnoxious Flame Chariots in the base game. It’s one of the heaviest shields in the game and features a completely Unique Skill: Tongues of Fire that turns it into a flamethrower.

It’s meant to be two-handed and used as a weapon, though it still protects you. Given the name, its appearance, and stat scaling, it’s clear it was meant to be wielded by the Lamenter.

You can loot the Visage Shield from the chest guarded by a pair of Mad Pumpkin Heads at Calem Ruins in Caelid, near the border with Limgrave.

Sacred Erdsteel Dagger with Lightning Ram

The Erdsteel Dagger comes with a regular skill, Quickstep, and additional built-in Faith scaling. You’ll need to use Ash of War: Lightning Ram and modify it to be either Sacred or Heavy. The former will be stronger at higher levels while the latter will be stronger at lower levels.

Erdsteel Dagger

The Erdsteel Dagger is useful for dealing critical damage when you stagger something with your Visage Shield. The built-in Faith scaling makes it superior to a Sacred Miséricorde.

You receive an Erdsteel Dagger from Kenneth Haight after notifying him that you’ve cleared out Fort Haight in Limgrave. You can also obtain one from a corpse near the decaying Gargoyle in the sewage at Lyndell, Royal Capital.

Ash of War: Lightning Ram

He’s a goat-man. There is no alternative. The Lamenter must bleet.

You can obtain Ash of War: Lightning Ram from a dung beetle near the Stormcaller Church and the Sainted Hero’s Grave in the center of the Altus Plateau.

Speaking of the electric sheep, I’m pretty sure Elden Ring takes place in a robot’s dream, and the Shadow Realm is a dream within a dream, given that there are a lot more of them and some XXL gals.

Left-Hand Implements: Torch and Seal

You’ll be using the Lamenting Visage and either the Clawmark or Erdtree Seal in your left hand.

Lamenting Visage

The Lamenting Visage is a grotesque Torch used by the Lamentor boss. Its Unique Skill: Blindfold of Happiness turns on stealth mode after waggling it and cackling. The idea is you sneak up on people and pop that big ol’ head out to spook people.

You can loot the Lamenting Visage from the Lamenter’s Gaol at Charo’s Hidden Grave (AKA Crimson Ridge). The Lamenting Visage is on a corpse in a room behind an illusion wall locked by the Gaol Lower Level Key. The room is across from the floor that crumbles beneath you.

Go ahead and step on that crumbly ground. As you make your way back up, you’ll need to grab the Lamenter’s Gaol Lower Level Key from a chest in the room with all of the Warrior Jars and human slop.

Then, go out to the main stairway. The illusion wall is what seems like a dead end with no reward.

Clawmark Seal ▶ Erdree Seal

The Clawmark Seal and Erdtree Seal will enable you to cast Incantations. The Clawmark Seal scales with Faith and Strength, so it will be superior early on, but once you get enough Faith, the Erdtree Seal will be superior. Switch to the Erdtree Seal once it provides more Incant Scaling.

You receive the Clawmark Seal from Gurranq, Beast Clergyman, at the beasti*al Sanctum in Caelid after giving him 1 Deathroot.

You can loot the Erdtree Seal from a corpse in a cell at the Prison Town within the Volcano Manor.

Lamenter’s Incantations

Incantations are one of the terms for spells in Elden Ring. They consume FP (the blue bar) and can be replenished by taking a sip from your Flask of Cerulean Tears.

They differentiate themselves from Sorceries by primarily requiring some amount of Faith instead of Intelligence, emphasize support and AoE over focused damage, and are more likely to be channelable rather than chargeable or chainable.

You’ll be using the standard set of support Incantations for survivability along with a couple of bombastic options befitting of the Lamenter. You have 1 Memory Slot left to do with as you please.

This order makes your in-combat abilities available at the beginning, so you can hold the cycle button to instantly return to your immediate heal, followed Flame of the Fell God; Flame, Grant Me Strength; and Greyoll’s Roar.

This little combo allows you to bring out the fireball, buff yourself while it’s floating menacingly at your target, and then it should detonate near the end, just in time for you to begin casting Greyoll’s Roar on the incapacitated target.

