Lost Ark Online

Kythik said:

Is the super mokoko express giving a full 5x3 engraving for the character? or is that just weird wording?
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Yes. The new support is 5x3 engraving with full lvl 7 gems and 4 lvl 8 gems. The gems stay after the event, engravings go away once it expires though.

Voldeth said:

Yes. The new support is 5x3 engraving with full lvl 7 gems and 4 lvl 8 gems. The gems stay after the event, engravings go away once it expires though.

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The level 8s require 1580 so thats a ways off still for a lot of people

- Changed so that the Ice Statue's Valuables Chest of Argon Island can be obtained only once per roster on the first completion of the Ice Statue.

RIP card xp, but at least they might add other sources now.

Kirun said:

But is that because the game genuinely doesn't reward you for playing a stable of 978 characters? Or is it because people got so beaten down with having to progress 12 toons that they finally just said, "fuck this".

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Not really sure I understand the question. You can have up to 6 gold earning characters, which means that running 6 characters is the maximum value efficiency you can have to earn gold per week. With that being said, the honing cost of these characters (to bring them up to 1580) makes it detrimental to hone them to that point as the character will almost assuredly not recoup the original investment to bring them to that ilvl. This has been true for quite some time (the threshold was probably at around hard Brel?) however people are pretty terrible at the notion of efficiency and understanding cost. The 'correct' way to go about it is to keep 1-3 characters to 1580, which allows these characters to play the newer content on release and hone to upper relic for the maximum ilvl increase, thus resulting in the lowest cost value to progress your character (e.g., never spending any real cash). The game encourages you to take a break and come back without falling behind and being able to check out the new stuff -- this is done in the form of power passes, which the present one will bring a character to 1540, a higher ilvl than anyone who quit prior to Normal Brel achieved.

BoozeCube said:

Yeah but why drop from 3 to 1 when I can just drop to 0?

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That's more than fair if you don't enjoy the game. I continue to think that they get more 'right' with Lost Ark than any other MMO on the market, with perhaps the exception of Final Fantasy. The combat & raid designs blow the competition out of the water.

On another note, patch time is estimated to be 15 hours. I will of course be sitting waiting for login to try the new Soulfist buffs & Akkan, hoping to see some old faces jump on Discord if you need any assistance or have questions!

Voldeth said:

That's more than fair if you don't enjoy the game. I continue to think that they get more 'right' with Lost Ark than any other MMO on the market, with perhaps the exception of Final Fantasy. The combat & raid designs blow the competition out of the water.

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The combat and raids are good, but the rest of it plays like a mobile game where everything is daily/weekly gated unless you want to pay for more (or play more alts which feels terrible, alts should be something fun you do when you feel like it). BDO's progression system is 1000x better than LA, you can play and progress as much as you want to invest in the game, and not having trading / fixing AH prices eliminates RMT bots.

Voldeth said:

Not really sure I understand the question. You can have up to 6 gold earning characters, which means that running 6 characters is the maximum value efficiency you can have to earn gold per week. With that being said, the honing cost of these characters (to bring them up to 1580) makes it detrimental to hone them to that point as the character will almost assuredly not recoup the original investment to bring them to that ilvl. This has been true for quite some time (the threshold was probably at around hard Brel?) however people are pretty terrible at the notion of efficiency and understanding cost. The 'correct' way to go about it is to keep 1-3 characters to 1580, which allows these characters to play the newer content on release and hone to upper relic for the maximum ilvl increase, thus resulting in the lowest cost value to progress your character (e.g., never spending any real cash). The game encourages you to take a break and come back without falling behind and being able to check out the new stuff -- this is done in the form of power passes, which the present one will bring a character to 1540, a higher ilvl than anyone who quit prior to Normal Brel achieved.

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So you do keep a stable of at least 3 chars to maintain max efficiency?

That's my point. A lot of people can't be bothered with having to do daily chores on that many alts. Hell, I remembered when I played I got tired of the chores on ONE character, let alone 3+. That's what I meant by people just saying, "fuck this, not worth it" - rather than any "alt improvements" being the result of SG actually doing anything to improve the situation.

You can say, "lol nobody plays 6 alts!!" all you want. That isn't because SG actually improved anything or that it's no longer "worth" to play that many characters. People just simply got sick and tired of slaving away and quit playing alts.

Kirun said:

So you do keep a stable of at least 3 chars to maintain max efficiency?

That's my point. A lot of people can't be bothered with having to do daily chores on that many alts. Hell, I remembered when I played I got tired of the chores on ONE character, let alone 3+. That's what I meant by people just saying, "fuck this, not worth it" - rather than any "alt improvements" being the result of SG actually doing anything to improve the situation.

