Hello,
As an Arcana main since the release of the Korean version, I have played this class on the Russian servers as well as the Japanese one.
I wanted to bring a guide for all people looking forward to the class.
Today I’m here to give you all the information that you need to know how to play Arcana.
(Note that all the names in english of this guide are not the official translation by AGS).
Disclaimer: I took the stats of the actual Russian version. All of the ratios are expected to change.
Discord : Eruca#7627
You can find this guide in a better format in gdoc (ENG and FR ver. both available)
Aqui está o guia traduzido em Português (BRASIL) pelo Rabanada
Aquí la guía traducida al Español gracias a Oultrox
What is Arcana?
First of all the most important thing to know is, what Arcana are the pros and cons and what it does:
Pros:
- Outstanding mobility (depending on your build)
- Fast DPS skills
- Can be close/mid range (depending on your build)
Cons:
- Squishy and low health
- Hard to play and master
- Almost no support to the team
The class have three types of skills:
- The yellow skills called the General Skills
- The blue skills called the Stack Skills
- The red skills called the Ruins Skills
Those skills have to be combined to make a maximum of damage, that is why this class is unique on its way because you are “stacking” up the damage over time to release the big damage at the very end.
The General Skills (yellow) are like any other skill in the game, just doing damage in the most simple way and helps you build your DPS as well as charging your Identity Meter which is the RNG and what makes the class so much interesting.
On another hand, you have the Stack + Ruin Skills, those two are working as a pair to make damage.
Like the name suggests, the Stacks Skills (blue) allow you to stack up to 4 cards (also called Doom cards) on the mobs/boss/adventurer and then with the cards accumulated on the enemy, you can “unleash” them by using a Ruin Skill (red). You have to know that the more cards you are stacking (up to 4), the most damage you will be able to do with your Ruin Skill.
This is how the stack of the Doom Cards look like:
1 card.
2 cards.
3 cards.
4 cards.
Skills
Now that you know the basics of the class, let see what skills the Arcana have:
As you can see, we have:
6 General Skills;
7 Stack Skills;
4 Ruins Skills.
And 2 Ultimates (like any other class).
The outstanding mobility comes from the Stack Skills mostly. For the General and Ruin Skills, we are more on par with a Sorceress Igniter or a Summoner.
So now that you know how it works, let’s get in detail of what those skills do (in the most basic way, without any tripods).
General Skills
Call of Fate : Deal damage in the specified location, knock up enemies into the air.
Unlimited Shuffle : Aoe staggering and knocking up then knocking down enemies.
Return : Deal damage in the specified location then knock down enemies.
Mysterious Surge : Move to the left and throw a card. Then come back to the initial position to throw a second card.
Dark Resurrection : Deal damage in the specified location, fearing the enemies.
Evoke : Deal damage in the specified location, after some seconds knocking enemies up.
Stack Skills
Quadra Accelerate : Throw 4 cards in a straight line increasing your movement speed but locking you up in one direction. Apply up to 2 doom cards.
Scratch Dealer : Dash 7m forward dealing damage. Can be used a second time to knock down enemies. Apply up to 2 doom cards.
Spiral Edge : Performs a somersault up to 7m at the end of the jump, deals damage and applies 1 doom card. (Usable 2 times)
Dance of the Spine Flower : Leaves a card on the ground then moves forward while attacking. Using the skill again allows you to teleport back to the location of the card. Apply up to 3 doom cards.
Checkmate : Throw cards forward continuously. Can turn the character around. Apply up to 3 doom cards.
Stream of Edge : Create two portals creating a line dealing damage for 5 seconds up to 15 hits. Apply up to 2 doom cards.
Infinity Shower : Throw cards in the specified location, throwing up to 3 cards while pressing the skill. Apply 1 doom card.
Ruin Skills
Celestial Rain : Deal damage in the specified location, enemies knocked up will receive additional damage and are getting knocked down. Consume the doom cards applied.
Four Cards : Throw four cards where the character is facing, dealing damage and pushing enemies. Consume the doom cards applied.
