⚔ Open this build in the planner
The stat spread
- Strength
- 15
- Agility
- 13
- Endurance
- 20
- Vitality
- 25
- Radiance
- 40
- Inferno
- 40
What that gives you
- Level
- 100
- Health
- 641
- Stamina
- 510
- Mana
- 590
- Equip load
- 104.0
NOT A STARTING BUILD, and this is the one thing a level-100 spread cannot tell you. The entry-level Umbral spells are cheap and sold by Molhu at Skyrest from early on, but the ones worth splitting your stats for come late and come from bosses: Grieving Gaze, the highest requirement in the school, is a Remembrance exchange for the Hollow Crow, and Flesh Tide, Martyrdom, Barrage of Echoes and Latimer’s Javelin are Remembrances for the Congregator of Flesh, Harrower Dervla and the Hushed Saint. Five of the twenty-three are locked behind a boss you have already beaten. So spec Radiance or Inferno for a first run and come back to Umbral — the Mirror of Distortion exists for exactly this. ON A FIRST PLAYTHROUGH, the steer is the Fungus-Encrusted Pickaxe and Rosamund’s Sword rather than the hammer above, and the requirements explain why: the pickaxe asks for Radiance 15 and Inferno 15 and NOTHING else, which makes it the cheapest real weapon an Umbral character can hold, and it carries 150 poison. Rosamund’s Sword adds Strength 13 and Agility 13 and brings 150 frost with four-stat scaling. Crushing Gaze wants Radiance 20, Inferno 20 and Strength 15 all at once and only really pays once the rest of the build is finished — which in practice means a second run.
The loadout
Radiance 40 and Inferno 40, which is past the point where this build merely works and into where it is good. Radiance 35 / Inferno 35 is the FLOOR — the cheapest complete spellbook in the game, since pure Radiance spells top out at a requirement of 35, pure Inferno at 35 and the whole Umbral book at 20 — but the scaling curves keep paying smoothly to 75, so stopping at the floor leaves damage on the table. Forty is where two things happen at once: Lost Berescu’s Catalyst, the only catalyst scaling A on BOTH stats, finally overtakes the Nohuta Effigy’s brute base, and Crushing Gaze reaches 1050. Health lands at 641, level with the other two hybrids. Both off-stat numbers are requirements rather than padding: Strength 15 is what Crushing Gaze asks, and it buys nearly three hundred attack rating that the same points in Agility would not; Agility 13 is what Rosamund’s Sword asks, five points moved off vitality so this spread can lift the weapon its own first-run advice points at. Umbral has a family of weapons like it — the Fungus-Encrusted Pickaxe with 150 poison, Rosamund’s Sword with 150 frost, Judge Cleric’s Corrupted Sword scaling on all four stats — and every one asks for a little Strength or Agility on top of the two caster stats.
1050 attack rating two-handed at +10, Radiance / Inferno scaling A / A , 36.1 weight. Carried and used, not kept for emergencies — the game rewards a mixed loadout.
One per playthrough, so two-handed is the whole of it. A matched pair out-damages two-handing on any weapon — this is simply not a weapon you can pair.
599 spell power at +10 — the highest any catalyst reaches at this spread. It deals no weapon damage itself; every spell multiplies this figure.
Two hands on one weapon still leaves the off-hand slot equipped, and conditional runes apply from it — measured in game at 620 to 788 with three Gravix in an off-hand dagger while two-handing. An empty off-hand is three sockets thrown away. Two-handing, take the Fist of Insight: III sockets for 1.9 weight, runes on their damage-increasing weapon function, and you cannot block while both hands are committed anyway. One-handing instead, take the Boar's Head Shield at 3.2: the same runes switch to their shield function — 38 of the 39 do something different there — and you get the block. And it is the best three points on the page: three more Radiance is worth +19 attack rating here, while three Gravix in that off-hand is worth +285. Jeffrey's Dagger takes any three runes rather than typed ones and is 2 points out of reach here — worth knowing, because three Gravix in a triple-wildcard off-hand measured about +27% on a two-handed swing. It is found freely rather than behind a questline.
Runners-up worth taking anyway
The pick above wins on attack rating. These are behind on that and ahead on something the rating cannot see.
Is the split free?
80 points across Radiance and Inferno, run through Lost Berescu's Catalyst. The rating moves a long way across the split, so where you put these points matters more than the total.
| RAD | INF | Spell power |
|---|---|---|
| 60 | 20 | 567 |
| 48 | 32 | 599 |
| 40 | 40 | 599 ← this build |
| 32 | 48 | 599 |
| 20 | 60 | 567 |
Everything else in the spread is held constant, so this isolates the split itself. Datamined
Which class to start as
Ranked by fewest wasted points — stats a class starts with that this build does not want, and which cannot be refunded.
- STR
- 9
- AGI
- 9
- END
- 9
- VIT
- 9
- RAD
- 9
- INF
- 9
- STR
- 11
- AGI
- 13
- END
- 11
- VIT
- 10
- RAD
- 8
- INF
- 8
- STR
- 12
- AGI
- 8
- END
- 15
- VIT
- 11
- RAD
- 9
- INF
- 8
Rings and amulet
Spell power +20% · Catalyst slots -1
Spell power +10%
Spell power +20% · Magic defence +15%
Runes worth socketing
Boost Umbral scaling
- Devoth
- Radiance +15
- Mhakev
- Radiance ×1.1, Inferno ×1.1
- Orimon
- Radiance ×1.15, Inferno ×0.85
Traps for this build
These advertise a bonus but carry a Umbral scaling penalty. Whether they are a net gain depends entirely on your stats — check in the planner before committing.
- Berlam
- Inferno ×1.15, Radiance ×0.85
Armor
The heaviest armour this build can wear and stay in a medium roll: 93.4 of 104.0 equip load (90%), weapons and rings included. Past 100% you fat roll.
| Piece | Slot | Poise | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veteran of the Veil Helm | Head | 2.2 | 5.5 |
| Veteran of the Veil Warplate | Torso | 12.4 | 29.1 |
| Veteran of the Veil Gauntlets | Arms | 2.5 | 6.1 |
| Angel of the Void Trousers | Legs | 4.4 | 9.9 |