Introduction
The Lone Knight Gunlancer aka. Red Build Gunlancer has high amount of Stagger and Weak Point damage because of his main damage dealing skills Charged Stinger and Surge Cannon. Most of his burst damage dealing skills require proper positioning because of the Front Attack modifier. The Lone Knight increases the Crit Rate and Crit Damage, resulting in high burst damage even during the early game.
This build has lower survivability than the Combat Readiness Gunlancer, but it still has higher survivability than most other classes in Lost Ark.
The Gunlancer is one out of only 3 classes with a full immunity counter stance skill: Counter Gunlance in Lost Ark (the other being Glavier). This adds another tool to the Gunlancer's repertoire to increase his survivability.
Besides damage, Gunlancers can also support the team with shields, damage reduction buffs and target armor debuffs from Nellasia's Energy and Bash. They can also interrupt many dangerous boss skills with their Taunt Skill Shout of Hatred which simultaneously increases the Frontal and Back Attack damage that your team deal.
Be aware that Gunlancer is the only class whose Spacebar moves them backwards. This is a huge turn-off for most of the players. But after a few days of gameplay, you will get used to it. Overall, the Gunlancer is a highly efficient class that doesn't require many resources or gold to be viable.
This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 50 before transitioning to it. Check out the Gunlancer Leveling and 1-50 Leveling guides to reach Level 50.
Check out the Combat Readiness Gunlancer for an alternative Gunlancer playstyle. Check out the Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons guides for an introduction to their content.
Raid Skill Build
- Shout of Hatred is the main Shield Meter generator skill Gunlancers; Defensive Stance must be turned off to gain Shield Meter.
- Bash provides an Armor Destruction debuff on target, a Ready Attack self-buff and a decent chunk of Stagger which is usually used at the beginning of Stagger chains combo.
- Surge Cannon is your main damage and Stagger skill.
- Nellasia's Energy shields our party members during AoE attacks by bosses who can't be interrupted by Shout of Hatred.
- Dash Upper Fire is your main Counter Attack Skill.
Alternatives
- You have two Awakening Skill choices here. Guardian's Protection charges your Shield Meter to max and provides Damage Reduction. Lance of Judgment increases Crit Rate for party members and while dealing high damage. It's perfect for coordinated damage windows.
- Gunlance Shot can replace Counter Gunlance if you have enough points to get it to 10. This gives you higher damage output, but is less friendly for newer players as you lose a high defensive skill.
- Fire Bullet can be replaced with Counter Gunlance while keeping Gunlance Shot. This is not recommended for the High Swiftness build due to difficulty maintaining Adrenaline, unless you are using Precise Dagger.
Gameplay & Skill Rotation
Lone Knight gameplay, unlike Combat Readiness, requires more management and understanding of your Shield Meter. Lone Knight causes 100% increased Shield Meter consumption when using Defensive Stance, so only use it during critical moments or to avoid getting knocked up/down.
Stagger Check Rotation:
- Bash > Surge Cannon > Dash Upper Fire > Fire Bullet > Charged Stinger
Burst Rotation:
- Shout of Hatred > Defensive Stance > Nellasia's Energy* > Bash > Surge Cannon > Charged Stinger
(*) Optional if you are low on Shield Meter.
Use Bash at the start of every rotation to apply the defense debuff Armor Destruction on the target and to buff yourself with Ready Attack.
Surge Cannon has no Push Immunity and can be interrupted by any incoming attack. Avoid this by activating your Identity Skill Defensive Stance before you use Surge Cannon.
Stats Priority
Lone Knight Gunlancers run Swiftness and Crit since none of their Skills have Crit Rate Skill Tree. Lance Skills do not scale with Specialization, so Crit is the other effective way to increase damage.
- Standard Build: Get 465-585 Swiftness for at least 8%-10% Attack Speed and Movement Speed for some comfy maneuverability, then get as high Crit as possible. At higher end of Tier 3 content with access to Tier 3 Relic grade accessories, you can invest 2 rings for Swiftness which ends up with 1200-1300 Crit and 900-1000 Swiftness after you account for pet Crit bonus stats and bracelet for decent amount of Cooldown Reduction and even more Attack Speed and Movement Speed to smooth out your gameplay even more.
- High Swiftness Build: Stack as much Swiftness, with Crit from your necklace and a ring. This build requires Adrenaline or Precise Dagger and Gear Sets that provide Crit Rate to help fix your Crit stat. This only works with Tier 3 end game higher stats to play around with.
Bracelet
Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls.
Note: Bracelets should not be your top priority to optimize since it'll be much more efficient to optimize your other gear first. Bracelets are costly! So slowly build towards a Main Stat and a Sub Stat. Anything else is extra!
Check out the Bracelet Guide for more details.
Possible Special Effects to Roll:
Optimal
Combat Stats (Swiftness + Crit)
Circulate
Fervor
Hammer
Wedge
Battle
Alternatives
Basic Effect (Strength)
Precise
Assail
Superiority
Sawtooth Blade
Weapon Power
Harvest
Expose Weakness
Dagger
Engravings
Class Engravings provide powerful benefits that can significantly change playstyle. Battle Engravings are generally used to increase damage. Below are the recommended Engravings for this build.
Check out the Engraving Guide for more details.
Starter Engravings
- Lone Knight grants extra Crit Rate and Crit Damage for Lance Skills.
