Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it if you follow this Lost Ark Engravings guide. Here’s how to get the best Engravings and work those Ability Stones! 

What are Engravings in Lost Ark

Simply put, Engravings are character buffs. By reading ‘Engraving Recipes’ or equipping ‘Ability Stones’, you can unlock special effects such as increased attack power, a reduced Awakening skill cooldown, or increased movement speed. 

If you open the Roster menu in Lost Ark, you’ll see a tab that says ‘Engraving Effects’. It’s divided between the two class bonuses (exclusive to your current class) and 45 combat bonuses (available to the full Roster). 

By hovering over the Engravings on this page, you can see their effects. Each Engraving has three levels, and you need to unlock five ‘nodes’ for each level. This means that if you’ve upgraded an Engraving, but you haven’t reached the fifth node yet, the effect is not yet active. It takes a lot of Engraving upgrades to reach this point, so it’s completely normal to lack active Engravings before reaching level 50. 

How to unlock Engravings in Lost Ark

There are three ways to upgrade Engraving levels:

• Engraving Recipes. Get them as quest rewards (especially Island Quests), Dungeon drops, and Raid drops. While most Engraving Recipe chests allow you to pick the Engraving of your choice, some are based on chance. 
• Ability Stones. They’re obtained from quests and events, and can only contain combat Engraving bonuses (no class-specific ones). You need to facet an Ability Stone at an Ability Stone Cutter’s station before you can use it (more on that below).
• Equipment. After reaching Vern Castle, you’ll be able to get jewellery with Engraving effects. 

You’ll get your first few Engraving Recipes by simply following story quests. Pick up the purple Adventure Quest called ‘Try Out Engravings’ after reaching Luterra Castle to get 20 Uncommon Engravings as a quest reward.

When using Engraving Recipes, make sure you click on the correct tier. You need 20 Uncommon Engraving Recipes to reach the third node, and then switch to Rare Engraving Recipes. Hover over the Engraving you wish to upgrade to see what recipe tier it requires.

How to use Lost Ark Ability Stones

Ability Stones seem incredibly complicated at first, but they’re quite easy to use once you get the hang of it. To get started, you need to facet your Ability Stones at an Ability Stone Cutter NPC. There’s one in the north-eastern part of the Luterra Castle map. 

Interact with this NPC to see the ‘Facet Ability Stone’ menu. One the left side, there’s a list with Ability Stones in your possession. If you hover over them, you see two different Engravings, and one negative effect. 

Here’s how it works: you need to facet the Ability Stone until every node is activated. Only when the faceting process is complete, will you be able to equip the Ability Stone on your character. That means you’re forced to not only increase the two positive effects, but also the negative one. Since you want as many positive effects and as little negative effects as possible, you have to choose the faceting order strategically.

How to facet Ability Stones in Lost Ark

In the upper right corner of the Facet Ability Stone menu, you’ll see the current chance of success. If it’s on 75% (the max), the next node you choose has a 75% chance of being activated. Naturally, you want to spend that 75% chance on the best Engraving effect. 

While unsuccessful faceting attempts increase the next chance of success by 10%, successful attempts will decrease the next chance by 10%. If your chance of success is low (as in the picture), you should use it on the negative effect. Here’s a good strategy to keep in mind:

• If the success rate is around 55%, use the attempt on the least important positive Engraving effect.
• If the chance of success is 65% or 75%, use it on the best Engraving effect.
• If it’s 45% or below, use it on the negative effect.
• Besides that, consider the number of nodes you have left for each effect. For example, if you activate several positive Engraving nodes early on, you should be less prone to use your next chances on the positive effects, as you don’t want to end up with just negative nodes.
• Consider the total amount of nodes you need to activate a certain Engraving on your character. Likewise, consider the total amount of negative nodes. Negative effects work the same way; it doesn’t matter if you have four Attack Power Decrease nodes, since it only activates at five. It’s better to have four Attack Power decrease nodes and four Attack Speed Decrease nodes, than to have five Attack Power Decrease Nodes. Try to spread the negative Engraving effects!
• Remember that you still need to be lucky to get a good Ability Stone. Even a 75% chance might fail several times. If that happens, just dismantle the Ability Stone in return for crafting materials at the Ability Stone Cutter’s station. 

Best Engravings in Lost Ark

There’s one question that we haven’t addressed yet: what are the best Lost Ark Engravings? Although you should also consider your personal build, the following Engraving effects are usually considered very powerful:

• Awakening. No matter your class or build, almost everyone uses their Awakening Skill as often as possible. The Awakening Engraving can reduce the cooldown by a maximum of 50%.
• Spirit Absorption. Increases Attack Power and Movement Speed by 15%.
• Super Charge. Great if your character uses a lot of charge attacks. Increases charged attack speed by 40% and damage by 20%.
• Ambush Master. Handy if you use a lot of Back Attacks: increases Back Attack damage by 25%.
• Broken Bone. Increases damage dealt to staggered enemies by 40%.
• Cursed Doll. This is a true glass canon Engraving, as it increases Attack Power by 16% and decreases healing by 25%, but it can be very powerful to experienced players.
• Grudge. Another Engraving that’s great once you’ve mastered your class. Increases damage dealt to bosses by 20%, but also increases incoming damage by 20%.

Get yourself some Engraving Recipes and Ability Stones, and may the faceting odds be in your favour!

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If that sounds a bit complicated, here’s a full Lost Ark build guide to help make the most of your Paladin, Sorceress, or Shadowhunter.

