I did the unthinkable and became somewhat obsessed with Lost Ark in recent weeks. I can’t deny that I’ve been having a ton of fun and even purchased (gasp!) Royal Crystals to unlock the Premium Pass for the extra honing material rewards along with several character slots (4 in total). Despite that, I wouldn’t consider myself a “hardcore” player since I’m not pushing the edge of content. What I am doing though is tons of grinding at all levels of the game, really doing what I enjoy most in RPG style games: playing as many classes as possible.
Inadvertently, I made my Artillerist my main character because I screwed up on my Gunlancer in not being able to use the Power Pass on him as he got up to the stupid Shunshire infamous “stealth” quest. Instead, I used the first Power Pass on my Artillerist and pushed him through Rohendel and all the way up to Yorn. But once I got to Yorn, I did bits of Feitan and skipped out by using the honing materials from the Lost Ark pass to push my ilvl to 1100 and went straight to Punika. Right now, he’s kinda stuck at a little over 1340 ilvl and I lost motivation to do daily chaos dungeons on him as the honing materials required along with the low success rate of pushing to ilvl 1370 is brutal. I might start again but I need an upgrade strategy, which most likely will be getting more alts to Punika to continue funneling mats.
For my 2nd Power Pass, I ended up using it on my Scrapper. I got to the point where I have a level 50 strategy which bypasses most of Arthentine then pushes Chaos Dungeons fast once I get ilvl 250 gear. Before that point though, I think I just got to the point where I didn’t want to grind low level quest anymore and simply applied the pass to push her through. So now, she’s sitting at ilvl 460 over in Shunshire and I’m pretty much using her to do dailies in that region.
But with the whole introduction of the Glavier class, we also got a Feiton Power Pass. The conditional was to have one character complete the entire Feiton story line. Since I had skipped it on my Artillerist because of my hesitation towards the other stealth quest, I decided to go back and complete it. Turns out the stealth quest there wasn’t too bad and it didn’t take long for me to get the rest of the area done thereafter. I pretty much pulled an all nighter since I wanted that Feiton Power Pass badly.
Once I accomplished that, I applied it to my Sorceress. It’s such a nice QoL deal because you immediately start out with ilvl 960 gear. You still have to deal with some of the story stuff just like going through the Power Pass story mode stuff. But afterwards, you land in Feiton ready to do Chaos Dungeons. But to get to Punika you still need to grind out 1100 ilvl which is where I’m at with her. I believe she’s in the neighborhood of 1140 ilvl or so. Maybe a bit lower as I’m off two tiers from the max for Chaos Dungeons. Also, even with the bonuses from your Stronghold, it still can be very painful in getting the occasional honing failure.
On the bright side, being stuck in Feiton has me doing the three dailies there as well, which amounts to the incredibly invaluable Leapstones. Also, having her do those dailies in particular allows me to work on reputation rewards. So it’s a win-win at this stage. I think because the quests in Punika are pretty easy (outside of the one annoying dungeon clown boss), I’ll probably ship her ASAP to have her unlock those chaos dungeons and work on gear when she’s ready.
While that’s going on, I’ve been working on Rohendel with my Shadowhunter. I’m one ilvl off from 600, which will allow me to send ilvl 802 gear over. Once I get that, I’ll finish up the quests there and have her start on the dailies that my Gunlancer is currently doing.
Speaking of my Gunlancer, I’m pretty much demotivated at the moment in pushing him through Yorn. I might change my mind soon though just to get him progressing again so that I have someone stationed there to handle the dailies to help progress my reputation in that region. But I suspect after my Sorceress gets to Punika, the materials for upgrading gear in tier 2 is going to become very painful.
Beyond that I had been working on a Paladin, Gunslinger and started leveling up a Deathblade. The Paladin is just below ilvl 460 but probably will start having materials funneled towards him to get him up a bit. I’m not eager to push him at the moment because I’m using my lower tier alts to work on dailies in other regions.
The Gunslinger I just decided to use the Knowledge Transfer thing after getting tired of leveling her. I couldn’t even get her to Tortoyk this time around just because I’ve done it so many times and really see no benefit outside of more reputation, silver and some engravings. But I think it’ll be more beneficial having another dailies farming alt in terms of my time usage. Also, I already have a Deadeye so the game play isn’t that much different and I have enough of a feeling for the Gunslinger where doing the whole story mode feels like a wasteful time sink.
For my Deathblade, I plan to push as much as I can stomach. She feels very similar to a Shadowhunter and I already have one of those. So I’m going to continue leveling her to get a better feeling for her abilities. If it becomes a slog like the Gunslinger, then I’ll just spend another 600 gold. I mean by Saturday, I should have more than enough to spend on her.
That leaves my poor Deadeye. Since he’s my first character and someone I badly goofed up on, I’ve just given up on him for the most part except for dailies. He’s got some older quests that I may eventually finish. But I’m more interested in my other characters at this stage. If anything, I can just use him to funnel more mats to the alts I do care about.
For my 9th character slot, I have no idea what I will do. Originally, the plan was to create a Wardancer but with the arrival of the Glavier I might change my mind. However, it is said that the Destroyer is coming either at the end of the month or perhaps next month. From what I’ve heard or read, the Destroyer is basically a pure tank whose space bar (unlike the Gunlancer) allows you to move forward. I’m not sure how good a Destroyer is so I need to wait to read some reviews before deciding to play one. If anything, I could still go with a Glavier and buy more slots or even a Supporter Pack but I think there’s no reason to rush. Not to mention there’s more classes yet to be released in the North American region and some might be worth waiting to play.
With all that said, I want to talk about the other classes in this game and some thoughts on whether I want to play them or not.
