Ekzykes's Decay

ekzykess decay incantation elden ring wiki guide 200px
Spell Type Dragon Communion Incantations
FP Cost 48 (6) Slots Used 1
item effects icon elden ring wiki guide 55px 18pxEffect
Spews scarlet rot breath of Ekzykes from above

attributes required elden ring wiki guide 18Requires

Ekzykes's Decay is an Incantation in Elden Ring. Ekzykes's Decay spell conjures head of Ekzykes to spray a rot-inducing cloud from above. Updated to Patch 1.10.

 

Superior incantation of Dragon Communion.
Channels the power of Ekzykes, the Decaying.

Transforms caster into a dragon to spew scarlet rot breath from
above.
Charging extends duration. This incantation can be cast while
jumping.

Ekzykes, Dragon Communion Revenger, did not forget his hatred even as he succumbed to the scarlet rot.

 

 

Where to find Ekzykes's Decay

Where to find Ekzykes's Decay :

Elden Ring Ekzykes's Decay Guide

  • Dragon Communion Incantation
  • Stamina Cost: 60
  • Deals standard physical damage
  • Inflicts Scarlet Rot (65 buildup per tick, upto 10 ticks on fully charged cast) on opponents.
  • Scarlet Rot inflicted by this spell deals (0.33% Max HP) + 13 per second for 90 seconds, for a total of 29.7% Max HP + 1170 damage over its full duration.
    • Scarlet Rot on weapons inflicts (0.18% Max HP) + 15 per second for 90 seconds, for a total of 16.2% Max HP + 1350 damage over its full duration.
  • Like other named Breath incantations, this spell has long wind-up time of 2 seconds.
  • Deals 18% more physical damage than Rotten Breath, with slightly longer range but narrower spread.
  • Duration can be extended to breathe again, and you can swivel your character while casting to spew in different directions.
  • Full cast requires at least 90 FP but will use up to 156 FP with no additional benefit from any FP-conserving buffs.
  • It takes on average 5 seconds including initial wind-up to complete the full cast.
  • Can be cast while jumping, and your character hovers slightly while using the spell.
  • Cannot be used on horseback.
  • NOTE: As of Patch 1.07, the Scarlet Rot buildup this spell causes has been reduced from 110 per tick to 65 per tick.
  • As of Patch 1.09 , Roar Medallion increases the damage of this incantation by approx. 10%. in  Player vs. Environment . 4% increase in Player vs. Player.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dragon Warrior Written Guide

 

 

 
Elden Ring Incantations
Agheel's Flame  ♦  Ancient Dragons' Lightning Spear  ♦  Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike  ♦  Aspects of the Crucible: Breath  ♦  Aspects of the Crucible: Horns  ♦  Aspects of the Crucible: Tail  ♦  Barrier of Gold  ♦  Beast Claw  ♦  Bestial Constitution  ♦  Bestial Sling  ♦  Bestial Vitality  ♦  Black Blade  ♦  Black Flame  ♦  Black Flame's Protection  ♦  Black Flame Blade  ♦  Black Flame Ritual  ♦  Blessing's Boon  ♦  Blessing of the Erdtree  ♦  Bloodboon  ♦  Bloodflame Blade  ♦  Bloodflame Talons  ♦  Borealis's Mist  ♦  Burn O Flame!  ♦  Catch Flame  ♦  Cure Poison  ♦  Darkness  ♦  Death Lightning  ♦  Discus of Light  ♦  Divine Fortification  ♦  Dragonbolt Blessing  ♦  Dragonclaw  ♦  Dragonfire  ♦  Dragonice  ♦  Dragonmaw  ♦  Elden Stars  ♦  Electrify Armament  ♦  Erdtree Heal  ♦  Fire's Deadly Sin  ♦  Flame Fall Upon Them  ♦  Flame Fortification  ♦  Flame of the Fell God  ♦  Flame Protect Me  ♦  Fortissax's Lightning Spear  ♦  Frenzied Burst  ♦  Frozen Lightning Spear  ♦  Giantsflame Take Thee  ♦  Glintstone Breath  ♦  Golden Lightning Fortification  ♦  Golden Vow (Spell)  ♦  Great Heal  ♦  Greyoll's Roar  ♦  Heal  ♦  Honed Bolt  ♦  Howl of Shabriri  ♦  Immutable Shield  ♦  Inescapable Frenzy  ♦  Lansseax's Glaive  ♦  Law of Causality  ♦  Law of Regression  ♦  Lightning Fortification  ♦  Lightning Spear  ♦  Lightning Strike  ♦  Litany of Proper Death  ♦  Lord's Aid  ♦  Lord's Divine Fortification  ♦  Lord's Heal  ♦  Magic Fortification  ♦  Magma Breath  ♦  Noble Presence  ♦  O Flame!  ♦  Order's Blade  ♦  Order Healing  ♦  Pest Threads  ♦  Placidusax's Ruin  ♦  Poison Armament  ♦  Poison Mist  ♦  Protection of the Erdtree  ♦  Radagon's Rings of Light  ♦  Rejection  ♦  Rotten Breath  ♦  Scarlet Aeonia  ♦  Scouring Black Flame  ♦  Shadow Bait  ♦  Smarag's Glintstone Breath  ♦  Stone of Gurranq  ♦  Surge O Flame!  ♦  Swarm of Flies  ♦  The Flame of Frenzy  ♦  Theodorix's Magma  ♦  Triple Rings of Light  ♦  Unendurable Frenzy  ♦  Urgent Heal  ♦  Vyke's Dragonbolt  ♦  Whirl O Flame!  ♦  Wrath of Gold