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Thanks for clarifying. Yes, keeping only 1 character would likely result in falling behind and not progressing (or having very little to do in the game). Their version of addressing this concern (reducing the time it takes to complete the chores, to about ~10 minutes every other day) is also a band aid solution that doesn't resolve what you don't like about the game.

Voldeth said:

Thanks for clarifying. Yes, keeping only 1 character would likely result in falling behind and not progressing (or having very little to do in the game). Their version of addressing this concern (reducing the time it takes to complete the chores, to about ~10 minutes every other day) is also a band aid solution that doesn't resolve what you don't like about the game.

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Alts should ALWAYS be something you do to kill time, have a little fun when you're bored of your "main", etc. Once alts become a requirement to have, they are no longer an "alt" and now just an extension of your main. They essentially function as an "alternate progression" system for your main at that point and it's fucking retarded the way SG handled it in LA. Because while I'm not that opposed to "alternate advancement" systems that mostly function as horizontal progression(obviously some vertical progression is expected), SG's version is just straight up vertical progression.

For as good as the whole "family" stuff was (also one of BDO's best features), they destroyed so much of that with the alt system.

Malakriss said:

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This actually hits home for our group because between Q, Lumi, & I we put in an absolutely ridiculous amount of hours into the game, we're talking:



...and none of us have cut a 9/7 stone or gotten our wings from Kayangel yet but it seems every random pug we take has one or both.

Its Math time.

Game came out Feb. 7th 2022. That is roughly 1.5 years ago. So 52+26 = 78 and for good measure we will say 80 Weeks. 6400/80 = 80.

You have had this game running/playing an average of 80 hours per week for 1.5 years.

Fucking insane.

Malakriss said:

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Damn right it hits home Voldeth - Thats the kind of shit that fucking got to me. The RNG in this game, at least back then, good fucking lord.. Its like - You set a goal in your mind, "Ok, Im gonna get this island token" (or something, its all the same fucking thought process), and you go to the island over and over and over again. You're setting fucking timers outside of the game to make sure you make each spawn (hell ya it has a spawn time that drags you away from anything you might actually find fun in the game) and in the end, you get the island soul. Only took you around 14 spawns to do over multiple hours/days. Then, you see it.. right in fucking guild chat. The guy that just joined the game, is already fucking 1400 (when you're played weeks over multiple characters just to get to 1390).. does the island once and gets it on the first try.

How does that not aggravate you to the point you want to uninstall this fucking game? You join a group and kill the hardest boss in all of the game with perfect execution and you might not get anything worth your fucking time for weeks. Yet you turn around and carry someone that can barely control their character, and they get the best shit? .. Like I said, the RNG in this game fucking rubs me the wrong way something fierce.

Glad the games getting a lot better - but it doesnt sound like a lot of that shit has been addressed, and likely never will based on its developer. The idea that in Korea they pay tons of money to advance some of their gear because RNG, would probably make me go trench coat mafia on the studio.

Daidraco said:

Damn right it hits home Voldeth - Thats the kind of shit that fucking got to me. The RNG in this game, at least back then, good fucking lord.. Its like - You set a goal in your mind, "Ok, Im gonna get this island token" (or something, its all the same fucking thought process), and you go to the island over and over and over again. You're setting fucking timers outside of the game to make sure you make each spawn (hell ya it has a spawn time that drags you away from anything you might actually find fun in the game) and in the end, you get the island soul. Only took you around 14 spawns to do over multiple hours/days. Then, you see it.. right in fucking guild chat. The guy that just joined the game, is already fucking 1400 (when you're played weeks over multiple characters just to get to 1390).. does the island once and gets it on the first try.

How does that not aggravate you to the point you want to uninstall this fucking game? You join a group and kill the hardest boss in all of the game with perfect execution and you might not get anything worth your fucking time for weeks. Yet you turn around and carry someone that can barely control their character, and they get the best shit? .. Like I said, the RNG in this game fucking rubs me the wrong way something fierce.

Glad the games getting a lot better - but it doesnt sound like a lot of that shit has been addressed, and likely never will based on its developer. The idea that in Korea they pay tons of money to advance some of their gear because RNG, would probably make me go trench coat mafia on the studio.

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A few things to unpack here and, obviously, this is my personal perspective on the MMO genre. I consider a certain amount of RNG to be healthy in a game. I am absolutely, perfectly, positively okay with some things requiring an absurd amount of luck. For an Everquest example, I spent an absolutely absurd amount of time for Raster on my monk -- it was a common joke with friends that I would die of old age before that fucker would spawn. I know plenty of people who got him on a server reset first spawn. Hell, I spent less than an hour camping Ragefire for my cleric epic and some fuckers spent days camping him. With that being said, I do however subscribe to the belief that there should always be a certain amount of bad luck prevention, which is to say that a pity system should exist where I am always obtaining some form of currency to allow me to get an item. This is why item honing doesn't bother me in the slightest, while the implementation is terrible in Lost Ark, I know that no matter how shitty it goes, I'll get to the desired outcome.

