Lost Ark Sorceress Guide (Builds, Engravings, and Tips) (2024)

Sorceress Class Guide

The Sorceress is the quintessential mage archetype in Lost Ark. If you have ever played a Sorc in Diablo 2 or 3 or even a Combustion Fire Mage in WoW, you will feel right at home.

They are known for being able to do a ton of damage safely from afar, as well as control areas of the battlefield with their spells and status effects. Of course, given that they have so much that they can do safely at a distance, they are squishy.

Every single Sorc spell has an AOE component and many of them can wipe out hordes in a single cast.

Some of the harder-hitting ones are used as primary single-target damage spells. Major damage spells have cast times, although you can often spec to remove the cast time for a slightly weaker output.

The Sorceress’s fire spells have destruction (weak point) attached to them and the class has a respectable amount of stagger, although definitely not top tier compared to a class like Scrapper or Gunlancer. Many of their spells have status effects attached to them, such as Burn, Ignite, Freeze, or Elecroctute which help you control the battlefield.

If you are looking for a class that can do lots of damage through huge burst or consistent damage spam, while being safe and far, look no further. Sorcs are easy to pick up and play because of their lack of attack positional requirements, but they are difficult to master so you can find a lot of nuances that may appeal to you. If you’re interested, you can also check on our Sorceress leveling guide.

To learn how to play the newest mage sub-class, check out our Lost Ark Arcanist guide.

Comparisons to other classes

Currently, there is only one other mage class, the Bard. Bard is a support class that does some damage, while the Sorc is the pure damage mage.

Compared to the other ranged damage classes in the game, you have a lot less mobility but more impactful spells that can control the battlefield as well as do pure damage. The one exception is the Artillerist which plays like a Tanky less mobile caster.

In order to see how well Sorceress performs in the current meta, check out our tier list.

Class Mechanics

Sorceresses build up their Mysterious Magick Meter by doing damage with their spells. You have a few options on how to use it:

• Activate Arcane Rupture any time you have 30% or more filled up. This gives you increased casting speed and damage on your spells.
  • If you are at 100% you go into a more powerful state that amplifies that effect.
  • In fact, it’s really not recommended to activate this before then because of how powerful Arcane Torrent is at 100%
• Spend 30% of your bar to Blink. This is a long-distance movement spell that teleports you instantly to that location.

PvE

You will spend most of your time as a Sorc alternating between your instacasts and waiting for windows to cast your bigger spells, depending on which playstyle and spells you choose.

You will also pay attention to your positioning to set yourself up for succeeding by using your movement ability thoughtfully to dodge boss attacks. Don’t lose sight of the main reason you are in the group – to do tons of damage!

PvP

In PvP, Sorcs would be wise to stay away from long cast time spells and focus on spells that can do small amounts of consistent damage safely. By combining consistent damage with the ability to control the battlefield through AOE status effects, a good Sorc can set the tempo for the match.

The bane of any Sorc is good melee, sticking to you and chasing you, especially Deathblades. By using your mobility wisely and coordinating with your team, you can play keep away and continue to be effective with your instacasts.

Core Abilities

Punishing Strike

Summoning thunder from the sky is what being a Mage is all about. This is one of your hardest-hitting spells and has a cast time, but can be talented to be instant cast. It’s great for single target or AoE, and has high stagger.

Blaze

This is a staple spell all Sorcs will use. It’s not very exciting but it reliable shooting a line of fire that is safe and easy to land on enemies, applying a burn over time effect. It can be recast quickly and can amplify the damage of all your spells.

Inferno

Summon a pillar of flame that knocks up and incinerates enemies in the target area. This spell does respectable single target damage and can stagger and do weak point damage.

Seraphic Hail

Summon a wave of elemental damage to push back the enemies in front of you. Depending on how you talent this spell, you can burn or chill foes. Has a short cooldown and can be cast often to do area damage and keep enemies away.

Doomsday

Nobody wants to be a mage that can’t drop a giant flaming rock on people, right? This is your hardest-hitting spell and has plenty of stagger to boot. Be careful though, it has a long cast time and a delay on impact, so you need to really understand the boss’s attack patterns to reliably land the spell.

Awakening Abilities

As with all classes, the Sorceress has access to two awakening abilities.

Enviska’s Might

Gather power to do massive lightning damage to all enemies around you. This pulls opponents in and hits them repeatedly while staggering them to a giant supernova finish. Very powerful ability that makes you immune to all CC while casting.

Apocalypse Call

True to its name, cast this to reign infinite destruction in the area around you. Meteors will fall from the sky for 8 seconds and do massive damage to anyone they hit. Unfortunately, you have no control over where they land so there’s a lot of RNG in how effective this will be.

Most people use Enviska’s Might exclusively since the RNG nature of Apocalypse Call makes it unreliable.

Advanced Class Engravings

Every Lost Ark class has access to engravings that will focus your playstyle in one particular direction. For Sorcerers, you will choose between Reflux and Igniter. They are two completely different playstyles.

Igniter

If you want to have some of the highest burst in the game (BIG NUMBERS!), this is for you. This engraving will heavily amplify the effect of your Arcane Rupture Identity skill, giving you massive crit and crit damage.

The downside is that if you miss your burst window upon activation, you will lose most of your damage. Since all of your hardest hitting skills have a cast time, unless you know the boss’s patterns really well- you will probably miss… a lot!

