The Best Dark Souls 3 Mage Builds [2023]

Much like pyromancer and sorcerer builds, Dark Souls 3 mage builds are builds that emphasize the use of spells (called miracles) to cause damage and/or buff themselves. Dark Souls 3 Mage builds emphasize the faith stat and can be use in conjunction with different builds and playstyles. For example, you can have a pyro mage hybrid or a strength mage hybrid. Owing to their versatility, mage builds can be extremely affective in both PvE and PvP. While there are a large number of faith builds in Dark Souls, these are what we consider to be the best Dark Souls 3 Mage Builds. We hope you find this guide useful, for more Dark Souls , check out Dark Souls 3  Strength Weapons and Dark Souls 3 Thief Build.

As mentioned earlier, Dark Souls 3 mage builds primarily scale with the faith stat. Faith miracles can be used for a number of reasons, from direct damage causing miracles like the lightning sear and arrows to healing spells that buff your health and the health of your co op team mates. If used correctly, mage builds can be extremely damaging. Most boss speedruns on Youtube often utilise a miracle or two to maximise damage, this goes to show how effective mage builds can be.

While the stat requirement will vary depending upon the build, we recommend a faith level of at least 40 if considering running any of these builds. Miracles consume FP and require attunement slots, so we recommend a high attunement level. Mage builds require a talisman for casting sorceries, while all talismans do the job well enough, we recommend checking out our best catalysts ranking and choosing one of these.

Pure Mage Build

When it comes to Dark Souls 3 mage builds, a Pure Mage build is often overlooked due to the late game availability of most essential mirables, such a build is still very fun and can be extremely powerful. This build focuses on emphasizing faith only and has all its damage stemming from the faith stat.

This build will still have a melee weapon but will have it infused with a gem that makes it scale with Faith. Most of your damage, however, will be done from your miracles. Lightning miracles will be your go to miracles for combat and damages. You will be using healing miracles alongside damage miracles to make the most out of this build.

Such a build will be extremely viable in both PvE and PvP for it will be dealing more damage than most Dark Souls 3 builds and will be doing that in a very flashy (no lightning pun intended) way. This build, due to its miracles and weapon will be a very quick one so it will get through all kinds of encounters, from 1v1 PvP battles to a boss encounter with relative ease.

A build like this will have a small learning curve but once you get used to it and get us3ed to not relying on a melee weapon for most of your attacks, you will end up with a build that will shred through almost all enocunters within seconds.

Requirements

For this build, you will require a faith level of 45-6o. We also recommend a high attunement and vigour level. While no armour set is required, a robe will look good with such a build.

Longsword

Despite this being a pure caster type build, you will still be using a melee weapon quite a bit. For your weapon, we recommend the longsword for its ease of use and ability to be infused. We recommend infusing it with the Lightning Gem or a Blessed gem for this will add faith scaling to your weapon. This, along with your highfaith level means you will be dealing high amounts of damage. Other great options are the Broadsword and the Zweihander.

Miracles

For your miracles, we recommend Tears of denial, Lightning Arrow, Lightning Spear (or any other variation of it) and any healing spell. Lightning arrow and Lightning Spear will be your primary damage dealers. These miracles will be the main essence of your confrontations. They will get you through most encounters, from ads to tougher, beefier enemies.

Heal will help preserve estus and make sure your health doesn’t fall too low. Tears of denials is essential for such a build. Due to casting times and low armour, pure casters are very prone to fatal hits. Tears of Denials give you one more chance at life. This will be especially useful during PvP encounters and can be the miracle saving you from death.

Rings

When it comes to caster builds, rings are essential. We recommend the sage’s ring, lightning clutch ring, ring of the sun’s firstborn and saint’s ring. Sage’s ring will mean you can cast faster which is absolutely essential for a build that relies so heavily on casting. Saint’s ring will give you access to more attunement slots, ring of the suns firstborn will boost your miracle damage by 20%, making your already powerful lightning spears almost op.

Lightning clutch ring boosts lightning damage, since your primary attack spells are all lightning based, this will have you getting through bosses faster than 99% of other builds.

Locations

The longsword is the starting weapon for the Knight class. It can be purchased from Greirat or be looted from Hollow Soldiers at the high wall of Lothric.

