Lost Ark

[Hoax]

Lost Ark has gone mixed review score on steam and its not at all because of gameplay. Gamers just have zero tolerance for launch bullshit in 2022. Good on them.

[Draegan]

This game is very good.

[Setanta]

I'm enjoying it far more than I should. Path of Exile could learn a lot about early game leveling from Lost Ark.

The storyline is average at best, but it's just fun

[Falconeer]

Yes people may be completely fed up with the genre or just not appreciate the isometric view or the kind of combat, but this MMORPG is objectively great. Within the boundaries of its genre, clearly one of the best.

[Lucas]

the ease of access when it comes to dungeons and other activities with PUGs (pick up groups), reminds me SO much of Guild Wars 1 (and that's a compliment. Oh, and the general bitching about skipping the cutscenes by some :D).  Dunno if the P2W becomes unbearable after lv 50, but the "get in - do something - log out" it's actually old and refreshing at the same time. No need to stress too much over your role in the "holy trinity" or whatever. Just get in a group or solo, bash those damn keys (well, in some coherent manner :P) and have fun.

[SurfD]

Been seriously considering something to scratch the MMO itch.  How "casual friendly" is this thing?  100% no longer at the stage where I would do hardcore gaming or the like, so if this is fairly casual accessible for someone who no longer has the twitch reflexes I used to have, I might seriously consider giving it a whirl.

[Falconeer]

It's too casual friendly. It exists to make you feel like a gaming god (even though you totally suck). No seriously, it offers no resistance whatsoever. Both the combat and the progression pacing are meant to stimulate pleasure glands, dopamines, or whatever. Not a single thing ever threatens to punch your dick (except maybe too many currencies), it's just an OP fest. For example, dungeons come in Normal and Hard, but you can solo them all in Hard almost by pressing random buttons.

The "real" game starts later, when you hit the soft cap, and by then you can decide what to do with it. But it's extremely casual friendly, and I say "almost too much" because if you want a challenge of any kind you have to wait until you hit level 50.

[Ashamanchill]

Yup. I am level 20 right now. Not much, but then I haven't been going ham or anything. So far it feels like in WoW (or any other MMO), when you go back to solo content from 2 expansions ago, and power creep has just made them not even remotely a threat.

[SurfD]

Neat.  Sounds like it may be right up my alley as a good place to scratch the MMO itch.

Any idea about recommended classes or the like?  Or just grab whatever and faceroll away?

[Ashamanchill]

Pick something that sounds or looks cool and smash. If you google Lost Ark classes, their main site has a bunch of videos of the classes main move sets. My only word of warning is, don't just see a move that looks badass without trying to find any info on it. Some of the cooldowns are pretty meaty, both in effect but also in terms of CD time. One more thing, some classes are gender locked. It's not a deal breaker for me, but it's not something I give points for either.

[Ashamanchill]

Oh one more thing. Absolutely listen to what Falconeer said and do the early dungeons on hard.

[Trippy]

Been seriously considering something to scratch the MMO itch.  How "casual friendly" is this thing?  100% no longer at the stage where I would do hardcore gaming or the like, so if this is fairly casual accessible for someone who no longer has the twitch reflexes I used to have, I might seriously consider giving it a whirl.

I haven't gotten to the start of the end game yet so this is all based on what I've read and watched so far. The leveling process to level 50, as others have said, is extremely casual friendly but that's just a small portion of the game. It's basically just there to give you the background story and give you time to learn the skills for your class. The end game itself in our release is divided into three tiers with the last tier, Tier 3, being just the start of it, missing content currently available in KR (and maybe RU) and will be coming later to NA/EU.

Somebody on Reddit helpfully made some infographics that show the end game progression flow and the activities you'll be doing as part of the end game:

https://old.reddit.com/r/lostarkgame/comments/sif5oi/visual_flowchart_for_game_progression/

If you look at the "What to do at 50" infographic, from what I understand so far, pretty much all of the daily stuff is casual friendly but much of the weekly stuff is not. In particular the Abyss Dungeons are much more difficult than the casual friendly end game dungeons like the Chaos dungeon and the Guardian raid both of which can be done solo (despite "raid" being attached to Guardian) or in PUGs with not much concern about party composition or skill levels. Some of the Abyss Dungeons have, for example, boss party wipe mechanics that players need to know about and can handle. I don't know if any of the Tier 1 Abyss Dungeons have that mechanic but that's the sort of thing that may frustrate more casual players. The other thing I don't know is if it's possible progress to the Tier 2 content without doing the Tier 1 Abyss Dungeons. If not and the Tier 1 Abyss Dungeons are more than you are willing to put with up then then you will "stuck" on the Tier 1 content. Though as you can see from the "What to do" list there's still a lot of stuff to do.

If you prefer to watch some videos on this subject you can check out these videos by Legacy Gaming.