- Super Charge increases the charging speed and damage of Surge Cannon, Gunlance Shot and Charged Stinger.
Add-On Endgame Engravings
- Master Brawler can be taken since the majority of Gunlancer skills have Head Attack modifiers.
- Adrenaline and Precise Dagger* are for high Swiftness builds to compensate for lack of Crit Rate.
- Combat Readiness can provide more value by increasing your shield durability with Defensive Stance. If you decide to go for this, keep it at Level 1.
- Grudge* increases damage done while also increasing damage received. The engraving is a highly effective damage increase that does not require specific positioning, making it worthwhile even with the penalty.
- Cursed Doll* provides a significant Attack Power increase at the cost of 25% healing penalty. The healing penalty can be punishing for inexperienced players not familiar with boss mechanics.
(*) These Engravings should only be used at Engraving Level 3.
Optimal Setups
Engravings are listed in order of priority from left to right.
Standard
High Swiftness Stacking
Gear Sets
These are the specific gear sets for each tier.
Check out the Gear Set Guide for more details.
Early Game
250-1100 gearscore
Providence Set
1250-1340 gearscore
Dimensional Set
Early Tier 3
1340 -1414 gearscore
Erupting Waves Set
Piercing Gaze Set
Craft any combination of the legendary gear sets listed above and try to push to 1415 as soon as possible.
Tier 3 Legion Raid Set
1415-1490-1580+ gearscore
Entropy Set
The name of your set will change with every higher tier gearset you acquire, but the set effect will remain the same. Look for the keyword of your set when recrafting it so you don't easily get lost.(e.g Entropy, Hallucination etc)
Sidereal Weapon
Recommended Sidereal Unity Effects for your Seraphic Guardian's Sea are Thirain and Balthorr.
Check out the Sidereal Weapon Guide for more details.
Runes
Runes enhance Skills with extra bonuses. All Rune drops are account bound and have limited availability, so placement of Runes on the correct Skills is important. Below are the recommended pairings.
Check the Rune Guide for more details.
| Skills | Runes |
| Surge Cannon | Galewind |
| Bash | Bleed Rage Quick Recharge |
| Dash Upper Fire | Overwhelm |
| Fire Bullet | Bleed Quick Recharge |
| Charged Stinger | Galewind |
| Shout of Hatred | Focus |
| Nellasia's Energy | Focus |
| Counter Gunlance* | Quick Recharge |
| Gunlance Shot* | Galewind |
- Rage is best used with Bash so it can increase the speed of our Skill Rotation.
- Galewind is ideal for speeding up your best damage dealing skills.
- Quick Recharge is used for skills closer to the end of your rotation for highest effectiveness.
- Overwhelm is used to further improve the Stagger we apply with Dash Upper Fire.
- Focus reduces mana cost of skills.
- Bleed works best on Bash or Fire Bullet due to low cooldowns.
Gear Skill Tree
While Gems add benefits to skills, you can also increase the effects of Skill Tree themselves. Skill Tree levels go up to 5 and each level can increase the damage, cooldown reduction or buff that they provide.
For more information on how to add equipment Skill Tree and how to get them, please visit our Skill Tree System Guide.
| Surge Cannon | High Explosive Shot Overcharge Focus Fire |
| Charged Stinger | Weak Point Detection Charge Enhancement Last Charge |
| Bash | Ready Attack |
| Dash Upper Fire | Ready Attack Weak Point Detection Extra Shell |
| Nellasia's Energy | Quick Preparation |
| Shout of Hatred | Quick Preparation |
| Fire Bullet | Lucky Chance Enhanced Strike Attack Creation |
| *Counter Gunlance | Ready Attack Quick Preparation Bombardment Spear |
| *Gunlance Shot | Nimble Movement Weak Point Detection Close Explosion |
(*) Optional skill choices.
Gems
Gems grant bonus damage and cooldown reduction to specific skills. You can only equip 11 of these Gems at a time so it is recommended that you prioritize the Gems for your most important skills.
Please visit our Gem System Guide for more information like how to create higher tier Gems.
Attack Gems
Surge Cannon
Charged Stinger
Dash Upper Fire
Fire Bullet*
Counter Gunlance*
Gunlance Shot*
Cooldown Gems
Surge Cannon
Charged Stinger
Dash Upper Fire
Bash
Shout of Hatred
Nellasia's Energy
Counter Gunlance*
Gunlance Shot*
(*) Optional gem choices.
Card Sets
Cards are an endgame system for maximizing your character. Below are the recommend sets for this class.
Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain them.
Budget Card Set
Budget Card Set 2
This card set does not replace Light of Salvation set or Kazero's Legion Commanders set, but it can be use if you're new to the game and has set to get your Light of Salvation/Kazero's Legion Commanders set +18 or +30 yet.
Optimal Damage Card Set
Summary
- The Gunlancer is a tanky class with high survivability.
- Crit is the main Combat Stat of the Lone Knight Gunlancer.
- Defensive Stance's shield is prolonged if there are other shields on the Gunlancer (they take priority in soaking damage before Defensive Stance).
- Don't use Dash Upper Fire until a counter mechanic happens.
- Bash and Surge Cannon are the main Stagger check tools.
- Activate Defensive Stance's before you use Surge Cannon to avoid getting interrupted.
Credits
Written by Rei
Reviewed by Raxxanterax