Ash of War: Blood Tax is an Ash of War and Upgrade Material in Elden Ring. Ash of War: Blood Tax provides and the Blood Tax Skill. Ashes of War can be equipped on Weapons and Shields to modify the Skill or an equipment, or to apply affinities that modify scaling values.
This Ash of War grants an armament the Blood affinity and the following skill:
"Blood Tax: Blood Oath skill granted by the Lord of Blood. Twist to build power, then unleash a flurry of thrusts that rob the target of both their blood and their HP."
Usable on armaments capable of thrusting (colossal weapons excepted).
Ash of War: Blood Tax Location in Elden Ring
Where to find Ash of War: Blood Tax:
- Found in the Mohgwyn Dynasty area in a small cave, at the eastern edge of the blood lake with four blood albinaurics that appear after killing the beetle. Elden Ring Interactive Map Link
- Video Location
Ash of War: Blood Tax Elden Ring Guide
- Grants the skill Blood Tax.
- Can be used with the following affinity Upgrades: Standard, Heavy, Keen, Quality, Poison, Blood, Occult
- Can be applied to the following weapon categories, so long as the weapon allows skill replacement: Daggers, Straight Swords, Greatswords, Katanas, Twinblades, Thrusting Swords, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Spears, Great Spears, Halberds
- The skill causes you to hit 4 times, a stronger thrust followed by two weaker thrusts, then a final stronger thrust.
- Deals 88+44+44+110 MV (Motion Value) of damage for the 4 hits of the combo respectively.
- Applies 100+50+50+100 status effect MV (Motion Value) for the 4 hits of the combo respectively, averaging out to 75% of normal status effect buildup compared to 4 normal light attacks, though at a much faster rate when used on heavier and slower weapons.
- Patch 1.07 buffed this skill in a few ways - the attack was sped up and now does more damage, the health restoration effect was improved and the attack can be used sooner after the end of a different animation (such as attacking or using an item).
- The health regeneration of the skill is only dependent on your max health and does not correlate to the damage done or the health of the enemy.
- The first and last hits will always regenerate 45 HP + 4% of your max HP
- The second and third hits will regenerate 25 HP + 2% of your max HP.
- This means that if all hits connect, you will regenerate a total of 12% of your max health plus an additional 140 HP.
Ash of War: Blood Tax Tips
- The Mohgwyn Dynasty can be reached early by completing White Mask Varre's questline and using the Pureblood Knight's Medal given by him.
- This ash of war as surprisingly good stagger, able to make an enemy like a Leyndell Knight flinch from every hit regardless of poise. However, it does not boost one's own poise, thus it can easily be interrupted.
- If you use Endure from a weapon in the left hand, you can nullify being interrupted. Keep in mind of your FP usage if Mind is low.
- Combine this with the incantation Bloodflame Blade and you'll accumulate Bleed build-up more easily than dual-wielding two Bleed weapons on top of being healed per hit (more potent at lower levels).
- This skill costs 14 FP to use.
AnonymousArcane build. Say, 60 arc. Apply this to a poison affinity spear.
Equip blood and poison boost talisman
Poke poke poke = poison + bleed
Swap to occult zweihander. 950+ ar. Smash em up.
Kinda fun
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Frost mist, black flame blade, blood tax spam = special things.
- Anonymous
Very good on a tank build for multiple reasons. One because it heals %hp. So that's 228 hp +the flat 140 if you manage to land the entire ability at 60 vigor. If your using the Crimson Amber Medallion +2 you actually heal 18 hp more every time you use this ability. If you combine the Crimson Amber Medallion +2 with Morgott's great rune +25% hp you'll have 2565 hp. These two things take it from being a heal of 368 to a heal of 447 every time. Then if you then add the Godskin cloth talisman into the mix which almost always procs if you land this ash you heal 553 hp every time. That's the equivalent of 68% of the heal you get out of a maxed healing flask.
All this healing combined with stacking damage negation from heavy armor, boiled crab, ritual shield talisman, shield drake talisman and braggarts roar. Makes you very hard to kill in PVE. While not the best PVP build it still does just fine if you substitute the shield drake for a blue feathered. Also they fixed it a while and it combos with itself like it should. Very good ash if you build around it.
