Lost Ark Artillerist Guide

Bring out the explosive power of the Artillerist class. How can players bring out the full potential of this heavy-hitting gunner?

Lost Ark features multiple classes that players can use. Each job will set the type of gameplay gamers will practice in their time in Arkesia. The Artillerist is one of the advanced classes of the Gunner line. They focus on heavy explosive damage combined with heavy attacks to farm Lost Ark gold. For players to become powerful fighters from this specialization, gamers will have to follow several pointers. 

The Artillerist

Characters from the Gunner rely on ranged attacks to inflict damage to their enemies. Among these classes, the Artillerist provides the most explosive firepower. This character makes use of large AoE damaging skills to take out swathes of enemies or deal massive damage to bosses. However, gamers with Lost Ark accounts that use this character will find that he is slow compared to other characters in the game.

Though the Artillerist is one of the slowest classes in the game, the firepower it gives more than makes up for its lack of mobility. Adventurers will have to build and optimize their characters to ensure that they bring the most out of this explosive gunner class. Here is a guide detailing how to produce a strong Artillerist:

Best PvE Skills

In Lost Ark, each character will have multiple skills but cannot use all of them simultaneously. Players have the freedom to choose which abilities they would like to equip in their skill slots. However, some skills are more suited for PvE than PvP. Here are the best talents for player versus environment situations along with their best TriPods:

• Air Raid with Quick Fire/Lightning Barrage/The Big One
• Flamethrower with Quick Prep/Shield/Azure Flame
• Energy Field with Field Release/Energy Increase/Solid Shield
• Homing Barrage with Guiding Enhancement/Vital Point Bombardment/Power Bomb
• Gravity Explosion with The More the Merrier/Sweeping Gravity/Planetary Gravity +50%
• Multiple Rocket Launcher with Flame Rocket/Quick Barrage/Access Denied
• Napalm Shot with Target Focus/Flash Explosion

This build focuses on dealing with the max amount of damage that can be dealt with over time. Due to the lack of the class’s mobility, adventurers will have to rely on the shields provided by Energy Field and Flamethrower’s Shield to mitigate unavoidable damage. This ability setup ensures that players do not rely too much on their high-damaging stationary attacks to avoid getting hit by enemies.

Optional PvE Skills

• Enhanced Shell (Armor Destruction/Bullet Enhancement/Internal Ignition)
• Summon Turret (Armor Destruction/Enhanced Turret/Big Pack)

With only one skill slot left, gamers can choose between Enhanced Shell or Summon Turret as their last ability. The first ability has a very low cooldown and can be used successively in a combo attack. Meanwhile, the second talent provides damage upkeep, ensuring that opponents will receive hits even when the Artillerist is not actively using skills. It is up to the players to decide which two abilities they prefer to use.

PvP Skills

Player versus player situations is different than PvE. While player versus environment focuses more on reading attack patterns and dealing damage to opponents in intervals, PvP requires players to finish their enemies as fast. In addition, since adventurers will be battling against other players, the abilities for these situations should provide severe dealing damage, crowd controls, and several lifelines. Here are the best skills for this type of scene:

• Gatling Gun with Quick Prep/Tenacity/Aimed Shot
• Jump Bombardment with Muscle Spasm/Wide Explosion/Rocket Jump
• Flamethrower with Quick Prep/Ranged Flame/Scorching Blaze
• Swing with Quick Attack/Advancing Hit/Stunner
• Air Raid with Quick Fire/Lightning Barrage/The Big One
• Homing Barrage with guiding Enhancement/Vital Point Bombardment/Power Bomb
• Energy Field with Field Release/Energy Increase/Solid Shield
• Napalm Shot with Wide Explosion

These skills focus on dealing burst damage while disabling the opponents. In addition, most of these abilities require gamers to stay far from their opponents to avoid close-quarter combat. Artillerists also have safety nets from using Jump Bombardment to escape close fights and Energy Field to absorb damage.

Best Awakening Skills

This explosive gunner class has two Awakening Skills that players can choose from. Each has its perks and strengths. Here are the two Awakening abilities of the Artillerists:

• Missile Barrage – Releases a flurry of rockets into the air that lands on a targeted area. This ability deals tons of damage in a short period and completely refills the Firepower Meter.
• Heavy Turret – Creates a Heavy Turret that can attack with bombs and lasers for 20 seconds. 

