In thisElden Ring Nightreignvideo we’re going to be taking a look atthe Duchessand how to play her. We’ll be covering her stats, his skills, what relics to use, what weapons to look out for, and how to use her effectively in a party. So if you’re playing Duchess or are planning on learning this class, this video is for you.
General Description
Contrary to what you may think upon first glance,The Duchessis actually a hybrid class who weaves in and out of melee and ranged combat, able to use both magic and melee at the cost of being quite squishy.
She’s one of the most well rounded classes inNightreign, with decent stats across the board save for Strength, and having stats geared towards magic weapons and staffs. If you enjoyed aspellblade or battlemagekind of playstyle inElden Ringand love Dex builds, then this class will be for you.
In group play you function as a pure DPS, chipping away at enemies while avoiding attacks with the improved dodge.The Duchesshas one of the lowest health stats of all classes, so you can expect to be hyper focused on spam dodging in and out of combat to get damage in while avoiding instant kill attacks.
Stats & What That Means
The Duchessesmain stat is surprisingly Intelligence atA tier.Dexterity and Faithare both 1 tier behind that at B, making her a more sorcery focused class than melee.
However, unlikethe Recluseshe has no character skill for restoring FP, which puts her in the same awkward spot asthe Revenantwhere magic is the core of the class, but they need to sustainFP from Relicsor Items to make it work.
Her other stats are quite weak withArcane at C and Strength at D, so you should avoid the obviousGreatswords,Axes,Hammers,Colossal Weaponsetc.. What you should be on the lookout for areDex weaponsareDaggers,Claws,Katanas,Curved SwordsandWhips, as these weapons have good Dexterity scaling.
For theA in intelligence, it’s worth finding anyStaff to cast spellsin your off hand, and can also pair well with a handful ofDex weaponsto complement theB in Dexterity. We’ll get more into those specific weapons later.
HP, FP and Stamina
As for her main stats,the Duchesslacks in sustain and survivabilitywith a C in HP, a B in FP and a D in Stamina.The C in Healthhurts survivability alot, with many boss attacks in the game taking half or all of your health bar in 1 hit.
This is especially noticeable with the Duchess because unlike the squishy magesRecluse and Revenant, Duchesswill sometimes have to go up close and personal to deal damage, making her much more likely to get hit.
The D in Staminais actually not as bad as you might think it would be, thanks to her passive which reduces stamina costs across the board.
Paired with some extra stats you’re able to get fromRelicsand items in the run, andStaminais a non-issue for most runs.
Duchessis the only class in the game with a B in FP, allowing her to comfortably do some sustained spellcasting, and along with theA in intelligenceit comfortably places her as a half-spellcaster.
Skills and how to use them
Magnificent Poise: Passive Ability
Attack and dodge optimally, dodging repeatedly when necessary.
Starting with the passive, Duchesses have Magnificent Poise which will reduce the stamina consumption of attacks and evasive actions. Additionally, the dodge gets upgraded to become a 2 part sidestep and a backflip when dodging backwards.
This passive is awesome since you not only get a better dodge, but it costs close to no stamina, meaning you can dodge for ages. It’s perfect for the engage-disengage loop that she has to do in combat, and makes her by far the most agile out of all the Nightfarers.
My advice for using this passive is to take advantage of the backflipping when bosses target you. Most of the time, bosses can’t keep up with the distance you cover spamming backflip backwards, and their attack combos all miss. Another tip is that you may spam the sidestep against humanoid enemies to easily get behind them for a cheap backstab, which is something you should be on the lookout for all the time.
Restage: Character Skill
Stage reprisal of recent occurrences to damage nearby foes.
The Character Skill for the Duchessis also quite good.Restagewill repeat all damage you have dealt in the last 3 seconds to any enemies.
This includes both melee damage and damage you deal with spells.
You can use this pretty much whenever you want, usually after you do a bunch of attacks or are interrupted by an enemy attack. It has a relativelylow cooldown of around 12 secondsso you should be using it all the time to get max value out of it.
Finale: Ultimate Art
Obscure self and surrounding allies to hide from foes.
Lastly,the Duchesses Ultimate, which is more of a support ability for your team. Activating it will cloak nearby allies, making them invisible to enemies.
It can be quite a weak ultimate if you use it randomly, but it does have good use cases. In general it works best for picking up downed teammates, or saving a teammate who’s close to death from dying.
When you cast the ult, the boss will stop attacking and you get a free res on any downed teammates.
However, do note that teammates have to becloseto you in order for them to become invisible. They don’t need to be point blank, but teammateswithin around 10 meterswill get the invisibility.
Suggested Weapons & Hidden Mechanics
Next, let’s dive into weapons.The Duchessespreferred weapon isthe Daggerand she starts withthe Duchess’ Dagger, which hasthe Magic Dagger skillthat imbues the weapon with magic damage.
