Lost Ark is the rare MMO that gets endgame right

polygon.com:

In 2019, publisher Smilegate released Lost Ark, an action-MMO that quickly skyrocketed to the top of Twitch lists and attracted the attention of players across the globe. It was a bonafide phenomenon.

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However, access to the MMO was mostly limited — it was only available in Korea and Japan, and several months later, through an open beta in Russia. Still, the latter was many players’ ticket to the show: I myself first played Lost Ark through a VPN, putting up with the beta’s rough auto-generated translations as I pored over the endless intricacies of a game I would come to know intimately. Now, the action-RPG is available in its full form in Europe and North America. I’ve played over 90 hours of it, and I haven’t looked back. I’m enthralled and excited for the future content on the way.

Lost Ark is an action-RPG nestled in the framework of an isometric MMO. And while it looks and feels like a Diablo clone on the surface, it’s a much more involved game, one that requires patience and dedication to understand its ultimately rewarding systems.

Take its character classes: Lost Ark has a total of five, several of which branch into more advanced variants once you’ve leveled up significantly. The Warrior, for example, has three subclasses to select from, including the damage-focused Berserker, the support hybrid Paladin, and the tanky Gunlancer. There are no dedicated tanks or