Lost Ark – Machinist FAQ

Gameplay GAQ

General

Why should I play this class?

Machinist is a great class for both fans of transform based classes or agile classes. Both builds perform very consistent levels of damage and are capable of shining in the right hands. Machinist has the safest transformation in the game as of now and that can provide very cozy gameplay.

How does my identity work?

Machinist utilizes a Core gauge meter, this meter is filled by using your skills and the amount of meter generation is based on the Specialization stat. Evolutionary heavily relies on this for entering the transformation state, once the meter is full they can transform, once they de-transform they fill this meter again and repeat. For AT Machinists, this doesn’t matter at all. Instead we have Reload and Battery.

What is Battery?

Battery is Machinist’s resource that’s used instead of the mana bar. It regenerates naturally over time and from hitting Normal skills, and it’s consumed by using your Drone and Joint skills. This resource is rarely important to Evolutionary Legacy since transform skills cost no battery, but Arthetinean Skill Machinists may find themselves running a little low, specifically in the 332 build. This resource does benefit from Conviction/Judgment and food. This includes stimulants.

What is the “Reload Buff”?

Reload gives you 1% attack and movement speed per stack up to a maximum of 5 stacks. You gain these stacks from certain Normal skills and at the start of your third basic attack.

What are the key pieces of my build?

Runes

Evolutionary Legacy really benefits from Wealth Runes and high Specialization to build meter with less skills.

Arthetinean Skill makes good use of Conviction + Judgment runes to help with battery management and cooldowns.

Skill Points

While skill point potions are nearly useless for Evolutionary Legacy — since hypersync skills aren’t levelable — they help to boost Arthetinean Skill damage a bit further with level 11/12 skills. Instead, hypersync skills become stronger automatically at level 55 & 60.

Why is Yearning important?

It’s considered a part of a build despite not being on your character. Swamp of Yearning is used by supports and gives +8/10/12% Damage and Attack/Move speed to the party. This is a Relic Set they use that has a golden ring.

Evolutionary Legacy

Playstyle

Evolutionary Legacy is a build for a Machinist that focuses on being inside transform to deal damage. The build makes use of a fast, static rotation while transformed and the Machinist will be protected by a shield most of the time which enables greedy gameplay resulting in very consistent damage.

Stat Allocation

Spec on all accessories with crit on neck will be the only thing you’ll want. Swift isn’t very useful since transformation provides 15% attack speed and 30% movement speed. It is easy to cap out movement speed with yearning and rage.

Legacy Crit Sources

  • 15-17% Neck
  • 5/10/15% (Level 1/2/3) Adrenaline
  • 20/25/28% (Level 1/2/3) Hallucination
  • 3-13% Bracelet
    • ~3% crit stat (100 crit)
    • ~0-4% (precise)
    • 0-6% (Circulate)
  • 7% Lostwind Cliff

How long is a transformation?

20 seconds

Can I use Swift instead of Crit?

If you purchase a Spec/Swift neck you can think of the swift as basically a dead stat. You won’t make much use out of the gained attack speed or cooldown.

Why is Spec so important for Machinists?

Specialization directly affects your transformation’s uptime and damage.

  • Core Energy refers to the gauge that’s required to enter transformation.
  • Sync Skills as explained above are your damage skills inside transformation.
  • Awakening damage isn’t a major reason to maximize spec, but is helpful nonetheless

What does a Machinist need for 2-3 skill Transformation?

Here are some general breakpoints.

  • 3 Skill Transform1500 Spec w/ lv 1 tripods
  • 2 Skill Transform1771 Spec w/ lv 5 tripods

This is assuming you are using Legendary and Epic Wealth runes on your core generators (Raid Missile and Baby Drones). 

1771 spec is the ideal for 2 skills, going above can make transformation more reliable (helps when you miss a major gauge skill).

You can theoretically transform at lower thresholds with things like Laser Show on Flare Beam, Annihilation Mode, or Energy Buster with Epic Wealth runes but they all have individual drawbacks that make them generally less consistent than the core combo.

1500 Spec 

1771 Spec

Arthetinean Skill

Playstyle

Arthetinean Skill is the other engraving for Machinists focusing on the human and drone with high uptime and decent burst capability. Its damage sustainability and survivability are accompanied by the various self movement and attack speed sources (see FAQ). This engraving is colloquially referred to as AT.

422 vs 332 vs 431

The skills are split into Normal, Drone, and Joint skills. The Normal skills are yellow, Drone skills are blue, and Joint skills are purple. The 422, 332 and 431 builds are named according to the distribution of these skills (yellow, blue, purple).

431 is generally NOT recommended, but it is technically an option.

Stat Allocation

Setups depend mainly on which Relic Set you will choose, the Swiftness stat will vary depending on crit and external sources. They’re ordered by recommendation.

  • Crit 1580 / Swiftness 850 (Hallucination): With the Hallucination set, your crit stays at a sweet spot of around 85-90% when running level 1-2 Adrenaline and level 2-3 set. This build has stronger consistent performance on average when compared to Salvation but requires good uptime on Mobile Shot to offset Mass Increase’s penalty.
  • Crit 1250 / Swiftness 1150 (Hallucination): Similar to its 1550/850 variant, you invest more into swiftness for more cooldown reduction while still having higher crit value than Salvation. However, the build requires extremely high uptime for minimal difference with terrible performance on older content.
  • Crit 1800 / Swiftness 650 (Salvation): With the Salvation set, you will want to get the crit that you’re generally missing. You can invest a bit more into swiftness for cooldown reduction for a much nicer feel and a minor loss in dps.
  • Crit 1800 / Swiftness 650 (Dominion): With the Dominion set, you will want to get the crit that you’re generally missing. With the low cooldowns, this build has high potential but a very low damage floor. Not recommended unless you are very comfortable with playing AT.

Full crit Salvation is currently generally weaker than Hallucination. Even if you want to run Full Crit, I would generally recommend Hallucination.

Gameplay tips

  • You can transform for super armor or for a temporary shield if just handling mechanics (you do not get a shield while transforming, only after).
  • You can use the normal attack three times to maintain/stack the Reload buff.
  • Avalanche inflicts a lot of damage and should not just be saved for a counter.
  • Try to prioritize survivability over damage as you are an extremely squishy class.
  • You can land all hits from Carpet when the boss is hugging the wall regardless of their model size.
  • When most of your skills are on cooling period, Mobile Shot with cooldown gems and Quick Recharge rune can be used aggressively to generate more rune procs.
  • Baby Drones is extremely clunky, and learning how to aim it properly by predicting the boss’s movements would help a lot.
  • Do not focus too much on Back Attacking, especially Annihilation Mode, as losing uptime generally results in DPS Loss. We often waste a mobility skill to reposition, so it could affect you in the short term as well.
Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 649 Articles
Egor Opleuha is a professional copywriter with more than 12 years of experience, who eventually became fully immersed in the gaming industry. The legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga was and continues to be his favorite video game franchise. In his free time he likes to fish and play guitar.

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