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!

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How does my Identity work?

As you attack you generate Harmony Meter to gain Harmony Orbs (max of 3). 
These Orbs can be used to cast two skills: Sunrise and Moonfall. (default X and Z) 
These skills have baseline Push Immunity and Status Ailment Immunity during cast.

Efflorescence and Dream Blossom Garden will fill 2 Orbs.

Sunrise (X, 1 Orb)

Instantly restores 25% of Artist's Max HP to 1 target with the lowest HP within 24m.

Full Bloom in Enlightenment Tree adds: 
When using Sunrise, instantly heals all party members within 24m an amount equal to 7/11/15% of Artist’s max HP.

Moonfall (Z, 2 Orbs)

Increases outgoing damage by 10% for 10 seconds.
The efficiency of this buff scales with the Specialization stat.

Setting Moon in Enlightenment Tree adds:
Consumes 1 Orb when casting Moonfall with less than 2 Orbs, increases outgoing damage by 10% for 5 seconds.
Casting 2 Orb Moonfall returns 5% of used meter.

Combat Technique

Paint: Combat Technique is Artist's capstone node in the Enlightenment Tree that adds an additional gameplay mechanic that specializes in prolonging Moonfall and reducing cooldowns.

Moonfall effectiveness +10/15/20% and increases duration by +20%. Consecutive Moonfalls now stack their duration instead of refreshing the buff.
Gain a stack of Ink Energy for every Harmony Orb consumed by X and Z, up to 9 stacks.
When using Moonfall with 8 or more Ink Energy, consume 8 stacks to instantly receive -15% cooldown reduction on all skills (except for T, Awakening, and Hyper Awakening) and reduce Dragon Engraving's remaining cooldown by -4 seconds.

Gameplay Overview

Artist gameplay is focused around five major aspects:

Attack Power Buff (“AP”)
Ink Brand
Identity (“Orbs”)
T Skill
Utility (Shielding, DR, Counters)

Knowing which one to prioritize at any given time can greatly increase the damage, survivability, and overall raid experience of your teammates.

Artist is a very busy and interactive class when played with full swiftness. You will always have buttons to press and you should almost never leave any skills off cooldown. 

A B C’s: ALWAYS BE CASTING

Counters, Starry Night and Illusion Door(Portal) are exceptions where sometimes it is best to hold them to use them optimally in certain situations. You may want to hold a Counter for a crucial mechanic, or hold a single stack of Portal for necessary cleansing or ranged shielding.

Luminary and Magick Stream (MS) stacks(/) are another integral part of support gameplay as they provide buff enhancement, MP recovery, and cooldown reduction. During raids, it's important to pre-stack and maintain these stacks whenever possible, they have different icons but same duration, so it's easy to follow them. Every skill used will grant one stack and refresh the buffs' duration.

Luminary stacks provide you with a bonus to your AP buffs and also a constant cooldown reduction when you have max (5) stacks.
Magick Stream stacks provide you with mana recovery and also a constant cooldown reduction when you have max (10) stacks.

Those cooldown reductions are crucial for your overall performance. You should always pre-stack to max stacks before any raid start in the workshop circle and always keep max stacks during the raid, even if there is a brief moment of downtime. These buffs are lenient (10s duration) so it's very easy to upkeep as long as a skill is used. If you lose those stacks, rebuilding them during a raid will take a while and all skills used before you max stacks have a longer cooldown, which is suboptimal.

Attack Power (AP) Buff

Artists have two Attack Power buffs: Sunsketch and Sun Well. 
These damage buffs make up the majority of your contribution to your team’s damage, working out to roughly 36% damage buff on all three of your party members.

Maintaining this buff on your party members should always be your first priority. 
Due to the low base cooldown on these spells, it is easy to get a very high uptime on as long as you have max Swiftness and Magick Stream equipped, regardless of gem level.
Rotate Sunsketch and Sun Well useage to maintain and refresh this buff as the two skills do not stack their effects.

You can check the duration of each skill by watching the sword icon above your HP bar. Rotate by watching when the AP buff has 0.5-1 second left, and then use the other skill.
Alternatively, you can use the skill cooldown as easier to see timing markers, but these timings vary with gem level on each skill. With bare minimum gems (level 6s) the timing is as follows: Use Sun Well when Sunsketch's cooldown reaches 7s, and use Sunsketch as soon as the cooldown returns.

With higher level cooldown gems, Sunsketch's cooldown returns faster and there is more leniency to reposition, use other skills in between AP buffs, or reapply Sunsketch quickly if boss moves out of Sun Well.

