Lost Ark features many classic MMORPG classes, including heroes that are equipped with classic range skills. The Artillerist class is one of Lost Ark’s ranged classes, boasting some hefty ranged weapons and a beefy build. But, it can be tricky to work with the Artillerist at lower levels.
Artillerist Class Overview
The Artillerist is an advanced class within the Gunner main ranged class. This class has high survivability with the capacity to withstand lots of incoming damage. At the same time, he deals a ton of high-damage attacks with his ranged abilities, making him one of the most rewarding and powerful classes in Lost Ark.
The main downside to this class is his slow movement speed and slow attack animations. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to balance out these cons and get the most out of this rough and tough class.
Artillerist Abilities
The Artillerist is a pure damage class, unleashing swarms of bullets into enemies and monsters. He is slow but deadly, predominantly dealing AoE damage which can clear out monsters and enemy waves in seconds.
Artillerist Identity Skill
Every Lost Ark class is by their Identity, and for the Artillerist, this Identity skill is based on his Firepower gauge. Like other Lost Ark classes, the gauge will fill up based on the damage you deal to enemies and opponents.
The Artillerist will gain a damage buff for every tier of the Firepower gauge, which increases this class’s overall DPS to an even more impressive level. Once the Firepower gauge is at full capacity, Barrage Mode can be activated.
As a result, the Firepower gauge should be filled as often as possible – whether or not you’ll use Barrage Mode. Activating Barrage Mode will temporarily replace all of the Artillerist’s abilities with four powerful Barrage attacks:
- Howitzer
- Focus Fire
- Impregnability
- Energy Cannon
That being said, entering Barrage Mode will also root the Artillerist in place for the time being, leaving you completely immobilized and potentially vulnerable to a range of incoming damage and threats. Fortunately, the Artillerist can use the Impregnability shield to absorb damage for long enough to survive this mode.
This sort of cycle is generally the staple for Lost Ark Artillerist players – build up the Firepower gauge, enter Barrage Mode, use Impregnability to shield against attacks, and finish off with Energy Cannon. However, it can be understandably tricky to get into the swing of things at lower levels.
Artillerist Awakening Skills
It will take some time and solid Lost Ark grinding before you can unlock the Artillerist Awakening skills. You will first need to complete the Main Questline until you reach Vern city, after which you will meet Beatrice who will ask you to visit her in Trixion.
Below are the Artillerist Awakening skills and how you can choose which Awakening skill would be best for your preferred Artillerist build:
Missile Barrage
This awakening skill launches a flurry of rockets into the air, which comes crashing down onto the target’s area. This attack is lengthy and slow to hit, but it can deal massive damage and can completely regenerate the Artillerist’s Firepower gauge.
Since this skill is great for refilling the Firepower gauge for useful buffs while having a chance at dealing massive damage, it’s a great choice for PvE encounters. Its use also allows players to get into Barrage Mode more frequently.
Heavy Turret
This awakening skill creates a heavy turret that fires bombs and lasers at all nearby enemies for a short timeframe. While this skill is fairly straightforward, it can be really valuable in a variety of settings.
It will deal passive damage to foes while you get back to landing shots yourself. This awakening skill is definitely the go-to for PvP instances and for annoying, highly mobile bosses and monsters that you could easily miss with Missile Barrage.
Artillerist Leveling Guide
The Artillerist class offers a ton of benefits to players who can get a hang of the mechanics and playstyle, and the leveling process can go pretty smoothly thanks to his high damage abilities and survivability. But, choosing his class can be fairly challenging at lower levels.
Gear & Combat Stats
Focus on equipping the highest item level gear possible throughout the leveling process. Also, focus on Swiftness for more movement speed as this class is pretty slow with minimal mobility, as well as reduced casting time and faster skill cooldowns.
Prioritize the Crit and Specialization Combat Stats, as this will increase the Artillerist’s overall damage and clear speed. He can deal a ton of AoE damage to clear out mobs at lower levels, but it won’t hurt to speed up the process even further.
Best Class Engravings
Unlocking the Artillerist Class Engravings will take some time and progression through the main story, but they’ll be incredibly valuable in the endgame. Below are the Artillerist Class Engravings as well as their uses:
Firepower Enhancement
This class engraving will lessen all incoming damage while adding a crit rate bonus to each of the Firepower gauge’s tiers. These bonuses are in addition to the natural damage buffs.
Barrage Enhancement
This class engraving will boost the power and effectiveness of all attacks in Barrage Mode.
Firepower Enhancement is currently the go-to choice for Lost Ark players, as it provides benefits throughout the duration of every encounter. It provides some extremely useful defensive bonuses which are massive for such an immobile class.
