Scholar's Armament | Elden Ring Wiki

0.75 modifier is very lame. is 20-50 AR advantage over magic infusion worth equipping a staff, using a spell slot, and spending time and FP on buffing? not for me

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Standard Clayman Harpoon will end up with +30 magic ar and about +100 physical damage over a Magic Harpoon on a 80 INT build when using Scholar's Armanent.

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I do a lot of coop and I never see anybody using this at low levels. It's great for prisoners, huge buff to damage from the estoc especially with the meteorite staff.

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The reason you never see this used ever is nearly all Int builds are either pure casters that spam Stars of Ruin etc. or they run somber weapons like Moonveil, Darkmoon Greatsword or Sword of Night and Flame.

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Great if you like to test every weapon you happen to run into without spending the smithing stones, with 70+ int most base weapon gets as strong like +12 to +16 ish. Most of that is magic damage to take into account, once you found something comfortable to invest the stones into it’s just getting better.

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What makes it good is that it lets you have int scaling with any ash of war. Nobody expects your blue sword to have golden land on it.

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I totally forgot that there was a magic buff spell in this game...its not even bad so why is it ignored?

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From min/maxing, discovered that Lusat's Staff is the best staff to use for this. At 99 INT and +10, it adds a staggering 300+ Magic Damage to the Golem Halberd & Giant-Crusher.

If you are trying to get the absolute highest AR out of any weapon, I believe a Quality Giant-Crusher w/ this casted from Lusat's will give even higher damage than Occult Giant-Crusher

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The "I wanna bully enemies with weapons I don't meet requirements for" spell

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This is what you use when you need that extra bit of AR. No late game enemies are super resistant to it.

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I used this early on, on my first intelligence character to give the estoc a bit more punch, but what is the point of this otherwise?

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Starts to outperform Magic drawstring grease at 148 sorc. scaling which can be achieved with only 12INT and the demi human queen's staff.

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Turns your weapon into a jedi lightsaber. For sith you have to use Bloodflame Blade.

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How does this compare to a magic affinity in terms of AR if I were to put it on a rapier/misericorde? Primary stat INT, secondary DEX/VIG for reference.

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If you're thinking carian slicer is better than this, you're not entirely correct, slicer's attack speed is significantly slower than daggers or dual weapons which this buffs . Fist weapons for instance gain the best benefits as they break stance quickly, twinblades have more range and their heavy attacks hit multiple times both being competitive in terms of dps/stam and hitting way faster than slicer + poise and stance damage, in terms of raw dps this competes with slicer even with the booster staff in off hand.

Slicer will do about 1.8x spellbuff where this does 0.75x but remember you can reach near double the attack speed of slicer, status, and base weapon damage, so this is already stronger than slicer.

that's not all, if you use fast multi hit ashes of war like repeating thrusts, blade dance, war cry, etc you gain that extra motion value which i don't
think affects this spell but it still WILL wipe slicer's dps off the floor in comparison.

This allows for further scaling past NG+3-4-5.

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Is meteor staff good for this early-game, considering the scaling?

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Any intelligence scaling non-special weapon and this sorcery is a crazy fun combo

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It only scales with the intelligence portion of the sorcery scaling, so a staff like staff of the guilty (that scales mostly (in this case, totally) with faith) wouldn't make a good use of this sorcery

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Just started a RL1 run, still in early stage. Buffing weapons with a demihuman queen staff shorten boss fight quite a lot

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Sad that weapon buffs no longer scale based on seal/staff affinity, was looking to make a FTH weapon buff build utilizing all elements with Staff of the Guilty for this guy. Here's hoping we get a Faith-scaling Magic buff Incantation in the DLC

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does it scale with faith on the staff of the guilty, allowing for decent magic buff on a faith build, or still just int

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This isnt worth using, pretty much ever unfortunately, but especially not with very high Int unless youre max level (at which point casting this on a quality weapon is one of the best things you could do). At meta levels and below, I think this is at its best for a Str/Int build with just enough Int to meet reqs for Ruins Greatsword and Starscourge Greatsword. They're great weapons to have handy, but I wouldn't suggest having them be your only weapons. So, have some faster heavy-infused weapons you can buff with this, like an Iron Cleaver, Star Fist/Caestus, or Knight's Greatsword. Demi-human Queen's Staff provides the best scaling at 20 int, and I wouldn't go higher than that, since Ruins is very heavy so you need a lot of End to have good armor. However, greases are still probably better for not costing FP, and drawstring greases having virtually no opportunity cost.

