Rotten Breath | Elden Ring Wiki

A bit like Comet Azur where it's not useful for every boss fight, but it hard carries for the fights where you have enough to time proc rot

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Worth it if you only use it for Fire Giant Phase 2,

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Imagine the smell.

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Vs a melee build it's "I win" button in pvp, but any ranged or magic build clowns on it

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Objectively better than Ekzykes' decay. Lower FP cost, same buildup.

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I think the Rot application nerf was a bit overzealous. This feels like one of those spells that got hit with the nerf bat a bit too hard because too many streamers were spamming it. 110 -> 80 would've been a bit more reasonable for PVE.

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I think they must have nerfed it again because I've tried it in pve and can only seem to reliably procc it after 3 casts for most enemies. Not really worth it anymore.

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this stinks

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You know what surprises me? The fact that this does direct damage. It’s already really good just because it can inflict scarlet rot on a lot of enemies from a distance. It really doesn’t need any direct damage. Also none of the poison mists deal direct damage, this just feels like another example of bleed and scarlet rot being better than poison in every conceivable way

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Better than Darkness incant at its own job

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Decrease range by 50% it's stupid in PvP.

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this incantation should need something like 23faith 30arcane......too much of it everywhere and should rot faster for the cost ( 80 per tic? instead of 65 )

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Bro needs a mint

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Is it still viable after the nerf? like does 1 full cast still apply rot?

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This is a bit unfair in pvp, excepting the long cast time that's easy to interrupt.
I keep it on low level characters when the body and phantom simply refuse to fight or for the 3 man gank squads.

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Radahn'B'Gone.

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probably Ranni's least favorite spell in the game

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probably Ranni's least favorite spell in the game

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with how often i see this you'd thing its the only dragon spell in the game

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15 fth and 12 arc? its just begging me to use it in low level pvp

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i hate this spell as a co-op player, people just spam it like there's no tomorrow even when whatever we're fighting is already rotted so i can't see what the boss is doing. and then sometimes it gets bugged so the visual of the breath keeps coming from the player indefinitely until the game sends me away...

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the name is a good representation of the people that use this in pvp

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I don't understand what "Full cast requires at least 60 FP but will use up to 104 FP with no additional benefit before any FP-conservating buffs" means. Is not more damage and status buildup a benefit? How do you only spend 60 fp on a full cast without fp-conserving items? Is there some magic timing for releasing the button to get the full cast for 60 fp?

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Does this scale with Faith or Arcane?

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is this the best method for applying rot or am I stupid

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Good for kill the invader. He invade my freind and I use the roten breathe on him…die quickly from the rot! Good on arcane build and can use with bleed nagnatas.

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good at cheesing the most overrated boss in the game

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This rotten breath smells of cheese.

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Even post-nerf a very nice opener for battles and to kill enemy groups in one cast. Great to flush out a tight hallway. Won't proc status immediately now, but it's also simply a great spell to rid yourself of enemies with the physical damage it deals. It also can be gotten in the first 20 minutes of the game if you kill Agheel and just rush to the Cathedral of Dragon Communion, not much enemy contact on the way there if you know the way. I run this and frost breath on every faith build.

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Fantastic for cheesing field bosses like dragons, even ancient ones. Simply apply the spell to inflict scarlet rot, then dash for cover. I’m pretty proud of myself for discovering this method.

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i used this in my battle in my fight against starscourge. It took 2 hits with it to kill him. One in his first stage than one in his second. Makes the boss 100 times easier

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Very low usability, there are only drawbacks left here, the only good part is great range and aoe.
Damage fully charged is about the same as 1 cast of dragonclaw, but cloud needs to hit fully.
Leaves you vulnerable with 90% of the bosses.
Destroys your FP bar for no reason (104 with no additional damage)
"Channeled spell", which spews only 2 clouds with full CHARGE, but godfrey icon doesn't work on it.
Radagon Icon does nothing.
No extra poise, stance-break is negligible.
Rot build-up was nerfed for no reason. You can still rot in PvP from 1 charged cast, but now you can't rot bosses properly.
The only use for this spell is to be annoying in PvP and cheeze open-world bosses.

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>reduced from 110 per tick to 65 per tick

Worst PVE nerf. It's still super expensive on FP and now you might have to use it twice as often. Nevermind those combos that can deal 30k in a few seconds by putting Bloodflame Blade on a cycle then spinning it with an Ash of War, for almost no FP comparatively.......Rotten Breath's ~4k damage over a large amount of time and half of your FP....This needed nerfed into the ground.

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I USE THIS ON STARSCROGE RADHAN

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this is the best spell to use in pvp if you wanna be an enormous ****

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Honestly, even with the nerf it can still put in the work. But you really need to meet certain conditions to pull off a proc. First of all, if you just tap it or even hold it for a second or two, it's generally not going to be able to proc rot on even bosses weak to rot. You really need to commit and fully charge the spell in order to get in that status build up. And on bosses with high resistances, you'd have to do that twice, so that leaves you pretty vulnerable, especially against late game bosses.

