Lost Ark Gunlancer Guide: How To Build A Gunlancer – In this Lost Ark Gunlancer Guide, I’m going to show you what it means to play as a Gunlancer in terms of how well they perform in combat, the best Skills and Tripods to focus on, and the playstyles available to them based on the Class Engravings they choose. If you’re searching for a Melee DPS Class with the ability to taunt foes and utilize crowd control, then this Lost Ark Gunlancer Guide is for you!
Be sure to check out our other Lost Ark Class Guides including:Shadowhunter, Sorceress, Gunslinger, Paladin, Deathblade, Wardancer, Scrapper & Sharpshooter!
Gunlancers are one of the Advanced Classes that fall under the Warrior Class. They wield a Gunlance and Shield, which are not only used to deal damage up close but also stun, stagger, and disable enemies. Gunlancers are one of the most difficult Classes to master if you’re not used to slow-moving characters or you’ve just come from playing as a Scrapper or Shadowhunter.
- Tanky Advanced Class
- High HP
- Great Armor Rating
- Crowd Control Abilities
- Decent DPS
As a Lost Ark Gunlancer, you’ll be able to deal high sustained or burst damage depending on the type of Skills you concentrate on. Because of your massive HP and commendable Armor rating, you survive longer in combat compared to more DPS-focused classes such as the Shadowhunter and Deathblade. However, your mobility is very low and instead of dodging, you have the Back Step Ability, which propels you backward rather than rushing forward so there’s an adjustment period in the beginning. Like the Paladin, you initially don’t have access to better skills so it’s a matter of knowing how to survive with the ones that are currently available at your disposal. The good thing about it though is you’ll execute Frontal Attacks, which means that you no longer have to change directions to optimally deal damage.
Lost Ark Gunlancer or Paladin
Gunlancers and Paladins both belong to the Warrior Class but oftentimes, players ask which between the two are better in terms of the support role. Gunlancers are definitely tankier, allowing them to withstand a huge amount of damage, all while dealing decent damage plus, they can taunt enemies. They also have upgrades that enhance everyone’s HP while hampering that of the enemy’s. Comparatively, Paladins are support and DPS-oriented that do a fine job at granting damage buffs. The key thing to remember is if there’s no one to support the party, then the Paladin should fill in this role. But if you’re looking for a class with the ability to counter incoming attacks and disrupt enemy formations, then the Gunlancer is your guy.
Gunlancer Class Role and Identity
The Lost Ark Gunlancer is a Melee DPS Class with the ability to interrupt enemies and disable them, which is the perfect time for the other damage-dealing classes to swoop in for the kill. Although they’re not as adept as the Paladin when it comes to granting party buffs, they’re capable of mitigating damage, reducing the enemy’s movement speed as well as lowering their defenses to make them vulnerable.
All Advanced Classes in Lost Ark have unique features or Identities that differentiate them from the other classes. These can either unleash more damage or enhance the buffs they grant. For the Lost Ark Gunlancer, it’s the Shield Identity, which is divided into two categories, namely the Defensive Stance and Battlefield Shield. Defensive Stance protects the Gunlancer from taking damage and being interrupted because of a shield that encases you, allowing you to go toe-to-toe against tougher enemies. This shield is then depleted after some time based on the amount of energy you’ve previously gathered. The drawback with this skill, however, is that your movement speed is hampered by 50%.
Battlefield Shield, on the other hand, will benefit the entire team by allowing you to absorb the damage dealt against them while granting Push Immunity as long as they’re quite near you. Rather than using your Shield energy over time, this ability will instantaneously consume it when you jump to an area filled with enemies. Doing so will deal damage and knock them down while providing you with a temporary shield. Unlike the Defensive Stance, Battlefield Shield has a longer cooldown period of more than 1 minute.
Note that when either of these skills is active, you won’t be gaining energy. But when you return to your Normal State, you can once again fill up your Shield Meter by successfully hitting enemies. Similar to the Paladin’s Piety Meter, the energy you’ve gathered won’t be expended over time so you can wait for the best moment to consume it.
Lost Ark Gunlancer Skills and Tripods
By the time your Lost Ark Gunlancer reaches Level 60, you will have unlocked a total of 19 skills comprised of Lance, Normal, and Awakening Skills. To add to this, you’ve invested several points into Lance and Normal Skills to specialize further by unlocking their respective Tripods. The Tripod System allows players to customize their skills in various ways like increasing the Shield energy you gain or reducing incoming damage. In total, you only need 8 skills per character with a select number of tripods. In this section, I’ll cover the essential Lance and Normal Skills and tripods you should allocate points into regardless of the playstyle you end up choosing.
