Deathblade is an advanced Assassin class that plays closer to an agile martial class than a proper rogue. Utilizing three different blades, the Deathblade carves through the battlefield with skill and grace. This class features excellent mobility, high damage output, excellent buffs to support your team in endgame activities, and arguably the flashiest set of skills out of all the Lost Ark classes.
If you are new to the game, you may want to check our ultimate beginner guide before you jump into the game, you can learn tips and tricks for a better levelling.
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Overview
The Lost Ark Deathblade is a Melee DPS Class that capitalizes on inflicting high sustained damage. You may want to check the other Assassin class in Lost Ark Shadowhunter guide here.
As an Assassin, their mobility is very impressive since they can blitz from one point of an area to the next, making it difficult for slow-moving classes like the Gunlancer, to catch them by surprise.
- High DPS
- Excellent Mobility
- Self and Party Buffs
- Skills with Super Armors
- Skills with Back Attacks
As a Lost Ark Deathblade, you’ll be able to inflict high damage combos thanks to your fast attack and movement speed. These qualities enable you to dart in and out of combat quite effectively when you need to slash enemies for the kill or evade them altogether. Deathblades have to keep moving behind their foes, especially fast-moving ones, in order to deal Back Attacks. However, what’s good about their corresponding Skills is, they also gain a lot of Super Armors or immunities, thereby protecting them from crowd control. In terms of buffs, Deathblades can boost the party’s movement speed and both their Frontal and Back Attacks for better damage.
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Pros & Cons
We will cover how these, as well as the class Engravings, impact the playstyles for the Deathblade.
Pros
- Easy to learn
- Fantastic PvP class
- Has some of the flashiest skills in the game
Cons
- Most skills are back attacks, so positioning is key
- Build variety is extremely limited due to skill balance
- Gear dependent for PvE
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Best PvE build
| Skill | Lv | Effect I | Effect II | Effect III |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blitz Rush | 10 | Vital Point Hit (Crit Rate +40%) | All-round (Shortens charge up time, always Overcharged) | Shadow Rush (Afterimages attack) |
| Maelstrom | 10 | Cold Touch (Freeze foes 4m for 4.0s) | Quick Cast (Skill casting delay -60%) | Overwhelm (Damage to challenge or lower foes 100%, Paralyze foes with continuous damage) |
| Moonlight Sonic | 10 | Ice Cold Hands (Frost 5.0s, -120% move speed, stacks 3x) | Quick Prep (Cooldown -11.0s) | Shade Sonic (Damage +105%) |
| Polestar | 10 | Orb Control (Death Orb meter gain +75%) | Vital Point (Crit Rate +60%) | Stardust (Aerial attack duration +1.0s, Damage +156%) |
| Spin Cutter | 10 | Open Weakness (Damage to foe increase by 6% for 10.0s, frontal and back attackk +9% | Quick Prep (Cooldown -5.0s) | Triple Spin (Max combo count +1) |
| Upper Slash | 10 | Vital Point Hit (Crit Rate +40%) | Large Twister (Damage +80%) | Sharp Attack (Stagger lv. to Mid-High, Crit Dmg +100%) |
| Void Strike | 10 | Swift Fingers (Atk. Spd. +27%) | Fist of Darkness (Dmg +60%) | Dark Dimension (Charge up to 1.5s to pull enemies and do an overcharged attack) |
| Wind Cut | 10 | Impaired Mobility (Move Spd -42% for 4.1s) | Vital Point Hit (Crit Rate +60%) | Thick Sword Energy (Radius +100%) |
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Best PvP build
| Skill | Lv | Effect I | Effect II | Effect III |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blitz Rush | 10 | Vital Point Hit (Crit Rate +40%) | All-round (Shortens charge up time, always Overcharged) | Shadow Rush (Afterimages attack) |
| Dark Axel | 10 | Swift Fingers (Atk Spd +27%) | Vital Point Hit (Crit Rate +60%) | Upper Axel (Spin Crit Rate +50%, Longsword atk +180%) |
| Fatal Wave | 10 | Orb Control (Death Orb gain +75%) | Ice Cold Hands (Frost 5.1s, Move Spd -26%, Freeze for 2.0s on three stacks) | Double Wave (Dmg +95%) |
| Head Hunt | 10 | Weapon Destruction (For Atk Power -25% for 4.0s) | Enhanced Strike (Dmg +60%) | Weak Point Detection (Dmg to Push Immune+94.8%) |
| Maelstrom | 10 | Cold Touch (Freeze, 4m for 2.0s) | Quick Cast (Spell Delay -60%) | Overwhelm (Dmg to lower foes +145%, paralyze) |
| Spin Cutter | 10 | Open Weakness (Damage to foe increase by 6% for 10.0s, frontal and back attackk +9%) | Quick Prep (Cooldown -5.0s) | Triple Spin (Max combo count +1) |
| Upper Slash | 10 | Vital Point Hit (Crit Rate +40%) | Powerful Twister (Crit Rate +100%) | Sharp Attack (Stagger lv. to Mid-High, Crit Dmg +100%) |
| Wind Cut | 10 | Quick Prep (Cooldown -4.0s) | Vital Point Hit (Crit Rate +60%) | Sword Energy Explosion (Dmg +80%) |
- Engage your enemy with a Dark Axel or a Blitz Rush and follow up with a skill that launches them into the air like Upper Slash.
