Introduction
Because there are some real stinkers in here I've seen a whole lot of people try to take up for.
Seems like they really plugged a lot of energy into making all the DLC items as polarizing as possible.
I thought we were going to be done with this after we moved on from spells, but I guess this is just how the game works now.
№ 39 — Talisman Of Lord's Bestowal
Talisman of Lord's Bestowal+54% Poise after using a flask of tears
What?
Why?
No, no, no, seriously, what the ♥♥♥♥ is the point of this?
It activates slightly before the flask heal effect, so I guess you're supposed to use it to muscle through a large attack without having to worry about it knocking you out of the animation.
But what am I supposed to do with 54% more poise?
If my poise isn't worth ♥♥♥♥, 54% probably won't make a big difference.
And if my poise is great, then I'm not gonna give a ♥♥♥♥ about the talisman anyways.
I think damage reduction during the animation would have been a much more useful utility to have.
But the amount of poise it gives you will only make a difference if it helps you climb past either 50 or 100, so you can't even guarantee it'll help out most of the time.
But then why would I need it anyways?
Just, I don't know, just pay attention to when you're healing.
♥♥♥♥'s sake, is it that hard?
№ 38 — Beloved Stardust
Beloved StardustIncreases casting speed (up to 99 Dex)
-30% damage negation
It's a bit of an open secret now that casting speed has a harsh cutoff once you level dex to a certain point, so this talisman being a conscious decision by someone on the team makes me a little concerned, a little miffed, not gonna lie.
Even strength builders usually have like 20 dex or so chilling out between their couch cushions or something, and even then they just use the Radagon icon.
Sorcerer types have the Azur Staff to work off of, and dexterity stops affecting cast speed once it hits 70.
So, who is this for?
And why does it cut your damage negation by 30 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ percent?
Jesus Christ, is casting speed really even that important?
It's like a quarter second difference on the longest spells.
Take the effect of the Bestowal Talisman and apply it to spells with long wind-ups, then maybe you'll have something.
But until then, just don't even stop.
Just don't.
№ 37 — Verdigris Discus
Verdigris DiscusRaises defense with higher equip load (heavy and overload)
Okay, this one just pisses me off.
You had a wonderfully useful talisman idea here, and then somebody in the office just hooked their fingers right into its nose and headbutted it.
Light is 0%, medium is 10%, heavy 20%.
That's literally all you had to do to make this talisman work.
But you skipped the medium load entirely, placed 10% damage negation on the heavy load, and then slapped 20% on the overloaded state like it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ means anything.
I can't even solve this problem with the Winged tear, because it just makes my load out light no matter what.
And since the reduction bonus is tied directly to which weight state you're in, it doesn't get applied.
You have to be overloaded to get the full damage reduction.
If you want that 20%, you have no choice but to drag your ass through the whole game with the urgency of a concrete brick.
Who is even gonna play the game like this?
That's an actual question, who the ♥♥♥♥ wants to do this?
№ 36 — Mottled Necklace +2
Mottled Necklace +2+100 Robustness, Immunity and Focus
Well, if you want resistance for one ailment, then I guess your madness exultation build can go ♥♥♥♥ itself through the center hole of a DVD.
Guess you're gonna have to hold that button down for half a second longer.
Excavate the nooks of the Rot Lake with around 10% more efficiency than you normally would've, until you finally give up and turn back around, cause you're- you're about to die, cause that's how Rot works.
There's nothing exciting about this one, and I feel as though we're partly to blame for that, because this is probably a sign that they're incredibly exhausted from hearing us ♥♥♥♥♥ and piss about status builds all the time.
So instead of trying to balance everything else, they just give us a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of status talismans, and they just say,
here you go, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, you're so-
you're so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ smart, here you go, take matters into your own hands.
№ 35 — Ailment Talisman
Ailment TalismanRaises resistance to the last ailment suffered
Allowing this to exist alongside the exultation talismans is a fumble of historical proportion.
Actually, nevermind, I- I- I just-
I'm sitting here now, and I just thought of exactly one use for this.
Madness builds, now having an Exultation Talisman, puts Unendurable Frenzy in an awkward spot, because ideally, you would like your resistance to madness to be weaker, since you're trying to proc the talisman.