Lost Ark Gunlancer Lance Skills and Tripods
Sharp Gunlance – Stabs multiple enemies while momentarily staggering them in the process. To make Sharp Gunlancer stronger, you’ll need the Giant Wheel, Wound, and Pummel Tripods. This combination changes the skill such that you’ll now be attacking in a circular motion above your head, to affect more enemies. You’re also able to inflict Damage over Time (DoT) with bleed as well as an extra attack for boosted damage.
Dash Upper Fire – Thrust forward and shoot a shell right after to deal damage twice. Make sure that the gap between you and the enemy isn’t large, otherwise, you might not strike them with your weapon, thereby wasting damage. The best Dash Upper Fire Tripods to consider are Ready Attack and Weak Point Detection to enhance your attack power on the very first hit and to improve damage against Push-Immune or stronger targets. With Extra Shell, you can fire another shell and harm them even more. Because of the Gunlance’s weight, you’re pushed backward after shooting with it, creating a nice space between you and your enemies.
Charged Stinger – Unlocked at Combat Level 20. This allows you to rush towards your foes to shoot them with massive firepower. Although you can incrementally change your orientation while charging your weapon, I wouldn’t recommend that you do. This is because of the minuscule movements you make, which increases the chances of missing your targets. If you cast Charged Stinger without moving your Gunlance, you’ll always rush towards the direction of where your mouse is pointed at. The tripods that greatly improve this skill are Weak Point Detection, Charge Enhancement, and Last Charge. These allow you to deal considerable damage against Push-Immune enemies and boosts your attack power and damage even more as a result of overcharging. Alternatively, if you’d rather stun or electrocute them for several seconds, then you can switch Last Charge for Lightning Charge.
Surge Cannon – Unlocked at Combat Level 50. Collects massive amounts of energy, which will then be used to deal explosive damage multiple times. Unlike the Charged Stinger, you can easily rotate your character to target enemies effectively. What makes Surge Cannon more effective are Piercing Shot, Overcharge, and Focus Fire. This combination lowers enemy defenses, overcharges your weapon to deal great damage, and bombards targets with several shots.
Next, you can decide to equip either of the following skills if you choose the Lone Knight Engraving or playstyle to significantly boost your burst damage.
Counter Gunlance – Unlocked at Combat Level 32. A good defensive skill that helps block incoming damage because of the shield you gain. To make matters better and upon successfully countering an attack, you’ll be able to automatically shoot enemies in front of you. The technique is to activate Counter Gunlance a second before they attack since you only have a very small time window. Making this skill stronger is Bombardment Spear, which rewards the counterattack you perform with increased damage. The other tripods to obtain are Sturdy Armor and Weak Point Detection to reduce the damage you take while Counter Gunlance is active and to inflict more harm against tougher enemies.
Gunlance Shot – Unlocked at Combat Level 40. A straightforward version of Dash Upper Fire that lets you thrust your weapon into targets and then shoot them immediately after. The Gunlance Shot Tripods you ought to take are similar to Counter Gunlance, specifically Sturdy Armor and Weak Point Detection. But for the third upgrade, you’ll want to take Exploding Spear, which acts as a gap closer, allowing you to dart forward to cause explosive damage.
Lost Ark Gunlancer Normal Skills and Tripods
Shield Bash – Swings your Shield twice to deal damage and to effectively stagger enemies. The best Shield Bash Tripods to take are Armor Destruction and Shield Enhancement to reduce the physical and magical defenses of your targets and to accumulate more Shield energy upon successfully attacking them, respectively. For the third upgrade, you can either pick Additional Hit for greater damage or Blind Shock to temporarily stun enemies.
Guardian’s Thunderbolt – Unlocked at Combat Level 14. This is an effective skill that you can start with in combat as it allows you to summon lightning to deal great damage while stunning nearby enemies. The best Guardian’s Thunderbolt Tripods to choose are Damage Luck, Wide Hit, and Electrocution. This combination allows you to conjure another thunderbolt for added damage, widens the AoE, and lengthens the stun duration against targets. But if you want to inflict higher damage rather than lengthening the electrocution time, you can swap Electrocution for Lightning Stalk, allowing you to deal at least 50% more damage.
Shout of Hatred – Unlocked at Combat Level 24. Performs a massive warcry to not only deal damage but also to taunt enemies. What makes Shout of Hatred very effective are Ready Defense and Shield to reduce incoming damage and to temporarily boost HP. The third upgrade you should take is Open Weakness, which enhances everyone in the party’s Frontal and Back Attacks, together with the damage they deal. Additionally, the Shield energy you gain is increased.
Nellasia’s Energy – Unlocked at Combat Level 36. Roars out in the open to mitigate the damage received by you and your allies. The best Nellasia’s Energy Tripods to get are Quick Prep, Effectiveness, and Survive. This combination lowers the skill’s cooldown period, further reduces the amount of incoming damage, and provides shields to momentarily increase everyone’s HP. Instead of Survive, you can also opt for Leadership if your party needs an attack speed boost rather than additional HP.
You can decide to equip either of the following skills if you choose the Combat Readiness Engraving or playstyle to significantly improve your crowd control capabilities.
Bash – Swings your shield to not only deal damage but also inflict stun. Similar to Shield Bash, you should obtain Armor Destruction to lower enemy defenses and Shield Enhancement to gain more Shield energy. The last upgrade to focus on ought to be Echo, which lengthens the stun’s duration. Alternatively, you can swap Echo for Bell Strike to widen the AoE. Doing so will impact more enemies.
Shield Shock – Unlocked at Combat Level 28. Strikes the ground with your Gunlance to inflict some damage and to temporarily slow down enemy movement. The best Shield Shock Tripods to pick are Quick Prep, Wide Hit, and 2nd Turbulence. This combination decreases the skill’s cooldown rate, broadens its AoE, and enhances the damage you deal after attacking the target once more. However, if you prefer to debilitate enemies by hampering their attack speed and movement speed, you can go for Earthquake instead of Wide Hit.
Lost Ark Gunlancer Engravings and Stats
In Lost Ark, every Advanced Class unlocks Engravings that allow you to further specialize in your chosen Class as these grant special effects, which you can activate by reading Recipe Books and equipping Accessories and Ability Stones. You’re able to obtain them as random rewards by completing endgame activities such as Chaos and Abyss Dungeons, and Guardian Raids.
In this section, I’m going to talk about Lost Ark Gunlancer Engravings, which determine the playstyle you wish to adopt for your character and are class-specific abilities and traits. You gain access to this when you reach higher levels. The 2 Class Engravings available to the Gunlancer are Lone Knight and Combat Readiness. Let’s first discuss the Lone Knight Class Engraving or playstyle together with the Stats that go with it.
Gunlancer Lone Knight Playstyle
Lone Knight is focused on maximizing burst damage with Lance Skills by boosting their corresponding crit rate and crit damage. However, you’re not as durable, you won’t have access to Battlefield Shield, and you’ll consume Shield energy much faster with Defensive Stance. To take advantage of the damage you’ll deal, try to aim for Lone Knight Level 3 in addition to slotting 5-6 Lance Skills.
In terms of Lone Knight’s Combat Stats, you’ll want to prioritize Crit followed by Swiftness when gearing up. This setup significantly enhances crit rate while improving your attack and movement speed. It also decreases the cooldown period of your skills so you can activate them frequently.
Gunlancer Combat Readiness Playstyle
Comparatively, Combat Readiness is for tank-oriented Builds because of the crowd control abilities available at your disposal. As such, you’re able to disable and stagger enemies more often while dealing decent damage, predominantly with Normal Skills. This also incentivizes the use of Defensive Stance since your shield’s effectiveness is enhanced and your damage gradually increases every time you get hit. For the Combat Readiness Engraving, reaching Level 3 should be your goal to considerably improve your shield and damage when Defensive Stance is active on top of slotting 5-6 Normal Skills.
In terms of Combat Readiness’ Combat Stats, you’ll be focusing on Specialization to gain Shield energy faster while improving the shield you receive from Battlefield Shield. You can then invest in Crit and Swiftness to improve crit rate as well as overall mobility.
Final Tips
Playing as a Lost Ark Gunlancer won’t be a walk in the park especially at the beginning. But when you understand the synergies of his skills in terms of damage mitigation and improved durability together with the commendable damage he deals, this class becomes very fun to play. Gunlancers excel at effectively controlling the battlefield by interrupting enemies while inflicting high damage up close. In PvP, they’re difficult to go up against due to their Super Armors, counters, and staggers in combination with damage combos. However, their low mobility makes them vulnerable to Ranged DPS Classes like the Gunslinger and Sharpshooter.
Gunlancers won’t be able to activate both Shield Skills at the same time. Instead, you can switch from Defensive Stance to Battlefield Shield but not the other way around since only the former ability can be toggled.
Similar to the Paladin, you have the option to go for a more DPS-oriented playstyle thanks to the Lone Knight Class Engraving. This is still viable since you’re more than capable of not only dealing burst damage but also crushing the enemy’s armor, making them highly susceptible to extra damage as a result. However, you’ll sacrifice some of your defense rating for this type of damage. Combat Readiness, on the other hand, is more popular because of the utility you provide to your allies while absorbing enough damage even if your overall damage isn’t as great. As such, everyone will most likely survive difficult activities like dungeons and raids without having to worry about their HP.
Lastly, remember to activate Defensive Stance often especially when you’re about to use skills such as Charged Stinger and Surge Cannon to safely perform overcharging to deal greater damage.
Stay tuned for more Lost Ark Class Guides and be sure to check out our Lost Ark Wiki or drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. What did you think of this Lost Ark Gunlancer Class Guide? What Advanced Class are you planning to try out first? Let us know in the comments below!