Sunsketch is your primary AP buff and gives 8 seconds of AP. It has no positional requirements and additionally provides your team with a fairly significant amount of damage reduction. You should use this spell off cooldown, and use your other buff to fill the gaps between. Due to the Tenacity tripod, this skill provides push immunity, so you can safely cast it without fear of being canceled. 

Sun Well is your secondary AP buff and gives 6 seconds of AP. It requires your allies to stand inside its AoE to gain the AP buff and stays on the field for 4 seconds. Walking outside of its range will keep a lingering buff of 2 seconds. Try and position it so it’s covering attackers from all sides and it's easy and safe for your allies to walk inside without having to move too far. Often, just placing it on top of the boss is the best strategy, but be aware that some bosses are too large to be placed directly on. For example, in Mordum G3, placing your cursor inside Mordum at the edge of his hitbox covers most of the front indicator with Sun Well.

Ink Brand

Ink Brand is Artist’s unique Brand, a debuff placed by supports on the boss, similar to damage synergies by DPS classes. Brand increases the damage the enemy takes by a flat 10%, and any reapplication of Brand from a source within the Artist's kit will refresh or reapply the debuff. For Legion Raids, Kazeros Raids, and most other raids, you can watch the HP Bar of the Boss for the debuff icon to make sure you always have this active. For Guardian Raids, a large ink swirl similar to the icon will float above the Guardian while it’s affected by the Brand.

After your AP Buff and Moonfall, your brand is the third largest source of damage for the team, and it should be prioritized after your primary buffs since it is the second most consistent source of damage buff, as well as easiest to upkeep 100% uptime on.

Drawing Orchids is your primary (and best) branding skill. The skill applies Ink Brand for 12 seconds and lingers for 3 seconds, and has a massive AoE from Faraway Journey tripod, making it incredibly hard to miss. Additionally, thanks to the Agile Strokes tripod, it grants a small attack speed buff to all nearby allies standing on the carpet. Use this skill off cooldown whenever possible.

With Brand Enhancement, you will apply or refresh the Brand on all targets within 12m for 6s whenever you use Moonfall or Sunrise. This Ark Passive side node can be helpful to reapply Brand in an emergency where you miss Orchids or the skill is canceled by a knock down. 12 meters can be deceptively short, so be mindful of your positioning when trying to apply brand using Moonfall. Portal can be a good distance measurement since its placement range is 12m, but a safe rule of thumb is the halfway point between your character and the top of your screen.

Artist has other skills (Butterfly Dream and Ink Shower) with branding tripods, but these skills in combination with their branding tripods are vastly inferior to Drawing Orchids and are therefore rarely used.

Identity

As you play Artist throughout a raid, you will naturally generate identity by playing well, maintaining buffs, and shielding party members. In most cases, it is best to choose the skill that is best for the situation rather than hyper focusing on generating the maximum meter possible.

Artist has a fairly strict meter gen prioritization order:

1. Hopper, your main shielding ability, is also indisputably your highest meter generator. Use this skill as often as possible to give fat shielding and fat meter generation. Bouncing Brushwork (17p) Star core further amplifies this skill's shield and meter.
2. Portal is the longest cooldown in the kit but can be the second highest meter gain when used well. Since it can stack up to two times, keeping it always on cooldown is highly efficient. It gives a significant amount of meter on placement and should be prioritized when the boss is not present to be hit.
3. Ink Well is a close second to Hopper's meter gen per cast and is the third highest meter gen, but has a much longer cooldown. Keep on cooldown if possible.
4. Pouncing Tiger is third highest meter gen, fourth if Ink Well is taken alongside it. Keep on cooldown if possible.
5. Starry Night reduces incoming damage on party members, but also generates meter as it ticks on the boss. While it can generate a lot of meter per cast similar to Ink Well or Portal, it often cancelled early for brand, AP, or Hopper, thus losing out on meter per cast as opposed to single hit skills that often generate their full potential meter.
6. Upward Stroke generates meter when it hits the boss, regardless if the hit is a counter. However, do not waste this skill if a telegraphed counter is about to happen.
7. Drawing Orchids is your brand and also generates a small amount of identity when the boss lingers on the area. Prioritize this if brand is about to expire.
8. Dragon Engraving(T) along with AP buffs (Sunsketch and Sun Well) generate small amount of meter when hit. Always keep T on cooldown unless saving for specific Hyper Awakening window.
9. Efflorescence grants two Harmony Orbs. Use it when other skills and priorities are on cooldown, and if you do not need to save it for a dangerous pattern within the next ~2 minutes.

Identity gain is a side effect that will come naturally as good gameplay is executed. Try to not tunnel vision on maximizing meter generation over maintaining brand, AP, and shielding. A skilled artist will be able to juggle all aspects and be rewarded with high identity uptime.

