Elden Ring has significantly fewer starting classes than most Dark Souls games so far, but they offer a good amount of variety. On one end of the spectrum, there's the spellcasting Prophet who uses their high Faith to blast enemies away with Incantations. In the middle there's the Champion and Enchanted Knight, which each offer a solid balance between spellcasting power and martial prowess. On the more martial end, Elden Ring players will have two options. Either they can pick up the highly dexterous scimitar-wielding Warrior, or they can opt for a more traditional heavy class called the Bloody Wolf.

Most classes in Elden Ring have a little bit of versatility to them, encouraging players to switch between weaponry and spellcasting or melee and ranged weapons, but the Bloody Wolf is a tanky martial class through and through. That's not a bad thing; on the contrary, the Blood Wolf creates a strong homage to a number of Dark Souls classes that defined the feel of combat in FromSoftware's flagship series. Anybody who loves the heavyweight, armored, melee-centric gameplay that Dark Souls encouraged will want to try playing the Bloody Wolf class in Elden Ring.

RELATED: Elden Ring's Champion Class is Essentially a Dragonborn

The Bloody Wolf's Dark Souls Roots

dark souls 3 background featured

Heavy weapons and armor are one of the main archetypes of Dark Souls gameplay. The franchise is filled with dangerous enemies and challenging combat, so there's a lot of merit in heavy-duty player characters that can tough out the blows of bosses, protect themselves with parries and rolls, and then dish out major damage with Strength-based weapons. Close-range, tanky Dark Souls builds like these put a lot of onus on the player's skill and determination, but that only makes them more rewarding to play.

The Bloody Wolf honors Dark Souls by giving Elden Ring players a great way to lean into that playstyle. With a Strength of 16 and a Vigor of 14, the Bloody Wolf is a natural tank. The high Strength score makes the Bloody Wolf deadly with weapons like its starting Bastard Sword, but Elden Ring also bases the player's equip load off of Strength. Thus, Bloody Wolf's Strength score lets it wear some of Elden Ring's strongest armor. The result is an Elden Ring character that could stand up to some of the most dangerous Dark Souls enemies.

RELATED: Elden Ring: Soulslike Newcomers Should Play the Prophet Class

Elden Ring's Heavyweight Class

elden ring mask face feature

The Bloody Wolf's limited defensive skills are pretty emblematic of Dark Souls' patterns too. The Prophet class can keep itself safe with the Heal Incantation, and all the spellcasting classes have strong ranged and area-of-effect attacks that help clear out enemies. The Bloody Wolf relies on the tried and true Dark Souls' skills of parrying and rolling for protection. Bloody Wolves have access to strong shields they can parry with, and they have a reliable roll too. Without much skill in magic, the Bloody Wolf encourages Elden Ring players to master the foundational mechanics of Dark Souls that FromSoftware's newest game inherits.

The future of Dark Souls looks uncertain due to FromSoftware's increasing focus on projects like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. There hasn't been a new Dark Souls game since 2016. However, Dark Souls' influence lives on through the plethora of Souls-like games inspired by it, like the alchemical Thymesia, as well as FromSoftware games like Elden Ring that imitate Dark Souls. The Bloody Wolf's playstyle shows that Dark Souls lives on, and if there's no Dark Souls 4 around the corner, at least Elden Ring delivers a similar experience.

Elden Ring releases February 25, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Elden Ring Classes: Every Detail Confirmed So Far