The Lost Ark Arcanist class is just around the corner, along with a pool party battle royale, brutally difficult Raids, and an event-exclusive power pass. It’s all part of the latest Lost Ark update, Spells in Spades, which releases July 20 and promises to be a more substantial update than we saw in June. The Arcanist uses cards for magic attacks and as physical weapons, hurling cards at enemies and slicing them into pieces, Smilegate says, but the real draw with the MMO game’s new class is its Stack and Ruin effects. Stack skills place stacks on a foe, as you’d expect from the name, and Ruin skills consume existing stacks to deal extra damage. Plan your attacks well, and you could sweep the field with the Arcanist.
Spells in Spades also adds Inferno difficulty for Lost Ark’s Valtan Raid, and while it’s naturally a step up in terms of challenge, you’re also not penalized for trying and failing – or succeeding. Running the Raid on Inferno difficulty doesn’t count towards your weekly limits, but you also don’t get the usual rewards. Inferno difficulty gives you Stronghold items, titles, and achievements instead, among other things.
If you’re after a different kind of challenge, give the Challenge Abyssal Dungeons a try. This new feature uses the Scale of Harmony to match your gear level to the enemy commander’s, and there’s a bigger selection of better rewards on offer should you succeed.
The limited-time Maharaka Festival takes things down a notch, with its pool-themed festivities and a battle royale style game where players compete to see who’s the last one standing in the pool. The Maharaka Festival comes with its own event shop and currency as well, and the in-game shop is getting a suite of summer-themed skins and mounts.
Finally is the Punika Powerpass, rewarded to anyone who completes all purple Adventure Quests in Punika and becomes an honorary citizen. This Powerpass takes you to Item Level 1302, but it’s only available until September 28. Running alongside the Punika Powerpass is a Hyper Express event that pushes characters up to Item level 1370 and gives them several honing materials as well.
The Lost Ark update includes a range of other fixes, including changes to item progression, which Amazon explains in the patch notes. It doesn’t include adorable Mokoko lamps, though, more’s the pity.
The Arcanist isn’t the last advanced class coming to Lost Ark. Brush up on all the additional upcoming Lost Ark classes in our handy list.