Elden Ring Rock Heart Build: Communing with Dragons (PvE) (2024)

A complete Rock Heart PvE Build for Elden Ring, enhanced by Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and designed to help you reach the ultimate level of Dragon Communion by combining draconic items from the base game with molten fury from the Jagged Peak.

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

Introduction to Dragon Communion

Dragon Communion is a ritual that allows one to consume the power from a slain dragon by devouring their heart.

In more practical terms, if you defeat a dragon, you get a Dragon Heart, and you can go to the Cathedral of Dragon Communion to exchange it for an Incantation.

These Incantations allow you to conjure part of the dragon’s body, usually its head, to massacre anything nearby. The Realm of Shadow is home to Bayle the Dread and his children, the drakes of Jagged Peak, as well as zombie dragons that can breathe Ghostflame.

You’ll be able to consume the hearts of these new dragons at the Grand Altar of Dragon Communion in the Shadow Realm, located in between Charo’s Hidden Grave and the Finger Ruins of Rhia.

The Shadow Realm also has stone dragon hearts, which cannot be consumed, but allow you to transform into a dragon, deepening your communion. One such item is the Rock Heart, takes the place of your armor allowing you to fight in a draconic form.

Build Playstyle and Requirements

This build combines the Rock Heart with Dragon Communion Incantations and Magma Wyrm Scalesword to overwhelm your enemies and carve a path towards Miquella.

Since the Rock Heart requires you to remove all your armor, you have the means to use a heavy weapon and retain a Light Equip Load, meaning you’ll hit hard with slower attacks while possessing additional agility.

You’ll use the Magma Wyrm Scalesword for weaker enemies and small groups, and expend FP on Dragon Communion Incantations against stronger enemies and larger groups.

Stats-wise, you’ll need a lot of just about everything but Intelligence, and play through the DLC a second time to get both of Bayle’s Incantations. You’ll need a full playthrough to gather everything, and it’ll take a second round of Shadow of the Erdtree to get the final Incantation.

I think you’ll have a better experience playing through Shadow of the Erdtree for the first time on NG+, and then completing the build in NG++. However, it’s totally fine to create this build on the first playthrough, and the final Incantation can easily be replaced by something else.

Right Hand Armaments: Melee Weapons

You’ll be swapping between a heavy blade and a dagger in your right hand.

Magma Wyrm Scalesword

The Magma Wyrm Scalesword is a Curved Greatsword that scales with Strength (B), Faith (B), and Dexterity (D) and about a third of is damage comes from Fire.

Its Unique Skill: Magma Guillotine is basically the attack that Magma Wyrms do with it. You leap forward and slam the Scalesword down holding it in both hands, causing magma to spew everywhere. If you chain it with a second activation, that second slam ends with you scraping back, dealing a third hit of damage.

For the most part, you shouldn’t need to use your Incantations against enemies that you can defeat with your Scalesword, so remember to two-hand it.

You receive the Magma Wyrm Scalesword for defeating Magma Wyrm Makar at the Ruin-Strewn Precipice connecting Liurnia to the Altus Plateau.

Alternatives Main Weapons

There are other contenders for your main weapon. Ideal candidates scale with Strength, Dexterity, and Arcane. That third one means you can also incorporate Poison or Bleed into this build. Alternative main weapons include:

• Putrescence Cleaver
• Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword
• Bloodflame Weapons
• Eochaidian Weapons
• Rot Weapons

Miséricorde with Assassin’s Gambit

The Miséricorde comes with a regular skill, Quickstep, and Standard scaling. You’ll need to use Ash of War: Assassin’s Gambit and modify it to be either Blood or Occult. Occult results in ever so slightly higher critical damage, but Blood allows you to apply Bleed with regular attacks.

Miséricorde

The Miséricorde is a Dagger that has the highest critical damage potential of any modifiable weapon in the game.

You’ll be able to consistently knock down stronger enemies with the Magma Wyrm Scalesword, and but it’s better to gouge them with this. You’ll deal significantly more damage thanks to similar scaling and that +40% critical damage boost.

You can loot the Miséricorde from a corpse in the armory near the dining hall at Stormveil Castle. The armory requires a Stonesword Key to unlock. Take the elevator shortcut from the Rampart Tower Site of Grace.

