Lost Ark’s Shadowhunter subclass presents a unique option for Assassin players looking to maximize their performance in moments where they feel the fight requires additional damage output.
While Shadowhunter shares many commonalities with its Deathblade counterpart — incredibly high damage, respectable mobility, and a particularly small health pool — much of what makes the former unique and interesting to play is predicated upon its ability to temporarily transform into a demon during combat.
Moving at faster speeds and dealing higher damage, this demon form can benefit players during more intense situations, provided they know how to optimally manage the mechanic.
Playstyle: Stick and move
Shadowhunters can only activate their demon form after dealing enough damage to fill their Shadowburst Meter.
Normally, pumping out damage for this purpose is not particularly difficult for glass cannon Shadowhunters to accomplish. However, their minimal health pools, when compared to those of other classes, leave them unfit to take primary aggression from large hordes of enemies.
When playing to build Shadowburst, Shadowhunters should ideally proceed through dungeons by carefully plucking away at standard enemies from afar, keeping distance from potential threats while taking as few unnecessary hits as possible. This makes building toward and upgrading skills that can attack and combo at a distance exceptionally valuable.
Fortunately, much of Shadowhunter’s skillset accounts for attacking at range.
- Grind Chain: Basic, sweeping AoE damage at medium range
- Cruel Cutter: Extremely long-range damage option that can knock enemies back, creating distance
- Demon’s Grip: Deals remarkable damage at range while pulling enemies out of crowds and toward the player, allowing for safe comboing
Related: Lost Ark PvE Classes Tier List – The Best Characters for PvE
Making the most of demon form
When a Shadowhunter’s Shadowburst meter is full, the player is at liberty to activate their demon form when needed by pressing Z.
Activating demon form temporarily replaces the player’s chosen hotbar skills with six “Specialty” skills for the duration of the transformation. These abilities cannot be upgraded by leveling up, nor can they be given perks at tiers like other skills. However, they are naturally very powerful for the purpose of producing raw DPS.
Where a non-demon Shadowhunter can still manage top-tier DPS against standard enemy hordes, its Shadowburst is best saved for boss battles, where the demon form’s damage boost can be most effectively and rapidly employed against a hefty boss’s health bar. Consequently, the damage dealt to standard enemies before a boss can be used to build Shadowburst for said boss.
Related: How to change dungeon difficulty in Lost Ark
