Amazon Games has announced in a recent update that the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game Lost Ark will be receiving new advanced classes at a rate of one every two months for the remainder of the year. The Western version of Lost Ark has only been available for a few months, whereas the original Korean version has had three years to add expansions and additional classes. As a result, Amazon Games and the original developer, Smilegate RPG, have been doing some thinking about how to bring the two versions of the game to feature parity so that players can choose between them with equal ease.
Players are eager to get their hands on the abilities and Lost Ark accessories that are available in the Korean version of the MMO, so the topic of Lost Ark advanced classes is one that is receiving a lot of attention from them. Amazon Games has stated that it intends to introduce new advanced classes into the Western edition of Lost Ark in conjunction with the introduction of new content drops that are the most logical fit for those classes. This is the reason why the Destroyer advanced class was introduced concurrently with the Valtan Legion Raid, in which it is able to put its useful stagger abilities to use.
Amazon Games also explains that it is trying to avoid launching new classes immediately ahead of major reworks. This is done in an effort to prevent some frustration on the part of players who are attempting to learn the new class as soon as it is made available.
According to Amazon Games’ announcement, “We are planning to release one new Advanced Class every two months for the remainder of 2022.” We’ve worked closely with Smilegate RPG to meticulously plan out this schedule, which features a much faster cadence than other regions as we catch up,” the sentence reads.
Having new content to play along with new advanced classes to try out will “help support the long-term health of the game,” according to the development studio, which is working to time out the release roadmap for the rest of the year in a way that keeps players coming into and back to Lost Ark.
Amazon Games has stated that it is collaborating with Smilegate RPG to create new in-game events and other features that will enable players to rapidly advance in new Lost Ark classes once they become available.
The arcanist, a mage subclass whose abilities are based on a powerful deck of magic cards, will be the next Lost Ark advanced class that we will see. The advanced arcanist class will be available in July, along with Inferno Difficulty for the Valtan Legion Raid and Challenge Abyssal Dungeons. These features will be added to the game by Blizzard Entertainment.
Amazon Game Studios has included some very welcome announcements in the patch notes for the upcoming Lost Ark update for the month of June, which is finally scheduled to go live on June 30. Amazon and Smilegate are adding a couple of bot prevention measures to the MMO game in an effort to help address what the community views as one of the game’s most significant issues. These features include the Vykas Raid, the Kungelanium Guardian, and the Thronespire single-player activity. These additions come on top of the features we already expected, such as the Vykas Raid and the Kungelanium Guardian.
When you first enter a new area in Lost Ark, the game will present you with a captcha verification test at random. You have a limited amount of time to solve the puzzle and pass the test. The plan is to boot “away from keyboard” bots, which are fictitious characters designed to make gold that can then be sold outside of the Lost Ark economy.
However, the extent to which it will be successful is an open question. A number of players hold the opinion that captchas are insufficient to make a meaningful difference and have, in the past, advocated for the implementation of two-factor identification. It is also unknown whether or not the captchas will appear in Raids, which have on occasion also seen the presence of bots populate within them.
A new limit has been placed on the ability to transfer purchases, and it appears that this change may have a more significant impact.
According to Amazon’s patch notes, “New store purchases will now have a 3-day waiting period before they can be traded or transferred out of the buyer’s account via mailing, trading, gifting, or selling on the Auction House.”
It does not put an end to the bot problem, but it does make it more difficult to obtain any tangibly beneficial rewards from cheating.
On a more upbeat note, the June update will include the addition of Heartbeat Island, a new event location that can be accessed by speaking to Jollous in any major city. During your time on Heartbeat Island, you can earn Festival Coins by participating in event-specific activities such as relaxing and competing in dance competitions. If only things worked out like that in the real world.
After you have had your fill of rest and relaxation, you might want to check out the PvP scene in Lost Ark for some excitement or collect Mokoko Seeds so that you can trade them in for some Lost Ark Gold Vern rewards.