Smilegate and Amazon have jointly addressed the current issues in Lost Ark. They admit that they released the new Argos raid too early. With the update next week, they plan to introduce more upgrade materials into the game. Additionally, the missing classes are to be released more quickly.
What was the problem with the update? On March 10, the new Argos raid was released, which is designed for players with a gear score of 1,370. However, many players cannot currently reach this gear score despite extensive grinding.
The issue is the so-called Dead Zone from item level 1,340 to 1,370. In this zone, no new equipment can be found, only old equipment can be upgraded. However, this is expensive. Players subsequently complained about the early release.
What do Amazon and Smilegate say? They apologize for this early release. They were surprised by the negative feedback and admit that the Argos raid was released too early. They are therefore planning an event through which players can quickly earn upgrade materials.
Moreover, the roadmap is being revised so that content for a higher gear score is released later, while the still-missing classes and methods for horizontal progression will be released more quickly.
Officially, it is stated:
After analyzing data and feedback from players across all our community channels, we believe that an update that helps adventurers progress with the current content in the game is more important than the release of new endgame content.
New event and adjustments to the Arkesia Grand Prix are set to bring materials
What changes are being made to upgrade materials? The biggest innovation will be the Event Guardian Raids. You can enter these once a day per squad and earn bonus coins. These can be exchanged with a special vendor for materials.
You will challenge the bosses Helgaia, Frost Helgaia, Lumerus, Ur’Nil, Vertus, Chromanium, Nacrasena, Dark Legoros, Icy Legoros, Calventus, and Levanos. For this special event raid, the difficulty will also be adjusted, so you can challenge even the harder bosses once a day with item level 250.
The event is expected to last about a month.
What else are the developers doing? In addition to the event, books that increase the chance of successful upgrades will be included in the rewards of the Arkesia Grand Prix event. This makes it easier for players to obtain new upgrades.
As a third adjustment, you can earn upgrade materials through the new PvP season, which also begins with the update next week.
Furthermore, the developers revealed that they are still working on the bot problem. Just last week, over a million bots were banned.
When will the changes be released? The adjustments with the materials will be introduced with the weekly update on Thursday, March 24.
New classes and cosmetics instead of new endgame content
What’s new with the roadmap? In the article, the developers also apologize for the fact that the roadmap was released too early. A new and revised roadmap is in the works.
However, they directly revealed that classes, islands, and the new continent South Vern are planned to be released as scheduled. This likely means that the classes Destroyer and Arcana will come next. However, new content such as the upcoming Legion raids will be postponed until players have reached an appropriate gear score.
In general, the developers have found that players currently prefer new classes and cosmetic content:
Players want skins and advanced classes to be released at a faster pace. These two categories of content are intertwined, which is one of the reasons it is difficult to increase the speed. Existing skins in the Korean version were released before some classes, which takes additional time for the art and development team to create models with skins for newer classes and their associated special weapons.
However, more classes will be available soon, and we will provide details on this in the upcoming roadmap that we are working on together with Smilegate RPG in the studio this week.
What’s happening with cosmetics? With the update next week, new cosmetic content will be released. This will come as a gift and include:
- New Animal Skin Selection Chest
- Mokokon Pet Selection Chest
- Moko-board Mount Selection Chest
- Lost Ark United Structure
- Appearance Change Ticket
- Pheons x132
- Menelik’s Tome x5
- Legendary Card Pack Selection Chest x2
- Jukebox songs that will be provided when Jukebox content is released in the future.
A preview of the cosmetics is available in this image shared by the developers:
What do you think about the developers’ statements? Are you excited about the adjustments or do you find the reaction exaggerated? And which of the adjustments do you think is the best? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments here on MeinMMO; we look forward to hearing from you.
We have summarized how the MMORPG Lost Ark is currently doing in this special:
