Hello everyone and welcome to our Lost Ark Sorceress Guide! Here you will see the best PVE Raid Builds, Stats, Skills and Gameplay for both the Igniter and Reflux build paths.
The Sorceress is a ranged caster DPS Advanced Class from the Mage family. Specialized in dealing massive amounts of AOE damage from a safe distance, relying on the elements to create the ultimate Mage power fantasy, having access to optional elemental damage sources such as ice, fire & lightning. Does sorcery take your fancy? Our Lost Ark Sorceress Guide will be able to provide you with all you need to know so you can get started on your spell slinging adventures!
Leveling
Lost Ark Sorceress Guide Leveling Optimization
Starting out as a Sorceress you’ll want to focus on distributing your Skill Points into your lowest cooldown skills that can assist you in clearing out mobs along with your harder hitting spells primarily for the bosses you’ll face but also to assist with mob clearing. You will find that Sorceress is pretty beginner friendly as you will deal a lot of damage very early on from a safe range with a lot of emphasis on mass AOE, but don’t be fooled – the damage will only go UP from here! As a rule of thumb for Skill Point distribution you should prioritize leveling up the following skills:
1. Seraphic Hail: An early go-to spell with a low cooldown and decent AOE damage, look to reach level 7 as soon as possible to grab the first two Tripods shown in the image below.
2. Punishing Strike: Your first boss-slaying tool, so I recommend maxing this out to level 10 as soon as possible due to the flexibility.
3. Frost’s Call: Another decent skill that provides quick and easy AOE damage, pairs up as an Identity gauge builder.
4. Explosion: Primarily a skill used to deal massive damage to a boss, but it can also been used in a pinch to wipe up mobs if other skills are on cooldown.
Once these prioritizations are made you are free to distribute Skill Points into abilities that enhance your enjoyment of the leveling process. It is recommended though to find time to put Blaze up to level 4 for the damage buff it provides on the first Tripod. Another optional pick is to commit points into Elegian’s Touch if you wish to speed up your leveling experience by moving faster.
Note: Do not fret! You can reset your skills at any point so any mistakes/regrets along the way, you’ll be able to fix that to your preference.
General tips
1. Some Sorceress skills have longer cast times such as Punishing Storm or later on, Doomsday. Make sure to try and position correctly so you don’t either miss or get interrupted mid-cast.
2. Sorceress has fantastic AOE & damage potential, kiting mobs into a more compact spot before unleashing your rotation will aid you in speeding up clear times between cooldowns.
3. While leveling, utilize your mount as much as possible.
4. Lastly, keep a keen eye on your Identity gauge as you’ll be wanting to activate this as frequently as possible to speed up clears by cutting down cooldown times and speeding up casts.
Max Level
Once you hit level 50 you’ll be heading to Beatrice, your guide throughout the Main Quest in Trixion. You’ll complete her questline to receive your first Awakening Skill, Enviska’s Might and your last major spell, Doomsday in your mailbox. You will have some choices in your build path moving forward, based around either of the class engravings accordingly; Igniter or Reflux. These two builds will be your main options going forward when attempting Guardian Raid, Abyssal Dungeon and Abyssal Raid content.
Builds
Igniter Build
This build revolves around using the Class Engraving Igniter. Which as a result of equipping it transforms the Sorceress build that looks to condense their damage into one burst window. You will achieve this via the Identity gauge skill, Arcane Rupture. After this window you’ll be looking to build up the gauge as soon as you can. This is to make sure that overall you get as many burst windows as possible. This build is the more difficult but rewarding of the two available to the Sorceress as it requires positioning, boss knowledge within the Guardian Raids, Abyssal Dungeons and Abyssal Raids activities alongside a specific burst window rotation. When performed well, you’ll be seeing some of the highest damage numbers you’ll ever see in Lost Ark.
Pros & Cons:
Pros
– Very high burst damage
– Ranged DPS
– Easier class choice
– Highly rewarding
Cons
– Longer cast times
– Fragile
– Very little immunity
– Requires precision
Stats and Skills
Using the Igniter build, you will be looking to run Specialization and Crit to maximize damage and Identity gauge build-up. Specifically an 80/20 split. However you can opt for Swiftness over Crit if you’re struggling with the lack of mobility.
The skills above are the most optimal for the Igniter build. Ideally you’ll prioritize getting Level 10 on Doomsday, Punishing Strike, Explosion. Eventually you will begin to raise the levels of the other skills as you obtain more Skill Points. Make sure to have at least Level 4 Blaze for the Party Synergy. Look to have Frost’s Call, Esoteric Reaction and Rime Arrow at least Level 7. Whereas I have found Squall to be fairly low priority for Level upgrades. Squall will have decent use as a counter regardless of Level.