Then, there’s the buffs, which are ordered in descending order according to uptime and FP consumption. This way, you use your longest lasting and most expensive options first, while you have the most FP and less of the duration will be wasted.

Erdtree Heal

The Erdtree Heal is the most powerful immediate heal you have access to, and it will heal for 1,237 HP, which happens to be equal to about 65% of your max HP and 65% stronger than a maxed out Crimson Flask.

You can loot Erdtree Heal from the Queen’s Chamber at Lyndell, Capital of Ash, after defeating Maliketh at Crumbling Farum Azula. It’s in the same spot as Blessing of the Erdtree.

Flame of the Fell God

Casting Flame of the Fell God causes you to birth a miniature sun from your hand that slowly floats towards your target and eventually explodes and leaves behind a puddle of fire after a sudden flash.

This forces your target to deal with something more important than your Visage Shield for a considerable amount of time, and knocks enemies down, giving you a chance to roast them even harder.

Flame of the Fell God is dropped by defeating Adan, Thief of Fire at the Malefactor’s Evergaol in southern Liurnia.

Flame, Grant Me Strength

Flame, Grant Me Strength, increases your Fire and Physical damaged dealt by 20% each and your Stamina Regeneration rate by +5/s for 30s. It boosts exactly everything you need to be maximally effective as a Lamenter.

You can loot Flame, Grant Me Strength, from a corpse betwixt a couple of Flame Chariots behind Fort Gael in Caelid.

Greyoll’s Roar

Greyoll’s Roar radiates its effects centered around you. The range is pretty short, so treat it as a melee attack. The Roar goes out several times over the course of the channel, and enemies that get hit take a decent chunk of damage (enough to be lethal to weak enemies), get knocked back, and receive a debuff.

The debuff from Greyoll’s Roar reduces the enemy’s damage dealt by 15% and defenses by 10% for 60s, so they hurt you less and you hurt them more.

You should only need to invest a point or two into Arcane to use Greyoll’s Roar, if any, as you get 8 Arcane while transformed into the Lamenter. That red X helps as a reminder to reapply it after you die.

You can find Greyoll at her Dragonbarrow in northeastern Caelid. Greyoll’s Roar costs 3 Dragon Hearts at the Cathedral of Dragon Communion, but she drops 3.

She isn’t a normal dragon boss; she’s gigantic and has a ridiculous amount of health. However, she loses a bunch of HP each time you kill one of her children, so do that, and try to engage only one of them at a time.

Law of Causality

Law of Causality is a buff that automatically triggers a knockback that deals a small amount of damage if you get hit enough times in a short period of time. It’s a good backup to protect you from getting overwhelmed because you let yourself get surrounded.

You receive the Law of Causality from Sir Gideon Offnir, the All-Knowing, after informing him of the Cocoon of the Empyrean after defeating Mohg, Lord of Blood.

If Gideon is no longer at the Roundtable Hold, you can purchase it from the Twin-Maiden Husks for a few thousand Runes.

Blessing of the Erdtree

The Blessing of the Erdtree gradually heals you for 1080 HP over 90s. It will allow you to take more damage before needing to use a healing ability.

You can loot Blessing of the Erdtree from the Queen’s Bedchamber at Lyndell, Royal Capital.

Golden Vow

Golden Vow grants +15% to all damage dealt and +10% Damage Negation for 80s.

You can loot the Golden Vow Incantation from the Corpse-Stench Shack past the Bridge of Iniquity on Mt. Gelmir. Prepare to be invaded.

Other Options

You have 1 Memory Slot left to work with. You might also want to consider using Darkness, Shadow Bait, and Watchful Spirit, as they’re reminiscent of the Lamenter mini-boss, though only Shadow Bait does anything of consequence in PvE.

Lamenter’s Talismans

I recommend using Shard of Alexander, Fire Scorpion Charm, Two-Headed Turtle Talisman, and Greatshield Talisman as the Lamenter.

These talismans boost the damage dealt by your Visage Shield and increase its uptime.

