Return of Reckoning

February Patch Highlights


- It's a huge patch this month with a brand new Live Event, the new Scenario Matchmaker, Dungeon Updates, Class Balance changes, and more!

- The new Scenario Matchmaker is finally here! Special thanks to all players who helped us test and improve it over the last few months.

- A brand new Mentor System has been added to the game, rewarding players who spend time helping lower levels.

- Five new cosmetic Masks, a new cape design, new Rose Trophies, and two new Mounts are arriving in the new Night of Masks Live Event!

- Bastion Stair has a new secret boss, and Sigmar's Crypts has been improved for Order with new Boss 1 mechanics and other QoL fixes!

- Slayer and Choppa, Shield DoKs/Warrior Priests, and various classes are all getting some new changes.

Live Event: Night of Masks



In the distant lands of Estalia, one night every year peasant and noble alike don masks to hide their identities. For one night passion knows no rank, class, or social taboo. Servant locks arms with master, peasant tumbles with lord, priest woos thief. While for most the Night of Masks is a time for passion, for others it is an opportunity to strike political deals and plan conniving plots. All is acceptable during the Night of Masks.

The Night of Masks is an Estalian holiday which has been culturally appropriated by Reiklanders, who use it as a pretext to light bonfires in the hills of Reikland, dance around them, and make passionate love. Though the date of the celebration is wrong, the spirit of the Estalian holiday is somewhat maintained. Join your realm in showing your love of WAR.

The Night of Masks will start on February 13th and last until February 23rd.

[Rewards]
Basic reward: [Estalian Dye Sampler] or [Estalian Turron Sampler]
Advanced reward: [Potion of Acclaim], or an [Estalian Real], a currency used to purchase live event items.
Elite reward: [Estalian Armored Bull] You can check out the mounts here and the magus discs here.

Completing a Riddle-filled Event Quest - Estalian Corrida Cape

Live Event Heralds and merchants are located at the Emperor's Circle of Altdorf or the Emissary of Change the Inevitable City.

[Masks of Estalia]
It wouldn't be the Night of Masks without any masks. Players can purchase masks from vendors in their capital cities, or be lucky enough to earn one from a gold bag in the Scourge of Vedenza public quest. While these masks are equipped, players will have access to a granted ability. Newly designed masks can be seen here at the bottom of the gallery.

[Bonfire Boons]
Located at every battlefield objective in the Tier 2-4 maps are Lovers' Bonfires. Players can purchase Kindling from vendors in the cities to light the bonfires and let the dance of love ensue, and as every elder will tell you - the longer the dance, the greater the love. As long as the bonfire is lit, all players in the radius of the bonfire will be affected by the "Make Love, Not War" buff. This buff will decrease the amount of damage players take and negate morale gains, and additionally lower healing slightly so that heals are not too impactful.

Every stack of Kindling will keep the bonfires lit for 6 minutes. Additional stacks can be added to extend the timer up to 30 minutes. Keep the bonfires lit if you want the dance to last longer!

[The Scourge of Vedenza ORvR PQ]
Following the Estalians from Estalia to Reikland is the dreaded pair of manticores known as the Scourge of Vedenza. One of the manticores has landed in a chasm north of Wilhelm's Fist. But where did his mate go?

[Pan de Mian & Estalian Turron]
If there's one thing we know, it is that Estalians like their bread. Every time a player dies, they will drop a Pan de Mian. When you click on the Pan de Mian, you break off a half for yourself, and mail back the other half as a token of your everlasting friendship or love or... confusion. These halves of Pan de Mian can be traded in for a small selection of liniments, known as Estalian Turron, at your vendor in your capital city.

[Achievements and Roses]
Players can earn titles and trophies by participating in the tasks of the Night of Masks. Killing more players around Lovers' Bonfires will progress an action counter towards earning unique titles. Obtaining Pan de Mian (either by sending or receiving) will allow players to earn new Rose trophies in eight colored variants. These trophies are bind on equip, so feel free to share them with someone special. Rose trophies can be viewed here

[Live Event Dyes]
Fourteen limited-time dyes have been added, two of which have specular dyes set. These Estalian dyes are only available during the Night of Masks, so get them while you can! Dyes can be seen here or by using an add-on like Pocket Palette.

[A Special Thanks]
Lastly, we would like to express our immense gratitude to all of our artists and technical assists on the art team for all of their hard work. Thanks to their efforts we were able to implement a new armored bull mount, new discs for the magus community, masks, trophies, cloaks, icons, live event art, and a pair of manticores who'd love to spend some time with you. Perhaps most notably, our work on the Armored Bull led to us expanding our knowledge of NPC animations which we will be able to put to great use in the future (yes, we're looking at you, non-rotating siege ram wheels).

New Scenario Matchmaker


After many months, the new Scenario Matchmaker is finally here! The new system brings a number of requested features, including:

- Matches now balance Archetypes, so both teams have similar amounts of healers, tanks, and DPS

- Matches now prioritize Premade groups hitting other Premade groups, instead of hitting pugs

- A Renown Bonus is given for players who queue as a role needed to get matches going faster

- The Scenario Lobby UI has been updated, and now displays average Queue Time + highlights Weekend Warfronts

- The Scenario Lobby UI now also lists the amount of DPS, Tanks, and Healers in queue

- Players may now blacklist up to 3 Scenarios. If an entire group shares the same blacklist choices, it will significantly reduce the odds of those scenarios popping for them.

General Scenario Changes

Beyond the advantages of this new system, we're also making the following adjustments to all Scenarios:

- The barrier buff when leaving your spawn in a Scenario has been improved, now granting an additional 50% damage increase and 50% outgoing healing increase for 15 seconds. Players inside the barrier can now also heal and cast outwards past it. Camp the enemy's spawn at your own risk!