Lightning spear can be found near the Old wolf of Farron Bonfire. From the bonfire, take the elevator and go up the staircase, turn right and reach the closed gate. From the closed gate, drop down from the right and you will find the path, follow the path and it will lead you right to Lightning Spear. Heal can be bought from the Shrine Handmaiden for 1000 souls.

To acquire the Tears of denial, give the Braille divine tome of Carim to Irina and tears of denial will be available for sale. Lightning arrow is a DLC miracle so you will require the ringed city DLC. You will find it behind three hidden walls after encountering the dragon following the shared grave bonfire.

You can purchase the Saint’s ring from Irina of Carim for 300 souls. lightning Clutch ring is found in Archdragon peak, you can find it to the left of the gate that leads to ancient Wyvern. Sage’s ring is found in the road of sacrifices swamp.

Towards the left side of the swamp is a room with an enemy, that room has this ring in it. Ring of the sun’s firstborn is found in Irithyll of the Borreal valley. From the Pontiff Sulyvahn boss room, run back and out. Right in front will be a ledge, fall off this ledge and you will end up directly where this ring is.

Melee Mage Build

The Melee Mage is probably the most popular mage build in Dark Souls 3. This builds combined physical damage and close quarter combat and uses faith and miracles to aid it in every possible way. Such a build will emphasise the strength and dexterity stat alongside faith, using a melee weapon for the majority of its damage and encounters.

This build will use miracles such as Heal and long range miracles like lightning spear on the side to maximise damage, get out of situations and clear up annoying enemies. This build, due to its ability to output insane amounts of damage will excel at every scenario thrown at it. While perfecting such a build will require you to be late game, the wait will most definitely be worth the wait.

Such a build will excel at both PvE and PvP. Its melee weapon means it will get you through most encounters without the need to expend FP. The majority of your confrontations will be physical and close counters, with one of your major spells being heal, helping you conserve Estus flasks.

A high faith level will greatly complement your overall damage output for the use of damage causing miracles alongside physical damage means you will output almost unreal amounts of weapons. Finishing off a boss with a miracle right after a well executed weapon combo is one of the most satisfying things in Dark Souls 3

Requirements

For your skills, we recommend a strength or dexterity level of at least 30-40. We also recommend a Faith level of 40. Other than this, we recommend emphasizing vigour, attunement and endurance in this order. While there are no strict outfit requirements, you may go with whatever set if your favourite (considering seeing best dark souls 3 heavy sets).

Broadsword (for strength)

If you plan on going the strength route for your melee mage, we recommend the broadsword. While you can go with any strength weapon of your choice, we recommend the broadsword for its quick moveset and versatiliy.

It is even better if you infuse it with the heavy gem to make the most out of your high strength level. This weapon is good for all sorts of encounters and will serve as a great weapon alongside your miracles.

Washing Pole (for dexterity)

The washing pole is one of the best katanas in Dark Souls 3. Its dexterity scaling and insane length makes it an exceptional dexterity weapon. While you may run any dexterity weapon for this build, we recommend the washing pole.

Rings

For this build, I recommend the same rings as the pure mage build but swapping the Sage’s ring for the ring of favour. The ring of favour grants many attribute boosts that can be beneficial especially because this build puts as much emphasis on melee combat as it does on miracles. The opportunity cost of the casting time will be worth it for this builds does not ask for miraces to be cast during extremely tense situations anyway.

Miracles

The miracles we recommend for this build are heal, great lightning spear, lightning blade and deep protection. Heal will help you minimize the use of estus flasks, for it will heal you. The healing scales with faith so this is where a high faith level will come in handy. Great lightning spear will be your primary damage miracle.

This spell when make you hurl a lightning spell that can be devastating if you have a high faith level. Lightning blade will reinforce your main weapon with lightning, and that lightning will scale with your faith. Deep protection will increase stamina recovery, attack and damage resistance. This spell will make you tankier for a while and will be especially effective for people with a very weak armour set.

Locations

It can be found near the high wall of lothric. From the bonfire, go to the platform with the crossbow soldiers. From there, head to the room with a patrolling knight, tread forward and you will enter another room with a soldier and some crates, break the crates and there you will find the Broadsword.

