A Beginner’s Guide for Lost Ark’s Glaivier, covering the basics from stats to Skills and Engravings and giving you information vital to pick up and learn the class!

Table of Contents: (please note that this ToC only lists the major sections of the guide)

Released with the “Battle for the Throne of Chaos” Update, the Glaivier is a Melee Damage Dealer that has two weapons, a Glaive and a Spear, which grant her a balanced mix of speed and power. Her Glaive focuses on dealing quick damage with a torrent of attacks through her Flurry Stance. The Spear focuses on powerful strikes and sweeping attacks in her Focus Stance.

“Practicing an artistic and deadly form of martial arts, the Glaivier slices and dices her way through the battlefield, weaving together attacks with her spear and glaive. The Glaivier has two distinct skill sets which can be swapped between— Focus and Flurry— with each stance and skill set represented by one of her two weapons.”

As a Melee Damage dealer, the Glaivier is a very strong class when you’re able to manage both stances with the Pinnacle Build. Even if you find yourself only running the single-stance Control Build, you’ll still be an effective damage dealer though you’ll be reliant on your positioning for max damage.

The Glaivier has a total of 20 skills, 14 of which are Flurry Stance Skills and 6 are Focus Stance skills. You’re able to use 8 Flurry Stance Skills and 5 Focus Stance skills. This means at most you’ll be using 13 skills when playing both stances.

The Flurry Stance focuses on quick attacks, mobility, and utility. These skills mostly have shorter cooldowns, but there are a few that have longer cooldowns which are damage heavy skills.

The Focus Stance focuses on very powerful attacks that have longer cooldowns. The Focus Stance does have a bit of mobility and utility to it, but not as much as the Flurry Stance.

A large part of the Glaivier’s Damage will be dealt in the Flurry Stance, but Focus Skills tend to hit much harder, making them about equal overall.

The Glaivier’s Party Synergy is called Critical Spear and is found only in the Third Row Tripods for the Shackling Blue Dragon skill in the Flurry Stance.

This debuff reduces a foe’s Critical Resistance by 3-18% based on the level of the Shackling Blue Dragon Skill, and whether or not the Critical Spear Tripod is taken. The effect lasts for 6 seconds when applied

With the longer cooldown of this skill, it’ll be crucial to use it when your full rotation is ready for maximum Damage. Look to use it when your support is also buffing your damage to get even more out of it.

Specialization helps the Glaivier to build their meter, which helps you the most prior to getting a class engraving, or if you choose to go for the Pinnacle Class Engraving, which utilizes both stances. It’s less important to the Control Class Engraving setup however as you won’t stance swap at all but can still speed up how quickly you build your meter.

Swiftness is the preferred stat for the Control Class Engraving, as you’ll want to keep your skills rotating easier and faster to deal with consistent DPS. It’s also the go-to secondary stat for the Pinnacle Build for similar reason, thougb with more skills, there’s less need to make them all rotate faster.

While the Glaivier gets a good amount of Crit Rate from their Synergy Skill, gear and Tripods, Crit can still be worth getting on your Necklace at the very least. This extra bit of Crit helps you be as close to 100% Crit as you can be with other party synergy skills without over-capping. You may also need more of it early on, while not really needing it at all later on.

Below are the two class engravings available for the Glaivier. Each of these engravings offers a unique playstyle for the Glaivier. Which one you use is completely up to your preference, both are viable options.

“Cannot use Focus Stance. Flurry Skill Damage is increased by 18%/27%/36%.”

The Control Engraving limits you to just your Glaive and its respective Flurry Stance and boosts the damage of Flurry Skills. This build is much more reliant on Positional attacks, as opposed to what Pinnacle Offers.

“Adds Pinnacle Flurry/Focus 1/2/3 instead of the Flurry/Focus Stage 3 effects upon changing stances while the Dual Meter is maxed at Level 3.”

The Pinnacle Engraving empowers their Identity Meter, making the Stance Swap bonuses even better when swapping with a full Dual Meter. Overall, this increases your Move Speed, Attack Speed, Damage, Crit Chance, and Crit Damage, depending on the Stance Swap.

Both Swaps gain Damage Increases, 15% when swapping to Flurry and 20% When Swapping to Focus. Switching from Flurry to Focus Grants 15% Movement Speed and 50% Crit Damage. Switching from Focus to Flurry grants 15% Attack Speed and 25% Crit Chance.

Below is a list of recommended Engravings you can slot into a Glaivier Build. These will help set you on the right path to properly building out your Glaivier effectively. As such, if an engraving functions better for a specific build, it will be noted.

Due to Glaivier’s access to various buffs alongside their typical stats, there are a number of really good Engravings that are worth considering. These are options outside of the widely recommended and more advanced engravings of Grudge and Cursed Doll.

If you want additional information on the Engravings listed below, check out our Guide on Lost Ark’s Engraving System.

With plenty of low cooldowns and easy Crit Rate boost in skills, this can help you Crit Consistently while going through Tiers 1 and 2. It can also further reduce the need to pick up Crit as a stat on accessories. Low cooldowns make it really easy to stack and maintain this Engraving, which provides both damage and a slight bit of Crit Rate when fully stacked. This is a strong option for the Control Build that doesn’t gain additional Crit Chance from swapping stances.

