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 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.
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.
