The Summoner class is the third advanced job from the Mage Archetype in Lost Ark. Wielding the power to summon Ancient Elementals and pets, this spellcasting features a unique gameplay that many players will enjoy. As the name suggests, the job's style invokes various companions to the field to help damage your foes. While the bulk of your DPS does come from these summonses, you still have your arsenal of direct magic to harm your enemies. This guide will help you optimize your Summoner to become the best damage dealer in Arkesia.
General Playstyle
The Summoner class focuses on providing self-buffs to empower her companions as they deal with the bulk of the DPS. The spellcaster still has some active spells, but they are mainly used for crowd control and complementing damage. When you invoke your pets, you can command them to provide additional attacks. Your playstyle will vary depending on the type of Class Engraving that you will use.
Master Summoner (Spec) and Communication Overflow (Swift)
Like every other class in Arkesia, Summoners have two unique engravings. The variations enhance specific companions, so you know which ones to summon often. Master Summoner is the Engraving that focuses on invoking Ancient Elementals, while the Communication Overflow prioritizes augmenting your pet summoning capabilities. Your build will depend on which one of these two are active. Here are the explanations for each:
- Master Summoner – This build empowers your Ancients and reduces their orb costs so that you can summon them multiple times. This build prioritizes generating Identity Orbs with various abilities, so your playstyle revolves around combining your Elementals with the buffs for maximum DPS. This build can feel a bit slow since you lack maneuverability and requires high investments, especially for cooldown gems. However, this setup still provides a high damage ceiling and consistent optimal DPS if skill rotations are done correctly.
- Communication Overflow – While Master Summoner feels slow, Communication Overflow has fast gameplay with high actions per minute. With this build, you focus on augmenting your Pets and providing them with buffs. Your DPS comes from continuously using your abilities and invocations to bring companions, including Ancient Elementals. The only weakness of this build is that your damage scaling won't spike until you get relic gear and level 7 gems. In addition, you generate less Identity to summon your Elementals.
What's common in both builds is that they have channeling abilities that make them vulnerable to attacks. Learning animation cancels is essential to be more efficient in your rotations. If you are interested in doing tremendous damage and don't mind channeling abilities, then Master Summoner is the best choice. If you aren't keen on waiting for your cooldowns to pop and want to be doing something consistently, then Communication Overflow is the best pick. See how to build each Engraving in the next section.
Ancient Elementals
Master Summoner and Communication Overflow have access to Ancient Elementals, so understanding their costs and usage can help players pick their Engraving path. There are a total of five Ancients with varying uses. Here are the prices and effectiveness of each:
- Ancient Spirit Osh (3 Orb Cost)
- Weak Point Level 2
- Low Damage
- Ancient Spirit Alimaji (4 Orb Cost)
- Weak Point Level 2
- Mid-High Stagger
- Decent Damage
- Ancient Spirit Phoenix (5 Orb Cost)
- Weak Point Level 1
- Low Stagger
- Decent Damage
- Ancient Spirits Jahia and Ligheas (6 Orb Cost)
- Highest Stagger
- High Damage
- Ancient Spirit Akir (7 Orb Cost)
- Mid Stagger
- Highest Damage
Note: Using Master Summoner Build will reduce the Orb Cost of each Ancient Elemental by one.
Master Summoner Build
This section will overview one of the most standard builds for this Class Engraving. Remembering the best openers and skill rotations is essential since a simple mistake will ruin your DPS upkeep. This setup is also known as the Spec build.
Skills
- Steed Charge (Stormlike Gallop, Weak Point Detection, and Destruction Charger) with Epic Wealth Rune
- Low Stagger
- Sticky Moss Swamp (Ready Attack and Corrosion Diffusion) with Epic Purify Rune
- Earth Collapse (Flame Collapse, Shake, and Earth Manipulator) with Epic Wealth Rune
- Weak Point Level 1
- Mid Stagger
- Super Armor: Paralysis Immunity
- Water Elemental (MP Recovery, Weak Point Detection, and Water Cannon) with Rare Wealth Rune
- Summon Attack has Counter
- Electric Storm (Swift Cast, Sustain Enhancement, and Guiding Storm) with Legendary Wealth Rune
- Mid Stagger
- Super Armor: Paralysis Immunity
- Ancient Spear (Quick Prep, Explosive Spear, and Ancient Strength) with Legendary Galewind Rune
- Weak Point Level 1
- Mid-High Stagger
- Super Armor: Paralysis Immunity
- Elcid (Magick Amplification, Honing Seeds, and Elite Summoning) with Legendary Rage Rune
- Shurdi (Shining Growth, Faltering Shurdi, and MP Recovery) with Legendary Bleed Rune
- Bagron's Wrath (Awakening Skill)
- Weak Point Level 2
- Highest Stagger
- Super Armor: Push Immunity and Status Ailment Immunity
Combat Stats
For Master Summoner, Specialization is your primary focus. This attribute will increase orb generation, so you should invest more of your points here. The secondary stat can be interchanged between Swiftness and Crit. It would help if you chose wisely since your Relic Set will depend on your sub-attribute. Swift will allow you to move more quickly and lower cooldowns. Crit will let your skills deal more damage.