This is a great Engraving when you’re able to reach around 60% Crit Rate or more. Once you get into Tier 3, you’ll be able to get this really easily with just your Gear set, Synergy Skill, and other skill bonuses. This increases your damage, and between all the bonuses mentioned above, it’s really easy to hit the recommended threshold to use this Engraving.

Since this class often uses Swiftness as a Primary or secondary stat, alongside additional bonuses to movement speed in their kit, this can be a worthwhile pick up as well for increased damage. This scales with Movement Speed, up to its hard cap of 140% movement speed, which provides 18% damage at this cap. This is only recommended for use with the Pinnacle Build, as most of your movement speed will come from Stance Swap Buffs.

You can also use Spirit Absorption Engraving to reach the necessary bonus movement speed.

If you’re playing both stances, you’ll have decent access to a buff that boosts your attack speed, which negates the penalty of this engraving. This reduces your attack speed, but grants increased damage.

Similar to helping to activate Raid Captain’s bonus or max it out, the penalty of this engraving can be offset by Spirit Absorption to make this a bonus.

This helps to really push the damage output of the Control Build, so long as you’re able to maintain your positioning to deliver Back Attacks. Pinnacle is less focused on Positional Attacks, and would rather use other options listed above.

While the skills won’t be fully detailed to the number as damage values change with your stats, we will give a rough approximation of how much damage they can do. This is also affected decently by Skill Tripods, and those cases will be noted.

There will also be a lot of mentions of added Stagger, Weak Point, and Super Armor. If you’re not familiar with these terms, we’ve explained them in more detail in our Advanced Combat Mechanics Guide. We recommend referring to that guide, to help with the terminology below.

“Thrust your spear 8 times in front of you, inflicting medium damage per hit, followed by a finishing thrust that inflicts very high Damage.“

This is a damage heavy skill due to its quick animation. It can optionally be used for Meter building, but your other Focus skills will be capable of building your meter better.

“Move 4 meters forward, inflicting low damage, then spin your spear to inflict low damage 6 times and retreat 3 meters. Airborne foes are launched in the air again when hit.”

This skill often ends up being more of a PvP option than a PvE one. It still can be used in PvE, but would mostly only be a utility skill. The biggest thing for PvE is that it doesn’t get anything that would be beneficial to raiding until Level 7, in its Second Row of Tripods.

“Strike upward with your spear to inflict low Damage and launch foes into the air then slash with your spear while advancing 3 meters forward, inflicting low damage Damage. Afterward, slash 2 times in the opposite direction, inflicting low Damage with each slash. Airborne foes are launched in the air again when hit.”

This skill is primarily used as a mobility tool. While it’s not super great mobility initially, one of the First Row Tripods makes it a great mobility option. It also ends up being a good source of damage for the Control Build.

“Move 8 meters forward past foes to inflict medium Damage 3 times and return to your position, inflicting medium Damage.”

This skill works similarly to Deathblade’s Moonlight Sonic, where it moves you a short distance to deal damage and then puts you back to your starting location. It makes it a good option for damage and does decent AoE Damage.

“Strike with your spear 2 times, inflicting 81 and 122 Damage.”

This is a very basic damage skill and really doesn’t have much going on for it in terms of tripods to make it useful for damage output beyond simply being a filler while leveling.

“Block attacks from the front with your spear, negating Damage up to 50-140% of your Max HP. If you successfully block an attack within 1.1s, thrust your spear forward for high Damage 2 times.”

This skill is used primarily to block heavy-hitting attacks. While it can do some damage, it’s better used for its utility.

“Use your spear as a lever to advance 7 meters forward, inflicting low Damage 3 times, followed by a strong kick that inflicts medium Damage.”

This skill is typically only used for mobility purposes. It’s not a huge source of damage even if you try to make it that way, but offers plenty of mobility options. Its innate Super Armor makes it hard to interrupt, even in PvP, contributing further to it being a good mobility skill.

“Drag your spear across the ground while moving forward, inflicting low Damage 2 times, followed by a diagonal upward slash that inflicts medium Damage twice. Hit foes are launched in the air.”

This skill is a really solid option for dealing damage, as it has plenty of great tripods to make use of regardless of your build. It’s also got options that make it great for both single-target and mobbing use. It’s also packed with Stagger and Weak Point making a strong option for both cases.

“Enlarge your spear and spin 360 degrees to inflict very high Damage, knocking foes back.”

This skill is typically one of your go-to damage skills on Glaivier. With it being a high damage sweeping attack, it makes it great for both bossing and a mobbing.

“Hold the skill hotkey to focus your mind and gather energy, then aim and thrust your spear toward a foe within a 12 meter radius at a 90-degree angle, inflicting high damage. Hit the perfect Zone to extend the attack range up to 16 meters, inflicting very high Damage and knocking foes back.”

This is an incredibly strong skill. Considering it’d be used during your buff windows after a stance swap, that just further empowers how strong of a skill it is. While holding skills can be a bit weird if you’re not used to them, this is easily worth that slight adjustment.