Lost Ark - Complete End Game Breakdown | Everything NA/EU Players Can Do At Level 50 (watch this one first, the 2nd one will make more sense)
Lost Ark - Is It A Casual-Friendly MMO?

Note that while Codiak sounds like he knows what he's talking about, since he's reading from a script with an authoritative tone of voice, he's not an expert (his Lost Ark experience comes from playing the NA/EU beta not KR or RU) and he makes some incorrect statements in the videos. Much of that is due to the content in the videos being based on his time (only) playing the beta but it's also a bad idea to claim you know what release is going to be like (like the level cap being 50) that's still a month or so away.

Edit: some not many

[Trippy]

Oh one more thing. Absolutely listen to what Falconeer said and do the early dungeons on hard.

Yes do them in a group on Hard. And then do them solo on Normal if you want to progress your Adventurer's Tome some more (there's a "check mark" for both Normal and Hard for each dungeon) and find any Seeds you missed while rushing through on Hard or watching any cutscenes you skipped.

[SurfD]

Whee.  nearly 20+ hours to download the 70+ gigs for the install.

Is there an unofficial Bat Country server?

[Trippy]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Falconeer]

The Galatur issues from Head Start

During Head Start there was an issue with the Galutar server that caused approximately 17,000 users to become stuck in a state where their characters no longer had the Main Story Quest (MSQ) available. This is clearly a massive issue and one that we want to address as quickly and fairly as possible. The issue is a complex one and requires manual editing of each affected account while the player is present online. This makes fixing these characters a very slow process, but please know we are working through them as quickly as we can and working in partnership with Smilegate RPG to solve this issue at scale.

 

[Trippy]

BTW if you are curious how “non-casual” this game gets check out these raid mechanics from a KR raid (not available in NA / EU yet): https://youtu.be/YKm6XnULaHU

[Hoax]

I went Mari on US West for server, its one of the two larger pop US West servers at this time but I've never seen a 500+ queue so its been a complete non issue so far for me.

Everyone else has answered everything except I will say, the pvp is not casual at all and you will suck ass at it if you aren't working hard at not doing so.

[Sky]

2022
1998

literally no difference

The difference was in us the whole time!

[SurfD]

Any currencies or stuff worth leaving unclaimed in the roster rewards for now? or does none of the the stuff picked up while leveling really matter?

[Trippy]

Your "Roster" is all your characters on a single server. So it's fine to claim those on any character.

[MediumHigh]

Tried about 10 minutes of the game, realized from the intro that its pretty button mashie. Did some research and found that the build variety comes in the form of leveling skills, so I guess I'll pop in to give it another go but for now~~

[Hoax]

you dont auto attack much, so its got no clicking compared to traditional rpgs. build diversity is def on the low side and something that comes much later with engravings and having loads of points.

but you  have 8 skills and all have 4-30sec cd's, im not sure how that's button mashy unless there are particular classes that play differently for mine i have brief windows in my rotation where everything is down and im repositioning or using autos rarely for a second or three.

[Falconeer]

Rendakor was right in his assessment from many months ago: it's way more of a traditional MMORPG combat with rotations of skills than an ARPG with basic attack and some skill thrown in for massive burst damage.
In that sense, not really that button mashy although some classes are more needy of button presses than others. For example, stay away from the Gunslinger and her damned stance dance.

[Ashamanchill]

I think I am starting to bounce off this one. I have put in 10 hours and all I have killed is bandits essentially, I have only dies once because my Pizza arrived, this low level gear is criminally boring, and these quests fucking suck wank. Why will it routinely have me talk to someone in town, then they tell me to go talk to a person 8 feet away, then back to the first person, then to a different person 8 feet in another direction, then back to the first, just to kill 10 bandits?

Given how popular this game is, I've concluded this is a "It's not you it's me" type deal.

Edit: I'm gonna try a different class before I go though.

[Khaldun]

It's entirely possible because people still VERY BADLY want MMOs and they also recognize that the only MMO worth playing is one where you get in on Day 1 and nobody is making MMOs anymore so they have the gamer's equivalent of beer goggles.

[Trippy]

I think I am starting to bounce off this one. I have put in 10 hours and all I have killed is bandits essentially, I have only dies once because my Pizza arrived, this low level gear is criminally boring, and these quests fucking suck wank. Why will it routinely have me talk to someone in town, then they tell me to go talk to a person 8 feet away, then back to the first person, then to a different person 8 feet in another direction, then back to the first, just to kill 10 bandits?

I remember an ancient Web comic about MMORPG questing where the protagonist is asked to fetch something and his reply is of the form "But it's right there!". I thought it was Penny Arcade but I can't find in their archives. In any event Lost Ark is the epitome of that, much more than any of the other MMORPG I've played. On the flip side it makes completing quests extremely quick with virtually no backtracking as almost all the quest completion NPCs are either right there or appear along the path the story is taking you.

