Lost Ark – Shadowhunter Build Guide

The Shadowhunter is the reaper-type damage dealer of the Assassin class in Lost Ark. They focus on dealing large amounts of damage with close-range melee attacks and their ability to shapeshift into a demon. To get the most out of the Shadowhunter advanced class, you will want to make sure you are running the right build. Here is our Lost Ark Shadowhunter Build Guide.

Shadowhunter Class overview

The Shadowhunter is a scary sight in battle. It puts out effective damage from both melee and ranged distances, and it sports high mobility. The only drawback to the Shadowhunter is that they are meant to be played at a fast pace, which is daunting for some players. Luckily, the Shadowhunter's Identity Skill can help to make this class deadly.

The Shadowhunter's Identity Skill is called Shadowburst Gauge. When your Shadowburst Gauge fills up, you can turn into a demonic form of yourself that gives you boosted health and movement speed. In this mode, you unlock access to a few new skills that you can use to claw your enemies with high damage. Your build should work to increase your effectiveness both in and out of your demonic form.

Related: Lost Ark – Berserker Build Guide

Best Shadowhunter build

The Shadowhunter performs best when your build focuses on maximizing the class's overall utility and building up your Shadowburst Gauge. Players will receive skill points each time they level up and should work toward the below build as they level up to 50. It is recommended that you first max out skills that you use most often or are the most powerful, then fill in the rest of the skills from there. You shouldn't worry about what skills you level first, though, as you can reset your skill points at any time.

Shadowhunter Engravings

Once you’ve reached level 50, you can start taking advantage of Engravings. Each class has two Class Engravings that slightly alter the way your class functions. For Shadowhunter, these are Demonic Impulse and Perfect Suppression. This build focuses on using your demonic mode as often as possible. Therefore, you will want to use the Demonic Impulse Engraving over Perfect Suppresion.

• Demonic Impulse - The Composure effect does not activate when Demonize ends. Upon Demonize, demonic skill cooldown is reset, and crit rate is increased by 30 percent while Demonic Mode is active.
• Perfect Suppression - Disables Demonize and increases normal skill damage by 30 percent. Shadowburst Meter is incresed by 50 percent for all skills.

You will also have access to some general Engravings that can further increase the Shadowhunter's damage. These can be leveled up a maximum of three times and activated using Engraving points on rings, necklaces, and earrings. Below are a few great Engraving options for Shadowhunter.

• Master of Ambush - Increases back attack damage by up to 25 percent.
• Cursed Doll - Boosts your attack power by 16 percent and lowers healing by 25 percent.
• Keen Blunt Weapon - Plus 50-percent crit damage, but your attacks have a chance to deal 20-percent less damage.
• Grudge - Increases damage to Bosses or higher-ranking foes by 20 percent, but also increases damage from them by 20 percent.

Related: Lost Ark – Artillerist Build Guide

Berserker Awakening Skills

Awakening Skills are extremely powerful abilities that have longer cooldowns. You will unlock these by following along with Beatrice’s post-level-50 questlines. Each class will have two unique Awakening Skills. However, only one can be equipped at a time. The Awakening Skill you should choose for Shadowhunter ties in directly to which Engraving you are using. In the case of this build, you should choose Explosive Heat Awakening.

• Fallen Ruin - Unleash demonic powers to open up the gates of hell, scattering hellish energy that cause damage across the land. The energy explodes at the end for more damage and knocks foes away.
• Explosive Heat Awakening - Soar into the air and shoot an energy ray straight at the ground to inflict damage. The laser causes an explosion moments later, knocking foes away for even more damage. This skill is usable in Demonic Mode.

This is an all-around Shadowhunter build, but keep in mind: there are builds that focus more on specific types of content. Builds are somewhat subjective, so feel free to tweak this build to fit your playstyle as needed.

For more Lost Ark guides, check out All Mokoko Seed locations in Yudia in Lost Ark or How to make gold fast in Lost Ark? right here on Pro Game Guides.