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I wish I saw this before skipping back and forth through the whole thing, trying not to spoil too much. I wanted to see if the wolves were on the list and no. I've already them behind for the marionettes and the demo-humans.
Fun fact: give your mimic the triple shot crossbow with rot tips, he won't run out of ammo and will keep the boss rotted up even through multiple phases
A lot of people don’t know this too but if you use the art of war: War cry, with Ogha the red mane knight they will do the crazy rain of arrows on the enemy but only once per summon. (I know this says this on the spirit on itself but it can be missed)
The nightsister and swordstress are pretty badass and I'd recommend anyone give em a try. They have a ton of hp and although they don't do a ton of damage they make up for it in utility. The swordstress will barely ever get hit cause she stays back and hits people with her shotel whip from a mile away, it also constantly staggers enemies. And the nightsister stuns enemies for like 6 seconds, she just walks up to them and pushes them over like a bully. I tell you there is nothing better than watching some dark priestess cat girl walk up and shove melania on the ground like she is going to take her lunch money.
@@realfnneato3111 damn, that's rough. I had them at +10 when I used them on him and I don't believe they died. Commander Nial hits like a truck though, especially if you stand in his frost aoe which AI seems to love to do so I don't doubt it lol.
@RealFNneatO yeah, for me I just don't want my summons being a total damage sponge and keep the boss distracted the entire fight. The games already easy enough imo
Tip: Since the mimic tear uses your items as well, be aware of what you have on your bar. Sometimes it will spam items you really don't want it to, like warmth stones. Most importantly though, since spirits don't get poisoned, putting those healing flesh things that poison you when you use them gives the mimic tear 3 additional heals beyond the flask. :)
@@virtueofabsolution7641 yeah I did it yesterday he does use them randomly though tossed like 4 of them under Melanias flower attack and solod her before she recovered
For bosses that don’t have ridiculous hyper armour the Kaiden Sellsword is insane. I summoned him for the twin fight between Misbegotten Dude and Crucible Boy and we both just took turns charged heavying until the horse we were beating was mushed into the floor. Beautiful
I ended up using the Jellyfish against Astel Star of Darkness. All my melee summons died rather quickly. But the jellyfish survived the whole encounter and held aggro quite a lot.
I've used Latenna the Albinauric against both Astels. Worked like charm against these slow but hard to hit space-caterpillars. She showered them with magic arrows non-stop. She is total niche but works great in large arenas
Can confirm, she just basically made the Margit fight a cakewalk. Not only did she make a good job at distracting him but she also poisoned him whoch made it even easier to kill him on the first try.
I'm only in the mid game at the moment, but I've been loving the Skeletal Militia just for aggro holding purposes. The ability to endlessly resurrect can be extremely strong in certain circumstances
Where would I go about finding them? I'm a faith dex build and only a level 41 or so, but I would like something better than the wolves that I have been using for the most part...am willing to travel, grab and run.
@@danabernathy6179 Oh ok I think I remember seeing him at some point, just to be sure there isn't more than one boss that looks like that is there? I thought I saw him on a pond/lake place. It would be my luck to go get my ass killed a bunch of times only to find out I finally killed the wrong guy....and then he wouldn't drop anything not even a damn rune..😆
The skeletons are kind of nice, they have the potential to just keep on reviving if nothing attacks them while they're doing so, but their damage isn't all that great, and they greatly struggle against lingering hitboxes like flame breaths. Edit: I should probably also mention they're very slow and don't have any ranged attacks, so they will struggle against bosses that move a lot, or fly or something, and large bosses because any movement they make moves their legs to the other side of the map
I've noticed, especially in boss fights, the enemies will try and finish the skeletons off immediately. Gotta swoop in and give them cover till they get up
One thing that makes Ancestral Follower great for group fights is that, as enemies die, he gains health back! You'll see a red glow go into him as they cack it, the same type as you get when having the Red Assassin trinket equipped.
Personally, I love the spirit ashes! It gives a way for people who play offline to get some extra help if they need it. I love the fact that they are all enemies you encounter in the game too. Now I can have the asshole on my team! Also, they really don't match up in power compared to the player so they really are just meant for backup.
