For those of you who don’t know Oreha’s Well Hard mode is 1355 IL on other versions of the game. Currently, it is 1370 IL for us. In exchange it drops a legendary gear set instead of a purple gear set as it does on other servers. I think the added legendary gear drop to help curve into Argus is good, but I think they shouldn’t have changed the 1355 dungeon.
1340 is +9 hone level on your gear, 1370 is +15. For us, this takes about 3-4 weeks to get there. AGS/Smilegate have removed the content you would do at +12(Corresponding to Phantom Palace in T1 and Gate of Paradise in t2) and moved it to +15. That time is a really big dead zone. Once you hit 1345 Oreha’s Well Normal becomes trivially easy. You’re 20 IL over the clown and the dragon has such low health you can mindlessly melt the boss. Obviously, Igrexion is easy as shit.
Currently, in our version, your next goal is to hit 1370, which is still probably 3+ weeks out. A lot of people that push IL play Lost Ark because they enjoy the combat and challenging boss fights, but now you can’t do anything like that. The 1355 hard mode was an important piece of content in the IL range to make there be something to look foreword to every week.
I think that’s why a lot of us stuck in that range are mad/disappointed with Argus release. The game desperately needs content to do in that range. Just imagine that T2 had no catchup islands, lower honing rates, and then the Gate of Paradise dungeons were removed from the game/tier and that’s essentially the 1340-1370 experience. Instead of adding something to accelerate us though that zone, or even better - some content to do in it that’s actually stimulating - AGS/Smilegate just adds content for whales and KR/RU players that play like 12 hours a day.
Not to mention that the 3-4 week estimate is if you’re doing everything optimally and playing a ton. Eventually more casual players will enter this IL zone and it’ll take them even longer to progress. And there’s currently nothing else to do besides collectibles, which many people don’t care much about. Ranked PvP isn’t even coming out until later this month to add some salt.
AGS/Smilegate should re-introduce the 1355 hard mode and make the current hard mode a Very Hard or Hell mode. Also make Dark Yoho 1355 Item Level like other regions, there was no reason for it to be changed.