Elden Ring is one of those games that tend to allow its players to find out things for themselves instead of giving everything they need to know to them. In that regard, even the weapon stats and the weapons themselves are things that the players need to get to know beforehand. Arcane tends to be one of the more confusing stats in the game because of the fact that it isn’t directly involved with damage in most cases, especially when it comes to the Bleed status effect. So, does Arcane increase Bleed in Elden Ring?
Arcane will not affect the Bleed damage of a weapon in Elden Ring if the weapon doesn’t have Arcane scaling. That means that a weapon that scales with only the other stats but causes Bleed damage will not have an increased Bleed effect when it doesn’t scale with the Arcane stat.
So, there you have it. As powerful as the Bleed status effect in Elden Ring may be, the thing that players need to understand that the only way for them to take complete advantage of it is for them to use a weapon that scales with Arcane. All that said, let’s look at why this may be something you want to understand.
Does Bleed Scale With Arcane Elden Ring?
There is no doubt that Elden Ring is still one of the most popular games today as it combines a beautifully crafted world with a story and a gameplay that is at the very top of the standings in 2022. In that regard, the thing that makes it a bit more challenging than other games is the fact that it doesn’t really give you anything you need or want to know at the start because you have to understand the deeper mechanics of the game all on your own.
The stats and the status effects in the game are some of the things that may end up confusing beginners and intermediate players alike because they aren’t always explained pretty well in Elden Ring. And probably the most confusing stat of all is Arcane.
Arcane is not like the more direct stats like Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity, which most players know will strengthen certain weapons and their effects. It is true that Arcane also strengthens weapons and their effects, but not a lot of weapons and effects could actually take advantage of this stat really well.
As to effects, the Bleed status effect tends to be a favorite among different players because it takes a chunk out of an opponent’s life points in a hurry, even if your initial attacks don’t necessarily do a lot of damage. The key to the Bleed status effect is that you want to hit your enemy as often as possible to increase the Bleed buildup and cause them to hemorrhage, which takes a percentage of their life points.
Here is where it gets confusing because there are some people that tend to wonder how Bleed relates to Arcane. We all know that Arcane does have an effect on the Bleed status effect. But does that mean that Bleed scales with Arcane in Elden Ring?
Unfortunately, Bleed will not always scale with Arcane in Elden Ring. That’s because this Arcane only affects a weapon’s ability to increase Bleed damage if and only if the weapon scales with Arcane.
For example, if you have a regular Uchigatana that never went through an Ash of War modification, it should be able to cause Bleed buildup. But the problem is that the Uchigatana only scales with Dexterity and Strength. So, no matter how high your Arcane stat may be, it will not affect the Bleed damage of your Uchigatana.
On the other hand, if you have the Rivers of Blood katana, which is probably the best Bleed weapon in the entire game, you would know that this weapon scales with Dexterity, Strength, and Arcane. The fact that it scales with Arcane means that increasing your Arcane stat will allow you to also increase the damage of the Bleed status effect of Rivers of Blood, along with the fact that your base weapon attack damage also gets increased.
That’s the basic premise of how Arcane affects Bleed. This is important to know because the stat points that you can distribute tend to be quite limited when you haven’t leveled up high enough in the game. You don’t want to end up with a high Arcane stat only to find out that it doesn’t affect your Bleed damage when you are using the Hand of Malenia.
What Does Bleed Scale With Elden Ring?
As mentioned, the Bleed status effect is one of the most overpowered aspects of Elden Ring because of how it allows you to take a huge chunk out of your enemy’s life points in a hurry. So, if you want to maximize your Bleed damage, what does it scale with in Elden Ring?
If we are only talking about the Bleed damage and not the weapon damage itself, then Bleed will only scale with Arcane if and only if your weapon has an Arcane scaling. Weapons that can cause Bleed buildup but don’t have Arcane scaling will not have an increased Bleed damage.
Of course, if we are talking about the weapon damage as well, your Bleed weapon damage (like the Reduvia, for example) will also have an increased base attack damage if it scales with Arcane. On top of that, if the weapon also scales with other stats like Dexterity and Strength, its base weapon damage will also increase. However, Dexterity and Strength will not affect your Bleed damage.
What Does Arcane Do In Elden Ring?
Unlike most of the other stats in Elden Ring, Arcane seems to be confusing. Some people believe that you should only raise it if you want to scale your Arcane weapon with it or if you want to increase your Bleed damage. But there are other reasons why Arcane can be useful.
Other than the fact that Arcane can increase Bleed buildup and make Arcane-scaling weapons stronger, it also improves your Discovery stat, which increases the drop rate of items from regular enemies. Arcane will also increase your Holy Defense as well as your Vitality, which increases your resistance to Death Blight, which is the worst status effect you could ever suffer from in Elden Ring.
In all other cases, Arcane seems to be something that’s related to the occult in Elden Ring. That means that stats and effects that are related to the occult are going to be affected by your Arcane stat.
