Lost Ark Striker guide: Best skills, build, engravings, and leveling

Feb 10, 2022

In Lost Ark, the Striker is a Martial Artist class that focuses on hand-to-hand combat with an elemental twist. The Striker is the male counterpart of Wardancer (our Wardancer guide here), but with some noticeable differences. The class engravings for Striker are completely different, as well as some of his skills. The Striker skillset consists of a variety of strikes but also has a really cool tiger motif in a lot of his skills. If the thought of getting up close and personal with your enemies sounds appealing, and you really like the song “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor, this is the class you want.

The Striker is another straightforward class in Lost Ark, but I wouldn’t say it is as beginner-friendly as the Wardancer. The Striker requires a lot of resource management and is overall slower and more deliberate than the Wardancer. Like Wardancer, our identity is a gauge composed of three Elemental Orbs (four Elemental Orbs with Death Blow). Striker skills will fill the gauge up to the maximum amount of Elemental Orbs we have available. We can then use Esoteric skills, which are stronger skills that will consume some of the Striker’s filled Elemental Orbs for a powerful attack.

Best Striker builds

Much like every other class, the two primary builds that Striker has are determined by their Class Engravings.

Death Blow Striker build

The Death Blow build primarily uses normal skills as a means of generating Elemental Orbs, which is used for their hard-hitting Esoteric skills. The Esoteric Skill Enhancement engraving allows you to have an additional Elemental Orb (for a total of four) and gives a damage bonus to Esoteric skills per Elemental Orb you have. The difference between this engraving and Esoteric Skill Enhancement for the Striker is that all your Esoteric Skills consume all of your Elemental Orbs.

The Death Blow build has a playstyle where you'll fill up your Elemental Orbs with normal skills and then use your big Esoteric skills for a big burst of damage. The Death Blow build generally hits harder than the Esoteric Flurry build, since the Death Blow grants more damage to Esoteric skills per Elemental Orb you have, in addition to consuming all of them on Esoteric skill use. Time your Lightning Whisper buff with your party.

This build typically looks for Specialization and Crit as their desired stats, with Specialization usually being the primary focus. Aim for around a 70/30 Specialization/Crit split.

Desired engravings for this build are (in order):

Death Blow
Grudge
Master of Ambush
Adrenaline
Keen Blunt

An example Death Blow build for a brand new level 50 character with 252 Skill Points will look like this:

Esoteric Flurry Striker build

The Esoteric Flurry build leans more towards consistent damage rather than big burst. The Esoteric Flurry build allows Strikers to use more Esoteric Skills than they would with the Death Blow build. This is because the Esoteric Flurry Engraving makes your Esoteric skills consume just a single Elemental Orb, rather than all of them. In addition, the damage of Esoteric skills is increased.

Esoteric Flurry is a simpler build with high attack speed and consistent damage. There is less importance on hitting a single Esoteric skill. Every Esoteric skill will only consume one Elemental Orb, so you don’t need to worry about missing an Esoteric skill and losing a bunch of your damage uptime. Time your Lightning Whisper buff with your party.

This build typically looks for Swiftness and Crit as the desired stats, with Swiftness usually being the primary focus. Aim for around a 60/40 Swiftness/Crit split.

Desired engravings for this build are (in order):

Esoteric Flurry
Grudge
Keen Blunt
Master of Ambush
Adrenaline

An example Esoteric Flurry build for a brand new level 50 character with 252 Skill Points will look like this:

Striker leveling guide

Leveling in Lost Ark is pretty streamlined and straightforward, but here are a few key skills and tripods that will aid you in the leveling process. Note that these are identical to the ones mentioned in our Wardancer guide. Since the Striker class is a gender unlock of Wardancer, and therefore has almost identical skills.

Moon Flash Kick

This is a normal skill that is unlocked immediately. This is our main single target damage skill, as it does fantastic damage and is available almost immediately. You want to get this skill to level 10 by investing 48 skill points into it as soon as possible. I would level this skill first, as we’re always going to be using this skill and the Full Moon Kick tripod makes this skill super fast.

Lightning Kick

This is a normal skill that is unlocked immediately. The skill has good damage but we’ll mostly be using it for mobility during the leveling process. With 4 skill points, you can level this skill to 4 and increase the leap distance by 2 meters with the Sharp Movement tripod. I would leave this skill at level 4 in order to conserve skill points thereafter. This is also a great skill for moving through zones and you should be using it often.

Sleeping Ascent Celebration

Wow, that’s still a mouthful. This is a normal skill that is unlocked at level 16. This is a great skill for moving through zones and you should be using it often. I prefer to leave this skill at level 4 for mobility, increasing the attack speed of the skill with the Spiral Kick tripod. You can also level this skill to 7 by investing 20 points into it to grant an attack buff with the Ready Attack tripod, but it requires hitting the second part of the skill.

Swift Wind Kick

This is a normal skill that is unlocked at level 20. This is one of your “Spin 2 Win” high damage AoE skills available to you as a Striker. You’ll use this skill to clear large packs of trash mobs and as one of your main damage skills to bosses. You want to get this skill to level 10 by investing 48 skill points into it as soon as possible. I’d level this one to level 10 after Moon Flash Kick.

Call of the Wind God

This is an Esoteric skill that is unlocked at level 28. This is the other “Spin 2 Win” high damage AoE skills available to you as a Striker. You’ll use this skill to clear large packs of trash mobs and as one of your main damage skills to bosses. You want to get this skill to level 10 by investing 48 skill points into it. This is the hardest hitting of the “Spin 2 Win” AoE skills that you have access to, but you’ll need Elemental Orbs to cast it. I’d level this one last. You can choose to level this one to 10 first, but you’ll have more downtime clearing packs of trash mobs due to the increased dependency on Elemental Orbs.

Sweeping Kick

This is a normal skill that is unlocked at level 36. This is another insane single target skill available to you as a Striker. You’ll use this skill as one of your main damage skills to bosses. You want to get this skill to level 10 by investing 48 skill points into it, but I’d prioritize leveling Moon Flash Kick, Swift Wind Kick, and Call of the Wind God to level 10 first.

Thanks for reading our Striker Guide! We hope you enjoy punching (and kicking) your way through the world of Arkesia!