So, if you use this alongside the Aged One's Exultation with low focus, you'll have procced madness relatively quickly, and have what feels like a bottomless tank of aggro to just throw at people afterwards.
All you need is a Speckled Hardtear to cut off that madness buildup.
If that doesn't sound fun or interesting, then, well, you can officially sleep soundly, knowing you aren't missing a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing by ignoring this talisman.
№ 34 — Cerulean Seed +1
Cerulean Seed +1+30% FP restoration from Cerulean Flask
I mean, it's good, but like, why?
40 to 50 mind is more than enough for anything you could ever want to cast, and at +10, the Cerulean Flask restores 200 FP.
That's already going to be way more than half of your max, so I wouldn't suggest going for this one unless you absolutely need it, and I'm pretty sure you don't.
Sacrificial axe, Ancestral Horn, Blessed Blue Dew, you already have a whole library of ♥♥♥♥ you can choose from if you want an FP regen build.
The game gives you almost as many ways to restore it as it does your own health bar.
No matter where my mind stat is at, popping a few sacred tears into the mix always feels like it just does well enough.
Throw on maybe one FP regen talisman, and you're just good to go for a whole run.
On paper, I'm sure this looked great, but in practice, it's just a solution to a problem no one actually deals with.
№ 33 — Talisman Of All Crucibles
Talisman of all CruciblesGrants all Cricible talisman effects
-45% damage negation
45% is, uh, wow, that's, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, that's a price.
That is a price tag not many are willing to give a second glance.
Having iframes on your backstep is a pretty nice utility when you remember it exists, but trading 30% reduced damage against critical hits for 45% more damage across the board sounds like the byproduct of useless dickering that just accidentally made its way into the game without anyone noticing.
Since the reduction stack from the two feather talismans are multiplicative, you can technically say wearing this talisman would give you more utility, since it's just a single 45% damage reduction, in addition to the entire crucible library now being condensed into a single talisman slot, so you no longer have to wear all three at once.
You know what's also better than wearing all three at once?
Literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ anything else.
№ 32 — Outer God Heirloom
Outer God Heirloom+5 Arcane
I very much appreciate finally having this talisman, but locking it behind the entire base game and making the average Joe wait for it for 26 hours just feels really counterproductive.
There's an incredibly small chance you still haven't made up your mind on what your build is going to be when entering Mohg's arena.
People don't just stumble into the palace area, trip over their shoelaces, and accidentally stab Mohg in the eye with an unsharpened pencil.
Like, that ♥♥♥♥ takes deliberation.
So when you drop a talisman that's only ever going to be used for stat benchmarks into my lap without much explanation, then, yeah, I'm gonna be a little confused.
I guess it can help you meet the arcane requirements of the new Veil incantations, but it most likely won't help unless you're already heading in that direction.
And God help you if you treat this like a farming tool, because the same thing is going to happen with every other discovery booster you used.
You're going to use it to farm more ♥♥♥♥ for two hours, still not get what you wanted, and then make a post on a forum asking people if it's bugged.
We've all lived this.
We all know exactly what's going to happen.
№ 31, 30, 29 — Horn Charms +2
Clarifying Horn Charm +2+180 FocusImunizing Horn Charm +2+180 ImmunityStalwart Horn Charm +2+180 Robustness
Once again, including better status resist items in a DLC that also gives us more branches on the vastly superior exaltation tree is like choosing between a slice of cake and an opened can of month-old brussel sprouts.
I won't judge you if you choose the brussel sprouts.
Too harshly.
Is this metaphor working?
Is this funny?
I'm saying the exaltation talismans are better, is what I'm saying, you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you loon.
It also bothers me that the +2 variants don't continue the addition of 50, since the normal and +1 were 90 and 140, respectively.
This seems like a very intentional decision, and I'm not really sure why.
Romina's ass-gash attacks still shoot you full of tree herpes no matter what your immunity's at, it seems.
And even then, you're just one consumable item away from solving that problem, so...
№ 28 — Retaliatory Crossed-Tree
Retaliatory Crossed-TreeEnhances roll and backstep attack by 17%
The Retaliatory Talisman will boost rolling and backstepping attacks, and I'm going to explain with math why I vastly prefer the Lacerating Tree, and you should too.
