Tomorrow, “The Art of War” comes to Lost Ark. The big March update not only introduces the first Specialist Advanced Class, The Artist, but a new 48x48 Realm vs. Realm mode, new balance changes and tweaks to gold, and a new Punika Powerpass and other progression events.
The Artist is the first Specialist advanced class in Lost Ark, but won’t be the last. This class is a versatile one, and her individual lower attack power may be a bit misleading. You’ll be able to use her brush and special paint and ink-based powers to choose to boost damage output for you and your allies in range or to become a high quality team support. As support, you can recover HP for you and allies, and even do both damage to enemies and shield allies with the same skill. This is a class made for party play, with two different Engravings, each focused on one of those two goals.
The PvPers are getting a new instance to refine and hone their skills. With the recent arrival of Rowen, and the need to pick a faction to support to participate within the region, the new Tulubik Battlefield is a mode that is a natural extension of all of that. In this mode, you’ll have to have an item level of 1490 and a Faction Rank of 3 to enter. Tulubik Battlefield will be available at regular match times for the full 96-player experience with full rewards. At other times, there will be an option for “friend matches” of 30-96 players. For these, both opposing teams are randomly assigned for balance, and the rewards will be a little different. Still, the practice could be useful for the main mode faction showdowns.
The new Punika Powerpass will also begin. This time, there’s also a Hyper Express Plus and a new Story Express, all progression events that will help you get your characters leveled and geared up. These, plus the new Ark Pass season and a new login campaign will grant all sorts of rewards. The Ark Pass, free or premium tiers, will grant goodies to all, while the login campaign will be for those new and returning players who’ve been away for over 30 days.
This is a big update, though those things are the flashy parts. Much of the changes in the long list of patch notes are balance changes for the classes, as well as technical fixes, and some additional tweaks to how gold will work. The gold changes reflect reversing some of the ongoing work to fight against botting, as well as a new gold sink. There will now be a 5% fee on loot auctions after clearing dungeons and raid. Any amount over 100,000 gold will be hit with the new fee if the loot drops are sold later.
Read the full detailed patch notes over at Lost Ark. Downtime is set to begin at 12 AM PDT.
