Being over three years old in the west,Lost Arkhas had a rocky, but ambitious history. This is a free-to-play Korean MMORPG, meaning that its gameplay cycle is a little different than other similar games in the genre. You earn gold by completing raids to RNG hone your equipment, earn materials through daily quests and repeat. Obviously, there’s a bit more than that, especially if you’re a new or returning player, but that’s most of what the endgame grind comes down to.
Earlier this month, we were able to talk to Community Lead for Lost Ark at Amazon Games, Roxanne Sabo, to get a better understanding of what players can expect in the upcoming content throughout summer and into fall.
Lost Ark Paradise Guide: Elysian
A breath of fresh air, dive into Paradise for some weekly challenges.
[Hardcore Gamer]With so much content and quality of life content coming in the next couple of months, especially this month (July), what improvements are you most excited to see players get their hands on?
[Roxanne Sabo] There really is so much that it is hard to pick! I’m definitely torn between the Una’s Tasks rework and the Luminous Gem System — on one hand, I know players have been doing the same Una’s Tasks for ages now, so no more Lopangs will be refreshing! But the Luminous Gem system is another great refresh that will support players in having an easier time trying out new builds, so that’s going to be a lot of fun for us to have too.
One of the biggest changes to the formula recently has been the addition of revives. While not a completely foreign concept because raids such as Argos and Behemoth did have their own systems, how has the reception been to this feature thus far?
For our hardcore players, it hasn’t generated too much noise. But with revives being introduced as something to help out newer players as they learn and grow in the game, reception has generally been positive! It’s very nice that our veteran players are generally always “pro” any change that helps support newbies.
Mokoko Bootcamp is set to make a comeback this month. What is different this time around and do you think it has found the perfect balance yet, or is there still room to grow?
Mokoko Bootcamp has been altered to include more content, and with an altered item level cap to ensure newer players can make progress in learning the raids without losing their “Mokoko” status. We’ve also made some changes to Solo mode aimed to help new players get in and support them in learning their classes, rotations, and gaining general knowledge about Lost Ark’s raiding. All of that said, Mokoko Bootcamp is a labor of love between both us and the community. We expect to see more player feedback and make more changes for future iterations, and want it to continue to evolve to ensure it remains successful as a tool to support new players.
We’re very excited for Paradise, being something that’s a little more casual friendly and doesn’t rely too heavily on FOMO. How will it fit into the Lost Ark experience? Being Seasonal content, how often can Paradise expect to receive updates?
We’re definitely excited to see how players take to Paradise — it’s a very new feature for the game, and we’ll definitely be looking for feedback from our players. Right now, Paradise aims to be an accessible, fun, and fast piece of content that will help speed up player progression, and give players more control over what paths they want to take to earn rewards on a per character basis. Right now, the first season of Paradise is planned to run through mid-November, so players will definitely have a lot of time to test it out and let us know what they think, and we’ll be taking in that feedback from day one.
What does Valkyrie bring to the table that makes it stand out from all the other classes?
While the Valkyrie is the female counterpart to the Paladin class, she definitely sets herself apart! While the Paladin is a support focused class, the Valkyrie is unique in that she can be played as either a Support or a DPS. The DPS build lets you wield one-handed sword techniques while channeling your identity gauge to manifest a mighty sacred blade. Alternatively, as a support player, you’re able to bolster and safeguard your teammates by conjuring protective barriers from divine energy, helping to shift the momentum of combat in your favor through providing aid.
What do you believe the split will be between DPS and Support builds among the playerbase? Could this be a true multi-functional class embraced by the community?
While it’s hard to say what the community will lean towards, we’re definitely hoping to see a good mix of both support and DPS Valkyries storming Arkesia. I know playing a DPS build will be irresistible for some players, but I’m personally hoping to see a ton of new players joining the ranks!
The Limited Raid Event is an interesting concept. How long can we expect it to stay around? Is it something meant to help fill a void in-between Mordum and the final Kazeros Raid?
Assault: Rimeria will arrive later this year in September and is currently slated to run for approximately a month. It will definitely give players a new and fresh piece of raid content to enjoy as they wait for Kazeros’s approach, and we’re definitely excited to see how players take to this new style of limited raid content. And the rewards will be worth it, for sure!
Amazon Games Talks New Party Finder Policies, Wildsoul, Future for Lost Ark
We were able to talk to Amazon about not only the issues plaguing the MMORPG, but the exciting future they have in store for Lost Ark in the west.
Although not quite the same as Assault – Rimeria, we’ve seen event-based raids in the past with Valtan Extreme and Korea recently got Thaemine Extreme. Can we expect more limited raids in the future?
While Assault: Rimeria is a new style, I can say we’re definitely looking at bringing over Thaemine’s Extreme mode to the West — it’s a ton of fun to watch players take on these high level challenges.
The Region merge was finally announced, or re-announced given North America West was originally postponed. Why is now the perfect time to perform such a huge change to the server infrastructure?
A North America East and North America West region merge is something we’ve heard players asking about for quite some time, and our reason for timing is two-fold. For one, we wanted to make sure we were confident enough in the tech we have to make it happen and to ensure that playing in the one new region will, from a technical standpoint, be a positive experience for all players. With that now sorted, we wanted to make this merge happen ahead of the release of the raid against Kazeros at the end of the year — it’s going to be the biggest challenge yet, so allowing players across these regions to come together and take it on together was super important to us. We’re excited to see what new teams of adventurers form to take him on!
While it’s still a few months out from release, what are some of the biggest challenges or complications in implementing this type of merger? How will you be handling duplicate names?
Any time we do a merge, it’s a massive amount of data that we have to transfer and merge to verify everything can keep running smoothly. It’s a very involved process for our tech teams, but they’ve only gotten better and better at it. As far as our policies on duplicate names or any other merge-specific policies, we’re still working those out, so we’ll have more to share closer to the actual time of the merge.
Any final words to our readers about the future of Lost Ark?
We’re very excited to be at a point with the game where we’re able to have global content, like Paradise, tailored specifically to regions of the game outside of just Korea. We know that different regions have different challenges, so being able to find unique new ways to address those feels like a big step. We’re excited to see what players think about this first foray with Paradise, and as always we’ll definitely be watching and listening for feedback.
Lost Ark’s Massive July Patch Comes with New Pay-to-Win Subscription
One of the biggest MMORPGs has one of the biggest updates, but with it comes with a questionable subscription model.
