Few topics divide the community in Lost Ark as much as the issue of skins. Because these cosmetic items have a different problem: they cause players to experience a tangible gameplay disadvantage, regardless of whether they spend money or not.
What is the problem with the skins? In Lost Ark, currently, there are hardly any purchasable skins for some of the most popular character classes, like the Berserker. This is not only frustrating for fashion icons, but also leads to gameplay disadvantages.
A problem that significantly degrades the gameplay experience for many fans and goes beyond the usual discussions about sexy outfits or Pay2Win in Lost Ark.
Skins give you advantages
With the Omen skin set released in early March, the first complete skin set for all characters has come out. While this slowly addresses the problem, many players believe it is far too late and does too little. Even if Amazon has partially responded to the criticism about sexy outfits for women.
The biggest issue lies in the gameplay advantage that skins provide in Lost Ark. Not only do they look good, but they also grant you so-called Off-Stats like Charisma or Kindness.
You particularly need these values when interacting with NPCs. For example, there are status checks to see if you are nice enough to take on the next quest from the person. If your values are too low, you cannot do a favor for your favorite NPC and miss out on valuable loot.
Later, starting from the continent Rohendel, you will also need these values to obtain Mokoko seeds, which can also provide you with exciting loot.
While you can also gather these Off-Stats through roster levels and certain quest lines, skins provide you with a lot of additional Off-Stats. This is a significant advantage, especially at the beginning of the game, as you can scoop over 60,000 silver in Prideholm if your Off-Stats are good enough, which they definitely are with a skin.
Where does the discussion start? Now many of you may be saying aloud and indignant that this is Pay2Win. Well, that is up for debate. The big discussion among fans arises not from whether players who spend money are better off than those who do not.
It is more about the fact that until recently, there were not an equal number of skins available for all classes. So even people willing to spend money to get better stats sometimes could not or only conditionally did so.
This primarily affected players who did not participate in the MMORPG’s head start. Because the gold and platinum pre-order packages also included skins for a class of your choice. After that, things did not look very good.
While classes like the Artillerist had various skins available right from the start, the Berserker had to do without skins almost entirely. The Alar skin was an exception, but many ignored it because the in-game armor simply looked better.
So if you did not pre-order anything, the Omen skins are your first chance, a month after release, to grab a nice skin and the associated bonuses as a Berserker.
What groups are there?
- While one half of the community believes that the existing skins are simply too ugly and that there are primarily too few of them, many players hold a different opinion.
- They think that the standard skins in the game are already pretty enough but find it frustrating to have to forego Off-Stats because of that.
- One group feels forced to buy skins they do not want, while another would like to buy more that are not yet available to them.
No solution and just a weak start
What is the current status? With the Omen skins, cosmetic content that all classes can use has finally arrived. However, the problem is still not completely resolved, at least not for the community.
Many users feel that these skins are not what they envision, and no one wants to present a skin that they do not like at all. Furthermore, the Omen skins are merely a stopgap solution.
The reason for this is quite banal, yet the Omen skins look exactly the same for every subclass, just like the Northern Lawmaker skins from the gold pre-order package. Therefore, there are differences between warriors and sorceresses, but Berserkers and Paladins look identical.
A large part of the community thus wants to put more money into the free-to-play game and have more skins, while their primary criticism lies in the confusion over why Amazon is handling the skins the way they currently are.
The other side of the coin
What do other fans say? Another part of the community sees an additional problem with the skins in Lost Ark, aside from the availability of the cosmetic items.
Here, fans are frustrated that they must buy skins to obtain the valuable Off-Stats at all. The criticism is not aimed at possible Pay2Win aspects, but rather the desire to be able to purchase these values in another way.
They find the standard skins in Lost Ark too beautiful and see no reason to buy skins at all. However, due to the additional attributes, users feel forced to buy and wear skins they do not like. This is a sore point for many fans.
“Until there is a skin that truly convinces me 100%, I will stick with the standard outfits of my Deathblade. She just looks really great.” writes a fan in the official Lost Ark Discord.
What is the solution? For both groups of players, Lost Ark has a clear solution in mind: more skins, and fast. A large variety of good skins would at least alleviate the problems of both discussion groups.
So far, it is still unclear when Amazon will release the next skins for Europe. Besides bots and the new raid, the discussion surrounding skins is one of the most active in the community.
A discussion that seems incomprehensible to many outsiders, far removed from the Pay2Win or liberality issue.
What do you think? Do you have everything you imagined in terms of skins in Lost Ark? Do you want more skins or different ones? Or are you perhaps already completely satisfied? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
Lost Ark brings the first raid for 8 players, but they cannot play together
Many fans are thus disappointed, as truly unique skins for the specific subclasses are still very rare and withheld from a few specializations.
What’s next? This is likely a problem that will resolve itself over time. More skins will continue to come into the game, and eventually every class should have a selection that most players will find appealing.
However, the community does not think this is fast enough. The criticism is clear, and fans are primarily complaining that the skins already exist in Korea and just need to be imported.
In general, criticism about Lost Ark’s handling of skins is growing. While new cosmetic content is always showcased on the MMORPG’s website in Korea, you have to log into the game here and sometimes still do not have a decent preview of the skins.
A large part of the community thus wants to put more money into the free-to-play game and have more skins, while their primary criticism lies in the confusion over why Amazon is handling the skins the way they currently are.
The other side of the coin
What do other fans say? Another part of the community sees an additional problem with the skins in Lost Ark, aside from the availability of the cosmetic items.
Here, fans are frustrated that they must buy skins to obtain the valuable Off-Stats at all. The criticism is not aimed at possible Pay2Win aspects, but rather the desire to be able to purchase these values in another way.
They find the standard skins in Lost Ark too beautiful and see no reason to buy skins at all. However, due to the additional attributes, users feel forced to buy and wear skins they do not like. This is a sore point for many fans.
“Until there is a skin that truly convinces me 100%, I will stick with the standard outfits of my Deathblade. She just looks really great.” writes a fan in the official Lost Ark Discord.
What is the solution? For both groups of players, Lost Ark has a clear solution in mind: more skins, and fast. A large variety of good skins would at least alleviate the problems of both discussion groups.
So far, it is still unclear when Amazon will release the next skins for Europe. Besides bots and the new raid, the discussion surrounding skins is one of the most active in the community.
A discussion that seems incomprehensible to many outsiders, far removed from the Pay2Win or liberality issue.
What do you think? Do you have everything you imagined in terms of skins in Lost Ark? Do you want more skins or different ones? Or are you perhaps already completely satisfied? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
Lost Ark brings the first raid for 8 players, but they cannot play together
