
Introduction
The Order of the Emperor Arcanist is a high mobility and Attack Speed focused class with low survivability. This class mainly focuses on the Combat Stat Swiftness to decrease the high Cooldown time of her main damage skills.
Arcanist has 3 different categories of skills in her arsenal. Normal Skills deal high damage, with the help of Order of the Emperor. Filling up the Deck Meter or triggering the Quick Draw Tripod of a Normal Skill pulls a random Specialty Card from Arcanist's Card Deck.
Stacking Skills provide useful 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, 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.
The focus of this build is to deal high damage with your Normal Skills and the use of the Emperor card. On top of that, Order of the Emperor replaces Judgment and Balance Specialty Cards with Royal and Chancellor. Both of these cards further increase the damage of your Normal Skills.
Be aware that the following recommendation mainly focuses on the Nightmare Relic set based build, since this is the most beginner-friendly and least support buffs, Runes and buff food reliant build. Arcanist has multiple different viable builds around different set combination (6 Domination, 2Nightmare+4 Domination), once you are more confident with the current playstyle, you can experiment with other set and skill options.
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 Empress's Grace 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.

Difficulty
Intermediate
Mobility
Very High
Survivability
Low
Back Attack
None
Raid Skill Build
- Dark Resurrection, Evoke and Unlimited Shuffle are your main Damage skills.
- Stream of Edge increases your Movement Speed and Crit Rate.
- Return is your Counter Skills and gives applies a Crit synergy buff.
Gameplay & Skill Rotation
The Gameplay of an Order of the Emperor Arcanist revolves around the Skill Rotation and Identity Cards usage, which need to be managed simultaneously to maximize the damage output and survivability. In combination with the Nightmare Flower Set, you will focus on using your highest Damage skills on cooldown. There is no particular rotation. Instead, you need to make sure that your Crit and Movement Speed buffs are always active when your main Damage Skills hit the enemy.
Skill Rotation:
- Call of Destiny to apply bleed and pull with luch a specialty card you can use to buff yourself.
- (Use Prismatic Mirror to trigger the Nightmare Flower Set effect.) Only at the start of the fight.
- 2x Evoke
- Stream of Edge
- Dark Resurrection
- Return
- Unlimited Shuffle
- Celestial Rain
- Mysterious Stampede
Don't hold Return, instead just tap it, if there is not much time left before a buff disappears or the boss moves away. This will guarantee that the buff and debuff are applied before the first hit of Dark Resurrection.
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
- Cull
- Ghost
- Chancellor
- Royal
- Moon
- Royal
- Star
- Emperor
- Wheel of Fortune
- Joy
- Clown
Try to memorize the usage and combos of the most important Identity Cards listed below, to maximize your damage out put.
- Corrosion, Mayhem, Three-Headed Snake, Ghost and Royal can be activated as soon as you pull those, since these cards provide you with a long duration buff which are beneficial throughout the entire fight.
- Use Chancellor and/or Royal after using Return to fully buff your follow-up Normal Skill's Damage.
- Cull is one of the best cards to multiply your damage out put. You should combine it with the cards listed below to maximize the efficiency of it.
- After activating Wheel of Fortune, the next skill you use will have it Cooldown reset. This includes your Awakening skills. But with this build, it is more beneficial to reset the Cooldown of Dark Resurrection.
- Royal or Twisted Fate (if you are lucky with the proc), in combination with Cull are your strongest 2-cards combos. Use this after Return.
- Use Joy while your main Damage skills are on Cooldown.
- Moon should be used before you use your main Damage skills.
- Clown is great to copy the following cards: Cull, Royal or Wheel of Fortune.
- 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.
- You can use Emperor skill immediately to deal high damage in a huge area around you. On top of that, this card deals decent Stagger Damage. But make sure that your self buffs are all active, before you use this card.
Stats Priority
The Order of the Emperor Arcanist build mainly focuses on Swiftness, which decrease the high Cooldown time of her main damage skills. The increased Attack Speed further helps to execute your main damage rotation faster before the target moves away. On top of that, it helps you to stay on “Boundless MP” state with your Nightmare Flower Set effect. You need Crit only on your necklace, since Arcanist has various buffs, which increase her 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
Main Stat Increase
Sub Stat Increase
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 playstyle. 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
- Order of the Emperor increases damage of Normal Skills. Adds the Emperor card to the Card Deck. It also replaces Judgment and Balance Specialty Cards with Royal and Chancellor.
- Raid Captain synergizes well with the Movement Speed buffs provided by your skills and the Combat Stat Swiftness.
