Dragonback Pass

Dragonback Pass

Dragonback Pass is a new Tier 1 Dungeon for 6 players levels 9-11. Enter via the Gate in Ekrund (Pictured).

Dragonback Pass is a new Tier 1 Dungeon in Return of Reckoning for players level 9-11.

This Dungeon did not exist on the Mythic servers, and was custom-built with new bosses, scripting, voice acting and more for its launch in November 2024.

The Dungeon is a fairly quick (15-30 minute) adventure, with optional extras and tome unlocks for players who want to explore.

Entering the Dungeon

The Dungeon's Entrance for both factions is in Ekrund, located at roughly 53k/21k.

• Order players can drop down from their Warcamp in Ekrund nearby
• Destruction players should head Northwest from their Chapter 4 camp, making use of the Rock Lobba' along the way to launch themselves closer.

While the Dungeon is designed for players around level 9-11, players of any level may still enter the Dungeon or help newer players.

Dungeon Basics

Dragonback Pass is a Story-driven tutorial dungeon.

Here, players meet fully-voiced characters who guide them through the Dungeon and explain key mechanics for each boss.

The Dungeon is meant to teach new players basics for their archetypes, which can help them both in PvE and also in PvP content.

Key Mechanics taught include:

Once your party is gathered, interact with the main Story Character (with the bright light) to begin their dialogue.

• Tanks: Guarding allies, Swapping Guard mid-fight, maintaining aggro and facing bosses away from the group
• Healers: Resurrecting fallen allies, Cleansing key debuffs, burst-healing teammates
• DPS: Swapping targets mid-fight
• All: Moving incoming AOE puddles (Red Lights) out of the group

Dungeon Bosses

Boss 1 for each faction is a Slayer/Choppa boss. This boss teaches the party to:

• Resurrect (player will be killed every X%. This player will get a Skull icon over their head to alert the healers.)
• Face boss away from party (Boss has cleave)
• Swap Targets (Boss will spawn Game Objects that empower them)

Boss 2 for each faction is a Shaman/Runepriest, and will first challenge the party to a duel on the Bridge in the middle of the map. Players can either accept the 1v1 or choose to gang up on him.

After Boss 2 runs from the duel, they can be fought properly. Boss 2 teaches the party to:

• Cleanse (Healers must cleanse a dot which deals 20% of a player's HP every tick, and ticks 6x)
• Manage Punts (Boss can single target punt a player into the sky, and AOE punt the party back)
• Drop AOE in good locations (Red Light will put an AOE on the furthest player - this player has time to then move and drop the puddle in a good spot.)

Boss 3 is the final boss and is a Black Orc / Ironbreaker. Here, all of the mechanics seen on the other bosses begin to overlap.

Key mechanics include:

• Face boss away from group (Boss has cleave)
• Guard a friendly target and Guard-swap to reduce damage (Boss will hit a non-tank player for 130% of their HP - a Guard will reduce this to 65% each. The targeted player will get a Shield icon on their head before they get hit.)
• Drop AOE away from group (Spawned adds will target random players with the AOE mechanic - kill them to cancel it)
• Manage adds: Adds and Champions will spawn at specific HP %s on the boss

The Guard-Swap is the most challenging mechanic for this boss, and is marked by a Shield symbol on the player being targeted, yellow text in chat, and a center-screen message.

With Boss 3 defeated, the main Story characters will re-appear and congratulate the party on their success. The Dungeon is complete!

Lore & Story

New Loading Art (pictured) and a new map were created specifically for the Dungeon. (Thank you, amazing artists who made them happen!)

Dragonback Pass occurs over a span of roughly two weeks, with the Order and Destruction instances happening at different times.

Destruction's instance happens first, with a Goblin named Gitbag and his friend Duff stumbling into a party freshly arrived in the Pass.

Together, Gitbag and his newly-adopted team push the entrenched Dwarfs back, killing many and sacking the camp.

Days later, a reinforcement party led by a Dwarf named Grom Brindlesson arrives, but realizes they're too late.

After a bitter fight, the base camp is recaptured from the Greenskins, but facing heavy losses, the Dwarfs are unable to do any more than defend the walls and use their limited Gyrocopters for aerial attacks.

Not long after, a new wave of reinforcements arrive, finally giving Grom and the Dwarfs their first chance to take the fight back to the Greenskins.

With his new allies in tow, Grom sets out to reclaim the Dragonback Pass, and rescue the captured Gyrocopter pilots.

Secrets and Hidden Content

There's no Secrets or Hidden Content in the Dungeon. Don't you even dare try looking for them.

Trivia

The map for Dragonback Pass was originally planned to be used as a Scenario.

Presumably, Mythic realized the map was too huge for a 3-Flag SC map and scrapped it. When building the Dungeon, the RoR team rebuilt and and touched up the unfinished areas, populating the world with characters, game objects, and voice acting to bring it to life.

There are a number of references in the final Dungeon to Mythic's original plans for the Scenario, including the rescue / capture of Gyrocopter pilots, as well as the names of special Tome-of-Knowledge unlocks, which reference the names of Mythic's titles for the Battlefield Objectives.

Development History

Dragonback Pass was first concepted years ago as a Tier 1 Dungeon to teach new players important game mechanics.

In early 2024, the basics of a story featuring a Dwarf named Grom and a Goblin named Gitbag were written, but lacking support for new custom voice lines, plans went on hold as the team shifted focus to rebuilding the many Dungeons which had to be re-launched as part of the new ability system.

In September 2024, following the development of the newly re-built Chapter 22 Raids, and with new support for adding custom voice lines, the Dungeon and PvE teams began work on the Dungeon.

The scripting used to make characters move, speak, and display text were also far more complex than any previous Dungeon.

Overall, the Dungeon took roughly 3 months of dedicated work to create and test, alongside support from new Voice Talent, source coders, artists, and testers.

Voice Actors & Special Thanks

Special thanks go to our talented Voice Actors from the community, who lent their voices to bring the characters in this Dungeon to life:

• Vocal Solace (@VocalSolace on Discord)
• Perseus (@yourpalbrandon on discord)
• RaisinTree
• Hans-Henrik Rottbøll (@Hanthus6215 on Discord)
• MaxHayman
• Blu

Tester Special Thanks: (To be added soon!)

Development Team Special Thanks:

• Rubius
• Ekalime
• Emissary
• MaxHayman
• Kaneda
• Archexecutor
• Andrew Shevelev - https://x.com/AndrewShevelev3
• Dalen
• Flowson
• Gobtar
• Yaliksah