Lost Ark details its upcoming plans for the next 4 months of 2023. They look at new classes, QoL, and more.

Lost Ark 2023 Content Roadmap Discusses New Classes and Raids

Welcome back to Arkesia, heroes! Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG have just recently revealed their plans for Lost Ark’s western release this 2023. They detail some of the major bits of content and updates in the upcoming months. However, do remember that this is a high-level look at the major updates. The list is by no means comprehensive. 

Additionally, the developer and publisher of Lost Ark released a letter addressed to the community. There, they talk about various pain points that the community has been experiencing. They also detail some plans to help new players get into the action much quicker. 

Lost Ark May 2023: Slaying with Style

The highlight for Lost Ark’s May update will be the Slayer. She is the 5th Advanced Class for the Warrior, joining the Berserker, Paladin, Destroyer, and Gunlancer. The Slayer is more than just a female reskin of the existing Berserker. Instead, she has skills and abilities that have some similarities, but she is unique in her own way. 

Slayers rush into the battlefield with gigantic swords that fuel their Burst Mode. This is a special state that greatly increases her damage and movement speed while also granting a new ability called Bloodlust. Just like most class releases, the Slayer’s arrival in Lost Ark will coincide with special progression events. 

Next up is the Ebony Cube activity. This will essentially mash the existing Boss Rush and Cube activities into one gigantic abomination. 

Knowledge Transfer will also be improved by removing the requirements and the 8-hour cast time. Low-Level Guardian Raids will also give players a preset of Battle Items to help them clear out the instance. 

June 2023: Welcome to Elgacia

Coming in June is the continuation of Lost Ark’s grand storyline. After the quick side trip to Rowen for some magic crystals, we continue our pursuit of the Legion Commanders. Players are thus brought into Elgacia, the ancient land of the Lazeniths like Nineveh. 

Players will need to be at least item level 1460 to set foot on the continent. Completing the main storyline will unlock a new 4-player Abyssal Dungeon, “Kayangel”. This will have various difficulty options, the highest of which can upgrade players’ Ancient Legion Raid set bonuses. 

Additionally, the solo challenge Fortunespire Tower will get even more floors this time around. And with more floors, are more rewards. 

July 2023: Infernal Clowning Around

In July we welcome even more challenges into Lost Ark with the addition of the Kakul-Saydon Infernal Difficulty. The clown prince of the Mayhem Legion was originally introduced back in September. Now, this difficulty unlocks mere challenge and bragging rights. Players who triumph over this amazingly hard mode will be rewarded with unique titles, achievements, and more. 

The Elgacia continent’s story will also be getting its epilogue in July. An odd choice that they’re leaving it out of June, though. 

August 2023: A Breezy Plague

August is arguably one of the larger bits of content, as it introduces the Aeromancer class and the Akkan Legion Raid. 

The Aeromancer is the second advanced class for the Artist and was initially announced at a Summer Korean Lost Ark event. Instead of draping her enemies with magical ink, the Aeromancer uses a trusty umbrella to manipulate the very weather. She can call down storms and hail, summon violent gusts of wind, and even hit a specific spot with a concentrated blast of sunlight. Talk about a sunburn! In a pinch, she can also just whack her foes with the umbrella. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective. 

Next is the infamous Akkan, Demon Commander of the Plague Legion. Pieces of the flesh of the Demon Commander have begun to assemble themselves in Artethine. Local areas have become flooded with water mixed in with disease for good measure. This is a new 8-player instance with three gates. Both Normal and Hard difficulty are being released at the same time. Players will need to be item level 1580 and 1600 to participate in normal and hard modes, respectively. 

A Lost Ark Love Letter

Last up for Lost Ark was a love letter from both Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG. They open up about their plans on three things: the war on bots, the new player experience, and burnout. 

The new player experience is quite different here in the West compared to the Korean version of Lost Ark. For one, updates are much faster here in the West, giving some players a feeling that they have a lot to catch up on to experience the exciting endgame.  The team is eliminating or improving existing content to make things easier. 

For example, they list that they will be squishing the item tiers into two buckets soon. Right now we have Tiers 1-3 (with Tier 3 having two separate breakpoints). Horizontal content (mostly islands and adventure islands) on some servers has had a lack of participants. This is bad as a lot of critical items are locked behind these activities. The developers are looking into making Runes, Tripods, and Cards much easier to collect. 

The team then goes on to mention that “Player Exhaustion” is also something they are looking at. There is a huge list of daily and weekly tasks that players need to keep in mind in order to be ahead of the curve. Typically known by the community as “homework”, these are often repetitive and unexciting tasks such as daily quests, Chaos Dungeons, and Guardian Raids. They also c cite Argos as another challenge. This is further compounded that a large number of players have multiple characters in their roster. 

As a result, they are looking into ways how to balance exhaustion and repetitiveness with material production. They acknowledge that there is a fine balance that must be struck for both the casual players and their more hardcore audience. 

Arknight

Be sure to check out the Lost Ark Wiki as well as our Lost Ark Hub.

In other news, check out Diablo IV Showcases “Your Class, Your Way” Plus System Requirements and Honkai Star Rail Trailer Released Ahead of Launch.