ELDEN RING EKZYKES'S DECAY NOTES AND TIPS

  • Updated to Patch 1.10. See Patch Notes for details.
  • In the Colosseum, if the opponent is spacing the dragon breath out of its range or putting pressure by interrupting your dragon breath, use Swarm of Flies. Most opponents will run away from the attack, causing them to lose stamina and give you space to do a dragon breath.
  • To prevent the opponent from constantly interrupting your dragon breath, use Endure. With all dragon breaths having a 2.5-second wind-up and Endure having a 3-second duration it will give you enough time to do a dragon breath in the air. However, you will not have enough time to swap into a Dragon Communion Seal on both hands if you want the full wind-up duration to be protected by Endure.
  • Other notes and player tips go here.



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    • Anonymous

      Why does this exist when it does the same thing as Rotten breath. Is this not supposed to be an improved version?

      • Anonymous

        i baught this game last year god damn i shouldve played it to the end. some stuff really got nerfed ...110 per tick to 65 finding those openings gonna take some deaths xd

        • All of these dragon breath pages have a sentence like this: "Full cast requires at least 90 FP but will use up to 156 FP with no additional benefit [...]" What does the "with no additional benefit" part mean? Does it mean we are wasting FP for absolutely nothing if we hold down the cast button the whole duration? Do we need to release the button at a specific moment to get the maximum effect of the spell without wasting FP?

          • Anonymous

            absolutly Broken for PvP. Literally unable to dodge unless you have cover or are far away. But for PvE your honesly better off using scarlet aeonia.

            • Anonymous

              The wording on FP consumption is confusing, but what it means is this: If you have at least 90 FP remaining, you can execute the full cast of this spell. If you have over 90 FP remaining, it will consume all of it up to 156 FP if you hold for the full cast. There's little you can do to mitigate the unnecessary consumption other than carefully use your FP before casting these breath spells without going under 90. Ideally you'd use this to buff yourself to maximize both fP consumption and the effectiveness of these incants.

              • Anonymous

                “Full cast requires at least 90 FP but will use up to 156 FP with no additional benefit”

                What does this mean? Is it outdated? I can’t reproduce these results. A full cast seems to always cost 156 FP, I can never get a full cast for only 90 FP.

                • Anonymous

                  The point of using this isn't the Rot, it's the physical damage. Pop on your skimpiest outfit with the Blue Dancer Charm, Roar Medallion, Flock's Canvas Talisman, and dual Dragon Communion Seals, and you're all set.

                  • Anonymous

                    A bit better in PvP than the normal version due to swivel and the projectiles possibly traveling faster, other than that just not worth it, not being castable on horseback is a huge drawback in PvE. If this had a bit more rot buildup than the normal version it might be viable tradeoff, but looking at the huge FP requirement and questionable advantages of this spell it's not really an optimal pick if you want a reliable dragon breath. Maybe more of an option for higher NG cycles?

                    • Anonymous

                      I get that this needed a nerf, but now there's hardly any reason to use this over the lesser version. Either it should cost slightly less, or it should have a bit more range, or a bit more buildup. May as well just use rotten breath.

                      • Anonymous

                        Surely if they were going to halve its effectiveness, they should also have halved its FP cost, so you have to cast it twice as many times to get the old effect, but you CAN actually do so? I mean, that just makes sense, right? But then, From have never been good at balancing. Remember when they drastically nerfed the number of casts for lighting Miracles in DS2, but compensated them for the loss of casts by... also drastically nerfing the damage they did? They even said this was a mistake and they MEANT to buff the damage, you know, like what would make sense, but then they never fixed their "mistake" so lightning Miracles in DS2 remain underpowered to this day.

                        • Anonymous

                          I get the pve side is upsetting and hopefully they adjust it to be better but not broken for pve again
                          but at the same time this was stupidly overpowered in pvp, and you cannot say "well I just play pve so it shouldn't affect me". PVP is part of the game for many people. There are vast amount of other options for pve, just find them.