The Reduvia is another solid choice that matches the draconic transformation better, though you miss out on Assassin’s Gambit.

Ash of War: Assassin’s Gambit

Assassin’s Gambit temporarily grants the effects of the Black Knife armor set and Concealing Veil + Crepus’ Vial talismans to make you far less detectable to enemies for 30s, at the negligible cost of 45 HP in addition to 5 FP.

This Ash of War is super helpful when you’re about to face off against a larger group by letting you get as close as possible before casting one of your Dragon Communion Incantations, especially Greyoll’s Roar and Bayle’s Tyranny.

Since the cast times of your Incantations are so long, and you have 0 Poise, that extra moment before the enemies notice you can be the difference between annihilating the group or getting interrupted and knocked down.

You can purchase Ash of War: Assassin’s Gambit from Recusant Bernahl (or his empty chair) at the Volcano Manor on Mt. Gelmir for 6,500 Runes.

Left Hand Armaments: Seal and Shield

You’ll be using a Seal to cast Incantations in your left hand with a Shield as an optional backup.

Dragon Communion Seal

Seals are what you use to cast Incantations. Most scale with Faith and buff a specific category of Incantations. The Dragon Communion seal is the only one that scales with Arcane (S) in addition to Faith (B). It also boosts the damage dealt by Dragon Communion Incantations by +15%.

You can loot the Dragon Communion Seal from the ghost of a Banished Knight at the Fringefolk Hero’s Grave.

The Fringefolk Hero’s Grave is located behind the double Stonewall Key fog in the building you first come out of in Limgrave, right next to the Stranded Graveyard Site of Grace.

Follow the main “road” downhill until you get to a fork where you can turn right to go uphill. The Banished Knight ghost will be at the top of that “hill”.

Crucible Hornshield (Optional)

I suggest equipping a shield so that you have someting to protect yourself against attacks that are difficult to dodge.

The Crucible Hornshield just happens to weigh 11.5 units, and offers the greatest overall mitigation stats out of everything available below that weight threshold.

While it is annoying that you’re stuck with its Shield Bash skill, it does give you a little reminder that you should be two-handing the Magma Wyrm Scalesword. Some Skill juggling is unavoidable with this build anyway.

You receive the Crucible Hornshield for defeating the Crucible Knight who uses it at Siofra Aqueduct, north of Nokron.

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 exclusively using Dragon Communion Incantations, which can deal +35% additional damage using the Dragon Communion Seal while Rock Heart buffs active.

I recommend memorizing your Dragon Communions in order of descending FP cost so that you minimize the time wasted flipping through your draconic rolodex. You can’t cast them all the time because your FP is so restricted.

Most of them are quite expensive and the ranges don’t differ consequentially like they do for other types of casters, so it makes sense to order them like this.

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.

Since it has the same duration as the buff from Rock Heart, just use Greyoll’s Roar as a follow-up after reapplying Rock Heart, though I recommend doing both at phase transitions rather than trying to time it exaclty.

You can find Greyoll at her Dragonbarrow in northeastern Caelid. Greyoll’s Roar costs 3 Dragon Hearts, 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.

Magma Breath ► Theodorix’s Magma

Magma Breath and the upgraded version, Theodorix’s Magma, is a short range Magma Shot. It’s the best of the dragonbreath Incantations in my opinion because it’s powerful and reliable against all enemy types. Theodorix’s version lets you do a follow-up shot

You unlock Magma Breath after defeating one out in the world, so you’ll get it when you procure the Magma Wyrm Scalesword from Makar.

You can obtain Theodorix’s Magma for 2 Dragon Hearts after defeating Great Wyrm Theodorix near the frozen waterfall at the northeastern corner of the Consecrated Snowfield.

The poor thing has been cornered by Giant Crabs and Land Octopi, and they will join the fight if Theo steps too far out of line.

Placidusax’s Ruin

Placidusax’s Ruin fires off one of the surprise anime flame beams emitted by the formerly five-headed dragonball. Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted you to do the fight again right before you cut off those final 2 heads.

The attack starts with a short-range, painful knockback, and the breathbeam fires sooner than most dragonbreath. If an enemy gets knocked back, they will get hit by the beam several times.

