I’m glad I leaned into sorcery for my first Elden Ring run

destructoid.com:

There are so many directions to explore in Elden Ring, and that goes for not just From’s dark-fantasy landscape — which begins with familiar greenery and fades into some head-turning zones — but your build, too. I honestly put more thought into my character’s class than I did their design, figuring their fashion would do the heavy lifting.

One of the first talking points for friends playing Elden Ring together at launch is character builds, more so than in prior From Software action-RPGs, at least in my experience.

Like, sure, we all want to spout off our cool open-world stories and chat about run-ins we’ve had with whimsy and horror in The Lands Between, but we also want to know how we’re specializing our heroes — if we even are specializing them yet, that is.

While plenty of people will stick to their tried-and-true playstyle inherited from prior Souls games, this time, I’m switching it up with sorcery in Elden Ring.

Instead of a standard sword-and-shield combo, I went the magic route on my first playthrough. (Well, I’m a Prisoner hybrid.) And the further I get — 50 hours, as of last night — the happier I am with that choice.

**Minor spell and staff spoilers**

Without saying too much, there’s a particular spell (Rock Sling) and staff (the Meteorite Staff) that I happened to come across early on, by total accident, in a godforsaken land.

These two go hand-in-hand, and once you get a feel for how much you can (or can’t) commit yourself to the drawn-out spellcasting, they’re absurd together. They bring down beefy threats, reliably setting up opportunities to rush in for a stabby visceral attack.

Rock Sling is quickly becoming an early-game crowd favorite, and it has served me well. If you’re struggling to find spells that