And by math, I mean literally just showing you a couple of numbers.
That's it.
That's the math.
It's nothing complicated.
Rolling and backstepping attacks have two major setbacks that prevent this talisman from being too helpful.
First, the MVs on this attack come up as 90, no matter the weapon, meaning they hit for 90% of the power of the first R1 in any combo.
Running attacks have MVs of 105, and running heavy attacks have an MV of 120.
Second, and probably more importantly, you're only limited to one maneuver when attacking after a dodge, which is a light attack.
There is no such thing as a rolling heavy or a backstepping heavy.
Once you've noticed this, it seems like the choice is pretty straightforward from here.
If you've already cemented the roll-attack-roll-attack playstyle into your temporal lobe where the rest of your ♥♥♥♥♥♥ reflexes hang out, then I'd say maybe use this, but if not, then you're just better off ignoring it.
№ 27 — St. Trina's Smile
St. Trina's SmileSleep in the vicinity boosts attack by 20% for 20 seconds
This one is...
is just...
it's awkward.
It's holding hands with your crush at the middle school dance without consent kind of awkward.
I never pictured the sleep status with its own exultation talisman, because I think we're all in pretty common agreement that the easiest way to activate said talismans is to just inflict it on yourself.
But it's really difficult to take advantage of a damage boost when you're recoiling from all that melatonin you dry-swallowed last night.
You could fill a whole encyclopedia with various ways to trigger the blood and rot exultation talismans, but this one only gets a single craftable item you don't even find the recipe for until you dive into the fissure and knock out the putrescent knight.
Also, just while I'm backseat game designing for a minute, maybe give us some new ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bosses that can actually be put to sleep if you're gonna give us a sleep exultation talisman.
Rellana is the only remembrance boss I can think of who isn't flat-out immune to sleep, and we dunk on her ass way before the fissure area can even be accessed.
№ 26, 25, 24 — Medallions +3
Cerulean Amber Medallion +3+12,5% Max FPCrimson Amber Medallion +3+10% Max HPViridian Amber Medallion +3+17% Max Stamina
You like throwing spells at people?
Vomiting up moon-shaped kill you orbs and transforming your collarbone into a giant saw blade?
Or stabbing ♥♥♥♥ with a fancy sword?
Well, the new cerulean medallion lets you do that 12.5% more often.
You like not being dead?
Ah, sure you do, you miserable ♥♥♥♥.
Well, the new crimson medallion lets you be alive 10% more.
That's... that's about it.
Everyone already knows how these work.
I'm not gonna explain this.
№ 23 — Fine Crucible Feather
Fine Crucible FeatherBacksteps get i-frames too
-15% damage negation
I'm sure it has a niche.
I just don't know what the hell it is.
I don't.
This is honestly one of the only times I've been so stumped with the intended function of a talisman that I came close to giving up and just letting the comments rank it for me.
It has a niche with the backstep attacks on curved swords and thrusting swords, and I'm sure there's a few duelists out there who have a fun time baiting backstabs with it, but I just...
I don't know.
The recovery time is faster on a backstep, but the talisman gives you less iframes than a normal roll, so that doesn't really matter too much.
Is...
look, is this really worth taking 15% more damage?
Am I really gonna try and undo 10+ years of muscle memory by using the backstep as a means of dodging attacks like I would a roll, just so I can try out a couple new moves people constantly forget about anyways?
№ 22 — Sharpshot Talisman
Sharpshot TalismanIncreases arrow damage by 12% when in «precision mode»
This is another one of those don't-tell-FromSoft moments where I found something I'm pretty sure isn't intentional or won't be in the game for too much longer.
If you feel like ADSing is for squares who play too much Overwatch, you can arm up a unique skill like Radahn's Rain and then ADS while it's hitting something, and you'll get the 12% boost since you're technically in precision mode.
This is also proof that it works with bow-related weapon skills, which means it works for...
for Radahn's...
Radahn's Rain.
And nothing else.
Stacks multiplicatively with the other arrow talismans, giving you just over 32% extra arrow damage if you're ADS.
Precision-aimed shots also don't mean headshots, specifically.
I feel like that's a really important distinction to make because I caught myself getting confused by accident writing the script, I guess because the word precision was involved?
Or because I let my brain sit in the microwave for too long?