- Berserker – The temptation is there but the HP anxiety I’ve heard about make this class seem not as appealing. But that might just be for the Mayhem version. The other issue I have with Berserker is the fact that I see them everywhere because of the bot problem. Add to the fact that Mayhem is getting nerfed which puts this class even lower on my list. So I’m not all that eager to play one.
- Striker – They call this the counterpart to the Scrapper. There’s just nothing appealing to me about this class. It just seems bland.
- Wardancer – This was much higher on my list before Glavier came out and Destroyer were announced. At this stage, the cooldown/animation locks really aren’t as appealing so I might hold off. But Glavier seems like the meme thing at this moment so I’m putting it off.
- Soulfist – There’s only one good thing about a Soulfist which is the Ultimate. But beyond that, this class seems more like an inside joke. So very low on my priority list. I suppose if I was rich and could buy up all the character slots, I’d make one. Otherwise, this is probably the last or 2nd to last in line for a character I want to play.
- Glavier – Right now, this is very high on my list. I’ve heard good things about this class and have been watching DatModz play it. I think my favorite thing I’ve seen with this is when some guy on reddit showed his Glavier stabbing that Night Fox guardian in the butthole with the Night Fox making a screech and dying. So that alone gives the Glavier a ton of points in my book.
- Sharpshooter – I think I read that this class might be receiving some buffs in the Korean version. But I just think this might be more of a PVP type of class than a PVE class. If I was supremely bored, I might play one. Other than that, not really on my radar.
- Bard – Unlike the Paladin, I don’t think this class will be fun to level. I’ve read that her single target really sucks and she has no movement skills beyond the space bar. The fact that there is no alternative really for her in a group outside of a support role sucks. At least with Paladin, he’s well rounded with good AoE, decent single target and an additional movement skill along with a damaging spec. So this class is at the bottom alongside the Soulfist
- Destroyer – If I had more information on this class, I might be tempted to try one. The fact that the space bar moves you forward rather than back alone in combination with this class being tanky sounds pretty awesome. I love the Gunlancer but the space bar movement is almost a deal breaker at times just because in areas where you can’t use your class abilities, it just blows.
Other things that come to mind. One thing that I’ve been doing recently is using my Artillerist for killing Flame Fox Yoho. That’s a pretty easy fight and provides some nice honing materials that are tradable, including the precious Leapstones. So I’ve been sending those Leapstones to my Shadowhunter. Once I get my Sorceress into Punika and have her complete the Chaos Dungeons for the sweet 1302 gear, I’ll probably have her do the same just so that I can start sending those materials to people like my Scrapper.
However, I also need to check out the Tier 3 raids too with my Artillerist. There’s a few I’ve heard that aren’t bad for farming like Calventus and Dark Legoros. So I might try soloing those in the near future. But the positive from that would be Tier 2 mats along with an epic grade Galewind, which I badly need. That’s partly why I should try to get my Artillerist up to ilvl 1370 just to give him the best chance of succeeding through completely outgearing old content. If I can succeed on him and get my Sorceress up there, I’ll have more people just creating these funnels of lower level materials to my alts.
I have been doing a little bit of the Shadespire Tower. I haven’t completed beyond level 45. I know the top few levels are nasty so I decided to hold off. But I did manage to procure the rare Quick Recharge Rune which was awesome. I might though do the lower levels for my alts once they start hitting the upper ilvl 500+ leapstone droughts. But that just reminds me how important it is to get more alts into Tier 2 like my Gunlancer and Shadowhunter so they can help farm for more materials.
I still have yet to do the Cube and Boss Rush stuff. Also, the “special” event with the token raid. But I’m too preoccupied trying to work on each alt little by little. I honestly hate focusing just on one thing. I think that burns me out far more than spreading myself too thin in a game like this. Instead, I feel like I’m always progressing in something. It’s just a matter of picking what I want to do at the moment.
Beyond that the occasional mental debate comes up about purchasing the Vanquisher Starter Pack. At a whopping $65, this does not sound like a deal to me. But the chief benefits as someone who has begun really getting into the game, I see as follows:
- +1 character slot – This would immensely reduce my internal debate whether to create a Glavier or Destroyer because with this extra slot, I’d just make both.
- 30 Day Crystalline Aura – The two extra bi-frost slots is massive. Also, the +1 to NPC interactions, zero cost for local Tripod teleports, half cost for the Liners, song cooldown reductions, etc. are invaluable if you’re playing daily. And having these thigns available for 30 days means you’ll be getting things done faster. Never forget the World of Warcraft goblin addage: time is money, friend.
- Legendary Rapport Selection Chest – What I’ve been told is that Legendary Rapport Selection Chests are hard to come by. So if you’re working on a tough Rapport like Beatrice (like I am for the Giant’s Heart since I can get the Wealth rune), then this helps immensely.
- 2100 Crystals – This is the other major one which begins to hurt if you’re short on gold and need some quick wins from Mari’s Shop. I just discovered a few painful issues like the limited cards you can save and had to shell out Crystals to continue progressing my collection. The same can be said for the limited rows in your storage slots or presets. Eventually, I think you’ll get to the point where you become desperate enough to need Mari’s Shop to progress just because of the very low honing chances as you start getting really up there in ilvl.
It almost seems like a no brainer for me to pick this up. However, it does mean less food so that’s the converse. I think if I was working, I’d get this one and the Explorer pack just for the auras alone and +1 character expansion slots. The Apprentice pack looks like garbage except for the aura. But I suppose what this should do is motivate me into getting my novel done especially while the servers are on hiatus because I’m close. Then I can start studying for a new job and everything will work out (hopefully).