first things first put 1 point in arcane to make it even (lvl 210) lvl 209 is making me go crazy but now for actual suggestions i saw you were initially using poison and rot which i think is a good start (if you remember me you know where this is headed) i wanna say keep the poison hand on your left hand to have something like an offhand dagger (ie. to get a couple of hits on enemies up close) this one is for the new repeating crossbow (mushroom crown is hideous so dont wear it) id wear the poison ring arrow soaring ring talisman spear talisman (yup it counts) blood ring if using blood arrows or rotten wing sword(dont know if this works) next is for spread crossbow i think the set up you had with the briar shield was in the right direction, try the paliside shield blood infused with shield crash or the shorter one shield bash, you may prefer it to get back to rolling and shooting setup is different here id go white mask blood ring arrow soar spear ring can go with poison ring here or shield ring to block better focus on bleed bolts with this one and using the shield ash to get some big procs last is for a pulley or single shot bow of your choice left hand (poison hand) right hand any single shot crossbow / poison vial for rings poison perfume spear arrow soar focus on rot and poison arrows with this one and can use the poison vial ash to poison yourself and get the buff or have a mid range weapon, not a sword or anything crazy so i think itd be nice to have some back up and seeing you use the shield youre not averse to doing so would probs wear rakshasa mixed drip to get some damage boosts, the white mask or things to increase poise further hope this helps some if not give some ideas, i think you should atleast though have a setup with a single shot crossbow, a spread crossbow, and a repeating one of some sort since theres like 2-3 now. get ya cod on edit: ARROW'S SOARING STING TALISMAN and ARROW'S STING TALISMAN can be worn at the same time to increase bolt damage so id go with those two for sure as a base on most of these setups then your two free slots are for spear poison,bleed,or shield talismans if you need it
was doing some more research cause as a goofy ass player myself i have been using the dlc to get my shit kicked in and fine tune my own build, im back to feeling normal like base game thank god but at the start of the dlc i felt the same way about my arcane build but i hate to see someone try to make something they enjoy work and the game just shits on you for it thats why ya got folk like me around i noticed something while researching crossbows (something i dont really use often so i accept the challenge to find things to use) theres a good amount of fire based bolts flaming bolt perfumers bolt fire bone and of course explosive bolts i dont think you would focus on all these but you would have a back up of fire damage bolts for the build im gonna drop id mainly focus on the explosive bolts either pulley crossbow or spread with one of the shields from the other builds fire scorpion ring arrow soar spear ring shield ring to block better (or blood ring if you want to have some extra damage and you can never go wrong with bleed procs. id check the damage on fire only and if its nothing too crazy add in bleed bolts) rakshasa armor is prob a good play here shield with shield bash on it either briar or paliside shield fire infused use flaming cracked tear boost on your physick flask i think this one is a bit interesting and has some merit to it due to the availability of fire damage and sources hope whenever you get back from vacay these help ya out some o7
I played the dlc cosplaying as Guts with ice infused greatsword, lions claw ash of war, big ice pots, spread crossbow with ice arrows. Using pots and crossbow to apply frostbite, then lions claw for stance break and massive damage. Also used tears of stance break and poise, Alexander talisman. It worked pretty well because the damage is very high with very high stance break. But I never used dual crossbows so idk what could work 🤷
Im just burnt out on Elden Ring from the barren open world, story that feels non-existent & clunky combat ( too much 🧀 ), once I spent a little time in NG+ the boredom sunk in. Feels like i spent 100hrs grinding that crow just so I dont get one shotted.
