General Progression (PvE/RvR/Scens/Lake)

[alexandernevis]

Hi all,

I'll start by asking readers to be open-minded — what follows is not meant as a complaint or a flame post. It's feedback from a long-time player who has genuinely loved Warhammer, appreciates the work the RoR team has done, and simply wants to help improve the dummies world cup game's longevity and appeal.

The Problem: RoR Is Not New Player Friendly
Return of Reckoning has a major problem: the open RvR lakes dominate the game to the detriment of everything else. This creates a huge barrier for new or returning players, and it's one of the biggest reasons I’ve struggled to get friends to stick with the game.

Most new players join expecting the usual MMORPG experience: level up through PvE, try out PvP, dabble in dungeons, explore the world, and gradually get to grips with end-game. But in RoR, they quickly find:

Questing and PvE, specifically dungeons are underused - despite rewarding good gear for new players, the existing playerbase - mostly those already decked in SoV don't run these regularly.

Scenarios pop sporadically and have no real long-term value as they lack certain rewards for true end-game gear.

And everything important — gear, renown, progression — revolves around the lakes.

This isn't just confusing — it’s exclusionary. Many of us don’t have hours on end to chase a zone lock or sit in a standoff. Players with limited game time often log in, see nothing happening outside the lakes, and log off again. That’s not a healthy loop for player retention.

The Issue with the Lakes

The lakes should be a core part of the game, yes — but not the only relevant part in real end-game and specific resource grinds. Right now, because zone progression and rewards are so heavily locked into lake activity:

• Scenarios are treated as filler, despite being incredibly fun.

• PvE is ignored, despite the work that’s gone into releasing Lost Vale and other dungeons.

• New players struggle to break into endgame without joining warbands for hours at very specific times.

• Many players waste their limited gaming windows hoping something worthwhile will happen — and often, it doesn’t.

What we’re left with is a game that punishes players who don’t fit into a zerg warband or have 3+ hours to commit.

How to Fix It (Suggestions)


1. Diversify End-Game Progression

Scenarios and end-game PvE dungeons should reward comparable weekly rewards to lakes — not better, just equal time-value, if people have limited time to play, they should be able to cash in on a decent chunk of rewards from daily and/or weekly quests for each major content stream; PvE, Scenarios and Lakes.

Let end-game PvE and Scenarios contribute to renown, war crests, and influence — it should be appealing even for players in Sovereign.

Create weekly content paths where players can earn rewards by doing a mix of activities.

Add in fashionhammer rewards for high RR players to earn by doing Dungeon runs, either by token or otherwise - unique visuals, past event cloaks etc. E.G do 10-20 dungeons, get 1 cloak token to buy any previous event cloak appearance or something similar maybe not such an exclusive reward.


2. Revise the Lake Reward Meta

Add persistent objectives or personal contribution meters that let players make steady progress in the lakes, even if the zone is “dead” or locked in a standoff.

This makes logging in always feel worthwhile — not a gamble.


3. Break Stalemates and Incentivise Engagement

Introduce mechanics to encourage actual fighting, not just dancing around BOs or keep posturing.

Ideas include diminishing rewards for prolonged inactivity, timed pressure objectives, or zone-wide buffs to the outnumbered side.



4. Make PvE Truly Relevant Again

Make end-game dungeons drop high quality crafting materials and/or grant PvP currency in limited amounts as a guaranteed reward from either repeated runs similar to gear, or a small guaranteed amount per run, enough to warrant the time constructing the group and clearing the dungeon as opposed to sitting in Lakes. Remember End-game dungeons are on a lockout. Typically things are on lockouts because they'd be too rewarding to run repeatedly, so having a once-per-day thing *should* be rewarding, and in a game where Renown and RvR is the real end game, having dungeons totally detatched from the main resources of end-game progress makes them more or less have no value.

"Why would I bother with a dungeon when all I have left to do is my rr70-80 grind"

Introduce weekly dungeon challenges with war crest or renown rewards — scale them based on difficulty. The current PvE rewards are really lacklustre and don't attract the majority of the playerbase who are very well geared already.

