Lost Ark gets almost everything right with the May update

The Lost Ark May Update hits the game on May 19th, which is next week’s weekly update. It brings a lot of new content and does almost everything right, but there is one thing MeinMMO author Mark Sellner considers less successful.

What does the update bring? The MMORPG Lost Ark gets a big update every month. In April, among other things, the new class, the spear bearer, appeared as a result. In May, fans will again receive an update that focuses fully on new content.

The game gets its first Legion raid with Valtan, in which eight players have to compete in two phases against a particularly strong boss opponent, and with Deskaluda, the latest guardian raid, there is also new content for four players.

The new continent of South Vern will also continue to be filled. Although this is currently already in the game, it still lacks Chaos Gates, Chaos Dungeons, boss opponents and more. All this content should be submitted with the May update on the 19th of the month.

The patch is primarily aimed at players at the top of the current gear score, i.e. over 1,415. In hard mode, you even need an item level of 1,445 to be able to face Valtan at all. But you will also get completely new loot there, namely equipment of the rarity level “Relic”. This did not exist in our version of Lost Ark before.

There is also something for new players: Although most of the content is aimed more at players who have already spent several hundred hours in the game, there is also exciting content for new players. The next new class, the Destroyer, also celebrates its debut in the west with the latest patch.

He’s even bringing his latest balance tweaks, which he already received in Korea. So the update really seems to do everything right, doesn’t it? No, only almost. At least that’s what MeinMMO author Mark Sellner says.

Personal conclusion: balancing problems and anticipation

What else is there? After all the content announcements, there are new skins, quality of life updates, and a small balancing section further down the original post, but that small section is actually a lot bigger than it looks.

It says there will be some major balance changes that just happened in Korea. But somehow that doesn’t quite fit our version. Because assuming we keep exactly the same balance package as what Korea recently got, that would be way too early.

Korea has way, way more content than the western version of Lost Ark currently has. Above all, the number of classes plays a major role.

Why is this a problem? The Korean server’s balance changes are aligned with the local meta. If these changes come to us one-for-one, the original balance plan no longer works. Even with the Destroyer, there are still 5 more classes in Korea that can fundamentally change the meta gameplay.

While there are changes that make sense for our version, such as buffing the Scrapper or nerfing the Madness Berserker, other changes make less sense to us. One of the content of the balance patch was also the massive weakening of the spear bearer, which appeared with us just a month ago.

Furthermore, many players are still in the process of slowly mastering their class. The fact that a large part of the skills are now being changed, new counter abilities are being added and the basic effects of some skills are changing could cause problems here.

An overview of all changes in Korea can be found on Onstove.com. However, note that it is not yet 100% certain that we will get all of these changes in Europe.

Despite everything, the anticipation prevails

Just minor concerns: Still, as the headline suggests, Lost Ark does almost everything right with the May update. The communication with the community was exemplary and Amazon always kept the players up to date.

After there was a lot of discussion at the beginning, with the first new boss Argos, that the content came into play too quickly, the release of Valtan seems very deliberate. The developers promised that they will take a close look at players’ progress before introducing a new endgame boss.

The reason for this is that Smilegate wants to prevent fans from feeling like they can only catch up if they invest real money. We won’t know until the release if Valtan is really “late” enough. However, the mood in the community is already much more pleasant and positive than it was when Argos was announced.

The uncertainty: The developers won’t tell us what to expect in detail until next week. Whether all balance changes will be adopted exactly as they are in Korea is not yet 100% confirmed. It is also unclear whether there will be another Feiton Power Pass for the new class.

Maybe mine and some fans’ opinions will change once the final patch notes are out. But until then we have to wait and see.

What do you think of the upcoming update? Are you looking forward to the May patch or rather to the upcoming summer roadmap? Write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO.

Lost Ark Guides: All tips, tricks and builds at a glance