Lost Ark Sorceress Igniter Gameplay
The aim of the game with the Igniter build is to always be building up your Identity gauge so you can reach your Igniter burst window using Arcane Rupture. To facilitate this you will be using your main builders whenever they’re off cooldown. Namely Rime Arrow, Esoteric Reaction and Frost’s Call, however every spell (auto-attacks included) will generate some gauge. Keep a close eye on your Identity gauge progression as you continue to build it, should you find yourself nearing 100% you may be at the time where it is better to hold your major cooldowns so as to not delay the activation of Arcane Rupture and the building of a new gauge. Providing Doomsday is not on cooldown, having some other spells on a cooldown timer is not the end of the world as you’ll cut your cooldowns in half by activating Arcane Rupture.
Opener
As an opener in Raids or Abyss Dungeon boss encounters, consider using the majority of your Identity gauge builders such as Frost’s Call, Rime Arrow and Esoteric Reaction to put them on cooldown as soon as possible to get more of them out overall across an encounter.
Throughout an encounter make sure you keep a good usage uptime of Blaze on the Raid boss, this spell with the correct Tripod gives you and your party a damage buff, with a relatively low cooldown you should be able to upkeep this buff and weave it between your standard rotation. Always try to balance your main damage windows around your own damage buffs & your team’s party buffs for maximum efficiency.
Another important factor in the Sorceress toolkit is the ability to animation cancel out of essentially all of your major damage spells that have a cast time by casting the next spell as your cast is completing. Once you manage to master the timing you’ll find the flow of all your major damage coming out faster than usual which increases the reliability of your burst hitting when you choose to commit to initiating your rotation onto the Guardian Raid, Abyss Dungeon or Abyss Raid boss you’re facing. Spells such as Doomsday, Explosion and Punishing Strike can all be cancelled at the end straight into the next spell, Rime Arrow can also cancel the spells above.
With that in mind, once you hit your Igniter(Arcane Rupture) window and want to quite literally “ignite” and get the most out of it, the rotation(Also shown below in visual form) is as follows:
1. Doomsday
2. Activate Arcane Rupture (Igniter)
3. Explosion
4. Punishing Strike
5. Rime Arrow
6. Esoteric Reaction
7. Frost’s Call
8. Squall
9. Doomsday
Note: Weave Blaze and Squall in where you can/makes sense.
As you can see, you can achieve a lot in this window especially when cancelling animations, this will be your peak damage point that you’ll work towards, and the main factor of the build. You can follow this rotation outside the window, just without activating Arcane Rupture. Another major difference in this rotation is by casting Doomsday before activating your Arcane Rupture, you get to half your Doomsday cooldown meaning you get a second Doomsday you’d otherwise not get at the end of the rotation in the damage window.
Igniter Engravings, Gems and Runes
The Engravings below are ordered top-left to bottom right, from highest priority to lowest.
You’re looking to equip Igniter & All-Out-Attack as your main engravings to smooth out the build’s intentions. Please note that Grudge should only be taken when you know you’ll have it at level 3, the benefits do not outweigh the negatives Grudge gives you on level 1 & 2. Engravings such as Cursed Doll and Hit Master are generally great for damage increases and always decent to pick up.
Gems
| Attack Gems | Cooldown Gems |
| Doomsday | Rime Arrow |
| Punishing Strike | Blaze |
| Esoteric Reaction | Esoteric Reaction |
| Explosion | Frost’s Call |
| Rime Arrow | |
| Frost’s Call |
Runes
Lost Ark Sorceress Guide Igniter Gear Tripods
In this Lost Ark Sorceress Guide, we briefly touch on Gear Tripod Effects. In Tier 3, you will find yourself obtaining gear that has Tripod effects on them. Basically these Tripod effects can alter the Level of your Tripods on skills. As a result, finding the right Tripod effects for your gear can further power up your Sorceress to even greater heights! Be on the lookout for any Tripod effects that apply to the following skills:
1. Doomsday
2. Explosion
3. Frost’s Call
4. Punishing Strike
5. Esoteric Reaction
6. Rime Arrow
Reflux Build
Unlike the Igniter build, the Reflux Engraving plays the polar opposite style of gameplay by locking the ability to use Arcane Rupture and in return receiving a constant damage increase and cooldown reduction across the board. This build is much easier to play due to its consistency and spell-slinging playstyle. Another positive as a result of not using your Identity gauge for Arcane Rupture is gaining a huge amount of mobility due to the ability to use Blink. If you’re looking for a build with very little downtime with constant damage when attempting Guardian Raid or Abyss Raid content, look no further!