On the topic of a 9/7 stones, it's a common Lost Ark meme that some newbie cuts a 9/7 stone. The chances of doing so are 0.07% and this does offer additional character power, which is flawed and shitty design. The wings I mentioned however are purely cosmetic and there is a currency available for an uglier version of them, which is good design and shows that they've learned from their mistakes. The stuff you're talking about (islands) do not increase your characters power in the slightest; it's for people who want to be 100% completionist. I am thus okay that there are some island souls that are a nightmare of RNG to get, albeit this patch has made most of them a lot easier. If I were you, and I'm truly not trying to sell you the game, I would give it a shot for a week or two. You quit during Argos, which was the height of the stupid design and not fun things to do. I'm rather confident that if you load up your Artiletist, power pass it and mess around with Valtan/Vykas/Clown/Brel at least once you'll have a good time and it'll morph your perspective on the game quite a bit.

As the P2W stuff, which people really don't understand in Lost Ark. I'll use this tier as an example of the transactions available and how silly it is to care. In order to raid the newest content, your character has to be 1580. This was perfectly achievable for anyone without spending any money. The new content of raid also (similar to previously ones) drops an increase in item level increase material. This is achieved by upgrading your current gear from Ancient to Upper Ancient. You have a 100% chance of doing this and, when you upgrade your 1580 item, it instantly becomes 1600 and has a decent honing chance. This is why you should only hone to 1580 as it is the most efficient stopping point. The game however has allowed folks to push beyond 1580 for a few months by upgrading their current ancient gear to a higher ilevel. It is however insanely costly (e.g., even with my absurd amount of gold, I was only able to get to 1600). Based upon the above, there are whales who were able to push their characters beyond 1580-1600 by paying money. That money spent served no purpose however -- they will effectively be a single hone or two ahead from someone who parked at 1580. It also cost them in the thousands of dollars to achieve (this isn't an exaggeration -- a gigawhale who was 1625 at the time of this patch likely spent 50-100 grand). Lets keep in mind that for a few months, this insane cost did not allow them to do any content that I can do as a F2P player. It just let them have a shinier weapon than me. Similarly, from your game experience, you may remember that some whales / streamers spent thousands to hit ~1390-1400 during the Argos days. The current power pass will boost you instantly passed that and take you to 1540. Thus you're never in a situation where you 'need' to pay or where it offers you an advantage. This is why Lost Ark is fundamentally a pay to progress faster game, where the game never locks you out from doing the current raids if you don't spend anything. I don't really have a problem with that (albeit, for avoidance of doubt, I would rather that there be a sub cost to my MMOs than this being the method that the studio makes money).

Lastly, the combat & raid design remain the absolute best in the business for non ultra-hardcore raiders. I am easily able to outparse those whales (who traditionally die within 5 minutes of even a normal raid) as I am better at games. I don't know anyone who has raided Valtan/Vykas/Clown/Brel at ilvl and did not enjoy it. There's certainly some (well, a lot) of frustration when it becomes farm and wipe mechanics become tedious however, it's still well worth the experience. Give it a try!

Today's downtime is 15 hours however the patch is available for download and it's massive:



It goes to 40GB if you use Korean voice packs.

I was hoping Sea Bounties would get updated, specifically the 4 moved off of sailing gate RNG, but even island souls got a mere band-aid for the field boss types so no confidence.

Server's up. Merchants on map are easily visible when fully zoomed out, can mouse over and check if any of the multiple cards rolled a legendary.

edit: -40% gold hone nerf up to 1590

This patch is absolutely glorious. We are in Discord now for anyone who wants to join - we'll be doing a bunch of Clown/Brel/Kayangel's.

Gold frog reminder that while engravings are crashing in price each bag bought awards a token and there are two Legendary Card Selection Packs (old ones sadly) on the 2nd page. 12 tokens to buy one, 6 x 2k = 12k per week so you can officially buy selection packs for 24k. Then if you get insane luck with the engravings you get some of that money back.

Also, click your Playtime event awards each day. They are bugged and don't show as active but you can still click to receive the rewards for your daily playtime amount.

Lumi was saying that there was about a 20k increase in return players yesterday. I'm sure that will fade soon but this patch brought in an amazing amount of good will. Every change is something that people had been asking for and there's been a lot of returning players as a result. It also goes a long way that KR has gotten two extra patches since this and it continues to trend of actual good stuff.

Looking forward to some Akkan prog tonight!