Lost Ark devs “made a mistake” releasing March update too early

pcgamesn.com:

Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG say they “made a mistake” in releasing Lost Ark’s March update “too quickly after launch”. While internal data suggested that players would be ready to tackle the high-level Abyss Raid the patch introduced, various circumstances meant that didn’t end up being the case.

“We overlooked certain variables, such as players spending more time on horizontal content and the price of honing materials increasing due to bots and real-money transactions,” the team explains in a blog post. “These factors contributed to a scarcity of tier-three honing materials. Together, our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG are continuing to gather data on play patterns in the western version to better inform our future content roadmap. We appreciate the patience and support we’ve seen from the community while we continue to learn together and work on updating our roadmap, and apologise for the confusion our early excitement has generated.”

The long and short of it is that you need tier-three progression materials to get your character ready to tackle the most challenging content Lost Ark has to offer. Getting there, though, requires honing materials, which ain’t cheap when gold-farming bots are inflating the market price.

The team has been cracking down on bots recently, with one recent Lost Ark ban wave eliminating more than one million “illegitimate” accounts for using the wee blighters. Next week, though, it’ll get easier to get honing materials. You’re getting additional Grand Prix honing rewards, a new casual raid with more materials, and Proving Grounds is opening its doors.

Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG also say they’re aware of the demand for more cosmetic skins and advanced classes. In short, the team