At first glance, Lost Ark has five main classes – Warrior, Martial Artist, Gunner, Mage, and Assassin. Simple enough, right? But things get more complicated when you dive into the 15 advanced classes and their different styles of play.
The first thing to know is the Identity Skill or Identity Gauge of advanced class. These skills define who they are and what they do. Some classes use their Identity Gauge to increase their damage, while others use it to save themselves in a pinch. As a result, they’re good to know when deciding which class you want to play.
With all of these classes and options, it can be hard to figure out what class you want to play in Lost Ark. Luckily, we’ve made this handy guide to help you start your journey.
Warrior
Warrior classes are up-front bruisers that can take damage and dish it right back. These classes are bulky fighting machines and their superior defenses will make them more forgiving for new players (which is pretty much everyone at this point!).
Warriors have three advanced classes to pick from – Paladin, Gunlancer, and Berserker.
Paladins are primarily a support class in Lost Ark. Their main focus is keeping teammates alive through spells and smiting enemies to build up their Identity Skill, Holy Aura, which further increases their teammate’s damage.
Once Paladins unlock their Class Engraving, Blessed Aura, their Identity skill will also heal and reduce the damage teammates receive. If need be, Paladins can use all of their meter on their other Identity Skill, Sacred Executioner, to increase their own damage.
Gunlancers are immortal tanks that deal an explosive amount of damage. If you’re looking for a tank class in Lost Ark, then the Gunlancer is who you want to play. Similar to Paladins, Gunlancers can apply buffs like increased attack damage to their party, but Gunlancers have more skills that absorb damage for their allies, disrupt bosses with taunts, and grant shields to themselves and their party. Their Identity Skill, Guard Stance, gives them a powerful shield so he can trade blows with even the toughest bosses and come out ahead.
Berserkers trade party-wide buffs and survivability to focus on just damage output. Berserkers live up to their name through fast, hard-hitting attacks that can blend through waves of enemies. Once they’ve built up enough meter by attacking, they can enter Burst Mode to get even more attack speed and damage.
Martial Artist
Martial Artist classes focus on fast attacks, fast movement, and plenty of combo skills to punch their way through hordes of monsters.
They have four advanced classes – Striker, Wardancer, Scrapper, and Soulfist.
Strikers have some of the highest burst damage in the game. Their Identity skill generates elemental orbs when they attack. These orbs are then consumed by specific moves to deal additional damage. When Strikers use all of these orbs at once, they can delete entire bosses in a heart beat.
Wardancers have similar skills to the Striker and the same Identity Skill, giving her some of the Striker’s high burst damage. However, the Wardancer trades two of the Striker’s best damage skills for support abilities that can increase her team’s movement speed, attack speed, and damage dealt while also decreasing the damage her and her allies receive.
Scrappers feel like a speedy Warrior class thanks to their defensive stats. Scrappers deal slow (relative to the other martial artists) burst damage with plenty of stagger effects to send their enemies reeling. Their identity skill is Stamina and Shock energy. Using Stamina skills will consume Stamina and generate Shock, while using Shock abilities will do the opposite. Managing these two resources are key to performing well as the Scrapper.
The Soul Fist is a versatile class that has a strong toolbox of melee and ranged attacks. They have some of the best mobility skills to stay alive with, but compared to the other martial artists, have less HP and defense. Her Identity Skill is Hype, which has three levels and doesn’t require charging. Instead, when activated, Hype will increase the Soul Fist’s damage, attack speed, and how often she can use her abilities. Each level intensifies these buffs until level three where, when it wears off, she’ll drop back to Hype level 0 and the skill will be put on a cool down.
Gunner
Gunners are a ranged class that focuses on dealing enormous amounts of damage from a safe distance. Their advanced classes are Artillerist, Gunslinger, Sharpshooter, and Deadeye.
Artillerists focus on using slow but devastating mortar strikes to obliterate enemies. If you like watching enemies vaporize underneath a mushroom cloud, then you’ll want to try this class. Their Identity Skill is the Firepower Gauge, which fills up as the Artillerist attacks. The more filled the gauge is, the more damage the Artillerist does. This gauge can also be consumed to use a special set of high damaging weapons like a massive laser.
Gunslingers strike a balance between amazing mobility, great single target damage, and wide attacks that can take down hordes of enemies. She does this by using her Identity Skill to switch between three weapons: a revolver for mobility, a sniper rifle for single targets, and a shotgun for hordes.
Deadeyes can also switch between those three different weapons. However, while the Gunslinger will deal more damage with her sniper rifle, the Deadeye will deal more damage with his shotgun. These two classes are incredibly flexible and will always have a tool for the job at hand.
Sharpshooters use their high mobility skills to weave-in and out of combat, pelting enemies from afar with their bow before slashing enemies up close to fill their Hawk Meter. Once it’s filled, the Sharpshooter can summon a spectral hawk to aid them in battle, further increasing their damage and helping the Sharpshooter melt through enemies.
Mage
Just like Gunners, Mages want to blast enemies from far away. Unlike Gunners, Mages offer more utility to their team at the cost of a shorter range and longer casting times to their skills.
There are two mage classes – the Bard and the Sorceress.
Next to Paladins, Bards are the go-to support class in Lost Ark. They have strong targeted healing spells in comparison to the Paladin’s wide healing fields. The Bard’s Identity Skill is the Serenade Meter which is filled as the Bard uses their skills. Once filled, the Bard can perform either the Serenade of Courage to boost her teammates’ damage, or Serenade of Salvation to heal everyone.
The Sorceress combines amazing mobility options with huge damage spells that cover a wide area. Her low defenses paired with a reliance on some slow-to-cast spells means good positioning is extremely important here. As the Sorceress casts spells, she’ll fill up her Identity Gauge which can be used to either increase her own damage or teleport away from danger.
Assassin
Assassins are known for having great mobility and dealing a massive amount of damage in a short amount of time by stabbing their victims in the back.
The advanced classes for the Assassin are Shadowhunter and Deathblade.
Shadowhunters are – quite literally – close-combat demons. When Shadowhunters transform into their demon mode, they become one of the most destructive classes in the game. While they may lack long-range options, Shadowhunters have amazing mobility and deal terrifying amounts of damage in close-range.
Deathblades on the other hand blend through enemies with a flurry of attacks from their swords. They’re similar to Berserkers in that their Identity Skill will transform them into a more damaging form called Death Trance. Unlike Shadowhunters, Deathblades have more skills that can cleave through multiple enemies, allowing them to handle huge numbers of foes much easier.
Lost Ark: Best Classes for PvP
- Deadeye
- Deathblade
- Bard
If you’re looking to dominate other players in PvP, then you’ll want to play the Deadeye, Deathblade, or Bard classes. Deadeyes can use their manoeuvrability and gun combos to make short work of other players. Deathblades shine in PvP since their high mobility gives them plenty of control over a fight and her defensive abilities make her hard to stop even if players do catch her.
Bards are amazing in 3v3 PvP games because she can make her teammates almost impossible to kill while also increasing their damage.
Lost Ark: Best Classes for PvE
- Bard
- Paladin
- Gunlancer
Every class can complete the PvE content in Lost Ark. By the end of the day, what matters more is just how you build your class. However, having a Bard, Paladin, and Gunlancer will make late-game content much easier for everyone.
The Bard and Paladin’s constant healing and varied buffs make clearing bosses in Guardian Raids and rooms in Chaos Dungeons faster and more forgiving. Between the two, the Paladin is able to do more damage and tank more hits than the Bard can, but the Bard offers faster and more concentrated healing.
Gunlancers are amazing for PvE because of their skills that add shields to all of their teammates and taunts which disrupt bosses if they are doing something the party isn’t ready to handle.
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