Lost Ark, we discover the new update

Lost Ark

Having passed the turbulent launch to say the least, with endless queues that have put a strain on the nerves of the most persistent players, Lost Ark is just over two months old, and with the release of a major new update, "Battle for the Throne. of Chaos ", which adds a new class to the roster of those already available, it is worth reflecting on the period that has elapsed to understand in which direction the Smilegate MMO is moving. In our review of Lost Ark we told you about a really excellent product from a technical and content point of view, perhaps undermined by an excessive amount of mechanics and resources that make it not very accessible to those who chew a little on the genre. Those who try to commit themselves, however, will discover a game full of activities for all tastes, both for those who prefer casual gameplay, and for those who love to dig deeper.

The new update of Lost Ark is aimed at all players with some bonus packages that will help them reach the endgame.

The new class: Glaivier

Lost Ark, the Glaivier advanced class in the selection screen Actually an advanced sub-class of the Monk, the Glaivier is the first to be added to the western client after the launch last February: there are still seven left - the next, the Destroyer, is expected to arrive later. May - but Amazon Games, which publishes the Smilegate title in our country, is not doing an exemplary communication job.

The launch of Lost Ark was in fact dotted with communication problems, as well as technical ones, with a roadmap - that is, a calendar of future updates - which was slow in arriving and failed to meet the expectations of the players. The March update had implemented the first Abyssal Raid, but Amazon Games seemed to have miscalculated, and had to manage a real communication backlash with a lot of public apologies. The speech is quite complex and we will return to it in a few lines, but it is closely linked to the Glaivier release and is worth exploring.

The new class, however, is a pure melee damage dealer, and as you may have guessed it can only be female. The Glaivier wields two pole weapons, but the peculiarity of the class lies in the fact that the player must navigate between two fighting styles that focus on one weapon at a time: Flurry Stance and Focus Stance. In a way, the Glaivier works like the Gunslinger: his abilities change depending on the Stance, splitting between light but very fast attacks in Flurry Stance and slow to reload but much more damaging in Focus Stance.

Class Engravings, as might be expected, focus on this gameplay dynamic: Pinnacle enhances the bonuses acquired by changing Stance, and therefore is particularly suitable for players who know how to master the class mechanics, while Control binds Glaivier to Flurry Stance alone, enhancing her abilities.

Lost Ark, Argos is the first Abyssal Raid in the game Glaivier is one of the best damage dealer classes in the game, also because it offers a bonus to all critics the Tripod party called Critical Spear of the Shackling Blue Dragon ability, but it takes some practice to be truly effective. The new class comes to the west along with a new type of Powerpass, which has been gifted to all players and can be used if you already have a level 50 character who has completed the campaign on the continent of Feiton.

The new Powerpass - which apparently expires on June 30 - does just that: it instantly takes a character to level 50 and places him in Tier 2 content as if he had already completed the Feiton storyline and had to reach item level 1100 to begin that of Punika. For this reason, the Feiton Pass also places a chest in the character's inventory containing a complete armor of level 960, enough to enter the Abyssal Dungeon of the corresponding Tier, Gate of Paradise.

Endgame : a perception problem

Lost Ark, equipment improves via Honing At this point it is worth spending a few words on the state of the endgame, before exploring the other contents of this update. For the uninitiated, the vertical progression of Lost Ark revolves around the so-called Equipped Item Level, that is an average of the level reached by the six parts that make up the primary equipment (therefore not the accessories). Each time a certain threshold is reached, a new variety of content is unlocked, provided that the binding missions of the main campaign have been completed.

The problem is to reach those thresholds: you have to go through a gameplay dynamic called Honing, which consists in "refining" a piece of equipment at the appropriate blacksmith, consuming money and various resources that change depending on the Tier . In the beginning, this procedure is neither particularly expensive nor demanding; daily missions and activities - Chaos Dungeon, Guardian Raid and so on - reward you with generous amounts of materials.

Lost Ark, Glaivier was called Lancemaster in Korea Towards the end of Tier 2 and in full Tier 3 However, the situation changes profoundly because the success rates for each improvement drop to simply ridiculous figures. Already at about 1300, starting percentages of around 15% are reckoned, which cannot exceed 30% even using the special booster objects, which are still sipped. Each failed improvement increases the success of the next by quite meager percentages, except to guarantee a sure improvement after about 5 failures in a row, which however result in enormous amounts of resources and money spent unnecessarily.

It is true that they exist different ways to procure raw materials, ranging from solitary farming to buying at the auction or the store integrated into the game, perhaps taking advantage of the discounts in Mari's Shop, but it goes without saying that a casual player, who plays less than a couple hours a day, it could take weeks to even upgrade a piece of equipment.

