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Best Lost Ark Artillerist build: class overview
Each class in Lost Ark hinges around their Identity Skills. For the Artillerist, that’s the Firepower Gauge. As you deal damage, you will build up your Firepower Gauge. Every 33% grants you a damage buff, bringing the Artillerist’s DPS to more and more impressive levels. At full Firepower Gauge, you can also activate Barrage Mode. This temporarily replaces all of your abilities with four powerful Barrage attacks; Howitzer, Focus Fire, Impregnability, and Energy Cannon, which is the aforementioned laserbeam. However, entering Barrage Mode also roots you in place, completely immobilizing you until you exit Barrage Mode. That of course leaves the player rather vulnerable. Thankfully, you can use the shield from Impregnability to soak up damage long enough to get a couple of attacks off. This is the typical game plan for Artillerists. Build up your Firepower Gauge, enter Barrage Mode, and use Impregnability to protect yourself long enough to use Energy Cannon.
Best Lost Ark Artillerist build: leveling and skills
If you’ve read any of our other build guides for top-tier classes, you’ve probably noticed by now that AoE damage is king. Things are no different here, and that’s why Artillerist shines. During the main story and the early endgame, focus on advancing your powerful AoE attacks to quickly deal with hoards of monsters. You will earn skill points each time you level up towards 50 and can earn more later using Skill Potions from endgame rewards. Each skill has ten levels, but higher levels require more skill points. Of course, you’ll also gain Tripods at levels 4, 7, and 10. These powerful augments alter a skill, sometimes drastically. These are fairly flexible while leveling, but the setup below will be your best bet. Work towards these breakpoints as your progress through the main story then use this build to get started in the endgame.
Best PvE skills for Artillerist
Best PvP skills for Artillerist
In Arena PvP, each player gets a normalized pool of skill points to work with. So, you will be able to max out a few extra skills right from the get go. Use these builds as you transition into endgame with Engravings and Awakening Skills. More on those next.
Best Lost Ark Artillerist build: Engravings
The next step in customization after 50 is Engravings. These are extra buffs you can acquire through gear and Engraving books. There are many generic Engravings that any class can use, but each class also has two Class Engravings that can alter their playstyle. For Artillerist, these are:
Firepower Enhancement reduces all incoming damage by 20%. Plus it adds a crit rate bonus to each tier of your Firepower Gauge on top of the existing damage buffs. Barrage Enhancement boosts the power of your Barrage Mode attacks.
As it stands right now, Firepower Enhancement is the meta pick. The defensive bonus is huge for a relatively immobile class like Artillerist. Plus, you typically aren’t spending long in Barrage Mode, so the damage bonus from Barrage Enhancement almost never outweighs the higher-uptime bonus from Firepower Enhancement. There are a lot of viable generic Engravings though, and you have some flexibility based on playstyle and content. These suggestions should work well for most Artillerist players.
Keen Blunt Weapon increases crit damage but has a chance to reduce non-crit damage. If your crit rate is very high, this will net your more damage overall. Hit Master increases the damage of attacks that are not Back or Front attacks. Most of Artillerist’s abilities do not have those properties, so this is a nice generic damage boost. Barricade increases damage while shielded, and Artillerist has several shielding abilities. This is another comfortable, generic boost. Grudge is one of the biggest boss damage increases you can get, at 20% by tier 3. However, it also causes you to take 20% more damage at all tiers. This isn’t worth running until you can max it out and are comfortable with the defensive penalty, but it is very strong for later endgame content.
Best Lost Ark Artillerist build: Combat Stats and accessories
In addition to Engravings, accessory items in Lost Ark (necklaces, earrings, and rings) are your source for Combat Stats. These substats can have a major effect on your character, and it is important to target gear with the right stats for your build. While leveling, look for Crit to up your critical strike rate and damage, helping you clear the main story faster. Specialization and Swiftness are nice secondary targets, respectively increasing Firepower meter gain and lowering cooldowns. Once you reach level 50 and unlock class Engravings, base your Combat Stat choices on the Engraving you’re using. Since most Artillerists will use Firepower Enhancement, most Artillerists will want Crit for maximum DPS. Your secondary target should be Swiftness, which will lower your cooldowns, speed up your rotation, and further increase your damage output. If you do decide to mess around with Barrage Enhancement, use Specialization to get into Barrage Mode faster.
Best Lost Ark Artillerist build: Awakening Skills
After level 50, you’ll gain access to Beatrice’s Trixion questline. Following this will earn you your Awakening Skills, extremely powerful abilities with lengthy cooldowns. Think of these like an ultimate. Each class has two, but you can only equip one at a time. Artillerist’s are:
Missile Barrage fires a swarm of rockets into the air, which come crashing down on the target area. This is a long, slow attack, but it deals a ton of damage and completely refills your Firepower Meter. Heavy Turret unsurprisingly creates a heavy turret that launches bombs and lasers at nearby enemies for twenty seconds.
Missile Barrage is the more meta PvE pick at the moment since it fills your Firepower Meter. That of course grants considerable buffs and lets you get into Barrage Mode immediately, netting you a ton of extra damage. However, Heavy Turret will deal damage passively while you get back to firing yourself, which has a lot of value. Both are fine choices, and Heavy Turret is likely better against pesky, mobile bosses that are easy to miss with Missile Barrage. In PvP, however, Heavy Turret is the go to. Creating an extra threat for your opponents to deal with really shakes up a fight, and will help you wipe teams with your powerful AoE abilities. That’s everything you need to get ramped up for endgame as Artillerist! If you’re looking for a different style of gunner, we’ve got guides for Gunlancer and Gunslinger ready to go. If you’re tired of leveling and ready for endgame, our guide to leveling fast in Lost Ark can help. Or, use a Knowledge Transfer to catch your second character up.
