Hello everyone!
My name is frogbound, I have spent the past 4 weeks playing games almost exclusively with Lost Ark.
I am on the Server Galatur in NA East and I’ve been trying to (unsuccessfully) establish a Global Chat called the “Novice Network” - like the one FFXIV has backed by Squenix - that tries to help those that are struggling or wanting to ask questions about Lost Ark.
I actively play 7 Characters ranging from ilvl 480 to 1336.
With most of them currently parked in Rohendel to push each other into T2 over time.
I have a long standing background in playing MMORPGs over the past 20 years and I would call myself an informed and well read person when it comes to games and what they have to offer.
But when it comes to Lost Ark there is one thing that slipped through my line of sight until the end of T2, when someone in Area Chat told everyone that there are Bunny Ears and a Leaf Headband for completing something called “Training Room” and “Training Area”.
These are accessible through the game’s menu here: https://i.imgur.com/XrVor1B.png
So what to these do?
Those of us that used the Vern Pass probably went through them, but they are accessible for EVERYONE, albeit the game does not teach your first character about them - at all. At least not that I remember.
Now I personally didn’t play an alt until I hit T3 on my first character so I never knew those existed until it was pointed out by someone in Area chat as mentioned earlier.
The Training Room teaches you basic and advanced combat features and rewards a little Leaf Headband skin.
It goes over:
- Movement Skills
- Stand Up Skills
- Charging Skills
- Combo Skills
- Speciality
- Debuffs
- Stagger
- Combat Items
- Awakening Skills
- Stop Monsters
- Frontal Attacks
- Back Attacks
- Counterattacks
- Weak Points
The Training Area teaches you about “advanced game content necessary for a smoother experience” and rewards a Bunny Ear Skin.
It goes over:
- Mounts
- Pets
- Facet
- Engraving
- Dismantle Item
- Honing
- Gems
- Transfer (Tripods)
Now many of these features have their own Guide quests out in the world you stumble across when unlocking them, usually highlighted by a golden button popping up in the middle of the screen.
If you are like me, you didn’t skip any quest that was offered to you, regardless of the quests color.
I did not push hard to get to T3, I took my sweet time completing everything I could feasibly do while getting there - except alts.
But I never learned as much as when I went through these two features.
Now how did I come to the conclusion that these should be mandatory?
I started playing alts.
The amount of people that are struggling in Guardian Raids in Vern and Rohendel is mind blowing to me.
I am not saying these fights are hard and super challenging but at this point - especially if it is your first character and you did not use a power pass yet - the game has done very little to teach you how to be effective in fights against these bosses.
The Bosses where people struggle the most are: Icy Legoros, Vertus, Nacrasena, Flame Fox Yoho and Tytalos.
I’ve been using matchmaking and the party finder and it is a very sad and disheartening thing to experience.
As someone who loves to teach people about the game, I also respect everyone who plays the game and I usually do not offer unsolicited advice.
I know I wouldn’t want anyone telling me what to do or not do. I just wanna play a game how I want to play.
But most of the players I come across in these fights struggle, because they do not know about the basic mechanics taught in those two training features.
I would love to see these two things become mandatory for everyone, especially their first character.
Yes, a lot of people will just not read it and go through with it, but they still at least saw those mechanics briefly.
From my own experience, going through these two trainings helped me tremendously.
Countering a boss is the most rewarding thing, staggering them or breaking their body parts with weak points makes certain fights absolute cake walks. – I am looking at you Nacrasena!!
And I would love nothing more than having more people experience the joy of being a little bit more effective in combat.
However, there is one thing in the Training Area that does not explain everything there is to know about a certain feature.
That feature is the Tripod/Transfer feature.
While it does kind of explain what it does and how to transfer a tripod, it does not explain that you can fill up to 3 slots with that transfer per gear piece.
It does not explain that a level 2 Tripod will not stack with a level 1 Tripod and while it tells you, that you can track Tripods so they get highlighted when pieces with those Tripods drop, it does not tell you HOW you actually do that.
But hey, everything can be improved. From Smilegate’s side, from our side as a community and from yourself as a player.
There is no need to bash those that don’t perform to your standards, but there might be a need to elevate them by teaching.
We have these wonderful Korean players come to reddit to explain things to us, teach us the way of Lost Ark and we can and should be very thankful for those kind souls.
Sadly, many of the players I come across are not reflecting that helpful mentality.
They treat other people in this game horribly - especially if they “underperform” for whatever reason.
People who load into the Guardian Raids or Abyssal Dungeons and spam “DO THIS MECHANIC!!!” just to ignore the mechanic themselves, then bashing everyone else for it not working out are not a rare thing at all.
At least half of my pugs have at least one of those in them.
All they do is destroy the parties morale right of the bat which leads to even less performance - at least in my opinion.
So what is your take on this?
Have you gone through these?
How did you learn about Counters, Staggers, Weak Points, etc?
and how did learning and using those tools change your gameplay experience?
I am hereby opening the floor for discussion, so please have at it - respectfully!
PS: If you are on Galatur in NA East and want to become a part of the Novice Network Chat, send me a Mail or Whisper me on any of my characters shown above.