Wardancer Lost Ark Class Guide

Our Wardancer Lost Ark class guide covers everything you need to know about this Martial Artist 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 Wardancer Lost Ark class, we’ve got you covered below.

Wardancer Class Guide Overview

The Wardancer in Lost Ark is a Martial Artist type class that wields a lightweight Fist Weapon on each hand. The Wardancer is a Melee DPS, getting up close and personal in the faces of their targets. They combo together punches, kicks, and powerful elemental skills throwing enemies up in the air. Their musical instrument is an Lute.

The Identity Gauge of the Wardancer is the Elemental Meter. Successful hits to enemies with their Basic attack and Normal Skills will fill up the meter. There are 3 orbs, or bubbles, in their meter which once full, are the resources of special Esoteric Skills. These Esoteric Skills, when used, consume 1 or 2 Elemental Bubbles depending on the skill.

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

• First Intention – Increased Damage; No longer uses Elemental Meter, and therefore does not use Esoteric Skills.
• Esoteric Skill Enhancement – Increase amount of Elemental Orbs to 4. Esoteric Skills inflict bonus damage per orb consumed.

In end game content, the First Intention is the most popular due to the consistent burst damage that this playstyle provides. The Esoteric Skill Enhancement is not as strong as the other playstyle. In the Meantime, check out our Striker Guide if you would like to be an effective party member with a very similar playstyle.

Role of a Wardancer

Wardancers are a melee DPS class in Lost Ark that also provides good synergy with their buffs.

In PvE, they provide a number of offensive buffs and can provide some a buff that reduces damage taken. They have decent burst damage but are generally not the highest damage overall. They can be particularly difficult to play as they have to line up burst combos that benefit tremendously from back attacks.

In PvP, they continue to provide good buffs, have great chained knock-up combinations, but many skills can be hard to hit given the small range they have. With a few good movement skills, they can engage and disengage fairly easily.

Strengths

• High Burst Damage
• High Mobility
• Provide Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Crit Rate Party Buffs
• Can provide minor damage mitigation
• Easy to learn

Weaknesses

• Lower Sustained Damage
• Can be difficult to master landing back-attack abilities.

Skills

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

Wardancer 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 of your 2 free skillbook slots, choose abilities based on this:

• One for AoE ^{(Area of Effect)} Normal Enemies
  • Select Tripods that increase effect range (Wide Strike) and increase damage to Minor and Normal types of enemies (Law of the Jungle).
• One for Single Target Bosses and Elites
  • Select Tripods that increase single target damage (Single Strike) and increase damage to Challenge or higher types of enemies (Weak Point Detection).

In general, it is better to have a few skills at level 10 than to have 8 skills all levelled equally. That is because the 3rd tier of Tripods typically make the skill perform much differently and more powerfully than at lower levels. Also keep in mind you’re levelling experience will be much faster with movement skills and tripods to make your character move further and faster.

Skill Progression

Here are the Regular Damaging Skills to focus on when you unlock them:

• Swift Wind Kick (AoE) (lvl 20)
• Wind’s Whisper (AoE and Buff) (lvl 20)
• Lightning Kick (Mobility) (default ability)
• Moon Flash Kick (Gauge Generation) (default ability)
• Seismic Strike (AoE) (lvl 12)
• Sweeping Kick (Damage) (lvl 36)
• Sleeping Ascent Celebration (Mobility) (lvl 16)

Here are the Esoteric Skills listed in order of what you should use when they become available:

• Call the Wind God (best mobility)
• Rising Fire Dragon (best damage)
• Blast Formation
• Spiral Impact
• Lightning Strike

To simplify everything, follow this priority:

1. Make Level 10 if you can: Swift Wind Kick > Wind’s Whisper > Sweeping Kick > Lightning Kick
2. Otherwise add points here to make Level 7: Sleeping Ascent Celebration > Seismic Strike > Esoteric Skill: Call of the Wind God
3. Then, make other skills you are using on your skill bar Level 4.

Below is an example Skill Progression Chart, and their Tripods, you can use to Level your Wardancer.

Gear

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

Wardancer Deathblow PvE Guide

Below is a good basic Wardancer PvE Build for all types of content such as Chaos Dungeon, Questing, Guardian Raids, and Abyss Dungeons.

The Rotation or Skill Priority is very straightforward; Engage, Buff, Damage.

• Engage with:
  • Sleeping Ascent Celebration or Lightning Kick
• Roar of Courage
• Wind’s Whisper
• Damage with:
  • Sweeping Kick
  • Moon Flash Kick
  • Flash Heat Fang

If you do not have enough skill points, focus on maximizing the ones bolded above first.

Wardancer Deathblow Stat Priority

Maximize Crit as much as possible. With all the Crit buffs you receive, it is possible to go over Crit Rate cap at later levels. Then focus on Swiftness as a secondary stat for faster cooldowns.

Wardancer PvE Build

This Wardancer build requires 328 Skill Points which will require the collecting a few extra Skill Points in Shushire and Rohendel.

