Lost Ark September 7 patch notes: Major Stronghold updates & balance changes

Lost Ark’s September 7 patch has arrived and includes Trixion improvements, major Stronghold updates, and balance changes.

Lost Ark’s first September patch has been added to Arkesia and although it doesn’t come with any huge new additions like the recent Arkesian Sun update, it includes countless quality of life changes.

Not only that, the patch has rolled out a variety of balance changes that have altered the power of the Berskerer, Wardancer, Scrapper, Striker, Sharpshooter, Gunslinger, Arcanist, Sorceress, and Shadowhunter.

Smilegate RPG

Lost Ark’s first September patch includes a huge amount of QOL changes.

Social Systems

Global Chat Improvements

• You can now write announcements in Global Chat.
• You can now search past messages in Global Chat conversations.
• Button to send messages via mouse-click instead of ‘Enter’ has been added

Chat System Improvements

• Chat category filters have been added and integrated.
• Added ‘Combat’ and ‘Content’ filters.
• ‘Error’ and ‘Warning’ have been merged into ‘Caution (warning)’.
• Consolidated several chat tab groups such as ‘Loot’, ‘Experience’, and ‘Currency’ into ‘Obtained (Consume)’.

General Community Updates

• All friends and blocked players have been converted to be Roster-wide.
• Added a chat command to block another player using “/block” or “/ban” followed by their character name.
• You can now update your status in the Friends menu to switch between Connected, AFK, and Offline.
• You can now add friends from other servers in the same region.

Proving Grounds

• When participating in the Proving Grounds the intro sequence at start of the game has been shortened for players to jump into the action even faster.
• Reduced the position selection phase in Team Elimination from 20s to 10s.
• Added an option to skip cinematics when starting a PvP match.
• Added a free camera in Team Deathmatch spectator mode.
  • You can move the camera point of view with the W, A, S, and D keys.
  • You can zoom in/out the camera with the Q and E keys.
  • You can adjust the camera movement speed with the Z and C keys.
  • You can switch between full screen and specific participant cameras using Number Pad 1-9 keys.

Stronghold Updates

• The Recommended Strongholds tab in the Stronghold Members menu has been improved with additional filters.
• Added a Stronghold Activity Notebook that contains weekly missions and replaces the previous weekly Stronghold quests.
• Pet Ranch Updates
  • Split the available items in the Jelly Cookie Exchange shop between 3 separate tabs:
  • Pet supplies
  • Skin
  • Other
• Added new items to the Pet Ranch Vendor
  • Legendary – Rare Card Pack
  • Eternity Essence
  • Phoenix Plume
  • Pet Expertise Potion
  • The number of weekly ‘Legendary – Uncommon Card Pack’ available has increased from 1 to 6
  • The number of weekly ‘Soul Leaf’ available has increased from 7 to 14 .
• Added a Lord chat channel that’s accessible while in the Stronghold.
  • You can switch to the lord chat channel by using the tab on the left side of the chat input window or the commands ‘/lord’, ‘/t’.
• Consolidated the Stronghold Acceleration Chips into a singe ‘Stronghold Activity Acceleration Chip’ item which can be used to reduce Dispatch, Lab, or Workshop wait times.
  • Existing Acceleration Chips stored in mail, material storage, integrated storage, or other existing Acceleration Chips delivered in boxes can be disassembled to obtain ‘Stronghold Activity Acceleration Chips’.
• Improved the Stronghold HUD in the upper-left corner and added a “Like Button” called Saved Stronghold.
  • Added new Achievements and a reward for the total number of accumulated “Likes” (Saved Stronghold).
• All guide quest icons conducted in the Stronghold changed to orange-colored icons.
• The “Visit Stronghold” button in the Friends & Guild UI is now always activated.
• Added an option in the Global Chat menu to immediately access any player’s Stronghold in their region.
• Added Stronghold Badges shown in the Profile menu earned after meeting various Achievements.
• Added an ‘Invite’ other players function while in your Stronghold.
• You can now acquire Stronghold Badges from completing various activities related to the Stronghold.
• Instead of having to manually place each piece of a Stronghold prop theme yourself, a new Theme Placement menu has been added which allows you to place a single pre-arranged object containing all the required items. If you do not have the items, then you can also buy them in this menu.

