Tier 3 Order of the Emperor Arcanist Build Guide

Welcome to the Tier 3 Order of the Emperor Arcanist Build Guide! This build focuses on her Normal skills, which deal delayed damage but generate a lot of Card Meter. Making good use of Cards, which provide multiple effects on use, as well as adapting to the delayed nature of her damage will be fundamental in reaching her true potential.

Order of the Emperor has decent sustained Stagger and Destruction, a long range Counter and some party-wide buffs including her Crit Rate Synergy.

Want a more bursty alternative centred around her Ruin Stacking mechanic? Check out our Grace of the Empress guide.

Builds

Raids

Chaos Dungeons

Need some tips for general content? Check out our Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons guides.

• Return is your Counter as well as your Crit Rate Synergy. It's also a Crit Damage self-buff.
• Stream of Edge is used as a Crit Rate self-buff as well as a Stacking skill. It can provide up to 3 Ruin stacks.
• Call of Destiny is another Crit Damage self-buff, it provides 2 Ruin stacks thanks to Fake Flip.
• Evoke, Dark Resurrection and Unlimited Shuffle are your main Card Meter generators. They're also your main damage skills.
• Celestial Rain is used to consume 4 Ruin stacks to deal good damage.
• Mysterious Stampede is used to draw cards with Quick Draw.
• Prismatic Mirror is your Awakening skill, used to activate your Nightmare Set effect. It also generates 2 Cards.

Check the Rune Guide for more details on Runes and how to obtain them.

This build is optimized and meant to be used only in Chaos Dungeons. For Ebony Cube please use a Raid build.

• Evoke, Unlimited Shuffle and Dark Resurrection are your main lesser monster killers. They have decent AoE and generate a lot of Card meter.
• Dancing of Spineflower is a good skill for lesser mob cleaning.
• Stream of Edge and Spiral Edge are mostly used to generate Ruin stacks on Bosses.
• Celestial Rain is used to detonate Ruin Stacks on bosses.

Recommended Engraving Setup

While you can freely experiment with any engravings you want for this content, here's a recommended setup, based on the Engraving Support system:

• Preemptive Strike causes your attacks to deal immense amounts of damage to monsters that you haven't attacked yet, making it ideal for Chaos Dungeons.
• Contender is a stacking Attack Power effect that increases in strength once you kill a monster, making it ideal for Chaos Dungeons.
• Raid Captain provides damage based on your Bonus Movement Speed, synergizing well with the Buff Nodes scattered throughout Chaos Dungeons.
• Hit Master provides an unconditional damage boost to your skills, as none of the important ones have a positional affix.
• Order of the Emperor is highly recommended as Emperor card has massive damage and AoE, as well as leaning more towards the Card generation aspect of Arcanist since stacking Ruin against lesser mobs is not as effective.

Gameplay & Skill Rotation

This build focuses on generating and using as many Cards as possible, while dealing delayed damage through skills such as Evoke and Dark Resurrection. Ruin Stacks are also relevant in this build, although not the main source of damage. It's still a mechanic you need to pay attention to. They generate on the enemy from Call of Destiny and Stream of Edge and are consumed by Celestial Rain.

Arcanist generates Cards through certain skills and tripods. You can have up to 2 cards at the same time. There are many cards, so here are the most impactful ones:

• Cull, Twisted Fate, Sovereign: Damage increases. Ideally used to boost Evoke, Dark Resurrection and Unlimited Shuffle.
• Royal: Draws 2 random cards. Ideally used with an empty hand.
• Joy: Reduces cooldown of skills. Ideally used after you finish your rotation.
• Clown: Draws the most recently used card. Ideally paired with damage-increasing cards like Cull or Twisted Fate.
• Wheel of Fortune: Resets the cooldown of the next used skill. Ideally used for your Awakening or Dark Resurrection.
• Star: Freezes your MP for 12 seconds, and reduces MP consumption of skills by 100%.
• Emperor, Corrosion, Mayhem, Ghost, Moon, 3-Headed Snake, Chancellor: These cards can be used whenever they're obtained, since they're mostly long-duration buffs that will enhance your rotation in some way.

Arcanist Identity

Order of the Emperor replaces Balance and Judgment with Chancellor and Sovereign. It also adds Emperor to your kit.