@sicthemutt no, the devs put them into the game for a reason. That's why there are a variety of them that excel in different types of combats and terrains.
I think Oleg the banished should be ranked higher if only for the fact that he can completely shut down Malenia. He attacks so rapidly that he can regularly stun lock her
Always happy to see my boy Oleg here. I use him a tooooooooon. Decided to try the mausoleum soldiers (I'm a Faith/Dex) with some of the incantation buffs+aoe heals. Ooooohh myyyyy.
Id probably say the best spirit (for me) is the Latenna albunauric bow one, she just deals tons of damage, she manages herself well to dodge, and pretty durable, she carried me through the whole elden ring
i really loved the undead spearmen in my run, they dont do any damage but they just constantly revive themselves, which kind of makes them the best tank spirits
As a mage, I can also recommend if you’re going for a relatively early-mid game summon, the Mad Pumpkin Head can take a LOT of damage and hold aggro; the only issue is that it doesn’t have that many ranged options and is pretty slow.
I'd recommend (can't remember the exact name) but the 5 greatshield soldiers. They soak up so much damage and aggro that if you're a ranged character you can get a LOT of heavy hits in
Mimic tear is absolutely insane providing you put certain weapon arts on it, equip warming stones, just absolutely insane possibilities, I'm looking forward to doing a complete no summon no ash of war playthrough though, I cheesed way too many bosses
I’ve used the great shield soldiers. They can tank really well. There’s like 5 of them and they all have shields. As they tank, I use comet azur and wreck most tough enemies lol
You should have mentioned the different behavior that some of the summons have. Redmane Knight, Radahn Soldiers and Bloodhound Knight all instantly start attacking without you having to draw agro first. They are very useful when you don't want to be the first into combat. I'm sure there are more but those are the only 3 that I know of that attack immediately after being summoned.
Shocked the Greatshield Soldiers weren't mentioned at all. I've seen a different compilation video of summons vs a single boss. These did the best of all of them as far as both damage and durability, and I imagine they'd be decent with groups of enemies as well. Too many single summons in his list, in my opinion.
@@malogor2127 - In my opinion, part of what makes a spirit summon "top 10" material is its ability to do damage and survive. Who cares if it's 5 on 1 if it did the job best? I think you missed the point of the video. It's clearly about "best" summons, not the "strongest" summons.
@@navdragoni yes this is true however sometimes 3 or 2 of mine are farther back throwing spells or just guarding so they last a bit for me to do some damage
On a roleplaying perspective my go-to summons until endgame were the skellies from the Limgrave mariner. I even have my own headcanon backstory about them and as much as possible we end the boss fight all present. Besides, they embody the persistence I need to get through- you die, you rise and go at it again.
cool to see the marionettes mentioned, i leveled them up a little and they helped me a lot with many bosses mid game, since they're two and they keep kinda spread, the boss may target one, but the other will stay alive and last for a long time, the most fun moment was crossing that section of Stormveil castle with a ton of enemies, the marionettes would rain arrows everywhere and I only watched as the soldiers fell one by one
Tip for Mimic Tear: Adapt it to the fight you need. If you need a tank, equip heavy armor and a shield, etc. It also uses your equipped inventory itens without using charges, so have equipped the Perfume that buffs the Attack and Damage (it is an AoE buff and have a lasting aoe effect. So if it uses the perfume far from you, you can run close to the spores and get the effect.), Starlight, and other buffs, will allow it to be even stronger.
Lhutel the Headless for me. On with wiki, it's the only one rated God-tier. It has a huge health pool, it blocks everything with that great shield, it's basically the perfect companion. It has really good damage as well. If I let it, at +10 it can take on most bosses by self. It's one weakness is that it seems really susceptible to AoE attacks.
@@Atakir1984 Honestly, I haven't tried Finlay. I intend to do more testing, I just the Ghost Gloveworts just sitting in my inventory. I basically worked off the Wiki to kind of figure out how I wanted to solo the game. I got a little tired of cooping with people who just die right away and leave me to fight a boss with a much larger health pool than if I was by myself.
