In this article we are going to see what is Lost Ark online and we will make a brief introduction to what are the basic information and game mechanics.
In addition to this we will also talk about the possible release dates of the European and North American version, which at the moment seems to be in the second half of 2021 by Amazon.
Lost Ark NA release date (is not a mistery anymore)
At the end I will also leave my personal review on Lost Ark and why I think it is a great game coming in February 11 2020, we will still have to wait at least a year before its release in Europe.
The download of Lost Ark is not yet available in Europe, but before its arrival if you already know the game and are interested in trying it, I invite you to read my guide on how to play Lost Ark Online on the Russian server.
What is Lost Ark Online game?
Lost Ark is a Action MMORPG open world with isometric view similar to games like Diablo, Path of Exile, Wolcen and many others, very complete that offers lots of content for all types of players, let’s see some below.
Lost Ark PvE
Among the features dedicated to PvE we can find many dungeons extremely well maintained, quests rather varied considering the genre, cinematics at the top with all the characters dubbed and spectacular animations. They go to complete all a system of progressive raids that will allow you to develop the equipment of your character encountering an increasing difficulty.
Lost Ark PvP
As for the PvP we can find the classic 1v1v1, 3v3 arenas both casual and ranked and a Guild vs Guild system that will allow you to conquer territories. Another PvP feature is the ability to engage in open world combat on some islands that will automatically flag the player at the entrance.
The classes of Lost Ark Online
The class system in Lost Ark allows you to choose an archetype at character creation that will then branch out into 3 or more possible different classes to choose from
The primary archetypes are:
Lost Ark Primary Classes
- Warrior
- Mage
- Fighter
- Gunner
- Assassin
These then go on to be divided into several advanced classes.
Sottoclassi Lost Ark
- Warrior: Berserker – Destroyer – Warlord
- Mage: Arcana – Summoner – Bard
- Fighter: Battle Master – Infighter – Soul Master – Lance Master
- Gunner: Hawkeye – Devil Hunter – Blaster
- Assassin: Blade – Demonic
The classes differ a lot between them and even if there is not a real trinity classes like the Warlord and the Bard can help a lot with their shields
Features extra di Lost Ark
The classes differ a lot between them and even if there is not a real trinity classes like the Warlord and the Bard can help a lot with their shields
Maps, bosses and quests
In Lost Ark you’ll have the possibility to do map completion like in Guild Wars 2. For example, you’ll have to find viewpoints, semi-collectibles that are also an important currency, hunt map bosses and also a system of “affection” with NPCs that will give you very useful things once you reach certain thresholds
Ready to sail
Another interesting content is the possibility to set sail with your ship and go treasure hunting in the ocean that surrounds all the islands and the main continents. In addition to this you can visit hundreds of islands where you will find hidden quests, world bosses and “songs” that will help you with the growth of your affection with NPCs.
Life skill
Obviously we could not miss the life skills, unlike other games on Lost Ark crafting is free but you can not gather everything with a single character because the plants, trees, etc.. have tier and you must spend life skill points to gather a certain type of plant or hunt a certain type of animal. But let’s see what are the types of gathering in Lost Ark
- Herbalism: allows you to craft potions
- Lumbering: allows you to craftable items useful in raids like flare and campfire
- Mining: Craftable mineral grenades that help with DPS in raids and elemental weapon items.
- Hunting: allows you to craftare flare and endgame items of great value
- Fishing: allows you to craftable raid items such as scarecrow (aoe aggrano)
- Archaeology: allows you to craftare charms that shield and potions that remove debuffs
Growing up in Lost Ark, equipment and RNG
Avanzare di livello ed equipaggiamento
The growth of the character in Lost Ark is quite linear and reminiscent of games like Monster Hunter or Dauntless in fact even here the best equipment is crafta using materials dropped by raid bosses that climbing in difficulty will provide the right materials to improve your gear and give you the opportunity to face stronger bosses and then progress further with your equip
The game is “Item Level based” this means that improving your gear will open the door to higher content that can then provide you with items or other things stronger and stronger and this helps a lot with the perception of development and never seems that during the day you have not made any progress
RNG in Lost Ark
Let’s face now the RNG, a plague that very often goes to ruin the experience in online RPGs.