Moonfall (Z)

A lot of newer players make the mistake of thinking that Moonfall is the biggest source of damage for your team. This is false. With 600 Specialization (36.05% efficiency), each Moonfall grants your team 16% damage (12% x 1.3605), not accounting for any additional multipliers (gems, rings, bracelet, Ark Grid). This is places Moonfall in second place after your AP Buff in damage increase provided.

With Setting Moon, you can now use Moonfall when you have 1 Harmony Orb, and it will give 5 seconds of the same Moonfall buff, but is not recommended to exclusively use 1 Orb Moonfall. When 2 Orbs are used, 5% meter of those 2 Orbs will be refunded (10% of 1 Orb). This may not seem like much, but can be important to repeat Moonfalls for up to 60 seconds of buffs in an opener. Try to always use 2 Orbs in sustained fights and utilize 1 Orb when there are short phases of damage windows where you cannot generate 2 Orbs fast enough.

After Combat Technique is unlocked, duration is increased by 20% (read: 12s for 2 Orb, 6s for 1 Orb) and consecutive Moonfalls will add up their duration. 

1 and 2 Orb can also be used to apply or refresh Brand on the boss. This is very helpful in the opener of a raid to minimize abilities used while maximizing buffs given.

For each Harmony Orb that Moonfall consumes, a stack of Combat Technique is gained.

Combat Technique

Artist received a new identity mechanic from the Enlightenment Tree called Combat Technique. Every Harmony Orb used will grant one stack of Ink Energy, meaning a Heal will give one stack, one Orb Moonfall will give one stack, and two Orb Moonfall will give two stacks. The max amount of Ink Energy is 9. Using any Moonfall when you have 8 or more stacks will consume 8 Ink Energy, but also add the amount of Orbs used as a stack (8-8+2 or 8-8+1 or 9-8+2 or 9-8+1). The amount of stacks you currently have is indicated by the corresponding icon and number in your buff bar, as well as the amount of flowers on the tree branch indicator next to your character. 
A dinging bell sound will play when you have obtained the 8th or 9th stack. 

It is recommended to keep spending Orbs during mechs where you are able to generate meter (i.e Mordum G2 x235) in order to prepare the cooldown reduction.

Since Moonfall duration can now exceed 10 seconds, controlling when the 8 stack CDR happens is a lot more trickier than the previous iteration involving the ragebaiting Ink Orb. Keep in mind to always check the amount of Ink Energy you have and the remaining cooldown of Dragon Engraving(T). If Moonfall duration is about to run out and there are 8 or more Ink Energies, but T has less than 2 seconds remaining on its cooldown, it is better to hold Moonfall until T is used so that the -4s is utilized fully. Another important skill to keep track of is Portal, as its long cooldown massively benefits from the -15% CDR when Ink Energy is spent, so the most beneficial time to activate the CDR is when Portal is at its peak cooldown timer.

Sunrise (X)

As your party members become more experienced with fights, the amount of Heals they will need will naturally decrease, and you can begin to use your damage buffs more and more to speed up the rate you clear content. Sunrise should be used very minimally as Artist has naturally high shield uptime. If you find yourself using Sunrise a lot, consider reevaluating how frequently you use Hopper and your Starry timings for high damage patterns.

Sunrise can be used to increase Ink Energy to 9 during downtime in raids where excess meter is generated, maximizing amount of stacks held without consuming the CDR prematurely.

Sunrise can also be used to apply or refresh Brand on the boss.

Dragon Engraving (T Skill)

Artists have one of the highest Hyper Awakening Technique (T Skill) uptimes in T4 due to Combat Technique. Upon cast, T Skill will grant two buffs, one that buffs Hyper Awakening Skill(Alt+V) damage by +20% for 24 seconds, and another that buffs general Outgoing Damage of party members by +10% for 12 seconds. Ally Damage Enhancement affects the Outgoing Damage buff of T Skill.

T Skill is by far the longest cooldown in Artist's kit and should be used off cooldown at all times. However, certain mechanics have agreed-upon Hyper Awakening Skill usage (i.e. Kazeros G1 500x shield check in TFM). If you are aware of an upcoming mechanic, use your best judgment as to whether you will have your T skill ready when the mechanic comes.

Utility (Shielding, DR, Counters)

A lot of Artist's skills grant your teammates some form of damage reduction or shielding. This is an extremely underrated part of your kit - a good support drastically reduces the amount of damage their party takes, and makes life extremely comfortable for their DPS. Artist can have extremely strong defensive abilities in the right hands. However, unlike Bard or Paladin, our defensive skills generally require good positioning and cursor aim to provide maximum value.

