Lost Ark Wardancer Guide: PVE Stats, Skills, And Builds

by | Last updated Feb 1, 2024

Hello everyone and welcome to our Lost Ark Wardancer Guide! Here you will see the best PVE Raid Builds, Stats, Skills, and Gameplay for bot Esoteric Skill Enhancement Build and First Intention Build.

Wardancer is a very mobile dps class in Lost Ark that has decent tankiness and great offensive buffs for yourself and your party as well as debuffs on your enemies. The Wardancer has big bursts of damage from combos and can go in and out to poke bosses in Guardian Raids and Abyssal Raids.

Lost Ark Wardancer Leveling Guide

This is the Lost Ark Wardancer Guide for Leveling. The idea is basically pick skills with wide AOE’s or skills that can charge your Esoteric Orbs to cast your Big Damage AOE Esoteric Skills. I always suggest that upon leveling explore your class and run whatever you want so you can experiment and understand your class more. But in case you want something that will make things easier and faster, here’s a skill set I put together to deal with questing/leveling content.

Rush Moon Flash Kick to Lvl7 or Lvl10, this skill has high damage for fast clearing small/medium groups of mobs. Once you’ve unlocked Call of the Wind God you Max it to Lvl10 As soon as possible, this is your big damage skill that you can use for killing bosses and big groups of enemies. When you get enough skill points Wind’s Whisper is another skill you max to Lvl10 to be able to not only buff yourself but also do a big burst of damage around your character. Last is Seismic Strike to Lvl10 for helping clear faster with big groups.

If you can, you want Lvl4 Flash Heat Fang, Lvl4 Roar of Courage, and Lvl7 Swift Wind Kick for Wider Aoe’s, and Lvl4 Energy Combustion to help with Charging your Esoteric Orbs. Always remember that leveling is the easy content and should be fun, so don’t be afraid to explore your class.

Lost Ark Wardancer Builds

Esoteric Skill Enhancement Build

This is the Lost Ark Wardancer Guide for Esoteric Enhancement Build. This build revolves around charging your Esoteric Orbs and doing big bursts of damage with your Esoteric Skills by running the Esoteric Skill Enhancement Engraving. It’s big bursts and Buffs/Debuffs is great for both Guardian Raids and Abyssal raids.

Pros & Cons:

Pros
– Great Mobility
– High Damage Burst
– Good Counter and Stagger
– Consistent DPS


Cons
– Long Animations
– Positioning (Back Attack)

Stats and Skills

Specialization / Swiftness
Crit / Swiftness (Optional, could work for both Eso Build and First Intention Build to save money in game.)

Gameplay

We will start with the highest damage opener possible for raids. Use Energy Combustion before getting close to the boss, this way it will be ready to explode once you get closer assuming you know it’s location after using a flare to identify its location, this way energy combustion will be ready to explode when you burst on the boss. You then want to go aggressive in the beginning, start the combo with Wind’s Whisper into Roar of Courage to get your Offensive buffs and debuffs online. After this you must commit for this is your Burst window. Start the combo with Sky Shattering blow for the extra 15% Atk Power buff for 3sec, then use Moon Flash Kick into Flash Heat Fang. This is the highest damage opener possible in your Raids.

After this opener, you should have 3-4 Esoteric Orbs. Wait for the cooldowns of Roar of Courage and Wind’s Whisper before using your Esoteric Skills. You also need to have 4 Esoteric Orbs before doing your Big Burst Combo! You can get the 3rd and 4th orb by poking in and out with your basic attacks or using Sky Shattering Blow for a counter or just to fill up the Orbs since this skill has low cooldown.

Once you have 4 orbs, get ready to EXPLODE on your enemies! It’s the same combo as your opener except that you start with Call of the Wind God or use it after Wind’s Whisper and end the combo with Blast Formation!

You basically Rinse & Repeat after this. Make sure you save your dodge when you’re poking the boss while waiting for Burst cooldowns, since your skill has dash/mobility in them to engage the boss, you can use your dodge as an insurance for survivability. Everytime you see an opportunity, make sure to use your Awakening: Fist of Dominance with Wind’s Whisper and Blast Formation for maximum damage possible.

Note: Try to always do back attacks if you can.

Engravings

This is arranged in order of which one is the most important to the least. Note that only Grudge if you can get Lvl3 Grudge.

Gems:

For cooldown Gems, we are choosing both our Buff/Debuff skills Wind’s Whisper and Roar of Courage to make sure they come up faster for more burst windows, alongside with our big damage skills. Feel free to switch out Flash Heat Fang for Eso: Blast Formation, both are good.

For damage Gems, we are choosing both our esoteric skills and our big damage skills. Sky Shattering Blow can be Switched out by Roar of Courage if you’d like since Sky Shattering Blow is not a Big Damage Skill, But since it’s a skill you can spam you can get a lot of value from it.

Attack GemsCooldown Gems
– Eso: Blast Formation– Eso: Call of the Wind God
– Eso: Call of the Wind GodFlash Heat Fang
– Sky Shattering BlowMoon Flash Kick
– Flash Heat FangEnergy Combustion
– Moon Flash KickWind’s Whisper
Roar of Courage



Runes

Sky Shattering Blow – Great with bleed because you can spam this skill due to its low cooldown.
Eso: Blast Formation – has a long animation and Galewind will definitely help.
Wind’s Whisper – either rune is fine, quick recharge when it works it’s nice for big damage. But this will result in mana problems.
Energy Combustion – Conviction is great for skills with damage over time and this skill has a long DOT in it.
Flash Heat Fang – Everytime Conviction is applied from Energy Combustion use this skill to Proc it. Very reliable since this skill hits multiple times.
Roar of Courage and Moon Flash Kick – These skills already run extra charge for your Esoteric Orb and this will boost it even more.
Eso: Call of the Wind God – This skill already has big stagger damage as it is and Overwhelm even gives it more. Big Value.


