Welcome to our Lost Ark Shadowhunter guide! We’ll cover everything you need to know coming into the game as the Assassin advanced class.

Despite a stereotype of Assassin’s being stealthy characters, Lost Ark’s Shadowhunter is anything but. The class focuses on mid-range spells and combos, as well as its special ability – a powerful transformation. It’s ideal for anyone looking for a cooldown based playstyle, as well as awesome visual effects. 

Shadowhunter Basic Leveling Guide

Leveling in Lost Ark is more of a tutorial for the class than anything else and you will have a fairly smooth experience doing just about anything. However, with that being said, there are a few things you can do to optimize your leveling experience. 

To maximize damage while leveling, you should focus all your skill points on the following skills: 

• Demonic Slash
• Demonic Clone
• Cruel Cutter
• Demon’s Grip

While these are the recommended skills, you can level up with just about anything. The most important thing for Shadowhunter is that you pick one good AoE and one good single target skill, which will allow you to take down all forms of enemies quickly. 

Shadowhunter Perfect Suppression or Demonic Impulse

When it comes to engravings, the Shadowhunter is a somewhat unique class. It still has two class engravings, Perfect Suppression and Demonic Impulse, that dictate a specific playstyle. However, the difference between the two is bigger than with any other class. 

Perfect Suppression focuses on Shadowhunter’s human form, disabling the demonic transformation and instead improving human form skills. Meanwhile, Demonic Impulse focuses on the demon form, allowing it to be used more often and improving critical strike chance. 

Best Shadowhunter Stat Priority

Perfect Suppression Priority: Crit (70%) and Swiftness (30%)

Demonic Impulse Priority: Specialization (70%) and Crit (30%)

Best Shadowhunter Engravings

The lists below are some of the best engravings to use, however depending on your playstyle will be the ideal combination for you to use. For example; if you get hit a lot, then Grudge is not ideal as you will take more damage.

Best Perfect Suppression Engravings

1. Grudge (Must be Level 3)
2. Perfect Suppression (Level 1)
3. Adrenaline
4. Raid Captain
5. Keen Blunt Weapon (Must be Level 3)
6. Cursed Doll (Must be Level 3)
7. Ambush Master

Best Demonic Impulse Engravings

1. Grudge (Must be Level 3)
2. Demonic Impulse
3. Adrenaline
4. Raid Captain
5. Sharp Blunt
6. Spirit Absorption
7. Cursed Doll (Must be Level 3)
8. Keen Blunt Weapon (Must be Level 3)
9. Awakening

Best Shadowhunter Tripods and Skill Builds

Shadowhunter has a very good mix of single target and AoE abilities which are very useful in all aspects of the game. This means that as a Shadowhunter, you can use the same build for all content and be very effective.

The class is also one of the most flexible classes in Lost Ark and there are multiple very good builds, all utilizing a different combination of skills. We’ll highlight just one build for each class specific engraving, which has proven to be very successful, however, feel free to experiment if you like other skills more. You should use the same Awakening skill for both builds: Gate of Eruption.

For new players, to read these builds simply look at which skills are colored and pick the upgrades based on the small images below the names. Then, add runes to skills to upgrade them further.

Here’s how you should spend your points:

Demonic Impulse Builds – Skill Points

⏷Fresh Level 50 – 252 Points⏷

⏷6 Max Tripods – 296 Points⏷

⏷7 Max Tripods – 340 Points⏷

⏷Max Skill Points – 410 Points⏷

Perfect Suppression Builds – Skill Points

⏷Fresh Level 50 – 252 Points⏷

⏷6 Max Tripods – 296 Points⏷

⏷7 Max Tripods – 340 Points⏷

⏷Max Skill Points – 410 Points⏷

Best Shadowhunter Runes

Best Demonic Impulse Shadowhunter Runes

Ability	Rune
Demon Vision	*Wealth
Demon’s Grip	*Wealth
Howl	Wealth
[Demon Form] Ruining Rush	Quick Recharge
[Demon Form] Death Claw	Rage
[Demon Form] Destruction	Overwhelm
[Demon Form] Gore Bleeding	Bleed
[Demon Form] Leaping Blow	Galewind
[Demon Form] Blood Massacre	Galewind

Best Perfect Suppression Runes

Ability	Rune
Demonic Slash	Quick Recharge
Cruel Cutter	Overwhelm
Thrust Impact	Overhwlem
Demolition	Galewind
Sharpened Cut	Galewind
Rising Claw	Galewind
Howl	Wealth
Decimate	Wealth

Best Shadowhunter Gems

Attack Gems	Cooldown Gems
*[DI]Demonize	*[DI] Demonize
Cruel Cutter	Cruel Cutter
Thrust Impact	Thrust Impact
Decimate	Decimate
Demolition	Demolition
Sharpened Cute	Sharpened Cute
	Howl

Best Shadowhunter Card Sets

There are a few options to pick for Card Decks for the Shadowhunter. However, when determining what you want to pick and use, there are a few factors to keep in mind; How much effort are you willing to put into obtaining the cards and what kind of play style works best for you. With this information in mind, lets take a look at some Card Deck options;

Make sure to check out our Card Guide as well for other ideas!

Light of Salvation – Best DPS; however takes a long time to obtain due to RNG

Three Umar Families & The Lazeniths’ Fate – High DPS; however also takes a long time

Lostwind Cliff – Decent DPS; can be rather quick to obtain if you are fine making alts

We’ll Meet Again & Forest of Giants – Purely Defensive; great for first starting out

Best Shadowhunter DPS Rotation

In Lost Ark, skills combo together to create a powerful chain of moves that is much more effective than using each move individually.  As such, there will be a huge damage difference between players who know how to get the most out of their class, and those who don’t. 

That being said, most fights are very dynamic, so you won’t always be able to complete your full combo, as surviving should be the key focus. Still, here’s how a core combo looks for both Shadowhunter builds: 

Perfect Suppression Shadowhunter Rotation

• Demonic Clone
• Howl
• Demolition
• Thrust Impact
• Decimate
• Cruel Cutter
• Demonic Slash (for mobility)

Demonic Impulse Shadowhunter Rotation

Human Form:

• Death Vision
• Howl
• Demonic Clone
• Rising Claw
• Thrust Impact
• Decimate
• Demon’s Grip
• Transform When Possible

Demon Form:

• Leaping Blow (for mobility)
• Blood Massacre
• Gore Bleeding
• Ruining Rush
• Death Claw
• Destruction
• Repeat skills as they come off of cooldown

Thank you for checking out our Lost Ark Shadowhunter PvE Guide! Now you should be ready to get the most out of your class and progress through the endgame in Lost Ark. We’ll keep this page constantly updated, should any changes happen.