Developed by Smilegate and published by Amazon Game Studios in English-speaking territories, Lost Ark is a Diablo-esque MMOARPG that takes place in the fantastical world of Arkesia. There are tons of different classes to choose from, and a huge world to explore as you sail around tackling dungeons. Things can get overwhelming at times, so here are a few beginner tips to help you get started on your journey.
1. Pick Whatever Class You Want
The nice thing about Lost Ark is that every single class and advanced class is totally viable in this game. Some lean more towards support and healing, while others lean towards damage output, but every class comes with their own strengths and weaknesses, so just pick the one that looks coolest.
It’s worth noting that there are some core minute differences between classes; for instance, the Assassin has a slightly shorter dodge cooldown of around six seconds, while the Sharpshooter has a cooldown of around nine seconds. The Soulfist is in the middle of the pack, with a cooldown of about seven seconds. Ultimately, though, these differences won’t impact your gameplay too much unless you’re actively spamming the dodge button in every encounter, which we definitely don’t recommend.
Boss moves are often properly telegraphed, giving you ample time to respond. So at the end of the day, just pick the class that you like the best and roll with it.
One other thing to note is that Lost Ark does encourage the use of alts as well. You can create multiple characters on a single account, and this is crucial especially if you want to maximize your endgame grind, so you can always experiment with the other classes on another character later on.
2. Put Potions on Your Hotbar
Beginner Lost Ark Tips to Help You Get Started
Not every class comes with healing abilities, but regardless of what you choose, make sure to always have some potions on your hotbar. There is a short cooldown period for potions, but the health regen rate will literally save your life if you ever get yourself in trouble during enemy or boss encounters.
Potions are also fairly cheap, and you can purchase them from the potion vendor NPCs you see around towns or campsites. Enemies also tend to drop potions very frequently, so you’ll inevitably get swamped with them. Might as well put them to good use.
3. Use Your Mount
The instanced zones in Lost Ark are seriously huge. You might be tempted to explore everything on foot when you’re just starting out, but you’ll quickly realize that there’s not actually that much to do in the world unless you’re working on a quest.
You’ll get a mount very early on in the game when you first arrive at Prideholme, so do yourself a favor and put the mount on your hotbar as well. Summon that thing whenever you need to get from one point to another, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time when traveling around.
4. Pick Up Every Quest You See
Beginner Lost Ark Tips to Help You Get Started
The point of any MMO is to beat the story quickly so you can finally get to the good stuff: the endgame. In Lost Ark, you’ll need to complete all story quests and hit combat level 50. The good news is that it’s actually really easy to level up quickly in this game, and the key lies in all the quests that you can do.
The main story quests will reward you with a good chunk of experience, but you also want to pick up all of the yellow marked side quests you see as well. Lost Ark’s side quests are surprisingly easy and breezy, and they usually task you with heading in the direction of your next main story objective, so you might as well pick them up along the way.
Each quest rewards you with huge amounts of experience and items, and considering how easy they are to do, there’s no reason to ignore them.
5. Don’t Worry About Life Skills Till You Get a Stronghold
Like any good MMO, Lost Ark allows you to indulge in the mundane with mining, fishing, and excavating. These are fun little side things you can do to gather resources and craft items and gear whenever you’re not focusing on the story or endgame content.
First off, don’t worry about them until you’ve at least reached the Lakebar region. After completing the story quest here, you’ll unlock the ability to equip tools such as a pickaxe and fishing rod, which will then allow you to start working on your life skills. Go ahead and experiment with those and complete the relevant introductory quests, but we recommend holding off on going HAM on them until you’ve reached Luterra and completed the story quests there.
After Luterra, you’ll gain your very own Stronghold, which is basically Lost Ark’s version of a housing system. With your life skills, you can start gathering resources to upgrade your Stronghold, which will give you various perks and benefits to help you out on your journey. This would be a good time to start farming resources, so hold off till you get the Stronghold, then go crazy.
6. Claim Your Roster and Adventurer’s Tome Rewards
Beginner Lost Ark Tips to Help You Get Started
Finally, your combat level isn’t the only thing you have to worry about. As you’re exploring Arkesia, you’ll inevitably pick up various key items that can be added to your Adventurer’s Tome. You’ll also come across various vista points that you can interact with, allowing you to get a better view of your surroundings.
All of these little things will contribute to your Roster level and Adventurer’s Tome progress. And each time you level them up, you can claim rewards that will benefit you greatly as you play. For instance, some of the early Adventurer’s Tome rewards include Phoenix Plumes, which will instantly revive you when you’re down instead of sending you back to the last safe area.
It’s important to note that these rewards are account-wide and can only be redeemed once regardless of how many characters you have, so use them sparingly. As your Roster level goes up (you’ll gain Roster experience by completing quests as well), you can also unlock permanent stat boosts for all your characters, so make sure you’re claiming those regularly.
You can check your Character and Roster menus to look at your progress, and claim your rewards as you earn them.
And those are all the Lost Ark beginner tips we have for new players just starting out on their journey in Arkesia. Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more tips and information on the game.
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