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Put it on Antspur if you wanna be a **** (or just use it to melt bosses)
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Strength build with Blood Tax on Heavy Flamberge (blood buildup passive) plus Bloodflame Blade incantation/golden vow/flame grant me strength + Godskin Swaddler, Lord of Bloods, Rotten Wing Insignia, Millicents prosthesis, Cracked crystal tear and flame crystal tear....chefs kiss
- Anonymous
Used this plus swaddling cloth and mimic for godskin duo fight
- Anonymous
A pretty fun tool against Malenia if you just have to antspur her. If you get a clear opening and pop the ash afterwards, it seems her usual recourse is to parry and jump back rather than do something like waterfowl or some other nonsense. Poetic that a lifesteal spam skill is pretty effective against her; doubly when she gets rotted from it.
- Anonymous
Biggest nitpick with this skill. Something annoying but ultimately useless
Impaling Thrust: Useable on all armaments capable of thrusting (colossal weapons excepted)
Blood Tax: Useable on all armaments capable of thrusting (colossal weapons excepted)
They both say the EXACT same thing. But for some reason you CAN'T use blood tax on claws, but you CAN use Impaling Thrust on them
I wish they'd either let Blood Tax be used on claws, or just change the description so its not just lying to the player
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Repeating Thrusts deals around 15% more damage at half the cost. Only use this if you want the healing or don't have the Black Whetblade yet. Also this has trouble staggering enemies and dealing with players, so overall it's pretty bad.
- Anonymous
Don't bother taking this into pvp. You'll only be able to kill braindead idiots with it. Everyone else will easily dodge it by simply strafing left or right.
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Put this on a blood or occult cross-naginata with about 50 points in arcane. It honestly gives rivers a blood a run for its money in terms of burst dps, while also healing you.
Amazingly strong in both PvE and PvP.
- Anonymous
This is a considered a magic skill so it gets buffed by rogier's set. You can get it to do tons of damage by applying scholars armament to the weapon beforehand.
- Anonymous
Does this work with Malenia’s great rune? Like if you use it will you regenerate the health the rune provides AND the 10% from the AoW?
- Anonymous
A good alternative to prayful strike for non-hammers and axes. May not heal as much as prayerful strike, or have the big poise and stance break damage, but at least it comes out faster, good for applying status, less FP cost, and a nice multi-hit move that will work well with the godskin talisman for even more healing.
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if you got this any other way than what the wiki says... you know what you did.
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It’s fun. A lot of fun. Stack with godskin swaddling cloth
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Through some pretty extensive testing, I've found the exact formula for how much life recovery the skill provides (assuming you land all 4 hits):
100hp + Max HP *0.075
If you have 200 max HP it will steal 100 + 15 (115 total).
If you have 500 max HP it will steal 100 + 37 (137 total).
If you have 1000 max HP it will steal 100 + 75 (175 total).
If you have 1900 max HP it will steal 100 + 142 (242 total).
Compare this to Godskin Swaddling Cloth, which is a logical Talisman to pair this Ash of War with. GSC heals for 3% of max HP +30 flat HP. At 1900 HP (60 Vigor with no other sources of increased or reduced maximum HP), the talisman will heal for 87 HP on every 5th hit if you are continually attacking, excluding of course Fists / Claws / Daggers / Torches / Sacred Seals / Small Shields which will take 7 hits to proc the heal.
As far as damage and status buildup are concerned, the damage of the 1st hit is about 75% of normal R1 (Light attack) damage, with the middle 2 hits being about 27% of normal damage, and the 4th hit being normal 100% R1 damage. As an overall average, the 4 hits will do about 57% of the damage of 4 normal R1 light attacks, but much faster depending on weapon type. On testing with a Pike, 4 normal R1 attacks took 3.16 seconds (1.26 attacks per second), compared to the 1.76 seconds of a Blood Tax attack (2.27 attacks per second), even counting the wind-up animation.
This means that 4 R1 attacks with a Pike deal a relative 126% of R1 attack DPS per second (4/3.16), whereas using Blood Tax would deal 129% of R1 attack DPS per second (.57(4/1.76). All of this is to say that although the damage per hit of Blood Tax is far lower, the overall DPS is roughly comparable and with considerable amounts of healing.