Add-On Endgame Engravings
- Adrenaline increases your Attack Power and Crit rate and can be easily kept at max stack with the low Cooldown skills of Arcanist. Once we have Bracelets, you can replace this engraving for one of the other Engravings listed below.
- Mass Increase increases the Attack Power. The Attack Speed reduction is countered by reaching high Swiftness and Set Effect.
- Hit Master is great for Arcanist, since most of her skills don't rely on Back or Front Attack.
Advanced Engravings
Note: The Advanced Engravings are the Best in Slot setup for Tier 3 content. The penalties attached to these can be hard to overcome for new players. Only use the following engravings if you are experienced with the boss fight!
- 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.
- 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
Order of the Emperor
Grudge
Raid Captain
Mass Increase
Adrenaline
Order of the Emperor
Grudge
Raid Captain
Mass Increase
Hit Master
Alternative
Order of the Emperor
Grudge
Raid Captain
Adrenaline
Hit Master
Order of the Emperor
Grudge
Raid Captain
Adrenaline
Cursed Doll
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
Tier 3 Argos Set
1370 - 1415 gearscore
Preordained Diligence Set
Tier 3 Legion Raid Set
1415 - 1444 gearscore
Preordained Diligence 2-Piece Set
Demon Beast Strength 4-Piece Set
1445+ gearscore
Nightmare Flower Set
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 |
Dark Resurrection | Galewind |
Evoke | Wealth |
Unlimited Shuffle | Galewind |
Mysterious Stampede | Quick Recharge |
Stream of Edge | Quick Recharge |
Celestial Rain | Quick Recharge |
- Low Cooldown skills equipped with Quick Recharge help to shorten the Cooldown on your main Damage skills.
- Galewind helps to execute your main Damage skills faster.
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 |
Dark Resurrection | Piercing Strike Intense Card Furious Blow |
Evoke | Quick Prep Conc. Magick Circle |
Call of Destiny | Nimble Movement Quick Draw Fake Flip |
Return | Exposed Darkness |
Unlimited Shuffle | Quick Prep Ultimate Shuffle Storm of Dest. |
Mysterious Stampede | Quick Draw Stampede Conc. |
Stream of Edge | Dark Edge |
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 like how to create higher tier Gems.
Attack Gems
Dark Resurrection
Evoke
Unlimited Shuffle
Celestial Rain
Emperor
Cooldown Gems
Dark Resurrection
Evoke
Unlimited Shuffle
Celestial Rain
Return
Stream of Edge
Card Sets
Cards are an endgame system for maximizing your character. Below are the recommend sets for this class.
Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain them.
Budget Card Set
Optimal Damage Card Set
Summary
- The Order of the Emperor Arcanist is a high mobility and Attack Speed class with low survivability.
- Swiftness is the main Combat Stat of the Order of the Emperor Arcanist.
- Normal Skills are your main Damage sources.
- 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 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
Reviewed by
Changelog
Nov 21st 2022
Article updated after the Nov 16th Balance Patch.
Jul 17th 2022
Article Published
Feb 18th 2023
Bracelet options added.
FAQs
Which Arcanist build is best? ›
...
In terms of Engravings, here are the most important options:
- Emperor's Edict (1)
- Grudge (3)
- All-Out Attack (3)
- Adrenaline (2)
- Raid Captain (3)
The Order of the Emperor Arcanist is a high mobility and Attack Speed focused class with low survivability. This class mainly focuses on the Combat Stat Swiftness to decrease the high Cooldown time of her main damage skills. Arcanist has 3 different categories of skills in her arsenal.
How do you play Empress Arcanist? ›- Build four stacks with Scratch Dealer & Quadra Accelerate.
- Use Return for buffs, this always starts your burst window.
- Cast Secret Garden or Celestial Rain within Return's buffs.
- Build stacks again with two Spiral Edge.
There are two specialization paths for Mage to choose from: Elementalist and Arcanist. Elementalists excel at dealing area-of-effect damage, making them very efficient at EXP grinding and group PvE; Arcanists possess powerful crowd control abilities and are well-suited for group PvE and group PvP.
Can an arcanist become a black mage? ›You must be 30 THM and 15 ACN to become a Black Mage... If that's what you're asking. THM is the only class that brances to Black Mage. Black Mage requires Archer 15, not Arcanist.
Who is the highest LVL in Lost Ark? ›The max level cap in Lost Ark is 60. It was 55 in the closed beta, but it has increased for the full launch. While 60 is the maximum you can reach, you are rewarded with additional skill points for every level you earn after 50. As for your Account, the maximum level you can reach is now 250.