So, to get good mileage out of this spell, you would need a sizeable FP bar and someone who can tank enough hits for you to get two fully charged casts off. I'm sure you can all imagine what summon can be super tanky.

Mimic Tear + Erdtree's Favor +2 + Crimson Amber Medallion +2 + Raw Meat Dumplings + Boiled Crab + Great Stars w/Prayerful Strike + Plus Shabriri's Woe Talisman (I think most people know this already, but if you put on Shabriri's Woe before summoning the mimic tear, you can take it off after summoning and the boss will go full aggro on the Mimic Tear).

Anyways, with a super tanky summon like the one above, you would have plenty of time to proc rot and also do a pretty big amount of regular physical damage on top, if you've got the FP bar. All of this can also apply to Dragonice, and even more effectively for that spell since it has a higher proc for frost.

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with the plague that is overleveled phantoms being so rampant after the sale I don't even feel bad using this.

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I have no problem with this incantation but ... Summons really use this to defeat Margit. I just don't feel that this incantation teaches you anything but how to roll away.

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Hot take: This incantation was completely fine all along and didn't need a nerf IF it required more stat investment, especially considering Arcane is quiet usefull to further enhance Cheese builds by adding bleed and even then. Even Oracle Bubbles requires more investment!

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I get you summoned me so I can be a distraction for you to cast off your spells but I can’t survive long enough to do that when you keep spraying this **** all over the place.

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This is still soooooo cheesy in PVE, feels like cheating. Even more OP with high faith (dealing direct damage besides scarlet rot).

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This should do 0 poise damage. Who tf out there being knocked down by powdered STD?

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They nerfed it to the ground, how I'm supposed to kill Radahn now?

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People attacking me with their halitosis.

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Darn I was wondering why it takes so many cast just to inflict rot. They nerfed my boy…

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What does this scale with?

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If this does physical damage, does that mean it scales with str/dex? Or does it still scale with faith/arc depending on which seal you're using?

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I see a lotta chatter in here suggesting this breath is OP.
I do like it, but I don’t use if often as I prefer Frost! I stopped progressing in my own midway through 3rd play-through (stopped at Fire Giant) and prefer co-op’ing. That Frost is Fn’ awesome, especially with two others just wailing on Frosted enemies.
But boy did they Fn’ nerf Rot Breath. When fighting the Fire Giant, I liked hittin’ him with Rot right at the beginning of his 2nd phase. What use to take me one flask now takes almost 3 to proc rot on him. I’m callin’ foul on this nerf. How come it’s ok for invaders to one-shot me with their moon veil crap, but it’s not ok to proc Rot on ‘em in one shot?

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the rot itself wasn't the issue... its the stunlock combined with it being basically unavoidable in a gank situation.

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i can finally use this on my edgy rot build without looking like (as big) of a scrub

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Nerfed buildup in 1.07

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I invaded a host who would just spammed this, had no actual weapon, just a seal in one hand and a shield in the other. I smacked them out of the attack and they just crumpled when they realized they couldn't cheese me like they had everything else. Don't do rot breath kids, it turns your brain into mush

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I really like this in concept. Was actually using in a poison/rot build, but dropped it as it was way too easy to use and did way too much damage to bosses without even having to try.

IMO needs higher stat requirements, use the 'lesser' version of scarlet rot ((Max HP * 0.0018) + 15 per second vs (Max HP * 0.0033) + 13 per second for 90 seconds), and either reduce the rot build up or reduce the damage by like 60-80% as the rot proc would be worth it as it is.

Or they would have to nerf rot, but that would affect the other sources of it, and they are not the great as it is. This one is only good because its super easy to apply due to its range and lack of requirements, does a decent amount of damage regardless of the rot, and uses the stronger version of rot.

This also applies to Ekzykes's Decay, but its not used as much because it needs higher requirements mainly as its basically the same (just difference in range and AoE shape).

This could also just be a me thing, and wanting more Rot incantations (and poison ones lol) thats not either useless or OP. With this being so strong, its basically pointless in using any other sources of rot (out side of duels at least).

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

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they finally added it. the coveted "easy mode"

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Does anyone have a suggestion for me to build a beast master

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For anyone that doesn't actually feel like playing the game.

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side effects may include: brain rot, inability to use any other attack, and low vigor. ask your doctor before trying rot breath

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"elden ring is an easy game"

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everybody gangsta til the invader shows up and wipes your whole squad with this

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The game is treating you like crap? Bosses move faster than a Bloodborne boss on Speed? Rot Breath has you covered. Instant removal of any frustration, for the low cost of 15 FTH (and 12 ARC if you don't have that).

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I hate this spell, not because it is cheesy, but because as a summon who uses melee who is constantly in the thick of battle and must be aware of every attack a boss throws at me, it sucks when I can’t see through the darn Rotten Breath.

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its insane that this can exist in the same world as elden stars. 15 measly faith for an instant win button

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One of the most reliable Cheese tools.

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behold! the only dragon incantation in the game!