                          • Anonymous

                            Patch 1.07 gutted this thing for pve imo. It definitely used to be broken, but now it feels like it takes three, or sometimes two complete casts just to proc the rot on a boss. Considering a complete cast basically burns your entire fp bar, that basically means that you need to use up one or two blue flasks just for the incant to have its desired effect, which I don’t think is fair.

                            • Anonymous

                              Got overnerfed in PvE. In the time it takes you to rot something, plus the rot actually ticking down, you can just spam fireballs or lightning bolts and have the boss dead in half the time with no risk.

                              • Anonymous

                                the most broken abilitie in the entire game, its literally impossible to win a duel against it,
                                i just did 20 Duels using only this ability and none of them survived the second breath

                                • Anonymous

                                  this is wrong, it doesn't deal any magic damage, only physical, tested with magic damage boosting buff/gear & no damage increase

                                  • Anonymous

                                    Anyone who casts this is pulley crossbow/giant hunt fodder. If swarm of flies didnt exist this would be the most overused (in pvp) and overhyped spell in the game. Even in low level pvp its irrelevant. The only danger is the scarlet rot, but boluses are not hard to find or dupe.

                                    • Anonymous

                                      Are you sure that the range is longer? I feel like the range is shorter on "named" breaths.
                                      Also the cast takes way longer, and they have less tics.
                                      There is no real benefit for using them.

                                      I only use them when i have the highground and i can cast midair, other than that the unnamed ones are always superior.

                                      • Anonymous

                                        Was summoned to leyndell an invader using bloodhound step greatsword poke and rivers of blood shows up, ended up hitting him with this guy dies sends me message on how I suck for using broken skills

                                        • Anonymous

                                          I don't know if it's a bug, but both this spell and rotten breath don't need the amount of FP described in the wiki. I can use both loads with less

                                          • Godfrey Icon affects Rotten Breath not this, this incantation just plain sucks compared to Rotten Breath, I can kill mobs much faster with the standard breath plus I can move away because of the shorter cast and FP cost. not to mention Horseback. That being said Smaurags & Borealis's are the best named Dragon incants. Always consider the practicality of an incantation before adding it. The Magma Incant is not bad but you have better options, there are better flame incantations than the flame breath.

                                            • Pve it does insane damage while inflicting rot, pvp it pretty much kills anyone who gets in its path with enough mind before you even notice the rot. For status effect pvp builds it will ruin your experience, as stated above. Same as frenzied burst with the dragon seal with minimum faith and high arcane, one or two shot most players. Rotten breath is a better choice pvp if you actually want to see the rot before killing a player lol.

                                              • Anonymous

                                                This one is just fun for the fact you can use it while jumping. Plus it does more base damage and while not usable on horseback, honestly using dragon spells on horseback is really risky usually anyways

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  This incantations does physical damage, not magic damage. It is boosted by bloodboil aromatic which increases physical damage. It is not boosted by the magic-shrouding cracked tear or terra magicka.

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    ive spent a lot of time pvping with this (like 300 kills) and this spell is almost unfair - being able to cast it while jumping makes it a chaotic mixup for any situation. you can literally run away from people off a ledge, jump, turn around, and start blasting them with scarlet rot. if you cant afford the fp cost just get more mind

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      If you cast with the dragon communion seal in your RIGHT hand, you can absolutely cast twice mid-air.
                                                      Also, this hits much harder than rot breath but does not seem to build-up scarlet rot faster. Very high damage if you’re built as a physical damage arcane mage, even on Malenia. Need to stand close to have the plague talisman proc, but it will usually proc before the second cast which will increase the second cast’s damage.

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        Something odd happened, not sure if it's because of 1.04 but I can cast this only one time with bosses or when I invade NPCs. Does anyone experienced the same? I tested with boss fight and mini bosses and in normal fights.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          Ok after some testing I would not recommend this spell, it costs more than rotten breath, cant be cast from horseback, and has the same amount of scarlet rot buildup. I did some tests on the giant next the the secluded cell in Stromveil castle.

                                                          Using Antspur Rapier with a rot buildup of 50 it took me 5 hits to proc scarlet rot
                                                          After using Rotten Breath first, I only needed one hit with Antspur Rapier to proc the scarlet rot
                                                          After using Ekzykes Decay I also needed one more hit from Antspur rapier to proc scarlet rot

                                                          So it seems both Rotten Breath and Ekzykes Decay gives a rot buildup of about 200

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            The word “Revenger” is used in at least two contexts. I wonder if this was intentional to avoid the use of the more suitable “Avenger” in text.

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              You actually can extend the cast time when casting in mid-air, just not while one-handing your seal in your off hand. If you hold your seal in your right hand, or two-hand it in your off hand, you can extend the cast in mid-air.

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                So how much build up does it give? I used it twice charged on Placidusax and he was infected with scarlet rot. According to the wiki his resistance to rot is 1350. So I assume +-700 build up on charged attack?