Cards Sets


(Budget) Lost Wind Cliff: This is basically a budget version of Light of Salvation, which is the best endgame set. This is much easier to complete since Solas and Seria are easy to collect with the help of the Traveling Merchant.

(Endgame) Light of Salvation: This set is hands down the best endgame set. The only downside of it really is it will take a long time to collect. So while you’re collecting it, use Lost Wind Cliff set for the meantime.


First Intention Build

This is the Lost Ark Wardancer Guide for First Intention. The Wardancer’s First Intention build is the simpler version of the 2 Builds for Guardian Raids and Abyssal Raids. First Intention Cancels out the main Wardancer mechanics, Esoteric Orbs and skills. In return you will deal +25% Damage to Foes. This makes the burst window much easier for the wardancer to execute, you don’t have to wait and fill Orbs for Esoteric Skills.

Pros & Cons:

Pros
– Great Mobility
– Good Damage Burst
– Good Counter and Stagger
– More Consistent DPS

Easier to Play

Cons
– Long Animations
– Positioning (Back Attack)
– Lower Burst Compared to Eso
– Mana Management

Stats and Skills

Swiftness / Crit
Crit / Swiftness (Optional Budget Build to be able to run both First Intention and Esoteric Skill Enhancement Build.)

Gameplay

Let’s Start with our Opener again in raids. As always we cast Energy Combustion before getting to the boss assuming you know it’s location from using a flare, this way it will burst when you get to the boss. You then want to go aggressive in the beginning, start the combo with Wind’s Whisper into Roar of Courage to get your Offensive buffs and debuffs online. After this you must commit for this is your Burst window. Start the combo with Sky Shattering blow for the extra 15% Atk Power buff for 3sec, then we cast Sweeping Kick into Moonflash Kick and finish with Flash Heat Fang.

Lightning Kick is your Movement/Mobility skill. Use it for offensive or defensive purposes, so you can pretty much pretend you have 2 Dodge. Except Lightning kick is Dodge that does damage. It can even be the first move in your combo before you burst with your Buff & Debuffs.

Every time you see an opportunity, make sure to use your Awakening: Fist of Dominance with Wind’s Whisper and Blast Formation for maximum damage possible. Then from here we rinse & repeat. In between cooldowns of Roar of Courage and Wind’s Whisper you can poke with whatever skill you have ready. Always squish in a lot of Basic Attacks while waiting for cooldown, A LOT OF IT!

Sky Shattering Blow should be spammed everytime it’s up to apply bleed on the boss, but try to time it with other skills since it has a 3 sec damage buff. If there is no skill ready soon, you can still cast it and basic attack afterwards. But if you have knowledge of the boss you’re fighting, always save this skill for counters. It won’t be that hard to manage since it has a low cooldown.

Note: Try to always do back attacks if you can.

Engravings

This is arranged in order of which one is the most important to the least. Note that only Grudge if you can get Lvl3 Grudge.

Gems

For cooldown Gems, we are choosing both our Buff/Debuff skills Wind’s Whisper and Roar of Courage to make sure they come up faster for more burst windows, alongside with our big damage skills.

For damage Gems, we chose Moon Flash Kick, Sweeping kick, Roar of Courage and Flash Heat Fang for Big Damage. Sky Shattering Blow is nice for Attack Gems too since it a skill that you can spam.

Attack GemsCooldown Gems
– Sweeping Kick– Sweeping Kick
– Roar of Courage– Flash Heat Fang
– Sky Shattering Blow– Moon Flash Kick
– Flash Heat Fang– Energy Combustion
– Moon Flash Kick– Wind’s Whisper
– Roar of Courage


Runes

Sky Shattering Blow – Great with bleed because you can spam this skill due to its low cooldown.
Moon Flash Kick and Sweeping Kick – Galewind helps a lot with survivability since these skills have long cooldowns.
Lightning Kick, Roar of Courage, and Wind’s Whisper – There’s pros and cons on both runes. If you choose cooldown, you’ll have mana problems. If you choose mana, you’ll have less damage.
Energy Combustion – Conviction is great for skills with damage over time and this skill has a long DOT in it.
Flash Heat Fang – Every time Conviction is applied from Energy Combustion use this skill to Proc it. Very reliable since this skill hits multiple times.

Cards Sets

(Budget) Lost Wind Cliff: This is basically a budget version of Light of Salvation, which is the best endgame set. This is much easier to complete since Solas and Seria are easy to collect with the help of the Traveling Merchant.


(Endgame) Light of Salvation: This set is hands down the best endgame set. The only downside of it really is it will take a long time to collect. So while you’re collecting it, use Lost Wind Cliff set for the meantime.

Thank you for checking out our Lost Ark Wardancer PvE Guide! I hope this helps you become one of the best Martial Artists in Lost Ark! We will make sure that we update this guide in the future if Lost Ark makes any changes for the Wardancer.