Lost Ark supports a multitude of different playstyles and character builds so that everyone can play the game in a way that works for them. You can opt for DPS, Support, Tanks, and Healing characters. This guide will cover the Gunslinger Class in Lost Ark and discuss it in detail. Looking for the best class? We have a complete Lost Ark tier list for PvP and PvE.
We will be going over the best skills to use with the Gunslinger class, which tripods to consider for each skill, the best engravings and awakening skills, and all of the pros and cons of using this class in Lost Ark. So, let’s get into the details.
Lost Ark Gunslinger Class Guide
The Gunslinger subclass falls under the Gunner Class and provides you with versatility based on the 3 weapons you can switch between without any cooldown restrictions. These 3 weapons include a sniper rifle, a shotgun, and dual pistols.
This lets the player engage targets from a distance as well as up-close. Another neat trick about the UI is that you can see which weapon has how many skills unlocked at the bottom of the screen.
This class is the female counterpart of the Deadeye Class, a mobile DPS class capable of dealing a lot of damage at close range with a shotgun. But if you want to have a diverse class that is good at all ranges.
The Gunslinger class requires a bit more practice and experience to know which weapon is required for which situation and what type of skills and tripods you should unlock based on your playing habits. We have covered all of that and many other useful tips below.
Spells and Attacks
The key to being a good Gunslinger in Lost Ark is to know when you need to switch weapons and which skills will be useful.
We’ve created a table containing all of the recommended skills (for each weapon) and the Tripods you need to unlock to boost the skill’s efficiency and overall build. Based on their functionality, we will only be upgrading a few of these skills to Tripod Level 1 or 2.
| Skill | Tripod 1 | Tripod 2 | Tripod 3 |
| Bullet Rain: (Pistol) Fire forwards for 2 seconds. | Vital Point Shot: Increases Crit rate by 20%. | Rapid Fire: Bullet Rain’s duration is increased by 3 seconds and comes with a damage boost of 60%. | Quick Prep: Every enemy hit grants a 30% chance that the skill cooldown will end instantly. |
| Equilibrium: (Pistol) Fire the dual pistols in a broad sweep. | Weakness Exposure: Affected enemies get -10% Crit resistance to attacks from all party members for 12 seconds. | Enemy Raid: Equilibrium becomes a 360-degree attack, from which enemies at Challenge difficulty or below take 100% more damage. | Vital Point Shot: Increases Crit rate by 60%. |
| Focused Shot: (Rifle) Fire twice, inflicting damage and debuffing a hit enemy’s movement speed by 80% for 2 seconds. The third shot fires a high-caliber bullet that inflicts double damage and knocks down the hit enemy. | Quick Aim: Reduces aim time. | Flash: Every third hit stuns the affected enemy for 3 seconds. | Quick Finish: Inflict Kill Confirmation after aiming to increase damage by 150%. |
| AT02 Grenade: (Pistol) Throws a grenade at a targeted location within 10 meters. | Wide Explosion: Increases the AoE radius of the grenade by 20%. | Freeze Grenade: Reduces outgoing damage by 75% but freezes enemies in place, making follow-up attacks easier. | – |
| Spiral Flame: (Rifle) Fires a powerful flame bullet, launching foes into the air and dealing fire damage. Also sets a fire on the ground, inflicting fire damage to enemies in range for 2.5 seconds. | Quick Aim: Increases aim speed by 50%. | Kill Confirmation: Crit rate increased by 60% against foes with less than 50% HP. | – |
| Dexterous Shot: (Pistol) Glide 6 meters forward while firing handguns 4 times. This skill can be used twice in a row before cooldown. | Agile Movement: Increases attack speed by 10%. | – | – |
| Spiral Tracker: (Pistol) Throw a spinning handgun at a target location within 10 meters while firing a total of 15 times. | Weakness Exposure: Affected enemies get -10% Crit resistance to attacks from all party members for 12 seconds. | – | – |