I think all your viewers can relate to the moment when a boss has just ended your Spirit Ash, looks right at you, and you realize, as you noted, "how screwed [you] are." I'm glad to know I'm not the only one! Thanks for your high quality content; it's both entertaining and informative. Thank you.
Probably the mimic tear is the only one that can actually assimilate an easy mode in the game, as a souls veteran I prefer fighting the bosses by myself, and I don’t think people are bad just because they use this summons to fight bosses , at the end of the Day is a mechanic from the game, and I actually had to use it against malenia , if it wasn’t for the mimic I’ll probably never beat her.
I've found for 90% of the bosses nox priestess and swordstress preform nearly same minus the bleed stacking etc. Just as tanky, and there's 2 of them, the whip one also has an easier time getting aggro than mimic most of the time
However the mimic dose have a big weakness is it decides to be dumb grab attacks sometimes the mic just won’t move and get caught this is a problem since during grab animations boss are immune to damage
There are a couple others that are definitely worth mentioning: The giant rat ashes - free to upgrade and cast, summons 5 at level 10, they also come out of the shadows instead of right beside you so they usually catch enemies off guard. The skeletal militiamen - summons 2, decent damage, like other skeletons they resurrect with full health unless their body is killed. Warhawk Deenh - Buffs your attack, flies so it usually stays out of range of enemies
Great to see someone else who appreciates Stormhawk Deenh, the rallying cry buff is so strong that if you're aggressive and good at a fight its arguably the best summon in the game
I've been using Latenna the Albinauric in certain situations. She's a magic arrow spamming turret. So if you can keep aggro and your nerve, she'll pelt the enemies!
I summuned Latenna instead of my mimic in a panic when I accidentally stumbled on the Fire Giant near the Forge. She sat on a rock hailing the Giant with arrows from great range and all I ad to do the whole fight was occasionally get some swings in to pull aggro and ride around on the horse. She basically single handedly took out the fire giant. If you are a tanky build and dont mind being the aggro for your summon to dish the damage (normally it's the other way round with most other summons) then you are missing out on Latenna if you dont have her.
She's good to a point. She helped me wreck astel when I got there, she was +10, but starting in the snow areas she was dying way too fast for any boss, unfortunately. Useless agains all late game bosses. She lasted 5 seconds against Malenia.
@Thiago Navarro Dragoni she killed the fire giant badically on her own. In a large open room that you can keep aggro in, she's still awesome in late game. I personally would not deploy her against malenia.
Little side note for anyone who needs some help with the game. Go to the round and get the faith spell heal. It'll heal a huge chunk of any one of your summons making them last significant longer. Also if your going a melee build. You can cast the golden vow which increases any companions abilities by about 20%.
I tried Lord's Heal on my Lhutel, but it only heals maybe 1/10 or less of her bar and is fairly expensive to cast. Probably better for the group summons since you could potentially heal all of them in one go.
Yes. You can also use Golden Vow as an Ash of War on a light weapon right hand (say a dagger) and a No Skill shield. Avoids the faith requirement and buffs you and your spirit or allies!
The Marionette soldiers have been invaluable for me, especially against invisible assassin enemies. The Marionettes barrage of arrows helps you find them quickly, keeps them pinned down with suppressing fire, and if they get hit they go into their Futurama Killbot, "SOMEONE SAID HOWITZER!" mode just laying down that aoe of arrows.
@@electroeel148 I found that torch for sale from the Merchant in the Merchant's Shack near the graveyard in the Atlas Plateau. I discovered that after I had to face one of those assassins as a cave boss. It did come in handy for the one in the capitol though.
I love how you went from a shirtless dude with a club to what looks like Cruella Deville's twisted cousin. It's also nice to see the wide variety of Spirits and playstyles they accommodate in this game. While "souls" games aren't my thing, it's great to see a new title doing well and not be a complete trashfire.
As a note with the new "nerfed" mimic, you do not want to have a great shield equipped before summoning it or it'll stay on a passive stance and won't engage with the boss unless provoked. Keep the weapon/spells you want it to use the most on yourself before summoning, then swap back to your normal gear/weapons. As an experiment i summoned it for Astel (second version) and he would just stand in the middle of the room with his shield up, merely yards away from the action but would not engage even when his life depended on it. If you need ranged support, same deal, equip yourself with the ranged weapon of your choice and then swap back after summoning.
