In order not to discourage players who progress at their own pace, Amazon Games intends to avoid adding content that is too vertical. Instead, the April and May updates will focus on new classes and areas to explore.

We remember that last month, the Amazon Games teams in charge of the western exploitation of Lost Ark indicated their desire to slow down the deployment of new high-level content: some players were clearly struggling to keep up with this progression at forced march and some saw it as a roundabout way to encourage players to use the store more to progress faster for 1370 to 1415 gear honing.

In this context, Amazon Games details its roadmap of upcoming Lost Ark updates for the next few weeks and the operator indicates that it is focusing on "horizontal" additions - which offer new features, not new content: "We want to give more of you time to reach the endgame before we bring Legion Raids (the ultimate Lost Ark raiding experience) live, and ensure you can explore Archesia and progress through your pace without feeling like you have to rush into end-game content.”

Lancer

This month of April will therefore be marked by the addition of a new class specialization, the Lancer, an advanced Martialist class. The spearman wields the spear and the glaive, and has two distinct sets of abilities, Focus (linked to the glaive to launch knockdown attacks) and Unleash (associated with the spear to chain attacks). According to the operator, the gameplay challenge of the Lancer is based on the balance of the two postures to better develop synergies between its two weapons.

And for players who are reluctant to change classes, the April update will also open the doors to the continent of Bern-Sud, for lovers of exploration.

In May, Amazon Games will analyze the statistical data of the players and if enough of them have the necessary item level, the Legion Raids (the most difficult so far in the South Korean version of the MMORPG) may be deployed. Conversely, they will be delayed again.

Still, in May, the operator will add a new class specialization, the Destroyer, an advanced class of the Warrior. The Destroyer uses a warhammer with a mass so colossal that it influences gravity: "the Destroyer can slow, throw, push and pull enemies, whatever it takes to annihilate them completely".

The studio is also planning to roll out "Guardian Raids (Trial)", Guardian raids whose item level is adjusted based on the challenge of the instance.

The details of the April and May updates, confirmed or even provisional depending on the level of progress of the players, are available here on the official site. Until then, we will remember that Amazon Games is clearly playing the tightrope walker: offering enough new content to renew the gaming experience and retain players over the long term (this is the whole point of operating an MMORPG and Lost Ark is no exception), but without discouraging players who progress at their own pace and do not necessarily find themselves in a frantic race at the end-game - and this is perhaps one of the specific difficulties of the exploitation of Lost Ark: the original South Korean version is precisely part of a race to add content to satisfy South Korean players who are very quick to always progress faster.