About 4 months ago, a patch dramatically buffed the Stack Hold core. To understand why it matters, you have to understand how Norma Lineance (the noble-lineage class identity used by Emperor) works: triggering its Fate reduces the current cooldown of skills like Riku Jansae Blade by 10% — a current-CD reduction, not a flat one.
The old core, Emperor's Heart, triggered Fate when you used a skill. Stack Hold instead triggers Fate when you play a card.
NA top players are now running max-card-draw setups:
The goal is to pump card supply so high that you never overflow. Quick-draw tripoded skills generate a card and Aden simultaneously, so casting Evoke or Dethrone refills Aden with a tiny delay you can't track by eye. And because Norma Lineance reduces current cooldown, every 0.1s you wait to play a card is benefit lost — so you play them immediately.
You can't hit Z/X with your left hand while it's on QWER/ASDF — physically impossible, even pros can't do it. Macros would solve it but…
The trick:
On a target dummy you can see it work — the first card slot is never visible because cards are burned the instant they're drawn. Just mash mouse-button → X → mouse-button → X. It's mystery cards: you don't see them, your viewers don't see them, nobody knows what's getting played.
"This too shall pass."
Cast times: 1.81s · 0.8s · 0.55s
| Skill | Rune | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Shuffle (longest cast) | Quintessence | biggest cast-time savings |
| Unbu (운부) | Quintessence | 40s base CD on Floor vs 8s on Unbu — Unbu wins by frequency, even after Self-Sacrifice cuts Floor to ~32s |
| Floor (플라워) | Heroic Gust | |
| Sole Judgment | — | I think it's fine; NA doesn't run it. Up to you, no real impact. |
| Dangri (NA top variant) | Heroic Bounty | tried it — feels okay, fills surprisingly often |
Master works too — doesn't overhit even at endgame spec. Crush is usually preferred to avoid losses on Eviction (도태) procs, but Master's card-variance is lower and might honestly be fine if you're spamming Eviction mindlessly anyway. Up to you, basically the same.
I haven't done this all year, but I ran this week's raids with it.
Opener: Evoke → Stream → Dangri → Return
Order can change. Originally Dangri first, but Return's wind-up is long enough now that Return-first is probably fine too. Watch good Arcanist players for refined cycles.
Loop: pop Evoke → Floor + Shuffle → Unbu → Surge (쇄도) if up → and Dethrone (더썸), forgot about that one.
For frame efficiency, casting Dangri early is also nice. Roughly that vibe — feel it out.