When it comes to status buildup, the 1st hit of the combo applies full status buildup, with the middle 2 hits dealing half status buildup, and the 4th hit once again dealing full status buildup. This equates to the status buildup of 3 normal R1 hits over a 4-hit Blood Tax combo, or 75% of normal when averaged out. This once again has to be measured against the attack speed of Bloox Tax compared to normal attacks. Normal attacks would be 126% of status buildup per second, compared to 170% for Blood Tax. Do keep in mind this was using a Pike, that will attack slower than say a Thrusting Sword or a Dagger, so the consistent Blood Tax animation that doesn't change depending on weapon type will naturally favor slower weapons, and the results will skew even more in Blood Tax's favor on even slower weapons such as Heavy Thrusting Sword, Greatspears, and Greatswords.
Obviously not as good as Prayerful Strike in terms of raw healing capabilities, but is infinitely better for quickly applying status effects on weapons capable of thrusting, and still with very, very good healing potential.
I rate this Ash of War a solid 8/10 for its strong healing utility, solid status buildup potential, and simply rule of cool.
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"colosal excepted" yet its useable on the longest hitbox weapon
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Tried this on multiple builds, with the huge windup and low hyper armor it's very tricky to get it to connect. Additionally the hp returned (even with swaddle cloth) is not great for trading hits. On a bleed build it barely procs on hosts or invaders, works well on standard enemies. Anyone get great results from this?
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All I have to say is, this + Godskin Swaddling Cloth is going to make anyone fighting you in PVP cry.
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Does anyone knows, blood tax with occult affinity to add weapon already have blood lose effect. Then, should i use blood grease on that weapon. Cuz i need blood tax with high arcane scale.
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So hate on me for abusing it but I got this from doing the cliff rune glitch? Anyone else had that?
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Not to be confused with the *sshole tax from the sopranos video game
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Absolutely crying shame that it can't be applied to reapers. I'd have loved to do a lifehunt scythe/rain of arrows Aldritch build.
- Anonymous
Will heal for the same amount regardless of the damage dealt.
Seems to heal for a combination of a flat value and a scaling value based on maximum health.
In my testing I healed for 201 at 1377HP (= 14.6% heal) and 206 at 1460HP (= 14.1%). These numbers were consistent regardless of the weapon or damage dealt.
Would need to test the numbers at different HP values to determine a reliable formula.
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Lack of information for on-hit effects of the move, it implies bleed but apparently only applies whatever status is on your weapon, so it'll apply something like rot on an antspur rapier, but not bleed unless you change affinity.
How much does it heal? If it's as much as the comments are saying then a mimic blood tax is down right ridiculous.
I wish we had more reliable info.
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I love using this on greatswords as a well needed jab attack. the heals are great for powering thru a hit.
- Anonymous
Does not work with the Katars despite coming with impaling thrust
- Anonymous
- Crank Mimic Tear to +10
- Deck them out in Bull-Goat Armor Set
- Apply +Poise, +Physical Absorb, and Shabriri's Woe Talismans
- Give them something like a Pike or Great Spear with Blood Tax + your tankiest shield
- Put at least one Ironjar Aromatic and one Cursed-Blood Pot on your item hotbar
- Summon them, sit down and watch the show
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Does the skill itself deal bleed build-up? i.e. will it still proc hemorrhage with an occult infusion?
There has got to be a way to make this weapon shine. I urge someone to do some testing to make this weapon OP. It is such an interesting weapon in the series of games.
- Anonymous
i use this on my nagakiba + godskin swaddling cloth + rotten winged sword insignia + lord of blood's exultation + bloodflame blade + butchering knife on my offhand m, elden bling purposes since it's goes well with my night cavalry + blackhood, beside it have good dex scaling so u won't be equipping it just for the passive effect, u can put either prelate's charge incase u need great amount of regen when figting mobs or multiple adversary or raptor of the mist for nice suprise jumping attack on pvp, althou great star is better and already have innate bloodloss build up on it, so it's more effective than butchering knife, not the best build, but pretty fun to use and i also got that elden bling.
note : i haven't really do calculation on the liresteal, but i can say that on pve my flask consumption is almost none, i just used flask once or twice on hard bossess, blood tax really weak againts turtle, u can get all the effect of talismans with rivers of blood weapon skill, only have less heal when fighting bosses but more heal on mobs, extra sloth on talismans i use radagon soreseal, but u can use milicent prosthesis for more damage and use white mask for even more, but i didn't use it cause i want that elden bling XD.
