Lost Ark through each new Tier made drastic changes since release:
T1 end game was Guardian raids like Monster Hunter that is why today we have so many card sets that are no longer being utilized and why only in Guardian Raids we can’t see Boss’s health also why it’s the only content where flair is needed as the location of the boss is hidden on the map.
T2 end game was Abyssal Dungeons.
T3 so far extremely long compared to other tiers since the release of Lost Ark even in Korea has end game based on Legion Raids.
As we can see each new tier allowed for drastic changes of the game, and I think instead of giving honing buffs constantly in order to allow faster releases of content so that we can catch up to Korea’s content and getting harder and harder honing chances.
Yes, Legion Raids are amazing but once mastered they are too short for a weekly lock out if you play on 1-2 characters and too long if you play on more characters due to daily homework that can’t be missed as it gives better rewards than Legion Raids, since once you craft your weapon from the Legion Raids it means nothing if you don’t hone it and Chaos Dungeons gives you the most honing materials, than Guardian raids and Adventure Island, Chaos Gate, Boss Rush, Cube etc…
Maybe in T4 we can actually have end game content give better rewards than daily homework so that people can enjoy the more fun content and not fall asleep and not dumb down their brain doing kindergarten difficulty content. Maybe allow for multiple entries during a week for each Legion Raid, or make new Legion Raids can be longer.
I am hoping T4 could have end game like WoW where a 4-5 man content like dungeons can be done multiple times with a small circle of friends and their difficulty increased based on your parties skill (Mythic+) and than have weekly raids but instead of 8 man maybe make it 16 man so that it requires a guild and voice communication since currently out of all the MMORPGs Lost Ark has the worst guild system and it feels almost like a solo anti-social game where end game is pugged without any communication and than you go do your dailies again without the need to interact with players almost no community which is really weird for an MMORPG
Soft resets are important in any game, hell look at WoW and FFXIV they do that shit all the time
Right now players are doing billions in damage numbers
Eventually that’s gonna reach trillions and so on and so forth
There’s such a thing as too much power creep, and eventually it’s gonna be hard to keep track of
Now I understand numbers are all relative, whether it’s 1000 damage or 10000000 damage
But there comes a point when it’s not only too inflated, but also when the playerbase just doesn’t have anything to strive for anymore
They got their gems, they got their LoS 30, so what else is there to spend on
Then and only then will we possibly see talks of a T4 again
Until that time comes though, I’m in agreement that T3 is here to stay for a while, especially with the news of condensing T1 and T2 down to one single tier
The reason why T1 and T2 exist and why they were overtaken by T3 is because with each of these tiers a new concept of end-game content was implemented and tested. Legion raids were on the spot - there we have T3 forever. What’s the point in T4? Your damage is already through the roof and all possible combat mechanics are exploited extensively. You have 3 levels of set bonus, never thought it’s too much? Classes are already so strong it’s not even funny, all of these spec 1771 thresholds are a joke RN to most people. Further increasing damage and making classes even stronger (noticeably stronger, coz it has to be the difference between tiers, not just “new gearset”) is a dead idea. Moving away from end-game concept that retains people is a dead idea. KR is doing fine.
Now I’m really of the mindset once people start spending less on gold for level 10 gems and have max card sets and near perfect quality upgrades on everything is when we’ll see T4
T4 won’t be a soft reset for the players, but for SG to make more money
If people don’t have the incentive to spend because they’ve done all they can, then SG will give them a reason to spend (see elixir release)
There is no reason to add new tier of gear to achieve that goal. Gear can be re-upgraded into new legion commander version infinitely many times and the set bonus level can be reset infinitely many times going from lvl3 into new lvl1. Adding new power systems like elixir is not T4. T4 is theoretically possible, but there is nothing that requires it to happen. I would rather consider Lost Ark 2 than T4
The thing is they can keep adding things like elixirs and the such to keep adding to the massive power creep
But when you have LoS 30, all level 10 gems, 95+ quality upgrade on everything
There’s not much more inventive to spend other than making another character
The best way to make people spend is to start on a fresh slate
Those level 10 gems? Gotta get T4 gems to get more power
LoS 30? T4 introduced ANOTHER card set you gotta collect
And so the cycle continues
Like I said before, T4 needs to happen eventually to make the game healthy, a lot of MMOs do it to keep their games healthy and fresh
However it seems like SG has shot themselves in the foot with how much power can be bought and not earned, so they really gotta decide if making more money from T4 introduction outweighs making more money from T3 addons
Solution for gems is simple, just change them to not have any tiers so they will keep the same power in new tier. Just force transition from old tier 2 to old tier 3 (lvl 10 tier 2 gem to lvl 5 tier 3 gem etc) and you are good. Cards give same power regardless the tier. Same for engravings. Why gem need to be connected to tier?
As for gems, the only way I see it is to fuse 3 lvl 10 gems to get an ancient t4 gem, also, do not touch accs but add relic engrave books. (only consumable from a t4 toon
Can’t compare WoW and FFXIV with LA. Both WoW and FFXIV are not pay to win. You can’t really make your character stronger by spending money in those 2 games other than maybe some BoEs, materias, etc. but LA is pay to win. Paying will make your character stronger and with soft reset what you’ve spent is essentially gone. That is the reason why devs in Kr LA said there will be no soft reset or T4.
you didnt understand, you fuse t2 gems to t3 and all t3 will become tierless. You can eventually add two more levels to gems so starting from specific ilvl you can fuse to lvl11 and lvl12. No riots, no losing power, whales will spent ton of money to reach ilvl for lvl12 gem and then to have full 12lvl gem setup
if you are understanding pay to win as literally winning such as killing a boss, sure. But pay to win is generally used to mean the practice of buying in-game items that give a player a very big advantage over others. I don’t know how riding a bus is gonna make you win in wow and ff14 when there are other means to gain gears equivalent to what you would get from buying busses. Don’t know if you actually played ff14 but savage gears dont really give you advantage over others.