Hello.
I’d like to start with a quick introduction of myself.
I was aware of lost ark being a thing since years but never got into it due to region locks.
When the beta for EU launched I was very excited to play and see how it’s like. I ended up clearing both rohendel void dungeons with I belive 550 ish gearscore.
I want to point out that I went into the game completly blind outside of class selection and leveling stuff (skipping sidequests).
During the beta at most endgame PVE encounters there were alot of people helping out new players in pugs, sharing strats, explaining mechanics while being very patient and friendly.
I wiped with my random pug group of new players on abrel (last boss of second abyss dungeon) for like 4 hours straight.
Noone knew anything beforehand so we struggled alot, but figuring stuff out and overcoming this challenge was a blast. Now, obviously I was kind of lucky to get matched with 3 other people that didn’t quit quickly. Beating the boss after hours of failing with this group was amazing.
Since beta was limited to T1 content, I decided to hop on the russian servers to see if this was just a honeymoonphase. After a good month of rather casual play (no sidecontent or collections) I reached tier 3 and cleared both void dungeons.
In case people don’t know about this I want to point out that there’re multiple catchup systems on russia that help you reach t3 much faster.
I stopped after clearing both dungeons to not spoil myself for western release.
While I would not call myself a new player i would certainly not identify myself as veteran or expert by any means.
Now to the actual topic.
First up, I have no idea why people think western guardian bosses have 50% more HP. If this is a meme i missed that’s on me, but if people actually belive this to be true I’d like to see some kind of source. I refuse to belive that our guardians are buffed. If anything they’re nerfed. I struggled on russia on the last level 4 guardian - avoiding names due to amazon renaming - with mokoko buff (damage increase and big incoming damage reduction) and had no issues on our version while being on itemlevel.
I don’t think the abyss dungeons are too hard either. The last t2 one can be rough due to the high amount of players that need to execute mechanics but if you go into a new game expecting to have no deaths oneshotting everything you’re delusional.
I’ve seen some content creators in the community agree to the nerf based on the fact that they’d rather see people get stuck in t3 and learn there.
That’s a horrible mentality and will lead to many other problems later on (elitism and toxicity etc) while not fixing anything.
Please keep in mind especially the KR Community has massive PTSD from T1 and t2 as they were stuck there for months not really being able to do anything. We don’t have that issue in the west. After 2 or 3 weeks you’re done and move on. I would not enjoy doing t2 void dungeons for 6 months straight either. But while t3 is for sure better than t1 and t2 they’re by no means bad. They’re a stepping stone.
I don’t think the game is too hard in t1 and t2.
However I belive that the game does a terrible job at introducing their systems and how much they mean to new players.
What do stats do for your specific class?
How do engravings work and how much do they matter? What are stagger checks? I can use grenades to help out? Runes? Counter?
The initial guide quests are very lackluster and most people probably just g trough them.
The training room tutorial is pretty alright, could be better though and is rather hidden.
Why is this not a mandatory thing to go trough upon reaching Vern before starting chaos dungeons?
I belive that a big reason as of why so many people struggle with bosses is that they run bad engravings or none at all and use a statsalad on their character.
Stats and engravings are MASSIVE.
If you go in with random stats and grudge 1 of course you’re gonna have a hard time as a new player. No grenades to stagger the boss or weaken it by destroying it’s parts? No wonder guardians take you 15 mins or more, you do no damage.
Yesterday i ran a t2 abyss dungeon on my alt and accepted a 1000 gearscore paladin without going over engravings. Turns out he double sealed drops of eather and had some useless stone. Of course he was sandbagging the entire party.
Engravings, proper stats, gems, tripods… All these things can easily make a 50% dmg difference between players of the same skill and same itemlevel.
While there are 3rd party guide ressources out there I refuse to accept that new players need to go out of their way to learn the games core system.
So please, educate your players before you nerf the content.
While im on a rant why the fuck can i only buy purple potions of the AH yet im able to buy the mats needed to craft blue ones in my stronghold? Fix asap amazon