Demonic Impulse Shadowhunter Guide for Lost Ark

The Shadowhunter is a hybrid melee and ranged DPS class with the ability to transform into a demon to deal loads of damage consistently. This class uses human skills that focus on filling up the Shadowburst meter to transform as fast as possible with high uptime to deal damage. This build uses Demonic Impulse to increase the power and performance of the demonic form and utilizes the Specialization and Crit stats.

Strengths

• Fast paced & simple
• Very consistent DPS
• Good survivability

Weaknesses

• Very reliant on transform
• High cooldowns while human
• Not many push immunity super armors

Here are four builds, depending on your available skill points.

Demon Vision is your highest meter gain skill. When taking Concentrated Release and Encroaching Power, you will generate the most meter from hitting the full duration of the laser. Be sure to take Instant Discharge so that the move comes out faster. You should slot your highest Wealth into this skill.

Demonic Clone is a skill that generates lots of meter. Taking the last Tripod, Enh. Release Encroachment, will generate you more meter. This skill should also have an Epic Wealth slotted in.

Demon's Grip is an excellent skill that comes out really quick and is a ranged attack that generates a good amount of meter. Again be sure to take the Encroaching Power Tripod to get more meter from this skill. Normally this skill does two hits which shoots out a hand and pulls mobs towards you, however, taking the Stretching Hand Tripod will only shoot out a hand but will generate the same amount of meter. Be mindful as this skill does not have any sort of super armor, so it is easy to get hit out of it. This skill should slot an Epic Wealth.

Howl is a skill that fears mobs in a radius around you and applies a debuff on them. You should aim to max this skill and take Scream of Fury as it makes this skill a 12% damage increase synergy for you and your party for 6 seconds. Howl also generates a fair amount of gauge and you can slot a Rare Wealth if you need the extra meter gain.

Decimate is a powerful claw swipe and while it does not generate as much meter as your other skills, it still generates a decent amount of meter to help you transform.

Thrust Impact is a quick skill that deals an attack with your blades followed by an explosion pushing you backwards. Like Decimate, this skill also generates a fair amount of gauge. This skill does not have any super armor so be mindful when using it.

Demonic Slash is your movement skill while in human form. You should take Damage Amplification for the damage up raid buff it provides your group. If you have extra skill points left over you can take more Tripods like Nimble Movement and Chain Charge to further increase mobility.

Rising Claw is your counterattack skill. You do not really use it for much else. Naively Honest should be taken for an easier time.

Outside of demon form, feel free to use skills in any order as we are primarily focused on generating the Shadowburst Meter. Use Howl last as it is your damage synergy, this way you can transform and get a few demon skills off while the synergy buff is up. In Demon form, use Leaping Blow and Blood Massacre first as they are your most hard hitting moves and also the longest cooldowns.

Focus on all Specialization on your accessories. Your necklace should be Specialization and Crit. Set your pet buff to Specialization and Max HP.

You should aim towards the Preordained set from Argos. The two piece set effect provides 15% Crit rate and the five piece set effect provides 25% Crit rate. Additionally, if you are playing with a party member that has a five piece set effect of the opposite set, then you gain 50% Crit damage.

• Demon Vision: Encroaching Power
• Demon's Grip: Encroaching Power
• Demonic Clone: Enh. Release Encroachment
• Howl: Encroaching Power
• Thrust Impact: Encroaching Power

• Demonic Slash: Damage Amplification
• Demon's Grip: Swift Fingers
• Decimate: Swift Fingers

Demonic Impulse - A must have for the build to maintain uptime on Demon Form. Level 3 provides a 30% Crit rate. This should always be the first Engraving you should max.

Grudge - Great DPS Engraving as it provides a significant damage boost. This also increases the damage you take by 20% so be sure to only use this at level 3.

Adrenaline - Very good for this build as it is very easy to maintain stacks while transformed due to low cooldowns. This also increases your Crit rate and damage as well as long as you keep up the stacks. Very good value whether at level 1 or level 3.

Keen Blunt Weapon - This Engraving increases the amount of Crit damage you do. You should take this if you have at least a 60% Crit rate which should be easily achievable with the help of set effects, stats, and Engravings.

Cursed Doll - This Engraving is a good alternative as DPS Engraving. Much like Grudge, take this at level 3 only as it lowers the amount of healing you receive.

Hit Master - This Engraving is an excellent budget option to take and it is also relatively safe. In our Demonic form, every skill except Death Claw benefits from this. This Engraving does not affect Awakening skills.

Raid Captain - An excellent choice as this Engraving increases our damage the faster we move. This Engraving is really only worth it if you can max out your movement speed at 140%. You gain 20% movement speed while transformed. You would need to find a way to increase your move speed even more to get the full benefits of this Engraving. An example would be using Rage to increase your move speed even more when triggering it.

• Use the Legendary Wealth on Demon Vision as it is the skill that generates the most meter for you.
• Place an Epic Wealth on Demon's Grip and Demonic Clone as these also generate a fair bit of meter.
• Slot a Rare Wealth on Howl as it is also a decent source of meter. This is not needed if you can transform reliably already.
• Use a Rage on Ruining Rush as it has a fairly low cooldown and you will use it to close the gap on an enemy and potentially receive a move speed and attack speed buff from it.
• Place a Bleed on Death Claw as it is your lowest cooldown skill and slotting it in this skill means the bleed is up for 100% of the time while transformed.
• Use a Galewind on Blood Massacre to reduce the time it takes to cast as this is your biggest damage skill in demon form.
• Use a Galewind on Gore Bleeding to reduce the time locked in animation.

• Damage on Demon Skill.
• Cooldown on Demon Skill.

Any Gem attached to Demon Skill itself will affect all Skills used under Demon Form.

You will want to aim for Light of Salvation however that will take a while to complete. So Lostwind Cliff is the way to go.

Be sure to use and aim skills carefully as many of your skills do not have paralysis immunity. Missing one or two skills can result in not transforming and therefore a loss in DPS.

If you are having trouble transforming, you can swap the Tripods on Decimate and Demon's Grip to Quick Prep instead of Swift Fingers so you can use them more often.

While using Demonic Impulse your cooldowns are reset upon transform. This includes your spacebar dash and recover ability.

While transformed into demon form, you have paralysis super armor for the duration of demon form.