Shadowhunter Lost Ark Class Guide

Our Shadowhunter Lost Ark class guide covers everything you need to know about this Gunner subclass, including its overall role in the team, its strengths and weaknesses, some tips, and more. Lost Ark allows you to control a number of classes, who all come with different benefits in PvE and PvP content. So if you want a breakdown of the Shadowhunter Lost Ark class, we’ve got you covered below.

Shadowhunter Class Guide Overview

The Shadowhunter in Lost Ark is an Assassin type that wields two double edged daggers called Haladies. Their musical instrument is a Flute. The Shadowhunter is a Hybrid DPS; that means they have both Ranged and Melee attacks.

Their Identity Gauge, the Shadowburst Meter, fills up upon successful hits to enemies. Once full players can activate it to enter Demonize; which transforms the character into a demon and grants access to the use of 6 unique Demon only skills. Demonize also gives the player 20% increased health and movement speed, the player is also immune to interrupts. Once ended the Player must wait 30 seconds before they can enter Demonize again due to the Composure Debuff.

There are two distinct playstyles that players can choose from through the use of the Shadowhunter’s Class Engravings:

• Perfect Suppression aka “Human Form” Disables Demonize and instead improves the damage of all Normal Skills.
• Demonic Impulse aka “Demon Form”: Disables Composure to allow entering Demonize more often and improving Crit Rate.

Both playstyles are viable in endgame content so pick your favorite flavor. The one caveat being that the Demon Form playstyle is really only viable with the Second Level of the Demonic Impulse Engraving, which may be difficult to get early on. And the Human Form playstyle is viable even with only the First Level of the Perfect Suppression engraving.

Role of a Shadowhunter

Shadowhunters are a pure DPS class in Lost Ark. In PvE, they focus on sustained damage to the boss. In PvP, they are largely a “Poke” class that focuses on harassing enemy players repeatedly getting in and out of combat in rapid succession.

Strengths

• High sustained damage
• High burst damage (demonize only)
• High Mobility
• Straightforward and easy class to learn

Weaknesses

• Lower health pool
• Not much utility
• Only one short attack damage party buff

Skills

The following table is a list of all Lost Ark Shadowhunter Skills that you will unlock and at which level you will do so.

Shadowhunter Levelling Guide

We recommend that you try out all the skills and play whatever is the most fun for you. However, if you just want to speed up the process (maybe that’s the most fun for you) or you’re tying to power through levelling an alt, follow this level by level breakdown of what skills to use and level up and which tripods to activate.

You can swap between saved skill tree slots whenever for free (even in combat as long as no skills are on cooldown). It’s recommended to use both your skillbook slots, choose abilities based on this: one for AoE (packs of normal enemies) and one for Single Target (Boss/Elites).

Skill Progression

At early levels you will use Demonic Slash for damage and movement. Demonic Clone is great for AoE.

Cruel Cutter is top priority for getting to level 10; it has amazing damage. If you don’t run into mana issues, take nimble movement instead as the first Tripod slot. Secondly, Thrust Impact is the next priority for getting to level 10.

Demon’s Grip is great for pulling in enemies closer to you and has decent damage. Sharpened Cut has a good movement aspect to it.

Later on you’ll unlock Howl at level 40, it has great AoE damage. If you’re in a party, take the Tripod 3: Scream of Fury for a party wide damage buff.

You will have left over skill points at some levels and between levels not listed below, just put them into whatever you feel like or wait until the next checkpoint to save time removing points later. There are 7 skills listed in the chart below, as for the 8th skill, I personally enjoy Demon Vision, with the Tripod 1: Concentrated Release and Tripod 2: Encroaching Power.

Below is a Shadowhunter Skill Levelling chart that shows progression of skill points and their Tripods.

Gear

Just equip the highest Item Lv. item you find. Focus on Agility for increased movement speed, reduced casting time, and faster skill cooldowns. Secondly, your next best stat is Specialization.

Perfect Suppression Build

Here’s a good Human Form build for Shadowhunters. The good thing with this build is that it is viable throughout all tiers of content. This Normal form build is best paired with at least 1 level of the Perfect Suppression Engraving. It’s good for all content such as Chaos Dungeons, Tower Event, Quests, Guardian Raid, and Abyss Dungeon.

