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Welcome to the Gunslinger, a fast-paced ranged character with an array of different weapons to play with. You can choose from the three weapons on the fly which makes the Gunslinger one of the more hands-on and satisfying classes in Lost Ark. There's a lot of swapping, loads of mobility, and plenty of hard-hitting abilities that feel fun to use.

RELATED: Lost Ark: Complete Guide And Walkthrough

This class guide covers the fundamentals of the Gunslinger. It isn't designed to give a breakdown in detail of endgame builds and playstyles, but rather an overview to help you decide on which main you want to run in Lost Ark.

We continue to monitor and update this Gunslinger class guide as changes are made to the NA/EU patch for Lost Ark.

Gunslinger Class Overview

Lost Ark Gunslinger Overview

Gunslinger swaps between three weapons: two pistols, a shotgun, and a sniper rifle. These are rotated via the character's identity gauge and the fundamentals of the class rely on rotating these weapons depending on cooldowns and the type of engagement you're in. Here's a rough overview of what each of the weapons offers.

  • Pistols - Your main utility weapon with Gunslinger, offering buffs, debuffs, and essential movement abilities.
  • Shotgun - Close range damage, the staple of your burst damage
  • Sniper - Ranged damage (the attacks on this thing feel amazing)

Your playstyle on the Gunslinger is dependent on your choice of class Engraving: Peacemaker or Time To Hunt. We will cover these in more depth below, but just as a quick preface, Time To Hunt is popular for clearing Chaos Dungeons and some Raid content thanks to the high-power Rifle skills, although it does remove the Shotgun entirely from play. Most builds make use of all three of the Gunslinger's weapons, both for damage and for providing buffs/debuffs to you and your party.

In short, the Gunslinger is a pretty enjoyable class to play, especially in regard to the mobility and utility awarded from using her Pistols. She does take a bit of practice to master, however, as you need to focus on a lot of moving parts - knowing when to swap weapons, monitoring debuffs (as they won't stack on top of each other), and navigating through your cooldowns.

A lot of players have a hard time choosing between the Deadeye and the Gunslinger. This overview is designed to give you a better idea of what you're getting into when you choose the Gunslinger as a main. Keep in mind that both the Deadeye and Gunslinger classes are not easy to master. Both classes have been recently buffed/nerfed and tweaked on the KR servers, which means they're clearly not quite in the right spot yet.

Pros

  • Feels really fluid to play with a bit of practice
  • Lots of mobility
  • Plenty of damage
  • Compared to Deadeye, the Gunslinger has extra range and more positional play - this means you should get hit less than the close-range gameplay of the DE
  • Less reliance on back attacks than other DPS classes, including Deadeye

Cons

  • Quite squishy
  • Difficult to play, you have to master the cooldowns, debuffs, and what's going on in the fight and rotate as necessary

RELATED: Lost Ark: How Long Does It Take To Hit Max Level?

Best Gunslinger Engravings

Lost Ark Gunslinger In Action

Your playstyle with the Gunslinger is totally determined by the choice of class Engraving. Here's a closer look at two of them.

Time To Hunt

Peacemaker

  • At level 3, increase your Crit Rate for the Handgun and Rifle skills by 30 percent. You are unable to use the Shotgun stance.

  • At level 3, you get 16 percent attack speed in Handgun Stance, 25 percent crit rate in Shotgun Stance, and 10 percent damage boost + 30 percent extra damage boost to enemies with 50 percent or lower HP while in Rifle Stance.

Both Engravings have reliable builds, so this really comes down to a) personal preference, b) what sort of playstyle you're after. Quite a few robust Times To Hunt builds exist for PvE leveling and Dungeon-clearing builds. These rely on the mobility of the Pistols and the heavy-hitting AoE ranged damage of the Sniper to clear out waves of bad guys. Both Engravings are absolutely fine to use. The sample build we use below focuses on the Peacemaker Engraving, but you can check out our build guide for the Gunslinger to find builds for both types of Engraving.

Here are some of the recommended endgame Engravings for the Gunslinger.

Grudge

At level 3, Grudge adds a 20 percent damage bonus to Boss level or above monsters, as well as reducing incoming damage from the same monsters. Pretty standard Tier 1 Raiding Engraving.

Cursed Doll

At level 3, Cursed Doll provides an extra 16 percent attack power bonus while reducing all incoming healing by 25 percent. This is popular at Tier 1 but drops off at very late game Tier 3 content due to its downside.