Best Engravings
Starter Engravings
- Master Summoner
- Adrenaline (increases your Crit Rate, which would benefit your overall damage regardless of if you are Spec/Swift or Spec/Crit)
Essential End-Game Engravings
- Grudge (increases your overall damage in exchange for taking more, which encourages players to learn how to kite)
- Hit Master (a good attack improvement since your abilities don't have positional modifiers)
Optional Engravings
- Keen Blunt Weapon (increases your Crit damage in exchange for a chance of less base attack, so you should only have this if you have a high Crit Rate)
- Ether Predator (you generate orbs that can provide various powerups that can stack up to 30 times)
Gems
It would help if you had at least level 7 gems to optimize your build. You need to invest heavily in this, buying from the Auction House or running Boss Rush. Here are all the necessary items for cooldown:
Attack Gems
- Akir
- Ancient Spear
- Earth Collapse
Cooldown Gems
- Steed Charge
- Elcid
- Shurdi
- Sticky Moss Swamp
- Water Elemental
- Electric Storm
- Ancient Spear
Communication Overflow Build
The Swift build might be the most common setup on most servers. Being able to do multiple actions and not stand idle for several seconds helps players feel more active and comfortable. While it does not spike in damage as significantly as the Spec build, it does provide more reliable DPS since simple mistakes will only mess up your rotation.
Skills
- Stick Moss Swamp (Ready Attack and Corrosion Diffusion) with Legendary Conviction Runes
- Earth Collapse (Flame Collapse, Shake, and Earth Manipulator) with Legendary Overwhelm Rune
- Weak Point Level 1
- Mid Stagger
- Super Armor: Paralysis Immunity
- Water Elemental (MP Recovery, Weak Point Detection, and Wisdom of the Elemental) with Legendary Judgment Rune
- Ancient Spear (Quick Prep, Explosive Spear, and Ancient Strength) with Legendary Galewind Rune
- Weak Point Level 1
- Mid-High Stagger
- Super Armor: Paralysis Immunity
- Pauru (Weak Point Detection, Attack Power Enhancement, and Blue Flame Pauru) with Legendary Quick Recharge Rune
- Elcid (Magick Amplification, Deadly Poison Seed, and Elite Summoning) with Legendary Focus Rune
- Maririn (Attack Power Enhancement, Change Command, and Small Talk) with Legendary Quick Recharge Rune
- Shurdi (Shining Growth, Smart Shurdi, and Thrilling Light) with Legendary Bleed Rune
- Mid Stagger
- Super Armor: Push Immunity and Status Ailment Immunity
Combat Stats
For this build, you will focus on balancing your points on Swiftness and Crit Stats. You can have a 50/50 distribution for the two or 80% former and then 20% latter. The main idea is that Crit should be, at most, your Swiftness.
Best Engravings
Starter Engravings
- Communication Overflow
- Adrenaline (increases your Crit Rate, which would benefit your overall damage since you will be firing multiple abilities constantly)
Essential End-Game Engravings
- Grudge (increases your overall damage in exchange for taking more, which would benefit you significantly due to your constant spellcasting)
- Hit Master (a good attack boost since your skills also don't have positional modifiers)
Optional Engravings
- Raid Captain (gain additional Outgoing Damage depending on your Movement Speed, which is ideal for Swiftness builds)
- Rank 1 or 2 Master Summoner (even though your specialization is Swiftness, having a few nodes active in this Engraving will help you increase your overall damage)
Gems
You focus more on Attack boosts for the Swift build than CD since you already have sound cooldown reduction. Focusing on damaged gems will increase your DPS per rotation. However, it would help if you still had level 7 gems to optimize your settings. Here are all the necessary items for this build:
Attack Gems
- Ancient Spear
- Maririn
- Pauru
- Elcid
- Earth Collapse
- Shurdi
- Akir
Cooldown Gems
- Ancient Spear
- Elcid
- Stick Moss Swamp
- Earth Collapse
Best Gear for Both Spec and Swift
Spec and Swift builds follow the same gear progression because they rely on specific bonus stats. Players should be aware that the Summoner class generally will have relatively low DPS until they reach the complete Relic set. It would be best to rush Valtan mats to maximize your damage. Here are the best gear at Tier 3 and beyond:
- Preordained Diligence (1370 to 1415) - This stage is essential because it will allow you to reach the Valtan stage. You should expect little from this set as it only serves as a transitional phase to a higher gear.
- 2 Preordained Diligence + Four Demon Beast (1415 to 1445) - When you start Legion raiding, you will have to adjust your gear a bit so that you won't have a hard time looking for a party. This will only boost you, but it is much better than running a complete Preordained set. However, this is still a transitional set till you get full relic gear.
- Poem of Salvation Set (1445+) - When you get to this stage, you will see a tremendous spike in your DPS capabilities. The stacking damage you gain from the Salvation set can boost your damage by 14%, which is a massive leap from your previous gear. However, this is still not your BiS. This set will be your most viable option if you are purely a F2P player (not spending Crystals in the store for Honing materials).
- Shrieking Hallucination Set (1445+ Best-in-Slot) - The Hallucination is the most powerful gear you can get for both the Spec and Swift builds. You can deal 25% damage at the complete set while having a 17% Crit Rate that can last 120 seconds when you have Hallucination and Reality bonuses active. This is a tremendous leap in DPS, so you should opt to get it if you have sufficient materials. Take note that this will be a hefty investment.
Things To Remember:
- Your most reliable Counter would be Water Elemental because it doesn't change your skill rotation too much.
- To play Spec builds appropriately, you must time your summons correctly since it requires proper placement to hit the boss. The long channeling time can cause you to miss your shots if you do not have time precisely.
- You can always change your build midway. The Swift build is ideal for leveling up, so running this first would be more advisable. You can reroll to Spec set once you hit the 1370 or 1415 item level.
- The stats of your accessories need to be at least 80 in quality since this class relies heavily on gear stats.
- The gameplay of the Summoner class can be described as a piano build, especially when you are using pets. It might be a good idea to memorize the sequence of your abilities to optimize your rotations.
- Though Hallucination is the BiS set, running Charming might be more beneficial, especially when you have high-quality points. In addition, the latter requires fewer investments to be optimal, while Hallucination requires extreme investing.