This will help incentivise regular groups, and support new players who want to PvE to progress through early ward gear and save their crests for later RvR gear sets, as well as improve the number of people wanting to progress through to Lost Vale regularly.


Summary

RoR’s strength is in its variety — yet the current reward structure narrows the game down to just one major thing in end-game: lakes. That doesn't feel sustainable, and is unlikely to grow the population.

By spreading value across Scenarios and PvE, and giving players meaningful rewards for their time regardless of where they play, you not only make the game more enjoyable — you make it more accessible, more replayable, and more future-proof. This isn't to make Lakes redundant, just offer additional avenues that people can pursue for genuine, valuable rewards for their time and efforts, including those who don't need the gear from the dungeons.

Thanks for reading, again, this is only one persons perspective and will likely be met with a lot of hate by the hardcore Lakers, but do have an open mind that Lakes are not everybodies favourite thing, and certainly are an abnormality for the average MMO player who may come and try RoR and can't "get into it", that player won't stick around if they're forced to participate purely in Lakes for end-game gear.

Thank you for sharing such thoughtful feedback! I completely agree that diversifying end-game progression is crucial for attracting and retaining new players. Making PvE and scenarios more relevant alongside the lakes could really enhance the overall experience. Let's hope the RoR team considers these suggestions to create a more accessible and enjoyable game for everyone!

[shoelessHN]

I would say that currently, acquiring equipment and leveling up is very easy.

You can earn crests everywhere, there is only one PvP currency. In the past, you used to earn different ones depending on the content (sc, orvr, city).

Thanks to the WARD system, you can save a lot of crests when you discover part of WARD through PvE.

Renown is also easy to obtain. There are often additional bonuses to renown.

This is a 100% PvP game. You only go to PvE to make your life easier in PvP.
Despite this, we have a very strong team that is responsible for PVE. These guys work wonders, and it is even possible that they will launch ToVL and Tombs someday (whenever that may be).

In my case, I can tell you that if you play your cards right when buying sets, by level 75-78 you will have solid equipment (vanq ect) and 14,000-17,000 crests in your pocket to buy the most expensive sets.

To sum up, I have no idea where this feeling that the game has such a high entry threshold comes from. I would say that it is very friendly to new players and easy to learn.

Perhaps it's a matter of generational change, where younger players are used to having everything immediately

New player here and I can say I've found leveling to be anything but easy it is very Tedious and sluggish actually due to low numbers of new players

I have not been able to do a single dung or PQ because no is doing them and SC are crazy long wait time both times i got in it took around 30mins or more mean last time forgot i even queued up for maw of madness after some time running around questing and rvr is cool if i ever come across anybody to fight i haven't even killed 10 other players yet after 3 days of logging in on my 4th day as of this post i just think the devs might want to look into some form of account boost that lvls new players very fast so they can actually play with the majority of the player base I see lots of lvl 40+ people and comparatively fewer 16-

I can say the community is great i had a lot of players give me help and tips and I'm still making serious effort to lvl up its not very fun atm but ik it will be when I can run with higher lvls

T1 sc are dead outside of EU hours and even then most are going to just skirmish in the rvr lakes. Overall T1 is pretty bad in the NA EST 10PM - 6AM window but it has been for years. The best thing to do if that is your window is find the roaming lucky gobbo between ch1 and ch2 and xp boost out of t1 / grind pve. On destro there are lvl9 mobs in the city and you can grind those all the way to 15 (then ask for a sacellum carry).

The t1 dungeon is completely optional -- you'll earn enough war crests to buy the chest/boots in no problem if you just go fight in the lake (during a non dead period). And there's quests in all the t1 warcamps that give you a free t2 ward (not that getting boosted through sacellum/crypts is hard -- people will do this at all hours of the day and night)

They'd have to tweak the bolster but letting level 1 players go directly into t4 rvr when the server pop is <500 would be fine, theyd be mostly fodder but at least they'd get a stat boost and could earn xp w/o having to pve.