As has been said by others, this is best on fast weapons. Dont think of it as increasing your weapon's damage, think of it as the spell also does damage every time you hit someone with the enchanted weapon. But even on a slow weapon its just more damage, so if you're set up to use it, don't be shy about it, otherwise it was a waste of levels/a spell slot/runes.

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Very powerful on an INT/STR build at RL138. Use heavy infusion and buff using lusat's staff as it has the highest sorcery scaling at 52 int.

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without investment, physical weapon buffs on a physical infusion are better. with int investment, a magic infusion on a weapon with physical weapon buffs is still better... it's no fair.

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Buffs in this game are weird. They are independent damage sources, not actual increases to your attack rating like it seems. They also ignore motion value. If Scholar's Armament, say, adds 75 damage per hit when I cast it, it will be that same 75 damage whether I do a fully charged Greatsword R2 or an Estoc rolling R1. It will also apply the full damage to both hits of a two-hit critical hit attack, where normally those attacks do extremely little damage on the first hit and most of it on the second. So the ideal candidate for buff spells like this would be something fast with a two-hit critical. Hand Axe fits this category.

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So I made an int dex build and wanted to use a katana besides moonveil, buffed with scholars armament Unfortunately after much testing there was no way to make the damage comparable to moonveil. I tried everything from max dex (at the time 51 was the highest I could get it) and minimum int, then I tried max int with minimum dex, and a few numbers in between. No matter what I did moonveil was stronger than my buffed weapon, making it difficult not to choose as it also freed up a spell slot and allowed me to run max int meaning my spells were also stronger.... I am sad because all I wanted was to light up my blade with blue as it fit my fashion souls better for my build. As far as I can tell it will never out scale moonveil, which isn't what I want. I will try again at higher levels.

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Put it on the treespear for a pseudo int fth weapon

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I am lazy to search but if you have a mage build with low str/dex, what is a good weapon choice to use with Scholar's Armament other than Clayman's Harpoon?

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i have a Quality Banished Knights Sword +25 with 45.Strength/45.Dex/70.Intelligence
is the Scholar Armament Worth it or should i just Use a Magic BKS

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Very tricky spell. Need to find good stopping point for int. Its either min req and just get one sorcery or try to do quality with int. Since it cant be buffed on innate magic weapons, you need good amount of str/dex to get decent AR and STILL cast some other sorceries, because at some pont int scaling weapons will be better. Depends on what are you trying to achieve. I think around 25-30 int is where this spell shines. Get smth like ~22 str, 18-20 dex, naginata or greatsword and its solid damage and still able to combo it with carian sorceries for that magic knight stuff.

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Does this increase absorptions for filthy weapon blockers?

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something this article doesn't mention is that the buff also gives you a little more stagger on your attacks.

with the cross-naginata, an uncharged R2 doesn't stagger a banished knight, but it does when you apply this buff to the weapon first. godsend for me in castle sol and farum azula.

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On builds that have their stats spread thin, like death/magma builds, this is an absolute godsend. You can turn any crappy uninfused stick into a usable weapon by buffing it up with this.

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For those saying that it is useless, at a high level that has 80int and 80 str/dex, you will be able to take advantage of the heavy/keen scaling while placing a very powerful buff on it. Dex is recommended for the cast speed buff.

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Is this affected by the Old Lord’s talisman?

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Wait, does this applies FLAT damage to any and all hits? If so, then claws or daggers would be so good for this

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Haters are gonna be on my ass for this, but DS2 handled buffing weapons so much better and I hoped they could haver learnt something from that...

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My main stat were to be Arcane, and I cast low level sorceries with the Albinauric Staff, would this buff be weak at minimum INT, but 80 ARC?