I can't tell you how relieved I am to see someone showcasing something using the EXACT SAME ENEMIES/BOSSES. I more definitively take your word for everything you explained because you actually did a good showcase vid.
I like those small imp guys with fireballs and staff that are spinnin around when I fight vs lot of enemies, and for bosses I just love Kaiden and Pumpkin Head, but Kaiden Sellsworn is my boy :D
The mimic can be pretty inconsistent. I've had time where it's used my abilities to demolish bosses, and I've had time where it's just stood in lava and tried to poke stuff with a stick
I had one that kept spamming a weapon art for no reason and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Though I've had some wierd bugs occur with the mimic where it just disappears right after being summoned.
Lol I put erdtree heal on it and it literally spams it. I walk over get free max health and it never dies.I’m also pretty sure it scales with your health too. I remember summoning it against the boss that has the crazy anime sword and it died fairly quickly I went back with 60 vigor and it tanked the whole fight and kept healing in between.
Imps are op af. Its sad ppl dont know how to use them properly. I've used the imps ever since i took them has a starting item. They're like the mausoleum soldiers. They throw little bombs that will immediately grab a boss attention off you. If you like going in and smashing a boss up front, the imps are the best distraction. Imagine 2 6 year olds after a bag of sugar each.
I think the Raya lucaria soldier ashes should be a honorable mention. They have 2 standard sword guys and a greatsword knight. The knight uses those cuckoo glintstone shard items when at mid to long range so there's a ranged option and once they get to +5 they are pretty tanks and hit hard. I think the little guys throw the anti heal milk grenades too
I don't consider it cheating. I just find it very satisfying to get the ennemies you defeated as companions, and to have access to such a variety. Mimic tear is the only one that could legitimately be considered overpowered.
Surprised latenna wasn't on this list. She's great in giant boss rooms where you can park her in a corner and all you have to do is hold aggro and she will fire volleys of arrows. Great against dragons
Latenna Carry me through entire boss in nokron, she is a great ashes you have in early-mid game. She can shoot from the corner of the boss chamber like a charm. Downside is, she cant walk lol
My favorite mid tier guys are the Avionette Soldiers, they have a nice variety of moves, including semi range with firebombs and melee, they are small, flying little buggers, meaning they dodge more than they should, and they cause bleed damage, meaning they can really go to town on the boss if that's part of your build. They do not like being hit at all, and do not do much damage outside of their bleed damage, but with my faith build with the winged scythe, they were my best friends for a long while.
Although it’s a bit harder to obtain and cost 106 fp one of the best summons i found is the crystalian. She has many attacks and has reduced slash damage so she’s very tank against tough bosses.
Surprised it took so long to find someone mention her! She’s basically invincible! It’s not just slash damage she resists too- all physical damage is VERY heavily reduced except strike damage. I basically never need to fight an enemy alone bc of her
My favorite in the late game are the nightsister and swordstress puppets. These two lasted through every boss fight so far while doing a lot of damage, and if one goes down, they swap into the dragonball franshise and fuse themselve in one bigger and stronger version
I'm glad for this addition to the souls series It really adds a sort of roleplaying aspect which these games (I feel) do pretty well You can run around with a viking that constantly shouts at enemies A pack of lone wolves that aren't actually line since there's like four of em Or even your own personal army if you have no friends but still want a pve gank squad
Nice to see Oleg still holds up, he served me well early on when I was going full mage and was just as good later on when I respeced into strength, and I would hate to have to part with him.
I think Mimic Tear is god tier at +10, it can tank damage that would one shot me. He also deals decent damage depending on what playstyle you give it before summoning. I leveled up Faith to 50 and use the dragon seal, he does really good damage to hard bosses
Honestly the greatshield soldiers are my favorite summon for holding aggro on any single target non flying boss... they do suck on flying mobs like dragons
I agree. I think they're the best summon at that FP cost and below. They're really good against small and medium size bosses. It's like summoning 5 mini tanks. It's funny when they box in a target and take turns bashing them with their shields.