- Teams winning on points are no longer able to attempt to surrender the Scenario.

- Teams can no longer surrender until there are 7 minutes 30 seconds left on the scenario timer.

- Ranked Scenarios have been disabled as part of the new Scenario Matchmaker, and are not planned to be restored exactly as their past design. The team is reviewing this system now, and may have more news to share in the future.


City Siege Changes
We're also making the following changes to City Siege Instances:

- City Instances now prioritize organized warbands hitting other warbands.

- City Instances can now backfill players in to spots left open by quitters or players leaving.

- If there are at least 12 players per side leftover in queue when a city begins, they may be added to a unique ~12v12 (scaling) city instead of being denied a pop.

- The Undercroft and the Altdorf War Quarters are no longer open during City Sieges. (These may return someday.)

As we take the system live, we expect to find a number of areas to continue improving upon, so we encourage your feedback on the system and letting us know of any bugs you spot here on the bugtracker.

For additional information, you can also read this thread with more details on the new system.


New Mentor System


In today's patch we're introducing the first phase of a new Mentor System. Historically, we've seen many players take time to go assist new players who need help. Going forward, we're going to reward helpful players with new Mentor's Marks that can be spent on Fashionhammer™ rewards, like exclusive dyes, titles, and consumable items.

Players can pick up Mentor Quests in Tier 1 Warcamps and near the merchant in their Capital Cities. By completing the quest with a player in their party of a specific level range, they'll be able to acquire Mentor's Marks. Mentor's Quests have now been added for:

- Helping new players complete Tier 1 PQs (Level 1-10)

- Helping new players complete Dragonback Pass (Level 1-15)

- Helping new players complete Sewers / Sacellum (Level 15-20)

- Helping new players kill enemies in RvR (Level 16-39)

Mentor Quests can be repeated daily, and a new Weekly Quest, called Mastor Mentor, will grant bonus Marks once a player completes 5 Mentor Quests total.

For more information, as well as specifics on Mentor Quest givers, check out the new Mentor Quests page on the RoR wiki.

If feedback to this initiative is positive from players, we may add further rewards and quests like this in the future.



RvR

RvR Events
- Announcements for RvR Random events should now be more obvious, with both a center-screen message as well as a sound playing

Keeps
- Fixed an issue with the lifetap ritualists and re-enabled the upgrade

- Lowered the heal amount of both Ritualist spells

- Ritualists can now heal themselves as well

Stonewatch

- Destruction's second forward camp in the east front of Stonewatch has had its guards removed. With this, we've finished equalizing Forts so both factions always have a single camp with Guards when attacking.



Content


New Ready Check system
Party and Warband leaders can now trigger a ready check for their groups! Try out the following commands while leading a party or warband to activate it:

- /readycheck (or /rc)
-/bio (to trigger a bio break)
-/vote (to vote on content to do)

You can also customize the duration of these checks by adding the amount of seconds after the command, so if you wanted a Bio break that lasted 10 minutes, you'd type: /bio 600

Dungeons
This patch has some sizable improvements and quality-of-life additions to a number of Dungeons:


Bastion Stair
The Bastion Stair re-work is now finished, and with it, a new Secret Boss can be challenged by parties who make the appropriate offerings of Skulls and Blood. Hints to challenging the secret boss can be found by reading the short unlocks granted by the 3 Game Objects in the lobby room. It is not an easy fight; good luck to all warriors brave enough to try!


Sigmar's Crypts
Sigmar's Crypts has been fully moved over into Lua, allowing us to add improvements and fix up some bugs caused by old code:

- The first Boss in Crypts was a bit too simple and took too long to kill. We've reduced its HP significantly, and added new unique mechanics for each Archetype to do.

- Tobias' Burning Oil can no longer damage Tobias himself, fixing a rare bug where Tobias would die without granting quest credit. Additionally, his enrage distance has been slightly increased so it doesn't trigger in his room.

- The Lector Twins have moved into Lua and now have code ensuring that Verrimus dies first. This should finally squash that bug preventing some players from getting quest credit.


Mount Gunbad

- Garrolath Da Poxbearer's healing from Nurglings has been slowed to make this fight a little faster.

- The 90-Day Eastern Wyvern Mount has been added as a super-rare drop from Mount Gunbad bosses. Like other dungeons, this has ~1% chance of dropping, and any party that hits the jackpot will get two mounts to roll for instead of one.


Lost Vale

- Lost Vale bosses can now drop Purple Seeds. These charge-based Purple Seeds can be grown into ~1,000 Liniments per seed for those lucky enough to get one.

- New Bags of Vale Seeds have also been added to the Champion's Mark vendors in each Capital City. These award 2 random blue seeds from either Lost Vale or Hunter's Vale, and in very rare cases (~1%), may grant a charged Purple Seed from Lost Vale.

- Exclusive Capes for killing Lost Vale Wing Bosses 100 times have been added to the game. (The Trophies for 75 kills will arrive in the future.) Cape designs can be viewed here on the RoR Wiki. These capes (and any future 100 Dungeon Boss kill capes) are account-bound, meaning a player can unlock it on one character and then mail the design to any of their other characters in the same faction, without needing to repeat the 100 kills.


Bilerot Burrows

- The 90-day Rotbeast Mount has been added as a super-rare drop from Bosses within Bilerot Burrows. This has ~1% chance of dropping per boss, and any party that hits the jackpot will get two mounts to roll for instead of one.


Sigmar's Crypts

- The 90-day Zombie Horse Mount has been added as a super-rare drop from Bosses within Sigmar's Crypts. This has ~1% chance of dropping per boss, and any party that hits the jackpot will get two mounts to roll for instead of one. There are five possible color variants for this mount, which are randomly rolled if a party hits this jackpot.


