Ark’s Newest Quality of Life Patch v298.3

Ark’s latest patch brought some nice quality of life changes, some nerfs, and a couple buffs to the game.

While teasing its latest DLC, Studio Wildcard released an excellent quality of life patch for the base game. Ark v298.3 brings some not so small changes to weapons and creatures alike.

Studio Wildcard’s survival simulation game, Ark, has a lot of appeals but not the best reviews as of late. The main issues come from graphic bugs, which are often hilarious; let’s be honest. Others stem from the player versus player environment on the official servers. Other than those glaring issues, the game itself is enjoyable. Especially the mods, but that’s a topic for another time.

August 8 brought another patch to the game. The changes deal with stats and monster abilities, but despite their appearance, they aren’t small by any means. They’ll make a big difference in a PVP environment and even a PvE (player versus environment) game.

Changes from the v298.3 patch are:

• Longneck Rifle armor penetration increased by 40%
• Fabricated Sniper Rifle armor penetration increased by 25%
• Ice Titan freeze ability reduced to 12 seconds
• Plant Y trap time reduced to 10 seconds
• Shadow Steak Saute light sensitivity reduced
• Forest Titan can no longer grab targets through Tek Shields
• Forest Titan can no longer grab players who are piloting Meks

Many of these are going to make a big difference taming and fighting off enemy players. Others, like the Forest Titan’s changes, are a significant quality of life improvement. It certainly doesn’t feel fair to get ripped out of a Mek when you’re supposed to be safe in there. It looks like Wildcard is determined to nerf ice abilities, since a few patches ago, the Managarmr got the same treatment to similar abilities.

Ark is an enjoyable survival simulation game that involves dinosaurs, dragons, and other exciting creatures. With a plethora of mods to pick from, there’s a lot of options for all types of gamers out there.