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Level	Tripods	Notes
	Sleeping Ascent Celebration	7	1 3	Mobility; Tripod 2: Ready Attack – Attack Power 3s Buff
	Lightning Kick	10	1 1 2	Mobility; Damage
	Energy Combustion	7	1 3	AoE; Tripod 1: Combustible Armor – Damage Mitigation
	Flash Heat Fang	10	2 3 2	Damage
	Roar of Courage	10	1 3 1	Debuff on target – Increased crit rate
	Wind’s Whisper	10	3 3 1	Movement, Attack Speed, Crit Party Buff Tripod 3: Ready Attack – Self Attack Power Buff
	Moon Flash Kick	10	2 3 2	Damage
	Sweeping Kick	10	2 1 1	High Damage

Wardancer PvP Guide

In Player versus Player Arenas, Wardancers play a semi-supportive role by providing attack and movement speed buffs, as well as some damage mitigation. Secondarily, they also provide fair damage through long winded juggling knock-up combinations of moves.

Hard CC:

• Esoteric Skill: Lightning Strike – 2s Freeze
  • Dash (spacebar) before to get more range on this stun

Possible Combo opportunity:

• Energy Combustion (buffs) >
• Lightning Kick (engage, knock up) >
• Sky Shattering Blow (knock up) >
• Swift Wind Kick (knock up/down) >
• Moon Flash Kick (knock up) > (dash or walk toward)
• Wind’s Whisper (finisher)

Another option is to use EVERY skill on the hotbar in the build below like this:

• Energy Combustion (buffs) >
• Dash (spacebar) >
• Esoteric Skill: Lightning Strike (stun) >
• Sky Shattering Blow (knock up) >
• Swift Wind Kick (knock up/down) >
• Moon Flash Kick (knock up) >
• Sleeping Ascent Celebration (re-engage, knockup) >
• Wind’s Whisper (finisher) > (dash away)
• Lightning Kick (disengage)

In PvP the best Awakening Skil is Fist of Dominance. It is best combo’d immediately following using the skill Sleeping Ascent Celebration.

PvP Stats

• 1000 Swiftness
• 249 Endurance
• 1 Crit

Wardancer PvP Skills Build

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

Some useful alternatives:

• For a Stun: Use Esoteric Skill: Spiral Impact Instead (Tripods: 3-2-2) of Esoteric Skill: Lightning Strike.
• Phoenix Advent (Tripods 1-3-2) – Tripod 2: Freeze Effect for a 1s Freeze

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

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Level	Tripods	Notes
	Moon Flash Kick	10	2 1 2	Finisher Knock down
	Sleeping Ascent Celebration	10	1 1 1	Mobility, Knock-up
	Sky Shattering Blow	4	2	Knock-up
	Swift Wind Kick	10	2 2 1	Damage, Knock-up
	Energy Combustion	10	1 2 2	Damaging Aura Buff, Damage reduction buff
	Wind’s Whisper	10	1 1 3	Party Buffs Tripod 3: Superwind – Finisher damage
	Esoteric Skill: Lightning Strike	10	3 3 1	Freeze 2s
	Lightning Kick	10	1 1 2	Mobility, Damage

Here’s Youtuber Pum showcasing some quality PVP gameplay displaying a lot of the techniques and strategies listed above.

Best Wardancer Engravings

Currently, the Wardancer only has one main build, utilizing the First Intention class engraving. It provides strong burst damage.

The Esoteric Skill Enhancement is not as strong as the other playstyle. In the Meantime, check out our Striker Guide if you would like to be a more effective party member with a very similar playstyle.

Mandatory

Icon	Engraving	Description	Source
	First Intention	Lv. 1: Damage to foes +15%, but you can no longer gain Elemental Meter. Lv. 2: Damage to foes +20%.. Lv. 3: Damage to foes +25%..	Guardian Raid Abyss Dungeon
	Grudge	Lv. 1: Damage +4% to Boss or above monsters. Damage -20% from Boss or above monsters. Lv. 2: Damage +10%. … Lv. 3: Damage +20% …	Chaos Dungeons Cube
	Keen Blunt Weapon	Lv. 1: +10% Crit Damage but your attacks have a chance to deal Damage -20%. Lv. 2: +25% Crit Damage… Lv. 3: +50% Crit Damage…	Chaos Dungeons Cube

Optional

Icon	Engraving	Description	Source
	Raid Captain	Lv. 1: Outgoing Damage +10% of basic Move Speed bonus percentage. Lv. 2: Outgoing Damage +22%… Lv. 3: Outgoing Damage +45%…	Chaos Dungeons Cube
	Master of Ambush	Lv. 1: Damage +5% for successful back attacks. Lv. 2: Damage +12%… Lv. 3: Damage +25%…	Chaos Dungeons Cube
	Cursed Doll	Lv. 1: Atk. Power +3%. Healing -25%, natural recovery excluded. Lv. 2: …+8%. … Lv. 3: …+16%. …	Chaos Dungeons Cube

Gear Sets

Below is a list of all the gear sets and their bonuses that available to Tier 1 Wardancers. 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 Gunlancer builds, which breaks down all you need to know to master this class.