Lost Ark, My POE Replacement

I enjoyed POE until endgame, when its punishing nature on my characters, my psyche, and my pocketbook eventually took its toll and drove me away. In need of a replacement, I took the plunge on Lost Ark. I’ve been playing on a Russian server, with VPN and an English translation patch, all of which proved surprisingly easy. And, OMG, am I glad I did!

Lost Ark is simply one of the most beautiful, polished, content-rich, player-friendly, fun games I’ve ever played. Like POE, it’s a free-to-play, isometric ARPG, but so much more. It also has numerous MMO features and content, such as: mounts, ships (with a vast ocean in which to adventure), guilds, player housing, questing galore, crafting and gathering, dailies, weeklies, dungeons for solo and groups, tiered raiding for up to 16 players, pvp, World Bosses, an auction house, and, like POE, a cash shop.

Unlike POE, however, after playing Lost Ark for several months, I’ve yet to spend a single dime in the cash shop. Nor have I ever felt the need. In Lost Ark, your characters are gorgeous, with loads of character customization at creation. And the gear and weapons you get in the normal course of leveling are so attractive that I’ve never felt the need to spend real-world money on cosmetics. And don’t get me started on POE stash tabs, where I dropped a bundle of money. In Lost Ark, the basic bag and stash have proven more than sufficient.

What’s most impressive about Lost Ark, in my opinion, however, are the classes and combat animations. When all is said and done, there will be six primary classes, with four specializations each for a total of 24 character choices. And the combat spells and attacks are off-the-charts fun and amazing to see and play. It’s not possible to describe them all and do them justice here. If you want to see them for yourself, there are lots of vids on YouTube. But trust me when I say they’re outrageously good.

If that’s not enough, SmileGate, the Korean developer behind Lost Ark, actually listens to the player base and overhauled the game recently to make it even better, especially as far as how gear gets upgraded in endgame. There are also player-friendly systems in the game, such as alts being able to start at level 10, free mounts starting at level 14, and more.

Lastly, the best news of all, SmileGate recently partnered with Amazon Games to launch Lost Ark in NA. Amazon and SG have promised a 2021 release at the latest, at which point I will pour my heart, soul and time into Lost Ark. It’s that good, it keeps getting better and better, and I can hardly wait.

off topic

Yea been playing it heaps.. When Lost Ark goes mainstream in the west..look out the game is frigging epic.

Aside from being an MMORPG, I'm not sure Lost Ark is a "replacement" for PoE

I Also wait for Lost ark..these lately leagues has lost ther charm

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Red_Rhoa wrote:

Aside from being an MMORPG, I'm not sure Lost Ark is a "replacement" for PoE

Spoiler

(from preview video at https://www.mmorpg (dot) com/lost-ark )

Given the direction PoE's mtxes have taken, your attempt at a snipe missed pretty hard.

"

Red_Rhoa wrote:

Aside from being an MMORPG, I'm not sure Lost Ark is a "replacement" for PoE

Spoiler

(from preview video at https://www.mmorpg (dot) com/lost-ark )

I am increasingly disturbed by the "body image" certain vidyo gamez promote...

This is why we have furries. Now, despite the fact that Club Penguin is dead, we're gonna get "Penguins." We don't want Penguins. Penguins are birds and that means they have no control over when they poop. This must not become acceptable human behavior!

PS: Someone is far too infatuated with "Bloom" in that dev studio...

"

Morkonan wrote:

I am increasingly disturbed by the "body image" certain vidyo gamez promote...

This is why we have furries.

Uh, yeah, nah. Furries go much further back than this. And given the target audience of Lost Ark, I highly doubt it's all that sexually charged. They're just kigurumi. I don't see why LA would be any more egregious than any other Asian-made MMO there. But if that's what's going to keep Western ARPG players from trying it, eh, so be it. Weird hill to die on, really, given the look of skins in most other mtx-driven games.

Agreed re the bloom though. Whole thing reminds me of that other Korean MMO monster, Black Desert Online.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

"

Morkonan wrote:

I am increasingly disturbed by the "body image" certain vidyo gamez promote...

This is why we have furries.

Uh, yeah, nah. Furries go much further back than this. And given the target audience of Lost Ark, I highly doubt it's all that sexually charged. They're just kigurumi. I don't see why LA would be any more egregious than any other Asian-made MMO there. But if that's what's going to keep Western ARPG players from trying it, eh, so be it. Weird hill to die on, really, given the look of skins in most other mtx-driven games.

Agreed re the bloom though. Whole thing reminds me of that other Korean MMO monster, Black Desert Online.

Depend on which Western audience we are talking about. People don't agree with each other. Some Western audience like waifus and pokemon.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

... They're just kigurumi. I don't see why LA would be any more egregious than any other Asian-made MMO there. But if that's what's going to keep Western ARPG players from trying it, eh, so be it. Weird hill to die on, really, given the look of skins in most other mtx-driven games.

"Most other mtx-driven games?" Which? ... Why? :)

"

Agreed re the bloom though. Whole thing reminds me of that other Korean MMO monster, Black Desert Online.

This is actually more disturbing. Kinda... It's a way of packing in even more visual stimuli. And, that's all it is. A bit of realistic "bloom" is fine and acceptable if it appropriately highlights materials and shapes. But, this kind of near-god-ray oversaturated bloom is getting kind of out of hand in some mass-marketed sorts of games that often don't have a heck of a lot else going for them.

Whenever I see that sort of thing I know it's not something worth playing.