“Spin your spear where you stand and strike down with force, creating a shockwave that inflicts high Damage. Foes hit by this skill lose 3-8% of their Crit Resistance for 6s.”

Shackling Blue Dragon is your only synergy skill, and it’s quite potent when you invest in it to get the Critical Spear Tripod, which increases the Crit Resistance debuff by an additional 10%.

“Slide forward 3 meters and swing your spear to inflict low Damage before immediately going back 4 meters and crouching down. Use the skill again to charge forward 4 meters and inflict low Damage 2 times, then quickly swing your spear to the left and right for one final strike that inflicts low Damage 4 times. Airborne foes are launched in the air again when hit.”

This skill is a good hybrid of mobility and damage. While it’s not a huge burst of immediate damage, it does a good amount of damage over its animation. With more investment, it becomes a decently strong damage option, especially for the Control Build.

“Jump up and thrust your spear 5 meters forward and inflict low Damage to nearby foes before performing a rotating kick attack that inflicts low Damage 5 times. Use the skill again to land at the target location, swing your spear, and inflict medium Damage.”

This skill can be a decent mobility option for PvP but isn’t often used in PvE. It packs a fair bit of utility which makes it great for PvP. It lacks the raw damage and mobility power to use in most situations in PvE.

“Lower your stance and thrust your spear, inflicting medium Damage.”

Despite this initially being a single hit skill, it can be made into a decent damage option. This makes it a good all-around choice for the Pinnacle build.

“Madly brandish your spear while moving 4 meters forward, inflicting low Damage 3 times, followed by a finishing blow that inflicts low Damage. Airborne foes are launched in the air again when hit.”

For the Control Build, this skill ends up being a strong damage option. It can work just as well in a Pinnacle build, but you’d often be sacrificing mobility for a much less powerful version of the skill.

“Jump within 8 meters of the target location and create a shockwave as you land, inflicting very high Damage and launching foes into the air.”

This skill is mobility but is also a huge source of damage thanks to a Tripod that makes it always critically strike. The skill has great tripods that not only support damage but can give this skill extra utility as well.

“Gather energy onto your spear, inflicting very low Damage 2 times to foes at close range, then thrust forward, releasing a beam of energy that inflicts medium damage 3 times, and medium Damage 1 time as a finisher.”

This skill is a fairly strong multi-hit attack capable f good damage if it all connects. It gets a ton of strong damage increase and utility options in Tripods that can make it a great option.

“Stick your spear in the ground and do a somersault, inflicting medium Damage and launching foes into the air.”

This skill serves as your primary counter skill. In addition, it’s a decent mobility option when it’s not needed as a counter.

“Spin sideways, inflicting low Damage 3 times, followed by a finishing blow that inflicts medium Damage. Airborne foes hit by the spinning attack are launched in the air again, and then get slammed to the ground with the last blow.”

Wheel of Blades is quite the potent damage skill. With plenty of Tripod Options that support it being a strong damage and Stagger option without heavy investment. It also has the benefit of charging your Dual Meter really well without investment.

“Strike with your spear in multiple directions, inflicting medium Damage and pulling foes close.”

This can be a little useful for Chaos Dungeons but isn’t too great beyond that. The pull effect helps with mobbing, but isn’t too often needed. This may have some situational use in PvP as well, but limited.

Like all other classes, the Glaivier has two Awakening Skills that both deal heavy damage but differ in speed or utility. Both Awakening will struggle to get maximum value against more mobile targets.

“Perform an attack at the target location. Leap 4 meters backward while facing forward, focus energy onto your spear and throw it at the target area. The spear strikes the ground to inflict Incredibly High Damage, then causes an explosion that inflicts Incredibly High Damage 8 times, knocking foes back with the last hit.”

This Awakening is great for its very backloaded damage, similar to Soulfist’s World Decimation Awakening Skill. It deals heavy damage but will be lackluster for more mobile targets since its hits are limited to the explosion range after casting, though this AoE is quite large. This ultimately ends up being the more reliable of the two when used well, as once the wind-up finishes the damage is dealt almost immediately.

“Focus your mind and thrust your spear in front of you to inflict Very High Damage, then pull it back, inflicting Very High Damage and pulling foes closer. Afterwards, swing your spear and inflict Incredibly High Damage 5 times, followed by a series of thrusts that inflict Very High Damage 8 times. Move 8 meters past foes and deliver a finishing blow, inflicting Incredibly High Damage and knocking foes back.”

This Awakening’s damage starts immediately and comes out fairly quick, which makes it a great option while learning an encounter. Being a Holding Skill, this skill ends up being easier to use and can do a ton of damage if you’re able to use the full duration. Being able to cancel it early if a boss moves out of the way can save some time by not being animation locked. Due to the several hits it deals, this can be a good panic option if you need to meet a stagger check.

This is intended to be a Beginner-friendly guide to the Glaivier Class. You have now reached the end of the beginner’s portion. If you want to continue further and learn how to master this class, check out the detailed Build Guides we have available. More variations will be added as time and new updates happen.

Check out the other Lost Ark Guides available on VULKK.com and stay up-to-date with the latest news about the game.

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