[schild]

I think I am starting to bounce off this one. I have put in 10 hours and all I have killed is bandits essentially, I have only dies once because my Pizza arrived, this low level gear is criminally boring, and these quests fucking suck wank. Why will it routinely have me talk to someone in town, then they tell me to go talk to a person 8 feet away, then back to the first person, then to a different person 8 feet in another direction, then back to the first, just to kill 10 bandits?

I remember an ancient Web comic about MMORPG questing where the protagonist is asked to fetch something and his reply is of the form "But it's right there!"

you can't find it because there's infinite comics like that

the one you're talking about had them walk like 10 feet around a hill that looks like a mountain yeah? I think it was about Guild Wars, or possibly SWG.

[Velorath]

Given how popular this game is, I've concluded this is a "It's not you it's me" type deal.

New World was popular at launch also. Don't hear too many people talking about it now.

[Hoax]

I think I am starting to bounce off this one. I have put in 10 hours and all I have killed is bandits essentially, I have only dies once because my Pizza arrived, this low level gear is criminally boring, and these quests fucking suck wank. Why will it routinely have me talk to someone in town, then they tell me to go talk to a person 8 feet away, then back to the first person, then to a different person 8 feet in another direction, then back to the first, just to kill 10 bandits?

Given how popular this game is, I've concluded this is a "It's not you it's me" type deal.

Edit: I'm gonna try a different class before I go though.

Skip all the yellow ! quests, only do the yellow chain looking symbol quests. Just progress the orange/blue stuff as fast as you can.
Its not a gear game.
You are complaining about the newbie (1-50 in lost ark) quest quality, I'm having a hard time taking this seriously. Either the combat loop is good for you or it isn't. Who fucking cares about the quest dialogue, we've been doing this long enough to know what bits of these games matter.
Feel free to drop it. You are either aware of the endgame(s) (arena pvp and/or boss fight raid progression) and racing to get to it or playing with/because of friends playing. If none of that is true and you are playing it because you heard its "popular"...  can't believe its not working for you

[Ashamanchill]

Ya the combat loop is okay, but I still wouldnt want to play it in an empty arena. Which is pretty close to what the context for killing shit in this game is. There is a fuck ton of space between the Witcher 3's side quests, and walking 10 feet to kill a beehive in one hit, then walking ten feet back to the quest giver and pressing G four hundred times just to get to the part where you run to another town, avoiding all monsters because they provide 2xp out of a leveling bar of tens of thousands, only to bounce around the fucking town to get to kill 10 bandits. It's not just that I don't give a fuck about the plot, it's that these quests are literally just pointless.

You are complaining about the newbie (1-50 in lost ark) quest quality, I'm having a hard time taking this seriously.

If the end game is so fucking good, then just fucking start us there. Or condense the process of getting there way, way down. Or, at fucking least, since as you said we don't care at all about this quest dialogue, at least let us just click on the NPC once to hand in the quest like in, oh, every other MMO, instead of bringing us in to chat with them and force us to jam the skip button.

Feel free to drop it.

Yeah, no shit. That is true of every single game we've ever discussed around here.

[Falconeer]

The quests are still not as bad as the FF XIV ones. At least here the pacing is much faster, and you can breeze through them instead of having to endure that pain at a sluggish rate.

Also as Hoax said, skip them if they bore you. They are there mostly for flavor and are closer to "collections" than to quests meant to progress your character (they mostly progress your roster so worry about them later eventually).

[Ashamanchill]

No, see, I'm not just talking about the side quests. The main missions quests are literally this way. There is no skipping them.

[Setanta]

I'm at level 47 as a Gunlancer and I have been doing the side quests, just to get a feel for it. It will be a case of once only I think. Gunlancer is ok but feels a bit clunky, admittedly I have been playing the blue skills not the red. I do think the run to 50 could be quicker, but it's still a better experience than PoE. I'm on the fence about the game but not hating it.

[Trippy]

I think I am starting to bounce off this one. I have put in 10 hours and all I have killed is bandits essentially, I have only dies once because my Pizza arrived, this low level gear is criminally boring, and these quests fucking suck wank. Why will it routinely have me talk to someone in town, then they tell me to go talk to a person 8 feet away, then back to the first person, then to a different person 8 feet in another direction, then back to the first, just to kill 10 bandits?

Given how popular this game is, I've concluded this is a "It's not you it's me" type deal.

Edit: I'm gonna try a different class before I go though.

Definitely try some other classes before you go if you haven’t already. As I talked about earlier I tried 4 classes in beta — Gunslinger, Soulfist, Deathblade, and Bard — and the Deathblade was the one I liked the most and is the one I’m playing now and still enjoying.  With 15 classes currently there’s a good variety of styles of play to choose from — melee or ranged or both, mobile or not so mobile, positional dependent attacks (back or front) or not, more or less complicated class mechanics, “bursty” or more steady damage, squishy not squishy, etc.