Serendipity : Throw cards in a fan shape to deal damage and knock back enemies. Consume the doom cards applied.
Secret Garden : Create an immediate aoe around the character. If 4 doom cards are applied to the enemies, knocking it down. Consume the doom cards applied.
Ultimate Skills
Prismatic Mirror : Summons cards in a circle shape that bounces little cards around who stagger the enemies. Allow to draw 2 cards from the Identity card instantly.
The Fate of Death : Summon a big card summoning the Reaper dealing damage in front of the card in a fan shape and knocking enemies back. The higher doom cards applied, the more damage.
(Note : The two ultimates are good for Arcana, Prismatic Mirror can become a potentially infinite combo (more explanations about it below). But if you can’t get that infinite combo, it lacks damage compared to the other one.
The Fate of Death like I said have the highest DPS and if you don’t have enough “luck” to get twice Prismatic Mirror, you’ll fall behind in terms of DPS, also, the Judgement Tarot Card can be used to combo with FoD which makes you use the Ultimate without using the prerequisite of having 4 Doom Cards on the enemy prior, as in Judgement will always makes the following Ruin Skill (and FoD) hit if the enemy have 4 Doom Cards).
Explanation on the infinite combo of Prismatic Mirror
The most common skill build is this one:
| | | | | | | |
Why this build? It allows you to stack up the Doom Cards really fast and have the best mobility possible with the Arcana as well as dealing the most damage possible in the safest way.
Also we are using Serendipity and Return for their counter.
Most spells used have low cooldowns allowing you to spam.
(My personal preference for the Ultimate is Prismatic Mirror but it have a problem with the Nightmare Set, I’ll explain about it below).
Identity of the Arcana
Now that we have seen all the skills that Arcana can give you, let’s talk about the Identity that makes this class so particular. We are calling those cards Tarot Cards.
So what is the Identity of the Arcana?
The Arcana has a gauge that when it’s full allows the class to use a Tarot card that will give you a bonus. You can hold that card or use it instantly, this is entirely up to you, but notice that only 2 cards can be held at the same time, the gauge will be blocked at 0% until you use one of the 2 cards.
This is the most important part of the gameplay of the Arcana and you have to learn every Tarot card that the RNG can give you to maximize your DPS, survivability and fun.
There are 12 cards to learn + a 13th card that will only unlock with one of the two class engraving.
This is how the Tarot gauge look like:
(Quite nice isn’t it?)
Notice that the white button on the bottom of the gauge allows you to open a window that explains all the cards you can get.
Let’s see what the cards can give you one by one.
Arcana Card Deck (Tarot Card)
Samdusa/Medusa : Allow you to throw 3 cards in a cone instead of 1 while auto-attacking dealing more damage. (This card changed a bit in the Korean version)
Madness : For 30 secs when you attack, increase your attack speed by 3% per attack up to 15%.
Twisted Fate : For 4 secs, increase your damage by 40% or remain unchanged.
Corrosion : Apply a debuff with 30% chance that increases damage on an enemy by 10% for 5 seconds.
Ghost : For 16 seconds increases movement speed by 20% and allows you to pass through enemies. Plus, reduce the damage received for the next 3 attacks by 50%.
Culling : Increase your critical hit chance by 100% and critical hit damage by 50%.
Balance : For 30 secs, apply an additional doom card for every skill used.
Judgement : For 4 secs, whenever you use a Ruin Skill, it will always hit as if the enemies have 4 doom cards on them.
Moon : For 30 secs, cooldown -10% and the mana regeneration rate +20%.
Star : Recover 100% of the mana and reduce the cooldown of the skill by 15%.
Royal : Give your instantly two Tarot cards.
Wheel of Fate : The cooldown of the next skill is reduced by 100% including your ultimate.
Emperor : Special card that unlock only with the class engraving Emperor’s Edict.
Deal damage within 14m.