What level do you finish Lost Ark? ›You'll hit level 50 long before the game's main story comes to a stop, but that doesn't mean you should give up on completing the main quest (designated by the blue globe icon).
What is the last level in Lost Ark? ›Lost Ark Level Cap: What Is The Highest Level? A patch during the pre-launch period of the game - released on February 7 - changed the level cap in Lost Ark to 60.
How hard is Arcanist 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.
Is arcanist any good? ›The Arcanist is a fantastic new take of Arcane spellcasting. Arcanists prepare spells at the beginning of the day like a Wizard, then cast spells using daily slots like a Sorcerer. This makes the Arcanist versatile, powerful, and a great introduction for players who are new to spellcasting.
What class is Reaper Lost Ark? ›
The Reaper will join the Deathblade and Shadowhunter as the third Assassin Advanced Class. In this Lost Ark Academy, you'll find information to see if the Reaper is the class for you— and if so, help you start planning the skills and engravings you're interested in using to enhance your impact on the battlefield.
Is arcanist good for beginners? ›It appeared that Arcanist / Summoner is one of the most straightforward jobs in the game – and for sure, the simplest among casters once you learn your combos and spell synergy. Moreover, it's very mobile and fast, so it has high chances to make it to your favorite job.
Is arcanist a DPS class? ›You will always be considered DPS as Arc and cannot change it.
Is arcanist a good starting class? ›Arcanist (upgrades to Summoner or Scholar).
This is an excellent choice for a Final Fantasy 14 starter class as it's easily one of the most varied ones you can find. The Arcanist is a magical ranged DPS class at its core, but you'll also get a basic healing spell and a pet familiar.
- 1 Vivi Ornitier – Final Fantasy 9.
- 2 Jessica Albert – Dragon Quest 8. ...
- 3 Lulu – Final Fantasy 10. ...
- 4 Athos – Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. ...
- 5 Millenia – Grandia 2. ...
- 6 Angela – Trials Of Mana. ...
- 7 Emma Millstein – Trails Of Cold Steel. ...
The first thing to understand about Arcanist is what you are actually capable of, which is a bit more complex than with some other classes. 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.
Is Black Mage a boy? ›Black Mage (male).
Why is Dreadhorde Arcanist good? ›Another benefit of Dreadhorde Arcanist in the context of sideboard games is that it can be reactive and proactive at the same time. It keeps creating card advantage and pushing through incremental damage while giving you redundancy for any cheap spell-based sideboard options you have.
Is Arcanist hard to play 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.
Why is URZA Lord High artificer good? ›Urza, Lord High Artificer has been the most played mono-blue commander and one of the most popular commanders overall from its release until just recently. It provides unparalleled mana advantage in blue, is a perfect infinite mana outlet in the command zone, and even provides great protection in its Construct.
Can you play lands with haldan avid arcanist? ›
Haldan, Avid Arcanist (Ikoria Commander) - Gatherer - Magic: The Gathering. Click here to view ratings and comments. You may play lands and cast noncreature spells from among cards you exiled that have fetch counters on them, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast those spells.
Can an arcanist become a white mage? ›In order to become a White Mage, characters must have a level 30 Conjurer and a level 15 Arcanist.
What does an arcanist become at level 30? ›Once an Arcanist reaches level 30, he or she can become a Summoner or Scholar.
Should I choose Summoner or Scholar? ›The Scholar is different, it's a healing job, if you like to heal go ahead, if you don't, play the Summoner or change to another job. Even if you intend to stay an Arcanist, you won't be accepted in dungeons, trials and such.
Do arcanists need charisma? ›The Arcanist - Character Creation
The Arcanist is primarily an Intelligence-based caster, meaning they have to study and memorize spells. However, Dexterity and Charisma are also important Ability Scores for this class. The Arcanist Exploits, a spontaneous casting ability, relies on Charisma.
The Sorceress is a powerful mage class in Lost Ark and is likely going to be one of the most popular classes in the game during Lost Ark's launch period. It makes sense - her abilities are punchy (with Fire, Ice, and Lightning magic), look great, and she has a lot of viability in PvE and PvP.
What is the coolest class in Lost Ark? ›Best Lost Ark classes: PvE
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The Summoner is a tricky class to master in Lost Ark, but she can be very powerful in the hands of the right player.
What is the easiest class in Lost Ark? ›Striker. A striker is a hit-and-run class later in the game, but they start pretty powerful compared to the monsters in Lost Ark. This is an advanced Martial Arts class that is probably the easiest to use.