Return of Reckoning

I was insta gibbed and took this ss. This happened tonight in Ellyrion.

[](https://postimg.cc/JtGWDtMN)

I discussed this addition to keep defenses recently on my stream while playing my Witch Elf. When I first went in I had no idea the level 55 champs were even there and suffered the same fate you did. They function in the same manner as Warcamp Guards and can thus see through stealth, which renders playing a Witch Elf in infiltration mode less fun and thus was probably the point.

Didnt just kill players, that guard pretty much killed the RVR on the server for the evening.

they're gone now, just checked the keep /shrug

Is this supposed to be in game for defenders as an upgrade? who can afford that? ugh - I am lost as to what happened. SCs don't have 55+ champs anymore, but keeps do?

WTF? How about adding heroic defender back instead of this? Rules for thee not for me crowd fudge off, how can you take these away from scs but add them to keeps... Maybe add heroic defender BUFF back in keeps instead of this?


https://imgur.com/a/add-things-like-thi ... ls-aQBtvi1

Illuminati wrote: Mon Sep 08, 2025 2:25 am I was insta gibbed and took this ss. This happened tonight in Ellyrion.

[](https://postimg.cc/JtGWDtMN)

Hello! I'm the person you are accusing of summoning special 55+ champs to one-shot the enemy faction. (I'm just a dev, not an actual GM.)

Since emotions run high in PvP games and can sometimes make us jump to conclusions, I'd like to offer some info here, in the hopes that we can all learn together, and grow stronger for it.

So let's dive in!

1. These NPCs do not have the terminate skill. It's not possible that they can one-shot you, but if you have a combat log showing this, please let us know. (If so, that's a bug for sure.)

2. To be safe, we just tested the actual damage of these exact NPCs, and it's definitely not going to one-shot anyone. It'll still help defenders, but here's the damage numbers of a Champ 55 version of this npc vs. a sov chosen without any buffs / pots / etc.

3. Pushing into a fully guarded funnel on an even-AAO keep, however, is tough and will often get you killed. It's a hard push, and here, the defenders were well aware of the group trying to push postern, and bombed it the moment they stepped through the door.

4. Devs don't have the power to summon NPCs like this on the live server. It's an easy excuse to blame, but it's simply untrue. You can still always reach out to the GM team if you have concerns about staff going wild.

5. Any guild can claim a keep and summon these upgrades! You can check out a full list of keep claim upgrades here on the Wiki:
https://wiki.returnofreckoning.com/Keep ... d_Upgrades

When investigating for terminate, we noticed some level variations on these NPCs, so we'll unify that in the next patch so all factions have the same (it'll nerf any 55's or 41s down to 40). This will change their total HP and should benefit stealth classes, but their AOE ability will be the same.

Curlystache wrote: Mon Sep 08, 2025 2:58 am they're gone now, just checked the keep /shrug

Have a look at the Wiki link above - it'll explain how all summoned NPCs like this work. If the owning guild stops paying for them, the extra perks (guards, champ status, etc) will eventually expire.

Hope this helps and lends some context!