Are you still there? This is why this class is hard, you have to combine everything to make yourself great during fights. But it doesn’t look as difficult to learn as it looks, in a matter of days of playing the class you’ll learn everything.
Engravings and Stats for PVE
Emperor’s Edict : Skills fill the Identity Gauge 50% faster and increase their damage by 10/20/30%. Allow you to use the Emperor Tarot Card.
Empress Grace : Ruin Skills deals 20/25/30% more damage on enemies with 4 Doom Cards and restores 30% of spent mana.
Now, with the recent change on the KR version, the Emperor’s Edict is better now, but the strongest build remains the Empress Grace one.
The Emperor’s Edict is really good for all the “casual” content like the Chaos Dungeon or the Cube.
Now, with the basic engraving settled down, you still have to get a few more engraving, at some point in the game people will ask you to have 5 lines of Lv3 engraving, so what would be useful to maximize your DPS? The sooner you know which one to get, the sooner you can prepare.
Like any other DPS in the game, the best way to improve your DPS is by using Grudge at Lv3, it’s very expensive I agree, but this is the best DPS engraving you can get.
What’s nice with the Arcana is you can have different engraving but still be viable, Grudge is very important but it’s high risk, high reward and if you are not confident enough of your skill you can always keep it for later, but we will go with Grudge as the final engraving build.
What are the most interesting engraving then:
- Empress Grace Lv1 / Emperor Edict Lv3.
- Grudge Lv3.
- Hit Master Lv3.
- Barricade Lv3.
- Adrenaline Lv3.
- Cursed Doll Lv3.
- Keen Blunt Weapon Lv3.
With the recent changes on the KR ver., two builds are viable to play.
The first build is the one that ever got played so far, which use the crit rate and crit damage, but with the recent changes in the KR ver. this build is less good than the new one.
The second build (new one) plays with the flat damage that Hit Master can give you. This one is the strongest one.
So now let’s deep into what are the best engravings for each set of equipment.
(Note 1 : For the Relic Set, as an Arcana you’ll need the Nightmare one which can be crafted from Valtan with the Demonic Beast’s Stone x45 and from Vykas with the Covetous Wing x30 and Stone of Chaos x8 dropped by both.).
/!\ Very Important /!\
(Note 2 : If you use Prismatic Mirror for the Ultimate you might find something annoying.
You’ll try to start the infinite combo before using it so if you are “unlucky” you can wait some time before the Wheel of Fate Tarot Card is drawn so you’ll lose precious DPS for, maybe, a while because you won’t proc the Magick Addiction right at the start of the fight, something that wouldn’t happen with The Fate of Death).
With Legendary stuff (from ilvl 1370 to 1415):
(Note : You can also get Empress Grace at Lv3 and reduce something else.)
New build, the strongest one in the current meta :
(Possible to change Cursed Doll for Adrenaline).
- Grudge Lv3.
- Cursed Doll Lv3.
- Barricade Lv3.
- Hit Master Lv3.
- Empress Grace Lv1.
Old build, still viable but less strong (and more expensive) :
- Grudge Lv3.
- Keen Blunt Weapon Lv3.
- Barricade Lv3.
- Adrenaline Lv3.
- Empress Grace Lv1.
With Relic stuff (from ilvl 1415 to 1540):
To play with flat damage and some of crit procs (strongest) :
- Grudge Lv3.
- Cursed Doll Lv3.
- Barricade Lv3.
- Hit Master Lv3.
- Adrenaline Lv2.
- Empress Grace Lv1.
Or to play with your crits (weakest) :
- Grudge Lv3.
- Keen Blunt Weapon Lv3.
- Barricade Lv3.
- Cursed Doll Lv 3.
- Adrenaline Lv2.
- Empress Grace Lv1.
With Ancient stuff (from ilvl 1540 to 1xxx):
To play with flat damage and some of crit procs (strongest) :
- Grudge Lv3.
- Cursed Doll Lv 3.
- Barricade Lv3.
- Hit Master Lv3.
- Adrenaline Lv3.
- Empress Grace Lv1.
