Lost Ark’s latest update is now live, and the recently announced adjustments to T1/T2 dungeons and raids are in, along with a number of bug fixes.
The bulk of the notes concern the dungeons and raids that had their difficulties adjusted down, along with a reiteration of the reasons why Amazon and Smilegate RPG decided to tweak difficulty and how they did it for each of the affected features. The explanation goes into depth about what they had previously cited as low completion levels for these Dungeons and raids and broke it down into just how it happened.
For its Western release, Lost Ark launched with Tier 1, 2, and 3 content. T1 and T2 content is intended to let players get involved and learn more about how Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons work, learn some of the strategies and patterns they’d need both for their own skills and working with a team. Since the original release in other regions only launched with T1/T2 and it was a while before T3 content was introduced, players had a lot of time to learn it and to get better. With the difference in the regional versions, some of the T1/T2 content was leading to frustration and didn’t have time to truly gel as a type of prologue to the T3 content, much of which is still not in the Western release yet. Argos, recently announced for the next major update, should be a real challenge.
Their thinking is focused on tweaking just some of the mechanics that were frustrating and troubling players, based on data and feedback, in order to help them complete more of it. This is in line with plans to keep releasing T3 content, so they’re, in essence, trying to create the intended effect of a prologue or bridge.
The changes were to individual elements of these dungeons and raids, not an universal turning down of the difficulty. For example, the change to Gate of Paradise’s Sea of Indolence was changed to give players more opportunity to prepare, and possibly to come back.
Sea of Indolence
Increased the warning time for the omen attack in Stage 2 of Sea of Indolence.
Changed Indolence Sentinel Akam’s attack from a wipe mechanic to a high damage attack in Stage 2 of Sea of Indolence.
For the full list of tweaks, see the update over at Lost Ark.
