In December, the developers of Lost Ark announced the next, new class for the MMORPG. Now the Painter has joined the game in Korea, directly causing new player records. We at MeinMMO summarize.
What has happened in Lost Ark? On January 12, the new class was launched in Lost Ark. The Painter is not just a new sub-class for existing base classes, but brings a completely new base class with it.
The new base class is called Specialist and will be further fed with classes in the future. So far, however, the Specialist can only become a Painter. A type of weather mage has already been hinted at in a teaser.
How is the new class being received? Very well. As a base class, it even brings a new race with it, which resides on a new continent. Players in Korea have therefore received several new contents.
The hype around the new base class and the versatility of the Painter has even caused player numbers to soar. Smilegate announced that last week over 260,000 players were online at the same time – and that was just in South Korea.
This way, Lost Ark breaks its own record of 240,000 simultaneous players, which they were also able to set with a new class and the Astalgia update.
Here you can see the skills of the new class:
How is the game developing? Since its release in Korea in 2018, Lost Ark has been continuously breaking new records and is therefore developing splendidly. Currently, the MMORPG is the most successful game of its kind in Korea, a country where MMORPGs are generally very popular.
It can thus claim the 2nd place among the most popular online games overall. Only League of Legends stands above Lost Ark in Korea.
Comparing the numbers from the week before the Painter release with the week after, the number of new players has increased by 144% and the number of returning fans has risen by 227%.
Painter combines support and damage
What can the new class do? The Painter works with two different ways of drawing. Whenever he switches between these methods, the skills of the new class change.
This allows the Painter to fluidly switch between damage and support, as he can deal considerable damage with the black ink while the white ink buffs his allies and himself.
Why is it so popular? In Lost Ark, there have only been two classes so far that are actually treated as support. These are the Bard and the Paladin. In a pool of 21 classes, the supporters have been relatively poorly represented.
This is one of the reasons why the Painter is currently so popular. Many fans are also looking forward to trying out a new base class. The Specialist and the relatively childlike character that comes with it is something that many fans in Korea can appreciate.
When is the Painter coming to us? This is still uncertain and really hard to predict. While the EU version starts with 15 classes, the Painter is the 22nd class in Korea.
One cannot rely on chronological orders, as for the EU release we are receiving the Sorceress, which only entered the game in Korea in August. The Arcana, for example, will not be available in the EU version for now, although it has been in the game from the very beginning in Korea.
Since Amazon wants to loosen the gender lock a bit for us in the West, it is likely that we will initially get the female version of the Berserker, which was also announced at LOA ON, a trade fair specifically for Lost Ark. Whether and when the Painter will follow remains uncertain.
What do you think of the new class? Can you understand the rush on the Korean servers and would you also like to be there to try out the Painter immediately? Or are you less excited about the new Specialist base class and are happy with the 15 classes we are getting?
If you are not yet familiar with Lost Ark, we have 7 things you need to know about the game if you come from Diablo.