I don't...
I don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥' know.
№ 21 — Pearl Shield Talisman
Pearl Shield Talisman+20% elemental damage negation when guarding
The latest technological addition from the Anti-Mage Scientific Research Center.
And it's...
it's very fine.
It is okay.
The negation stack is multiplicative, and it'll never be responsible for pushing your Great Shield negation stats over 100%.
Using the Fingerprint Shield to block a fire attack, for instance, doesn't add 20% to the 81% fire negation it already has.
It only takes away 20% of the final damage you take.
If you block a fireball with it and take 100 damage, the Pearl Shield Talisman will have you take only 80 damage.
Not sure why players would have advocated for the talisman to give you the former benefit.
I personally actually like playing the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game.
But this talisman does have a niche with smaller shields that usually have a not-as-good elemental negation.
Blocking a high-damage lightning attack with the Smoldering Shield will only protect you from 14% of it, whereas blocking it with the Pearl Shield Talisman will shave off 20% of the remaining 86% damage you're taking from it, resulting in almost the same amount of damage you would have prevented had the 20% extra negation just been added to the shield's base negation instead.
The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the shield, the more it'll get boosted by this talisman.
That's layman's terms, that's all you need to know.
№ 20 — Lacerating Crossed-Tree
Lacerating Crossed-TreeEnhances sprint attack by 15%
Just say running attacks.
God, ♥♥♥♥, Jesus, just say sprinting attacks or something in the description.
Like, we'll get what it means, I promise.
Handricraft depicting a golden crossed-tree.
One of the items conferred to the Needle Knights.
Enhances dash attacks.
Long ago, the Needle Knights were in service of Miquella, but now they are no more. Save for one.
Do you know how crazy I was driving myself thinking this boosted ♥♥♥♥ like Blink Bolt and the unique skill on the Falx?
Obfuscation aside, this actually ends up being far better than the Retaliatory Crossed-Tree because sprinting attacks have both an R1 and an R2 to choose from.
Heavy thrusting swords are great with it,
power-stancing curved swords are great with it,
most weapons you can poke with get a pretty nasty benefit from this.
Sprinting attacks are also just really fun to make a playstyle out of if you have good spatial awareness, because you can respond to enemy attacks much quicker, granting it potential synergy with the Spear talisman.
Sadly, running attacks are really the only type of attack it can boost.
No, it doesn't give a boost to the modified heavy attack on the War Cry skill, just because you're technically running while doing it.
Do you see what this has caused?
Just say running attacks next time.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
№ 19 — Dried Bouquet
Dried BouquetBoosts attack by 15% after Spirit Ash is defeat for 20 seconds
The idea here feels like it could have been a blueprint that precedes a much more refined and useful talisman.
If I'm giving my balls a tug and digging into Bayle's butthole with power-stance great spears, I'd preferably like him to be facing the other direction.
You know, distracted by something.
Like a, uh, a,
a, a spirit summon, for instance.
And since the Dried Bouquet only gives me a damage boost after my spirit summon has died, that makes it very difficult to use the boost and be overly aggressive when the guy I was just about to give a rectal exam suddenly remembers I exist.
This is why if your favorite spirit summon is a single unit, it's just gonna be really difficult for you to use this.
This makes the talisman useful only if you have a multi-unit summon, like the Demihumans or the Manflies, which are almost always gonna be worse than the legendary options.
Tying a damage boost to how long your friends can stay alive is also inherently inconsistent.
Sure, your five Mausoleum soldiers could get picked off individually with a respectable interval of time in between, but that's probably not what's gonna happen in practice.
One of them is gonna face tank a meteor, three of them will trip on their shoelaces and catch a glancing blow that's just enough to kill them, and the only one left is gonna be busy getting his nuts head butted by a stray goat.
№ 18 — Smithing Talisman
Smithing TalismanEnhances weapon-throwing attacks by 10%
I had a primal urge to throw this up into the top ten, but I knew people would hate me for it, so,
uh, so I didn't.
Truth is, this talisman is extremely, almost addictively comfortable to use, but only with a very specific subset of weapons.
A subset of weapons you should absolutely mess around with because you have no idea what you're glancing over.
The new Smithscript weapons come with a throw that's usually tied to its heavy attacks.
