440 Empress Arcana Advanced Guide with Raids Examples

Lots of people have been asking me for advice on their rotation and on how to optimize their dps, so figured I'd make a guide! This is for advanced players, so this assumes you know what skills/cards do.
For beginners, check out the community guide here: lostark.nexus/...
00:00 - Intro
01:18 - On engravings
02:37 - General gameplay
08:00 - Skills
08:25 - Scratch dealer
10:32 - Spiral edge
12:59 - Dealer's flip
14:14 - Call of destiny
17:28 - Celestial rain
18:26 - Secret garden
19:47 - Four of a kind
21:27 - Serendipity
22:44 - Awakening
24:30 - Cards
24:57 - Buff cards (corrosion, moon, mayhem, ghost)
26:18 - Three-headed snake
27:21 - Balance
28:04 - Clown
30:13 - Star
31:43 - Cull
32:42 - Wheel
33:13 - Joy
34:11 - Judgement
37:53 - Twisted fate
38:40 - Other tips and tricks
39:08 - Adrenaline upkeep
39:52 - Shadowboxing
40:21 - Workshop shadowboxing
41:02 - Card farming
42:28 - G0 awakening
42:37 - Outro

[@kretarosdarker6395]

I learned most thing shown in the vid just by playing, but it still taught me cool tricks I didn't know: - using the cod travel time b4 the boss lands -three head auto into blue skill animation cancelling -using the best card last for clown chances -importance of using seren during cull

[@alfonsodelosreyes119]

We need more arcana videos like this

[@b0zuu]

Thanks for the well detailed video and clips, it allows us to really depicts what goes on in our brain when we play this version of the class. It is on another level and that's why we love it!

[@bhuiboy]

great video, even as an advanced arcana main there was some awesome stuff in there. wish this existed when i made the switch to 440 good notes on the priorities, honestly this should be linked in the community guide its very thorough and can help people at all levels BUT NOW ITS SLIGHTLY OUTDATED CAUSE STAR CARD IS AMAZING WOOOOHOOOOOO

[@TheBanwas]

yeah lol might have to do a follow up video once we get the balance patch, star usage is going to be completely different and a lot of my focus on using safety device is also going away, the scratch change is even bigger than star imo

[@AyaCedric]

@@TheBanwas I'm not sure if this where I'll ask this.. but I've seen a 440 variation with stream of edge swiftness instead of crit build.. I'm an emperor arcana and I'm planning to make empress 440 once new patch hits.. so was just wondering if you have an idea for the comparison of the 2 builds.. also, thank you for this guide!

[@TheBanwas]

@@AyaCedric I assume you've seen Prytz's videos. His build is probably ~10% stronger than standard crit/spec 440, although harder to play. Standard 440 is going to benefit a lot more from the upcoming balance patch that KR just got (no need for scratch combo, which Pryzt's build already could get away with not doing, and an easier time staying boundless with star card, which his build already had), so the two builds should be a lot closer in the future. Up to you which playstyle you prefer.

[@AyaCedric]

​@@TheBanwasYES! Haha thank you for the fast reply and thank you so so much for the in depth analysis on both builds! Really excited for my new arcana

[@internettboii_]

uffffffffff i was looking for that tytyty

[@PlasmoX]

I've been playing Arcana since the slayer release. She was my slayer express character. I found a few resources for this, but this is very comprehensive, and very well edited. Props. I think the thing i struggle with the most for my arcana play, is getting into boundless consistently. I struggle with this when my support is really good. Or if I run with an artist in my team. Do you have tips for getting into boundless consistently, and easily? It also sucks on fights where the boss phases or becomes unhittable. i.e Lauriel, G4 voldis, G3 brel. The class feels great when I'm in boundless, but if i'm struggling on the fight to enter boundless, it's just a struggle and not enjoyable to play the class. Another thing that can be frustrating is getting a star train. Then pulling a clown and holding that clown because your past few cards have been star back to back. How do you typically handle that? A friend of mine use to play 440 empress, but he's emperor now. He mentioned that it is a lot easier to enter boundless with 440, but I'm already fairly mediocre with 332, so I'm afraid to switch off it. Would you recommend swapping for that sake alone? I'm not entirely sure of the other pros of 440 other than it being the higher ceiling build. I've also heard it's got a lower floor too.