| Death Fire: (Pistols) Fire a volley of bullets for 3 seconds and up to 9 hits. Hit the Perfect Zone to throw a grenade while jumping backward as the skill times out, launching enemies into the air. | Keen Strike: Crit rate of Death Fire increased by up to 80%. | Chain Throw: Throw a second grenade after hitting the Perfect Zone. | Infiltrate Decimation: Teleport forward 6 meters when using the skill, then immediately back by 8 meters. |
| Focused Shot: (Rifle) Fire twice, inflicting damage and debuffing a hit enemy’s movement speed by 80% for 2 seconds. The third shot fires a high-caliber bullet that inflicts double damage and knocks down the hit enemy. | Quick Aim: Decreases aiming time. | Enhanced Bullet: Do up to 95% additional damage to enemies with lower than 50% health. | Quick Finish: Inflicts Kill Confirmation, increasing damage by up to 200%. |
| Perfect Shot: (Rifle) Fire a high-speed, large-caliber bullet. Hit the Perfect Zone to inflict massive damage and knockback foes. | Stable Stance: Grants paralysis immunity during the use of this skill. | Precision Shot: Decreases the Perfect Zone period but increases crit rate on Perfect Zone hits by up to 80%. | Enhanced Shot: Perfect Zone damage increased by up to 80%. |
| Somersault Shot: (Pistols) Somersault forwards 10 meters while continuously firing your handgun. | Agile Movement: Attack speed increased by up to 18%. | Master of Evasion: Dodge rate increased by 20% during the use of this skill. | Double Jump: Perform an extra somersault, granting 2 more meters to the distance traveled and 2 more shots. |
| Dexterous Shot: (Pistols) Glide 6 meters forward while firing handguns 4 times. This skill can be used twice in a row before cooldown. | Agile Movement: Attack speed increased by up to 18%. | Excellent Mobility: Move distance increased by up to 3 meters. | – |
| Quick-Step: (Pistols) Slide 6 meters forward while firing the dual pistols. | Excellent Mobility: Move distance increased by up to 2 meters. | – | – |
| Last Request: (Shotgun) Fires a single, powerful explosive shell, inflicting damage and launching the hit enemy into the air. | Ice Shot: Switches element to water and reduces enemy movement speed by up to 70% for 5 seconds. | – | – |
Now, you need to keep leveling up your character until you cross Level 50, and then you’ll be able to further fine-tune your build with class-specific Awakening Skills and Engravings that provide additional buffs on skills.
Read More: Lost Ark Sharpshooter Class Guide: Spells, Attacks, Engravings, Strengths, Weaknesses
Awakening Skills
The next step is getting your character to Level 50, so you can utilize Awakening Skills. Each subclass has traditional skills and 2 unique skills that are only available for that class. You can only use 1 Awakening Skill at a given time, and these skills have a rather long cooldown time.
Because of the long cooldown timer, you must use these skills when the time is right for maximum effect.
These are the 2 Awakening Skills for the Gunslinger Class:
- Eye of Twilight: Debuffs move and attack speeds for a short time, but when activated, it deals damage to enemies within a radius as well as inflicting both Stagger and Weak effects on them. All debuffs disappear once the skill times out.
- High-Caliber HE Bullet: The Gunslinger leaps backward while dealing with an AoE attack, inflicting Stagger and dealing significant damage to enemies caught in the burst radius.
We suggest using the HE Bullets more often because of their effectiveness in both PVE and PVP situations. They also cause negligible debuffs to your character, which is always a plus in our book.
Best Gunslinger Build Engravings
Engravings are available once you get to a higher character level and allow you to further fine-tune your build with buffs to weapons and skills. Each class has 2 class-specific Engravings for you to choose from.
You can activate these by equipping certain accessories, reading recipe books, or equipping certain stones. Engravings can be obtained as rewards for completing end-game activities.
The 2 class-specific Engravings for the Gunslinger class are:
- Peacemaker: Increases attack speed in Handgun Stance by up to 16%, Crit rate in Shotgun Stance by up to 25%, and gives a damage boost of up to 10% when in Rifle Stance. Furthermore, hits to enemies with lower than 50% HP when in Rifle Stance will stack on an additional damage bonus of up to 30%.