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Incredible with Clayman's Harpoon

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Bloodhounds Fang
Demi Human queen staff
Scholars armament

Great early game setup, and the buff damage gets higher as you upgrade the staff. Only needs 12 int early on

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for everyone mentioning how it doesnt work with crits or its awful, the way any grease or traditional buff that "adds damage" works is that it basically coats the weapon with a spell that does its own independent, fixed damage every time the weapon makes contact regardless of whether its a ten hit flurry or a charged r2 or crit. they are especially useful on any multi hit melee attacks and fast weapons, also paired weapons since you can buff both. its been this way in ds1 and ds3 and there have always been myths about them multiplying with crits or having some secret synergy with weapons that deal the same element in damage ( main example is in ds3 ppl used dark blade to buff the mad kings crucifix since it does dark damage even though this achieves nothing and lightning/darkmoon blade is always better since dark blade is weaker, this would only be useful if you had dark clutch ring and the waifu mask to buff dark damage) but this isnt true. id only ever recommend using this on fists/claws, two handed twinblades or weapons that have unique multi hit r2s or weapon arts that youd spam, and its only useful if you have a hybrid build since there are no pairs of buffable weapons and buffs that scale primarily with the same stat so you need a ton of investment into 2 stats, probably the best choice for this setup would be a strength twinblade with 55str 80int

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I have done some testing, and it seems that Scholar’s Armament does not apply to critical hits. It applies only to regular hits. Therefore, on a build looking to take advantage of critical hits, going with magic affinity on your weapon instead of going with Scholar’s Armament seems to be the way to go. Your regular hits will be a bit weaker, but your critical hits will be much, much stronger.

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If you want a good weapon early on, get clayman harpoon and glinstone stave and apply this. It is great dmg compared to other options early on. Also recommend the large club, make it fire with flaming strike or redmane flame.

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So basically if i have **** stats and magic the sorcery is **** as well?

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I miss my crystal magic weapon

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I wonder why these buffs can only be applied to right-hand weapons. I know it's what FromSoft has always done, but the company has broken so many of their old rules (read: annoyances) in Elden Ring (eliminating boss runs for the most part, including a map, not allowing unwanted invasions) that some of these hold outs feel weird. Maybe it'd be too OP if I had a scholar-armamented uchi in my left hand and the Moonveil and scepter in my right? I just find that hard to believe considering that not ten minutes ago I wiped Mohg clean out of his own palace in less time than it took me to burn through a Cerulean Hidden Tear. And I'm not even over leveled! Hell, I hadn't even bothered to get his special tear or shackle. (I'm sorry, but it really is true what they say: magic is by far the most boring build in ER.) Anywho, basically, I just want left-hand buffs! You know, non-discriminatory buffs. Buffs that can go on either hand.

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the mirage edge enabler

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Doesn't work with staff of the guilty. The pure faith scaling doesn't contribute at all, and the buff gives less ar than magic grease.

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I don't know why this is but the scaling cap on this is so comically higher than electrify armament that, if you're looking to max damage, slapping this on a pair of 20+ claws will open up your UI and enable easy mode.

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I wish FromSoftware wasn't deathly afraid of Dark Souls 2 and allowed you to use this no matter the infusion.

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Someone finally updated the page. Previously, this page did not say that the sorcery scaling was only from the INT portion. I did some testing previously as an ARC mage (I think I was 70 dex, 80 arc, 60 int) and this buff was not putting out more damage than just magic affinity. Therefore, if anyone sees my posts anywhere stating that magic affinity is better, please try not to have an aneurysm, and know that I apologize.
If you’re high dex/int, this will give better AR and magic damage than Magic affinity. But giving up a spell slot and having to refresh a buff may prove troublesome in some situations for a small increase in damage.

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Does this increase the damage of weapon arts such as Ice Spear or Spinning Weapon?

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Lightsaber hehe

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In my experience keen+scholars armament slightly beats out magic infusion on an int/dex build, and it also looks way cooler. But 99% of the time I go for magic infusion because it's so much more convenient.

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heyo, using scholars armament and its supposed to add magic damage based of 0.75 of sorcery scaling but why does lusats staff add more magic than prince of death staff despite my prince of death staff having much more sorcery scaling? (my lusat has 388 sorcery scaling while my prince of death has 404, both int and dex is 75). when I use lusat, it adds 291 extra magic (working properly) but when i use prince of death, it only adds 189. weird

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It is possible to put It in the left hand weapon?

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"Cannot be used on weapons that have a secondary damage type like Magic, Holy, Fire or Lighting."

This is wrong. Claymans harpoon both has an intelligence scaling and split damage between magic and physical. Its buffable by this spell.