Dragonback Pass

- The 90-Day Battle Ram Mount has been added as a super-rare drop from Bosses within Dragonback Pass. This has ~1% chance of dropping per boss, and any party that hits the jackpot will get two mounts to roll for instead of one.


Chapter 22

- Destruction's Eataine Chapter 22 has been fixed so that Ashtari the Frostheart Phoenix should now properly aggro players on spawning, and will leave the nearby Great Eagles alone.


RvR Random Events

- The Ravenous Rage Random Event in Eataine now spawns more equally centered between the factions.


Exotic Mount Vendor

The Exotic Mount Vendor now also offers a 30-day and 7-day Wild Griffon Mount.



Tome of Knowledge

Action Counter Achievements

- We have reviewed all achievements related to Action Counters (what tracks how much you do something) and analyzed how much progress players have made towards individual achievements (such as visiting the mailbox 'x' times). Based on the data we have, we have adjusted almost all achievements down to make them more achievable. We apologize to the handful of players who clicked on themselves 5 million times to get an unlock, but we feel that making these unlocks less grindy is more appealing to the general population. Please be sure to check out the RoR wiki for the updated values.

- Critical Hits will once again trigger their Action Counter and make achievements tied to this possible.

- An Action Counter has been added to track your deaths in any PvP content, not just in RvR, so players who play primarily scenarios can also make progress towards this. New titles have been introduced to go with these achievements.

- The Action Counters for killing players anywhere (SCs included); longest kill-streak without dying; killing unarmored players while unarmored; killing players while unarmored; dealing damage while unarmored; receiving damage while unarmored; using abilities while unarmored; dying from falling into water; dying from falling into water while unarmored; dying from falling into lava; dying from falling into lava unarmored - have all been implemented. *We are not responsible for any influx of naked players in RvR.

- Many fixes have been done tying titles to achievements so when you mouse over the title in the rewards section it will link back to the achievement.

- The following Action Counters are not implemented but are on our to-do list (one day) : Joining Unique Guilds; Killing Chickens as a Chicken; Killing Chickens not as a Chicken; Killing Player as a Chicken; Restoring Keeps to their Natural Owners.


Weekend Warfronts and Scenarios

The Weekend Warfront Achievements have been removed from the Live Event section of the Tome of Knowledge and rebuilt in a new section called 'Scenarios'. The old unlocks included tasks that were no longer in use and were unobtainable, and they were only built out for 5 Weekend Warfronts, instead of all 36.

Now every Weekend Warfront will award a title for players who complete all the tasks, thus allowing us to finish adding all the titles Mythic made but weren't hooked up in the database.


Bestiary
- The titles rewarded for completing the 'Complete a [High Elf/Goblin/Dwarf/etc.]scenario' or 'History of the... [Insert race]' have been made realm specific. It didn't make much sense for a dwarf to earn the title 'Foe of the Dawi' or a High Elf to have the 'Scourge of the Asur'.



Combat and Careers

Introduction
In the patch we are introducing a set of refinements to previous changes. Among them are some adjustments to tanks, mostly focused on a better balance in large scale content. The patch also includes several changes to Slayer and Choppa, including improvements to their two-handed builds. At last, one significant change to Grace Warrior Priest / Sacrifice Disciple of Khaine by having Healing Hand / Soul Infusion scale with Strength while wielding a shield.



Balance Changes

- Myrmidia’s Fury - Damage changed from 7 * (185 + 0.6*DB + 0.9*WDPS) to 7 * (161 + 0.5*DB + 0.8*WDPS)

The damage of Myrmidia’s Fury was balanced as if it hits 6 instead of 7 times, that has been corrected.



Balance Changes

- Seasoned Veteran - Damage reduction reduced from 15% to 10%.
- Grudging Blow - Now builds 10 Grudge.

The tankiness of the SnB Ironbreaker is toned down slightly to be more in line with other tank classes. Grudging Blow gains new purpose by it becoming a Grudge builder.



Balance Changes

- Vaul’s Tempering - Duration reduced from 6 to 5 seconds.

The effectiveness of Vaul's Tempering has been reduced slightly. This change aims at better balancing the tanks for large scale purposes.



Balance Changes

- We’z Bigger - Duration reduced from 6 to 5 seconds.

The effectiveness of We’z Bigger has been reduced slightly. This change aims at better balancing the tanks for large scale purposes.



Balance Changes

- Elite Training - Now grants 100% Parry and Disrupt for 3 seconds to yourself and your Dark Protector if they are within 45 feet. You still give Action Points to your group as before, but it will have a standard internal cooldown of 250 ms. The Action Point gain is reduced to 4-8-12 AP (from 5-10-15) for 30-60-90 Rage.
- Hateful Strike - Now builds 10 Hate.

Elite Training has been reworked to become a lot stronger. The team felt that SnB Black Guard was lacking too far behind Black Orc and Chosen.



Balance Changes

- Cannot cast Incognito while already in stealth from Sanctified Oil.
- Exit Wound - Debuff duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds.
- Purgatory - Can only be cast on targets not already affected by Purgatory.

With the increased duration of Sanctified Oil, the Witch Hunter could cast Incognito whilst already being stealth from Sanctified Oil, leaving practically no counter play. To prevent this, Incognito cannot be cast while already in stealth. Exit Wound's duration has been buffed. At last, Purgatory can no longer be refreshed, preventing players from being permanently unressable.



Balance Changes

- Furious no longer has a penalty of 25% to Resistances.

- Wild Swing - Action Point cost reduced from 55 to 45.

- Devastate: Wounds debuff applied before damage. Base damage reduced from 262 to 187 and duration increased to 20 seconds.