Lost Ark despite being Korean manages to limit the RNG really to a minimum. Your equipment will obviously have stats that will be random to obtain the piece and you will need to reroll them to get the stats you want. Usually this would be time gated or even worse item gated as it happened on games like MapleStory2. Here instead the only thing needed is the in-game currency, which can be obtained in various ways and that will allow you to roll as many times as you want until you find the two stats you want.
Ability Stone
It’s not all sunshine and roses though, so let’s talk about the only, in my opinion, the weak point of Lost Ark, the ability stone
The ability stones give a nice boost to statistics, especially HP and are therefore a very important part of the equipment of your character.
Once you get an ability stone you have to:
Hope that out of 3 stats 2 are the ones you want and 1 is one that you do not need at all.
If you have the right stats you will have to upgrade it with an obnoxious RNG system that will often fail despite the very high %. You will not lose the stone, but the boost to the stats will be much lower and then you will find yourself having to do another one all over again
“Ability stones are in my opinion the true endgame as far as gearing is concerned. Committing resources during progression will only waste your time, currency, and only get you frustrated”
Review Lost Ark Online
This article via gave you a basic idea of what to expect from Lost Ark. Now I will give you my opinion after about a month of play on the Russian server
The game comes with stunning graphics, animations really well done and a very dynamic combat system with a very high skillcap that will reward commitment and practice. The progression system never leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth and you will always feel a progress with each passing day.
The daily quests are a piece of cake and will take very little time after which you can devote yourself to what you really want to do. With a group of friends you can do all the daily quests in no time and then you can devote to all the extra content that Lost Ark has to offer or simply close in PvP arena as I used to do.
I personally liked the marine content a lot, during downtime waiting for my friends to log in I would go around the sea hunting for wrecks or doing map completion. These are things that I personally appreciate a lot because as a fan of MMO I tend to spend a lot of time in the game and if at the end of the day in addition to the daily entries of dungeons or PvP there is nothing else the game tends to get bored quickly.
After playing on the Russian server I can not wait to play Lost Ark in Europe, I can enjoy the story with English dubbing and finally be able to interact with other players that unfortunately I could not because of language barrier.
Is Lost Ark pay 2 win?
A question all of us MMORPG players ask ourselves. In a nutshell, “ni.” Read on to understand what I mean by “ni”.
When we talk about P2W we mean the ability to upgrade our character by paying real money. The problem with Lost Ark is that paying doesn’t win you anything.
Ranked PvP is balanced when equipment doesn’t matter, raids have a high difficulty so the real endgame raids whether you have the best gear because you pay or not won’t make a difference, if you don’t know how to use your character you will continue to wipe and waste time without accomplishing anything.
The P2W is more of a pay 2 progress as it helps you a lot to speed up the process of reaching the end game. However, you will find yourself without materials and you will have to wait until the next day to reset the dungeons to continue to improve your gear.
Lost Ark pros and cons
PRO:
- Graphics
- Dynamic combat
- History (for an mmo)
- Character progression
- Not very challenging days
- Skill based
AGAINST:
- Gender lock (a recent news talks about removal but nothing yet)
- Not perfectly balanced in PvP
- Open PvP little incentive
- Leveling not very fast
- RNG of Ability Stone
How to play Lost Ark in the Russian version
If you are curious and want to try the game I remind you that you can already do it and to make it easy I wrote a guide on how to play Lost Ark Russian in Italian, take a look!
Trailer and Gameplay Lost Ark
System Requirements for Lost Ark Online
Minima:
- CPU: Intel Core i3-3235 / AMD FX-6300 or higher
- RAM: 4 Gb
- OS: Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 x64
- VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 460 / AMD R7 260 or higher
- DIRECTX: 9.0c
- FREE SPACE: 35 Gb
Recommended:
- CPU: Intel i5 6500 / Ryzen 5 1500x or higher
- RAM: 8Gb
- OS: Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 x64
- VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 660 / Radeon R9 270 or higher
- DIRECTX VERSION: 9.0c
- FREE SPACE: 35 Gb (SSD)
As soon as it is released in Europe you can download Lost Ark via the following link.
