!! DISCLAIMER - READ IT !!
This post is about theories related to the new content update, it will deal with a lot of SPECULATION base on the current information available so please restrain taking it as true.
IMC already announced a big content update coming in the near future (subjective to your own definition of near) and they’re promissing new gears, maps, dungeons and level cap. However most of the active players were expecting it to come along with Rank 9 but there’s no solid information regarding that, and there’s where the conspiracy begins.
New classes
If we go to kToS official website at the index page we can see the following banner about the content update (credits to Wolfy ).
Translated as
The left panel gets you to the already given information about the big patch with a release date, the right panel however implies in new class(es) coming as a follow up. It was also found at kTest Tos-neet items related to a new class, Shadowmancer (credits to Mikumo). This makes us believe that Shadowmancer comes as a hidden class at Rank 8, however there are some missing points on this leak.
First thing to address regarding Shadowmancer being a hidden class is secrecity, for anyone that is already familiar with the game it sounds quite odd for IMC to mention hidden classes and dodge all sorts of questions related to them, in fact if you search on the official website the only information regarding any hidden class will be either about bug fixes or balance changes.
Both Miko and Appraiser (couldn’t find the post) were added post server opening, their release was stated only as “a new hidden class added” (miko did has some visual cameo here and there tho) without mentioning rank, class tree nor name. Knowing IMC philosphy about hidden classes it’s really unlikely that the blue banner is related to them, however there’s been a noticeable change on the company and game direction so we can’t denny this possibility.
The second point to address is Shadowmancer quest and items, they’re 4 orbs (A, B, C, D) related to the quest that mention locations (you can check it with google by removing ‘에 실현화된 그림자에게서 얻은 그림자의 흔적입니다’ from the item description), these maps are Namu Temple Ruins (lvl 172), Khonot Forest (lvl 278), Lhadar Forest (lvl 289), Ghibulinas Forest (lvl 313). In order for a class advancement to be fair all the quest maps should be around or slightly higher than the mininmum level for the following rank, this rule also applies to hidden classes as well and so disqualify Ghibulinas Forest as a rank 8 quest map since the same rank should be achieved around lvls 270-280 (not that IMC can’t change the quest map).
Therefore it’s quite unlikely for Shadowmancer to be at Rank 8 but things don’t stop there, as odd as Namu Temple Ruins can be for a rank 9 class we’ve seen quests that have special triggers on lower level maps such. There’s a hidden quest given by Linker that summons a 290 boss at Demon’s Prison 1F, as Shadowmancer’s quest interactions are unknown we don’t know what are the requirements to collect the items and thus the challenge may be designed for a rank 8 character. Assuming that the quest takes similar feature we can consider the possibility that Shadowmancer isn’t a hidden class at all, instead it’s just an accidental leak on the next rank.
Note - There’s also a rumor about Rank 9 and 10 being composed only by hidden classes, however i’ll ignore those since they bring too many disvantages oposed to the standard.
Setting up the stage
Now for the second act let’s take a look at the other things going on, and so we’ll start with the latest kTest update event (credits to Mikumo), it’s available only for those that reached rank 8. All players that met the requirements will be awarded with an insta-level package that boosts one character to rank 6, what’s really interesting tho is that this injects a lot of mid-late characters into the game as if IMC wants everybody to speed up to rank 8 as fast as they can on every character they have.
Adding a lot of rank 6 characters on the server can improve queues significantly and even make then constant, in no time it’s possible for everybody on the server to max a character by just going with the flow. Not only that but the starting point is fairly convenient for the release/reveal of rank 9, it’s at the exact point where you can get the highest circle 3 class or get an incomplete one and wait for the next circle to come. This may be enough to start acept it but there’s one more thing going on to talk about.
Finally the last piece that holds the conspiracy, the upcoming balance update, this week dev post was about big changes to Cleric classes and before getting any info on it we have the following - “we have plans for other classes and class trees too”. Those that read the post are already aware of the impactful changes coming to Paladin, Priest and Pardoner and as the way the put it it’s expected for us to get the same treatment on Archer, Wizard and Swordsman. Overall they may look only as some quality of life changes but the impact can be quite noticeable for some players and builds, thus it is expected to have some form of compensation for those that took certain paths and then everything connects.
Assembling the puzzle
By taking all those elements and combining them we have the following diagram.
Is IMC planning all this to make it a big event? Who knows. The only thing we know for sure is that in two weeks we’ll have all most of our answers in hands since they’ll ship the current changes to kToS (may or not come with balance changes) and for us iToS folks all we got to do is wait for saalus update and card update, perhaps the GM staff will hold both content and rank 9 updates unlike it’s likely to happen to kToS but again, we can’t be sure if it’s coming.
