Lost Ark, the newest gigantic MMORPG made by Smilegate, is doing incredibly well for a variety of reasons, whether it's the lore of the game or just the incomprehensible number of things to do.
But, hands down one of the biggest pulls the game has is its unique style of combat. This Diablo-esque combat style isn't something many MMORPGs have tried, and none have managed to nail it as Lost Ark does. But, for those unfamiliar with this style of combat, or just MMORPG combat in general, here are some of the best ways to excel in every fight.
10 A Few Key Settings
This first tip is really more of a quality-of-life suggestion than anything else. Basically, there are a few settings that, when changed, make a pretty big impact on the moment-to-moment gameplay. Primarily, these settings are Cooldown Sounds, Combat Outline, and Cursor Aim:
- Cooldown Sounds: Found in the Audio tab, makes a small noise whenever any Skill is off cooldown. It would be great if players had a few sounds to apply to different Skills, but even just the one makes it a lot easier to keep the flow of Skills going without having to look down so often.
- Combat Outline: This setting is in the Combat and Display section of the Gameplay tab. Enabling it makes it so that a faint blue aura-like outline appears around the player character whenever they're in combat. Lost Ark is a game with a lot of enemies on screen and a ton of particle effects, so any amount of accessibility options for visual clarity help a lot.
- Cursor Aim: Found in the same section as the Combat Outline, Cursor Aim simply sets it so that Skills don't have a slight "auto-aim" to them near wherever the mouse cursor is aiming. This way, Skills will fire off in the exact spot they're aimed, instead of at the enemy closest to the cursor.
9 Be Careful With Your Dodges
While the pre-Max Level content might not make it seem that way, Lost Ark's combat system is pretty unforgiving. There's no real "tank" role in the game, and it seems like Boss Aggro is very hard to accurately keep on one person. To make matters even more difficult, players don't have a lot of evasion options in combat. Each Class has its own sort of "Dodge" from a dash to a roll and even a back step, but that all have around ten-second Cooldowns.
Make it a habit to start dodging telegraphed Boss attacks in the early levels (even if the Boss isn't all that dangerous) so that it'll be easier to do so when it actually starts to matter such as in the higher-tier Guardian Raids and so on.
8 Keep A Movement-Based Skill Equipped At All Times
An easy way to get around the punishing Dodge system in Lost Ark is to make sure and have one or two movement-based Skills equipped at all times. For example, every Scrapper build has the Charging Blow Skill as part of the build, even though the damage isn't great, simply because it's a fantastic approach or evade option.
Plus, in areas like any of the Islands or within Dungeons, players can't ride their mounts, so being able to spam these Skills to gain ground faster makes these areas feel much less tedious.
7 Make A Leveling Build & A Bossing Build
Lost Ark is not the type of MMORPG that keeps things simple, there are a million different systems in the late game and an absurd amount of ways to approach each and every boss, Dungeon, or Raid. And, the general rule of thumb (so far), seems to be that it's a good idea for everyone to have a "Bossing" build and an "Area of Effect" build for endgame content. Basically, have a build ready for Chaos Dungeons and a build for Guardian Raids.
The AoE build is also absolutely what players should be using while leveling up, as a majority of the story quests revolve around killing groups of mobs and fighting one or two easy bosses.
6 The Proving Grounds Are An Easy Way To Test Builds Early
Another great tip for players struggling to figure out which Skills to equip and which to leave alone is to experiment. Of course, the Training Room in Trixion is incredible for this, but before learning the Song of Trixion, this is inaccessible. Sometimes, a player might just want to experiment with certain Tripods, Skills, or even stat distributions to see what works with their Class and play style.
Thankfully, the Proving Ground's Book of Coordination is great for this. This isn't unlocked until reaching Luterra Castle, but once it is, players can hop into PvP and get the full Skill-set experience early. Plus, the PvP here is balanced, meaning gear and stats are equalized as well, so it really does boil down to raw still and tactics.
5 Try To Keep A Balanced Kit Of Cooldowns
This won't matter much early on, but later, as the monsters get stronger (and especially in the endgame content), one rotation of using all a player's Skills isn't going to wipe out the mob and/or the boss anymore.
And, when that starts happening, It's going to become immediately important to start keeping more of an eye on Cooldowns. It may differ for every Class, but in general, it appears to be a good idea to mix and match low, mid, and long cooldown Skills if possible so that something is always up for use.
4 Crowd Control Is Key
As opposed to many of the other tips on here, this one applies right away from the first mission of the Main Quest line. Lost Ark is absolutely a game all about Crowd Control. Even in the first few areas of Rethramis players are going to be fighting relatively large groups of enemies. So, the better a player can group them up, the quicker their leveling will go and the more fun they'll have.
Certain Skills are amazing for grouping enemies up (at least enemies vulnerable to Push), but running in a little half-circle as they all gather naturally works too. And, it's extra beneficial as this state of mind translates to the endgame content beautifully with Chaos Dungeons as well as the Tower.
3 Learn & Understand Skill Effects
One of the biggest hurdles that new players of Lost Ark seem to be struggling with is remembering all the little things each of their Skills do. Some Skills do more damage as Back Attacks, some are meant to be unleashed right up front, and some are best if used at the perfect time to "counter" a Boss' attack.
Try and make a conscious effort to build a Skill set that doesn't mix and match Back and Front attacks too much, memorize which Skills are counter Skills, and always keep an eye out for Skills with high Stagger or Weak Point.
2 Figure Out What Combat Stat Matters Most For Your Class
Players of Lost Ark might be surprised to see that, when they pull up their character menu, the classic Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence stats aren't there (at first glance) but rather things like Domination, Specialization, and Swiftness are.
These stats all impact a variety of different things, and it's important to experiment with them a bit when equipping items and see which ones work well with the player's class. For example, the Scrapper (depending on the average build) works great with a lot of Swiftness, as this stat reduces Cooldowns, and the Scrapper is always using some Skill to gain Shock or Stamina. Learning about this system early should allow players to feel like they have more impact on the way their Class works as well as let them notice these changes depending on stat distribution that much easier.
1 Save Battle Items
Lastly, save your Battle Items! The game throws them at the player constantly from level one to level fifty, but there's rarely any actual need to use them before reaching the endgame content. Even the tougher Story-related bosses post level fifty shouldn't need any Battle Item usage to beat with relative ease.
This is something that will admittedly hurt combat early on, but having all these Battle Items saved up for Guardian, Abyssal, and Chaos Dungeons in the endgame will be so incredibly beneficial, especially when it comes to Health Potions, Phoenix Plumes, and all the different Grenades.
Lost Ark is available now on PC.