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demi-human queen staff requires 10 int to wield, scholars armament requires 12 to cast, you should be using this on every pure melee build because you can easily squeeze in those stats without much sacrifice at all. you might being thinking why do that when you can just use grease? at 12 int +25 demi-human queen staff has 152 sorc scaling which means Scholars Armament adds 114 damage and lasts 90 seconds which can be increased by Old Lord's Talisman to 117 seconds, whereas grease adds 85 damage and lasts 60 seconds and doesnt benefit from lord's talisman. IMO thats a huge return on meagre stat investment.
I have an 80 dex build, casting this on a +25 Keen guardian swordspeer bumps the damage from 785 to 899. +25 keen misericorde goes from 414 to 528.
talk about DPS...
idk about the other weapon buffs in the game, but this one is a total no-brainer.

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Scholar's armament damage doesn't seem to be multiplied by backstab/riposte multipliers.

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If I’m at 40 DEX/52 INT, does keen + this always beat out magic infusion? Cold is probably technically better but I don’t like to use status effects.

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Does this work with Clayman’s Harpoon? I heard that it does

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If this always gives .75x sorcery scaling as magic damage, does that mean it would be best on a fast weapon like a dagger? Unless there's something I'm missing, every single hit would grant that same amount regardless of what weapon you're using.

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If you're a pure int build, using this spell on a standard affinity weapon will almost always outperform the magic affinity. Also bleed infusion and scholar's armament make a pretty cool combo.

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can you use this then swap out the staff for a shield?

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Does it take into account non-int stat scailing or is it the same as incantation weapon buffs currently?

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If you're high int and want to get a lot out of this, drink a Magic dmg+int flask of physic then use a lusat staff for the strongest buff. Put it on an enchantable fast attacking weapon that you can dual wield. Bloodhound claws work nicely.

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If you're high int and want to get a lot out of this, drink a Magic dmg+int flask of physic then use a lusat staff for the strongest buff. Put it on an enchantable fast attacking weapon that you can dual wield. Bloodhound claws work nicely.

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If you're high int and want to get a lot out of this, drink a Magic dmg+int flask of physic then use a lusat staff for the strongest buff. Put it on an enchantable fast attacking weapon that you can dual wield. Bloodhound claws work nicely.

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damage amplification from this is rather significant, and magic resistances are rare. I was playing dex int hybrid, and buffed keen uchi easily outpaced moonveil, it was pretty great powerstance, as you buff one, and magic weapons can't be buffed either way.

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damage amplification from this is rather significant, and magic resistances are rare. I was playing dex int hybrid, and buffed keen uchi easily outpaced moonveil, it was pretty great powerstance, as you buff one, and magic weapons can't be buffed either way.

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Considering greases only give 85 to their respected element, this buff with minimal invest is just as powerful. Now, since you can upgrade the most basic glintstone staff with 12 int, you're looking at more than double the damage a grease would give you. Worth using in any heavy, keen, or quality build if you have fp to spare.

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The only use cases for this is if you want the utility of being able to apply different greases to your weapon while you play or if you aren't able to apply magic infusion yet, otherwise you're better off sticking with the magic infusion so that you can get good damage without a 90-second buff that costs 25 fp. Needs a duration buff, fp reduction, or better scaling to be worth the slot.

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Based on my calculations, it looks like this buff is added on to crit damage after the weapons base damage has been multiplied for crit. Am I correct in this assumption?

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The "no special weapons or non-natural damage splits" severely limits the usability of this spell. I wanted to make it a bigger part of my playthough but every weapon I wanted to use didn't work, I though I was smart by taking a weapon I could enchant and adding the Magic affinity but that locks you out off it too. Pretty lame :(

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Lol let me guess, first From game?

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Sadly, this only scales with the INT portion of your staff. If you use a hybrid staff with other stats, you will actually get less of a damage buff than you would from using a pure INT staff, even on your hybrid build.
Gelmir Glintstone Staff: Faith part of the Sorcery scaling is ignored, so you'll get much less of a buff than your listed Sorcery Scaling. Presumably same with Prince of Death's Staff.
Albinauric's Staff: Arcane stat is ignored, so you get a much smaller damage buff than the listed Sorcery Scaling. You just get a really bad INT scaling version.
Staff of the Guilty: Since it only scales from Faith, and Faith is totally ignored, this doesn't scale at all. This staff just adds a flat +75 Magic damage, no matter how high your stats are.

