I would like to start by addressing that the way that I was able to get 900 hours on this game is because I work from home. Not all 900 hours were actively played as I do exercise and eat food away from my computer but a good portion of them were being played efficiently. I would also like to state that I am not burnt out of the game because I am thoroughly enjoying it or else I wouldn’t have this much time on the game.
Getting that out of the way I would like to address the main reason why I made this post. I believe that the game’s progression is a bit slow for the amount of events and materials that are being given away for free. As we recently got news for, South Vern won’t be coming with any new content. For those who have already reached 1400 this news creates absolutely zero incentive to keep playing on their main characters. People argue that by releasing content early the players who geared up fast are going to overflow the market with accessories and are going to take all the gold from the market before anyone else can reach that point. My counter argument to that is that by releasing all these events and delaying content someone who reached the finish line early will just make more alts with cheaper priced upgrade materials and have multiple alts Valtan ready in the next 5 weeks allowing them to make even more raw gold than you can make off of getting lucky from a good accessory when the market is inevitably saturated by the community all making it at the same time.
I personally cannot understand why people feel entitled to delay content until they are ready to run it. If you feel pressured to reach 1415 that pressure is only coming from yourself. Use the motivation to grind out infinite chaos dungeon for materials if that pressure is high enough. The game is not pay to win when there are methods of obtaining the same gear without spending a single penny. You are simply wanting to take the easy route to reaching 1415 by requesting more handouts or swiping for gold to buy them. I believe that those people are very entitled with the way that they don’t want anyone to be able to do content until they themselves are at the required item level to do all new content on day one release. This isn’t Final Fantasy. This is a KOREAN MMORPG. Anyone who has ever played a Korean MMO in the past can without a doubt confirm that they are meant to be grindy which is why you aren’t going to have millions of players constantly playing it because it is not for everyone. I do understand that time is a commodity that some people aren’t willing to spend on a video game which is why I don’t blame AGS for releasing all these events. Even still I am absolutely baffled that the same people who are unwilling or unable to grind the game want thousands of other humans to wait for them because they cannot or will not grind for materials beyond dailies.
I have read other posts about people wanting Valtan to be released early and a majority of the comments are saying “no one told you to go that fast” or “do horizontal content”. Why should I be punished for having time? Why, as a human, do you feel the need to dictate how another human should play the game and spend their time? Casuals scoff when they are told to just grind more infinite chaos to keep up. If you aren’t willing to put in the amount of effort required to reach 1415 in one month why should others who are willing to do so be punished by content being delayed. I don’t believe that there is any pressure to be able to do content day one. if you cannot make it due to time constraints then that’s alright, the content will be there for when you do make it. The accessories and stones will also be cheaper for you to buy when you do inevitably get there through dailies and events making it a lot more affordable to keep up. I would understand the pressure to do content day one if it was like Final Fantasy were there are no KR guides for new raids and memorials (correct me if I’m wrong on the memorial part) for those who clear first. Lost Ark is not a game where you’re going to be praised for completing content first. No one except yourself is forcing you to reach any ilvl.
As mentioned above, people state to do horizontal content to burn time. I do that and still feel the lack of content as I’ve already finished all content I can grind that isn’t time locked behind 24H+ rotations. Releasing South Vern with actual content would be nice as I’d have more things to do to enjoy the game again as I really do like it and feel zero burn out. I’m currently just grinding out adventure tome and random achievements because there is only so much left to do.
I personally was pushing for 1415 using the double +17 method expecting there to be any 1415 content in South Vern but after hearing that we won’t be getting any content I simply started to claim materials on my alts to push them up to 1370 to grind more Argos a week for more gold than the casual can make selling their daily chaos dungeon and guardian raid materials. As events come out to introduce more mats and no content is released to do anything with those mats the people who were creating a demand for the upgrade materials have simply stopped demanding as much. This is one of the reasons why destruction stones have crashed the hardest relative to other upgrade materials. The deflation of gold combined with there being less demand for materials makes it so that those with alts who create raw gold from raids will be the best off. If South Vern had been announced with more content there would have been a wave of buyers who feel motivated to push for new content which in turn creates an increase of the cost of materials giving casuals what they want, more gold. Casuals are only shooting themselves in the foot by asking for more materials with no content which in turn only devalues their tradable enhancing materials.
TLDR : South Vern should be released with content that requires 1415 ilvl. As a casual you should stop feeling entitled to ask everyone to slow down to your pace. The pressure you feel is created only by you. Valtan delay should not be an option. Casuals delaying content only hurt themselves gold wise.