Adrenaline

At level 3, increases attack power over time and improves crit rate by 15 percent.

Keen Blunt Weapon

At level 3, your attacks deal 50 percent extra crit damage but have a chance to deal 20 percent less regular damage.

There's a big focus on crit when using the Gunslinger, as you can see from Adrenaline and Keen Blunt Weapon finding their way into the most-used Engravings on the class.

Grudge and Cursed Doll are only recommended for Tier 3 content. The downsides on the two Engravings are much too harsh for use at lower tiers, especially because you won't even hit Level 3 on the Engravings, which makes them substantially worse. It's generally recommended that you focus on your Class Engraving first and then a follow-up combat engraving, in this case, something like Keen Blunt Weapon is a good call.

Best Gunslinger Skills

Lost Ark Gunslinger Skill and Ability

Below is a sample endgame skillset for the Gunslinger, based on roughly 268 skill points in total. We cover the best Gunslinger builds in our more advanced class guides. That link includes builds for the Gunslinger in Chaos Dungeons and in Raids/Abyss Dungeons.

This sample build below is just to give you an overview of what to expect when you play the class. These are just the Pistol skills available for the Gunslinger, she also has a whole kit of Rifle and Shotgun skills, too.

Ability

Tripod One

Tripod Two

Tripod Three

Spiral Tracker

  • A spinning handgun ranged attack that deals damage to every enemy it hits

Weakness Exposure (Max)

  • Party buff to critical damage for 10 percent (over 6 seconds)

N/A

N/A

Quick Step

  • Mobility ability (back attack) with a damage-dealing move

Excellent Mobility (Max)

  • Increases overall move distance

N/A

N/A

Equilibrium

  • Large AoE back attack

Weakness Exposure (Max)

  • Party buff to critical damage for 10 percent (over 6 seconds)

N/A

N/A

Dexterous Shot

  • Mobility ability, firing while you move, can use twice in a row

Weakness Exposure (Max)

  • Party buff to critical damage for 10 percent (over 6 seconds)

N/A

N/A

Peacekeeper

  • Combo attack with multiple damage sources, you can move while activating it

Excellent Mobility (Max)

  • Increases overall move distance

N/A

N/A

Shotgun Rapid Fire

  • Fires the shotgun three times for substantial damage

In A Tight Spot

  • This attack is no longer a back attack, increases damage and crit rate chance

Enhanced Shot

  • Increases outgoing damage

Special Bullet

  • Damage increased to Push-Immune enemies

Last Request

  • Large AoE attack

Quick Prep

  • Reduces cooldown

Execution

  • Increases attack speed, moves forward slightly when firing, and improves damage to staggered foes

N/A

Sharpshooter

  • Shotgun skill that deals AoE damage, changes with Stance switch

Special Bullet

  • Damage increased to Push-Immune enemies

In A Tight Spot

  • This attack is no longer a back attack, increases damage and crit rate chance

N/A

Perfect Shot

  • High damage attack (charged, hit the perfect zone for extra damage)

Stable Stance

  • When using this skill you are immune to Paralysis

Kill Confirmation

  • When you land a perfect zone hit with this ability you deal extra damage to enemies with low health

Enhanced Shot

  • When you land a perfect zone hit, you deal a chunk of extra percentage damage

As you can see, the skillset for the Gunslinger's Pistols are pretty easy to set up and really focused on mobility/crit damage. This skillset is designed around the Peacemaker Engraving, but there are a variety of builds out there that also use Time To Hunt. Remember, if you're using the Time To Hunt Engraving you won't have access to the Shotguns.

Gunslinger Leveling Guide & Skills

The Gunslinger is a fun class to level up thanks to the high mobility provided by your pair of pistols. Abilities you should focus on including Quick Step, Dexterous Shot, and Peacekeeper. Grab the Tier 1 Tripods for mobility, especially Extra Mobility under Peacekeeper.

You're essentially looking to maximize your mobility alongside how quickly you can clear dungeons with AoE damage.

Gunslinger Awakening Skills

Here's a closer look at the Gunslinger's two Awakening skills.

  • Eye Of Twilight - Applies a debuff, reducing Move Speed and Attack speed for a short period. Deals damage and inflicts Stagger and Weak. These debuffs disappear once the ability ends.
  • High-Caliber HE Bullet - High stagger AoE attack with a backward leap. Deals significant damage to any enemies caught in the blast.

You can read more of our class overviews here:

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