For this build, you can swap out Rising Claw for your skill of choice if you don’t a need counter.

If you’re using other abilities not listed here, make sure to choose Tripods such as Encroachment Discharge and Encroachment Release . These are important as you are no longer using the Identity Gauge to go into Demonize form.

Always use Howl, when it’s available, before your big hitting abilities for the Party Attack Buff

Human Form Stat Priority

Firstly, your stats should be more focused on Crit. Secondly, Swiftness for faster skills and movement.

PvE Build Normal Form

This build requires 268 Skill Points which will require the collecting a few extra skill points from Shushire or Rohendel if you have it unlocked.

Shadowhunter Demonic Impulse Build

Below is a good Demon Form build for Shadowhunters. This Demonize Build is viable only if you have the second level of the engraving Demonic Impulse. This is due to the fact that you do not receive any Crit Rate from only having the first level achieved. It’s good for all content such as Chaos Dungeons, Tower Event, Quests, Guardian Raid, and Abyss Dungeon.

Make sure to choose abilities that give the most Identity Gauge gain and choose a Tripods such as Encroaching Power which increase the amount of Shadowburst Meter gained.

Always use Howl before you use the other abilities for the Party Attack Buff

Demon Form Stat Priority

Maximize Specialization as much as possible to gain more Identity Gauge. To help with getting into Demonize Form within one rotation, use the Wealth Rune to build more of the Shadowburst Gauge Meter. Next, if you’re good on Specialization, Crit is the next best stat to choose.

PvE Build Demonize

This build requires 268 Skill Points which will require the collecting a few extra Skill Points in Shushire and Rohendel.

Shadowhunter PvP Guide

In Player versus Player Arenas, Shadowhunters are a “poke” type class. This means that they engage and disengage in and out of combat very quickly and often to try to catch the target off guard.

PvP Stats

• 1000 Swiftness
• 249 Domination
• 1 Crit

PvP Skills Build

Feel free to change whatever skills you like depending on your playstyle and how you see fit.

Some combos available with this build include:

• Sharpened Cut (stagger) >

• Demonic Clone (knock up) >

• Thrust Impact* (finisher)

• Demonic Slash >

• Rising Claw (knock up) >

• Thrust Impact* (finisher)

A nice ranged combo:

• Grind Chain (stagger) >
• Demon Vision (1.5 Second Stun) >
• Piercing Thorn

*after the second attack, Thrust Impact might not be within range to hit the target, walk or dash forward to close the gap.

Demonize form provides a small heal and has Paralysis Immunity which will help you from being CC’d. Ruining Rush is a dash attack ability. Leaping Blow is a great gap closer you’ll want to combo into Blood Massacre to make a very powerful attack.

Alternatively you can use Demon’s Grip instead of Sharpened Cut to bring the enemy in closer for a longer chain of attacks that can deal massive damage. The rotation would look like this:

• Grind Chain (stagger) >
• Demon’s Grip (gap close) >
• Rising Claw (knock up) >
• Demonic Clone (knock up) >
• Thrust Impact (finisher)

Below is a general Shadowhunter PvP build that is a great foundation to build upon.

Here’s Youtuber Pum with some extraordinary 3v3 PVP.

Best Shadowhunter Engravings

Demonic Impulse Build

This Demonize Build is viable only if you have the second level of the engraving Demonic Impulse. This is due to the fact that you do not receive any Crit Rate from only having the first level achieved.

Mandatory

Optional

Perfect Suppression Build

You only need to have 1 level of Perfect Suppression for this build as each tier above only provides 5% more damage. It’s much easier to get the other engravings on this list too.

Mandatory

Optional

Gear Sets

Below is a list of all the gear sets and their bonuses that available to Tier 1 Shadowhunters. You can mix and match 2-Set bonuses using 2 or 3 different ones. Depending on your playstyle and what’s available to you, you may want to take two 2-set bonuses instead of a full 5-set Bonus. You can also have one set for Chaos Dungeons and other Solo Content, and another for Guardian Raids and other Group Content.