Warrior Jar’s Shard or Shard of Alexander

Shard of Alexander buffs the damage dealt by your Skills by 15%, and Warrior Jar’s Shard by 10%. This applies to your Visage Shield’s flamethrower and the Lightning Ram.

In order to obtain the Shard of Alexander, you must complete Iron Fist Alexander’s quest at Crumbling Farum Azula in the Lands Between. You’ll be rewarded the Shard for fulling Alexander’s final request.

You can obtain a weaker version, the Warrior Jar’s Shard, by shattering Alexander at any point before meeting him at Crumbling Farum Azula. You can only ever equip one of these Talismans at a time and only obtain one of them per playthrough.

Fire Scorpion Charm

This talisman boosts all of your Fire damage dealt by 12% but increases your physical damage taken by 10%. In the Dark Souls series, this was called the Fire Clutch Ring. It also applies to your Visage Shield’s flamethrower as well as any Pyromancies you choose to use.

The Fire Scorpion’s Charm was stolen by a noble attempting to flee Fort Laiedd on the western side of Mt. Gelmir, but he didn’t make it very far, so it’s pretty close to an already-open chest that he likely took it from.

Two-Headed Turtle Talisman

The Two-Headed Turtle Talisman boosts your Stamina recovery rate even more than the base version. My limited testing suggests it’s roughly a 25% boost.

You can loot the Two-Headed Turtle Talisman from a cavern on the Gravesite Plain behind the waterfall from Temple Town Ruins into Ellac River.

It is not in the Rivermouth Cave, but it’s nearby.

Greatshield Talisman

The Greatshield Talisman reduces the Stamina drain from blocking attacks, allowing you to spend more time with your flamethrower active.

You can loot the Greatshield Talisman from one of the caravans at the main war camp for Lyndell’s forces on the Altus Plateau, near Lux Ruins and the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Site of Grace.

Online Alternatives

You might want to swap out the Greatshield Talisman or Fire Scorpion Charm for either of the Trick Mirror Talismans while playing online to alter your UI appearance.

Both Trick Mirror Talismans are available for purchase for 1,000 Runes each from the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold.

Lamenter’s’ Flask of Wondrous Physick

There are several approaches to concocting a mixture for yourFlask of Wondrous Physickdepending on your priorities. Beyond picking something that’s effectively useless, there isn’t really a bad combination of Crystal Tears, so I recommend that you pick 2 that cater best to your preferences.

Recommended Concoction

I use the Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear in conjunction with the Opaline Hardtear because I want long-lasting effects that apply to everything.

This combo also allows you to “pre-game” your Physick before even entering boss rooms, so you don’t need to waste a precious opening during the actual fight to drink it.

Opaline Hardtear

The Opaline Hardtear grants +13.5% Damage Negation for 3 mins against all damage types. It’s basically a combination of the Pearldrake and Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman. Since you have very little Damage Negation, survivability can be a concern with this build, the Opaline Hardtear is the best option.

Dropped by the Putrid Avatar at the base of the Minor Erdtree at Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow near the Farum Greatbridge in northeastern Caelid.

Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear

The Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear boosts your Fire damage by 20% for 3 minutes, effectively acting as a significant damage boost for your shield’s flamethrower.

Outside of bosses, it usually lasts long enough to clear out a difficult area and definitely long enough to take down tough enemies.

Dropped by the Putrid Avatar at the base of the Minor Erdtree in northwest Caelid near the Rotview Balcony and Smouldering Church.

You may want another Crystal Tear that boosts survivability instead. I recommend the Opaline Bubbletear as a replacement for the Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear.

Lamenter’s Stats and Flask Allocation

All of the Lamenter build items scale exclusively with Strength, but you can augment it with Incantations, so Faith is also valuable. Remember, the Lamenter’s Mask grants +8 Arcane.

Attribute	lvl 200 ►	lvl 250 ►	lvl 300 ►	lvl 350+
Vigor	60	60	60	60
Mind	35	50	50	60
Endurance	54	54	60	60
Strength	60	80	80	99
Dexterity	12	12	12	12
Intelligence	–	–	29	29
Faith	38	50	80	80
Arcane ( +8)	17 (9)	17 (9)	17 (9)	17 (9)

How Stats influence your build in Elden Ring

Vigor

Vigor primarily increases your HP (red bar) and has a hard cap at 60. Your Vigor should increase by 10 by the time you finish your current continent.