Or to play with your crits (weakest) :
- Grudge Lv3.
- Keen Blunt Weapon Lv3.
- Cursed Doll Lv 3.
- Barricade Lv3.
- Adrenaline Lv3.
- Empress Grace Lv1.
Emperor Edict build :
The Emperor Edict build is pretty flexible on what to choose, here I’ll show you the “basic” build for it, but you have several option :
- Grudge Lv3.
- Raid Captain Lv3.
- Cursed Doll Lv 3.
- Adrenaline Lv3.
- Emperor Edict Lv3.
You can change Cursed Doll for All-out Attack ; Keen Blunt Weapon ; Increase Mass ; Hit Master.
You can also choose one of those for the Lv2. engraving that you’ll get with the Ancient stuff.
More explanations for the current meta build
I guess you are all wondering why using Barricade with the Arcana when none of its tripods allows you to get a shield?
It’s common to use the Runes for shielding with the Arcana that makes a great combo with the Tarot Card that the class can bring you. With that, it makes the use of Grudge less hard since you can shield quite often.
More explanations for Barricade and the Runes
Let’s see now what stats are the most important for Arcana and what they do.
Crit :
Improve your critical strike chance of x.x%.
Specialization :
Increases the damage of skills inflicted with the Doom cards (Ruin Skills) by x.x%
Increase the rate of the Identity Meter by x.x%.
Increase the damage of the awakening skill by x.x%.
Swiftness :
Increases attack speed by x.x%.
Increases movement speed by x.x%.
Reduce the cooldown of skills by x.x%.
As you could see with the two class engravings viable, you won’t need the same stats for both of them.
For the Empress Grace we are doing 75%/25%.
- 75% Specialization and 25% Crit.
You’ll want to get the Crit only from your Necklace, all the other accessories will be with Specialization.
Why this build?
With Empress Grace we are looking for the biggest number thanks to the Doom Cards.
When you combine the crit stats + the good engravings, you’ll hit mostly with crit that will make your Keen Blunt Weapon to proc at almost every hit and gain a huge gain of DPS.
But of course, with Hit Master you’ll land big flat damage that are more powerful now.
For the Emperor’s Edict we are also doing 75%/25%.
- 75% Swiftness and 25% Crit.
You’ll want to get the Crit only from your Necklace, all the other accessories will be with Swiftness.
With the Emperor’s Edict we are looking to generate the most Identity rate to get that Emperor Card as fast as possible.
The Swiftness will allow you to “spam” skills and let you unleash cards way more often and the more cards means more chances to get that Emperor Card.
Tripods
Now that you know how the class works and what combo you can do, it’s time to talk about what skills you should up and at which level and which tripods to use.
(Note 1 : I will take the build I talked about at the beginning of this guide).
(Note 2 : The maximum points you can get in the game is 420, here I will not cover the 420 points possible but only 380).
(Note 3 : The build is pretty flexible on which spell you want to get at 12, but two of them are very important, which you’ll see below).
- Call of Fate
- Return
- Quadra Accelerate
(Note 1 : Upgrade Quadra Accelerate at 10 when you will be able to and take the second Level III tripod Accelerate Focus).
(Note 2 : Card Increase gives you a chance of 5% probability to apply 4 Doom Cards instantly instead of 2).
- Scratch Dealer
(Note : Scratch Dealer have two viable options for the level I, since I prefer the mobility over the critical for this, I will use that one for this guide, but Exposed Vital is viable. It gives a Crit boost for the members of your party by 10%).
- Spiral Edge
- Celestial Rain
- Serendipity
(Note : The Level III tripod is confusing but let me explain. Intended Coincidence give a boost to trigger the two Level II tripod by 20% who are named Coindential as in, Enhanced Attack is not concerned by this boost.).*
- Secret Garden
As you can see, this build doesn’t have direct utility to the party (except of Scratch Dealer if you choose Exposed Vital).
It gives you a good boost of mobility and a huge burst of damage. The idea of this build is to let you roam freely and be safe in lot of different situation due to the high mobility given by the Stack Skills.
