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The Best Classes for Beginners in Lost Ark

Can't decide which classes to try out in Lost Ark?

With 25 unique classes to choose from in Lost Ark, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out which class is the best pick for you. Whether you’re completely new to MMOs or are a veteran meta-chaser in previous MMOs, the first class you play in Lost Ark should be one that you enjoy playing because you’ll inevitably have to learn the raids with that class and there’s nothing more unfun than trying to learn raid mechanics and boss patterns on a class you’re not enjoying and uncomfortable with.

Don’t trip, I have a few suggestions for great classes to try out as a beginner to Lost Ark. These classes excel at being beginner friendly for different reasons from being highly wanted in raid groups to being easy to get the hang of making them comfortable to learn new raids on. Give it a gander and maybe you’ll find your new main!

The classes below are numbered in no particular order.

1. Paladin (Blessed Aura)

Male Warriors have the option to advance into the Paladin class equipped with a one-handed sword and shield. This holy knight’s job is to support their party by providing invaluable attack buffs, party-wide shielding, and even damage reduction.

Despite not being able to do much damage themselves, a good Paladin will always make up for their lack of damage by making sure their teammates are buffed as much as possible. That being said, the main priority for a Paladin should be to try to have as much buff uptime as possible while only providing shields, heals, cleanses, and damage reduction when necessary.

PROSCONS
Low InvestmentLimited stagger without Vital Point engraving
Exceptionally tankyLimited mobility
Provides consistent party buffsNot many options for push immunity via skills
Can cleanse debuffs off party membersArguably the least fun playstyle of the support classes

Playstyle

[PVE] Being a support class, Paladins will mainly be playing around their cooldowns and Holy Aura identity. Ideally a good Paladin will try to communicate with their party members so they can time their big damage buffs in accordance with when their party members are going to use their big burst damage skills/rotation. If done correctly, you can almost double your party’s damage which is an extremely valuable asset to have on a team. 

Apart from damage buffing, Paladins also have some of the best party shielding and damage reduction capabilities in the game. Because a lot of the damage that you take in Lost Ark boss fights come in the form of chip damage, being able to completely negate that damage means your party can save their health potions for big instances of damage. 

Because Paladin is one of the three support classes, they are usually always welcome in parties and should have no issue finding a spot in raids as support is pretty much required in each party. Supports can get away with very minimal investment as they only really need maybe a 4×3 engraving setup even at endgame.

2. Bard (Desperate Salvation)

Mages have the option to advance into the Bard class equipped with a harp. This magical songstress’s job is to support their party by providing invaluable attack buffs, party-wide shielding, and even damage reduction. 

Despite not being able to do much damage themselves, a good Bard will always make up for their lack of damage by making sure their teammates are buffed as much as possible. That being said, the main priority for a Bard should be to try to have as much buff uptime as possible while only providing shields, heals, and damage reduction when necessary. 

Because Bard is one of the three support classes, they are usually always welcome in parties and should have no issue finding a spot in raids as support is pretty much required in each party. Supports can get away with very minimal investment as they only really need maybe a 4×3 engraving setup even at endgame.

PROSCONS
Low InvestmentLimited mobility
Big damage buffs for partyMana inefficient
Good shields, heals, and damage reductionNo cleanse

Playstyle

[PVE] Being a support class, Bards will mainly be playing around their cooldowns and Serenade Meter identity. Ideally a good Bard will try to communicate with their party members so they can time their big damage buffs in accordance with when their party members are going to use their big burst damage skills/rotation. If done correctly, you can almost double your party’s damage which is an extremely valuable asset to have on a team.

When a Bard gets a full identity meter, they have to make the decision to use it on a big heal or a big damage buff for their party. The majority of the time, Bards will want to use their identity on damage buffing their party to ensure a higher buff uptime overall. Ideally, heals should only really be used in an emergency if your party members cannot use a health potion themselves.

3. Artist (Full Bloom)

Specialists have the option to advance into an Artist class equipped with a paintbrush. This pint-sized Picasso’s job is to support their party by providing invaluable attack buffs, shielding, and cleanses. 

Despite not being able to do much damage themselves, a good Artist will always make up for their lack of damage by making sure their teammates are buffed as much as possible. That being said, the main priority for an Artist should be to try to have as much buff uptime as possible while only providing shields, heals, and damage reduction when necessary. 

Because Artist is one of the three support classes, they are usually always welcome in parties and should have no issue finding a spot in raids as support is pretty much required in each party. Supports can get away with very minimal investment as they only really need maybe a 4×3 engraving setup even at endgame.