- Spellbreaker - Now removes all Absorbs and one Enchantment or Blessing. Will deal damage once if any Absorb is removed and damage once if an Enchantment or Blessing is removed.

- Cleft in Twain - If you hit the enemy with an Exhaustive Blow while Furious, the second damage tick of Cleft In Twain will be increased by 50%.

- Short Temper - Now reduces active cooldowns while Furious by half a second and while Berserk by one second. (Was bugged previously to always give the cooldown reduction).

- Relentless Strike - Now in Path of The Giantslayer and builds 5 Rage when wielding a Great Weapon.

- Pulverizing Strike - Now in Path of The Trollslayer.

The Furious reduction in Armor and Resistances has been partially reverted by removing the Resistances debuff. Multiple other improvements have been made to increase the effectiveness of the Trollslayer specilization.



Balance Changes

- Thunderous Blow - Wounds debuff applied before damage. Base damage reduced from 225 to 150.

Wounds debuffs that also deal direct damage will now apply the Wounds debuff first and the damage second. Damage has been reduced slightly.



Balance Changes

- Cannot cast Shadow Prowling while already in stealth from Elixir of Shadows.

- Heart Render Toxin - Wounds debuff applied before damage. Base damage reduced from 112 to 75.

- Shadow of Death - Can only be cast on targets not already affected by Shadow of Death.

Wounds debuffs that also deal direct damage will now apply the Wounds debuff first and the damage second. Damage has been reduced slightly. With the increased duration of Elixir of Shadows, the Witch Elf could cast Shadow Prowler whilst already being stealth from Elixir of Shadows, leaving practically no counter play. To prevent this, Shadow Prowler cannot be cast while already in stealth. At last, Shadow of Death can no longer be refreshed, preventing players from being permanently unressable.


Balance Changes

- Furious no longer has a penalty of 25% to Resistances.

- Furious Stompin’- Swapped position with Git To Da Choppa!

- Wild Choppin’ - Action Point cost reduced from 55 to 45.

- Tired Already? - Removed Great Weapon requirement.

- Big Bad Combo - Now usable while Furious. Rage cost increased from 35 to 50.

- Keep on Choppin’ - Rage cost reduced from 50 to 35.

- Red goes faster! - Now reduces active cooldowns while Furious by half a second and while Berserk by one second. (Was bugged previously to always give the cooldown reduction).

- Throat Slasha - Now in Path of Da’ Hitta and builds 5 Rage when wielding a Great Weapon.

- Slasha - Now in Path of Da’ Savage.

The Furious reduction in Armor and Resistances has been partially reverted by removing the Resistances debuff. Multiple other improvements have been made to increase the effectiveness of the Da' Hitta specilization. Furious Stompin' has been swapped with Git To Da Choppa as the team felt that the Dual Wield build was overperforming in small scale.



Balance Changes

- Healing Hand - Now scales off Strength when wielding a Shield.

With this change the team continues their effort in adjusting the SnB healers to become more viable.



Balance Changes

- Searing Touch - Will now consume Tranquility at the end of the channel.



Balance Changes

- Bunch o' Waaagh - Will now consume Gork's Waaagh! at the end of the channel.

- Yer Not So Bad - Action Point cost reduced from 50 to 30 AP.

- Stop hittin’ me! - Action Point cost reduced from 40 to 30 AP.

Two adjustments to the Action Point cost have been made to equalize their cost with their mirror's counterparts.



Balance Changes

- Soul Infusion - Now scales off Strength when wielding a Shield.

With this change the team continues their effort in adjusting the SnB healers to become more viable.


Bug Fixes

- Fixed Step 2 of "Raising Chomp" Quest-Line in Thunder Mountain for Destruction.
- [25103] "Liquid Serenity" is no longer trade/mailable.
- [25105] Fixed Quest map for "Blood on the Steps"
- [25075] Fixed an item for Chapter 14 Dark Elf Influence
- [25044] Fixed text error upon entering Hunters Vale
- [25108] Fixed Nurgle Warhorse
- [25111] Fixed Auction House Rarity Search
- [24982] Fixed Critical Hit Action Counter Achievements
- [24982] Adjusted damage type for "Warprot Brute"
- [24823] Adjusted time to kill for Quest - "History Lessons"
- [25153] Adjusted Elf T4 RvR influence for Chosen
- [25150][25151] Fixed Loot Groups on Game Objects for hidden quests for cloaks
- [24898] Fixed Loot Groups for 'An Audience with the King' in Karaz-a-Karak
- [24933] Try to fix area around Hallenfurt Manor BO so players are flagged inside the walls.
- [25107] Seeker's Blade description fixed
- Fleshborne Jet stat values have been corrected to match the other Fleshborne jewelry
- Imperial Champion's Warhorse (Ranked Empire Mount) has been fixed and no longer summons a Chaos mount.
- The Doomreaver Captain's Crown (WE/Sorc Pirate RR85+) hat has been made dyeable
- Fixed Imperial Warhorse ranked mount for Empire
- Fixed an issue where healing keep ritualists were not properly healing
- [25007] Updated Incapacitate's tooltip.
- [25093] Tooltip on Combustion and Dark Magic now shows correct values for their critical damage bonus.
- [24991] Silence The Heretic can now be used on targets with Unstoppable.
- [25145] Lookit What I Did! no longer showing in Mastery Tree.
- [25070] Whirling Pin and Sticky Squigz will now self knock when hitting an enemy with snare immunity.
- [25143] Hunter's Strike won't trigger on group members when removing Pack Hunting tactic.
- Excommunicate - No longer persists after the target has died.
- Bloodlust & Honor Restored - Now have Unmitigable Healing, therefore can no longer heal crit and are no longer affected by heal (de)buffs.
- Pitiless Strike - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Feeding on Weakness - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Force of Fury - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Crimson Death - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Tastes Like Chicken - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Armor-piercing Rounds - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Seal of Destruction - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Elixir of Insane Power - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Septic Blade - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Kneecapper - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Lingering Intimidation - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Crush the Weak - No longer stacking with other abilities (and itself).
- Searing Touch - Will now consume Tranquility points when used with Increased Conductivity.
- Searing Touch and Bunch o' Waaagh - Will now consume mechanic points when used while jumping.
- The following knockbacks will no longer be prevented by snare/root immunity: Repel, Repel Darkness, Git Out!, Mighty Gale.
- Ignored players can no longer send Alliance Requests, or trade requests, to the player who is ignoring them.

