Best Duchess Build for Enhanced Sentient Pest in Elden Ring Nightreign

Everything you need to know about the best Duchess build for the Enhanced Sentient Pest (Everdark Sovereign) in Elden Ring Nightreign.

Duchess isn’t the ideal choice for the Enhanced Nightlords, especially for the Enhanced Sentient Pest. Not only does the Duchess have lower HP than most Nightfarers, but she is also mostly limited to melee weapons. Considering the Sentient Pest is a long endurance fight, you might think picking Duchess would be a disadvantage.

And while you might be right to think so, Duchess is also one of the most powerful Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign when it comes to DPS. With her Restage ability and excellent Arcane scaling, Duchess can deal massive amounts of damage in very short bursts. If used correctly, she can be an incredibly useful Nightfarer against all Nightlords, including the Enhanced Sentient Pest.

However, much like the Revenant, the Duchess’s effectiveness heavily depends on the Relics you equip on her. Here’s a comprehensive guide on the best Duchess build for the Enhanced Sentient Pest in Elden Ring Nightreign.

Overview of the Best Duchess Build for Enhanced Sentient Pest in Elden Ring Nightreign

For our Duchess build, we focused primarily on boosting her elemental damage and survivability. Although Duchess has access to what is arguably the best dodge roll in the entire game, she is still prone to damage. Much like Recluse, Ironeye, and even the Revenant, Duchess is extremely squishy. Combine that with the fact that Gnoster tends to attack using multi-hit AOEs and stomps, and it becomes quite difficult for Duchess to survive.

However, with Augur’s Relic, we’ve tried to mitigate the chances of Duchess getting one-shot by Gnoster’s attacks. Furthermore, for the element, we chose Fire, which is the biggest weakness of the Sentient Pest.

Additionally, we have invested extra Arcane to further boost Fire damage. Lastly, we have also used Claigo’s Relic to give Duchess access to Frost. With this build, you will essentially have access to both Fire and Frost damage. Although you cannot stack both Fire and Frost damage types, you can use them for their bonus DPS. Furthermore, Frost works incredibly well against Animus.

You can also make Frost work much faster with Duchess’ Restage skill. If you prefer, you can substitute Caligo’s Relic with something that decreases the cooldown for Duchess’s Character Skill.

Best Relics for the Duchess Build

Night of the Fathom

• Increased maximum HP
• The flask also heals allies
• Items confer effects on all nearby allies

Night of the Miasma

• Nearby Frostbite conceals self.
• Changes compatible armament’s skill to Chilling Mist at the start of an Expedition.
• Attack power up when facing a Frostbite-afflicted enemy.

Night of the Beast

• Stamina recovers with each successful attack +1
• Starting armament deals fire damage

How To Use the Best Duchess Build Against Enhanced Sentient Pest

Here are some tips to help you properly use the best Duchess build against Enhanced Sentient Pest:

• For the first phase, we highly recommend saving your FP and relying only on your starting armament’s Fire damage. Make sure to upgrade your starting armament to Epic rarity. Also, remember to bring at least one Starlight Shard to refill your FP. You can power-stance Daggers; however, doing so is not mandatory.
• As for passive buffs, look out for Improved Damage Negation, Improved Affinity Damage Negation, and most importantly, Less Likely To Be Targeted. You can also pick up FP Regeneration on Attack and Continuous HP Regen passives as well. However, unless you’re playing solo, the latter passives are not necessary.
• For the second phase, you want to use Chilling Mist as much as possible. With the Arcane buff and Restage, you will be able to inflict Frostbite quite easily. Also, remember to save your Ultimate Art for the second phase, or if you need to revive your allies. While you won’t deal any damage with Duchess’s Ultimate, it is a great way to sneak behind Faurtis’ back and apply Frost using Chilling Mist.
• While Augur’s Relic boosts your Vigor, Duchess is still a very squishy character. As such, dodge as soon as you see Faurtis charge its roar or stomp attacks. As for Gnoster, dodging its attacks is quite easy with Duchess. If you have an Ironeye in your party, focus on Gnoster as the Duchess.

Additional Notes

While we have used Frost in this build, you can also use Bleed for more or less the same effect. However, Bleed won’t slow down Gnoster, which is a bonus perk of Frostbite. That said, Bleed does deal more damage compared to Frost.

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