You can purchase the washing pole from the shrine handmaiden after giving her the Eastrerner’s ashes.

The ring of favour is found in Irithyll of the Borreal valley. From the Pontiff bonfire, pass the area with the dead giants. When you enter the building with the dead Giant blacksmith. On the left you will find a hidden wall, head down and fight the Sulyvahn Beasts. Killng one of them will give you the ring of favour. All other ring locations are mentioned in the location tab of the Pure Mage Build.

Deep protection can be bought from Irina of Carim for 4000 after you give her the Deep Braille of Carim tome. Lightning Blade can be found in Irithyll dungeon. Heal can be bought from the Shrine Handmaiden for 1000 souls.

To acquire Great Lightning Spear, you will have to join the Warrior of Sunlight covenant. Great Lightning spear is given as a gift once you reach level 1 of the Great Sunlight Covenant.

Pyromancer Mage Build 

Pyromancer Build is a rare but very fun Dark Souls 3 mage build. This build puts equal focus on both magic and pyromancies (consider checking out our pyromancer builds guide). Such a build is casting heavy but will still require a melee weapon nonetheless. Such a build can be very devastating for both miracles and pyromancies are extremely powerful in Dark Souls 3.

This build will utilize pyromancies and lightning spells for damage, making you deal two very powerful elemental damages. Both pyromancies and pyromancies offer a number of buffs and resistances that go a long way. While such a build may not be outputting as much damage a Pure Mage build, it will still be a very powerful build and the versatility from both pyromancies and miracles will mean you will not have to be vary against enemies resistant to either one

While this build is great for both PvE and PvP, we recommend it for PvE playthroughs because the pure caster build and the melee mage are better PvP options. The amount of damage this build will be outputting by combining pyromancies with sorceries will be valuable for all sorts of PvE encounters. From hordes of ads to bosses with massive health pools, this build has you covered. The variety of spells also means you will have something for almost every encounter.

Requirements

For this build, we recommend both Intelligence and Faith levels of anywhere between 40-50. Attunement, vigour and endurance should then be prioritized. As usual, there are no specific set requirements but Karla’s set will go really well with this build. You will also require a flam for your Pyromancies and a Talisman for your miracles, we recommend using both in one hand and getting used to quickly switching between them.

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Weapon

For your melee weapon, you may go with any weapon that is infusible. Our favourite options are Zweihander, Broadsword, Longsword and Claymore. You should infuse that weapon with the chaos gem for it adds fire gem and adds in Intelligence and Faith scaling, perfect for a build of this sort.

Rings

For your rings, we recommend the saint’s ring, sage’s ring, fire clutch ring and lightning clutch ring. Saints ring is absolutely essential here for this build relies heavily on spells and the more slots the better.

Fire and Lightning clutch rings will help boost your damage spells for they will be lightning and fire based. Sage’s ring will let you cast faster, this will come in handy for this build not only relies on two different types of spells but also has you switching between a talisman and a flame.

Spells/Miracles

For this build, we recommend going with Chaos bed vestiges, great lightning spear, fire orb and and iron flesh (or any buff/resistance spell). Chaos bed vestiges and great lightning spear will be your primary damage spells, contributing to the bulk of the damage this build does. Fire orb will be your lesser damage causing spell, helping clear act and cause minimal damage.

A buff like iron flesh will let you be tanky when need be and go all in with your melee weapon. You can, however, pick a simpler buff like deep protection too.

Locations

You can purchase Zweihander from Greirat for 6000 souls.

Fire Clutch Ring can be picked up in the undead settlement near the cliff underside bonfire. There are 3 undead there that will be hurling explosives at you, pass them and you will come across the Fire Clutch ring. Lightning clutch ring can be found in archdragon peak, to the left of the door that leads to the ancient wyvern.

You get the Great lightning Spear as a gift for reaching level 1 of the warriors of sunlight covenant. Chaos bed vestiges can be obtained by transposing the soul of the Old Demon King. Fire orb can be bought from Cornyx of the great swamp after giving him the Great Swamp Pyromancy tome. Iron Flesh is given as a gift after you save Laurentius in the Depths.