This guide 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 builds you want to see at the top.

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Class Overview

How Does My Identity Work?

Machinist utilizes a Core gauge meter, this meter is filled by using your skills and the amount of meter generation is based on the Specialization stat. Evolutionary heavily relies on this for entering the transformation state, once the meter is full they can transform, once they de-transform they fill this meter again and repeat. For AT Machinists, this doesn’t matter at all until the activation of Ark Passive. Instead we have Reload and Battery.

What is Battery?

Battery is Machinist’s resource that’s used instead of the mana bar that Smilegate forgot how it exists and how to actually fix. It regenerates naturally over time and from hitting Normal Skills, and it’s consumed by using your Drone and Joint Skills. This resource is rarely important to Evolutionary Legacy since transform skills cost no battery, but Arthetinean Skill Machinists may find themselves running a little low, specifically in the 332 build and SMG Agent (Ark Grid). This resource does benefit from Conviction/Judgment, food, stimulant, Bracelet effect, and other resource recovery resources from fights or Paladin’s Blessed Aura and Valkyrie's Released Light with Ark Passive.

What is the “Reload Buff”?

Reload gives you 1% attack and movement speed per stack up to a maximum of 5 stacks. You gain these stacks from certain Normal skills and at the start of your third basic attack. With Tactical Reload Ark Passive, this buff changes to 8 stacks and also gives natural resource recovery.

FAQ

Questions sourced from frequent interactions within the Unofficial Lost Ark Discord

Attack/Movement speed sources

• AT Engraving (10% MS while drone attached)

• Mobile Shot tripod (10-19.2% AS/MS)

• Reload buff (5% AS/MS OR 8% with Tactical Reload Ark Passive)

• Juggernaut (4/8% AS)

• Goddess of Blessing (3/6/9% AS/MS from Support)

Is Galewind useful for Drone Skills?

No.

Swiftness Stat with Critical Chance Synergy?

There is an awkward downtime within the fight when you have perfect uptime, and this can easily be fixed with about 400 extra swiftness. HOWEVER, you are losing base Evolution Damage boost by not allocating the points into Juggernaut/Limit Breaking. Neo Fire’s battery cost is extremely high as taking Optimization Mode (Leap) is not recommended due to its low damage, and this will cause you to run out of battery after 45-50 seconds into the fight (even with food). However, SMG Agent build does see similar performance when taking Optimization Mode. 

tl;dr: It is plausible, but higher uptime can cause faster battery depletion and could in turn cause lower overall DPS based on the fight’s pacing.

Why should I not run Level 3 Core Enchant?

All three Joint Skills sum up to at least 50% contribution of your damage. Critical Chance from the upgrade might be useless and even if we assume that you can use this at full efficiency, you receive about 6~9% Damage boost. In comparison, maxed out Collaboration yields minimum of 9% Damage (this is not accounting for third Joint Skill) with a 50% damage contribution of Joint Skill. For homework content, and 332 build, Joint Skills often take up to 55-65% of your damage distribution. If you read up to this point, you might have realized how strong Joint Skills are.

Regardless, you can still run Level 3 Core Enchant and Level 1 Collaboration for prolonged fights without downtime like Mordum Gate 3. But for burst fights where Atropine usage is efficient, maxed out Collaboration will give you a better performance. 

"But higher Max Battery gives better battery recovery from CE3"

Who's going to tell this guy... 

No, the recovery rate is fixed.

Zealous Smite or Strike for SMG Agent?

 There is almost no difference but tends to favor Zealous Smite more.

My damage falls off with SMG Agent, what I might be doing wrong?

• Not enough casts of Bullet Hail, Avalanche, and Strategic Fire.

• Annihilation Mode is not being casted with 4-5 stacks.

• Not hitting the boss with Bullet Hail.

• Battery starvation, make sure you make adjustments like Tactical Reload side node and Steak/Azena Blessing is active. Tripods on certain skills also matter.

• Try back attacking more, but do not overdo it. 

Can I run Sonic Breakthrough?

You can. But do we recommend it? No. Why? This is a guide, not a circus.

I see this Korean Guy runs this combo of Ark Grid Cores not in this guide, why??? He is top ilevel on loawa, it is optimal right???

Ancient core tends to provide a margin of 2%+ damage boost, so they might just go with whatever works. The only strict core combo is SMG Agent as it does not function without all three determined cores. Pulse Nova and Quantum Operative are flexible. 

OK BUT WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO THIS GUIDE?  

What other tips can you give?

• You can transform for super armor to gain temporary shield and permanent paralysis immunity while in transformation if just handling mechanics (you do not get a shield while transforming, only after). However, this is extremely detrimental to your damage unless you have Awakening/Hyper Awakening to fully recharge your gauge back after exiting form due to Enchant Core T4 Ark Passive.

• Avalanche inflicts a lot of damage and should not just be saved for a counter.

• Try to prioritize survivability over damage as you are an extremely squishy class, and getting paralyzed/pushed can cause DPS loss unless it's on purpose to use Drone Skills as last skill in your rotation. 

• Drone Skills have relatively short casting animation, and the drone will fully shoot rest of projectiles automatically even if you are paralyzed/pushed/slowed.

• When most of your skills are on cooling period, Mobile Shot should be used aggressively to generate more Quick Recharge procs. 

• Baby Drones is extremely clunky, and learning how to aim it properly by predicting the boss's movements would help a lot.

• Do not focus too much on Back Attacking, especially Annihilation Mode, as losing uptime generally results in DPS Loss. We often waste a mobility skill to reposition, so it could affect you in the short term as well.

• Chase Sonic Vibration and Sunwell from Bard and Artist, respectively, whenever you can. You are most likely to have a lot of free time when not pairing Normal Skills and Drone Skills, use this time to reposition yourself to back attack as good supports land these buffs on the back.