Combat Readiness Gunlancer Guide for Lost Ark

If you're looking for further information on the Combat Readiness build for Gunlancer, the following links will provide that for you.

Strengths

• Not reliant on frontal positionals
• Tankiest class in the game
• Provides a party-wide shield
• Has a group cleanse skill
• Cheap to build due to unpopular combat engravings
• Strong Stagger abilities
• Only needs level 1 of Combat Readiness to be effective

Weaknesses

• Defensive Stance can take some getting used to as it makes the player much slower
• Back Step being the only backwards Spacebar action can take a while to learn how to use
• Extremely short range attacks

Skills for Chaos Dungeons can pretty much be swapped around freely, this is just the build I personally use. It's fun and gets the job done. Surge Cannon is taken specifically because of the fact you can reset the cooldown entirely with every usage as long as there's enough enemies.

Gunlancer, regardless of the engraving you choose to play as, doesn't have many different ways to play. The build above is the basic cookie cutter build most blue Gunlancer's will be using for endgame-type content.

In almost all situations, you will take the Awakening skill Lance of Judgment. While Guardian's Protection for sure has it's uses, The 10% Crit rate from Lance of Judgment is too useful to not take in a raid setting. Personally, for daily Guardian Raids or similar, I will take Guardian's Protection, simply because you never know what you'll get in random parties as far as party members go.

You may notice this build has two counters; Don't be confused, Bash is almost never used as a counter. If it is, it's by chance. Dash Upper Fire serves as the counter for this build. Bash is used as a set up for your burst windows instead.

The raid synergy buff for Gunlancer is Defense Reduction on the enemy. This is applied through Bash. Gunlancer comes with the added synergy buff, Open Weakness, providing a 4% flat buff on the enemy, and another 5% buff for all positional attacks. This makes Gunlancer a dream partner for any Earth's Entropy user.

On top of the synergy buffs Gunlancer provides, Nelasia's Energy serves multiple purposes. It's one of two taunts in the game, shared only with Destroyer, and it can provide a party wide cleanse, a party wide shield, or another, albeit niche, raid synergy that increases the Attack Speed of all nearby party members. This makes Gunlancer a sought out party member for endgame activities.

The Identity gauge for Combat Readiness has two uses; Defensive Stance and Battlefield Shield. Defensive Stance will get most of the use here, as it's what turns you into a tank god, deflecting all damage dealt to you while activated. As you take damage, and as time goes on, your Shield Meter will deplete. When it reaches 0, Defensive Stance will turn off. Ideally you toggle it on and off as needed between burst phases to ensure you always have access to it. Battlefield Shield is a bit more situational. Think of it as a temporary party wide shield that redirects damage to the Gunlancer. It also provides everyone with Super Armor.

If you're looking for a tank-type playstyle, look no further, Combat Readiness is it. You can essentially face tank the majority of attacks in the game. There's a few exceptions, such as mechanics in Legion Raids where taking damage builds a mechanic bar, or one-shot attacks, but for the most part the Gunlancer is a very sturdy, dependable class to play. Once you're comfortable activating your Defensive Stance, part of your Identity gauge, you won't often have to worry about taking damage. This allows you to focus more on mechanics rather than surviving, which may be preferantial to some players.

Combat Readiness's rotation falls into a loop of buff → burst → filler. While the loop is extremely simple, there's something satisfying about pounding the boss in the face with your shield while ignoring the majority of things happening around you. As with most easy-to-play classes in this game, Combat Readiness won't be topping the charts for damage, but it can keep up if played well. The little bit of damage this class lacks, it makes up for in the utility it brings to the party.

Assuming a general priority system, an opener rotation would look like this, and then loop from here on out:

Always attempt to use Shout of Hatred → Bash prior to your big damage attacks. This is the set up used for every burst window you have. Bash's synergy can be kept up at 100% uptime, and that should be your goal. Be mindful of it's short range, it's quite easy to miss. Mobility is baked into the rotation for a few skills, take advantage of this as much as possible, since Defensive Stance will slow you down. Prior to using Shout of Hatred, Defensive Stance should be toggled off to gain Shield Meter, then reapplied before starting your burst rotation. This is important to make sure you won't be interrupted and can realiably get all your damage off in the synergy buff window, and also to make sure you upkeep your shield for Barricade, an engraving most, if not all, Combat Readiness Gunlancers use.