[@TheBanwas]

For boundless: shadowboxing helps a lot, 3 stack foak when you can afford it, throwing seren out as well when you can afford it. Also ask to not be with artist/summoner or make them take mana tripods off. For star/clown: generally if you've used star, then you should have a card slot open so no reason to clown, and if you haven't used star then you can sacrifice clown. Only if you get star > clown > star it's bad but at that point I would just send star so you're not bleeding meter forever, but that's an incredibly rare scenario. 440 doesn't enter boundless particularly faster than 332, it's actually kinda harder because you're burning mana by default with return on 332 vs holding seren on 440. In either case it comes down to foak usage and they both have the same tripods. I would only recommend swapping to 440 if you're chasing ceiling, or if you want to play with seren.

[@aar2535]

Thank you for the wonderful effort🌹

[@Mike-ey4rs]

Omg ty so much. Not alot of info regarding 440 empress online.

[@Mike-ey4rs]

Question: What do you think of 242 empress with evoke? The extra card gen feels so nice but it can be quite punishing.

[@TheBanwas]

@@Mike-ey4rs I think it has potential to be the strongest empress build; but yeah like you said, evoke is so punishing if you miss it, I personally don't like it. Evoke just feels too clunky to play with (and it makes really good 440 fights like kay g1 into really bad fights)

[@CrisHermetica]

Hey i have a question, i was trying to go from my 332 to 440, but since the Arcana is my alter, i was wondering how many lvl 9 cd gems are really needed for this to work properly. I found in the community guide that hey only talk about CoD lvl 9 gem being needed, but in trixion i find myself a lot of times with no skills to use for a few seconds. I was wondering if this is something normal or i need more than 1 lvl 9 cd gem to make it work.

[@TheBanwas]

It's pretty normal, edge and scratch cd gems are pretty nice to fill in those gaps, but yeah when you're in addiction you'll have gaps even with 10s

[@maleficogameplay]

I'm creating an arcana right now because of your videos, I'll probably put it at 1600 in March with power pass + express, would there be a skill point build for approximately 390 points? I don't know which skills may not be upgraded to the maximum level

[@TheBanwas]

I believe with 384 points you have enough to have every skill at lvl 10, that's what matters. Extra lvl 12 skills are just a cherry on top, but it doesn't matter much at all because the vast majority of your damage comes from the ruin proc. So the build in the community guide linked in the description should work fine for you.

[@xeri9507]

Thanks for the guide! ive been looking a bit for a detailed empress guide and this one is rly good :) 2 questions tho: so seren has 2 dmg procs and both scale with ruin stacks? thats why judgement makes it way stronger? and also do red skills give more meter with ruin stacks on the boss or is it always the same?

[@TheBanwas]

1. yep that's exactly right 2. yes, and 4 stacks is significantly more meter

[@xeri9507]

Ok cool Thanks a lot :D @@TheBanwas

[@bendemri4835]

great video thank you for that . i wanted to as what you think about grudge 3 hit master 3 raid captain 3 adre 3 and barricde 3 with empress 1 build ? thanks in advance

[@TheBanwas]

You should NOT run barricade + raid captain. You basically get the worse of both worlds without any of the advantages (the whole point of raid captain is to run wealth runes). You should just get used to playing with cursed doll, it's pretty much free condition-less damage once you get familiar with boss patterns.