Pros & Cons:
Pros
• Great mobility
• Good consistent DPS
• Easier to play
• No positional reliance
Cons
• Fragile
• Lacking burst
• Very little immunity
Stats and Skills
When using the Reflux build, you will primarily be looking to run a split of Crit and Swiftness (about an 80/20 split). Seeing as you will be throwing out spells like a machine gun you’ll make the most out of high Crit constantly landing maximum damage with each cast, amplified by Reflux itself, Swiftness will help create a smoother flow.
The skills above are the most optimal for the Reflux build. Ideally you’ll prioritize getting Level 10 on Frost’s Call, Punishing Strike, Seraphic Hail, Esoteric Reaction and Rime Arrow. Then raise the levels up of the other skills as you obtain more Skill Points. Make sure to have at least Level 4 Blaze for the Party Synergy, and look to have Inferno, Blaze and Reverse Gravity brought up to as high as they can be.
Lost Ark Sorceress Guide Reflux Gameplay
The aim of the game with the Reflux build is to never stop casting. The general rule of thumb you should follow is that if a Skill is off cooldown, you press that Skill as soon as possible.
Try to always weave your Blaze Skill whenever it’s off cooldown so the rest of your skills deal as much damage as possible, as well as your team’s skills. It should be noted that there is a Casting version of the Reflux build that swaps out skills such as Seraphic Hail and Reverse Gravity for Doomsday and Explosion. This converts the build into a smaller burst build compared to Igniter. For beginners however I’d highly suggest the Instant Cast build of Reflux, also known as the “standard” build.
With that in mind, the rotation for Reflux or at least the Instant Cast variant is less of a rotation and more of a machine gun approach, casting every and any spell that’s available as soon as it’s off cooldown, with the exception of Blaze where you should be more deliberate in when you give yourself and your Party the damage buff.
Alternatively with the Casting build rotation, you have a rotation of skills very similar if not identical to the Igniter rotation minus Arcane Rupture and a second Doomsday:
• Blaze
• Doomsday
• Explosion
• Punishing Strike
• Rime Arrow
• Esoteric Reaction
• Frost’s Call
• Repeat
Reflux Engravings, Gems and Runes
The Engravings below are ordered top-left to bottom right, from highest priority to lowest.
You’re looking to equip Reflux and Keen Blunt Weapon as your main engravings due to their ability to smooth out the build’s intentions. Please note that Grudge should only be taken when you know you’ll have it at level 3, the benefits do not outweigh the negatives Grudge gives you on level 1 & 2. Engravings such as Cursed Doll and Hit Master are generally great for damage increases and always decent to pick up.
Gems
For cooldown Gems, we are choosing pretty straight forward Skill options, they are your most simple damage dealing spells that instantly cast, so you’ll want them up as much as possible.
For Damage Gems, we again choose our fast but hard hitting damage spells alongside Punishing Strike, a slightly longer cast time but hard hitting spell that’s somewhat bursty.
| Attack Gems | Cooldown Gems |
| Seraphic Hail | Rime Arrow |
| Punishing Strike | Reverse Gravity |
| Esoteric Reaction | Esoteric Reaction |
| Reverse Gravity | Frost’s Call |
| Rime Arrow | Seraphic Hail |
| Frost’s Call |
Runes
Reflux is very versatile with Runes, as a result feel free to experiment and find what’s best for your playstyle with the remaining skills that need a Rune.
Lost Ark Sorceress Reflux Gear Tripods
In this Lost Ark Sorceress Guide, we briefly touch on Gear Tripod Effects. In Tier 3, you will find yourself obtaining gear that has Tripod effects on them. Basically these Tripod effects can alter the Level of your Tripods on skills. As a result, finding the right Tripod effects for your gear can further power up your Sorceress to even greater heights! Be on the lookout for any Tripod effects that apply to the following skills:
1. Reverse Gravity
2. Seraphic Hail
3. Frost’s Call
4. Punishing Strike
5. Esoteric Reaction
6. Rime Arrow
7. Blaze
8. Squall or Inferno
Cards Sets
Cards are an additional endgame system, consequently you will find they become essential. Below you will find the recommended but certainly best sets for Sorceress.
(Budget) Lostwind Cliff: This is a budget version of Light of Salvation, which is generally the best endgame set. This is much easier to complete since Solas and Seria are easy to collect with the help of the Traveling Merchant.
(Endgame) Light of Salvation: Firstly this set is hands down the best endgame set. However the downside of it really is it will take a long time to collect. So while you’re collecting it, use Lostwind Cliff set for the meantime.
Thank you for checking out our Lost Ark Sorceress Guide for PVE! As a result I hope this helps you become one of the best Sorceress players in Lost Ark! We will make sure that we update this guide in the future since Lost Ark can make any changes for the Class.
Author: Danny “Scythe” Heddle
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