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Here's what you need to know if you're looking at building a spell-slinging glass cannon in Lost Ark.

By Cameron Koch on March 4, 2022 at 4:50PM PST

The most recent addition to Lost Ark's roster of classes in the Korean version, the Sorceress, was included at launch for players of Smilegate's free-to-play MMORPG in the West. As such, she's been a popular pick for new players looking for a casting-based entry point into the world of Arkesia. She's a hard-hitting DPS that fulfills the fantasy of a spell-slinging glass cannon, a class that lacks defense but packs a huge punch to make up for it.

There are two main ways to build a Sorceress for PVE, each defined by the class' two class-specific engravings. One focuses on delivering some truly massive damage during very specific burst windows (and as a result requires more precise timing and coordination) while the other offers more steady, consistent damage at the cost of forgoing a key Sorceress ability--Arcane Rupture. Figuring out which build to strive for can be a challenge, so this guide will dive into what each class engraving does, which skills complement those engravings, and how to play each build effectively.

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If you want to deal as much damage as possible in a small window of time, this is the Sorceress build for you. Revolving around the Igniter class engraving, this build focuses on amping up the class' Arcane Rupture identity ability. As you deal damage, the class identity gauge fills, allowing you to activate Arcane Rupture, boosting damage dealt and reducing skill cooldown times. If activated when the identity gauge is at 100%, this ability becomes even more powerful.

When playing an Igniter Sorceress, you'll want to wait to use Arcane Rupture when it's gauge is at 100% to maximize damage, as your Igniter engraving will further reduce ability cooldowns and increase the crit rate and crit damage of your abilities. You'll want to be using your hardest hitting skills (which also have the longest cooldowns) in conjunction with Arcane Rupture to deal massive amounts of damage. The only downside is your burst windows will often be small depending on the encounter, and should you happen to miss your target, you'll be contributing little to your party's success.

If you're up for a high-risk, high-reward playstyle, below are some of the skills and their corresponding Tripods you'll want to consider using for an Igniter Sorceress. Aside from some key abilities like Doomsday, Explosion, and Punishing Strike, feel free to experiment with whatever abilities fit your playstyle. When it comes to stat priority for gear, focus on accumulating as much Specialization as possible, followed by Crit and Swiftness. You'll want to equip the Igniter engraving (obviously) as well as All-Out Attack (which boosts casting or holding skills) or Grudge (a huge boost to damage dealt at the cost of receiving more damage) to further increase your damage output. Note that upon hitting level 50 you likely won't have all the skill points you need to unlock all three Tripods for each of your selected abilities, so focus first on maxing out your hardest-hitting skills (like Doomsday and Explosion) and go from there.

Playing a Reflux Sorceress is the opposite of the Igniter playstyle. Instead of saving all of your cooldowns for specific burst windows, you'll be dishing out continual and steady damage throughout the duration of any encounter. While a downside of going the Reflux route is you won't be engaging with your class's Arcane Rupture ability (the Reflux engraving disables it), you do get the added benefit of a small boost to your damage and cooldown reduction at all times. Since you don't have to worry about saving your identity gauge to activate Arcane Torrent, you can also use your Blink ability to your heart's content, giving you more survivability and more options for getting out of harm's way. This is by far an easier playstyle and one more suited for players new to the game and the class.

While many of the skills and engravings you'll be using as a Reflux build are the same as the Igniter, you'll want to change your Tripods away from anything that helps increase your identity gauge and instead prioritize ones that increase damage and crit chance. Instead of focusing primarily on Specialization stats-wise, you'll want to go after Crit first and foremost, with Swiftness as a second priority. When it comes to engravings, make sure to level up the Reflux engraving as quickly as you can and equip it. Like the Igniter, you'll want to grab Grudge as well for a solid damage boost. If you need a little extra crit, Precision Dagger is a solid choice, as is Master of Strikes, which boosts the damage of skills that don't benefit from "front" or "back" attacks (which applies to most Sorceress skills).

Sorceress has two Awakening skills to choose from. The first can be unlocked shortly after reaching level 50 and making your way to Vern Castle, while the other can't be unlocked until progressing further in the storyline. Thankfully, the first Awakening skill, Enviska's Might, is a great choice. It deals good damage and has a wide area of effect, making it a consistent and reliable choice.

Sorceress' second Awakening ability, Apocalypse Call, summons meteors from the sky to rain down on the battlefield. While visually impressive and technically capable of dealing more damage overall, the fact that the meteors are fairly spread out means some have a high chance of missing their target. Since Awakening abilities have an extremely long cooldown, most players tend to go with Enviska's Might rather than roll the dice on Apocalypse Call. The choice of which Awakening skill to use with either the Ignitor or Reflux Sorceress build is ultimately up to you.

Curious what Lost Ark class you should pick next? Check out our Lost Ark class guide for some of our recommendations. If you're reaching Lost Ark's endgame, be sure to read up on what you should be doing after hitting level 50, as well as how to earn and upgrade an endgame gear set.

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