Lost Ark has Additive and Multiplicative engravings. Examples such as Cursed Doll, Adrenaline, and Increased Mass are additive. Grudge, Barricade, etc are multiplicative. As everyone knows from math, the multiplicative base increase is more efficient in the long run.
Engravings
If you think about it, all multiplicative engravings are conditional except Grudge. Cursed Doll, Grudge, and Keem Blunt Weapon are the most used engravings. We also have damage engravings such as Master Of Strike, Super Charge, and All-out Attack.
All-out attack needs to be a casting skill. For example, Supercharge, needs to be a charged skill. You need to be shielded for Barricade. So if all your main skills are charged skills like Red Gunlancer or Remaining Energy Deathblade, Supercharge is better than Grudge because it increases damage by 20%. As for Barricade, Scouter isn’t out, bet when he transforms, he gets shielded, so Barricade may be better than something like Grudge for him, even if it’s a 4% damage difference.
This engraving is good for new Sorceresses because of her DPS skills. This is the same for Blue Gun Lancer because he is shielded most of the time. All-Out Attack isn’t as efficient because Sorcerers only have 3 main DPS skills, but you need it on all of the casting mages due to the casting speed buff.
Every single engraving has some penalty, so the engraving choice has always been one or the other, but it gets complicated once you get more than two or three engravings. There aren’t many choices other than Cursed Stall, Grudge, and Sharp Blunt. You’ll have to use these engravings eventually. As for Cursed Stall, since your max hp cap is 25%, it is also a no penalty engraving for a 16 percent additive damage increase.
Therefore Grudge and Cursed Stall are unconditional damage multipliers. This is why people are recommending Grudge and Cursed Stall. The only penalty is you getting hit harder. Something that you can fix while you’re playing the game. As characters progress into the later game, you will have to equip Grudge due to having no other options, but you need to increase your DPS. Do not follow recommendations blindly; figure out what you are most comfortable with and work on those first. If you plan on having 3 level 3s, Grudge is the most efficient damage increase for most classes. A support’s role is to apply shield and damage buffs. Their actual DPS ratio is less than 10 percent of the entire raid.
Therefore, you focus on survivability. Bard has the lowest vitality factor among the support classes. What is a vitality factor? It is the hp multiplied by the defense factor. The higher the hp factor, the more hp you will have; the higher the defense factor, the higher the defense.
In conclusion, you should use Grudge if your playstyle favors dealing massive amounts of damage while sacrificing defense. This is also good for party setups where multiple support roles can help mitigate the penalties through their various hp and defense buffs.