Early game the Hawk and demi-humans are very good. I used the Hawk for one on one and the demi's for crowd control. I am just now lvl 75 and maybe 60% thru the game and my go to summons is Oleg. He is my bro
The Banished Knight Engvall is the one I’ve used in many fights and the one I used to get Oleg, it also helped me get the gold scarab, as mage it’s awesome
I have a soft spot for the Marionette Summon. Theyre not very tanky at all but I like thinking of them like the Elden Ring version of a Sentry Turret. They just stand in their spot and unload the clip on bosses😂 They can do some sneaky high damage over time with how many Arrows theyll unload on a boss, i wouldnt say theyre very good against Bosses that are very Dodge happy but if you can keep a bosses Agro then they will thrive
The headless knight is the best for me. They can literally tank Malenia and her stupid combo. I don’t think I would’ve beaten Malenia so easily without them.
@@limbokillah1397 don’t stroke your ego too hard by being an elitist who brags because he didn’t use an intended game mechanic. Some people beat the whole game with their fists and without leveling up. That’s fine. Self imposed challenges are fine. But don’t act like a player isn’t good just because they used an intended game mechanic. If you beat every boss without summons, good for you. I’m proud of you. Yeah I guess maybe you’re better than me. But no need to shame anyone for using a mechanic that the devs put into the game and clearly expected people to use. The summon ashes are a big part of the game. As long as someone isn’t hacking, it doesn’t matter how they beat a boss. We are all fans just trying to enjoy a game. Let’s not pit ourselves against one another and act elitist all because we choose to play the game in different ways, ya know? Let’s just all enjoy it how we want to enjoy it and encourage one another to have a good time, regardless of play style. I see so much toxicity in regards to things like summoning and sorcery and stuff and it’s so silly. No need to degrade people for choosing a different play style than you. If it’s a mechanic in the game then it’s a viable strategy. Feel free to brag if you beat the game without summons but don’t put people down who do use them
The Crystalian is the best option if all you really look for is some time because he tanks all kinds of hits. You can heal and then go behind the boss and attack and you can do this repeatedly
Lmfao as a mage I know exactly what you mean when you say you watched your spirit get killed and the boss turn your way and the "oh sh*t" thought! Hasn't happened too much because I've been doing all the side stuff in each area and am pretty over leveled as I go but it doesn't stop me from having that thought regardless! Loved this video....guess I'm lucky I found headless early on and have been using her since.
I would consider the skeletal bandit. It does a great deal of damage and with his resurrect mechanic he can last much more than other tankier summons. It's great for builds that don't focus on mana, or builds that need the mana for spells and don't want to use too much on a summon.
Have you tried using war cry with Ogha yet? It's been said that using it beside him will make him use a special move that can only be done once per summon. I'm not personally sure if it works, but if I had him I would definitely give it a try.
Mimic tip- make the perfume bottle that turns you into iron and the one that raises all your defense put them in your equipped items and the mimic will use them making him almost invincible. Especially with the iron skin. I usually put rot grease there too. He rots them supper fast since they can't interrupt his attacks.
Shocked not to see the "Nightmaiden and Swordstress" ashes here, my friends and I all concluded from our playthroughs that the duo are the 2nd best to use other than the mimic tear, and possibly the best if your build isn't good for mimics. DPS is great, they're deceptively tanky, and they don't cost that much. For a specific example, I had them at only +2 and they both survived for over 5 minutes against a slow fight against Astel, and at +3 they both survived for almost the entirety of the draconic tree sentinel fight.
I went pretty much straight dex melee and didn’t do any summoning (spirit or otherwise) until I got the mimic, just because I didn’t have the fp. I just respecced into an int build for the fun of it (the pure broken fun of it, oh my), so this is very helpful, I’ve got a truckload of spirit upgrade items to spend and I want to play around with some of them.