                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                  in my opinion, it's best to have both this and normal Rotten Breath equipped for mounted and non-mounted scenarios. Also, there needs to be some research done into how much Rot build-up this has by comparison to Rotten Breath, and whether or not both Rots deal different amounts of damage or have different duration.

                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                    Oddly enough after some testing with flame, grant me strength it seems to do physical damage and is buffed by the 20% increase.

                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                      for an arcane build, is it worth "wasting" points in faith by going from 15 to 23 just to be able to use Ekzyke's Decay over Rotten Breath?

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        You can get off both casts of the these breath attacks in mid-air when you jump BUT-ONLY if the catalyst is in your main hand.

                                                                        (Just wanted to echo what other ppl are saying because weather this is a bug or not, it's much better when your another 10 feet off the ground.)

                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                          The people claiming this spell can't be channeled in mid-air are most likely using their seals in their off-hand slot. The spell channels fine in the air when the seal is in the right hand, but is currently bugged and, like all dragonbreaths usable in the air, will only trigger the first "phase" of the spellcast when equipped to your left-hand slot.

                                                                          For those who like to keep spell catalysts in their off-slot, you can still keep your seal in the left slot and simply two-hand it to channel in mid-air properly.

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            This ability is basically for those situations that you can't get rotten breath off. You can use this ability in mid-air, and it will raise you a little higher just enough to be out of reach of some melee attackers. I also noticed the dots tick faster than Rotten breath, but it cannot be channeled if you decide to jump to use it.

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              Personally, I don't find it more useful than Rotten Breath. The issue with this one is that yes, you can cast it while jumping, but you also cannot channel it while jumping. You can channel it while standing, but it'll put you airborn temporarily, meaning that anything that hits you during the cast has a chance to knock you down onto your back. The damage does slap though, so if you value the raw damage over the rot application, it may be worth taking for faith monster builds.

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                With 100 FP(full cast bar) I did about 800-850 damage with Ekzyke's Decay on the guard enemy near the Dragon Catherdral, using a +6 Dragon Communion Seal, with the same FP I did 1000-1050 damage using Rotten Decay. It seems like Rotten Decay is superior unless you are interested in the floating mechanic of Ekzyke's Decay.

                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                  Damage wise, this incantation deals more damage than Rotten Breath but Rotten Breath has more perks than this one. As stated below, named dragon breaths can't be casted while mounted and it has longer animation and fp cost. The two can both inflict scarlet rot within 1 to 3 casts. So for efficiency, I'll choose Rotten Breath.

                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                    Breath incantations are weird, I did some tests that you need ~1.8x of the base cost to do two full casts for all variations of breaths. They will all drain up to ~3x of their base cost and still do no more than 2 full casts.

                                                                                    Named breaths deals 22% more damage and can't be cast while mounting. And you need to invest some minds to boost your fp to 90 to be worthwhile, is it objectively better? I don't really think so.

                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                      Applies rot which seams to do damage based on max hp. Very strong against bosses if you manage to apply it. One cast + rot can do over 10,000 damage alone. Have seen it do 200 damage per second. Best used in the beginning of a fight or if you have spirit summons to distract. Almost impossible to apply mid fight against a boss if you are alone. It is strong against smaller mobs as an initiator. 9/10 would buy again.

                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                        Ran into 2 players casting this in sync. They carpeted a huge area with stun, high damage and high scarlet rot buildup. I gotta get me one of these.

                                                                                        • So does this actually apply more rot buildup per tick or what? It has less clouds, Rotten Breath seems to apply Scarlet Rot in one cast, while this takes 3. Do I need way more FP?

                                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                                            What's the counter to this in pvp? It seems impossible to escape damage unless you're too far. If you get behind them they just turn very quickly...

                                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                                              Does the damage of this spell scale off of faith+arcane or is it set to a specific damage output regardless of stat investment?

                                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                                I can confirm that this becomes available from the Cathedral of Dragon Communion in Caelid after defeating "Decaying Ekzykes" (who is guarding the road in the Southern part of Caelid). This costs 2 Dragon Hearts to purchase.

                                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                                  It does amazing amounts of damage compared to the 1 heart spells. Drains FP like crazy, but managed to hit 3400 damage in two casts on one of the giants just outside the secluded cell, basicly wiping it off the map. Also inflicts rot which lasts a long time and does about 15-20 points of damage per second. This spell is a game changer for me. I love it. It's my nuclear button.

                                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                                    After you kill the dragons around the massive one laying down in the crimson rot land and the big ones dead you get a message if you go back to the second dragon church there’s now this spell available.

                                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                                      At the Cathedral of Dragon Communion Grace, right-bottom side of the map. Have to kill the rot dragon by the Cathedral to unlock it.

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