You can also technically control the head while channeling, but it’s so clunky that I don’t recommend bothering. The attack will hit your target, and anything else caught in the crossfire.

You can purchase Placidusax’s Ruin from Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold in exchange for Remembrance of the Dragonlord, which you receive for defeating Dragonlord Placidusax at the heart of the storm beyond time at Farum Azula. Don’t tell the Dragon Priestess.

Bayle’s Tyranny

Bayle’s Tyranny summons a spectacular damage-only AoE geological cataclysm centered around you. If you can get to the middle of a group of enemies, become the Tyrant.

You can exchange the Heart of Bayle you get for defeating Bayle the Dread for Bayle’s Tyranny at the Grand Altar of Dragon Communion in the Realm of Shadow.

I do not recommend using Bayle’s Flame Lightning. Use Dragonclaw and a dragonbreath attack instead.

Dragonclaw

Dragonclaw deals Physical damage. It’s also one of the fastest and cheapest Dragon Communion Incantations. While it isn’t as strong as the others, a single direct hit will still defeat regular soldiers and you can chain a follow-up slam, to smush the ones that haven’t fully splattered yet.

A direct hit with the claw (really the entire paw) deals more damage than the shockwave.

Dragonclaw does not have any specific dragonslaying requirements, though it still costs 1 Dragon Heart. You can obtain it from both the Church and Cathedral of Dragon Communion from the get-go.

Head through the Coastal Cave to reach the island with the Church of Dragon Communion.

Ghostflame Breath, et. al.

You have 1 slot to spare, and I recommend Ghostflame Breath for that slot. It deals Magic damage and applies Frost buildup. Few enemies are resistant to Magic, and Frost buildup is nice. You’ll want to swap it out for Fire against Putrescent enemies though.

Ghostflame Breath is the sole Dragon Communion Incantation available at the Grand Altar of Dragon Communion. It unlocks after you have slain one of the Realm of Shadow’s Ghostflame Dragons and costs 3 Dragon Hearts.

Each Ghostflame Dragon drops 1 Dragon Heart and an Ancient Dragon Somber Smithing Stone (+10).

Gravesite Plain Ghostflame Dragon

There is a Ghostflame Dragon at the lake on the Gravesite Plain in between Belurat, Tower City, and the Abandoned Ailing Village.

Cerulean Coast Ghostflame Dragon

There is a Ghostflame Dragon that ambushes you at the center of the Cerulean Coast.

Scadu Altus Ghostflame Dragon

There is a batallion of Messmer’s forces defending their camp from a very healthy Ghostflame Dragon atop Scadu Altus between Moorth Ruins, the Fort of Reprimand, and Ruined Forge of Starfall Past.

Talismans

I recommend using the Roar Medallion, Talisman of the Dread, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, and Radagon Icon.

Roar Medallion

The Roar Medallion boosts the damage dealt by roars and breath attacks by +12%, which just so happens to include all of the Incantations you’ll be using.

You receive the Roar Medallion for defeating the Stone Troll at the bottom of Limgrave Tunnels, the mine at Agheel Lake in Limgrave.

Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman

The Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman (and its precursors) drastically increases your Physical Damage Negation.

I prefer using specialized damage boosts to generic defensive Talismans, but 10% Damage Negation across the board is hardly anything, even for a Light Equip Load.

You can loot the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman from a chest above the elevator that takes you to the Haligtree Roots and Malenia at Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.

You must drop down onto the rafters of the church through that hole in the roof.

Talisman of the Dread

The Talisman of the Dread increases the damage dealt by all Magma attacks by 14%. Your Magma attacks include Bayle’s Tyranny, Theodorix’s Magma | Magma Breath, and the Magma Wyrm Scalesword’s Skill.

You can loot the Talisman of the Dread from the Elder’s Hovel below the Fort of Reprimand, overlooking the Abyssal Woods.

Radagon Icon

Radagon Icon reduces the cast time of your abilities by giving you 30 points worth of Dexterity, which is valuable if you’re going through the DLC on a fresh playthrough. You really want to hit 70 Dexterity to max out the cast time reduction of your Incantations so that they don’t take FOREVER to cast.

You can loot the Radagon Icon from a chest on the upper level of the Debate Parlor at the Academy of Raya Lucaria in Liurnia. Check out my Academy of Raya Lucaria Item Locations Guide for more info.