The baseDPSyou get with this weapon is quite mediocre when compared to other class starter weapons, but this is because the class is meant to be played hand in hand with sorceries, which you don’t start with.
In the early game, ideally you want to get a staff to put in your off hand with someGlintstone sorceries,and you should constantly be usingMagic Daggerto boost your damage by around 20% withthe Duchess’ Dagger.
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Once you progress further into the run, I personally recommend keeping aStaff in your offhandand aDagger in your main, progressively finding better versions as you go through the nights.
I don’t recommend using otherDexterity/Intelligence weapon typesbecause you lose the benefits of the unique moveset thatDuchesshas withthe Dagger.
In the light attack string she’s much faster than the normal moveset, giving her2 extra hits in her comboin the same amount of time.
These 2 hits arent 2 hits of extra damage since the total damage ends up the same, but it does have benefits.
For one, you’re able to proc successive hit passives much easier, such asRelicswhichrestore HP with successive hits. Additionally, with more hits you can stop a combo and back away at more precise moments in time.
The heavy attack is also different. In the base heavy attack, you slash once then press heavy attack again to slash one more time.
Withthe Duchess’ heavy attack, you slash twice, then 3 times on the second heavy attack. Again, this is great for successive hit passives since it adds 3 whole hits to the basic combo string.
Unfortunately this does limit your options quite a bit since there aren’t many daggers in the game, and only 3 have an Intelligence scaling.
So in the case you don’t find any daggers, I recommend leaving the starter weapon for any of these weaponswhich scale with Dex, Int or both:
As forthe daggers, they are basically all great withthe Duchess.
The one you want to find depends on your personal preferences or how you want to gear for the final boss.
For blue daggers,the Crystal KnifeandIvory Sickledeal the best base damage since they haveMagic Damage scaling with Intelligence, butthe WakizashiandBloodstained Daggerare also great since they add bleed buildup.
For purple daggers, they are also all fantastic.The Glintstone Krisis the 3rd dagger withIntelligence Scalingso it has great Magic Damage, along withthe Glintstone Dartskill which is nice to have if you didn’t roll it on your staff.The Blade of CallingandBlack Knifeare ever so slightly stronger in base damage and deal Holy damage, which some bosses are weak to.
As for staves in your off hand, basically anything works as long as you like the skill.
Do note that you usually only find them at the small castles and Rises, so you will have to plan accordingly to find one.
For your other 4 weapon slots, you will want to be on the lookout for a few passive effects. Anything FP, skill or spell related will always work with the spellcasting part of the Duchess.
For example,reducing the FP cost of spells, getting damage negation while spell casting, improved magic attack power or improving sorceries. Other quite good passive effects would be passives likeImproved Attack PowerWhile Weilding Two, Successive Attacks Negate Damage or FP Restoration Upon Attacks.
For Talismans, there are quite a few to look out for:
Suggested Relics
For relics,you get 2 relics fromthe Duchess Questlinewhich are incredibly good. One of them will trigger Restage for free if you hit the last attack in a dagger combo chain, which would make yourDaggersmuch more powerful than any other weapon type.
The other will increase your attack power after defeating enemies while your ultimate is active.
Do note that to progressthe Duchess questline, you’ll have to first unlockthe Revenant.
Another really good relic which I think is almost compulsory to have isthe Old Pocketwatch, which you actually get after beating the first boss.
This relic givesFP restorationwith successive attacks, which is perfect forthe Duchess.
She needs some kind of sustain for her FP when using spells, and she has a unique moveset with the dagger which adds more hits to her attack strings.
Unfortunately to slot all of these you will need to use the Spirit Shelter Grail with 3 green slots.
She has 3 other chalices; The urn hasRed Blue Blueslots, the GobletYellow Yellow Greenand the ChaliceBlue Yellow and Multicolor.
Other relics you can use before then include any that have Vigor or health bonuses, Endurance or stamina bonuses and Intelligence or magic upgrades.
Party Composition
In terms of party composition,the Duchessis mostly flexible. Despite not being a tank, she can survive through many attacks due to her passive dodging skill.
That being said, if you have2 magic users or squishies, it can be very hard to deal any damage when the boss is targeting you all the time as you have to be mindful of your squishy health bar.
You should preferably play her with another frontliner such asRaider, Guardian, Wylder and Executorso you can get more opportunities to deal damage.
Conclusion
In summary,the Duchess is a Dex battlemagewhich dextrously goes in and out of melee mode and magic mode.
The flexibility you get in choosing between ranged magic attacks and melee attacks at any moment is a great feeling since many bosses in this game can feel leaned to favour one or the other.
The one thing you need to look out for is how squishy you are despite being a half-frontliner, but the passive dodging more than makes up for that, and it can be quite fun to kite bosses across 100 meters with acrobatic backflips. Just verify you find staves for your spells, and you’ll be set.
So that wraps up my guide for the Duchess. Do you guys have any more tips or playstyles you’ve found? Let me know in the comments below!
