Lost Ark: Proving Grounds - PvP battles Lost Ark guide, walkthrough
On this page of the Lost Ark guide, you will read what Proving Grounds, Books of Coordination, and how to participate in PvP arena battles are.
Last update: 21 June 2022
This page describes the PvP mode in Lost Ark. Here you'll read what are the available modes in Proving Grounds, what is the Book of Coordination and how to take part in the games.
As of 03/15/2022, there are no rewards available yet for victories at Proving Grounds. However, you can already collect rewards - Coins of Courage - which you can later exchange for items at a special merchant. Ranked games will come at a later date.
What are Proving Grounds?
Many players are probably wondering if Lost Ark has a PvP mode. Yes - the fights take place at a location called Proving Grounds (the Colosseum symbol on the map), which becomes available after reaching level 50 in Luterra Castle. There are four PvP gameplay modes.
- Team Deathmatch - 3 vs 3 in a team format. The goal is to gain more kills than the other team within 240 seconds. If there's a tie, the next kill closes the match.
- Deathmatch - 6 people in an arena fight to get as many kills as possible, in an "all on all" format. The only limitation is time - 240 seconds. The top 3 places are rewarded.
- Team Elimination - in this format, a 3-player team fights the opponents in 1 on 1 elimination, 90 seconds each. When a player loses, the next person steps in to take their place. In practice, even one player can beat the entire opposing team: then the entire team wins.
- Co-op Battle - This gameplay mode only takes place at designated times as a calendar event. The reason is that the games have an 8 vs 8 team format.
Each activity has a main feature: here you do not play with the character you created with all their equipment, engravings and other earned reinforcements, but you use the Book of Coordination. Items, including healing, are not allowed in arenas.
Book of Coordination
In this panel, you can modify your character for arena combat by selecting skill points and tripods, and character attributes, without considering other factors (cards, runes, engravings, items). This means that regardless of your character's development, everyone has an equal chance in the arena. You can make changes to the build before each match and keep the configuration for different types of games. You have 340 skill points and 1000 attribute points. You can build several sets of settings by switching between tabs for different types of competition.
Hints and tips
In PvP games, knowing your character - skills, attack charging time, vulnerability and susceptibility - and having the right build is crucial. Experience is also important: knowing enemies' attacks and being able to avoid them, as well as using your own skills effectively. Nonetheless, some tips listed below may help you in your gameplay:
- Hide all unnecessary elements of the HUD: minimap, log, chat.
- Consider using 21:9 aspect ratio. This creates a more panoramic image that allows you to see more to the left and right of the arena. This is a dedicated option for those with 21:9 aspect ratio screens, but you can also use this mode on a regular monitor for the duration of PvP to gain an advantage / equal chances in the arena.
- In the arena, parameters such as critical damage, duration of Crowd Control abilities and shields are halved. In particular, the Stand Up skill is increased, which cooldowns after about 11 seconds.
- However, the standard rules still apply: you can paralyze or freeze your opponents, and they can also get invulnerabilities from certain skills.
- When the final 30-second countdown starts, normal and critical damage increase. At this point, don't let the enemy conduct heavy attack that could change the final score.
- If you have supporters on your team, they can still use their special abilities to regenerate allies' health and enhance their combat skills.
- If you play with random allies, try to help them and cooperate. Don't walk too far away from the group, help the surrounded and endangered allies.
In every match, try to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You can make small changes to the Book of Coordination even as often as every game. Also, never follow the PvP build suggestions to the letter: not everyone can do the same thing as another player with the given skills. Also note that builds can vary significantly depending on the form of the PvP game.