ELDEN RING: Caster Guide (How to Get the Best Spells & Staff Early Game)

For Staff, make a rush for the Meteriorite Staff. It already comes with “S” scaling in Intelligence, and even improves the power of Gravity spells, which is even better because one of, if not the best early arcane spell is right next to it: Rock Sling!
Both are in the Swamp area, close to this Grace:
Meteorite Staff is right at the Blue Marker, Rock Sling Spell just requires you to head north to some ruins very, very near, head down the stairs and open the chest!
Rock Sling has somewhat slow casting time, but can hit multiple enemies with heavy damage & can also easily stagger some bosses like the first true foe at the Stormveil Castle!

To unlock her you have to first defeat a midboss by heading down the stairs on the Wayfront Ruins:

Sellen will get more spells for sale after you find 2 scrolls that can be acquired pretty early and with ease:
Royal House Scroll: From the Agheel Lake South Grace, head east and up some ruins.The scroll will be at the top next to an undead caster enemy on a corpse.
This will unlock Carian Blade & Glintblade Phalanx.

Academy Scroll: From the Lake-Facing Cliffs Grace, head down a bit until you reach a little graveyard, and the scroll will be at a corpse in front of one of the bigger crypts.
You can also reach this Grace BEFORE the Stormveil Castle boss by going down the big broken bridge and following the path to the right upwards
This will unlock Great Glintstone Shard and Swift Glintstone Shard.

Memory slots are increased by having Memory Stone items (you don’t have to equip them). The earliest and probably easiest you can find is from the Twin Husks Merchant in the Roundtable Hold area. You can also access this by just resting in the same Grace mentioned Above for the Academy Scroll.
Or by attempting to defeat Margit at the Castle and resting at a Grace afterwards.Another one can be found by solving the Oridys’s Rise Tower Puzzle, to the right of Castle Morne Rampart Grace:
Interact with the statue near the entrance and it will tell you to seek Three Wise Beats.
After that you have to defeat a few ghost turtles that will spawn, try using lock on to find them with ease.
One of them will be invisible in the middle of the pond right to the right of the tower, however. So just swing at the “air” to hit it.
Once you deal with all of them, you’ll be able to enter the tower and your Memory Stone will be at the top inside a chest.

For the early game, I really recommend you invest into Vigor until around 15 Vigor will highly increase your HP, which helps a lot because come now, as a beginner you will be getting hit many times, thus helping you avoid death.
Something like 20-25 INT after that, and some points into Mind too until around character level 30.
Because Meteriorite Staff + the spells we unlocked above will carry you far, you can later change the point split to the way you see fit.

You can actually change the ratio between HP > FP Flasks whenever resting at a Grace.
Of course, as a beginner caster you want most of your Flasks devoted to FP so you don’t run out.

Can actually help a lot because of the speed advantages it gives you, so you can attack from range then swifly move away or dodge the enemies, especially slower ones.
Just be careful because some spells like Glintstone Pebble require you to be FACING the enemy, while others like Rock Sling can be cast even if you are sideways.
But if you have your back completely turned to the enemy, chances are it will also fail to hone in on the enemies.

For the 3 earliest memory slots we have, I really like going with:
Great Glintstone Shard: for high single target range damage, and decent casting speed.
Rock Sling: for the huge damage, AoE potential & stagger. Slow casting speed but certainly worth it.
Carian Blade: for the very efficient FP Cost, good damage and most importantly, the fast casting speed and high chain/spam potential, so perfect for enemies that are fast or bosses, so you can weave your magic sword hits + dodge or block. As a sword swing, can hit multiple enemies too.

Summons can make a big difference for any character, especially casters, because they will at the very least give you some breathing room by taking the enemy’s attention from you for some time thus allowing free hits or an opportunity to heal.I have a Guide for how to get them here by acquiring the Spirit Calling Bell: