Introduction
The Empress's Grace Arcanist is a high mobility and high damage class with low survivability. This class mainly focuses on the Combat Stat Specialization to increase the damage dealt by your Awakening Deathbound and Ruin Skills.
Arcanist has 3 different categories of skills in her arsenal. Normal Skills deal solid damage and fill up the Deck Meter faster. Filling up the Deck Meter or triggering the Quick Draw Tripod of a Normal Skill pulls a random card from Arcanist's Card Deck.
Stacking Skills provide buffs, mobility and add at least one Stack to the targets hit by the skill.
Ruin Skills should be only used once you applied 4 Stacks to your target by using Stacking Skills. Ruin Skills usually consume all Stacks applied on the target and deal high damage based on the Stack count.
Arcanist, overall, is a versatile class that requires a lot of micromanagement since the cards you pull from your Card Deck have various effects. These cards will need to be used at the correct moment to increase your damage or survivability.
Empress's Grace
Grudge
DifficultyHigh
MobilityHigh
SurvivabilityLow
Back AttackOptional
This build guide assumesyou have a Character at Level 50 before transitioning to it. Check out the Arcanist Levelingand 1-50 Leveling guides to reach Level 50.
Check out the Order of the Emperor Arcanist build for an alternative Arcanist play style.
Check out the Guardian Raids, Abyssal Dungeons and Legion Raids guides for an introduction to their content.
Raid Skill Build
- If you choose to play with Raid Captain instead of Barricade, you can replace Quadra Accelerate with Dealer's Flip for more Movement Speed buff uptime. This build provides more Deck Meter gain, since you can replace Protection with Wealth.
- The alternative 341 build uses Serendipity instead of Call of Destiny. On top of additional Deck Meter gain, this build also benefits more from Cull & Judgment combo. At the same time, you need high level CDR Gems for this build.
- Return and/or Serendipity are your Counter Skills.
Gameplay & Skill Rotation
The Gameplay of an Empress's Grace Arcanist revolves around their Skill Rotation and Identity Card usage, which needs to be managed simultaneously to maximize their damage output and survivability.
Make sure that your Crit and Movement Speed (if you use Raid Captain) buffs are always active before you use your Main Damaging skills.
Four of a Kind Skill Animation can be cancelled by moving while casting. This makes it easier to utilize the Judgment window.
Check video below!
Awakening Opener:
To increase the damage of your Awakening Skill Deathbound, use the rotation down below. This will guarantee that the damage is amplified by the effect of Barricade. To do so, it is mandatory to have Protection on Celestial Rain.
- Use Scratch Dealer
- Call of Destiny
- Use Deathbound and use “Spacebar” to cancel the animation.
- Use Celestial Rain.
Skill Rotation:
- Scratch Dealer
- Call of Destiny
- Celestial Rain
- Quadra Accelerate
- Spiral Edge (first usage)
- Return
- Secret Garden
- Spiral Edge (second usage)
- Call of Destiny
- Four of a Kind
Since you want to stay in “Boundless MP” state with your Nightmare Flower Set effect, avoid having long downtimes if possible. If unavoidable, use Four of a Kind with only 2 Ruin Stacks to keep your Mana low.
Identity Cards & Combos:
Every time you fill up your Deck Meter or trigger Quick Draw, you draw a random card from your Identity Card Deck. You can draw and hold up to 2 Identity Cards in your hand. Below is a list of all available Identity Cards.
- Corrosion
- Mayhem
- Three-Headed Snake
- Twisted Fate
- Balance
- Cull
- Ghost
- Clown
- Judgment
- Moon
- Royal
- Star
- Emperor
- Wheel of Fortune
- Joy
Try to memorize the usage and combos of the most important Identity Cards listed below, to maximize your damage output.
- Corrosion, Mayhem, Three-Headed Snake, Balance, Ghost and Royal can be activated as soon as you pull those, since these cards provide you with a long duration buff which is beneficial for the fight.
- In the case of Three-Headed Snake, use some Auto Attacks in between your Stacking Skills to apply on your target the maximum Stack of 4 sooner.
- Cull is one of the best cards to multiply your damage output. You should combine it with the cards listed below to maximize its efficiency of it.
- Judgment allows you to maximize the damage of all your Ruin Skill cards regardless of how many Stacks are applied on the target. Debuff your target and buff yourself first. Afterwards, use all your Ruin Skill cards within the 4 seconds time frame of the Judgment card's buff. You can use the following rotation to maximize your Damage.
- Four of a Kind
- Celestial Rain
- Four of a Kind
- Secret Garden
- Four of a Kind
- After activating Wheel of Fortune, the next skill you use will have its Cooldown reset. This includes your Awakening skills. So make sure to use it before you use your awakening, which allows you to use your awakening twice in a row. If your Awakening is already on Cooldown, use it to reset Celestial Rain.
- Use Twisted Fate before you use your Ruin Skills, since it has a chance to increase your damage by 40% for 4 seconds.
- Judgment allows you to maximize the damage of all your Ruin Skill cards regardless of how many Stacks are applied on the target. Debuff your target and buff yourself first. Afterwards, use all your Ruin Skill cards within the 4 seconds time frame of the Judgment card's buff. You can use the following rotation to maximize your Damage.
- Use Joy while Celestial Rain and your other Ruin Skills are on Cooldown.
- Moon should be used before you use your main Damage skills.
- Clown is great to copy the following cards: Cull, Judgment, Wheel of Fortune or Twisted Fate.
- Use Star only if you expect a huge downtime on skills before a major boss mechanic or if you are about to use a high Damage combo. Since you want to stay in “Boundless MP” state with your Nightmare Flower Set effect, avoid using this card incorrectly.
Stats Priority
The Empress's Grace Arcanist build mainly focuses on Specialization, which increases the damage of your Ruin Skills/Awakening and also increases the Deck Meter gain. You need Crit only on your necklace, since Arcanist has several buffs that increase Crit Chance and Damage.
Bracelet
Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls.
Note: Bracelets should not be your top priority to optimize since it'll be much more efficient to optimize your other gear first. Bracelets are costly! So slowly build towards a Main Stat and a Sub Stat. Anything else is extra!
Check out theBracelet Guidefor more details.
Possible Special Effects to Roll:
Optimal
Specialization
Crit
Circulate
Fervor
Hammer
Wedge
Alternatives
Precise
Raid
Superiority
Sawtooth Blade
Weapon Power
Harvest
Expose Weakness
Dagger
Engravings
Class Engravings provide powerful benefits that can significantly change play style. Battle Engravings are generally used to increase damage. Below are the recommended Engravings for this build.
Check out the Engraving Guide for more details.
Starter Engravings
- Empress's Grace increases the damage dealt by your Ruin Skills and restores mana.
- Barricade synergizes well with all your Ruin Skills once they have the Protection attached to them.
Add-On Endgame Engravings
- Grudge* increases damage done while also increasing damage received. The engraving is a highly effective damage increase that does not require specific positioning, making it worthwhile even with the penalty.
- Adrenaline increases your Attack Power and Crit Rate and can be easily kept at max stack with the low Cooldown skills of Arcanist.
- Hit Master is great for Arcanist, since the damage of all Ruin Skills is separated into normal damage and stack damage. Your main damage comes from triggering the stacks (stack damage), which doesn't rely on Back or Front Attack.
- Raid Captain benefits from the various Movement Speed buffs you gain as an Arcanist and increases your Damage accordingly.
- Cursed Doll* provides a significant Attack Power increase at the cost of 25% healing penalty. The healing penalty can be punishing for inexperienced players not familiar with boss mechanics.
(*)These Engravings should only be used at Engraving Level 3.
Optimal Setups
Engravings are listed in order of priority from left to right.
Standard
Empress's Grace
Grudge
Hit Master
Adrenaline
Barricade
Cursed Doll
Grudge
Hit Master
Adrenaline
Barricade
Empress's Grace
Alternative
Empress's Grace
Grudge
Hit Master
Adrenaline
Raid Captain
Cursed Doll
Grudge
Hit Master
Adrenaline
Raid Captain
Empress's Grace
Gear Sets
These are the specific gear sets for each tier.
Check out the Gear Set Guide for more details.
Notes :
- If speedrunning your alts, you can skip Abyss Dungeon Gear up to 1370 gearscore by just honing Chaos Dungeon Gear.
- If you're close to 1445 gearscore and were already doing Valtan/Vykas Normal Mode, you can skip crafting the Legendary Legion Raid Gears.
- If you have already crafted Relic Gears, hold onto them because once you unlock the Gear Set Conversion feature, you will be able to freely swap between Relic Legion Raid Sets.
"Play at your own pace" Route
Tier 1
340 gearscore
Seraphic Oath Set
460 gearscore
Boisterous Elemental Set
Tier 2
840 gearscore
Marvelous Earth Set
960 gearscore
Unyielding Will Set
Early Tier 3
1302 - 1370 gearscore
Twisted Dimensional Set
Mid Tier 3
1370 -1444 gearscore
Preordained Diligence Set
Demon Beast Strength Set
Craft any combination of the legendary gear sets listed above and try to push to 1445 as soon as possible.
Tier 3 Legion Raid Set
1445-1490-1540-1580+ gearscore
Nightmare Flower Set
The name of your set will change with every higher tier gearset you acquire, but the set effect will remain the same. Look for the keyword of your set when recrafting it so you don't easily get lost.(e.g Entropy, Hallucination etc)
Runes
Runes enhance Skills with extra bonuses. All Rune drops are account bound and have limited availability, so placement of Runes on the correct Skills is important. Below are the recommended pairings.
Check the Rune Guide for more details.
Skills | Runes |
Call of Destiny | Bleed |
Return | Rage |
Quadra Accelerate | Galewind |
Scratch Dealer | Galewind |
Spiral Edge | Galewind |
Celestial Rain | Protection |
Four of a Kind | Protection |
Secret Garden | Protection |
- At early levels, you can use Conviction & Judgment combo on Quadra Accelerate and Scratch Dealer to counter the early game mana issues.
- Purify is needed in specific contents like in Phase 1 Valtan. In this case, use it on Return.
Gear Skill Tree
While Gems add benefits to skills, you can also increase the effects of Skill Tree themselves. Skill Tree levels go up to 5 and each level can increase the damage, cooldown reduction or buff that they provide.
For more information on how to add equipment Skill Tree and how to get them, please visit our Skill Tree System Guide.
Celestial Rain | Vital Point Hit Enhanced Strike Weak Point Detection |
Secret Garden | Vital Point Hit Perfect Secret Secret Chance |
Four of a Kind | Swift Preparation Card Enhancement Full House |
Call of Destiny | Nimble Movement Dark Destiny Fake Flip |
Return | Exposed Darkness |
Quadra Accelerate | Nimble Movement Card Draw Accelerate Concentration |
Scratch Dealer | Safety Device |
Spiral Edge | Quick Prep |
If you use Dealer's Flip, you can level up additional Skill Trees of Scratch Dealer and Spiral Edge. Hover over the skills to see which Skill Trees you should level up.
Gems
Gems grant bonus damage and cooldown reduction to specific skills. You can only equip 11 of these Gems at a time so it is recommended that you prioritize the Gems for your most important skills.
Please visit our Gem System Guide for more information on how to create higher tier Gems.
Attack Gems
Celestial Rain
Secret Garden
Four of a Kind
Cooldown Gems
Celestial Rain
Secret Garden
Four of a Kind
Quadra Accelerate
Scratch Dealer
Spiral Edge
Call of Destiny
Return
Card Sets
Cards are an endgame system for maximizing your character. Below are the recommended sets for this class.
Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain them.
Budget Damage Card Set
Budget Damage Card Set 2
This card set does not replace Light of Salvation set or Kazero's Legion Commanders set, but it can be use if you're new to the game and has set to get your Light of Salvation/Kazero's Legion Commanders set +18 or +30 yet.
Optimal Damage Card Set
Summary
- The Arcanist is a high mobility and damage class with low survivability.
- Specialization is the main Combat Stat of the Empress's Grace Arcanist.
- Normal Skills deal solid damage and fill up the Deck Meter faster.
- Stacking Skills provide useful buffs, mobility and add at least one Stack to the targets hit the skill.
- Ruin Skills consume all Stacks applied on the target and deal high damage based on the Stack count.
- Skill Rotation and Identity Cards usage, need to be managed simultaneously to maximize the damage output and survivability of Arcanist.
Credits
Written by Perciculum & Phiska
Reviewed by Starlast
FAQs
What is the arcanist build in Empress's Lost Ark? ›
The Empress's Grace Arcanist build mainly focuses on Specialization , which increases the damage of your Ruin Skills /Awakening and also increases the Deck Meter gain. You need Crit only on your necklace, since Arcanist has several buffs that increase Crit Chance and Damage.
Which Arcanist build is better? ›For a beginner build on the Arcanist Class, Khajiit is recommended due to their increased recovery and Critical Damage. Dark Elf is another great option, particularly at end-game with their max stat bonuses making it easy to switch between a Stamina Arcanist Build and Magicka Arcanist Build.
Do arcanist need intelligence or charisma? ›Arcanist Exploits add a level of customization and introduce a lot of excellent options. Keep in mind that Arcanists need both Intelligence and Charisma for their spells (for maximum spell level and bonus spells, and for spell DC, respectively), which makes them more MAD than a Wizard.
Is Arcanist a healer or DPS? ›You're not a healer, but you do have the option to heal. You're not pure DPS compared to a Thaumaturge, but you can pump out some damage. No, your greatest strength lies in debuffing, debilitating, and generally swapping roles as necessary -- because you can do a lot of stuff. Arcanists have a crapton of tools.
Is Arcanist better as Stamina or Magicka? ›The Arcanist excels in stamina DPS. Firstly, medium armor passives, dual wield passives, and medium armor choices carry damage. Can you do well as a magicka-based Arcanist damage dealer? Yes, but in group settings, medium armor is a better choice due to its passive critical damage vs light armor penetration passive.
What weapon should an arcanist use? ›What Weapons Are Best For The Arcanist? The best weapon for a Magicka-focused Arcanist in The Elder Scrolls Online is the Destruction Staff. A Lightning Staff is recommended for AOE-focused builds while an Inferno Staff is recommended for single-target-focused builds.
Is Arcanist easy to play? ›easy or not to play? Yep, that's a fine class to start with. It unlocks a tank pet relatively early (level 15) which can keep enemies off you when you're doing solo stuff like quests — really good if you're inexperienced and need a little more protection. Being able to heal yourself is great too.
What is the arcanist stacking effect in Lost Ark? ›Successful attacks with Stacking skills will build up to 4 stacks on an enemy target. When a Ruin skill lands, it consumes stacks built up on the target to greater effect— creating opportunities to deal massive damage.
Is Arcanist a support class Lost Ark? ›As an advanced class under the Mage, the Arcanist is great at supporting the team with her single and multi-target skills.
Is arcanist hard to play in 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.
What is the best mage class in Lost Ark? ›
The Best Mage Bard Class Guide In Lost Ark (Weapons, Skills, & Items) Bards are ranged spellcasters that mainly heal and buff opponents while occasionally dealing damage using Harps as their main weapons. The Bard is the exact opposite of a damage-dealing powerhouse like the Berserker.