Choose My Adventure: Getting into the routine with Lost Ark’s Machinist

The polling for last week’s Lost Ark Choose My Adventure was pretty clear: stay in the lower levels and focus on the Machinist. I appreciate the sentiment here; I read the poll results as people hoping to see what else this class is capable of. I have to say that, now in the 20s in terms of combat level, my skill set hasn’t really changed all that much. In fact, I’ve pretty much fallen into a routine with the Machinist.

That might read like a complaint, but it’s not. It is a compliment. But I also have to admit that I am getting a tiny bit bored.

As arrogant as this might seem, I think part of that feeling stems from the fact that I know my buttons pretty well and I’m starting to adapt to this class’ flow. I’ve picked up a couple of tricks along the path, such as realizing that the skills that command my drone to do things can be pressed even while I hold down the standard attack button, or that I don’t have to call back the drone every time I want it to do something else in a different location. I’ve also learned a couple of skills that help me deal with moments when I’m overwhelmed.

A larger problem I’m facing now is, as usual, aiming. ARPGs that use click-to-move controls – i.e., damned near every single one of them – always feel spectacularly off-kilter to me when it comes to playing as a ranged class, particularly when I’m under pressure. Even one of the skills I mentioned earlier that help me get out of trouble kind of falls apart because my aiming kind of sucks. Even with an enlarged cursor, I can frequently lose track of where it is and thus where my command inputs are aiming for. That’s probably less a problem with the game and more with myself and my eyes, though. I’ll just never get used to it, I guess.

There were sparkling moments when it all came together for me, though. A few of the dungeons that I’ve had to run through recently have seen some encounters ramp up in intensity and overall I think I did well. I’m measuring that mostly by how many potions I’m being forced to knock back – my own personal metric of ARPG skill, especially when I’m doing solo things. But even though I’m learning my buttons, I really haven’t changed any of them. That’s probably a testament to the Machinist showing its best hand earlier rather than later, but it does kind of lend itself to a bit of feeling like I’m in a rut.

Still, what I think is the biggest factor in feeling bored is the fact that the early levels are pretty much barren. I had expected this coming in, as I suspected those who are deeply invested in Lost Ark are in the higher echelons of the title’s myriad endgame treadmills. Even so, I was kind of hoping to at least find a couple of humans to come across and maybe run a dungeon with, but all I’m getting so far are bots. Literally nothing but bots.

It’s a shame because I am extremely curious what the Machinist is capable of in group play. It seems as if it cranks out some pretty disgusting levels of damage, so that would presumably be a pretty big help, especially since people like to clear these things ASAP. I’m yet to get the opportunity, though, and of course these games are just better with others around. Real human others not farmers.

Still, I am finding plenty to like about the Machinist to the point that I might just make it a permanent fixture on my character roster. As regular players likely know, having alts that feed materials to the main is one of the major endgame routines in Lost Ark, and I think that if I get this class would do great in some of the top end activities, particularly the chaos dungeons, where it’s all about wanton slaughter as fast as possible. I don’t particularly like my chances in some of the major raids, but that’s not really a failing of the class so much as my own personal ability. Also, PUGs had precious little patience for failure when this game first launched. I expect that patience has gotten even more threadbare in the intervening months.

Despite the class enjoyment (and despite that earlier complaint about the playerbase at large) though, I really do miss being able to do things with others. So I think, for a week at least, I’ll be putting the new character aside in favor of one of my higher level ones. There’s my Sorceress main character and a Paladin high-level alt to choose from, neither of which has been touched in an age, so it’s very likely going to feel like I’m starting over again, but I also want to see whether I really am that far behind or whether playing with others is going to entice me to get back on that grind.

Oh, did I write the word “choice” just then? Yes, yes I did.

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The next poll might be a little bit odd, but I think it holds up as another choice: control scheme. As I mentioned earlier, I have a pretty bad relationship with click-to-move controls and I think it’s affecting my ability to be really good at movement and aiming. On the other hand, I’m a little worried that aiming skills on a controller isn’t going to be much better; sure I will be able to position myself much easier on a gamepad, but is my aim going to suffer, bar some control options to make things less hellish for me? So I’m putting the question to you fine folks.

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As usual, polling will wrap up this Friday, October 21st, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. In the meantime, I’m probably going to continue my solo journey up the Machinist combat levels. Maybe there will be a new skill or two that I can add to my bar to shake me out of this effective but way too established routine I’ve fallen in to.

Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.