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Put this on the Antspur Rapier for some awesome double proc shenanigans. Bleed AND Rot!
- Anonymous
Put this on the Antspur Rapier for some awesome double proc shenanigans. Bleed AND Rot!
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People saying this is garbage are correct but only if judged in a vacuum. This thing shines best when combined with a long weapon that avoids trading and a good talisman set up for successive attacks. I run it with Godskin Swaddling cloth and rotten winged sword talisman, however I also keep it on physical scaling so I can stack it with bloodflame blade or frozen armaments for extra burst damage from status effects. Honestly, probably best to just consider this a straight upgrade from repeating thrusts.
- Anonymous
I can see this being pretty good in pvp, guarantees to win trade among anything other than great/colossals. However if the healing is abysmal like Malenia's great rune then its completely garbage
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It does not scale based on the level of the weapon you are using. Connecting all four hits heals for about 7.3% of your max health. Hits on shield count.
Just a quick test, had some other things equipped so I wouldn't be surprised if the % varied.
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If it's "usable armaments capable of thrusting," why isn't it available for the Katar?
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Do the individual attacks proc successive attack talismans? (such as the heal on combo or damage buff on combo ones)
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So it says claws can do thrust damage. Can this Ash of War work on claws?
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I think people are kind of sleeping on this in PvE. This + Bestial Vitality has amazing synergy if you use Mimic Tear. Mimic gets no flasks, so it's biggest weakness is self sustain. If you use this and BV, it will basically start healing itself. On top of that, while it has aggro on the boss, you can easily hit this on them and get get legit 1/3rd your life bar refunded. It's great imo
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unfortunately only blood ash for spears... as a move i think lorettas slash or either other 2 blood ashes are better. like someone else mentioned its really easy to block, even pve enemies with shields its hard to time it. not sure if lifesteal on blood tax is worth, maybe stacks?
- Anonymous
Judging from only descriptions and having Repeating Thrust, I assume this is the same moveset exactly, only with bleed buildup attached to each hit? Possibly a lower damage modifier? I'm not this late-game yet, so any information would be appreciated.
- Anonymous
This plus bloodflame (so set the affinity to one of the physical ones instead of blood) on an uchigatana is outrageous. If the 4 hits from this art's combo doesn't proc a bleed, the bloodflame uptick often will immediately after, interrupting mobs while you charge up to do it again. That said, the wind up is a big telegraph and you are vulnerable if they roll past it. Circumstantially good in PvP, but brilliant in PvE.
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This plus bloodflame (so set the affinity to one of the physical ones instead of blood) on an uchigatana is outrageous. If the 4 hits from this art's combo doesn't proc a bleed, the bloodflame uptick often will immediately after, interrupting mobs while you charge up to do it again. That said, the wind up is a big telegraph and you are vulnerable if they roll past it. Circumstantially good in PvP, but brilliant in PvE.
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anyone knows the full list of all the "armaments capable of thrusting"?
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This is rough to get early, and kind of sucks. It's a 4 hit combo that will get deflected off of shields and costs 14fp. If it lands, it can guaranteed proc bleed on most things which is nice. Using it on a vulgar militia saw
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Confirmed location. Recommend hugging the wall of the blood-lake area which has those frog-like enemies that walk around and carry spears. It's within a white Scarab.
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The location is actually in the east cave of the lake just down the path from the palace approach ledge-road site of grace. You need to kill a scarab for it.
- Anonymous
Arcane build. Say, 60 arc. Apply this to a poison affinity spear.
Equip blood and poison boost talisman
Poke poke poke = poison + bleed
Swap to occult zweihander. 950+ ar. Smash em up.
Kinda fun
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