Lost Ark adds Artist subclass in upcoming update
Lost Ark’s South Korean version is still ahead of its Western counterpart in terms of content due to the latter’s much later release date, but Amazon Games and Smilegate are steadily working on closing the gap between the regions. Next up in this process will be the release of the Artist subclass in the West, which was introduced to the original game back in 2022.
The Lost Ark update adding the Artist will be released on March 15, 2023, according to a post on Twitter on the game’s official account.
The Artist swings a giant brush around in combat and comes with some very stylish animations depicting ink-painted scenery. It’s not really a powerhouse when it comes to damage, but serves a support role in the game by providing buffs and shields to allies and debuffing enemies.
Another special thing about the Artist is that this subclass doesn’t really fit into the game’s class system as the other subclasses do. In the South Korean version of Lost Ark the Artist is the only subclass in the Specialist category, so one would assume this will also be ported over as a part of the upcoming update.
However things will work in detail, the community is definitely excited for the Artist’s release. Lots of positive reactions below the announcement post seem to come from players willing to return to the MMORPG specifically to try out this highly-anticipated subclass.
Playing a bit like Diablo or Path of Exile, Lost Ark launched in the West in 2022 and found great success on Steam, though persistent server problems due to the unexpectedly high interest made the experience for players anything but smooth. Shortly after launch, over 1.3 million users on Steam played the free-to-play game at the same time.