Highlights

Live Test

Hi everyone - the new Scenario Matchmaking system is almost complete, and it's time for another test on the Live Server! We've been fixing up bugs and improving the system since our last live test, and if all goes well on this test, then the launch of the new system will be imminent.

This test will run on the Live Server starting on January 27th at ~9 AM UK time, and will run for the entire day, with the possibility of remaining on the live server longer if no crucial bugs are found. If we spot any critical bugs, we may adjust the testing duration in order to fix them up.

As is always the case with testing of new systems like this, there's a small chance of major bugs occurring. We don't expect there to be any rollbacks or major issues, but if this becomes necessary, we'll let everyone know.

Please be aware: We may perform a rollback if any major bug impacts progression.


Note

As before, please note that the changes in this test are not finalized. We are not testing any scenario gameplay changes at this time; the test is purely focused on the matchmaking system. We welcome feedback on how the matchmaker is performing, including how balanced matches feel.

It’s also important to understand that if matches don’t feel perfectly balanced, it does not mean the system is broken or that the work was wasted. The matchmaking algorithm is just one part of the larger system overhaul required to get it functioning. Now that the system has been overhauled, the algorithm can be easily tweaked and refined based on testing feedback. We cannot emphasise this enough.


New Scenario Matchmaker & Improvements


The New Scenario Matchmaker is focused on building better balanced parties in Scenarios, and we're also adding in a few more quality-of-life improvements alongside it! There's even more we're building under-the-hood, which we may spotlight and talk about closer to launch.


Redesigned Scenario Lobby

The old scenario lobby screen is quite outdated and since we added the random scenario queue (Solo Skirmish, or Discordant Skirmish) the interface came to be slightly confusing. We found that a lot of players used the “Queue All” feature and relied on addons to blacklist scenarios they did not want to play.

We have redesigned the Scenario Lobby screen to be more modern.



The new interface now features a list of active scenario queues instead of the pages of the old one, allowing you to see all the scenarios currently active at a glance. Additional informational iconography is shown on scenarios to indicate things like the current Weekend Warfront. Additionally, the current Average Queue Time is now shown for your level and archetype for that specific scenario queue.


Scenario Blacklists

We understand that players sometimes prefer different scenarios or game modes and would prefer to play them less frequently. Therefore we have added a scenario blacklisting system.
Blacklisted scenarios will be selected less frequently when searching.



For scenario queues which pick from a random pool of different scenarios, such as the “Random Scenario” queue, a player will be able to choose a number of scenarios to blacklist. Blacklisted scenarios will be remembered, even when the scenario pool is rotated, however some selections might be removed in order to not exceed the maximum number a player can blacklist.


Scenario Party Reservations

Now if you queue as a group, your party will stay together automatically in the scenario, without needing to hit the white flag icon and move parties. Slots will be automatically reserved for your party members until they join, keeping your groups, well - grouped!




Match Balancing

One major issue with the previous scenario system was that premade groups often ended up facing completely solo PUG players, leading to unbalanced matches. To address this, the matchmaker now evaluates the composition of each party and assigns it a score, then uses these scores to match teams. When backfilling, it may also add additional players to one side to help even the fight, ensuring that premade groups are more likely to face balanced opposition. These changes result in fairer, more competitive scenarios and a better overall experience for all participants.

The matchmaker now actively tries to find players of certain archetypes to add to a scenario, helping balance the overall distribution. This applies even when backfilling, preventing situations where one side has too many of certain archetypes or lacks essential roles entirely.

This change does mean that there will be times when one faction may have tons of DPS but lack the Tanks or Heals to get a scenario to pop. In these situations, we're introducing a new bonus to not only allow players to see which archetypes are needed, but to reward them for playing them:


Incentive Bonus

New single-SC bonuses are now periodically applied to certain Archetypes. Queue times are now periodically analysed, and if a role is queueing too long, other archetypes are incentivised to help speed things up.



For example, if DPS players are waiting much longer than others to get into a match, Tanks and Healers may get an incentive bonus. Likewise, if one side has tons of Tanks or Healers but fewer DPS, the system will temporarily grant the bonus for DPS players to motivate them to queue. This encourages healthier queue balance and, long-term, should motivate improved queue times.


Start Time Adjustments

Scenarios can now start with fewer than full players. Players load in early with a 2-minute timer. As the scenario fills closer to the threshold, the timer reduces to 30 seconds.


“Give Me a Minute” Improvements

If you click “Give me a minute”, you’ll be automatically teleported in when the timer ends. This helps avoid missing the start and getting a quitter debuff.


Unified Random Queue

Instead of separate queues per scenario map, there's now a single random scenario queue, which will improve queue speed and map variety. We're just testing this single queue on PTS, and behind-the-scenes we're discussing how best to handle Weekend Warfronts and other Scenario types, which we'll share more on later.


City Siege Changes

Due to changes in the matchmaking system, which was heavily used for City Sieges, we have made some small adjustments to the flow of City Sieges. These changes are intended purely to keep the system running and ensure City Sieges function correctly.