In addition, players generally do not spend too much time in Barrage Mode throughout each battle, so the benefits of Firepower Enhancement almost always outweigh the advantages of Barrage Enhancement.
Generic Engravings
Generic Engravings can be acquired from Engraving Books, or from items such as necklaces, rings, or earrings. The Artillerist’s most suitable generic Engravings will depend on your playstyle as all of them may have certain pros and cons.
Below are the most useful generic engravings for the Artillerist class:
- Keen Blunt Weapon: This generic engraving will increase crit damage, but it also has a chance to reduce non-crit damage. However, if your crit rate is fairly high, this will still net your more damage overall.
- Hit Master: This generic engraving will increase the damage of attacks that are not classified as Back or Front attacks. The large majority of Artillerist’s abilities do not have Back or Front Attack properties, so this is a handy damage boost for most of his attacks.
- Barricade: This generic engraving will increase damage while the Artillerist is shielded. Since the Artillerist class flaunts numerous shielding abilities, this engraving will come in handy in a range of scenarios.
- Grudge: This generic engraving provides one of the biggest boss damage increases you can get in Lost Ark. However, it also causes you to take more damage at all tiers. This isn’t worth using until you can max it out at level 3 and are relatively comfortable with the defensive penalty, but it is extremely powerful for later endgame content.
Continue The Main Story
Continuing the Main Questline will be the best way to get levels as quickly as possible in Lost Ark. You will have to face a ton of enemies and mobs along the way, which will reward you with some great XP.
In addition to the XP gained from enemy encounters, players can expect to receive some bonus XP for each quest after it’s completed. Completing the Main Questline is also vital for unlocking the Artillerist most powerful skills, as well as gaining access to some awesome in-game activities.
Focus on the man storyline and quests at first, as these will be most advantageous for the leveling process. you can always go back and finish side quests once the main questline is completed.
Skill Point Allocation
Allocate Skill Points to gain Tripods for the Artillerist’s most effective skills, depending on where you’re at in the game. You’ll be able to switch out skills as needed based on the needs of the encounter or the needs of your team.
Below are the most valuable Skill Tripods for the Artillerist, as well as how to manage them as you progress towards level 50:
- Level 11: Enhanced Shell (4 points) to apply Defense Debuff on targets.
- Level 15: Gatling Gun (20 points) helps against group of mobs.
- Level 19: Flamethrower (20 points) further increases the clear speed of mob groups.
- Level 25: Air Raid (20 points); Napalm Shot (4 points); Multiple Rocket Launcher (4 points) adds high AoE and single target damage.
- Level 30: Max out Air Raid to deal more damage to boss monsters.
- Level 34: Remove all points from Enhanced Shell, Gatling Gun and Napalm Shot, and max out Multiple Rocket Launcher to increase your damage output; Add 4 Points to Summon Turret for more consistent Defense Debuff.
- Level 41: Gravity Explosion (20 points) and Homing Barrage (48 points) adds more AoE and single target damage. Remove all points from Flamethrower.
- Level 45: Max out Gravity Explosion and add 4 points to Flamethrower for better mob clear speed.
The Artillerist starts off with Enhanced Shell, which applies an Armor Destruction defense debuff onto his hits. This has a massive impact on future hits, as it will increase the damage dealt overall. Extra Skill Points can be used on any low cooldown skills, provided that you reallocate Skill Points to main skills where needed.
Artillerist Gameplay Tips
Although every player’s experience with the Artillerist will vary depending on build, setup, and preferred playstyle, there are a few fundamental aspects that any gamer can use throughout their Lost Ark journey.
Defeating Mobs With Artillerist
The Artillerist deals a ton of AoE damage, so taking on hordes of enemies and monsters will be fairly straightforward. However, there are still a few things you can do to speed up the process for a faster leveling experience overall.
Group up the enemies together with Gravity Explosion. Follow it up by using your AoE abilities to deal damage or even kill the enemies all at once. Using Enhanced Shell and Summon Turret will debuff mobs for a faster encounter.
Bosses With Artillerist
While the Artillerist’s AoE abilities can be useful for many situations, he can lack single-target damage compared to many other Lost Ark classes. Single target damage is essential for boss encounters, or for high-tier elites.
But, you can still build his single damage output with the right setup. Single target damage output for Dungeon bosses can be increased with certain Tripods, such as Armor Destruction and The Big One. Skills like Air Raid and Homing Barrage will also provide single-target damage.
The Artillerist is one of the trickiest classes to play in Lost Ark and is generally not recommended for brand new players. But, he can definitely be worthwhile in the long run as his firepower definitely packs a punch.
