The latest patch of ARK: Survival Evolved is taking a toll on tamed dinos – they are losing a significant amount of combat power!
A Second Ice Age
Players of ARK: Survival Evolved were quite surprised when they checked in on the game in recent days. Unfortunately, it was a negative surprise. Many dinosaurs that had been tamed by characters have lost a large portion of their strength. This is due to a new hotfix. It has revised the values of almost all creatures, and although there are some minor buffs in the stats, the fundamental change can be summed up in one sentence: Tamed creatures deal less than 50% of their original damage.
The outcry in the forums was relatively large, as many players suddenly felt cheated out of their power. This is particularly frustrating in cases where you send your built-up T-Rex, which you raised for days, against a herd of Stegosauruses, only to find that your dino is suddenly helplessly overmatched.
Farming is also now slower, making Ark significantly more grindy than before the nerf.
The developers have provided a relatively extensive statement regarding this:
“Early in the development, we had a misunderstanding about how the values of players and creatures should scale, and over time we figured out what went wrong and how it went wrong – we had to come up with a solution. (…)
Our first step was to adjust the values of the dinosaurs in one go, retroactively. We wanted to weaken tamed creatures compared to wild creatures to avoid absurd situations where a raptor could single-handedly defeat 10 brontosauruses without any problem. At the same time, we wanted to ensure that tamed-versus-tamed battles approximately run the same as before.”
Mein-MMO says: Although the nerf is definitely harsh and it probably wasn’t the smartest decision by the developers to make such a change without prior notice, one must not forget that ARK is still in Early Access. Therefore, it is only understandable that the developers occasionally take drastic steps to adjust the balance as it was intended. A bit more openness in communication could have helped to keep complaints in check.
For more information about the game, you can visit our ARK: Survival Evolved topic page.
