Order of the Emperor Arcanist Build Guide
Last Updated:February 22, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Order of the Emperor Arcanist Build Guide! This build focuses on using Normal skills that 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 is fundamental to reach 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 centered around her Ruin Stacking mechanic? Check out our Grace of the Empress guide.
- For more information on some of the systems that make up your build, check out the guides below:
Builds


Skills Setup
- Dark Resurrection, Evoke and Unlimited Shuffle are your main damage skills.
- Call of Destiny and Stream of Edge are your Stacking skills, they generate Ruin Stacks.
- Celestial Rain is your Ruin skill, used to detonate Ruin Stacks.
- Return is your Counter skill, as well as Synergy (Weakness Exposure) and Self-buff (Exposed Darkness) skill.
- Mysterious Stampede is used as a Card draw skill. It also deals Destruction damage.
Skills Setup
- 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 Engravings
- Preemptive Strike
- Contender
- Raid Captain
- Cursed Doll
- Magick Stream
This build is optimized and meant to be used only in Kurzan Front. For Ebony Cube please use a Raid build.
Identity & Gameplay
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. 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

Rotation
Opener Rotation
- Stream of Edge is used first to buff your Crit Rate (Dark Edge).
- Return is used after your two main damage skills due to their delayed nature.
- Celestial Rain is always used at 4 Ruin stacks.
- Mysterious Stampede is used at the end of the rotation for a chance of additional Cards.
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.
- These are short-duration buffs or utility used to buff your damage greatly.
- 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.
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 to maximize this build's potential, listed according to their priority.
Damage Gems
- Dark Resurrection
- Evoke
- Emperor
- Unlimited Shuffle
- Celestial Rain
Cooldown Gems
- Dark Resurrection
- Stream of Edge
- Evoke
- Return
- Celestial Rain
- Unlimited Shuffle
- Mysterious Stampede
Engravings
Engravings are a core part of your build. You can equip up to five at a time, freely swapping between them.
Engravings are listed in order of importance.
Recommended Setup
- Grudge
- Adrenaline
- Raid Captain
- Cursed Doll
- Hit Master
Alternative Setup
- Grudge
- Adrenaline
- Raid Captain
- Cursed Doll
- Mass Increase
Engravings Information
- Mass Increase reduces your Atk. Speed by 10%, meaning you need additional sources of Atk. Speed to offset that negative. Even with all of the following sources, you can't reach max Atk. Speed.
- Ealyn's Blessing provides 3%.
- Stronghold Feast provides up to 5%.
- Support's Goddess of Blessings Ark Passive node provides up to 9%.
Tripods
Tripods affect your skills directly by providing utility, damage, cooldown reduction or gauge generation. You should level up these first:
- Return: Exposed Darkness
- Stream of Edge: Dark Edge
- Dark Resurrection: Furious Blow, Intense Card, Piercing Strike
- Evoke: Quick Prep, Conc. Magick Circle
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 your build. After that, you should be aiming for Special Rolls to get more damage. Here are the effects you should look out for, in no particular order:
Tier 3 | Tier 4 |
---|---|
Swiftness | Swiftness |
Crit | Crit |
Superiority | Crit Rate +3.4/4.2/5%. Crit Hit Damage +1.5%. |
Circulate | Crit Damage +6.8/8.4/10%. Crit Hit Damage +1.5%. |
Fervor | Damage +2/2.5/3%. Damage against Staggered foes +4/4.5/5%. |
Hammer | Additional Damage +2.5/3/3.5%. Demon & Arch-Demon Damage +2.5%. |
Wedge | Damage +4.5/5/5.5%. Skill Cooldown +2%. |
Assail | On hit, Weapon Power +1,160/1,320/1,480 and Att. & Mov. Speed +1%. (max 6 stacks, 10s duration). |
Precise | Weapon Power +7,200/8,100/9,000. When HP is above 50%, on hit Weapon Power +2,000/2,200/2,400 for 5s. |
Weapon Power | Weapon Power +6,900/7,800/8,700. On hit, Weapon Power +130/140/150 (max 30 stacks, 120s duration). |
Intelligence | Damage +2/2.5/3%. |
 Additional Damage +3/3.5/4%. | |
Non-Directional Attack Damage +2/2.5/3%. | |
Crit Rate +3.4/4.2/5%. | |
Crit Damage +6.8/8.4/10%. | |
Weapon Power +7,200/8,100/9,000. | |
Intelligence |
Elixir
The recommended Elixir Set for this build is Critical.
Credits
Written by Sekwah
Reviewed by Perciculum