You can jump and throw with the axe, you can run and throw with the great hammer, and the shield even comes attached with a unique throwing skill called the Discus Hurl.
It's compatible with Messmer's Spear and throwing skills like Spectral Lance and Scattershot Throw.
The heavy attacks can be boosted into orbit using the axe and two-handed talismans, and it directly enables one of the funnest playstyles FromSoft has cooked up in years.
Kinda sucks that you can only use it for, like, eight weapons in total.
№ 17 — Blade Of Mercy
Blade of MercyBoosts attack by 20% after a critical hit for 20 seconds
Every single player who is upset critical hits don't end invasions as consistently as a period at the end of a sentence is eternally balanced out by another player who would vastly prefer that environment over getting one-shot through a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wall by a bear.
Perfectly equal, just like it should be, or whatever the line is, who cares.
It can stack with the dagger talisman, resulting in around 40% more damage from critical hits, provided you can pull off two in a row within 20 seconds, because you'd need the first critical to actually activate the effect.
This gives it some nice synergy with Hammer Talisman, Stone Barbed Tear, all the latest discoveries in ankle-breaking technology that I can't stop talking about, but it ultimately pales in comparison to the Exaltation Talismans regarding efficiency, because it's not something you can just proc on yourself and immediately start benefiting from.
№ 16 — Rellana's Cameo
Rellana's CameoEnhances stanced attacks by 15% when stance is held for 1,5 seconds
It's good, but it ain't that good.
If I go into a stance and the first thing it does is slap me in a waiting room for one and a half seconds while the boss is busy revving up his next salvo of cosmogonic cancer rockets, it should at least give me a bigger boost than the Shard of Alexander.
Chasing big damage numbers is a perfectly fine and noble cause to donate your time to, but in practice, standing there charging up your Tsar Bomba skill for 1.5 seconds is just gonna result in you getting your ass kicked.
It offers a boost to a selection of what's already some of the highest damage skills in the game, like Transient Moonlight and Night and Flame Stance, and stacking it with Shard of Alexander can toss that bonus up to 32% in total.
Like, that's very obviously not an unsubstantial amount.
It's not some paltry boon the game just carelessly tosses at you, like boosting poise by 39% when you're picking your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nose or something.
When Rellana's Cameo actually shows up for work, it's gonna be an easy day.
But the pool of weapon skills it buffs is way too narrow for me to even think of stacking this with Shard of Alexander, let alone replace it entirely.
I can think of exactly seven.
Square Off
Overhead Stance
Wing Stance
Moon-and-Fire Stance
Night-and-Flame Stance
Unsheathe
Transient Moonlight
So like, what's the benchmark here?
How many times does a word have to be used for a talisman to be dedicated to it?
Because I've been secretly waiting around for a dance talisman for a year or so now, and the best you could do was put that ♥♥♥♥ on a dress no one cares about?
Am I getting off topic?
I'm gonna move on.
№ 15 — Arrow's Soaring Sting
Arrow's Soaring Sting+8% damage of arrows and bolts
+50% range of arrows and bolts
Okay, do people just not give a ♥♥♥♥ about Ansbach's Longbow?
People sucked its ♥♥♥♥ for like three days, and now I can find nobody using it, ever.
Like, why does it feel like I'm part of some cult just because I know the weapon exists?
You can't stack it with the Arrow's Reach Talisman, but you can stack it with the regular Arrow's Sting Talisman for around 18.8% extra damage in total.
Make a triple-decker sandwich of buffs with Sharpshot, and you can boost it to over 32%, making bow builds, surprisingly, not ♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Well, not as ♥♥♥♥♥♥ as they used to be.
They're competent at like a couple things now.
It also affects the range of other projectiles outside of arrows, like Rock Sling and Storm Blade.
No idea why this keeps happening specifically with range-related arrow talismans, but the increase in range isn't nearly as much as what you'd get with the regular Arrow's Reach Talisman, so if you're into that niche, then I would just stick with that one.
It's a bow talisman.
It makes the spread crossbow even stupider.
Not sure what else to put here, so yeah, there you go.
№ 14 — Shattered Stone
Shattered StoneEnhances kicking and stomping skills by 10%
Something interesting I learned about this talisman is that it can also boost the standard kicking attacks from Dryleaf Arts.
