After the newest system upgrade, ark no longer worked as well as k3b. No response at all. Ark complained I didn't have the plugin for the rar file format. K3b just had blank window when trying to write an image. Not the best introduction to a new OS.

No one has a crystal ball here :)

No idea what you updated, what ISO was used initially, if you checked that your mirrors are synced, if only the default repos are in use, what packages you build/added yourself and so on. Without any context, no one can help or figure what is going on with your install.