- Use Maelstrom as a buffer or a counter when most skills are on cooldown to mitigate attacks.
- Alternate between pushing skills and dashing skills to chain them properly, such as Blitz Rush > Dark Axel > Head Hunt > Spin Cutter.
- You may also use dashing skills for an easy escape or to get some distance between you and your foe.
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Identity Skills
Death Orb: Damage targets to build up energy for one of three Death Orbs. When one or more Orbs are charged, you can enter Deathblade Arts mode to gain increased move speed, attack speed, attack power, MP recovery, all while reducing your skill cooldowns. Activate Deathblade Arts once more to unleash a devastating final blow, consuming all remaining Death Orb energy.
Death Orb is the Deathblade’s class identity, acting as a gauge you can activate to enter an ultimate form called Deathblade Arts. There’s quite a bit going on with this mechanic, so let’s break it down.
All damage you deal will build up energy in a Death Orb. Your class identity has three Death Orbs in total, each hit filling up one at a time. When at least one orb is filled, you can activate the Deathblade Arts, granting a wide range of buffs. While in Deathblade Arts, your Death Orb energy will begin to decay. Deathblade Arts will end when your energy reaches zero, which can occur naturally or by activating Deathblade Arts a second time.
Prematurely ending this effect will unleash a powerful overhead slam attack that deals an immense amount of damage. The more Death Orbs you have charged before deactivating Deathblade Arts, the more damage this attack will deal. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain Deathblade Arts until a Death Orb is about to expire, at which point you prematurely end the effect to release a powerful attack. Rinse and repeat as needed.
Deathblade Arts grants the following buffs while active:
- Move Speed: +10%
- Atk. Speed: +10% / 15% / 20%
- Atk. Power: +10% / 20% / 30%
- MP Recovery: +15% / 25% / 45%
- Skill Cooldowns: -10% / 30% / 50%
- Does not affect Awakening Skills, Movement Skills, and Stand Up Actions.
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Engravings
Both class Engravings directly impact your Identity gauge skills.
| Remaining Energy | Surge |
|---|---|
|
|
Remaining Energy is a fantastic Engraving that most Deathblade PvE builds use. It provides a buff that’s similar to Deathblade Arts that persists even after your class identity expires. Activate Deathblade Arts, enjoy an immense boost to your damage and mobility, then unleash your Deathblade Surge just before your first orb expires. You get an extra two seconds to work with before the orb begins to decay, giving you an even longer burst damage window.
Surge sounds much more complicated on paper than it is in-game. In essence, every skill you use (excluding default attacks and Awakening skills) will give you a stack of Surge Enhancement on hit. Each stack of this buff increases the damage that Deathblade Surge will deal once activated. The T2 and T3 variants of Surge also enhance your Deathblade’s overall Atk. Power with each stack. Activate Deathblade Arts, use your skills to reach x20 Enhancement stack before your first Orb decays, then activate Deathblade Surge to deal millions of damage in a single hit.
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Awakening Skills
The Deathblade comes with two Awakening Skills, namely Blade Assault and Flash Blink. While players will have to choose which Engraving to include in their build, they can equip both Awakening Skills; however, only use one at a time.
As you can see, both Lost Ark Deathblade Awakening skills are fantastic. It all depends on which content you are doing and how you get to implement them in your playstyle. For PvP, the dash is going to be fantastic if you are solo queueing, whereas group content with a reliable setup makes the second much more appealing.
The Blade Assault, when activated, allows players to launch forward as they deal damage to enemies within a straight line. Once they’ve reached the Perfect damage Zone, they’ll be able to deal more damage when throwing blades at enemies, knocking them back as they launch them into the air.
The Flash Blink is not as finessed as the Blade Assault as this Awakening Skill will see their character move forward, launching a flurry of attacks using all three blades. This inflicts plenty of damage to their enemies as they knock them back into the air.
Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Best Gems to Use
When you get to T2 content, you will find that gems start appearing. You can use gems to enhance specific skills that compliment your build. For the most part, gems on a Deathblade want to go to your most powerful skills, which increase the damage they do along with reducing their cooldown. Examples of this include gemming your Soul Absorber, Moonlit Sonic and Blitz Rush with damage and cooldown reduction. These are your strongest single target and AOE skills, which you want to use to destroy enemies in AOE and single target fights.