Once you have all of the other required stats and can afford to reach 70 Dexterity, you can swap it out for something else. I recommend one of the following:

Rock Heart and Dragon Form

The Rock Heart is a reusable item that allows you to transform into a humanoid dragon. It functions as a replacement for your armor set because you can only use it while you aren’t wearing any armor, as it provides its own buffs.

The Rock Heart transformation grants +10% Damage Negation and +50 Resistance for all damage types at no cost to Equip Load. If you activate the Rock Heart while already transformed, your Dragon Communion Incantations deal +20% more damage for 60s.

Since you’ll only get a consequential amount of weight from your weapons, you have a strong incentive to maintain the a Light Equip Load you’re given, and can afford to use some of the heaviest weapons in the game without entering Medium territory.

You receive the Rock Heart for finding the location depicted in the “Domain of Dragons” painting on the Jagged Peak.

Check out our How to Become a Dragon Guide for more information on obtaining the Rock Heart.

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 survivability is 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. You deal at least some Fire damage with everything, so it won’t be quite as potent as it would for a Pyromancer, you’re still getting good value.

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.

Attributes, Leveling Up, and Flask Allocation

The base requirements for the Rock Heart Dragon build are comprised of the requirements to survive and effectively wield the Magma Wyrm Scalesword, Miséricorde, and cast your Dragon Communion Incantations.

Attribute Points

Below is the stat distribution I recommend you strive for as you approach these semi-arbitrary level milestones:

Please note that these stats are rough estimates. They don’t perfectly add up to the nice, round level thresholds. Your values will vary slightly depending on your base class. Here’s the overall process:

• From level 200 ► 250, your goal is to bring endurance up to 50 so you have more flexibility with dodging and attacking
• From level 250 ► 300, you’ll want to focus on damage output by bringing Faith and Arcane to their caps, and then begin Strength’s journey to the same destination
• From level 350 and beyond, you’ll hard cap Strength, bring Mind up a bit, and then ween yourself off of Radagon Icon and swap it out for one of the alternatives I mentioned

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 hard cap at 50, with the most significant gains per Attribute Point occuring between 35-50 Mind. You really don’t need more than 15-20 if you’re mainly using Skills and Ashes of War, but if you’re casting, you wanna improve your Mind.

For this build, 20 Mind is about all you can afford. Your Incantations are meant to clear out entire groups of enemies with a single channel, so while you can’t spam them, you won’t need to.

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 30 Endurance to have a Light Equip Load without the Crucible Hornshield. Reaching 50 Endurance will give you a lot more flexibility with offense and defense and enable you to equip that Greatshield.

Strength (Str)

Strength increases your damage dealt with weapons that scale with it, which are typically the heavier weapons. Two-handing (not dual-wielding) 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).

Strength scaling is quite high for the Magma Wyrm Scalesword. However, it does not provide a damage boost to your Incantations.

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.

Your Scalesword has limited Dexterity scaling, but Dragon Communion is a lengthy process that really needs 70 Dexterity to max out that cast time reduction. Radagon Icon gives you 30 Dexterity, so you meet in the middle with 40 Dexterity.

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 have no need for Intelligence with this build.

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.

To start, your objective is to hit the minimum requirements to use your Incantations. You only need 28 for Greyoll’s Roar, but Placidusax’s Ruin requires 36. Everything features some Faith Scaling, so it’s worthwhile to invest.

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.

Your Dragon Communion Seal scales with Arcane, and you need ~60 Arcane to use Bayle’s Incantations. However, Faith scales with both, so it’s better to crank that to 50 before bringing Arcane to 80.

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 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.

Flask Allocation

I have found a 10 Red to 4 Blue ratio to work pretty well, but you might need to adjust with more practice. Your balance will depend a lot on how often use your Incantations vs your Scalesword. In boss fights, you’ll certainly need fewer blues.

I like to have an extra FP Flask with this build so that when I get down to like 2-3 HP Flasks, I still have over a full bar of FP left because I get to have a grand finale before resting at a Site of Grace.

Remember, treat the ratio I recommend as a starting point, not as gospel! Your goal is to run out of both types of Flasks at the same time. Also, don’t forget to apply your Rock Heart buff!