Lost Ark, equipment level unlocks endgame content at Tier And here the donkey falls. Our drama, and by ours we mean us Westerners, is that in Lost Ark there is a plethora of endgame content waiting for us, so that every time we reach a Tier it almost seems that the game requires us to reach that one as soon as possible. next: basically it's there, available, and we just have to reach out - and the level of equipment! - to get it. Except that in Korea it wasn't exactly like that. Lost Ark in the West has arrived already enriched with contents and updates that, in the original client, have been seen over the course of months and years. In fact, the Korean players could afford to take it easy and take weeks or months to improve the equipment because there were not yet the next contents: we, on the other hand, have found them all in a complete package, or almost, and this condition has generated the impression, especially in hardcore players, that one had to "push" to remain competitive.

Lost Ark, the new update introduces the new story missions But it is also Amazon Games' fault, who did not communicate well, much less properly balanced, the ambitions of the game. In view of this massive proposal, it would have been necessary to retouch the values ​​of the Honing system: this is why the release of Argos, the first Abyssal Raid, has raised a fuss. Implementing it a month after the release of the game, it is as if the publisher had rushed the community, causing it to run towards the level of equipment required to participate (1370).

Many players have suspected a sneaky intent to force them to buy money and resources with a credit card, which may have been partly there, but in practice it is plausible that a large portion of the community did not have still time to figure out how to make the most of one of the most interesting features of Lost Ark: the Roster.

Lost Ark, an example of Roster For the uninitiated, the Roster is the set of characters that the player created on the same realm or server. These characters share most of the bonuses and rewards that the player unlocks simply by tackling the various main and secondary content: Stronghold, ship, silver and gold money, Skill Point ... it's all in common, so each character contributes to the Roster and the game greatly encourages the growth of more characters.

The most interesting thing is that most of the resources needed for Honing the equipment can be moved from one character of the Roster to another. This means that players who want to focus on perfecting a particular character - normally referred to as the "main" - can perform the different activities with the secondary characters - the "alt" - and then send the Honing resources accumulated with the "alt" "to the" main to develop it faster. This is a trick that not all players have grasped right away, mostly because very few of them brought one or more characters to Tier 3 when Amazon Games released the first Abyssal Raids.

Ark Pass, Express and South Vern

Lost Ark, the Ark Pass screen In summary: the "growth" phase of the equipment ends up being perceived as a block precisely because there is already a subsequent content to play that remains unattainable for a period of time whose length depends on various factors, primarily the accumulation of different resources. Amazon Games has therefore introduced with the new update an event called Ark Pass that will last until July: essentially it is a leveling system based on the activities that the player carries out during the week. Each level corresponds to a reward that the player can choose between two options, and which in most cases translates into a generous amount of resources for Honing. Ark Pass alone helps endgame players a lot.

There are also two upgrades called Premium and Super Premium. The first adds a bonus reward at each level, and costs 1,500 Royal Crystals. The second adds a reward every 5 levels and costs another 1,500 Royal Crystals: the difference is that the rewards of the Premium are resources to be consumed, while those of the Super Premium correspond to Skins and other aesthetic collectibles.

Lost Ark, the Express Character event screen The idea is very nice, but on balance we do not feel like recommending the purchase of the Super Premium, unless you are drooling for the costumes proposed in the rewards. Keep in mind that 1,500 Royal Crystals correspond to about € 15 on the Lost Ark Shop: if the Premium rewards translate into a huge saving of time and effort that can justify the purchase of the upgrade, the Super Premium ones are much more questionable.

At the same time as the Ark Pass, an event called Express Character has also arrived, designed to help players grow characters who have recently reached level 50. The system works a bit like Ark Pass, but lasts until the end of June and binds to only one character from the Roster. Again, the game proposes a series of objectives to be achieved, and by completing them you receive very useful rewards such as money, potions, resources for Honing and so on.

Lost Ark, the South Vern storyline is really epic It is clear, in short, that the new update revolves around the accessibility of the endgame, which through Feiton Powerpass, Ark Pass and Express Character should become within the reach of many more players, especially those who have reached the maximum level from relatively little time. For everyone else who has gone up to 1300+ and completed Punika, there is also a new campaign set in the South Vern region.

In our Lost Ark review we told you that the plot of the game is nothing special, but we have to say that the South Vern storyline really impressed us, especially after moving from the dramatic moods of Feiton to the Hawaiian festivals of Punika. With the storyline of South Vern we return to talk about the last Ark, now that the demons of Kazeros have made their way into the world of Arkesia. We will not tell you anything, except that the final instantiated mission is truly spectacular and finally justifies the many characters we met during the adventure. Seeing is believing.

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