Basic Rotations

Opening Rotation

• This rotation allows you to quickly enter Boundless while buffing your main damage skills.
• After entering boundless, you no longer have a strict rotation due to cooldowns coming back at different times. Instead, you follow a general "priority" system:
  • Always maintain your self-buffs up: Stream of Edge, Call of Destiny (whenever they're available) and Return (at least once every 10 seconds).
  • For damage, your priority is Evoke > Dark Resurrection > Celestial Rain (always use at 4 Ruin stacks) > Unlimited Shuffle.
  • You fill the gaps with Mysterious Stampede.

Card Usage

• These cards are either long-duration buffs or instant effects that should be used as soon as obtained to keep generating more cards.
  • Royal is ideally used with an empty deck to generate 2 cards instead of 1.
  • Star is used during Boundless MP state to freeze your mana and maintain it longer.

• These are short-duration buffs or utility used to greatly buff your damage.
  • Twisted Fate, Cull and Sovereign are 4-seconds buffs, so they're used right before your damaging skills.
  • Wheel of Fortune resets the cooldown of the next skill you use. Use it with Dark Resurrection.
  • Joy reduces the remaining cooldown of your skills, use it right after Dark Resurrection.

Stagger Check Rotation

• Since your skills deal delayed damage, they also have delayed stagger. Keep this in mind when facing short stagger checks.
• Remember you can also use a Whirlwind Grenade if you have one equipped!

Tripods and Gems

Tripod Levelling

Increasing the level of Tripods greatly enhances their effectiveness. You may only increase the level of 18 tripods at a time. Some of them cannot be leveled at all, or are left at level 1 - these tripods are omitted from the table, even if they are used. Here are the main tripods you should look out for in order to maximize this build's potential.

Tripods written in bold text are your highest priority, make sure to level them first!

For more information on where to obtain Tripod Amulets and how to use them, check out our Skill Tree System Guide.

Gems

Gems are another significant aspect of your build, as they directly impact the damage and cooldowns of your skills. You can equip up to 11 gems at a time. Here are the ones you should focus on in order to maximize this build's potential, listed according to their priority.

For more information on where to obtain gems and how to use them, check out our Gem System Guide.

Stat Priority

This build utilizes Swiftness and Crit.

• Swiftness is the primary stat. It provides Cooldown Reduction and Attack speed, which helps you stay in Boundless and reduce long animations.
• Crit is your secondary stat.

Gear Set

Nightmare Set

This is your Relic Set. It provides damage and more importantly, the Boundless MP state which provides Cooldown Reduction and Mana.

Check out the Gear Progression Guide for step by step instructions and early game gearing.
If you are interested in Sidereal Weapons, click here for more details.

Engravings

Engravings are a core part of your build. Typically, most engravings will be used at level 3, but some can be used at level 1 or 2 in addition to the others, after reaching item level 1540 and unlocking Ancient Accessories.

Engraving Explanations

Core Engravings

• Order of the Emperor is the core of this build, adding 3 new cards to your kit and buffing Normal Skills damage.
• Grudge increases damage done while also increasing damage received. The engraving is a highly effective damage increase without needing specific positioning, making it worthwhile even with the penalty.
• Raid Captain provides damage based on bonus Move Speed, which you obtain from high Swiftness, Support buffs and Boundless MP.

• Mass Increase provides a big Attack Power boost with a reduced attack speed penalty. Due to the myriad of attack speed buffs we have, this penalty is negated.
• Hit Master provides damage to non-positional damage. None of your Normal skills have positional modifiers, making this a great choice.

Level 1 and 2 Engravings

• Adrenaline ideal at level 1 or 2.

Check out the Engraving Guide for more details.

Bracelet

Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls they have.

The primary goal is to get the main stats used by this build Swiftness and Crit. After that you should be aiming for Special Rolls to get more damage. Please note that this system is heavily reliant on RNG, and you should not expect to get much more beyond your main stats early on.

Check out the Bracelet Guide for more details.

Elixir

The recommended Elixir Set for this build is Critical.

Check out the Elixir Guide for more details and general stat recommendations.

Card Sets

Cards are an endgame system that helps maximize your character's damage. Here are the recommended card sets for this build.

• Deep Dive is used early on as it is fairly easy to obtain.
• Light of Salvation is the standard endgame option, but it can take a long time to acquire 30-piece Awakening.
• Kazeros's Legion Commanders is used as an alternative to Light of Salvation, in content where enemies have a weakness to Dark Damage.

Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain cards and interact with them.

End Game Damage Card Set