- Time to Hunt: Raises the Crit rate for Handgun and Rifle skills by up to 30% but disallows the use of the Shotgun Stance.
Read More: Lost Ark Bard Class Guide: Spells, Attacks, Engravings, Strengths, Weaknesses
Best Gunslinger Class Combat Stats
Using Time to Hunt makes using the Gunslinger class slightly easier because you now have to only deal with 2 weapons and their stats. You should focus on increasing your Crit Rate and Swiftness as you gear up.
On the other hand, Peacemaker is a more versatile and widely used Engraving that provides buffs for all (3) weapons. And favors those who like to snipe enemies using their rifles with additional damage. Just like the other engraving, you need to focus on Crit Rate & Swiftness while gearing up.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Gunslinger Class
Every class in Lost Ark has certain strengths and weaknesses that balance them out and force the player to make calculated decisions while tweaking and leveling their class.
The Gunslinger class also has some strengths and weaknesses that are given below:
Strengths
- It is a viable choice for both PvE and PvP-focused builds because of the wide variety of weapons.
- Excellent class for players who want a mobile DPS character that deals decent damage at all ranges.
Weaknesses
- This class is difficult to master because of 3 weapon choices and the ability to switch between them.
- The skill complexity, getting used to the weapons, and the cooldowns for their respective skills takes time.
- A Glass Cannon class can struggle if the player isn’t careful enough and doesn’t utilize all of their skills on time.
Best Suited Playstyle for the Gunslinger Class in Lost Ark
The Gunslinger class is most suited for players looking to get into the thick of things and enjoy ranged combat. You’ll be getting the best of both worlds here as the rifle allows ranged combat while the dual pistols and shotgun allow you to destroy hordes of enemies up close.
Leveling Tips for the Gunslinger Class
To Maximize the damage, you deal while staying as mobile as possible; you should focus on the following skills:
- Summersault Shot
- Equilibrium
- Quick-Step
- Bullet Rain
Whatever skills you decide to use and upgrade, keep in mind that you don’t have much HP, and staying on the move and relying on backstabs is your best bet if you want to survive your duels and make it out alive.
Best Gems for Gunslinger Class in Lost Ark
Gems allow you to add additional buffs to your offensive or cooldown abilities. For the Gunslinger build, we suggest going for the following gems for Attack and Cooldown.
Attack Gems
- Focused Shot
- Perfect Shot
- Bullet Rain / Shotgun Rapid Fire
- Dual Buckshot / Meteor Storm
- Sharpshooter
Cooldown Gems
- Perfect Shot ( For Time to Hunt Only)
- Bullet Rain / Shotgun Rapid Fire
- Meteor Shower
- Quickstep
Lost Ark Gunslinger Class Card Sets
We recommend the following card sets for the Gunslinger class.
- Lostwind Cliffs
- We’ll Meet Again
- Forest of Giants
Summary
Now, to summarize everything we’ve mentioned above about the Gunslinger Class in Lost Ark, it is a class that comes with 3 weapons:
- Dual Pistols
- Rifle
- Shotgun
A few other key things about the class are mentioned below:
- You can use the Time to Hunt Engraving to disable the shotgun and gain additional buffs for the Rifle and Dual Pistols. Doing so will also make the class slightly easier to control.
- You need to get used to the switch timings and skill cooldowns; otherwise, you’ll get overwhelmed by enemies.
- Since Gunslinger is sort of a glass cannon build, you cannot go in guns ablaze and tank hit because you don’t have the HP for it.
- When in a party, you can stay on the flanks and utilize your rifle to deal damage from afar or be the backstabber for your party.
- We suggest sticking with the High-Caliber HE Bullet Ascension Skill, but there will be a long cooldown after every use.
This covers the Gunslinger Class guide for both PvE and PvP. Lost Ark is a flexible MMO, allowing you to shape your build however you want, so we suggest you keep testing builds out until you find the best one that suits your playstyle.
That sums up our Lost Ark Gunslinger class guide. You can explore our website more and check out our tier list for the Best PvP and PvE classes in Lost Ark.