Mind

Mind primarily increases your FP (blue bar) and has a soft cap at 50 followed by a hard cap at 60, with the most significant gains per Attribute Point occuring between 35-50 Mind. However, you really don’t need more than 15-20 if you’re mainly using Skills and Ashes of War.

You’ll be expending FP on your flamethrower shield and buffing Incantations. You can get by with 35, but 50 ► 60 is better.

Endurance

Endurance increases your Stamina (green bar) and Maximum Equip Load. The former is a resource that gets consumed whenever you do anything beyond walking around (or running outside of combat). You’ll get practically all of the Stamina between 1-50 Endurance and have a lot of flexibility with equipment within that range as well.

You need 54 Endurance to carry everything I recommend with a Light Equip Load. I go up to 60 eventually because it’s already mentally taxing enough to look at the Lamenter all the time.

Strength (Str)

Strength increases your damage dealt with weapons that scale with it, which are typically the heavier weapons. Two-handing a weapon multiplies the amount of Attribute Points for the purposes of damage output and Strength usability requirements (you can lift heavier things because using both hands).

Everything scales strongly with Strength, so you want 60 ► 80 ► 99.

Dexterity (Dex)

Dexterity increases your damage dealt with weapons that scale with it, which are typically lighter weapons and those that require more precision. Dexterity also reduces casting time for Sorceries and Incantations.

You don’t need Dexterity with this build, though you would technically benefit from the cast time reduction for your Incantations.

Intelligence (Int)

Intelligence primarily increases the Sorcery Scaling on Staves, governing the damage you deal with Sorceries and whether you can cast them in the first place, though it can also increase the Magic or Cold damage dealt by a weapon that scales with it.

You need 29 Intelligence to cast Law of Causality. That is all.

Faith (Fth)

Faith primarily increases the Incantation Scaling on Seals, governing the damage you deal with Incantations and whether you can cast them in the first place, though it can also increase the (Sacred) Fire and Holy damage dealt by a weapon that scales with it.

Your Claw Seal scales with Faith as well as Strength. You need 38 to cast everything but Light of Miquella, which requires 72. Scaling caps are 50, 60, and 80.

Arcane (Arc)

Arcane increases your damage dealt and rate of status effect application (Bleed, Poison, etc.) with weapons that scale with it, typically related to those status effects and random weird stuff. It also increases the chance that an enemy will drop something.

You want 17 Arcane so that you can use Greyoll’s Roar.

Leveling Up

Prioritize spending your Attribute Points on what you need right now to satisfy some threshold, alternating between damage and survivability.

You should have just enough damage-boosting stats to defeat most enemies in a whole number of hits. If your final hit overshoots their health bar by 50%, that’s half of a hit wasted.

You should have enough survivability that you can consistently survive 2-3 hits, or maybe not get one-shot by some smackerdoodle with extra beef, like Dragonlord Placidusax’s sound-dampening Lightning Spear.

You should have enough HP that you can get the full amount from your Crimson Flask while still being able to survive at least 1 more hit. The same applies to FP and Cerulean Flasks for caster builds.

If one side of this survivability-damage output coin is satisfactory, focus on the other until it’s satisfactory, and then switch back. It doesn’t work to dump everything into one of them because of diminishing returns.

Crimson and Cerulean Flask Allocation

You want to heal with your Incantations, with only a few left over for emergencies and free refills. Your goal is to run out of both types of Flasks at roughly the same time.

I have found a 3 Red – 11 Blue ratio to work pretty well so you have enough Crimson Flasks to chug yourself back up to full and benefit from the refills. Remember, treat the ratio I recommend as a starting point, not as gospel!

If you are struggling with the new challenges in the Shadow Realm, we have an excellent Bleed Build for Shadow of the Erdtree and a ton of helpful tips and tricks on how to make the game easier using proper mechanics and gameplay features (no cheating, no cheese).