So now there's an Elden Ring mod that brings a splash of Hogwarts Legacy to the Lands Between. It looks fun, if that sort of thing's your cup of tea. The flying animations look pretty solid, and while I'd still love to see Zelda-style gliders rolled out in an official capacity, scooting around the skies of Caelid, Liurnia, Limgrave and beyond on the back of a broom does look like fun.
The spells, though? Come on. Behave yourself, Potter. You're not a lick on my Elden Ring magic build; a go-to repertoire of ritual and routine that I've spent close to a year refining. I am an ethereal powerhouse around these parts, a commander of the arcane arts, and a scholar of the supernatural. Need proof? Check this out:
Okay, so I do take a pretty heavy hit there – but did you see the way I bounced back up to finish the job? That's a master craftsman at work if ever I saw one. When Hogwarts Legacy fans clashed with Elden Ring players over which game has more spells earlier this month, I had to laugh. I'm sure all that wand-pointing is nice for those inclined and all, but magic in the Lands Between is on a different level. And my personal set-up is a force to be reckoned with.
Formidable formula
I'm 300 hours into Elden Ring and have only now discovered its version of Dark Souls' worst area
I'm being flippant, of course. Harry Potter isn't for me personally, and you should play and explore whatever games make you happy. But in Elden Ring, as we approach its one-year anniversary this coming weekend, one of the things that have kept me going over the last 12 months is improving my magic build spell by spell.
I've waxed lyrical before about how wonderful it is to be 300 hours into Elden Ring and still be discovering entirely new locations. And while that's maybe in part reflective of my poor exploration skills, the fact that I'm still working out new ways to bolster my spellbook after all this time – a process which, naturally, has tangible results on the battlefield – is satisfying to no end. So what does my indefatigable incantation itinerary involve? Here are the steps I take every time a big bad boss's red bar appears on the foot of my screen:
Step 1: Summon Mimic Tear ashes (followed by a quick health-regenerating Flask of Crimson Tears)
Step 2: Chug a Flask of Wondrous Physik, mixed with Hidden Cerulean Tear and a regular Cerulean Tear
Step 3: Cast Terra Magica
Step 4: Blast the hell out of Comet Azur
Step 5: Switch it up between Ranni's Dark Moon, Glintstone Comet Shard, and Stars on Ruin depending on enemy type and speed of movement.
Step 6: Revel in your inevitable success
Formulating this routine has taken me all over the Lands Between. First off, I wield a maxed-out Lusat's Glintstone Staff found in Sellia, Town of Sorcery. Here's how to get the Elden Ring Mimic Tear ashes for summoning from Nokron, the Eternal CIty, a location that's only accessible after defeating Starscourge Radahn. The contents of my Wondrous Physik – a Cerulean Hidden Tear and Cerulean Tear – are obtained by offing the Erdtree Avatars in Mt Gelmir and Liurnia of the Lakes respectively. Terra Magica, which casts a magic damage-boosting sigil around the player, sits in a chest atop the highest tower of the Raya Lucaria Academy reached by a lift in the bowels of the Academy Crystal Cave dungeon.
Moreover, Comet Azur requires a pilgrimage to the Hermit Village in Mt. Gelmir, acquired from Primeval Sorcerer Azur. Ranni's Dark Moon can be found in Chelona's Rise in the upper plateau in southwest Liurnia; and Stars of Ruin is handed down by Master Lusat deep within the Sellia Hideaway.
It's a kinda magic
"There is still so, so much more to magic in Elden Ring magic than I've realized – and I already feel like a master of the dark arts."
Apart from delivering impressive results, curating this catalog of chaos has been great fun. It's forced me to the farthest-flung corners of the Lands Between, it's demanded patience, and has required a huge amount of trial and error. Granted, I've seen loads of clips of more capable magicians knocking around the internet over the last 12 months, packing far superior celestial repertoires than mine, but none of those builds are, well, mine. I've mentioned this before, but whenever playing FromSoftware games I try to avoid wikis during my first couple of playthroughs as best I can – mainly as a means of dodging spoilers. I'm beginning to dig deeper into guides now (there is literally no way I'd have worked out Sorceress Sellen's questline without them), and am quickly realizing that despite my grandstanding on the battlefield, there's so, so much more to magic in Elden Ring magic than I've realized – and I already feel like a master of the dark arts.
Which brings me back full circle. In his Hogwarts Legacy review, Josh West said the game "tries to do too much all at once", and while it and Elden Ring are two very different games in mechanical and narrative terms, they're both similar in stature and ambition. They're genre stablemates as action RPGs, and both strive to do many things at once. Being a magician is part of Hogwarts Legends' DNA, and while magic is but one avenue worth exploring in the Lands Between, the scope for variety, of mixing and matching and learning your favorites is unparalleled in any game at the moment. If you'd told me a year ago that Elden Ring would outshine a game with such a massive backing and following that's about being an actual wizard in this area, I wouldn't have believed you. But that's testament to just how versatile Elden Ring is.
I think it's great that mods are treading new ground, mixing and matching the fundamentals of two popular games, but I can't be convinced virtual magic is better anywhere else at the moment than in Elden Ring. And I reckon you'll struggle to beat my personal magic masterclass.
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