A high-APM build that emphasizes quick thinking, rapid card cycling and continuous attacks to maximize damage output.
Arcanist
Community Guide
LAST UPDATED
February 9, 2026
February 9, 2026
Editors
Teller, Maya
This document is created by community members as a compilation of class related information. This is not meant as a new player guide; if you are a new player we suggest reading Maxroll’s Build Guides instead. If you have any feedback or want to help with class discussions, join our Discord! You can toggle the specific build you want to see at the top.
How does my identity work?
Arcanist, the card user, has a card deck.
The bar in the middle fills up when you hit your skills on targets. Different skills generate different amounts of Identity meter. As the meter fills up, a card is drawn. Different cards have different effects, and draw rates are weighted—meaning some cards are pulled more often than others. There are no official sources on what the percentages are.
Typically, detonating Ruin skills generate the most meter per hit, and are buffed by the Specialization stat and Wealth runes. This is the method the Empress engraving uses to generate cards.
Additionally, you can also draw cards without filling the meter through tripods. Several skills have tripods that have a (typically 20%) chance of generating a card instantly.
Ruin (4-stack mechanic)
Aside from the Card Deck, Arcanist also has the Ruin identity. Blue skills (stacking skills) have a stacking mechanic, with a maximum of 4 stacks per target. Most blue skills apply 2 stacks. The applied stacks are shown on your character and on the target.
Ruin damage scales off the Specialization stat, and its Identity generation scales off Specialization and any equipped Wealth runes on the Ruin skill.
You can detonate the stacks applied on a target using a Ruin skill at any stacks. Though, it is best done at the max of 4 stacks for optimal damage.
This builder-spender gimmick is the primary playstyle of the Grace of the Empress builds.
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Three-headed Snake Basic Attack changes into 3 directions for 16s. |
Mayhem For 30s, Atk. Speed +5% for 4s every time skills are used, up to 15%.
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Corrosion For 30s, gain a 30% chance of +10% Damage to the foe for 5s. |
Joy Remaining cooldown for all skills -15%. 50% chance of reducing cooldown by 30% |
Twisted Fate For 4s, your skill Damage doesn’t increase or increases up to 40% |
Ghost Ignore collision with monsters. Move Speed +20% for 16s. |
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Cull
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Balance
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Judgment
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Moon
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Star
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Clown
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Royal Fills empty card slots. You can obtain up to 2 cards
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Wheel of Fortune The Cooldown of the next skill decreases by 100%.
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Emperor Inflicts damage to foes within a 14 meter radius. |
Chancellor For 10s, Crit Rate of Normal skills increased by 20%. |
Sovereign For 4s, Damage dealt by Normal skills increased by 50%. |
Knight of Empress Inflicts damage to foes within a 6 meter radius. And draws 1 card afterwards per target hit. |
How do the two builds compare?
Order of the Emperor
Grace of the Empress
Summary
A fast-paced build focused on maintaining melee uptime, managing Ruin stacks, and combining the right cards to deal high burst damage.
Pros
- Ranged
- Spammy
- Fast paced
- More Consistent
- Melee
- High mobility when dpsing
- Variable rotation depending on card draw
- Extremely high burst potential
Cons
- High APM can be exhausting
- Damage output slightly reliant on RNG
- Immobile while DPSing
- Melee
- Damage can rely heavily on RNG
- Almost no paralysis/push immunity
Order of the Emperor
Summary
A high-APM build that emphasizes quick thinking, rapid card cycling and continuous attacks to maximize damage output.
Pros
- Ranged
- Spammy
- Fast paced
- More Consistent
Cons
- High APM can be exhausting
- Damage output slightly reliant on RNG
- Immobile while DPSing
Grace of the Empress
Summary
A fast-paced build focused on maintaining melee uptime, managing Ruin stacks, and combining the right cards to deal high burst damage.
Pros
- Melee
- High mobility when dpsing
- Variable rotation depending on card draw
- Extremely high burst potential
Cons
- Melee
- Damage can rely heavily on RNG
- Almost no paralysis/push immunity
Chaos Dungeon
Unlimited Shuffle
Level 14
Dancing of Spineflower
Level 14
Celestial Rain
Level 14
Evoke
Level 14
Dark Resurrection
Level 10
Lightstream
Level 10
Return
Level 10
Spiral Edge
Level 10
Ark Grid Cores
Sun
Moon
Star
Order
Chaos
Notes
This is the Best In Slot (BIS) build for standard emperor pre-January patch. Some changes can be made in case you have dropped different relic cores randomly. For example, in the 
Order Sun section, all cores are viable and can be played. For 
Order Moon, Stack Hold is a good side-grade for proc'ing destiny but loses out on dmg due to the emperor card dmg loss from Emperor's Heart. For 
Order Star, Dark Collection is the only viable one currently in this build.
Ark Passives
Evolution
Critical
10/30
Swiftness
30/30
Boundless MP
2/2
Optimized Training
1/2
Unlimited Magick
2/2
Critical
1/1
Pulverise
1/1
Blunt Thorn
2/2
Enlightenment
Order of the Emperor
3/3
Emperor's Bestowal
2/2
Feast of the Emperor
3/3
Empress's Knight
1/5
Another Emperor
3/3
Mercy of The Emperor
1/5
Leap
Unleashed Power
5/5
Release Potential
4/5
Instant Spell
2/3
False Deal
2/3
Hidden Card
3/3
Notes
Evolution:
Blunt Thorn is NOT efficient at level 1, instead run 
Standing Striker (1/2) until you get enough for (2/2) Blunt Thorn.
