Lost Ark Arcanist class, or Arcana as known in the Korean servers, is one of the unreleased classes in Lost Ark. The Lost Ark Arcanist release date appears to be just around the corner now. As one of the expected upcoming classes to be released in the NA and EU servers, we will take a look at what we know so far about the card-wielding Arcanists.
What is the Arcanist Class in Lost Ark?
The Arcanist is an advanced class in Lost Ark under the Mage class that use the power of cards to deal damage to their enemies. It’s a female-only subclass of the Mage class. Its identity gauge and mechanic sets it as the most technical among the Mage classes with its stack-and-ruin gameplay.
Lost Ark Arcanist Identity Mechanic
Like with most of the advanced classes, the Arcanist has her own unique identity mechanic where each attack fills up her identity gauge or also known as the deck gauge.
Once filled, she will draw a card from her deck which can be used right away for some additional effects, or it can be stored for later use. There can be a maximum of 2 cards that can be held at a given time. Pressing the Z or the X key to release the left or the right card, respectively, will use the cards and enable their buffs or effects.
As stated above, the Lost Ark Arcanist uses cards to inflict various debilitating effects on their enemies. Some of these cards can provide benefits to the team and hinder their opponents, although the most effective effects are mostly determined by chance.
Arcanist Cards – Lost Ark Arcana Card Deck
- Medusa– 3x auto-attack, +100% outgoing damage for 16 seconds
- Madness – Every skill usage, +3% attack speed for 4s, stacks up to 15%, 30 seconds duration
- Twisted Fate – Either get +80% skill damage or -80% skill damage for 4 seconds
- Decay – +30% chance to deal -20% defense debuff to the enemy for 5 seconds, exclusive to your attacks only.
- Ghost – +10% movement speed, -50% incoming damage, ignore collision for 30 seconds
- Death – +100% critical rate, +50% critical damage for 4 seconds
- Balance – +1 stack per stack skill, 30 seconds duration
- Judgment – Always max stack on ruin skills for 4 seconds
- Moon – -10% cooldown, +20% mana regeneration for 30 seconds
- Star – Recover 100% of your mana upon usage
- Royal – Immediately draws up to 2 new cards upon usage
- Wheel of Fortune – Immediate cooldown for the next used skill
- Emperor – Deals increased damage within the Arcanist’s range
Lost Ark Arcanist Skills and Mechanics
Another mechanic that the Arcanist has is its stack-and-ruin mechanic which allows them to dish out their stacking skills, which they can then follow-up with ruin skills that can deal bonus damage depending on the number of stacks the enemy has. Arcanists have three kinds of skills: normal (yellow), stack (blue), and ruin (red).
Their piercing blow is effective at removing large groups of enemies, but they are a class that relies heavily on chance and rarely plays the same way twice. They’re fantastic for individuals who like to stay concentrated during a fight, but they’re not great for those who prefer to continuously pressing the same few buttons for a long period of time without becoming tired of it.
Yellow Normal Skills
Normal skills offer utility such as buffs, enemy debuffs, and the most important which is a chance to draw a card.
- Call of Destiny – Throw two cards to an enemy, delayed launch into the air.
- Dark Resurrection – Throw three cards at an enemy to summon a demon that will attack them. Inflicts fear for 3 seconds.
- Evoke – Cast a circle at a location that lasts for 10 seconds. Cast the skill again to detonate it and inflict damage to enemies on it.
- Mysterious Stampede – Movement skill, move sideward and attack, then return to the original position to attack.
- Return – Counterattack on first card thrown, use the skill again to slam enemies to the ground.
- Unlimited Shuffle – Throw up to 6 cards at an enemy. Enemies will take damage as they are being launched into the air and slammed back down.
Blue Stack Skills
Stack skills deal damage and leave stacks of up to four cards on hit enemies. Different stack skills leave different amounts of stacks, which can be improved through tripods.
- Checkmate – Quickly throw cards at a direction.
- Dancing Spineflower – Throw cards at a location while moving towards the target. Use the skill again to teleport back to the starting position.
- Infinity Shower – Throw cards at a location. Can be use as a combo skill in the air.
- Quadra Accelerate – Throw cards at a location 4 times.
- Scratch Dealer – Move towards the target location to deal damage. Use the skill again to strike downward.
- Spiral Edge – Leap towards a location while throwing a card.
- Stream of Edge – Open two portal gates at a location to deal damage to enemies in between them.
Red Ruin Skills
Ruin skills are considered as the detonator skills and can deal bonus damage depending on the number of stacks an enemy has. These skills can also deal stagger damage.
- Celestial Rain – Rain cards down on a location, dealing bonus damage on launched enemies.
- Four of a Kind – Throw cards at a target location.
- Secret Garden – Deal damage to surrounding enemies. enemies with 4 stacks are slammed to the ground.
- Serendipity – Fan out the cards at a target location to deal damage, then fan them out again to deal damage and knockback.
Lost Ark Arcanist Pros and Cons
With how technical the Arcanist’s skills and gameplay are, it’s understandable that not all players would pick the class. But if you are still undecided on whether to get an Arcanist or not, here are some of the pros and cons that can help you decide:
Arcanist Pros
- It’s ranged combos can make them a good backline DPS in a party.
- Has both single-target and multi-target skills.
- Mastery of its combos can make it compete against other classes when it comes to damage output.
Arcanist Cons
- It’s a squishy class.
- Relies on multi-step combos to maximize damage.
- Damage output aided by its identity mechanic relies on RNG.
What do you think about the Arcanist? Are you excited about its addition to the class roster in the NA/EU servers? This is just an overview of the Arcanist class so far. Expect to see build guides in the future once the class is officially added in the game.
When will the Lost Ark Arcanist Class be available?
A Lost Ark road map was released earlier this month hinting that the Lost Ark Arcanist Class might be available and released on May 2022. There’s no guarantee that it will be out in May, even if it was originally planned to be.
Always take rumors with a grain of salt, as we have no idea when the Lost Ark Arcanist post-launch class will be introduced to the game. It’s not clear whether Amazon has directly rejected or corroborated this claim since withdrawing the material, but it hasn’t either. Nevertheless, it is almost clear that it should be coming very soon.
Best Lost Ark Arcanist Build for PvE
The optimal Lost Ark Arcanist build for PVE won’t be known until the advanced class is released. Check back soon for more information.
Best Lost Ark Arcanist Build for PvP
As soon as the Lost Ark Arcanist Class be available, we will update this section with a recommended build.
Check out this video by Electric Dreams showcasing the Arcana or Arcanist’s skills and gameplay:
Image credits to Electric Dreams (YouTube)
Skills English translation credits to Lost Ark Codex