I beat everything solo already so now I'm spirit all the time and it's a blast trying dif spirits w dif bosses or those hard field areas where u can summon spirits
I will never understand the backlash “hardcore” souls players give to those who use IN-GAME mechanics to help themselves. Why do they even care? It’s like you don’t truly beat the game if you, “Use a summons or spirit ashes or a shield or the dodge button or if you moved out of your mom’s basement or if you’ve ever gone on a date or if you can’t parry or if you used a guide or…” I’m sure you get it, but I could go on all day. If you’re new to the series, just have fun and ignore all the meaningless mouth breathing. These games are amazing any way you play them!!!
As a dex/mixed caster build, I found a very interesting strategy with the mimic- I'd switch to my seal, summon him, and switch back to the staff this creates some intense combos as we mix sorceries and incantations (e.g he cast Burn, O Flame as I cast Meteorite, creating some serious AoE havoc)
for me it's the wolves. i'm lvl 70 and i still use em for alot of bosses. 3 wolves, extremely agressive, decent damage, always surround the enemy and pretty tanky even for mid game, and don't cost alot of fp. and they are the first you can get.
I did the same, but they just can’t hold up to close range heavy attacks well enough, and when you start having bosses inflict status effects close range (like rot) they literally can’t do anything. It was frustrating bc i had them upgraded the most but just had to stop using them. Broleg all day for now
No mention of jellyfish or rotten stays? I've had the rotten strays poison bosses and take them out almost all on their own. I don't think the tick damage ever actually wears off after it's applied. Great video, I'll be hunting some of these down.
@@SwanyPlaysGames the jelly is a really tanky spirit, he doesn't deal much damage but it can causes poison even at end game. Latenna the Albinauric is a really specif only summon, she dies in few seconds most of the time.
The bird summon is underrated too. It’s moves around pretty fast and so if you are fighting a slow enemy it will basically run laps around it and it’s pretty hard to hit because it’s flying so it’s hit box is a little wonky so it lasts a long time which keeps the aggro on it consistently. Also has a flame breathe attack and quite tanky. Still great in mid game so far.
Mimic tear with faith build, it has infinite FP, so it's ... unkillable, literally ... For real, i've seen time it goes low, i just throw a ligntning spear to catch aggro, and it heals to full in a second... Spam heal yourself a lot, and it seems to just heal anytime it has low hp... It can be dumb as hell and ignore mobs if you yourself are far from them (they walk towards you rather than fight if you're far, and sometimes they port to you directly), but it's insanely broken...
Still not very far into the game but I'm a big fan of the jellyfish. She's way tankier than the other spirits I have, and so far I've found there's a surprising number of bosses that are susceptible to poison. She was a big help against Margit and Godrick.
I'm running a full plaguebearer build. Rot, Poison, Bleed, and Madness. The Feral Stray is the only summon I allow myself to use and it has great synergy with the rest of my build.
@@imethdup5050 yep, no doubt. I just like the idea of a stray rotten dog annoying the enemies. For things that fly or are annoying for my dog to get to, I use mimic. Just seems kind of cheap since it can solo a lot of bosses lol.
Mimic tear does not work for me because i'm a glass cannon! With all my buffs up i can kill most bosses before the music fully kicks in! Witch is why i dont know what dragon god phase 1 looks like since by the time he finished his intro roar i was 1 atk away (ran out of stamina) from the kill!
If you want a fun one, do Dung Eater and Seluvis' quests. First get the potion from Seluvis, now complete Dung Eater's questline. When you get to Dung Eater in the gaol for the 2nd time give him the potion instead of the seedbed curse. Now go back to Seluvis and speak to him, he'll thank you for drugging "Nepheli." Now grab starlight shards, find his puppet room and read the message in there. Go back to Seluvis and talk to him about his puppet room, now he'll let you buy puppets. Buy Dung Eater for five Shards and you can now summon him whenever. He's not the best summon, but he's decently tanky, very aggressive, and his sword does bleed which adds up over time if a boss stays aggroed to you.
I just tested oleg vs 3 wolves. Interestingly wolves damage to bosses / large monsters were alteast 3 times better. 3 wolves constantly jump and stagger opponent while oleg in 1v1 scenario GETS staggered. Interesting list tho! I wanna get top2 summon.