Enlightenment:
Prioritize putting points into 
Another Emperor first and left over points should go into 
Empress's Knight and 
Mercy of The Emperor.
Leap:
Invest into
Unleashed Power and 
Release Potential until you get enough leap points to unlock the first 2 levels of 
False Deal (2/3) and when you have max leap points (70) switch to 
Hidden Card (3/3).
In shorter fights 
Transcendent Power is likely better than Release Potential as you won’t be able to utilize the cooldown reduction from Release Potential as much. Release Potential is better for longer fights especially with Hidden Card (3/3) due to the increased card draw. Hidden Card outperforms False Deal at level 3 due to the 100% card draw rate and chance to proc Another Emperor. Before level 3, False Deal is recommended as the draw rate of Hidden Card is not 100%.
Engravings
Core Engravings
Pick One
✓
✓
✓
Skills
Call of Destiny
Level 10
Stacking, Card Draw
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Used for card draw from
Quick Draw -
Fake Flip changes 
CoD to a stacking skill to generate two stacks for 
Celestial Rain. -
Excellent candidate for
Purify when needed. -
Can be used to draw cards even on invulnerable targets.
Unlimited Shuffle
Level 14
Third Strongest Skill, Weak Point + Stagger + Card Draw
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High damage with a relatively long animation lock.
Galewind is taken to alleviate this. -
You can cancel out of this skill’s animation with [SPACEBAR] before or after your character model has lifted into the air.
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Quick Prep allows us to use 
Unlimited Shuffle every rotation 
Quick Draw has less consistent damage but enables higher potential with luck. The chance to draw a card will only proc on the final hit.
Return
Level 10
Synergy + Buff + Counter
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Weakness Exposure is our synergy which provides our party +10% crit. -
Lvl 5 CD gem will have this skill at near 100% uptime. You should always try to have all of your damage land within the buff window.
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Exposed Darkness grants our buff window, boosting our Crit Dmg by +77.5% for 5 seconds after hitting Return. -
Return is a combo skill, but you should only tap it once if you have other skills available. Only the first hit is a counter.
Dark Resurrection
Level 14
Main Damage Skill, Card Draw
-
Emperor’s rotation benefits greatly from a high level CD gem for
Dark Resurrection. -
The damage is delayed by roughly ~0.7sec, which is just enough time to immediately follow up your
Dark Resurrection with 
Return. -
Wealth is preferred since
Dark Resurrection is one of our best meter generators. -
Fear of Death is taken due to its fast animation and dmg boost gained from the Dark Collection arc grid core. With this tripod it is not efficient to use 
Wheel of fortune on this skill due to the bleed ticks not stacking.
Evoke
Level 14
Second Strongest Skill, Stagger + Card Draw
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Quick Prep drastically reduces the long base cooldown of our Evoke, making it our highest dps skill on a scarecrow.
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Legendary Wealth is used as this skill is our highest meter generator.
Lightstream
Level 10
Stacking, Buff
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Dark Edge provides a buff for +27.6% crit chance on hit, allowing us to better utilize our high base crit damage. -
This buff refreshes every time
Lightstream ticks for damage, and lasts for 3 sec after the last tick.
Celestial Rain
Level 10
Stack Detonation, Fourth Strongest Skill, Stagger
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You should only detonate this skill at 4 stacks for maximum damage.
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However, if being used for a stagger check,
Celestial Rain can be cast at any non-zero # of stacks (stagger is the same regardless of stacking amount).
Mysterious Stampede
Level 14
Utility/Filler, Card Draw, Stagger, Weak Point
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Quick Draw is mandatory, and is our best source of card draw other than generating meter.
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Can be used to draw cards even on invulnerable targets.
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Can slot in
Focus if you are having mana issues
T Skill and Awakening
The Sun
The Sun
Emperor’s signature T Skill, considered a normal skill and scales with Emperor’s Ark Passive. Preferably used with strong cards.
Prismatic Mirror
The Tower
Prismatic Mirror
Provides insignificant damage. Draws 2 cards at the end of its animation. Animation can be canceled with spacebar
The Tower Hyper Awakening
Hyper Awakening is a powerful nuke skill used once per gate, and provides invincibility during cast (not immune to true raid wipe mechanics).
Players using Prismatic Mirror are paired with The Tower, which also draws 2 cards.
Gem Priority
Gems are listed in order of most to least important from left to right. Grayed out icons are optional.
DMG
CDR
Rotation
Notes
Lightstream is used at the start for additional crit chance on our damage skills.
Mysterious Stampede is mainly used for card draw.
Celestial Rain is only ever used with 4 stacks from Lightstream and/or Call of Destiny.
After this opening rotation, use skills off cooldown based on priority while maintaining the self buffs from Lightstream and Return applied as much as possible. The skills have different cooldowns so they do not line up for a clean rotation every time.