When the queueing phase of a City Siege ends (when players can queue at the portal), the matchmaker will run and create matches as usual. Once this process is complete, the City Siege will appear in the scenario lobby list, allowing solo players and parties to queue. During this stage, no new matches will be created, but players can backfill into existing sieges.

Additionally, the scenarios “Altdorf War Quarter” and “The Undercroft” will no longer open during the siege process.


Ranked

The ranked game mode will be unavailable during the testing period.

I've found a bug!?

All bugs can be reported on our bugtracker.

https://bugs.returnofreckoning.com/

Please select "Matchmaking Test" as the Product Version so we can filter the reports.




Thank you!

Thank you for helping us test - we're excited to launch the new SC Matchmaking system soon on the live server, and everyone's help during these tests makes this possible!

January Patch Highlights


- Hexensnacht returns January 16–26 with updated tasks, new rewards, Morrslieb Coins, dyes, mounts, and the new Terror Takes Flight ORvR PQ

- New charge-based Purple Seeds are being added, including six arriving in Bastion Stair

- Bastion Stair updates include new Bled Rings, Liquid Serenity upgrades, new voice acting, new Tome stories, and quest reward resets

- Champion’s Mark Vendors now sell Bags of Bloody Seeds with a rare chance at charged Purple Seeds

- Warband Leader Crowns now clearly labeled as bound-to-account

- Multiple bug fixes across combat, items, scenarios, bolster, UI, Tome unlocks, and abilities

- Weekend Warfront kill requirements standardized across most scenarios



Live Event: Hexensnacht



Wisps of clouds do little to hide the terrifying view of the two full moons of Morrslieb and Mannslieb. It is one of those times of year when the living pray that it won't be a cloudless night, for the view of those two full moons fills the hearts of the living with dread. Children are rushed indoors, windows are boarded up, and doors are barricaded. As the sun sets an eerie quiet overcomes the lands of the Old World, an eerie quiet that is shattered by the shrill cries of the undead. Morrslieb's sickly hue is fully visible in the Old World, washing the lands in its unnatural energies which give life to the undead. It peers down almost as deathly skull grinning at the harvest of souls that is about to begin.

Hexensnacht is upon us, a time when the living cower in fear as the undead rise from their eternal rest. Agents of the Order of the Shroud come to the forces of Order for assistance in dealing with the undead, while Destruction seeks to take advantage over the turmoil within the Empire. Head to Altdorf and the Inevitable City to learn how you can help during Hexensnacht.

Hexensnacht will start on January 16th and last until January 26th.

[Rewards]
Basic reward: [Signet of the Cursed Company]
Advanced reward: [Potion of Acclaim], or [Morrslieb Coin] - a unique event currency to purchase event-related cosmetics including cloaks and vampire-count themed weapons, weapon previews available here.
Elite reward: [Zombie Horse Harness] You can check out the mounts here and the magus discs here.

Completing the Event Quest - Morrslieb Crest - an event slot item; and the Cloak of the Fallen Duke. Additionally after completing the Event Quest players will have the possibility to earn more Morrslieb Coins.

Live Event Heralds and merchants are located at the Temple of Sigmar of Altdorf or the Monolith in the Inevitable City.


[Konstantine's Night Court]
Hidden across the Old World are the resting places of Konstantine's Night Court - fourteen champions of undeath awaiting their Duke's call during Hexensnacht. Defeat them and take their cloaks for yourself. Should you find them, then keep their location a closely guarded secret, for sharing their location can lead to some bloody rivalries.

[Hexenschädel]
Witch's skulls are known to posses dark magic, and burning it prevents this magic from being abused, but also wards the individual burning the skull. For every skull burned, players will have a 1% lower chance to be critically hit for one hour, stacking up to 5 times.

Players can speak with Thodrik Morrsrecht in the Temple of Sigmar in Altdorf, or Kadmine Skullshaver at the Monolith of the Inevitable City to learn how they can earn Hexenschädel. Tier 1 Players can also complete a quest in Tier 1 by speaking to Tobias Jungfried (Order) or Hethrek Deathspeaker (Destruction) in the Nordland warcamps.

[Terror Takes Flight ORvR PQ]
Journey to Black Fire Pass and face the zombified corpse of a mighty dragon, which in life terrorized the dwarfs of Karak Varn. Join your realm in defeating the Terror of the Black Water, and beating your enemy. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to skin the zombie dragon and claim a bit of its hide as a trophy.

[Live Event Dyes]
Fourteen limited-time dyes have been added, two of which have specular dyes set. These vampiric dyes are only available during Hexensnacht, so get them while you can!

[2025 Changes]
- Live Event tasks have been changed. All tasks requiring participation/victory in scenarios have been removed and replaced with other tasks. New tasks are to complete 10 quests of your choice, to resurrect fallen allies, to participate in the Terror Takes Flight ORvR PQ, and to collect Hexenschädel.
- The Live Event task to complete the Event Quest-line has been changed to only complete the first half of the quest-line (up to Tier 2 content)
- The Live Event jewelry rewards have been shifted from the final step of the event quest-line and are rewarded at the corresponding tier (so the Tier 2 jewelry pieces are given at the end of the Tier 2 quests)
- Live Event quest formatting has been fixed for easier reading.
- A new Live Event themed ORvR PQ has been added - the Terror Takes Flight - located in Black Fire Pass west of Bugman's Brewery.



RvR


Warband Leader Crowns

Shortly after the last patch, Warband Leader Crowns were updated to be bound-to-account, meaning you can mail them to other characters of the same faction on your account once unlocked. With this patch, we've updated the text on the crown items to also make this clear for players.


