Arcanist Guide for Lost Ark

Arcanist is one of the hardest classes to master in Lost Ark. With a unique Identity system through its Card Deck, focus on high APM & a playstyle requiring quick thinking and adaptability; Arcanist is easily a class that can challenge players to their limits. With its challenge does come an incredible damage ceiling, complimenting those with the skill to master this class as their main.

Arcanist has three type of skills: Normal, Stacking & Ruin. Each of these are effected or enhanced by the class engravings Empress's Grace & Order of the Emperor.

• Normal Skills
  • These are Arcanist's yellow skills; these are used for her Identity and class Synergy.
• Stacking Skills
  • These are Arcanist's blue skills which apply up to maximum 4 stacks on the target.
• Ruin Skills
  • These are Arcanist's red skills that expend all stacks for increased damage.

At the core of it's rotation, you want to build stacks and cash in with your Ruin skills. Arcanist uses Normal skills to build it's Deck Meter to draw cards. Cards are randomly drawn and have various affects from damage, attack speed & more that force you to adjust skill uses. Initially, the effects of cards can be hard to memorize but it is crucial knowledge to have to make on-the-fly decision to play Arcanist efficiently.

Empress's Grace increases the damage of 4-Stack Ruin damage and refunds MP when Ruin skills hit. Still packaged with card micromanagement, Empress can be seen as a "build-spend" gameplay loop using her Card Deck to capitalize on damage. Cards are but one layer that you'll have to change and adapt your rotation. Encounter knowledge also is a big factor on ensuring optimal output that you'll have to play Cards around. Most of her animations are fast and very responsive, giving the class a fast-paced tempo. Her skills move her around which players can manipulate to avoid attacks while still doing DPS.

Order of the Emperor constantly draws cards and is overall even faster APM than its counterpart. Emperor increases your Deck Meter gain and overall damage. Emperor also adds new cards to your deck: Emperor, Royal and Chancellor. The latter two replacing existing cards Judgment and Balance. Unlike Empress, these new cards increase the damage of your Normal skills significantly. "Emperor" inflicts massive damage and is your big cash-in during your burst window. Arcanist in general is a squishy class but you can safely play at mid-range to avoid taking unnecessary damage. The gameplay loop is very intense and is in contention for being one of the most high-risk, high-reward classes in Lost Ark.

Your Card Deck has 12 cards at base, 15 if you count the cards exclusive to Order of the Emperor. Cards can be drawn manually or via the tripod Quick Draw. All cards drawn are random, which causes you to alter your rotation accordingly. Every card interacts with your kit, from increased Stack generation, shorter cooldowns, damage & attack speed just to name a few.

Cards are definitely a majority of Arcanist's learning curve but there are general priorities you can follow that help when learning the class to avoid fumbling around. Once you learn their functions and how to utilize them properly, you'll be a master duelist instead of playing 52 pickup.