Lost Ark's engravings are one of many complicated systems the MMO throws at you, and it's easy to miss their significance in its overwhelming blizzard of mechanics. It's worth putting in the effort, though: engravings give you powerful passive bonuses, and choosing between them is an important part of choosing the playstyle you take with you into the endgame.
So, to help you understand this important mechanics, I'm here to explain what they are, how to get Lost Ark engraving recipes, and how to get them from other sources, such as ability stones and accessories.
First, there are two main kinds: class and battle. Battle engravings are general bonuses that can boost your stats, reduce cooldowns, and so on. There are 43 different battle engravings, some of which are balanced by negative side effects. An example is Grudge, which increases the damage you cause to bosses while increasing the amount of damage you take. Don't bother with Grudge unless you really know what you're doing.
Class engravings are rarer. Every advanced class gets two of them, each of which leans into a different way of playing that class. Paladins, for instance, can get the Blessed Aura class engraving, which makes them better healers, and Judgment, which makes them better at dealing damage. That said, you can build up both class engravings rather than leaning fully into one or the other.
Bring up your profile by pressing P and you'll see a tab for engravings to the right of skins and virtues. This lists the level of any engravings you're being affected by (more on how to do that later). Each engraving has a row of 15 nodes, and for every five nodes the engraving's effect increases. If an engraving combines a bonus with a penalty, the penalty won't change as the engraving's effect levels up, however.
For example, the Precise Dagger engraving gives an increased chance of critical hits, but reduces the amount of damage crits cause. At the first level (five nodes) it's a flat +4% crit rate, –12% crit damage. At the second level (10 nodes) that becomes +10% crit rate, but the reduction to crit damage remains –12%. The same is true at the third level (all 15 nodes), where it hits +20% crit rate, but remains only –12% crit damage. If you're landing critical hits that often, you probably don't mind each one isn't hitting as hard.
Note that if only four nodes are lit, an engraving won't have any effect. And if you manage to accumulate enough bonuses to light up more than 15 nodes, the excess has no effect.
There's also a third kind of engraving. These are all downside, and might reduce your attack speed, damage, defense, or movement speed.
You can buy Lost Ark Gold at MMOexp to help you buy weapons, gear, potions or cosmetics and more in-game.