[@bendemri4835]

@@TheBanwas i just really hate CD and im looking for alternative cant see to find one for the arcana

[@leonardosoares9998]

​@@bendemri4835 As he said, you should get used to CD, BUT, if you are doing content that you are not omega overgeared, EtherPredator could help you. Note that CD should be better, but if you don't wanna use it, you can swap to EP losing a little bit damage on long runs, or losing a LOT of damage on short ones.

[@abdelrahmansaad2354]

Why does cull makes seren 2nd priority after rain?

[@TheBanwas]

Seren's 2nd row tripod is +504% crit damage

[@iPro23Awesome]

Is the dps difference between 332 and 440 massive? I'm struggling w/ my Arcana

[@TheBanwas]

440 trades consistency for a higher ceiling, so on average the damage is not massive no. In trixion when I made the switch I was seeing a 5-10% dps increase from 332 to 440, but in real raids they are very comparable

[@iPro23Awesome]

@@TheBanwas Thanks for the reply! I guess what's giving me a hard time in raids is getting into Boundless state w/ 332. When I get into boundless, I feel like boss phased already.

[@TheBanwas]

@@iPro23Awesome yeah unfortunately that's a problem with boundless classes in general for homework raids. My "shadowboxing" section should help mitigate that a little bit, but yeah.

[@photograhy]

Wait, are you saying that while the boss is split in G1 brel, you don't get MVP contribution?

[@TheBanwas]

correct

[@photograhy]

@@TheBanwas do you maybe know which part of clown g1 isn't registered? Because whenever I do clown, G1 never matches what I have on dmg meter. Is it maybe the stagger mech that doesn't count damage done during that period?

[@TheBanwas]

@@photograhy I believe it's because of the fire breathing turrets. Any damage to those I think gets counted on the meter but not towards mvp

[@photograhy]

@@TheBanwas those have very little hp, I’ve seen variations of 6-7%, and in skip runs turrets don’t even show up most of the time

[@TheBanwas]

@@photograhy btw I know the answer to this question now, it's sidereals that do not get counted (so in your question, for clown g1, if you're using wei or nineveh they won't count towards the damage total, so your actual % is higher than what is shown in meter)

[@neoro2384]

yo fellow arcana Player very good video on 440. Another Arcana KZbinr Peaked my interest the Last few weeks cause he plays Spec/swift 332 and experimented with all kinds of SoE builds. And i wanted to hear your Opinion on the build, not only looks it fun af but also strong here is his youtube www.youtube.com/@ThePrytz

[@TheBanwas]

Prytz is awesome and a great player! I think his build is actually very strong. I personally wouldn't want to play it because imo skills like stream and evoke are too clunky and too punishing if you miss (boss just decides to fuck off). But definitely not a troll build or anything, I've talked with him before and the numbers he gets are very on par with mine.

[@neoro2384]

@@TheBanwas nice, i think if you played emperor for a while SoE isnt that clunky anymore since you kinda get when to place it. if i switch back to EMpress Prytz build is defenitly the way i will go now thansk

[@sera_venus]

why do you use rage over QR? i should prolly cook with that actually. the proc chance is probably way better

[@TheBanwas]

I use both! QR on garden, rage on cod

[@vinhnghi7530]

Would both QR on garden and cod be better? Thanks for the vid btw @@TheBanwas

[@TheBanwas]

@@vinhnghi7530 tbh I don't know for sure, it's definitely totally viable. I feel like you get diminishing returns from multiple QRs and it's definitely better on garden than cod because the cd you're really aiming to reduce is rain which you use after cod, but before garden. I like rage because it's essentially a second safety device, which can be very very nice for judgements that you have to send with scratch on cd.

[@HaxL2]

where u putting bleed then@@TheBanwas

[@TheBanwas]

I've taken it bleed off completely. Used to have it on rain, but I found it was such a small amount of damage it wasn't even worth running over wealth / QR / rage. It's preference though @@HaxL2

[@clem.]

pantsgrab

[@TheBanwas]

kekshook