Shielding

Hopper is your main shielding skill that also has high meter generation. Its area of effect is a radius of 5m around the landing (cursor) spot, and can generally reach party members on the other side of a small humanoid boss without much effort. When using Hopper on the boss, try and additionally hit nearby teammates by bouncing into the boss or around its hitbox. 

Illusion Door(Portal) creates a portal, which grants nearby allies shields and a cleanse, and can be used to telePort(al) to your position. This skill is unique only to Artist and is incredibly powerful when used properly. It is also one of the top meter generating skills, so use it off cooldown. A proper usage of Portal would always be keeping one available in case a teammate needs a shield or cleanse. Be careful to never let it fully stack to not waste cooldown and meter gain.

Siblings, the side node in Enlightenment tree, creates a 8% Max HP shield for everyone whenever Moonfall or Sunrise is used. Since Moonfall is used so frequently, the shielding from this node is often applied on top and consumed before other shields. 

Sprinkle grants a 30% Max HP shield to any party members hit with the ink spray, which has a range of 16m. While this amount and frequency of shielding sounds nice on paper, it is generally not needed if Hopper is utilized effectively. The pros of taking this skill is having a ranged beefy shield that other ranged options cannot provide, but if taken, this will impact your meter generation heavily as its base meter generation is extremely lackluster.

Efflorescence, your Awakening, provides your entire party with a massive shield (100% Max HP) for 12 seconds. You want to use it as often as possible, as well as planning ahead for patterns that do a lot of damage to save teammates or enable them to greed DPS.
Dream Blossom Garden, your Hyper Awakening, additionally provides all party members 30 seconds where they can take lethal damage and live.

DR

Sunsketch, one of your main buffs, also applies a 15% damage reduction to all affected allies. The Robust Protection tripod increases this to 35%. It’s never worth holding the skill for this effect, but it adds up to a lot of damage reduced over the course of a fight due to Sunsketch's high uptime. 

Starry Night provides an incredibly powerful 75% damage reduction to all other party members within its radius, 50% damage reduction and push immunity on self, as well as a 15% Max HP shield. This skill is incredibly versatile and can be used to save allies, facetank patterns, or even to let your damage dealers DPS through a damaging pattern. Due to the skill casting a bubble in a range around yourself, you should position yourself well to use this ability to its maximum effectiveness. With this range increase, Starry can now reach the other side of medium sized bosses, so be mindful of your cursor placement to envelope as many teammates with it as possible. While not its primary use, it also generates a fair amount of meter, so try and hit the boss with it.

Counters

During raids, bosses will periodically glow blue, allowing you to counter them. These are often large DPS windows and/or to prevent extremely dangerous patterns or mechanics.

Artists have two counters which you can choose to run:

Upward Stroke is your default counter option. It is a  strong counter which generates a significant amount of meter and additionally has weak point. Due to the Tenacity tripod, this skill can get certain counters which are very difficult for other classes to safely land. The second recast of Upward can be delayed in order to hit two back to back counters, prime example being the double counter in Mordum G3.

One Stroke is an alternative hipster counter option. It is slower, making it harder to use reactively, but also has greater stagger while generating more identity. Because of its long windup animation, this skill is effective at hitting telegraphed or scripted counters that are too far away that Upward cannot reach. But, in many cases, it is ultimately an inferior counter due to the lack of Push Immunity.

Both counters can give a significant amount of meter, so it is recommended to use them whenever you can to maximize your meter generation. Certain gates, such as Mordum G3, have dangerous counters which greatly punish the party for failing. In these situations, you can think about holding the skill if your party members do not have strong counter options.

FAQ

What Accessory/Bracelet effects do I want?

Swiftness and Specialization are important, but if you have multiple hybrid lines on a bracelet, you may forgo one of the primary stats. Use the Support Buff Calculator if you are unsure of a bracelet's potency or cannot decide between Accessories.

What order should I do Karma in?

Leap 1 -> Enlightenment 5 or 6 (enough for 100 points) -> Leap 6 -> Evolution 6

Is it viable to put some points into Spec in Tier 4?

The T skill (Dragon Engraving) is not affected by Spec, while Swiftness reduces its valuable cooldown. As such, Spec points are worth less in Tier 4, but can still be viable with HIGH CDR gems (lv. 10s) and maxed out Magick Stream books. If you are extremely confident in a short phase-to-phase gate or in a scenario with high CDR buffs (Thaemine Extreme), you can go anywhere from 12/28 to 15/25 split.

I keep losing track of my buffs, how can I improve their visibility?

To change your buff icons priorities:
Settings -> Gameplay -> Combat Related Settings -> Scroll to the bottom