How to use Advanced Combat Mechanics in Lost Ark

In addition to varied functionality, many skills in Lost Ark also carry additional effects with them. This guide breaks down those effects!

Lost Ark’s Combat has a variety of different mechanics; so many that it can be difficult to remember what does what, and which situations to use certain skills. This guide will cover all of those effects, what they do, as well as other combat mechanics that are good to know.

Types of Skill Effects in Lost Ark

Skill effects play an important role in combat. While not every skill has these effects or at least doesn’t have them by default; there are many skill upgrades, called Tripods, that can add or strengthen these effects.

If you have a moment, check out our guide on the Tripods system in Lost Ark to learn that it is, how it works and how to get the maximum out of your experience and builds.

Stagger

Stagger is a common effect found at varying levels on many skills. It has six levels in total:

Low
Medium-Low
Medium
Medium-High
High
High+

The rank of this effect determines how quickly it will drain a boss’ Stamina. The Damage of the actual attack is irrelevant, but often, how many times it hits can be a thing to keep in mind.

An example of a boss’ health bar with the Stamina Meter visible

A boss’ Stamina is shown under their health as a purple bar. Once depleted, the enemy will stop moving and attacking for a short time, allowing you to deal a ton of damage very quickly and effortlessly.

Super Armor

Super Armor can be more easily thought of as Crowd Control Resistance. Super Armor comes in 3 levels, which also indicate the effects it prevents. These levels are Paralysis Immunity, Push Immunity, and All Immunity.

Paralysis Immunity prevents basic stagger, keeping attacks or spells casts from being interrupted by basic attacks from enemies. This is the most common version that exists and is frequently found on many skills.

Push Immunity prevents you from being interrupted by displacement effects, in addition to staggers. This will keep you from being pushed around by attacks that would knock you down, back, or up. Very useful into some AoE boss attacks that have a yellow indicator, if you’re unable to dodge.

All Immunity prevents all attack and movement impairment effects and statuses. This includes effects like Stun, Fear, Petrification, and similar effects. This allows you to power through debilitating effects with ease. Most attacks that carry this level of impairment will be blue.

Weak Point

Weak Point, also commonly referred to as Destruction, is an effect that lets you break and disrupt certain enemy moves. This can be anything from removing armor for an enemy to make them weaker or simply breaking a shield that acts as a DPS check.

This effect has 5 levels, and similarly to Stagger, the higher the level the quicker the effect happens. These levels are simply indicated as Level 1 – 5 Weak Point.

Counter

Counter is an effect that can interrupt certain boss attacks and create short windows of opportunity. These skills must be timed and executed within a short time frame. All counter-able attacks will make the enemy glow blue just before they perform the attack. It needs to be countered while they are glowing or it will not work.

Most counter-able attacks must be countered from the front of the boss, which makes classes that are focused on Back Attacks typically worse at performing them. However, due to how aggro works in Lost Ark, there are still going to be some opportunities to perform them, especially while solo.

Back Attack

Back Attacks are skills that are stronger when the boss is facing away from you and you’re hitting them in the back. You need to be directly behind the boss or within the 90-degree section behind them.

Here is an example of floating text indicating you’re using a Back Attack and are positioned properly:

Back Attacks deal 5% bonus damage and have 10% increased Critical Chance. This bonus damage can be increased by using the Master of Ambush Engraving, adding an additional 25% damage.

There are indicators on most bosses to help with this positioning, indicating both the Back Attack area and the Front Attack area.

Front Attack

Front Attacks are skills that are stronger when the boss is facing you and you’re hitting them in the face. You need to be directly in front of the boss, or within the 90-degree section in front of them.

Here is an example of floating text indicating you’re using a Front Attack and properly positioned

Front Attacks deal 20% bonus damage and have 10% increased neutralization (Stagger, Weak Point). This bonus damage can be increased by using the Master Brawler Engraving, adding an additional 25% damage.

There are indicators on most bosses to help with this positioning, indicating both the Back Attack area and the Front Attack area.

Area of Effect Indicators in Lost Ark

Currently, there are only four known AoE indicators that bosses will use. These are Red, Blue, Yellow, and Purple. Each of these indicators has a different meaning and tells you exactly what to expect from the attack itself.

Red is your basic damage indicator, not much else special to it. If you see this color indicator, you typically want to move out of the area, dodging if necessary. Every AoE attack in the game will use this indicator, save for some of the harder content which has other indicators.

Yellow indicates that it has a strong push effect. These are attacks that will push you a considerable distance away, or potentially out of a boss arena. A lot of attacks that use this mechanic have other means of avoiding them, such as objects that can block the attack without you needing Level 2 Super Armor.

Blue indicators mean that if the attack connects, you’ll be afflicted with a crowd control effect, or more specifically, one that prevents movement and attacks. These are attacks you will always want to evade unless you can survive and plan to use an attack that has Level 3 Super Armor, or All Immunity.

Purple is an indicator that is unique to a specific raid. Without too many spoilers, a boss of a certain raid has a phase where they split themselves and your raid party in two. This boss will then perform Attacks that are indicated in red for one team, and purple for the other. For the group that has them, Purple indicators show safe areas in their AoE zones.

Here at VULKK.com we’re building a collection of useful Lost Ark Guides, with more and more are being published regularly. A great place to learn lots of Tips and Tricks for Lost Ark Beginner players. We also have all of the news and updates covered to keep you up-to-date with all things Lost Ark.

Lost Ark Beginner Guides Collection

A collection of must-read Beginner Friendly guides for the MMOARPG Lost Ark. Learn the basics of the game, how to level up quicker and easier, how combat works, which perks to get first, what to do and not do as a new player in Arkesia!