Lost Ark's PvE and PvP activities highly encourage players to create cohesive builds for their class of choice. For Deathblades, creating a good build is rather straightforward albeit time-consuming for PvE. A good Deathblade build can make this class feel incredibly smooth to play, utilizing multiple charged skills with ease to dish out some great damage.
Related: Lost Ark: Deathblade Class Guide
This guide will be looking at two Deathblade builds—one for PvE and PvP. These builds will help you clear Chaos Dungeons, raids, and Lost Ark's PvP arenas as effectively and stylishly as possible. Each build is quite long, so feel free to jump to the build that interests you by using the table of contents above.
Updated February 5th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Deathblade is shaping up to be a powerful class once Lost Ark releases for NA and EU regions. This class has the perfect blend of PvE damage and PvP viability, making it a great class for beginners or experienced MMO players that want a flashy, agile class. We've updated the builds in this article with additional information, including Awakening skills and gems (when applicable). We'll add a third build surrounding the Deathblade's Surge Engraving soon after Lost Ark releases.
Remaining Energy (PvE)
Why Play This Build?
Since one of the Deathblade's Engravings is far from great in the western version of Lost Ark, most Deathblades will gravitate towards using Remaining Energy—an Engraving that provides multiple buffs for activating Deathblade Arts. Fortunately, this build is quite strong once you have the right gear.
Remaining Energy builds focus on maximizing the Engraving's uptime by gaining and spending Death Orb energy frequently. You build up your Death Orb meter, activate Deathblade Arts, then proceed to annihilate everything that stands in your way. When one of your orbs is about to expire, unleash a devastating attack that will instantly kill all but the toughest foes, allowing you to repeat the cycle. It's fast, deals great damage, and has some of the most stylish abilities in Lost Ark.
Skills
Deathblades don't have the best skill balance when compared to other classes, resulting in most Deathblades using the same skills and Tripods. If you want to mix it up in Chaos Dungeons or other solo content, feel free to do so. But for those that aren't familiar with Deathblades, here's what most players run:
Skill
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Details
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Spincutter
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Description: Spin towards the target location and move 5 meters, inflicting up to 295 damage. This skill can be used up to 2 times in a row.
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Dark Axel
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Description: Jump 6 meters forward, pushing foes back for 456 damage. Deliver a powerful slash with your longsword upon landing to inflict 305 damage and knock the foes away. Pushed foes are launched back in the air.
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Soul Absorber
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Description: Charge to deliver a powerful thrust to inflict 368 damage before being fully charged, and 1,471 damage when overcharged.
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Earth Cleaver
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Description: Perform a powerful vertical slash with your longsword to inflict 880 damage and slam foes onto the ground.
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Moonlight Sonic
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Description: Perform a sweeping slash in front of you to inflict up to 1,688 damage, pulling foes close.
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Turning Slash
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Description: Swing your longsword 2 times as you move 5 meters forward, inflicting 407 and 333 damage.
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Maelstorm
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Description: Create a tornado that protects you and inflicts 107 damage. The tornado lasts 6 seconds, inflicting 72 damage to nearby foes.
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Blitz Rush
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Description: Charge to move 5 meters forward before attacking foes. Use the skill uncharged to attack with your dual blades and inflict 587 damage. Charge to stage 1 to inflict 1,172 damage, and overcharge to inflict 1,172 damage, followed by a longsword slash that causes 783 damage and knocks foes back.
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Flash Blink
(Awakening)
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Dash 12 meters towards the target location, slashing through foes with all your swords. Foes caught in the path take damage at the moment of impact, then get launched in the air moments later for additional damage.
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Tripods
Spincutter
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Open Weakness
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Dark Axel
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Swift Fingers
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Tenacity
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High Axel
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Soul Absorber
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Swift Fingers
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Fist of Darkness
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Halve
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Earth Cleaver
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Push
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Weak Point Detection
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Earth Explosion
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Moonlight Sonic
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Fist of Darkness
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Quick Preparation
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Shade Sonic
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Turning Slash
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Enhanced Strike
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Tenacity
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Concentrated Attack
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Maelstorm
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Orb Control
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Dark Order
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Blitz Rush
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Vital Point Strike
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Charge Enhancement
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Shadow Rush
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Most of the skills you'll be using will dish out an immense amount of damage but only from behind. You'll want to stay as close to the back of bosses as possible to deal optimal damage. For trash enemies, AoE skills will work just fine. If the boss is stationary for just a moment, use one of your channeled skills to dish out a large chunk of damage. Weave in your class identity as you do this to maximize your damage output. And for fighting tough bosses like Guardians, use your Flash Blink Awakening to deal some serious damage.
For gems, reduce the cooldown of Blitz Rush, Maelstorm, and Soul Absorber. The rest of your gems can either buff the damage of your skills or reduce other skill cooldowns; it's up to you.
Recommended Stats And Engravings
Recommended Stats
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Primary: Specialization
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Secondary: Critical
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Engravings
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Remaining Energy
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Grudge
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Super Charge
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Master of Ambush
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Cursed Doll
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Cursed Doll can be replaced with Keen Blunt Weapon
Specialization is going to be our main stat for this build, allowing you to build up the Demon Orb meter as fast as possible. This will help achieve 100% uptime from the Remaining Energy Engraving, granting bonus damage and character speed while active. Critical is a great secondary stat to enhance your backstab damage even more.