Item Level	Rarity	Set Bonus Name	Effects	Source
385	Relic	Dark Night	2-Set: When attacking a foe, 30% chance for +8% Atk and Move Speed for 6s. (Cooldown: 3s) 5-Set: Increases Crit Rate by 40%, but decreases Crit Damage by 40%.	Chaos Dungeon Rohendel (Welcome 3) Chaos Dungeon Rohendel (Nightmare 1-4)
385	Relic	Phantom Memory	2-Set: Attack Speed and Move Speed +5% 5-Set: Increases Damage with an Awakening Skill to Seed or lesser monsters by 60%. Increases Damage to Challenge or lesser monsters by 60% when hitting them with an Awakening Skill for 10s. (Cooldown: 60s)	Chaos Dungeon Rohendel (Welcome 3) Chaos Dungeon Rohendel (Nightmare 1-4)
385	Relic	Void Afterimage	2-Set: Decreases damage taken by 30% when HP is below 30%. +15% Atk. Speed and Move Speed, +10% Skill Cooldown. 5-Set: When hitting a foe with a normal attack, +15% Additional Damage for 3s (Cooldown: 1s)	Chaos Dungeon Rohendel (Welcome 3) Chaos Dungeon Rohendel (Nightmare 1-4)
340	Legendary	Awakened Hatred	2-Set: Combat Resource Recovery Speed: +30% 5-Set: Crit Damage +25	Abyss Dungeon (Corridor of the Twisted Lord) Abyss Dungeon (Hildebrigne, Dream Palace)
340	Legendary	Boisterous Elemental	2-Set: Increases Attack Speed and Move Speed by 4% for 6s, up to 8% when attacking monsters Boss rank or above. (Cooldown: 3s) 5-Set: Increases damage to monsters Boss ranked or above by 12%.	Abyss Dungeon (Corridor of the Twisted Lord) Abyss Dungeon (Hildebrigne, Dream Palace)
340	Legendary	Dense Confusion	2-Set: Attack Speed and Move Speed +4% 5-Set: Crit Rate +15%	Abyss Dungeon (Corridor of the Twisted Lord) Abyss Dungeon (Hildebrigne, Dream Palace)
340	Legendary	Enraged Nature	2-Set: Move Speed +8% 5-Set: Atk. Power +4% for 8s, up to 12% when attacking a monster Boss ranked or above. (Cooldown: 3s)	Abyss Dungeon (Corridor of the Twisted Lord) Abyss Dungeon (Hildebrigne, Dream Palace)
340	Legendary	Mist	2-Set: Decreases damage taken from Normal ranked monsters by 20%. 5-Set: Increases damage dealt to monsters Challenge rank or below by 15%.	Abyss Dungeon (Corridor of the Twisted Lord) Abyss Dungeon (Hildebrigne, Dream Palace)
302	Epic	Ancient	2-Set: When hit while HP is below 20%, restores 3% of Max HP for 15s each time you hit a Normal monster. (Cooldown: 60s) 5-Set: Increases damage by 17% when hitting 3 or more foes.	Abyss Dungeon (Valley of Beasts) Abyss Dungeon (Spirit of the Necromancer)
302	Epic	Rugged Valley	2-Set: Move Speed +8% 5-Set: Atk. Power +4% for 8s, up to 12% when attacking a monster Boss ranked or above. (Cooldown: 3s)	Abyss Dungeon (Valley of Beasts) Abyss Dungeon (Spirit of the Necromancer)
302	Epic	Seraphic Oath	2-Set: Attack Speed +8% 5-Set: Additional Damage +10%	Abyss Dungeon (Valley of Beasts) Abyss Dungeon (Spirit of the Necromancer)
302	Epic	Stalwart Years	2-Set: Attack Speed +8% 5-Set: Additional Damage +10%	Abyss Dungeon (Valley of Beasts) Abyss Dungeon (Spirit of the Necromancer)

Why not also check out our Lost Ark Soulfist builds, which covers everything you should know about the class, including its overall role.