Hello everyone and welcome to our Lost Ark Deathblade PVP Guide! Here you will see the best PVP Stats, Skills, Builds and Gameplay! Are you a fan of being an Assassin from the shadows? Do you want to control great power over multiple swords? Look no further with the Deathblade. The powerful PVP Assassin with the ability to pick off opponents, but also to act as a frontline initiator for the team. This guide will get you out there into the arena to slay out on the battlefield and rise up the Ranks! We’ll be covering everything you need to become a true competitor for the Competitive Proving Ground Seasons!

Best Deathblade PvP Stats

PVP in Lost Ark can pit you against a multitude of different classes when it comes to the Arena. Whether it’s in the 3v3 Team Deathmatch setting or Elimination, the “winner-stays-on” 1v1 duel mode. As a result you may have to change up your stats to match your playstyle or the compositions you’re coming up against.

Standard (Recommended)

  1   Crit
249 Domination
750 Swiftness

This stat spread is the gold standard across almost every class in Lost Ark PVP. More often than not you will max out Swiftness to the 750 cap as it is the best PVP stat. This is primarily due to Swiftness increasing Attack Speed, Movement Speed and cooldown reduction. Which is essential when competing versus other players. Where each and every action and the speed to do it can be the difference between winning or losing.

Domination is a common stat to put 249-250 points into as your primary source of damage increases. The damage is gained from hitting targets that are crowd-controlled or debuffed. In PVP your teammates (or even you yourself) will constantly crowd control or CC your opponents.

As a result you will be seeing a consistent damage increase throughout the match. Finally Crit for the last point to round out the spread. This is to enable the ability to Crit at all. Without this point you forgo landing critical strikes on your opponents entirely.

Lost Ark Deathblade PVP Guide Skill Build and Tripods

Deathblade players have access to a plethora of incredible skills. Many providing much needed Superarmors that allow you to reliably initiate and engage for your team. Perhaps you are looking to trade in Superarmors for more damage and CC, the option is there! Of course we will see a constant adaptation to the meta and balance patches in the future so expect things to change over the months or years.

However, we currently have a couple of fantastic builds of which have been self-tested but also a recurring build used by top Korean and Russian PVP veterans. This build will have you dropping huge damage and winning many games:

With this build you have great tools for practically every scenario especially for initiation. Tools to catch opponents and start combos such as Dark Axel and Head Hunt. Defensive cooldowns or mobility cooldowns such as Surprise Attack, Spincutter and which also double as skills that can disrupt. A team buff in the form of Maelstrom and finally, your hard hitters Blitz Rush and Moonlight Sonic. Flash Blink will always be your best choice of Awakening.

Note: Deathblade is fairly flexible. So as a result I recommend testing out and trying things that might suit your preferences such as Death Sentence or Polestar.

The “Alpha” Build

This alternative build is a personal favorite for our Lost Ark Deathblade PVP Guide. This build is what myself and many around me call the “Alpha” build. The above build is well known as a high ranking RU Ranked build used by top player “Kyvyre”. What you are seeing here is a switch up from the traditional frontline initiator role Deathblade usually carries out to a more aggressive, damage and CC heavy approach. Not only does this version of the Deathblade toolkit hit like a truck, it also has probably some of the flashiest combos in the game that feel very rewarding to pull off. Be warned though that with this build you will be trading out a couple of Superarmor skills in favor of more damage and CC.

Gameplay

As a Deathblade, the aim of the game is to be not only a strong DPS class, but also an initiator for your team. You will have the tools to set-up not only yourself but your teammates. With fairly long range movement tools to get you into initiation range. And a great array of AOE CC tools that can convert into your damage skills including your teammates. Prepare to rack up the kills.

A good starting point is to practice your positioning when playing the Deathblade. In PVP camera positioning is important as you and your opponent will only have a limited FoV which is flipped about 90 degrees depending on which team you’re on.

Consequently, keeping yourself at a decent range but also horizontal to the enemy means you’ll be at the top or bottom of their screen perspective. This allows you to get off surprise engagements or crowd control catches. Another positive to this as a Deathblade player is this gives you a good choice of whether you want to backline dive with little disruption or push for the frontline initiation.

Ideally you’ll look to start your combos and initiations by leaping in with Dark Axel or your other mobility skills. These skills activate particularly fast. Some such as Dark Axel having decent Superarmor allowing you to net combos and catch people off guard. This is especially true if cast out of camera view.

Another positive of starting with these spells is to give your teammates an opening to follow up. Head Hunt can also start a combo but in more of a hybrid defense/offence context. 

Keep a keen eye on your opponents and your teammates. Position yourself correctly and begin to initiate or peel for your teammates, while dishing out high damage combos to net kills.

Play as slippery as possible with your mobility tools and Superarmors. Look to convert initiations into full knock-down combos. Finally ending with huge damage from things such as Deathblade Surge in your identity, Moonlight Sonic or Blitz Rush.

The Deathblade Identity is fairly straightforward, but also very potent. The aim of your Identity is to hit your opponent to build up each “orb” that you can see in the image above. With each orb filled you will gain more power when you activate your Identity. 

As you can see you gain quite a lot of powerful upgrades based on how many orbs you have, but this isn’t all! Once activated you’ll enter Death Trance mode, not only gaining these buffs but access to the skill Deathblade Surge. This skill will end your Death Trance mode in exchange for landing a quite long and wide range slash that will deal massive damage to your opponent, increasing in damage for each orb. Typically you have the opportunity to use this as a safe combo ender to clean up a kill.

PVP Combos

•  Use Dark Axel, if this catches the opponent follow up with Upper Slash, should this stick you have a wide range of options available to you. You can follow up with longer combo strings such as Blitz Rush into Moonlight Sonic if the opponent has no Stand Up. Another option is to simply disengage quickly if you only moved in for some quick poke or peel using Spincutter or Surprise Attack. Always make sure to activate Maelstrom before making any crazy plays to ensure you have some Superarmor. This is your bread and butter pathway.

•  As previously mentioned, the “Alpha” build bread and butter is much flashier and tends to deal much more damage. Use Surprise Attack and follow it up with Dark Axel. Should both of those skills land follow up with Earth Cleaver. Next, make sure that you immediately follow the direction your opponent is being juggled so you’re in range for the next follow-up. End the combo with Blitz Rush into Moonlight Sonic, should you have Deathblade Surge available – use that instead by activating Death Trance before using your Blitz Rush in the combo shown.

Summary Tips

1. Use Dark Axel and Upper Slash to initiate, catch opponents, peel and enable your team.

2. Prioritize positioning as much as possible to allow yourself to get easy access to a backline target, or to quickly move in as a frontline initiator. 

3. Think before you act – make sure you are using Maelstrom before engaging, but also communicating you are using it to coordinate the team buff.

4. Save Blitz Rush and Moonlight Sonic for when you’re guaranteed hits with them, these are your biggest source of damage and pair well together for huge burst.

5. Make sure you’re regularly using your Death Trance to get as many Deathblade Surge off throughout a match, but also gaining valuable cooldown reduction throughout. It all adds up! 

Thank you for checking out our Lost Ark Deathblade PVP Guide! As a result I hope this helps you become one of the best Deathblade players in Lost Ark! We will make sure that we update this guide in the future since Lost Ark can make any changes for the Class and PVP is always an ongoing shift of meta adaptations. Good luck out there in the Arena and climb the Competitive Proving Ground Season Ranks!