In Lost Ark, the first Abyss raid, Argos, is released today in the western version. There, you fight the boss in three phases with 8 players. However, they cannot really play together. We at MeinMMO summarize.
What is Argos? With the patch on March 10, Lost Ark introduces the first Abyss raid with Argos to our version. Essentially, these are raids in multiple phases for two player groups, totaling 8 players. Argos is just the first of many to follow.
The massive stag is divided into 3 phases, each requiring a different gear score. Therefore, you cannot play them all back to back. You can enter the first phase with an item level of 1,370, while the 3rd phase demands a solid 1,400 GS from you.
Argos relies on mechanics in which both player groups must react differently in battle. So, while you play the raid with eight, if you play together as usual, Argos will wipe the floor with you.
How does his special mechanic work? The mystical stag is the lord of day and night and lets you feel this with his tactics.
At the beginning of the fight, your two groups are divided into day and night players. You can recognize which group you belong to by the glow under your character. If you have a bright and radiant aura, you are day; if you glow a bit violet and pale, you are team night.
From now on, it is essential to pay attention to your own color. This assignment will change frequently during the fight due to various attacks from Argos.
You also need to constantly watch the color of Argos’s attacks. Because the boss essentially works with two different types of damage. You can recognize these by the same colors as your auras. Night attacks do not damage you if you are night; however, you will take damage if you belong to the day group.
Not playing together
What can you expect exactly? Especially memorable for this mechanic is a kind of pizza that Argos places on the ground. There, you briefly see the different colors alternately. Here you need to pay attention to your color to avoid taking massive damage.
If Argos jumps to the middle of the arena, it always means that a new mechanic awaits you. Particularly important here are the small circles in different colors on the ground. In this attack, the opponent spawns a total of 8 small circles. 4 for team day and 4 for team night.
Within seconds, all 8 circles must be occupied accordingly; if this does not happen, both groups die immediately. It’s best to coordinate in advance who goes to which corner. A circle spawns for both teams at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock.
In Korea, it is common practice for each team member to multiply their number by 3 and take that direction. So if you are number 2 in your group, you need to take the circle at 6 o’clock. If your group doesn’t coordinate, stick to this scheme.
If your group survives this mechanic, the teams switch. Those who were night before are now team day. This quickly leads to confusion, so always keep an eye on your color.
What other mechanics are there? With his normal attacks, Argos behaves very similarly to known Guardian Raid bosses. He strikes forward and backward, jumps, and charges forward. It is advisable for melee fighters to always stand at 7 or 5 o’clock behind the boss.
His kick backwards does enormous damage to all those directly behind him. So avoid standing directly at the back of the boss. At 5 and 7 o’clock, you will not be hit by the kick but can still receive the bonus for “Back-Attack”.
If you see two lines on the battlefield, you need to move quickly within those lines. Anyone standing outside will take massive damage from an explosion after a few seconds.
For all other attacks, stick to the known pattern: Always stand where your color glows to avoid taking damage.
You should not just attack blindly: Towards the end of the first phase, things get really mean. Both teams receive a buff with 10 stacks. Here, both teams must try not to work together. The goal is to maintain the boss’s stacks of both colors in balance.
- If 5 attacks from day have landed on Argos, 5 from team night must also hit Argos.
- You can see if you are successful by the fact that the boss also receives an aura that is either day or night.
- The goal, however, is that he doesn’t build up any aura and remains balanced.
- If Argos suddenly receives a night aura, the night team should stop attacking until team day has balanced him again.
If Argos is not balanced at the end of this mechanic, the team in whose aura the boss last was dies. This is unavoidable and thus a kind of wipe mechanic. So you should always pay attention that you don’t use all your stacks to be able to act in case of emergency.
In this phase, it’s also okay to simply not attack at all. You gain nothing from a little more damage if your team ends up dying.
The community is annoyed by the update
What do players say about Argos? In general, the massive stag is a popular boss in Lost Ark and actually a reason for joy. However, especially among veteran players of Lost Ark, Argos currently causes discontent.
The background is the high entry gear score of 1,370. Many players believe that this is currently too hard to reach and that Argos should have come much later. There is also discussion that other versions had much more time during the launch of Argos to gather materials.
Many professionals were also expecting the Argos update to come with an improvement in the chances of successful item upgrades, allowing more players to reach this gear score faster. According to the official patch notes, however, this is not the case.
YouTuber and veteran of the Russian version Fox says on YouTube: “I am not Gearscore 1,370. I asked my guild, all veterans from Russia and Korea – no one is 1,370. Even in another guild full of professionals, I asked, and no one there is at 1,370. There is simply a lack of upgrade materials, for free-to-play players it is even worse. Is it even free-to-play if I, as a free account, cannot access the new content?”
In this statement, he is strongly supported by the community. Many are also afraid that Argos will unleash a wave that cannot be stopped. Anyone who is already struggling to reach 1,370 can quickly jump to 1,400 and higher through Argos and then be ready for Valtan, the next Abyss raid. Meanwhile, a large part of the players is still unable to access Argos; this is the concern of the veterans.
What do you think of the update? Is Argos too early? Are you already at 1,370 gear score, or are you still so far from it that Argos is of no interest to you? What do you think about releasing new endgame content already? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
We also looked at how Lost Ark is doing one month after release.
