The Deathblade in Lost Ark fights with two daggers and a longsword, is swift in motion, and takes down its opponents with strong AoE attacks. MeinMMO author Anny Bader examined it closely and explains what is important.
What kind of class is this? The Deathblade, in English Deathblade, is one of two subclasses of the Assassin. With it, you are mobile, pulling monsters to defeat them with area attacks. It automatically switches between daggers and longsword depending on which attack you use. Unfortunately, its abilities have comparatively long cooldowns.
With many of its attacks, you have to strike from behind to deal more damage. While it provides buffs to the party, these are also designed for attacks from the front or behind. You embody a true assassin. However, in groups with random players, it is often not optimally usable.
In the tier list from MeinMMO, the Deathblade is in the B-tier for PvE. In PvP, however, it shines and belongs to the A-tier.
This is how the Deathblade plays
This is the special ability of the Deathblade: Over time, you charge your identity skill in battle. For the Deathblade, this consists of an energy gauge, the death sphere gauge. This consists of one to three orbs that you fill in battle. The Deathblade does not transform into a demon like the Shadowhunter, but falls into a trance and represses its demonic side.
In the trance, called Deathblade art, you regenerate mana, your attack and movement speed increases significantly, you have more attack power, and your cooldowns are reduced. The more orbs are charged, the stronger the effects. Additionally, your trance lasts longer with the consumption of two or three orbs than with one.
With the Deathblade art, you gain access to the attack Deathblade Strike, which deals damage according to the number of orbs charged and pushes opponents away. However, when you use the ability, your trance ends because all orbs are consumed by the attack.
Ideally, you can activate the trance mode at 3 orbs, unleash your strongest attacks, and maximize the buff. Just before the 3rd orb runs out, you activate Deathblade Strike. This way, you achieve the highest damage output in a short time, also known as “burst”.
All abilities of the Deathblade
Lightning Sprint: You move forward and attack opponents. The longer the ability is charged, the stronger it is.
Dark Axel: Leap forward, pushing the opponent away. Ends with a strike.
Upward Strike: Quick strike with the daggers that triggers a tornado.
Earth Splitter: Vertical strike with the longsword.
Blade Dance: Hack at opponents 7 times for 2 seconds and push them away.
Head Hunter: Push opponents back with the longsword to then strike them on the head and stun them.
Void Strike: Charge to push away opponents and deal damage.
Maelstrom: Tornado that protects you for 6 seconds and deals damage to the opponent.
Moonlight Sound: Sweeping cut that pulls opponents towards you.
North Star: Strike opponents upwards to then slam them to the ground.
Soul Devourer: Charge or overload to deal significant damage.
Death Sentence: Jump 4 meters forward and slam opponents to the ground.
Devastating Wave: Execute 3 strikes with the sword.
Turning Strike: Swing your longsword and move forward.
Wind Cut: Wind from blades that throws opponents into the air.
Whirlwind Cutter: Spin 5 meters towards the cursor. The attack can be used twice in a row.
Twin Shadows: Vertical strike with the sword. The attack can be used twice in a row.
Surprise Attack: Move 4 meters forward while attacking with daggers.
Swift Blink: Awakening. Dash forward and pierce your opponents with daggers. Opponents are thrown into the air.
Blade Attack: Awakening. Pull opponents close and deliver a lethal strike.
Deathblade Strike: Usable only in the Deathblade art. Deals more damage the more orbs are filled. Consumes all remaining orbs.
The Deathblade in the Level Process
How to distribute your points? It is important when distributing points that you never need to raise the skill levels higher than 10. Skill level 4 is needed for the first tripod, skill level 8 for the second, and skill level 10 for the third.
To level up as efficiently as possible, you can distribute your points as follows:
- Level 12: First, put 4 points each into North Star and Whirlwind Cutter.
- Up to Level 21: 48 points into Soul Devourer to deal a lot of damage.
- Level 25: Now take the 48 points from Soul Devourer and put them into Moon Sound. Additionally, add 20 points to Dark Axel to make you more mobile.
- Up to Level 31: Put the 48 points back into Soul Devourer.
- Up to Level 35: 20 points into Maelstrom. Choose Orb Control as a tripod, as it speeds up your identity gauge recharge.
- Up to Level 41: 20 points into Lightning Sprint.
- Up to Level 45: Overall, put 48 points into Dark Axel now.
- Up to Level 50: Finally, put a total of 48 points into Lightning Sprint.
The best builds in endgame
In the endgame, like with most other classes, you choose between two class engravings that fundamentally change your identity skill. This determines your playstyle, both have in common that it is essential for the Deathblade that your abilities hit and you don’t miss.
Class Engraving A: Burst
What does the engraving do? Normally, you focus as a Deathblade on quickly filling your death sphere gauge, spamming attacks, finishing with the Deathblade Strike, and then repeating that.
With this class engraving, the playstyle changes. Your Deathblade Strike initially becomes an attack called Null. This grants you a damage buff and the ability to stack it while you are in trance. Over time, the damage you deal increases.
Now you focus on hitting your target as often as possible, as this increases your damage every 0.4 seconds up to a maximum of 7.5%. Afterward, you use Null or your Deathblade Strike.
This now deals significantly more damage than if you had used it at the beginning. Additionally, it instantly regenerates two orbs of the death sphere gauge.
For the stats, you focus on specialization and crit, with specialization being the most important.
What engravings do I use as well? In addition to the class engraving, Master of Ambush is effective. With this combat engraving, you deal even more damage from behind than you already do. You should definitely level this engraving to level 3.
Later, you should invest additional points in Adrenaline, Supercharge, and Sight Focus.
If you want to read again about how the engraving system works, you can take a look at our engraving guide.
Which collectible cards are important? To further increase your crit rate, you should start with the card set Howling Rocks. It consists of Armel, Seria, Solas, King Thirain, Kharmine, and Delain Armel.
The optimal set is Light of Redemption, which consists of rare cards. Thus, it will be expensive later, but it is worth it. The set consists of Shandi, Azena, and Innana, Nineveh, Wei, Balthorr, and Thirain. With a 6-set 30 Awakening, the cards grant you 8% more holy damage and convert all your damage into holy damage.
What abilities do I use?
| Icon | Ability | Level | Tripod |
 | Wind Cut | 7 | Fast Preparation Preservation Enhancement |
 | Whirlwind Cutter | 6 | Exposed Weakness |
 | Dark Axel | 10 | Swift Fingers Persistence High Axel |
 | Soul Devourer | 10 | Swift Fingers Fist of Darkness Halve |
 | Earth Splitter | 4 | Pushing |
 | Maelstrom | 7 | Orb Control Dark Order |
 | Lightning Sprint | 7 | Nerve Strike Charge Enhancement |
 | Void Strike | 10 | Orb Control Void Zone Dark Dimension |
As an awakening, you use Swift Blink.
What does the rotation look like? When the three orbs are filled, you start with Wind Cut and immediately activate your identity skill. Your cooldowns are now 50% lower.
Follow with Whirlwind Cutter, then Wind Cut again, Lightning Sprint, another Whirlwind Cutter, and Soul Devourer or Void Strike.
Now you use Deathblade Strike, your strongest attack. This will refill two of the orbs. Maelstrom helps regenerate the last orb quickly. Finally, you can use Soul Devourer again.
The identity gauge should now be completely filled, allowing the rotation to start over.
Your counter-attack is, by the way, Earth Splitter.
Class Engraving B: Remaining Energy
What does the engraving do? With the class engraving Remaining Energy, your trance state lasts longer. Additionally, the buffs you receive in this state are improved. You thus have more attack and movement speed and attack power.
Your trance, in fact, remains active after using Deathblade Strike, and you can recharge it again. In the best case, it is even possible to remain permanently in trance mode and improve it.
While the Burst engraving focuses on dealing a lot of damage in a short time, you use Remaining Energy for a higher damage output over a longer period.
For the stats, you also focus on crit and specialization, prioritizing the latter.
What engravings do I use as well? The combat engraving Supercharge is worth it since you use many attacks that need to charge to deal more damage.
Later, additional points in Adrenaline, Master of Ambush, and, if your crit is high enough, Reckless Blunt Weapon will pay off.
Which collectible cards are important? There is no difference in the cards for the other class engraving of the Deathblade. You focus on Howling Rocks until you collect the Light of Redemption set.
Which abilities do I use?
| Icon | Ability | Level | Tripods |
| Whirlwind Cutter | 4 | Exposed Weakness |
| Dark Axel | 10 | Swift Fingers Persistence High Axel |
| Soul Devourer | 10 | Swift Fingers Fist of Darkness Halve |
| Earth Splitter | 4 | Pushing |
 | Moonlight Sound | 10 | Fist of Darkness Preservation Enhancement Forward Attack |
| Maelstrom | 4 | Orb Control |
| Lightning Sprint | 10 | Nerve Strike Charge Enhancement Shadow Rush |
| Void Strike | 10 | Orb Control Fist of Darkness Dark Explosion |
As an awakening, you use Swift Blink.
What does the rotation look like? You start with Whirlwind Cutter, then follow with Maelstrom and Soul Devourer. This fills your gauge the fastest.
Then follow with Lightning Sprint and Earth Splitter. You can use other skills as fillers now.
After Void Strike and Moonlight Sound, your death sphere gauge should have two or three full bars. Now you use them and at the end apply Deathblade Strike. Then the rotation starts over.
Your counter-attack is, by the way, Earth Splitter.
What do you think of the Deathblade? Do you like it better than the Shadowhunter, or do you prefer to play as a demon? Which class engraving did you choose and why? Feel free to tell us in the comments here on MeinMMO!
