Lost Ark: Shadowhunter Class Detailed Guide and Skill Build

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

In Lost Ark, the Shadowhunter is an assassin class that fights with dual-bladed tonfas. However, in the heat of battle, this class can also transform into a Demon with terrifying abilities. The Shadowhunter skill set consists of tonfa attacks and demonic conjurations. If you’re looking to get a little wicked, Shadowhunter has you covered. If the thought of letting your inner demons out sounds cool to you — or if you’re a fan of the blood and gore aesthetic — the Shadowhunter is right up your alley.

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.

Demonic Impulse

The Demonic Impulse build primarily uses normal skills as a means of generating gauge for your Demonize. The Demonic Impulse engraving allows you to ignore the cooldown period after transforming, letting you quickly regain gauge and transform again. Additionally, your critical strike chance is increased in Demonize.

The Demonic Impulse build resembles what you played while leveling. The build has a playstyle where you’ll fill up your gauge with normal skills and then transform into a Demon for a short period. The Demonic Impulse build is heavily reliant on getting enough specialization to transform as fast as possible, so it may feel a bit clunky in the earlier stages of the game.

This build typically looks for Specialization and Crit as their desired stats, with Specialization usually being the primary focus. Aim for around a 70/30 Specialization/Crit split.

Desired engravings for this build are (In order):

• Demonic Impulse
• Grudge
• Cursed Doll
• Keen Blunt
• Adrenaline

An example Demonic Impulse build for a brand new level 50 character with 252 Skill Points will look like this:

Perfect Suppression

The Perfect Suppression build only uses normal skills. This is because the Perfect Suppression Engraving disables your Demonize — in return you get a global increase in damage and gauge generation. This means that you won’t be able to transform into a Demon and use Demon skills, but you will be able to build gauge which can be spent by your skills.

Perfect Suppression is a build-and-spend style build with high attack speed and consistent damage. There is no Demonize, so use your skills to build and spend your gauge without having to worry about transforming.

This build typically looks for Crit and Swiftness as their desired stats, with Crit usually being the primary focus. Aim for around a 60/40 Swiftness/Crit split.

Desired engravings for this build are (In order):

• Perfect Suppression
• Grudge
• Keen Blunt
• Adrenaline
• Master of Ambush

An example Perfect Suppression build for a brand new level 50 character with 252 Skill Points will look like this:

Lost Ark Shadowhunter Gems

You want gauge fill gems on Howl to really bolster that resource generation.

Your demon form skills can also do with added attack speed and cast speed buffs to hasten the long animations.

You’ll also want damage increase gems if you are going the human form for that huge burst damage on your gauge spending skills.

Lost Ark Shadowhunter Guide – How to Build a Shadowhunter