Hoarfrost Stomp, Divine Beast Stomp, Regal Roar, including the R2s that come after it, but that's really about where the variety ends.
Doesn't boost Storm Kick, since you're not technically kicking with the skill, even though it's a kick in the description, and you're-
you're using a leg weapon you got from the boss,
and fu-
Actually, you know what?
Good ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ question.
Why doesn't this get boosted?
Since the Dryleaf Arts have jumping kicks in their movesets, you can combo it up with the Claw Talisman and Raptor's Black Feathers for a nice meaty boost, and it can also be doubled up with the Enraged Divine Beast, just in case you're really wanting to crunch every last bit of damage out of Storm Stomp for some reason.
No idea why it works with the new Poison Flower Ash, but it does, in fact, get boosted by it.
So, it doesn't boost nearly as much as it sounds like it does, but it's an incredibly useful talisman for very specific loadouts that use the new Dryleaf Arts weapon.
№ 13, 12, 11, 10 — Greatshield Talismans +3
Boltdrake Talisman +322% lightning damage negationFlamedrake Talisman +322% fire damage negationPearldrake Talisman +311% fire damage negationSpelldrake Talisman +322% magic damage negation
If you're going in dry with nothing but a blank map and a prayer, use the Pearl Drake Talisman.
If you know what to expect and you're just trying not to get your brain splattered all over the wall, use an element-specific talisman.
You will never be 100% certain that you're not going to run into a particular element in, like, a cave or something, and that's really where Pearl Drake comes in.
It's for those few-and-far-between moments where you find Saint Pointystick V chillin' down at the ass-end of a cave after getting your nuts blasted off by Big Mouth Imps for 10 minutes.
It has its own standout moments, but there's a reason why it gets left behind in subsequent playthroughs.
The only other rare instance I can think of is when Radahn inflicts magic damage with his Gravity Spells and then switches it up to Holy in his second phase.
Pair any of these alongside one of the higher-level damage reduction incantations, like Flame Protect Me or Barrier of Gold, if you just don't feel like losing to anything ever again.
№ 9 — Enraged Divine Beast
Enraged Divine BeastEnhances storm attack by 10%
This talisman has an effect that sounds underwhelming on the surface, but Storm is a deceptively large bracket of ♥♥♥♥ that's full of underappreciated gems like Storm Assault, Storm Caller, the Thunderstorm unique skill on the Stormhawk Axe, the new Horn Calling Storm skill on the Horned Warrior CGS, both the spell and skill variants of Zamor Icestorm, and even Storm Wing Arrows, which opens up a bit of synergy with the Arrow Sting talismans.
10% isn't remarkably strong or anything, but the effect casts a very wide net. Sorceries, incantations, skills, arrows, different types of elemental damage, and that means a very diverse lineup of talismans you can pair it with to maximize your damage output.
Yet, for every skill or attack it does boost, there always seems to be one other skill I wish it boosted instead. Black Flame Tornado, Thundercloud Form, Vacuum Slice, you know, skills that are Storm-adjacent, but aren't Stormy enough to make the team, I guess?
I also really like the talisman's design, because it just looks like some demon laughing at me and my bad decisions.
Watch this talisman get remade into a Game Over asset in another FromSoft game, like, 9 years from now.
№ 8 — Golden Braid
Golden Braid+22% holy damage negation
Midra, Radahn, Golden Hippo, Jori, two more ♥♥♥♥♥♥' tree sentinels we certainly aren't tired of seeing.
When you tally everything up, it seems like, once again, the holy element is at its most potent when it's to our detriment.
And in that regard, 22% holy negation just gets more done.
Not by a lot, though.
This is no decisive victory.
DLC bosses aren't nearly as straightforward as those in the base game.
Vanilla bosses only ever excelled in a particular type of elemental damage, whereas most Remembrance bosses in the DLC can take advantage of multiple elements at once.
№ 7 — Crusade Insignia
Crusade InsigniaBoosts attack by 15% after enemy is defeated for 20 seconds
Okay, this has become one of my new favorite talismans because of a particularly hilarious, probably unintentional interaction that I see nobody playing around with.
Honestly, I feel like the person who discovered fire.
This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is a field boss murder artist.
