Lost Ark is the hot MMORPG of the season, bringing in tons of players and topping Steam charts. But developer Smilegate RPG must be somewhat worried about player retention, as many Lost Ark fans have sounded off over the difficulty of endgame content. More specifically, they’ve expressed annoyance at the difficulty of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Guardian Raids and Abyss Dungeons. As a result, Smilegate RPG nerfed the difficulty for those Lost Ark levels in a recent update.
Nerfing the difficulty for any content is bound to be a controversial move. The folks over at Lost Ark released a lengthy statement to discuss their reasons for dropping the difficulty of Guardian Raids and Abyss Dungeons. In the statement, the developers explained that players on the Korean server had much more time to play these raids and dungeons, as it was the only content at the time. This allowed the player base to learn the patterns of the bosses and have an easier time. However, Lost Ark in the global server released with up-to-date content from Korea, so these players didn’t have that luxury.
Easier said than done
As Tier 3 content releases at a steady rate, the Lost Ark developers hope to ease newer players into the difficulty of these challenges at a more natural pace. As stated by the devs, “This balance update isn’t about simply adjusting the difficulty as a whole. Rather, the focus is to improve some of the difficult patterns to better prepare players as they progress through each Tier and work their way toward Tier 3 endgame content.”
You can check out the full list of difficulty changes for these Lost Ark raids here in an official weekly update post. Meanwhile, if you’re still stuck in Tier 1 and Tier 2 content, these changes are already live. Go forth, and become a coveted member of the Tier 3 club.
