Lost Ark has had its ups and downs, but for the first time in a long time it’s finally above water with more than 100 thousand concurrent players. It was not always this way though as they struggled to find their audience after releasing T1 and T2 content nerfs which turned out to be total failures. At least now they are making up for it by preparing Amazon servers that will carry them through until release of their new game, “T3: The Lost Paradise” on November 6th.
If you were still unsettled by the mild controversy over Lost Ark’s planned dungeon difficulty balancing update, well, continue being unsettled, as those changes are live as of last night and servers are back in business as of this morning.
So, what precisely is the problem here? Because less than 10% of the game’s players have finished several of the T1 and T2 guardian raids and abyss dungeons, Amazon and Smilegate recommended basically nerfing their difficulty. Today’s patch notes include that nerf, as well as a thorough explanation of why it was made.
T1 and T2 material, according to the studio, was endgame content for a long time in other places, such as South Korea, before T3 was launched. However, since all three tiers released at the same time in the west, players aren’t spending much time churning about in T1 and T2 waterways, and as a result, those tiers aren’t really functioning as endgame content.
“Because of the differing purposes of Tier 1 and Tier 2 in our territories, certain extremely tough Guardians and Abyssal Dungeon encounters remained.” This upgrade isn’t just about changing the difficulty level as a whole. Rather, the emphasis is on improving some of the most challenging patterns so that players are better prepared as they go through each Tier and reach Tier 3 endgame material. As players go through their trip, we want them to encounter increasingly tough and sophisticated material. There’s a lot more tough upcoming Tier 3 material that hasn’t been included into the western release yet – keep tuned for our roadmap piece, which will tell you what to anticipate in the next months. Players will be able to test themselves, master systems, and understand difficult concepts as a result of these impending encounters. Even Argos, who will arrive this month, will be a tough opponent who will put the so-called heroes infesting Arkesia to the test.”
Apart from the grousing, it makes a lot of sense and isn’t too dissimilar to what many MMORPGs do over time.
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