Trixion Improvements

• Improvements have been made so that all of the following setting items can be changed in the Trixion Training Center:
  • Combat stats, skills, Tripods, Skill Runes, Gems, Engravings, and Cards.
  • The Card Set effect can be equipped by selecting the desired total awakening value.
• The maximum Combat stat points have been increased to 2900 points with a cap of 1850 points per stat.

Material Storage Reorganization

• Added a new ‘Content’ storage tab in the Inventory.
  • This hold 3 categories of items:
    • Event Tokes/Materials
    • Exchange Materials
    • Items obtained from Una’s Tasks, Chaos Dungeons, and Chaos Line
    • Skin Material
    • Various dyes
• Moved 3 items to the Stronghold Storage tab: Vernil, Caldarr, and Oreha Woodworking Box.

Guild Updates

• Added a guild group chat system – Each guild can have up to 5 separate chat rooms.
  • Guild leaders can open guild group chats for 3000 Bloodstones.
• Added filters to the Weekly Tasks Guild menu to make finding tasks easier.
  • Can now check each type of Weekly Tasks with filters (Favorites, Combat, Life, Sailing)
  • Removed the ability to refresh Weekly Tasks.
  • All Weekly Tasks can now be viewed.
• Guild members who have authority to change Guild Skill and begin Research can see the alerts, (but other Guild members without authority cannot).
• Guild Skill Levels can now be freely changed.
• Guild Skills have been rebalanced.
• You can now swap gears and skills outside of Battle Workshop in Raid Match and Sieges.
• The following changes are applied to Medeia, Slime Island, and Death’s Hold Island bases:
  • Gear set effect is no longer applied.
  • Damage & defense stats will change.

Balance Updates

General

• The conditions for activating forced Super Armor in PvP have been relaxed. Previously, forced Super Armor was activated if an additional hit or more is received after 4s of damage. This requirement has been reduced to 3s.

Berserker

• Mountain Crash – ‘Numbing Effect’ tripod now decreases the target’s movement speed for 2s instead of 4s on hit.

Wardancer

• Swift Wind Kick – ‘Water Round Kick’ tripod now decreases the target’s movement speed for 2s instead of 4s on hit.
• Wind’s Whisper – Cooldown time in PvP has been increased from 30s to 36s.

Scrapper

• Bolting Crash Skill- when applying the ‘Repulse’ tripod in PvP, the pushing distance and hit time when an attack is hit have been slightly increased.
• Merciless Pummel – Slightly increased the damage time when an attack hits in PvP.

Striker

• Swift Wind Kick – The ‘Water Round Kick’ tripod effect now decreases the target’s movement speed for 2s instead of 4s on hit.

Sharpshooter

• Identity – In PvP, the Hawk Gauge no longer decreases during non-combat.
• Stalker – The ‘Tenacity’ tripod effect has been changed. Previously, the player was immune to damage until the first attack during skill casting. Now, the caster will be immune to damage taken during skill casting.

Gunslinger

• Stampede – The skill cooldown time in PvP has been increased from 8s to 10s.
• Quick Step – The skill cooldown time in PvP has been increased from 10s to 12s.

Arcanist

• Scratch Dealer – Slightly increased the Stagger time on targets hit by the attack during PvP.
• Celestial Rain – Slightly increased the Stagger time on targets hit by the attack during PvP.
• Spiral Edge – Slightly increased the Stagger time on targets hit by the attack during PvP.

Sorceress

• Ice Shower
  • Slightly increased the Stagger time on the target when the attack hits.
  • Reduced the freeze duration of the ‘Frost Fragment’ tripod effect from 5s to 3s.
  • In PVP, when the ‘Frost Zone’ tripod is applied, the Stagger time that occurs on targets hit by frost thorns has been slightly increased.
• Lightning Vortex – Rotation speed has been increased.

Shadowhunter

• While in Demon Form, reduced damage taken in PVP by 9%.
• Demonic Slash – The ‘Numbing Effect’ tripod effect now decreases the target’s attack and movement speed for 3s instead of 5s on hit.
• Demon’s Grip – The ‘Numbing Effect’ tripod effect now decreases the target’s attack and movement speed for 2s instead of 4s on hit.
• Grind Chain – The ‘Impaired Mobility’ tripod effect now decreases the target’s movement speed for 2s instead of 3s on hit.

Hopefully, that’s caught you up on all of the changes that arrived in Lost Ark’s September 7 patch notes.

Keep in mind, that Smilegate has already revealed that this is only Part 1 of the September updates, so prepare yourself for plenty more content that’s scheduled to be added in the near future.