This past weekend, Korean developer Smilegate held an online event to sum up the year for their flagship MMORPG, Lost Ark, and also to give a glimpse of what new content is arriving in early 2021. If you did not already know, the North America and Europe server of Lost Ark is currently being prepared by publisher Amazon Games. Without further waiting, let us look at some of the new features arriving, although they will take some time to head overseas.
• One of the 2 new classes teased was Gunslinger, the female counterpart of the Devil Hunter class. While there are some similarities in skills and gameplay, there are elements which make her unique as well. Gunslinger is scheduled to enter the Korean server of Lost Ark on 27 January 2021.
• The other new class is the male counterpart of the Battle Master class, currently known as Striker. There is no information yet except that he is scheduled to enter the battlefield in March 2021.
• Next is the Legion Commander Raid, which was previously introduced before but now divided into 6 raids. The gimmick behind this raid is that each of the 6 raids is led by a different corp, each with different ways to torment players brave enough to challenge them.
• A new continent, South Bern, will be added later this month. While one of the smallest continents, it plays a significant role in the overall storyline of Lost Ark.
• More on new classes, but these will appear in the 2nd half of 2021 and beyond (no specific schedule). First is the 4th class under the Magician tree, which currently has no name yet. According to Smilegate, this class will be very similar to orthodox wizards found in fantasy stories, an “authentic” wizard if lack of a better word.
• A new “loli” class tree, which will be the 6th, is in development. We are not sure what role it will play in Lost Ark, since the game previously pride itself on not having any healer classes. We shall wait and see! There are 3 classes under this new tree being conceptualized, but only 2 have been given the greenlight to start development.
• Smilegate acknowledged that content update in 2020 is slow due to more structural changes of game mechanics. As there are no major structural changes planned for 2021, content updates will arrive faster.
• While confirming there is no sequel being planned, the development team teased that if there is a chance, they would like to make a game which takes place 500 years before the current events of Lost Ark.
• Note that these are just some of the main features arriving to Lost Ark, and there are many other smaller new features which we did not cover.
