Arcanist Card Deck Guide for Lost Ark

Arcanist's Identity consists of 15 cards that modify her gameplay considerably. Cards can be drawn once your gauge is full or when Quick Draw is proc'd. Cards are drawn at random and require you to memorize their effects to be able to use them effectively. Overwhelming at first, Arcanist's cards become a lot easier to utilize given rules and priorities to follow when using them.

Arcanist's damage cards pave the way for incredible combos making her skills do incredible damage. Increased damage, Critical Rate or interactions with her Normal, Stack building & Ruin skills are just a few to name.

• Three-Headed Snake: Changes Basic Attacks into three directions for 16s. On hit, earn one stack. Damage to foes +100%. Damage to Challenge or lower monsters +400%.
• Cull: Grants +100% Critical Rate and +50% Critical Damage for all attacks when they hit one enemy for 4.0 seconds.
• Corrosion: Over a duration of 30 seconds, gives a 30% chance of +10% Damage to the foe for 5.0 seconds.
• Judgment: Makes Ruin skills always trigger the four-stack effect, regardless of the actual number of stacks cast upon foes for 4.0 seconds.
• Mayhem over a duration of 30 seconds, grants Atk. Speed +3% for 4.0 seconds every time skills are used, up to 15%.
• Twisted Fate: Increases your damage by 0/10/20/40% for 4.0 seconds. This is a random chance of being any of the four.
• Chancellor: Increases the Critical Rate of Normal Skills by 20% for 10 seconds.
• Emperor: Inflicts tremendous damage within a 14m radius.
• Royal (Emperor only): Increases the damage of Normal Skills by 50% for 4.0 seconds.

Though Arcanist has several cards in its deck that increase damage, there are some that have special interactions with Arcanist's other mechanics or cards themselves that are just as important to remember. From helping with MP economy, decreasing skill cooldowns or granting you more cards.

• Balance: Increases the amount of stacks built by your Stacking skills by +1, for 30 seconds.
• Clown: Grants you the most recently used card once more.
• Ghost: Gives you +20% Move Speed and ignores collision with adventurers and monsters while moving for 16 seconds.
• Joy: Reduces remaining cooldown for all skills except Awakening, Movement Skills and Stand Up by 15%. With a 50% chance of reducing cooldowns by 30%.
• Moon: Reduces cooldown by 20% for 30 seconds.
• Royal: Fills empty cards slots, maximum two.
• Star recovers 50% MP on use & increases MP recovery speed by 20% for 20 seconds.
• Wheel of Fortune: Reduces the next skill's cooldown by 100%.

Due to the randomness of her cards along with the unpredicatble events happening throughout an encounter, following guidlines helps maximize your damage output on average. It's advised to use your judgment to properly handle whatever situation may come your way!

Cards with long buff durations such as Three-Headed Snake, Balance, Corrosion, Ghost, Mayhem & Moon can be used immediately after drawing them. In the case of Three-Headed Snake, you can utilize effect to reach four stacks in conjunction with your Stacking skills. To maximize your burst windows, Cull, Chancellor, Judgment, & Royal (Emperor only) are huge value and are a priority to use before using your skills. For Order of the Emperor, Chancellor and Royal (Emperor only) buff your Normal Skills' damage with maximum effeciency being within your Return window. Empress's Grace uses Judgment to greatly enhance her Ruin skills within those 4.0 seconds.

The Joy card ideally is used when your skills are on cooldown as it only affects remaining cooldowns. On the other hand, Moon should be used before your skills are used. With Royal, you'll want to draw two cards, but it's okay to only draw one card if your other one is good. This gives a chance at you getting a damage setup! Because Clown essentially refunds you the last use card, you'll want to use it after a damage card like Cull or Judgment. Wheel of Fortune & Twisted Fate are also decent options to use Clown with. Twisted Fate is a random chance of a damage increase but should still be used during your right before your burst window. The Star card giving half of your mana can take you out of "Boundless Mana" or keep you within "Magick Addiction" for Nightmare Flower users. Ideally you can use it before downtime or a skill combo, improper use can take you out of the desired "Boundless MP" effect. Order of the Emperor's signature card, Emperor, should be used under buffs and comes with decent stagger damage.