The Gunlancer is a tank class in Lost Ark. He can taunt enemies, has outstanding sustainability, and can absorb a ton of punishment. If you're looking to stay in melee and deal decent damage while ignoring (to a certain extent) boss patterns and mechanics, this is a suitable class for you. The class has a good balance of AoE and single target skills, allowing them to wipe out groups of mobs while tanking damage quickly.
They also have massive stagger abilities to assist Raid groups in passing DPS checks on specific end-game raids. Their skillset packs a lot of utility - stuns, pulls, taunts, and crowd control abilities that will help you control the battlefield. That being said, the Gunlancer is slow and doesn't have much mobility. You won't feel as agile as other classes, but you won't have to worry about dodging and can focus on using your abilities efficiently instead. Also, the Gunlancer's dash (spacebar) is the least intuitive mechanic since they dash opposite your cursor.
Gunlancer Identity Skills
Before we dive into the Gunlancer build, it's vital to understand their identity skills. Identity skills are class-exclusive skills that allow every class to either deal more damage or unleash the full potential of their build. For the Gunlancer, it's the shield identity which is divided into two categories:
- Defensive Stance: This can be activated at any time and protects the Gunlancer from taking damage, and grants pushback immunity. This means that you cannot be interrupted and can go toe to toe against tough enemies and bosses because of the shield it generates. However, the drawback is that you will move 50% slower, and the shield will be depleted after some time based on the amount of meter you generated.
- Battlefield Shield: On the other hand, this identity skill will benefit the entire party by allowing you to absorb the damage dealt against them while granting push immunity as long as they're inside your circle.
Note: Most of the time, you will use the defensive stance identity skill, since it synergizes with your engraving build which I will discuss later. Also, when either of the two identity skills is active, you won't be able to generate your meter gauge.
Gunlancer Raid Build
The Combat Readiness Gunlancer, also known as Gunlancer Blue Build, has the highest survivability with decent Stagger damage in Lost Ark. They deal consistent damage without having to dodge most attacks and Combat Readiness increases damage dealt every time you get hit. I like the Gunlancer because they have the strongest counter-skill: Counter Gunlance. Also, Gunlancers can support the team with shields, damage reduction buffs, and target armor debuffs from Nellasia's Energy and Bash.
Blue Gunlancer Skill Build
- Dash Upper Fire: (Ready Attack - Weak Point Detection (Overwhelm)
- Shield Bash: Nimble Movement - Weak Point Detection - Additional Hit (Quick Recharge)
- Bash: Armor Destruction - Ready Attack - Bell Strike (Bleed)
- Leap Attack: Direct Hit - Electric Field - Low Shock (Galewind)
- Guardian's Thunderbolt: Damage Luck - Tough Strike - Lightning Stalk (Galewind)
- Shield Charge: Enhance Strike - Shield - Destruction Charger (Galewind)
- Shout of Hatred: Quick Prep - Shield - Open Weakness (Focus)
- Nellasia's Energy: Quick Prep - Effectiveness - Survive (Focus)
- Awakening: Guardian's Protection
Gameplay & Skill Rotation
As you can see, most of your tripod skills generate shields while building up your shield meter. With this build, you simply tank the attacks while properly managing your Defensive Stance Shield Meter. Remember to turn off your Defensive Stance before using your meter gauge generating skills. These are the most important thing to take note of:
- Shout of Hatred is your main gauge generator and it taunts enemies within 8 meters for 5 seconds. This is also used for canceling minor boss mechanics that can deal decent damage to your party.
- Bash provides an armor destruction debuff on the target that reduces the foe's defense by 12%.
- Nellasia's Energy generates a shield and reduces damage to all party members by 10%.
- Dash Upper Fire is your main counterattack skill. And if it's on cooldown, you can also use Bash for the counter mechanics.
- Burst Skill Rotation: Bash - Guardian's Thunderbolt - Shield Bash - Shield Charge - Leap Attack
Gunlancer Stat Priority
You will focus on Specialization and Crit, as this build runs mostly normal skills and improves with more investment in Specialization. Specialization also boosts shield meter generation to manage your identity skills a lot easier. As for accessories, focus all of them on Specialization, with only the necklace requiring Crit stats.
Engravings
- Combat Readiness: This engraving boosts your normal skill damage by 20%, your shield by 30% in a defensive stance, and +4% damage for 10s when you're hit. Do take note that you will only need the 1st level of this engraving since this offers no penalty at any level.
- Barricade: This synergises with your shield focus skills since it provides a flat 16% damage while you are shielded.
- Stabilized Status: This is also one of your main engravings since this provides +16% damage when your HP is above 80%. With your high defensive stats and survivability, it's unlikely that your HP will fall below 80%.
- Grudge: This is the main DPS engraving to help you dominate the battlefield. This provides you with an additional 20% damage to the boss but you also receive additional incoming damage. The thing is that you can easily mitigate the incoming damage with your shield and sustainability.
- Spirit Absorption: This engraving provides you with an additional 15% attack and movement speed to help you reposition and cast skills quicker.
Gunlancer Chaos Dungeon Build
This build will help you shorten the amount of time you will spend in the Chaos Dungeon and Cube. The engravings are all the same, and only the skill and rotation differ.
- Fire Bullet: Lucky Chance - Enhance Strike - Attack Creation (Quick Recharge)
- Charged Stinger: Weak Point Detection - Charge Enhancement - Last Charge (Galewind)
- Surge Cannon: Scatter Shot - Overcharge - Rotating Barrage (Galewind)
- Shield Bash: Armor Destruction - Excellent Mobility (Rage)
- Leap Attack: Direct Hit - Electric Field - Low Shock (Galewind)
- Guardian's Thunderbolt: Undying Heat - Wide Hit - Lightning Stalk (Galewind)
- Shout of Hated: Wide Hit - Law of Jungle - Open Weakness (Focus)
- Shield Shock: Armor Destruction - Wide Hit - 2nd Turbulence (Bleed)
- Stats Priority: Swiftness and Crit will help you clear the mobs, but it's not necessary if you don't have separate sets of accessories for this build. Your raid accessories will do.
Gameplay:
- Group Mobs and mini-bosses up around you, then shock them with Guardian's Thunderbolt.
- Burst them with the rest of AoE skills, starting with Surge Cannon.
- You can swap Fire Bullet with Sharp Gunlance for better mobs grouping.
Overall, the Gunlancer has an insane amount of shield and deals massive damage, comparable to a Berserker and other melee classes such as Martial Artists and Assassins. They have poor mobility, yet they excel in survivability and are a much-needed class in any end-game party composition. Their skills help you succeed in stagger checks, counter-mechanics, and major boss wipe mechanics. This is one of the few classes that can be overpowered when you build it right.
