Smilegate’s MMORPG Lost Ark has been well received by fans so far, but this doesn’t mean that the game is above criticism in mechanics or design. Although this title has become one of the top games on Steam, some players have noticed issues with balance that could use addressing. For example, one Lost Ark player recently reported being incredibly, hilariously unlucky when trying to hone items.
Like many MMORPG games, Lost Ark features a lot of endgame content meant to allow skilled players to push their characters to their limits. Delving deeper into Lost Ark‘s endgame content requires players to improve their gear through the in-game Gear Honing system. Honing gear can upgrade equipment and raise an item’s item level cap all the way up to 1000.
Unfortunately, the downside of the Gear Honing system is that there’s a percentage of success attached to each upgrade, and if the upgrade fails, then the materials used to enhance the item are wasted. Even worse, just having a high percentage of success doesn’t guarantee an upgrade will work. Redditor Chocolate-Milk shared two grim screenshots of failed Lost Ark gear upgrades that were somehow unsuccessful despite having a 99% chance of success. According to them, the two Honing attempts took place in a row, adding insult to injury.
According to the screenshots, Chocolate-Milk tried to enhance two items from the Epic Seraphic Oath set, the Seraphic Oath Pants and the Seraphic Oath Harp. Although the Seraphic Oath Pants are an item that can be used by any Advanced Class, the Seraphic Oath Harp can only be used by Bard characters. This, combined with the Seraphic Oath Pants taking the form of Sorceress-esque short shorts, suggests what kind of character Chocolate-Milk was playing. Bards are often considered to be a class that excels in manipulating probability, but that skill appears to have utterly failed Chocolate-Milk here.
The screenshots state that failing a Honing attempt will lead to a boost in the odds of success for the next one. However, the fact that Chocolate-Milk failed two Honing attempts in a row suggests that the odds can’t go any higher than 99%. These harsh odds for upgrading gear may explain why so many Lost Ark players pay for microtransactions instead of playing for free. Several users replied to the post by comparing the seemingly misleading odds of success on display to the similarly harsh odds found in the XCOM franchise, which is notorious for its tendency to fail actions with over 90% chance of success.
Lost Ark is available on PC.