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Next on the nerf chopping block isss

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cheese

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This one spell has overhauled my entire ER strat. If any boss is tricky enough that I can't beat it in two or three tries, I grab this attack and my Bloodhound's step, summon my teleporting Meat-Shield Luthel the Headless, and spew rot at the boss until it catches the red foggy death. Proceed to run away, bloodhound's stepping if necessary, and just run away until the boss gets grinded out of it's misery or I need to re-rottify.
Radahn? Draconic Tree Sentinel? Regular Tree Sentinels? Bell Bearing Hunters? Renalla? Dragons except Exzykes? Baeful Shadows? This strat works on everything.

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"what if we made fire breath, but it does physical split damage and applies the strongest DOT status in the game? yeah, that would be balanced" -John FromSoftware

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POV: you killed a group of gankers using this.

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POV: You see hosts getting oneshot by boss grabs the fifth time.

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I love when an overleveled phantom one-shots with me this at 50 vigor. It’s so awesome

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Warning to all me fellow faith/arcane Tarnished who like using the Breath attacks:
If you're in co-op, be mindful of your fellow Tarnished. Breath attacks (and their upgrades) make it really hard to see! So if the boss is meleeing a buddy and you start breathing some form of cloud at the boss, your buddy won't be able to see any of the hits coming their way.

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This thing is maybe the best incantation in the game for PVE. Trying an RL1 run and this is the saving grace. Especially since most bosses don't attack for at least 5 seconds after you enter the arena, making it a free full cast, which is nearly guaranteed to rot. Which is going to be at least 50% of their health gone. Then either kill them normally, or dodge till you can reapply. Plus you can get this literally right away, since greyoll is a free kill, which drops 5 dragon hearts. (Or kill agheel, since he's early on and very easy on horseback). Idk if the dragon communion seal even affects this spell but it's similarly very early, quite easy to get, and weightless. (Those banished knights are very weak to guard counters posture breaking them, just mind the dragonfire)

It's doubly powerful on field bosses since you don't have to engage with them properly. I wanted to try deaths poker at RL1, so just spawned the bird, rotted him to start, then sat in the eyesocket of the nearby giant skull where he couldn't hit me. Step out, rot him again, dead. Gonna suck at the endgame when the big bosses don't get rotted, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

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this isn’t a named breath attack you aren’t supposed to be able to use it while jumping

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Essentially, this converts many scenarios into Easy Mode.

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Should i get this or the one from the rot dragon?

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Love it when hosts run away from this boss and spam this, blocking my view and showing that they really don't know how this game works.

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aside from bleed, scarlet rot is pretty deadly. i have a build called dragon priest who uses shield axe as main weapon but when facing a boss, i use this incantation on boss while being aggroed by a summon. melts all of them to the point of being too cheese of a tactic.

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MFW the Stormveil Castle imvader hits me with that dollar store scarlet rot.

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BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

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Even if you don't spec into faith or arcane in the slightest, it's worth hitting the prereqs just for this spell. Unless you actually want the game to be challenging, that is.

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PSA: Please don't use this in Co-op on bosses that are already inflicted with scarlet rot, it makes it ten times harder to see whats going on when you're in melee range.

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Do we know how much buildup this causes? Like if an enemy requires 500 buildup to get rot, do we know how long we need to use this spell to cause 500 buildup?

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Do we know how much buildup this causes? Like if an enemy requires 500 buildup to get rot, do we know how long we need to use this spell to cause 500 buildup?

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FYI you can smack the user with a heavy to beat them out of this, as long as you aren't getting pounded by two other max level phantoms at the same time.

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Absolutely melts all bosses at least from beginning till Mountaintop. At faith 40-50 even melts black kindred gargoyles.

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"Let me just very skillfully click the 'FREE WIN' button real quick

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Note to self: Do not eat Garlic before a meeting

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For me at least, I think It's fair to use this against hosts and summons in invasions. You usually got the disadvantage of being an invader against three other players who might be as skilled as you. However, things go different about this incantation in 1v1 duels.

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I told my gf she looks like this when she gets grumpy. Im not sure she appreciated it.

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This incantation needs a higher stat investment or some other way to keep it from being used in places like Limgrave and stormveil at low levels. Maybe it should have been in Leyendell or harder to access at low levels? It's annoying to be invaded by someone using this spell if you are co-oping. Alternatively, it could have been deadly poison instead but still be available early on so that it cannot cheese early invasions against people who have no cure for scarlet rot.

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The only Elden Ring spell I can use IRL

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kids be coughing like this and asking if you have games on your phone

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p much required for fire giant

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Running to the side of the attack seems to keep me safe from spammers wrath. Used this method to absolutely destroy a guy who used it with 800 hp.

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Try this if you are tired of just barely missing swings against the bigger bosses or if you find yourself chasing after them for a majority of the encounter

The Scarlet Rot will nullify all that downtime and cut the fights in half

Don't give up skeleton!

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if youre having trouble with Radahn and want to get to nokron ASAP or do rannis quest this absolutely melts him

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Turns out From included several easy modes in this game. Great! I hope it encourages new players to experiment with the other spells once they get bored of this one.

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How much damage does this deal with respect to incant scaling? I assume the physical damage scales off your seal. And I assume the scarlet rot application rate scales with arcane (incant scaling too or not?). But I'd like to know the hard numbers.

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