Missile Barrage is more commonly used in the PvE setting due to its high burst attack and firepower meter refill. This ensures that the gauge is always full, and players can benefit from it. However, the Heavy Turret is a viable alternative in the PvE scene. While the first Awakening skill deals explosive damage in a short period, the second ability deals more damage in total. In addition, players can also hit their enemies while Heavy Turret is activated.

For PvP, Heavy Turret is the go-to ability since opponents are more mobile and harder to pin down. In addition, the Turret also serves as an extra threat for opponents to avoid giving Artillerist more space to maneuver. Missile Barrage will barely hit their target, especially against high mobility classes. 

Best Runes Per Skill

Runes help increase the power or effectiveness of the characters’ abilities. Each add-on will provide various types of effects, which will augment the skill’s efficiency. Here are the best Runes for several skills:

• Air Raid – Galewind
• Homing Barrage – Overwhelm or Conviction
• Flamethrower – Wealth
• Napalm Shot – Rage or Judgment
• Summon Turret/Enhanced Shell – Bleed or Quick Recharge
• Multiple Rocket Launcher – Galewind or Protection
• Energy Field – Purify or Quick Recharge
• Forward Barrage – Wealth

Best Class Engraving

The Artillerist class has two class engravings that they can use. These are the Firepower Enhancement and the Barrage Enhancement. Here are the details for each add-on:

• Firepower Enhancement – reduce all incoming damage by 20%. Add a critical rate bonus to each tier of the character’s Firepower Gauge on top of the existing damage buffs.
• Barrage Enhancement – boosts the power of your Barrage Mode attacks.

While the second engraving does provide the most damage, it is also hazardous since using Barrage Mode requires players to be stationary for a lengthy period. This mode makes Artillerist easier to hit. Adventurers prefer to use Firepower Enhancement since it buffs the survivability of Artillerist and improves the critical rate of attacks. Among the two, the first engraving is the best choice.

Best Engraving

There are many add-ons that adventurers can equip in the game. These engravings provide various status effects and buffs to characters that significantly help their travels. Here are the best ones for the Artillerist class:

• Grudge – This one is arguably the best late-game add-on for this class. While Grudge debuffs adventurers into receiving 20% more damage from all enemies, it dramatically boosts the damage dealt by their skills. Artillerists can cancel out the increasing damage given by this engraving if they are using Firepower Enhancement. Gamers should note that Grudge is only good if it is at max nodes.
• Keen Blunt Weapon – This add-on increases the damage dealt by acute attacks while reducing the wear of non-crit abilities. Artillerists can benefit significantly from this engraving since they enjoy high critical chances due to their Firepower Enhancement. 
• Hit Master – This powerup increases the damage of all non-back and front attacks. The majority of the high-damaging Artillerist skills like Air Raid and Homing Barrage are not classified as back and front attacks, so many of the abilities from this class benefit tremendously from this engraving. 
• Barricade – This add-on increases the damage dealt while shielded. Artillerists have two shield abilities that they can use for an extended period, enabling them to benefit from this engraving longer. 

These are the best powerups for the Artillerist class. However, adventurers can still experiment with their characters, and they can try out other engravings that are not included in this list. Equipping other add-ons opens up a lot of different possibilities. 

Best Combat Stats

In Lost Ark, stats are a huge deal since it defines the type of playstyle that will be more beneficial to characters. These attributes affect various aspects of adventurers, from the amount of damage dealt to the amount of damage taken. Here are the combat stats in the Korean MMO ARPG:

• Crit
• Specialization
• Domination
• Swiftness
• Endurance
• Expertise

Though there are multiple combat stats in the game, classes focus or radiate to only one or two substats. Trying to invest in more than two attributes is inefficient since the skill points will be too spread-out. For Artillerists, they need stats that will help them increase their damage and cooldown reduction. 

The best stat for this class is Crit, while their secondary attribute is Swiftness. Crit refers to the likelihood of increasing the chance of critical landing hits. This stat pairs well with the Firepower Enhancement engraving. Focusing on this attribute combined with other powerups makes the Artillerist class one of the highest crit combatants. 

Many of this gunner class’s skills have a high cooldown period. Adventurers will have to spend some of their points on the Swiftness attribute to reduce the waiting period. Aside from cooldown reduction, the combat stats also increase the character’s movement speed and attack speed, which helps make up for the Artillerist’s lack of mobility.

There are many other classes that players can enjoy. However, none can compare to the incredible destruction and explosive display that the Artillerist can do while farming Lost Ark gold. Following this guide will help adventurers bring out the full potential of this heavy-hitting gunner class.