After Lost Ark’s previously announced August-September cadence promised a second major update in late September, the Machinist advanced class will arrive next week on September 28th. There's also a brand-new Lost Ark Academy entry with all things you need to know about the Machinist, which is the fifth available advanced class for the Gunner.
While there's more to be announced coming in the rest of the update, the Machinist is definitely one of the highlights. Being an advanced class for the Gunner, the Machinist is known for ranged attacks. Yet, there's more to what you might expect, including some high-tech weapons , a special suit, and a drone. When your normal ranged attacks aren't really getting the job done, you have a range of skills to choose from.
There are four categories for the Machinist’s skills - Normal, Drone, Combo, and Sync. Normal skills are your usual ranged attack arsenal from guns to grenades. These charge the Machinist’s Hypersync battery. Drone is what it sounds like, using the drone to fire from range or even send smaller drones out to land some remote strikes on your enemies. Combo skills unleash powerful joint attacks. You can use Sync skills via your suit when your Hypersync battery is charged and active.
So while a normal attack might hit an enemy powerfully and partly recharge your battery, a drone skill adds some ability to get in close. Joint skills include Annihilation Mode, which puts you back to back with your drone while you both turn and fire. Sync skills include both ranged and closer-combat attacks. Surge Blow has you rush fists forward into enemies, then cause damage in a cone shaped area that also knocks back your targets. While something like Echelon Beam lets you jump high and shoot a laser.
There’s a lot more to discover and decide just what kind of Machinist you want to be. See the full announcement and skills rundown over at Lost Ark.