Any of the three damage stats will work for this build. You want specialization to build your meter faster and do more damage with your spells. You get innate crit from Arcane Rupture and you can always add more to make sure you see the big numbers. Swiftness is also good to fit more spells into your burst window.

Reflux

This engraving completely removes your ability to use Arcane Rupture, but it gives you increased damage and decreased cooldowns at all times.
What that means is you can use all of your identity bar on blinks.

This makes the build one of the most consistent and safe damage builds in the game. With low cooldowns, you can spam instant casts all day or use bigger cast spells if that’s your style. It just depends on what you are comfortable with.

Unlike the igniter build, you need to be careful with your secondary stats. Specialization is not very useful for you since you don’t need to build meter, and you should focus on crit with some swiftness.

Build

There are two main builds show below: Igniter and Reflux builds.

Igniter Build

This build encourages you to take all the hard-hitting long cast time spells like Doomsday, Explosion, and Punishing Strike. Your focus is to build meter and cast all your spells in quick succession after activating your identity skill. Ideally, this is done during a boss’s vulnerability phase.

Here are some of the skill explanations and tripods you will take (Make sure you have 4 points in every spell and then max them out in the following order:

• Doomsday
  • 2-2-1
  • Part of your core big damage rotation after using Arcane Rupture. You open with this since it has a delay to land.
• Explosion
  • 2-3-1
  • Part of your core big damage rotation after using Arcane Rupture.
• Punishing Strike
  • 3-2-1
  • Part of your core big damage rotation after using Arcane Rupture.
• Esoteric Reaction
  • 3-1-1
  • Instant cast Area Damage that can be used whenever it’s up.
• Frost’s Call
  • 2-2-1
  • Instant cast Area Damage that can be used whenever it’s up.
• Rime Arrow
  • 3-1-1
  • Instant cast spell that is your main source of meter build up. Make sure you use it whenever it is up.
• Blaze
  • 2-1-1
  • You will use this skill whenever it is up to amplify damage on your target. It has 2 charges and lasts a while, so you should have no problem keeping it up.
• Inferno
  • 2-3-2
  • Instant cast Area Damage that can be used whenever it’s up. It’s an easy source of quick destruction and stagger, so hold on to it for then if you need it.

Stat Priority

• Prioritize Specialization.
• Choose between Crit and Swiftness depending on if you want more big numbers or an easier rotation to cast.

Runes

• Galewind runes on all your casting spells
• Rage or bleed on Blaze and Inferno because of their low CD and multiple stacks
• Wealth on your Rime Arrow for meter gain.

Engraving

• Igniter lvl 3 – must-have for the build
• All Out Attack and Hitmaster lvl 3 are the best skills for this build
• Grudge and Cursed Doll lvl 3 make great skills once you are an advanced player and can slot them in

Gems

• Prioritize Damage and Cooldown on all the core casting skills.
  Cooldown on Rime Arrow
• Everything else is a bonus- Blaze and Inferno Gems shouldn’t take up slots

Reflux Build

This build can be played two ways: you can zip around the battlefield with instant cast spells or you can be more methodical and use the same hard casts from the igniter build. We recommend the instant cast build and will go over it here since the primary strength of this build is safety and consistent damage.

Here are some of the skill explanations and tripods you will take (Make sure you have 4 points in every spell and then max them out in the following order):

• Seraphic Hail
  • 2-3-1
  • Close range spell that does good damage and has a short cooldown.
• Frost’s Call
  • 2-2-1
  • Instant cast Area Damage that can be used whenever it’s up.
• Esoteric Reaction
  • 3-1-1
  • Instant cast Area Damage that can be used whenever it’s up.
• Punishing Strike
  • 2-1-2
  • Your hardest hitting skill
• Rime Arrow
  • 2-1-1
  • Instant cast spell that is your main source of meter build-up. Make sure you use it whenever it is up.
• Inferno
  • 2-3-2
  • Instant cast Area Damage that can be used whenever it’s up. It’s an easy source of quick destruction and stagger, so hold on to it for then if you need it.
• Blaze
  • 2-1-1
  • You will use this skill whenever it is up to amplify damage on your target. It has 2 charges and lasts a while, so you should have no problem keeping it up.
• Squall
  • 3-1-2
  • This skill has decent damage, a short cooldown, and can be used to counter bosses. Make sure you hold on to it if you know counters are coming.

Stat Priority

• Prioritize Crit and make Swiftness your secondary stat.

Runes

• Galewind runes on Esoteric Reaction and Punishing Strike
• Rage or bleed on Blaze and Inferno because of their low CD and multiple stacks
• Focus on Squall
• Everything else is preferred but make sure you get some Quick Recharge in.

Engraving

• Reflux lvl 3 – must-have for the build
• Hitmaster lvl 3 and Precise Dagger lvl 3 are the best skills for this build
• Adrenaline is a great 3rd skill
• Grudge and Cursed Doll lvl 3 make great skills once you are an advanced player and can slot them in

Gems

• Prioritize Damage and Cooldown on all the core casting skills- Seraphic Hail, Punishing Strike, Frost’s Call, and Esoteric Reaction
  Everything else is a bonus – Blaze and Inferno Gems shouldn’t take up slots

Thanks for reading! For more articles and guides, check out the rest of our Lost Ark blog.