The 
Milady is an elegant Light Greatsword in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. It's also the only Light Great Sword that's capable of having its Ash of War and affinity changed. That, combined with its fluid attack chain and fast movements, have made it a popular choice among Tarnished adventuring through the Shadowlands.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - Chief Bloodfiend Location
This guide will help players find the Chief Bloodfiend, an optional boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree that awards a Spirit Ash.
With all of that in mind, once you've gone through the journey of tracking this beautiful weapon down, what are the best ways to build the Milady Greatsword? Let's take a look at the pros and cons of the weapon and then examine some of the best ways to build this graceful sword.
Pros and Cons of Milady
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Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|
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+ Fast Attacks |
- Damage could be higher |
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+ Only Light Greatsword whose Affinity and Ash of War can be changed |
- Outside of Jump-Heavy Attack and Jump-Light Attack, poise damage is fairly weak |
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+ Smooth attack chains |
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+ Good reach on its first and last Light Attack |
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+ Heavy attack is great for catching enemy rolls |
The Milady Greatsword stands out among the new DLC weapons for its fast attacks and smooth attack chain. Tarnished can easily flow from heavy attacks into light attacks and back with almost no delay. This allows players to squeeze in multiple hits against enemies whenever they're given a damage window.
In PvP, the Milady's standing heavy attack is perfect for catching enemy rolls. Its jumping light and jumping heavy attacks also deal good poise damage relative to enemy Tarnished and can catch opponents if they aren't careful of the jumping heavy attack's two hits.
However, the weaknesses of the Milady greatsword are its low damage and low overall poise damage. While it's not the lowest damage in the game, it still gets out-competed in the damage category by some weapons like the Sword Lance. This is slightly made up for by the speed of Milady's attacks, but it still leaves something to be desired if you're looking for a high burst of damage in the Milady's moveset.
Poise damage is also an important weakness here since its moveset makes it a wonderful weapon to wield against other Tarnished or bosses, but it won't break through some enemy's poise without repeated strikes against your target, and against some enemies like Fire Knights, you won't get them to flinch without several heavy strikes.
As a result of these strengths and weaknesses, the best way to make use of Milady's speed and to make up for its low damage is to use a status effect like Bleed or Frostbite. Triggering these status effects will deal a burst of damage and Milady's fast attacks will allow you to build up the status effects quickly.
Best Stats and Infusions to Use with Milady
One-Hand
If you plan to wield the Milady in one hand and a second weapon in your off-hand, you'll want a Keen, Frost, or Bleed affinity.
Regardless of which infusion you choose, you'll want to lean into Dex because these infusions are all at a B scaling for it. Ideally, you'll want around 80 Dex to maximize your damage, but after that, you have the freedom to put the points wherever you want. Arcane will help maximize Bleed damage or Strength if you want more attack power and more benefits from wielding it with two-hands or Intelligence to make the most of the Cold infusions C scaling.
Two-hand
In comparison, a two-handed Milady build will be better served with a Quality infusion. Bleed and Cold infusions are still decent, but if you're two-handing the weapon all the time, having a 50/44 split between Dex and Strength will give you the best damage output. The reason for this is that two-handing a weapon in Elden Ring provides a 1.5 multiplier to your Strength stat, so any increases in Strength will be a larger overall damage increase.
Best Ashes of War on Milady
Winged Stance
The most popular Ash of War to use with Milady is the Winged Stance. This Ash can only be equipped on LIght Great Swords and will put the Tarnished in a stance that points the sword off to the side. Inputting Light Attack will have the Tarnished do three fast attacks, while inputting Heavy Attack will have Tarnished leap upward and then dive toward their target.
Winged Stance is unique because Milsady is realistically the only Light Great Sword currently that can equip it. The damage values of the light and heavy attacks are also high enough to make up for the Milady's damage, and the heavy attack, in particular, allows you to jump over attacks and put you squarely into your opponent's face.
Chilling Mist
Chilling Mist has the Tarnished coat their weapon with a cold aura and launches a cloud of frost damage at their target. The buff only adds 60 cold, which isn't much on its own, and lasts 40 seconds.
You could use this Ash of War with a Quality infusion if you want to have some frost build-up and high damage per swing, but you'll be reliant on the mist to help you fill the majority of the Frostbite bar, then your attacks will finish off the rest.
In comparison, if you use Chilling Mist with a Cold infusion, it'll bring your total cold damage up to 165 which is much more frightening to deal with. This way you're less reliant on the cloud to deal frostbite.
Seppuku and Impaling Thrust
Bleed infusions will work with almost any Ash of War since you're just trying to land as many hits as possible to trigger the bleed effect. Seppuku will always be one of the best options for this because it can trigger the Lord of Blood Exultation Talisman and the White Mask helmet while also increasing the bleed damage you deal.
Impaling Thrust gets a special mention here because it can catch rolls very easily in PvP, and its high poise damage makes it a surprisingly good, if boring, option to take.
Best Talismans with Milady
Depending on how you're building the Milady, this weapon can benefit from a wide variety of Talismans.
Out of those talismans, the Rotted Winged Sword/Millicent's Prosthesis talisman, Turtle Talisman, and Erdtree's Blessing can work with any build.
Here's a deeper dive into some popular choices for talismans, and why you'd want to equip it.
Rotten Winged Sword And Millicent's Prothesis
If you have either the 
Rotten Winged Sword Insignia or 
Millicent's Prosthesis, then equipping both is a good idea if you want to maximize your damage. If you'd rather have the spare Talisman slot for something else, or if you don't have Millicent's Prosthesis cause you're not a monster, then you can make do with just the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia.
The Milady Greatsword's fast attacks make it a perfect match with these two talismans. Each of your heavy attacks hit twice and the fluid transition between attack chains means you can consistently keep activating the final two damage buffs from these Talismans with little effort.
Godskin Swaddling Cloth Talisman
The same idea that makes the Milady Greastsword perfect for the Winged Talismans also makes it perfect for the 
Godskin Swaddling Cloth Talisman.
This Talisman is best for players who need more survivability against bosses or other large targets that you'll be attacking repeatedly. You won't be using this in PvP very much unless you plan on fighting large, slow shield builds all the time.
Two-Handed Sword Talisman
If you plan on using the Milady with two hands, then the 
Two-Handed Sword Talisman is an easy staple for your build. This is a straightforward 15% increase to all of your two-handed damage, but be aware this will not increase your Ash of War damage.
Rellana's Cameo
Rellana's Cameo is best used if you want to use Winged Stance all the time. Be aware that you still need to be in stance for 2 seconds before you get the damage buff, which can limit the usefulness of this Talisman.
Shard of Alexander
A straightforward talisman that increases the damage of skills like Ashes of War by 15%. There are few builds that don't want this talisman, usually because they use Ashes of War that don't do damage.
But if you plan on using an Ash of War that deals damage, you'll want to equip the 
Shard of Alexander to give it an extra punch.
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Repeatedly swinging the Milady greatsword and dodging attacks is going to be a large drain on your stamina. Against aggressive bosses or multiple Tarnished opponents you'll need a way to get your Stamina back as soon as possible, and the 
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman talisman is the perfect answer for this.
Erdtree Favor +2
Unless you're really trying to go all-in on damage, almost every build will appreciate having t 
Erdtree's Favor +2 Talisman equipped.
It's a good way to give yourself more survivability, and more stamina.
- Released
- June 21, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Base Game
- Elden Ring
- Developer(s)
- FromSoftware
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, FromSoftware
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
- Engine
- Proprietary
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