Runes
This build I’m about to show is my personal build, some of them are necessary, but others can be changed depending of your playstyle.
Call of Fate
Bleed Rune = Changeable.
You can use Galewind instead. The Bleed Rune will let you have a higher uptime for your DPS and can be quite nice for the high tier boss of the game.
Return
Rage Rune = Not changeable.
Quadra Accelerate
Galewind = Not changeable.
(Note : If you don’t have Galewind in Legendary you can use the Epic version, you can also use the Epic version if you don’t have Quadra Accelerate at 10).
Scratch Dealer
Galewind = Not changeable.
Spiral Edge
Purify = Changeable.
This Rune can be changed for Galewind instead. I personally really like Purify because it can save you from many situations and with a chance 70% to remove a debuff, it’s really strong.
Celestial Rain
Protection = Not Changeable.
(Note : I prefer to use the Legendary Protection on Celestial Rain because it’s the Ruin Skill that I feel the most comfortable to use. If you prefer have it on Serendipity or Secret Garden it’s totally possible).
Serendipity
Protection = Not Changeable.
(Note : Possible to use the Legendary one instead).
Secret Garden
Protection = Not Changeable.
(Note : Possible to use the Legendary one instead).
Gems
Up to 11 gems can be used for your build, the most important spell to give two Gems are the Ruin Skills, you want to get both damage up and cooldown reduction.
For the others, since they are not here to deal the damage but to prepare it, you’ll just need the cooldown reduction.
Call of Fate
Return
Quadra Accelerate
Scratch Dealer
Spiral Edge
Celestial Rain
Serendipity
Secret Garden
Card Set
Like most DPS classes in this game two card sets are viable. Though they are not easy to get especially the second one but it’s the best you can get.
Cheap Set :
Forest of Giant + We’ll Meet Again :
High end Set :
Lostwind Cliff :
Very high end card Set :
Light of Salvation
PVP
Is Arcana any good at PVP?
Yes, it is thanks for its (again) outstanding mobility. You won’t have the role of doing the most damage, even though with some build it’s possible to go over the 1M DPS in 3v3.
With how squishy it is, you’ll wait for the opportunity to burst down someone really fast or be the one that will stagger your enemy as much as possible to open the way to your allies to kill them.
I will share my PVP build and Stats that allowed me to win quite a lot of time and gave me the most fun possible:
| | | | | | | |
For the stats:
1 Crit
249 Domination
750 Swiftness
The basic idea of this build is to do the most damage thanks to the crit tripod as well giving some control to get out of bad situations like in 1v3 and be able to keep one enemy locked in one place to give space. As well as giving enough mobility to catch up on some mates.
Advanced video about the combo of the Arcana
Here is a video about the Tarot Card combo that the Arcana can have with the appropriate skills.
To understand all of it and to perform afterward thanks to it, it requires you to be perfect on the Arcana and knows everything that you have to know to play the class perfectly.
Since it’s hard for me to explain all the combos possible in this guide and the related numbers that go with it, I suggest you watch this.
This video will talk about advanced stuff, I suggest you to, if you are new, to learn the basics first by training in the Trixion for some hours before starting getting into it and try the combinaison yourself in the Trixion.
The video is in Korean, I suggest to follow the video with the translation made by trg1234.
Of course don’t hesitate to leave a Like.
Name of the video : 아르카나의 딜 구조 - 모든 상황 고려 [아르카나 연구소]
Channel name : 부덕훈
아르카나의 딜 구조 - 모든 상황 고려 [아르카나 연구소]
Translation by trg1234
A big thanks to trg1234 for his work.
I hope this guide will help you understand more of the Arcana and will hype you up for it.
Also, don’t take this guide as 100% accurate because it can change in the future before it comes to our servers.
Sorry for the typo this guide could contain.
Thanks for reading this guide, don’t hesitate to ask questions if needed, I will do my best to answer you.
Can you explain a bit plz
Like gunslinger ?!