Content


New Charge-based Purple Seeds

New charge-based Purple Seeds are being added to the game, with the first arriving in Bastion Stair. These purple seeds can be grown 250 times before being consumed, generating enough materials for ~1,000 liniments per seed. Because of their limited nature, the drop rate for these purple seeds is higher than the permanent Gunbad variants.

Bastion Stair

- New Bled Rings are now available, which grant a 1% damage reduction along with an increased chance to be critically hit. These require the original Blood-Iron ring and one Liquid Serenity to acquire. Liquid Serenity can be earned by completing the epic questline Stairway to Oblivion (Order), or Blood on the Steps (Destruction).

- Liquid Serenity can now also be used to change the stats of Fleshborne accessories into more defensive versions via the same vendor. These accessories can be earned by completing a quest chain in Bastion Stair.

- Six new charge-based Purple Seeds now have a rare chance to drop within the Bastion Stair. All six purple seeds correspond to the six new Liniments added as part of the Dungeon re-work.

- New Voice Acting has begun arriving in Bastion Stair. Idle audio for some of the quest givers, as well as new combat audio for various bosses, has been added with this patch.

- New Tome Unlock short stories have been added to The Bastion Stair, similar to Lost Vale. Three of these can be found by speaking to characters in the starting room, with others hidden around the Dungeon.

-We have also added 12 New Bestiary Unlocks obtainable in Bastion Stair, in addition to the 6 that previously existed. These include the Bloodbeast of Khorne, Bloodletter, Bloodthirster, Bray Shaman, Centigor, Chaos Fury, Chaos Giant, Chaos Hound, Doombull, Ogre Tyrant, and two for the Ragebeast.

- Some eagle-eyed explorers may stumble across a new Offering of skulls. This cannot currently be accessed, but the offering will become enabled in the next patch with the final touches to Bastion Stair.

All the quests of Bastion Stair have been revisited and updated as part of the ongoing Bastion Stair rework. As a result of the reworked rewards, all of these quests have been/will be reset (time is fluid.)

Champion’s Mark Vendor

Champion’s Mark vendors now sell Bags of Bloody Seeds, which have a guaranteed chance of giving 2 new Bastion Stair seeds, or a very rare chance (~1%) of gaining one of the new charged Purple Seeds.

Bugs and Fixes


Combat and Careers

- Challenge no longer applies a red glow effect to the user.

- Champion’s Challenge pull effect has been removed. Players will no longer be forcibly turned when targeted.


Scenarios

- Weekend Warfront kill requirements have been standardized across all scenarios except Ironclad and Twisting Tower.
The formula is now maximum groups per side multiplied by 50.


Items

- Fixed Bloodlord Shanka and Bloodlord Shoota (Squig Herder weapons) incorrectly using melee stats instead of ranged stats.

- Legacy version of Aviator Goggles (Item ID 207406) corrected to use the Helm slot instead of the Pocket slot.

- Essence Brooch of the Fleshrender now includes the missing Order casters (Bug 25078).


General

- Flying Pig mounts now move at the correct speed and can only be equipped at Rank 16+ (Bug 25068).

- Fixed Minimum Level on "Best Bashin’ We’z Gunna Get" for Destruction

- Fell Landing fortress boundary slightly expanded to prevent legitimate players from being incorrectly removed.

- Players can no longer receive PQ rewards from outside their level range.

- Dyeing all items will no longer charge you for items already matching the selected colors.


User Interface

- Guild roster now correctly updates group status.


Tome of Knowledge

- Fortress tome unlocks are now realm-specific. The six related unlocks have been reset and can be reacquired by speaking to your realm’s fortress lords.

- Tome Unlock reward for killing 100,000 Ghouls fixed.


Abilities and Effects

- Cull the Weak tooltip damage corrected (Bug 24990).

- Vehement Blades now properly triggers when the target uses a melee ability (Bug 25013).

- Gift of Savagery proc now correctly labeled as damage over time (Bug 25001).

- Bloodfang Brew and Green Ooze now correctly belong to the Liniments and Stat Potions group instead of the Armor Potion group.


Bolster and UI

- Fixed an issue causing bolster level to not display on the player frame.

- Fixed the weapon DPS formula for bolster and debolster to correctly match client calculations.

Highlights

Live Test

We are beginning the next stage of testing for the updated Scenario Matchmaker. Over the last few weeks we have been running tests of the new matchmaking system on Drakwald, our Public Test Server.

We are planning a test of the new matchmaker on Martyrs Square (Live Server) on Wednesday 31st December.

After testing, we plan to revert to the previous matchmaking system on Thursday 1st January.

There is potential for issues during the test. If significant bugs occur that affect gameplay or progression, we may need to roll back characters to their state prior to the test.

Please be aware: We may perform a rollback if any major bug impacts progression.


Note

Please note that the changes in this test are not finalised. We are not testing any scenario gameplay changes at this time; the test is purely focused on the matchmaking system. We may not be testing all of the features that will be released when the system goes live.

We welcome feedback on how the matchmaker is performing, including how balanced matches feel.

It’s also important to understand that if matches don’t feel perfectly balanced, it does not mean the system is broken or that the work was wasted. The matchmaking algorithm is just one part of the larger system overhaul required to get it functioning. Now that the system has been overhauled, the algorithm can be easily tweaked and refined based on testing feedback. We cannot emphasise this enough.


I've found a bug!?

All bugs can be reported on our bugtracker.

https://bugs.returnofreckoning.com/

Please select "Matchmaking Test" as the Product Version so we can filter the reports.





New Scenario Matchmaker & Improvements


The New Scenario Matchmaker is focused on building better balanced parties in Scenarios, and we're also adding in a few more quality-of-life improvements alongside it! There's even more we're building under-the-hood, which we may spotlight and talk about closer to launch.


