In this Elden Ring guide, we create a powerful and very versatile intelligent dexterity build to support and extend the capabilities of the Moonveil katana and prove this weapon is still viable in PvE after patch 1.06!

Elden Ring Best Moonveil Magic Bleed Build After 1.06 Patch

Moonveil katana - the intelligence dexterity dexterity-based op katana when Elden Ring came out, with a two-in-one weapon arc called transient moonlight that does a spread slash and an overhead slash hit, with great reach, physical magic, and voice damage, hated and loved by some because of the powerful skill spam like rivers of blood. But after past patches, Moonveil got nerfed and wasn't as effective as before, but is it still viable in PvE after patch 1.06? So we do a full playthrough and test it with an intelligent dexterity build with frostbite build up all our build. 

This build is killing bosses quickly and consistently because you can apply frostbite quicker and do poise damage regularly while hitting Moonveil skill more times to the point to have their stance broken and able to hit critical or land power sensing combos as much as possible to activate that bleed burst damage. In summary, a full combination of frostbite with magic and bleed. So you can play this build in two ways:

Way 1 - Melee Only

Pair Moonveil with another great katana with cool affinity, so you can take advantage of our stance in combos, applying blood loss and frostbite buildup, and combining with the weapon are called transient moonlight. While doing a really cool slow stance, holding the blade and looking at the enemy like some samurai duel, you can follow up with a normal or strong attack. The normal attack is used for crown control if you get surrounded, and the strong attack is used as your main damage dealer for mobs and bosses, you want to hit your enemy with the blade as well with the magic slash to maximize damage.

Way 2 - Melee + Spells Support

Adding a few spells that synergize as well with the frostbite build and the melee capabilities it makes it more powerful and versatile, you got spells for long range, mid-range, and boss openers that make you deal that frost by burst damage and debuff. Against the majority of mobs using only melee with the strong attack of transient moonlight will do, but against bosses or challenging fights, you need to mix it up with spells. Apply the Glintblade Phalanx skill on the offhand katana for added poise damage, Golden VoW as a AoW for a free buff if you have it, and then the physique flash to deal even more magic damage with the Moonveil katana and eliminate FP  consumption while casting Ronni's Dark Moon twice for free, to do more damage at a distance and a chance to apply frostbite early in the fight. When the enemy gets closer you start with the melee combat using the moonbale skill for that sweet magic damage and power sensing combos to get that frostbite if you haven't already, and also bleed damage as well. 

Weapon

Now you know the build can kick some serious but now let's see what armaments you need:

Main Hand: Moonveil+10

The main hand is the Moonveil katana with physical and magic damage with kinda low attribute requirements and a max scale weapon scales (E strength, B dexterity, B intellect) and has 50 bloodlust buildup.

Off Hand: Cold Uchigatana+25 with Glintblade Phalanx Ash of War

In the offhand, Uchigatana with cold affinity with the Glintblade Phalanx Ash of War, helping with the poise damage. 

Righ Hand Armament 2: Keen Dagger with Golden VoW Ash of War

Next is a dagger to apply Golden VoW Ash of War if you need it

Righ Hand Armament 3: Carian Regal Scepter+10

The staff for the supporting spell is the carrion regal scepter, it boosts full moon sorceries specifically Raani's dark moon

Armor

• Chest: Black Knife Armor

• Legs: Black Knife Greaves

• Helm: Black Knife Hood

• Gloves: Fire Prelate Gauntlets

The armor we are using is based on the black knife set comprised of a hood, chest piece, glove, and greaves, but to have more poise we only change the gloves to the fire pre-laid gauntlet, so still, be fashionable. But you can exchange the greaves too with a better one to have more armor and poise. Overall the black knife chest piece reduces the sound of footsteps, so you can sneak up to enemies to do critical or one-shot them with the Moonveil skill or just run across areas filled with enemies without being detected. You can replace the hood with a headpiece that increases intelligence or dexterity. 

An honorable mention is a Spellblade set that will increase the magic and cold damage, affecting the damage of Moonveil skill by about 2% per piece, but it looks really bad and you will end up with low armor and two poise.

Talismans

The talus fan will focus more on the use of transient moonlight with only one talisman for support and spells:

• Shard of Alexander - Increase transient moonlight attack power by 15%

• Carrion Filigreed Crest - Reduce the FP cost of transient moonlight by 25%, lowering the light and strong attack from 15 and 20 FP costs to 12 and 15.

• Green Turtle Talisman - Increase stamina recovery by 8 per second, after adding this talent span to the build it changed completely, you won't have trouble running out of stamina while using constantly the Moonveil skill, making your life easier when fighting bosses 

• Graven-Mass Talisman - Increase the potency of sorceries by 8%, this is the only late-game talisman for spell support but you can replace it with the magic scorpion charm or the graven school talisman if you are mid-game.

Flask of Wondrous Physick

• Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear - Increase magic attack by 20% especially the Moonveil skill attack and the support spell and it lasts three minutes, this is a very important part of this build to increase the moonbale's attack power 

• Cerulean Hidden Tear - For 15 seconds, you will not consume FP points when doing spells or skills that use FP, super important to use when we do randy's moon twice against bosses

Spells

• Ranni's Dark Moon - With the spells you can have more flexibility since you have high intelligence on your build, so you can use whatever sorcery you like, but the most important one for this build will be the Ranni's Dark Moon that you will use as an opener against bosses and the rest will give you the versatility that you need for every fight situation.

• Knight Comet - If you need long-distance spells, you can use the Knight Comet that you can charge for more damage

• Adula's Moon Blade - Use Adula's Moon Blade if you need a big arc spell for crowd control. 

• The rest is up to you, you can add from other long to mid-range spells to even heavy hitters like stars of ruin or comet azure.

Attribute Points

Level 100

• Vigor: 40

• Mind: 19

• Endurance: 20

• Strength: 14

• Dexterity: 30

• Intelligence: 40

• Faith: 9

• Arcane: 7

Level 150

• Vigor: 45

• Mind: 20

• Endurance: 26

• Strength: 14

• Dexterity: 40

• Intelligence: 68

• Faith: 9

• Arcane: 7

Level 200

• Vigor: 60

• Mind: 24

• Endurance: 30

• Strength: 14

• Dexterity: 55

• Intelligence: 80

• Faith: 9

• Arcane: 7

The primary attributes of this build are intelligence and dexterity, both are important because Moonveil skills are with them, but to have more magical damage with the moonbale skill transient moonlight, you need to have a high intelligence. But don't forget that you always need vigor and with this build in particular some points in mind to cast the supporting spell and use the Moonveil skill constantly, and endurance for those power stancing combos.

The character we are using is a rebirth vagabond, so a few of the attributes that we are not using might differ from yours. If you're using a different class and creating this build from the beginning, you can start selecting a prisoner or astrologer.

After making the mid-play through changes to improve the boss fight by increasing the stamina recovery to use more of the moonblade skill and casting a second time the spell opener ran his darkened to proc frostbite quicker, it made the weapon and the build shine. Despite the past nerfs and after finishing the playthrough with it, we are convinced that this build is powerful, versatile, and viable after patch 1.06, for you to start using it even in mid-game. When you can get all the armaments and the spells with a few exceptions and replacements but they will shine after you get to the late game. And the good part is that it isn't a build that you will skill spam all the time, it has power sensing combos with katanas that are very good and spells that can fit into any fighting situation against mob and bosses. 

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