PROSCONS
Low investmentA little more learning curve compared to Paladin and Bard
Amazing single-target healingLacking good damage reduction
Provides consistent party buffsHeal orbs and shields are an entity that party members must interact with to benefit from
Can cleanse debuffs off party membersWeaker damage buffs than Paladin and Bard

Playstyle

[PVE] Being a support class, Artists will mainly be doing typical support things by branding the boss and providing buffs to their party while periodically dropping healing orbs and shields around the map for teammates to pick up when needed. Ideally a good Artist will try to communicate with their party members so they can time their big damage buffs in accordance with when their party members are going to use their big burst damage skills/rotation. If done correctly, you can almost double your party’s damage which is an extremely valuable asset to have on a team. 

Artists will gain orbs for their Harmony Meter Identity when they hit enemies with skills. These Harmony orbs then can be used to cast either a party damage buff (Moonfall) or drop a healing orb (Sunrise) with Moonfall costing 2 Harmony Orbs and Sunrise costing 1 Harmony orb. There can only be 3 healing orbs out at a time and they each last for 60 seconds.

4. Sharpshooter (Deathstrike)

Male Gunners have the option to advance into a Sharpshooter class equipped with a bow. This mobile arrowslinger takes full advantage of their long-ranged skills to allow them to deal massive damage from afar while being able to move out of attacks when needed. Being a ranged class makes it a little easier to analyze and react to boss attack patterns compared to the little time melee classes get. Sharpshooters also benefit greatly from class and raid knowledge as being able to move into an advantageous position and fire off skills results in a lot more damage than having to constantly dodge. 

PROSCONS
RangedLimited utility
Able to attack from any directionSquishy
Fairly mobilePlays smoother with more game knowledge

Playstyle

[PVE] Even though Sharpshooters are primarily a ranged dps class, they still need to use their close-ranged skills to build their identity gauge. With the Deathstrike class engraving, the goal is to suicide your companion into the boss for a massive damage buff at the cost of longer cooldowns, which is perfectly fine. By properly rotating through your skills and sacrificing your companion, you should be able to upkeep the buff for the majority of a boss fight making for a solid bursty ranged dps class.

5. Slayer (Predator)

Female Warriors have the option to advance into the Slayer class equipped with a giant two-handed sword, similar to their male counterpart. This remixed berserker dishes out amazing damage through a mix of skills with fast animations further elevated when using her identity. Even though Slayer is a melee class, her giant sword gives her skills quite a bit of range, allowing her to fight from even close-mid range in most cases and not having to be completely hugging the boss. Ever since her release, Slayer has solidified her spot as a top dps and completely raised the bar for dps classes overall.  

PROSCONS
Exceptionally tanky with great damageBack attack class
Simple playstyle with quick animationsRequires good uptime on identity mode buff
Very mobileLimited utility

Playstyle

[PVE] Slayer is quite literally the epitome of a dps class in Lost Ark as her main focus will be to do damage, a lot of damage. Being able to pop your identity mode and unload all of your skills means you are doing your job as a Slayer and that’s really all anyone is going to expect of you. With quick skill animations and very accessible mobility, Slayer should have no issues getting their full rotation off in a burst window. The only micromanagement is to remember to press [Z] before you start using skills and try to upkeep that mode as long as possible.

6. Aeromancer (Windfury)

Specialists have the option to advance into an Aeromancer class equipped with an umbrella. The Windfury class engraving promotes a swift and active playstyle through the use of their umbrella skills while not touching many of the weather skills. Paired with the high damage floor of the class and great party synergy, this is a great introductory class to start learning raids on and will most likely feel fairly easy to learn and very comfortable from the get-go. Swiftness based classes are usually preferred for learning and progressing through raids and Windfury Aeromancer is no exception here.

PROSCONS
Highly desired party synergy (crit)Requires specific runes for a smoother gameplay
High damage floorLow damage ceiling
Overall a very comfortable class to play

Playstyle

[PVE] Windfury Aeromancer is very much a piano class in a sense that you’ll always want to be spamming your skills whenever you can which makes it fairly easy to learn and master. Your rotation will always start by using a skill that provides Current Occurrence followed by skills with Reversal to capitalize on the Current for a damage increase. From there it’s pretty much just a cycle of generating and spending Current to ensure your crit synergy is up as often as possible while outputting as much damage as possible.

 

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