Redesigned Scenario Lobby

The old scenario lobby screen is quite outdated and since we added the random scenario queue (Solo Skirmish, or Discordant Skirmish) the interface came to be slightly confusing. We found that a lot of players used the “Queue All” feature and relied on addons to blacklist scenarios they did not want to play.

We have redesigned the Scenario Lobby screen to be more modern.



The new interface now features a list of active scenario queues instead of the pages of the old one, allowing you to see all the scenarios currently active at a glance. Additional informational iconography is shown on scenarios to indicate things like the current Weekend Warfront. Additionally, the current Average Queue Time is now shown for your level and archetype for that specific scenario queue.


Scenario Blacklists

We understand that players sometimes prefer different scenarios or game modes and would prefer to play them less frequently. Therefore we have added a scenario blacklisting system.
Blacklisted scenarios will be selected less frequently when searching.



For scenario queues which pick from a random pool of different scenarios, such as the “Random Scenario” queue, a player will be able to choose a number of scenarios to blacklist. Blacklisted scenarios will be remembered, even when the scenario pool is rotated, however some selections might be removed in order to not exceed the maximum number a player can blacklist.


Scenario Party Reservations

Now if you queue as a group, your party will stay together automatically in the scenario, without needing to hit the white flag icon and move parties. Slots will be automatically reserved for your party members until they join, keeping your groups, well - grouped!




Match Balancing

One major issue with the previous scenario system was that premade groups often ended up facing completely solo PUG players, leading to unbalanced matches. To address this, the matchmaker now evaluates the composition of each party and assigns it a score, then uses these scores to match teams. When backfilling, it may also add additional players to one side to help even the fight, ensuring that premade groups are more likely to face balanced opposition. These changes result in fairer, more competitive scenarios and a better overall experience for all participants.

The matchmaker now actively tries to find players of certain archetypes to add to a scenario, helping balance the overall distribution. This applies even when backfilling, preventing situations where one side has too many of certain archetypes or lacks essential roles entirely.

This change does mean that there will be times when one faction may have tons of DPS but lack the Tanks or Heals to get a scenario to pop. In these situations, we're introducing a new bonus to not only allow players to see which archetypes are needed, but to reward them for playing them:


Incentive Bonus

New single-SC bonuses are now periodically applied to certain Archetypes. Queue times are now periodically analysed, and if a role is queueing too long, other archetypes are incentivised to help speed things up.



For example, if DPS players are waiting much longer than others to get into a match, Tanks and Healers may get an incentive bonus. Likewise, if one side has tons of Tanks or Healers but fewer DPS, the system will temporarily grant the bonus for DPS players to motivate them to queue. This encourages healthier queue balance and, long-term, should motivate improved queue times.


Start Time Adjustments

Scenarios can now start with fewer than full players. Players load in early with a 2-minute timer. As the scenario fills closer to the threshold, the timer reduces to 30 seconds.


“Give Me a Minute” Improvements

If you click “Give me a minute”, you’ll be automatically teleported in when the timer ends. This helps avoid missing the start and getting a quitter debuff.


Ready Check for Group Queue

When a group leader initiates queue, all members will now get a Ready Check pop-up. After your group has all hit "Ready", you will enter the queue as a party.


Unified Random Queue

Instead of separate queues per scenario map, there's now a single random scenario queue, which will improve queue speed and map variety. We're just testing this single queue on PTS, and behind-the-scenes we're discussing how best to handle Weekend Warfronts and other Scenario types, which we'll share more on later.


City Siege Changes

Due to changes in the matchmaking system, which was heavily used for City Sieges, we have made some small adjustments to the flow of City Sieges. These changes are intended purely to keep the system running and ensure City Sieges function correctly.

When the queueing phase of a City Siege ends (when players can queue at the portal), the matchmaker will run and create matches as usual. Once this process is complete, the City Siege will appear in the scenario lobby list, allowing solo players and parties to queue. During this stage, no new matches will be created, but players can backfill into existing sieges.

Additionally, the scenarios “Altdorf War Quarter” and “The Undercroft” will no longer open during the siege process.


Ranked

The ranked game mode will be unavailable during the testing period.

Keg End: Twitch Drops Event!




Watch & Earn Twitch Drops!

Celebrate the return of Keg End with its own Twitch Drops Event, running from
December 19th at 10:00 AM UTC to January 2nd at 9:58 AM UTC!
Twitch Drops will be active throughout the event, rewarding viewers who watch authorized Return of Reckoning streamers during the festivities.



Twitch Drops Rewards

Watch streams during the event to unlock the following items:

- 30 Minutes: Small Gold Bag (20g)
- 60 Minutes: Potion of Acclaim
- 120 Minutes: Exotic Mount Token
- 180 Minutes: Bloodletter Pet (90 Days)
- 240 Minutes: RoR Aegis (30 Days)
- 300 Minutes: Keg End Present x10
- 360 Minutes: 100 War Crests

Event Duration: December 19th, 2025 – January 2nd, 2026



Want to Stream with Drops Enabled?

Twitch Drops are not automatic. Only authorized Return of Reckoning streamers can participate.

If you're already authorized, no action is required. If not, request access below:

How to Sign Up as a Drops-Enabled Streamer:
1. Click → Request Access
2. Sign in with your Return of Reckoning account
3. Open a new ticket
4. Select Media and Content Creators / Request Access to Twitch Drops
5. Enter your Twitch username and submit



Important Links

- How to Claim Drops
- Twitch Drops Info & FAQs
- Link Your Twitch Account



Raise your mug and celebrate Keg End!
Support your favorite RoR streamers, enjoy the festivities, and earn exclusive Twitch Drops before the ale runs dry.

For the most up-to-date list of approved streamers, visit: Keg End Streamer Roster