An in-depth Arcana/Arcanist guide

[Lieu]

Genuine question, not criticising your build at all, the number 1 player in kr for arcana doesnt keen blunt, they run hit master instead

https://loawa.com/char/킹쌈녀

My question, asside from the crit as a substat on the necklace, what % crit chance does she have? I can’t find info anywhere, like some classes have extra crit chance with back attacks but arcana doesn’t back attack, isnt her crit chance below 60% therefore making it inefficient to run keen blunt over hit master?

to clarify this is an actual question, not trying to criticise the post as its great

[ErucaFurukawa]

I didn’t take this as a criticism, and of course, all forms of criticism are good and welcome.
I don’t intend to be the best Arcana, take this guide as a way to step into the learning of the class.

While the build I suggested is a common one, it can be changed to the one you pointed, it’s also possible to change Keen Blunt for Hit Master.
It’s normal you are getting confused because I didn’t say it properly because I didn’t put the tripods and just showed the engravings bluntly.
To make it short, in the build I showed, only three skills don’t have a tripod that boost the chance of critical chance, and that’s why we are playing with these skills mostly because they have these tripods.
The skills who don’t have those are : Call of Fate ; Quadra Accelerate and Spiral Edge.
While it’s possible to play without the tripod of the crit rate for Scratch Dealer (like the guy of your link), all the other spell are played with it and it’s safest bet to be with Keen Blunt Weapon because you are bound to have more than 50% crit rate on most of your skill (the one that make the most damage aka the Ruins Skills).
But if you want to play with flat damage while keeping some decent crit rate, you can totally go for a build without Keen Blunt Weapon and take Hit Master.

The Arcana have back attack and head attack, most of the blue are back attacks for example.
I can’t give you the exact crit rate chance, but with the ~500 you are at ~20%.

(I checked about the current build in Korea and most of Arcana aren’t playing with Keen Blunt Weapon anymore but with Hit Master instead, I wonder why, I do not have the answer to this question, I will try to make some research).

It’s my mistake to not talk about it in my guide and I’m gonna change it soon, thank you.
I hope my explanation is clear enough and satisfies you.

[ErucaFurukawa]

So with my bit of research, I could find an answer that seems to be the correct one.

Basically the build I made is still viable, but with the recalculations from the new patch, it seems that using Keen Blunt Weapon isn’t as necessary as it was before (for me in the RU ver).
To give an idea of the calculations, now :

We can compare the Adrenaline 2 and Empress Grace 1 to this new builds :
Adrenaline 3 + Empress Grace 3 = 14.9% more dps than before with the Adre 2 and EG 1.
Adrenaline 2 + Empress Grace 1 + Cursed Doll 3 = 15.4% more dps.
Adrenaline 2 + Empress Grace 1 + Keen Blunt Weapon 3 = 13% more dps.

So overall, you will gain just by changing KBW with Cursed doll a gain of 2.4%. And of course if you add it with Hit Master at 3, the flat gain will be even higher, hence better than KBW now.

Like I said it’s still viable but you"ll need:

333321 > Grudge/KBW/Barricade/Hit Master/Adrenaline/Empress Grace.

This build is weaker but more comfortable to play with as in you are counting on your crit to build damage and makes you safer in general battles. You can also rely more on your pots (and use Major HP potions instead).

But then, with the new patch, the best build seems to be :
333331 > Grudge/Cursed Doll/Barricade/Hit Master/Adrenaline/Empress Grace.
333321 > Grudge/Cursed Doll/Barricade/Hit Master/Adrenaline/Empress Grace (less expensive).

This build is more expensive and will require you to be perfect in the execution of the class.

I hope it clarifies why there are using this build. Although mine is still viable at our current state of the game if the Arcana is coming before the Ancient gear is coming.
But like you saw, it’s still viable to play with KBW, you’ll have a bit less damage but safer overall.

[Oultrox]

This is great. I really wanted to see the cards effects individually beforehand. Great stuff!

[Wei]

Hi, why is Prismatic Mirror better than The Fate of Death? All videos I’ve seen of her, they use the second awakening. Also, isn’t Return a counter ability too?

[ErucaFurukawa]

Yes you are right, it’s my bad!

Thanks for letting me know, I’ll change it right away!

For the ultimate it can depend on the boss.

Why Prismatic Mirror is better:

Like I said in the guide, you can get two Tarot Cards by using Prismatic Mirror, just still alone makes the ultimate more interesting because you can get more reward by using it.

Now in the perfect configuration, let’s say that you have the Wheel of Fate tarot card, you can reuse your ultimate (works also with the Fate of Death) but in that way, you will get a slight chance to get another Wheel of Fate and use your ultimate a third time and get two more new cards and if you are lucky you can just spam the ultimate possibly.

The chance is slight but definitely doable in real battle hence having 4 different cards that will improve your dps way more depending on what you will get or just a quality of life.

In the RU version, while writing this, I went to try and I had the chance to get not once, but twice this combo of 3 ultimates and 6 tarot cards.