Especially if your build has a wide-sweeping attack or some AoE maneuver you like doing.
You see, this game does not discriminate between docile and aggressive when labeling things as enemies.
Which means, if it moves, and you can kill it, you get the bonus, no questions asked.
That grav missile you whipped out could just body a stray goat by complete accident, and that's just gonna be free damage for like the next 20 seconds.
It makes duo fights easier, it's probably the new king of dungeon-exploring talismans in my opinion, and we already have plenty of boss fight talismans that don't do anything for challenge runs, so this one has earned its respect in my book without question.
№ 6 — Aged One's Exultation
Aged One's ExultationMadness in vicinity boosts attack by 20% for 20 seconds
More damage directly tied to your level of mental stress.
This ♥♥♥♥ would be broken as ♥♥♥♥ in a real-life setting.
I was a little scared when I saw this one, because we already have items and skills that are specifically meant to auto-proc a certain status, which is what makes the exultation family of talismans so strong.
And outside of frenzy flamestones, I couldn't really think of one for madness.
But with the addition of Midra's Flame of Frenzy, proccing madness on yourself suddenly gets really easy.
The damage buff stacks with the Howl of Shabriri buff given to you by the incantation, and fire damage continues to just be as boostable as it's always been.
I got no complaints here.
There's no single item or anything dedicated to self-infliction like you do with poison and bleed, but spool up that Midra incantation for a couple seconds and you'll be ready to go.
№ 5 — Two-Handed Sword
Two-Handed SwordEnhances weapon attack by 15% when two-handing
Okay, here we go.
I have never tetrised around the top 5 more than I have with this exact list.
This talisman specifically I'm pretty sure has been in every single spot from 1 to 5.
And even now, putting this at 5 feels like I'm underselling it.
But then I remember what's up next and feel perfectly content with where I put it, because there's just nowhere else for it to go.
This DLC has some of the best talismans in the business, and putting a talisman that gives you a free 15% damage boost by just tennis-gripping your Zweihander at number 5 was one of the hardest decisions I've made with these lists lately.
It has amazing synergy with other top-shelf DLC items like the Deflecting Hardrtearr and Two-Headed Turtle.
It applies to ALL two-handable weapons, regardless of the weapon's size, so this could even apply to a dagger if you wanted to.
It's incredibly flexible, it works with a wide variety of other talismans, and being incompatible with paired weapons is probably non-negotiable, no matter how much I wish it was.
№ 4 — Talisman Of The Dread
Talisman of the DreadEnhances magma attacks by 15%
Starting to understand why they went so nuclear on Taker's Flames in 1.12.
They saw the writing on the wall if they released this DLC without a few down-tunings.
This talisman with Old Blasphemous Blade would no longer be called the Blasphemous Blade.
Any more power would turn it into a sentient computer virus, and no one would ever be able to boot up the game again without its permission.
FIFTEEN.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
PERCENT.
That is just free damage for a magma build.
Roiling Magma, Gelmir's Fury, the Eruption Ash nobody uses, the ♥♥♥♥♥♥' toy store curved sword and its dipstick candle ♥♥♥♥ cousin.
The reason this is so powerful is because Magma was already a subset of elemental damage that fared perfectly fine with all the fire-boosting items.
But now it has access to its own sub-element boost item that's stackable with Fire Scorpion, FGMS, the Flame-Shrouding Tear, anything else on this list.
Combining this with Fire Scorpion gives you a downright oppressive Blasphemous Blade build that's already so spotlighted that I'm tired of the sentence now and I'm just done with this whole paragraph.
The talisman's good.
Use it.
№ 3 — Two-Headed Turtle
Two-Headed TurtleBoosts stamina regeneration by 22,5% (~10 per second)
If you liked the one-headed turtle, you'll,
uh, well,
you'll like the two-headed turtle about 23% more, cuz,
uh, cuz that's the regen difference.
Man, is there a ♥♥♥♥♥♥' Rider Strike goin' on or somethin'?
God, math is fun.
A quality stamina regen effect is already of the utmost importance because it's literally THE resource with which you make every single significant action the game allows you.
Blocking, dodging, attacking, casting.
If you could flip someone the bird in-game, it would probably take stamina.
