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Lost Ark Mechanics Guide: Counter, Stagger, Weak Point

By Anna
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Today we will introduce three mandatory nostalgia mechanics that you absolutely must understand if you want to be good at lost ark PvE. Because doing lost ark PvE well can help you get lots of Gold Lost Ark game and rewards. The lost ark mechanics I will feature in this article are the counter mechanic, the stagger check mechanics, stagger damage, and weak point damage.

 

 

Counter Mechanic

Let us actually start with the most simple one, the counter mechanic. In order for a successful counter to happen, there are some key things that are required.

 

First, you need an enemy that can actually be countered. And you can tell that an enemy can be countered if they have this blue highlight around them while they are preparing an attack.

 

Lost Ark Blue Highlight

 

When the blue highlight appears, the enemy can be countered during their next attack. To plant the counter, you need an ability that can counter. So you will need to look at your abilities and determine which ability can be used for the counter because every class has at least one ability to land a counterattack. In my case, gunslinger's counterattack is called Last Request, and you can tell that it's a counter because of this line in the skill interface.

 

Lost Ark Counter

 

However, using the right ability in itself is not enough to successfully land the counter because you can only land the counter from right in front of the enemy, which means that your positioning will be key in landing a counterattack. So landing the counter is not going to be easy unless you are prepared for the mechanic.

 

To make it easier to land a counterattack, you can use Runes that make the casting speed faster. So it takes your character less time to prepare for the attack. And you can also look for Tripods that make the animation shorter or give you more attack speed or give you a dash that makes it. So you can get into position much easier than without the Tripod. Using all these tools to your advantage should make landing counters consistently much easier.

 

Suppose you still seem to struggle with landing counterattacks even with utilizing all these things. In that case, one more thing that you can do is try to stay in position when you're expecting the enemy to launch a counterattack and also save your cooldown on your counter skill. So that as soon as the enemy is launching the counterattack, you can successfully land your counter. If you manage to land the counterattack, then the boss will be vulnerable for the next few seconds, giving you an opening to use your Awakening or your Burst, and that's the counter mechanic.

 

This mechanic appears in pretty much all Guardian Raids, and in some cases, some of the Episode Dungeons, and later on in Episodes and Legion Raids. Don't be afraid if it takes you some time to get used to the counter mechanic because some classes have counter abilities that are very hard to land. You just need to take the time to get used to your abilities and all the mechanics in the game. There is absolutely no need to hurry. 

 

 

Stagger

Next up, we have another very important mechanic, the stagger mechanic. Most of your skills have some level of stagger on them, and you can check it in your skills UI. The gunslinger has most of its stagger damage on its shotgun abilities in my class. As you can see, my shotgun abilities have high stagger damage.

 

Lost Ark Shotgun Abilities

 

To get more stagger damage on these abilities, you can use your Runes that you can obtain from various sources. Most types of enemies have a stagger or impairment bar under the hp bar; you can deplete this bar by dealing enough stagger damage to the boss. In some cases, you are required to break the stagger bar of the boss enemy.

 

Lost Ark  Break the Stagger

 

So knowing which abilities of yours do decent cycle damage is very important. Because later on in the game, there are a bunch of staggered damage check or impairment check mechanics in Raids. And these have a very small window for you to deal enough stagger damage to successfully complete the mechanic. If you feel like your class is not providing enough stagger damage or just want to ensure that you successfully clear the mechanic, you can also use Whirlwind Grenade to deal high stagger damage. There are some cases, for example, Hellgaia, where you don't really get too much indication that there is currently a stagger check going on. Because when Hellgaia is trying to transform to the next phase of her three phases, she actually starts collecting energy, and the animation looks like this.

 

Lost Ark Hellgaia

 

It's pretty much a stagger check because if you deal enough staggered damage to stagger a Hellgaia, then you can make it, so she can't actually transform into her next phase. So technically, this is also a stagger check. If you fail to deal enough stagger damage, then she proceeds to her next phase, making the fights a lot more difficult. Again, if you're struggling with dealing enough stagger damage, then you can use a Whirlwind Grenade to deal even more stagger damage.

 

 

Weak Point

And lastly, we have weak points damage. If you have looked at your skills, you might have seen a line that says that the ability has weak point damage.

 

Lost Ark Weak Point

 

Some classes have more abilities that can deal with point damage, and other classes do not. In my case, the gunslinger doesn't have too many abilities that can actually deal weak point damage; only some of my shotgun and some of my sniper skills do, and they are all level one.

 

So in my case, whenever a weak point damage jack mechanic happens, I should be using Destruction Bombs most of the time, as they deal very high weak point damage. And they can make you contribute towards the mechanic much more efficiently, but still just using the Grenade will not be enough to pass the mechanics. So you still need to be aware of which ones of your abilities deal weak point damage and which ones do not. These mechanics appear mostly in Guardian Raids and in some Episode Dungeons. A Crosshair will appear somewhere over the enemy when a weak point damage check happens. Upon successfully staggering the enemy, the Crosshair will appear over some of their body parts. By dealing enough weak point damage to it, you can actually destroy that body part, which will make the encounter much easier to handle.

 

Also, just for example, in this Episode Dungeons:

 

Lost Ark Episode Dungeons

 

The boss spawns these mages, and you actually need to deal weak point damage to them before you can start dealing normal damage, and if you cannot deal enough big point damage to break their shield, at least not in time, then the boss will go ahead and vibe your entire party. So again, knowing which one of your abilities can deal weak point damage and using them at the right time and at the right place alongside your destruction bombs is very important, and utilizing this will make you a much better PvE player in lost ark.

 

That's all for the three mechanisms. I sincerely hope that today's content will help you do better in the game. In addition, MmoGah has cheap Lost Ark Gold for sale, don't hesitate to buy it if you need it because the currency is essential in the game.

 

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mugoWrC1hNI

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