For Engravings, use the following (all at level 3 if possible):
Engraving
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Effect
(Level 3)
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Remaining Energy
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Deathblade Art does not consume Art meter for 2 seconds when activated. Grants a 30-second buff on Burst, increasing Atk./Move Speed by 12% and Atk. Power by 12, 24, or 36% based on your Burst level.
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Grudge
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Deal 20% increased damage to Boss or above monsters. Take 20% more damage from Boss or above monsters.
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Super Charge
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Charge skills' charging speed +40%. Damage +20%
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Master of Ambush
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Back attacks deal 25% increased damage.
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Cursed Doll
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Atk. Power +16%. Healing 25%, natural recovery excluded.
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Related: Lost Ark: Founder's Pack Guide
Death Surge (PvE)
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Related: Lost Ark: Soulfist Best Builds
Moonlight Steel (PvP)
Why Play This Build?
Unlike its PvE builds, Deathblades can hit the ground running in PvP quite easily. Their mix of stun-immune abilities and high CC potential make the Deathblade class a force to be reckoned with in the hands of a competent player. Combo potential with this class is fairly high, making it an excellent PvP class for all skill levels.
Your skills will grant high mobility, safe means of pushing or avoiding attacks, high damage, and excellent combo potential. If you love playing as a rogue or an agile martial character, this is the build for you.
Skills
This build places a large emphasis on stuns and mobility. We won't be using too many high-damage skills here, so if you feel your damage is lacking, feel free to replace one or two of the skills (explained below).
Skill
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Details
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Upper Slash
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Description: Deliver a swift slash with your dual blades to inflict 128 damage, then slash upward to create a deadly tornado that inflicts 192 damage and launches foes into the air.
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Spincutter
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Description: Spin towards the target location and move 5 meters, inflicting up to 219 damage. This skill can be used up to 2 times in a row.
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Dark Axel
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Description: Jump 6 meters forward, pushing foes back for 338 damage. Deliver a powerful slash with your longsword upon landing to inflict 226 damage and knock the foes away. Pushed foes are launched back in the air.
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Head Hunt
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Description: Attack foes with the hilt of your longsword to push them back for 200 damage, then move 4 meters forward as you strike them on the head, inflicting 200 damage and stunning them for 1 second.
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Moonlight Sonic
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Description: Perform a sweeping slash in front of you to inflict up to 951 damage, pulling foes close.
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Turning Slash
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Description: Swing your longsword 2 times as you move 5 meters forward, inflicting 302 and 247 damage.
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Maelstorm
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Description: Create a tornado that protects you and inflicts 79 damage. The tornado lasts 6 seconds, inflicting 53 damage to nearby foes.
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Blitz Rush
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Description: Charge to move 5 meters forward before attacking foes. Use the skill uncharged to attack with your dual blades and inflict 405 damage. Charge to stage 1 to inflict 807 damage, and overcharge to inflict 807 damage, followed by a longsword slash that causes 539 damage and knocks foes back.
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Skill Tripods
Upper Slash
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Swift Fingers
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Large Twister
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Tenacity
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Spincutter
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Swift Fingers
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Dark Axel
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Swift Fingers
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Tenacity
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High Axel
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Head Hunt
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Quick Preparation
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Quick Hunt
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Enhanced Stun
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Moonlight Sonic
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Fist of Darkness
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Quick Preparation
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Shade Sonic
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Turning Slash
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Enhanced Strike
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Tenacity
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Concentrated Attack
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Maelstorm
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Cold Touch
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Dark Order
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Stabilized Energy
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Blitz Rush
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Vital Point Strike
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Charge Enhancement
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Shadow Rush
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This build provides an excellent mix of crowd control and survivability, making this an excellent starter build for newcomers to Lost Ark's PvP modes. Your main goal is to inflict some sort of stun to the target to start an air juggle, allowing you to cast Moonlight Sonic to deal an immense amount of damage. If you find the set of skills listed above isn't cutting it, feel free to replace Maelstorm or Turning Slash with Surprise Attack or Polestar.
As for combos, here are a few notable ones:
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Spincutter -> Head Hunt -> Upper Slash -> Moonlight Sonic
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Guaranteed if the opponent used their dodge
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Head Hunt -> Surprise Attack (near a wall) -> Upper Slash -> Moonlight Sonic
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Moonlight Sonic is guarenteed if Upper Slash hits the target near a wall
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Turning Slash -> Blitz Rush -> Moonlight Sonic
You'll want to focus on closing the gap, using Upper Slash to throw the enemy into the air, then finish the combo with Moonlight Sonic. If you're struggling to do combos on melee characters, use Maelstorm. It'll punish melee players by freezing them, giving you a clear window to dish out some serious damage. Once again, if you find Maelstorm too slow or situational, replace it with Surprise Attack or Polestar for more damage.
Recommended Stats
Recommended Stats
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Primary: Swiftness
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Secondary: Domination
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Swiftness will enhance your character's attack speed, movement speed, and ability cooldowns—perfect for the channeled skills you have. This pairs nicely with Domination, increasing the damage you deal to stunned targets. So long as you're combing your skills, these stats should greatly enhance the damage and general feel of this build.
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Next: Lost Ark: Complete Guide And Walkthrough