Actually, no, no,
no it wouldn't, cuz then it would just, it would just be a gesture.
Okay, nope, stupid, bad joke, just, just cut, cut that out, edit that out.
If your build involves anything that remotely resembles power-stancing a pair of Tusken-style columns and you don't have this on, there is no advice for you left to take except to just be a better person.
If your build involves hiding behind a large stack of decorated steel like a priest holding out a bible and you don't have this on, I could come to your room and break your controller for you and it would still be your fault.
If you have the talisman, just use it.
Use it right now and don't take it off.
№ 2 — Crimson Seed +1
Crimson Seed +1+30% HP restoration from Crimson Flask
I really don't want to undersell this one, I know how important it is, I know what a resource saver it becomes over time and 30% more healing in an environment where good flask efficiency is more important than ever before.
I cannot underline the amount of up you have ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by not going out of your way to get your hands on this talisman.
But as greedy as it sounds, 30% still just doesn't feel like it's enough in a select few areas.
Even on a +12 flask, it'll take the 810 HP it gives you normally and boost it up to 1053.
It can counter the negative effects of Malenia's Great Rune and even surpass the negative effects of the Divine Bird Helm and Black Flame's Protection.
The benefits it comes with should be obvious, but it's, I don't know, I feel like I'm slowly being converted over to incantation healing.
You have a much more direct control of how much you heal, which is kinda important sometimes.
And once you learn how strong Heal from Afar is, it's just like, why the ♥♥♥♥ even have a flask?
For non-faith builds, having this talisman on you is pretty much a requirement during NewGame+ iterations.
And if it weren't for a distinctly, hilariously dominant talisman that I'm 90% sure had to have been in oversight.
But that's not how the world works, so let's start dislike farming here.
Let's do it, I'm ready.
№ 1 — Blessed Blue Dew Talisman
Blessed Blue Dew TalismanPassive FP regeneration (+0,5 per second)
no,
okay,
no,
no,
just-
stop.
Stop doing your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ YouTuber shocked face at your imaginary webcam for 5 seconds and actually listen to what I'm saying before you decide I'm wrong.
Because this talisman is so good that it's actually a problem.
Everyone was asking for a talisman with this exact function just because of how underwhelming the HP variant was, but I don't think any of us actually knew what we were asking for.
There is one massive benefit to this talisman that, beyond any and all dispute, is a cheat code.
This is your buffing talisman.
Without exaggeration, there is no better talisman out there for buff casting.
All of the damage reduction incantations are basically just freebies now, but there are also plenty of different weapon skills and buffs that last long enough to grant a 100% return on the FP you spent to cast it.
Sacred Blade only needs 19 FP but lasts 40 seconds,
Barbaric Roar has the same duration but only needs 16 FP,
and Moonlight Sword has a 32 FP cost with a 60 second duration.
With 0.5 FP regen a second, by the time any of those buffs expire, it'll be like you'd never even casted it in the first place.
Scholar's Shield, Blessing's Boon, Divine Protection, just all completely free to cast now.
No strings attached.
Throw an Old Lord's Talisman on there and Golden Vow becomes free now too.
Pretty much any spell or weapon skill that's tied to a timer might as well just cost nothing now.
Like, this talisman actually scares me a little, because FP regen is one of those utilities that end up being so strong it almost becomes nerf immune.
This ♥♥♥♥ could have been 0.2 per second and we still wouldn't be able to escape it.
Blue Dew sounds like a rejected alpha project that eventually became Baha Blast, and having it equipped is just as unhealthy for you, because once you see how much it helps, taking it off to make room for something else feels like wrenching a tumor out of your lung with your bare hands.
This talisman is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ problem, and I just can't stand seeing this many people ignore it.
———————————————
📝 Other Elden Ring Guides
Ranking All ... in Elden Ring from Worst to Best
16 Daggers18 Staves25 Bows35 Crystal Tears39 DLC Talismans (1.13)47 Gestures64 Spirit Summons69 Shields70 Sorceries88 Unique Skills91 Talismans91 Ashes of War101 Incantations115 Consumables126 Armor Sets308 WeaponsGreat Runes
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3155117973
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3213283813 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216135239
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3275057381 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3283203994
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3292574189 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3301039954
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006733096
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3045134910
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3307869545
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