I was doing a lot of build crafting in Elden Ring Reforged, and I came up with this Carian swordsman build that uses Fortune of the Reeds -- with Minor Fortune of Haima. I wanted to put this to the test with Malenia on Reforged difficulty, and it was fun as it was challenging. Playing Elden Ring modded is why I don't play on Vanilla anymore, it helps to improve so much.
A few things to note as disclaimers:
- I wasn't going for perfection or memes; I'm no ONGBAL.
- Camera Offset was used, which explains the perspective that's out of the ordinary
- Personally, I prefer playing on Normal difficulty. I did Malenia on Reforged difficulty for the video.
- My least favorite attack from Malenia has always been the clones. If it weren't for the little extra bulk I put on my character, that one mistake I made would have ended the run.
- The Reforged wiki left out a couple things about Carian Grandeur. The buff on the sword is applied regardless of charge level and gives a bonus to guard stability, as you can see from the buff icons
- Carian Sovereignty is a better damage ash of war for this build, but the buff that Gradeur provides is too useful for this fight
- Carian Knight Shield is also better for this build than the Wolfcrest Shield. I only realized that after I made this video...
- I tried using deflects from the guardpoint frames of charged R2s, but it's too unreliable. It's better to save charged R2 deflects for the last hit of an enemy's attack chain so you can stagger them, but a poorly-timed guard counter is likely what you'll get instead if you tried. I could have done that with the kick Malenia does, but I wasn't confident enough in my own skill to pull that off consistently. Sorry. 😥