How to create a character build in Lost Ark 

Before we get to the details, let’s start with an overview of all the steps involved in building your Lost Ark character:  

• Pick your Class and Advanced Class
• Choose Skills and assign Skill Points
• Unlock Skill Trees and equip Runes
• Find the best weapons and armour & get good stats
• Upgrade your Engravings and Card Decks

Start your Lost Ark build with Classes and Skills 

Want to create a Lost Ark build that you’ll absolutely love? Step one: choose a Class you like. Before making a final choice, consider overall playstyle, weapon type, attack type (front attacks or back attacks), positioning (melee or ranged), and combat role (full DPS or Support). If you need help with which Lost Ark class should you choose, we can help?

After choosing a Class and starting your journey in Luterra, the next step is to equip your first Skills. There are eight Skill slots in total. Drag and drop the ones you’d like to try, and remember: you can reassign Skills and Skill Points whenever you like, so feel free to experiment before thinking about the rest of your build.

When assigning Skills, keep in mind that there are different ways to trigger them (check the individual Skill descriptions). Lost Ark has Normal, Holding, Combo/Chain (press several times), Charge (choose the right direction), and Casting Skills.

Skill Points and Skill Trees  

Whenever you see players sharing their Lost Ark builds online, it’s usually a selection of Skill Points and Skill Trees. As this gameplay feature is at the core of the build system, here’s a quick rundown of how it works: 

• Every Skill has its own Skill Tree which allows for further modification. A new Skill Tree branch is unlocked when a Skill reaches level 4, 7, and 10, costing you 4, 20, and 48 Skill Points respectively.
• After reaching level 50, you can earn more Skill Points by collecting Skill Potions from various quests, the Island Token exchange, Adventurer’s Tome rewards, and clearing The Tower. If you want to strengthen your Lost Ark endgame build, finding these additional Skill Points is the way to go.
• Abilities can be further enhanced with Gems and Runes, which are rewards from endgame activities like Chaos gates, Guardian Raids, and Field Bosses.
• In late-game Lost Ark, you will obtain two Awakening Skills. They tend to be more powerful and awesome-looking than your normal Skills, but they can’t be upgraded with Skill Points. 

How to get the best Skill Tree build in Lost Ark 

And that leaves the big question: which Skills to choose and what Skill Trees to assign? Here are some general rules and strategies to keep in mind: 

• Try to allocate your Skill Points in such a way that you unlock as many Skill Trees as possible (better to have them at level 7 and 10 than level 8 and 9, for example). 
• Many Skill Tree effects change the damage to a certain elemental type. If you’re about to fight a Boss with a specific elemental weakness, changing your Skill Tree to match that elemental type is worth the effort.
• When in doubt, go for effects like increased Attack Speed or increased Critical Rate/Critical Damage. Only use effects such as an increased area-of-effect radius or decreased cooldown if you feel that the skill is lacking in those areas. 
• Match your Runes with the most suitable Skills. Bleed is a very powerful effect (causing damage over time), so use it on a Skill with a long active time to apply it as much as possible. Protection, which grants a shield while casting, is a great solution if you have a powerful skill that leaves you vulnerable for a few seconds.

Lost Ark stats explained 

Lost Ark weapons and armour stick to the usual Common (white) to Legendary (orange) tiers. In that sense, it’s easy to see the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ equipment.

However, besides normal Attack Power and HP, every piece of gear comes with a special selection of ‘Combat Stats’ that are important to your build. You also need to assign Combat Stats if you want to join PvP matches. Here’s what every Lost Ark stat means:

• Critical Rate (Crit). The chance of landing a Critical hit (beware: not the same as Critical Damage). It’s most useful if your chosen Skill Trees already offer Critical Rate and Critical Damage boosts.
• Swiftness. Increases Attack and Movement Speed, and decreases Skill cooldowns. Important in almost any Lost Ark build.
• Endurance. Increases Defense, Healing, and Shielding. Prioritize if you’re going for a tanky build. 
• Domination. Determines the amount of extra damage dealt to debuffed, staggered, or pushed enemies. A good option if your chosen Skills can apply such effects.
• Expertise. Increases effects of debuff on enemies, and decreases such effects on your own character. Also increases damage to staggered opponents.
• Specialization. Increases a special type of damage based on your chosen class. Usually increases Awakening Skill damage and decreases charge times.

If you’re unsure what stats to focus on, try to maximize Swiftness. As it increases Attack and Movement Speed, it’s always a helpful stat to have. Domination and Expertise are also highly popular stats to prioritise.   

Equip the best Engravings and Cards for your Lost Ark build 

Engravings and Card Decks are two separate build mechanics in Lost Ark, but they provide the same thing: character buffs. You’ll obtain your first Cards very early on in the game (quest rewards, Adventurer’s Tome, Boss drops), and Engraving will follow once you’re in Luterra Castle. If you need some extra help, take a look at our Lost Ark Engravings guide. 

It’s always wise to choose a build that matches your Class, but generally speaking, the following Engravings are often considered the strongest:

• Cursed Doll: increases Attack Power at the cost of HP.
• Grudge: increases damage dealt to9 Bosses, but also incoming damage.
• Awakening: decreases the Awakening Skill’s cooldown.

And these are some of the best Card Deck builds: 

• Forest of Giants: greatly increases Magical and Physical Defence, and also boosts the effectiveness of recovery items.
• We’ll Meet Again: reduces incoming damage when you’re at 50% HP or lower. Also restores HP when you’re at 20% HP or lower.
• Oreha’s Well: decreases damage from Abyss Raid monsters, and increases damage dealt to enemies at 30% HP or below. 
• Farewell, Weapon and Field Boss: increases HP%, great for defensive builds.

Time to create your perfect Lost Ark build! 

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