So basically :

Wheel of Fate > Ultimate > Ultimate / Wheel of Fate > Ultimate / Wheel of Fate > Ultimate / Wheel of Fate >>>

The second ultimate is good when you need Destruction (like Valtan) or a lot of staggering as it it’s mid-high and doing more damage when you have 4 doom cards applied on an enemy.

So, both of them are good to use, but Prismatic Mirror is more interesting for the combo you can potentially make with it. But both are fine on their own.

[Wei]

Oh, that combo of Wheel of Fate > Prismatic Mirror looks pretty nice. Thanks for clarifying it!!

[Zarasootra]

@ErucaFurukawa

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.

I don’t understant Can you explain a bit plz

[ErucaFurukawa]

As you could see with this guide, I wrote about the best build you can have, in that build you have 3 Ruins Skills which are the ones with the least cooldown (minus Serendipity).

In that build, we are using the Protection Rune (shielding) on those three Ruin Skills because you can use another skill with it to improve the damage (or even The Fate of Death).
In the case that the three of the skills have the rune, you have 3 skills that can make +16% damage without any down side, just that alone it’s pretty strong.

Now imagine having all T3 gems at level 10, it will give you 20% of cooldown reduction on all of your red skills, you are bound to get shields between 70 to 80% of the time of the fight, can you imagine spending most of the fight with shields? Doesn’t it look great? Furthermore, with the Empress build, you get more burst on your red skills and give you back mana.

If you have the ghost card activated and you get your shields, you will take 50% less damage for the next 3 attacks that will go in your shields, so basically, you’ll take no damage.

Since the Arcana have to set up the damage, you are often at risk because you will go from close to mid range or vice-versa during your combos, and that alone will make you have more sustain as well as giving you more damage.

It’s a cheap engraving, very useful for long fights and will make you less dependent on potions if you are careful enough.
There is really no bad side to Barricade for Arcana.

(Note that it’s possible to also change Barricade for something else if you can’t meet the lines necessary, it would be more expensive depending on what you are taking).

[Zarasootra]

Thx for the clear answer !
Wondering now if an other class can do the same Like gunslinger ?!

If I catch you. To make use on barricade, u need to set protection runes on High damage skill with low cooldown.

I couldn’t find the uptime on the protection rune, do you have it plz ?

[ErucaFurukawa]

Wondering now if an other class can do the same Like gunslinger ?!

I can’t tell you about Gunslinger but I doubt it would work, and I think there’s way better options for it.
For what I know tho, the Scouter can play with Barricade because with Escape (skill) you get a six seconds shield with the third tripod. Destroyer also will need Barricade.

If I catch you. To make use on barricade, u need to set protection runes on High damage skill with low cooldown.

Yes it is the case for Arcana, it is not for most of the class.

The thing is, Arcana has little use of other runes, the only one very interesting to get besides the x3 Protection is the Purify one and the Gale, other than that, they are not necessary, you can use a bleeding one if you want, but only the Legendary rune.

I couldn’t find the uptime on the protection rune, do you have it plz ?

The uptime for the Protection rune is one second, so you will just have time to use a second skill after using one of your red skills or prepare a combo with The Fate of Death for example.

Like the combo would be:

Apply 4 Doom Cards > prepare The Fate of Death > Before the hit of The Fate of Death appears use any Red Skill to use the doom cards at the exact same time during The Fate of Death and the Red Skill.

Like this, you’ll get the full damage from the Ultimate + the Red Skill and give a boost of 16% with Barricade to the Fate of Death at the same time.

But another combo could be:

Spiral Edge for the first somersault to finish applying 4 Doom Cards > Red Skill (the best would be Secret Garden) > Using the second somersault of Spiral Edge.

Like this you get the damage bonus for the second Spiral Edge’s somersault.

[Zarasootra]

Thx for the answer. Really clear

[ErucaFurukawa]

(I switched this guide to the Tips and Guides from the Class Discussion category).

[Drewminati]

Outstanding guide. You make me proud to be a arcana main.

Just waiting for release

[ErucaFurukawa]

This guide have been heavily updated to cover now Tripods, Runes, Gems and Card Set.
Also, adjustment have been made and some mistakes have been corrected.

Thanks for reading!

[KimTaeyeon]

Thank you SO SO MUCH for this guide, I met lost ark bc of Arcana and I felt in love with her and the game.

I have a question, after these changes in KR, some top player changed to use Class Engrav at lvl 3

https://loawa.com/char/toronge

Is it better?

Really excited for release. Also, sorry for my english

[Lieu]

It’s more of a preference thing as it’s viable at 1 or 3, personally I’m aiming for 333331 with the 1 being empress grace, maybe change that to 2 with the new tier of accessories since that top player is 333332

[ErucaFurukawa]

Thanks for reading!

As @Lieu stated, it’s more or less a preference thing. I’m also planning to go 333331.
Having 1 or 3 is kinda the same in all things considered, and just having at 1 is more viable (and should cost less in the long run).

[Mirascylla]

A very nice in depth guide. This explains pretty much everything we need to know beforehand. Arcana seems interesting with a lot of rng aspects with the identity meter. It seems like a fun class and I would like to try it out to see how it’s like.

[nguyen.ngan61000]

Summoning arcana in Juneeeee. Everything for her is ready to go