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This spell CAN be cast on some weapons with elemental damage, but it depends on the weapon. The Clayman's Harpoon can be buffed even though it naturally has split damage.

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This spell is a very competitive sidegrade to magic and cold weapons. Since the damage scales with the staff and int, it brings even mediocre weapons on par with whatever scales with Int naturally. A good way to use a weapon with a physical WA.

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Bonus damage is equal to 75% of your catalyst's magic amp.

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Does anyone else experience friendly NPCs taking Phantom hits whenever this is applied to your weapon? It even "hits" Torrent whenever I apply it as well...

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Does this work on the uchigatana

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Depending on your build, it may be better to go with a Cold Weapon instead. While Cold doesn't scale as much on INT as Magic, and reduces main stat scaling (so you may need to be selective with your weapon choices), Cold scales on the other stat more and also benefits heavily from actually applying Frostbite. Frostbite gives an instant damage boost and, in my experience, can 'stagger' (not a chance to repost but it does stop actions) enemies. Scholar Armament may give more damage but doesnt cause frostbite.

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If i could tell you guys any useful tip is: Use Electrify armament + Order's blade + Scholar's armament with a Str enchantable weapon, such as Lordsworn's Greatsword. Even if you have minimum FP you''l be able to cast a lot. Besides the damage buff, it's OP to have almost all kinds of damage to buff your weapon on str build.

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It actually CAN be used on weapons with a secondary damage type, but ONLY if those weapons have that damage type naturally and are not Somber Smithing Stone/non-ashable weapons. Very few of those exist in the game, the only one with Int scaling is the Clayman's Harpoon.

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Does this work on bows?

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Does this scale with sorcery scaling? I'm using the meteorite staff right now for dual wield +10 moonveil and +25 uchi and just got Lusats glint stone staff and I'm thinking about max it out because it gives more sorcery scaling.

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I checked the duration and it lasts 90 s

Sorcery Scaling 139 and 122 gave the same result
Int 23
Is there any way to extend duration?

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Yes the damage increases with higher Sorcery Scaling.
Compared to DS3 this is incredible. Finally a usable skill.

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Buff Increases when upgrading staff

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If you have the dex and want to squeeze out more damage, keen weapons with scholar's armaments do more damage than a weapon with just magic infusion. I assume it works the same with heavy infusions with strength, but i never tested it out.

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If you have the dex and want to squeeze out more damage, keen weapons with scholar's armaments do more damage than a weapon with just magic infusion. I assume it works the same with heavy infusions with strength, but i never tested it out.

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Did some basic testing with three staffs and one weapon and 40 INT. Had various sorcery scaling: 60, 141, 152. Casting this resulted in the following: +45, +106, +114. I changed characters and then tried this out with 20 INT and sorcery scaling 121 and got +91. It seems like this doesn't scale on INT at all. Looking at this the damage is roughly 75% of the sorcery scaling. So 100 scaling gives you +75 while 200 scaling gives you +150.

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Is this a carian glintstone sorcery and is it buffed with the carian glintstone staff? Which staff would be the best for this? thanks

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Ashes of war have nothing to do with being able to buff or not. It has to do with the Infusion. If you do anything that isn't Keen/Heavy/Quality you lose the option to buff with grease/spells.

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Is it worth upgrading a non-INT weapon at the blacksmith if I'm just gonna buff it anyway with Scholar's Armament? Does the extra magic damage stack on to the weapon's physical damage?

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Note that you can actually see the damage buff if you go to your equipment screen after casting. And yes, different staffs change the damage, NOT the weapon itself.

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To everyone saying that they can put scholars armament on when they have a spear or whatever with the ashes of war storm stomp.

Storm stomp does not give any type of magical damage (magic, lightning, fire, cold, etc)

If a weapon has anything that isnt PHYSICAL damage only, you cannot place the buff

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You can buff the Clayman's Harpoon with this! Gets some pretty busted AR. Only with ashes of war set to "standard"

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Has any one tested this bad boy on the frozen needle? Because that would be real fun.

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INT 18.

demi human staff at 148 scaling: 651 backstab, 242 R1 damage
Under cap staff at 60 scaling 594 backstab 203 R1 hit damage
Uncast, 197 R1 damage
Against spirit beastmen

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