Torghast is worse than islands were. Here, I said it.
Torghast is boring.
It is also damn long.
It is also damn unrewarding.
It is also full of bugs. Untested garbage. Anima powers sometimes end up being ‘placeholder’ (not giving you anything), RNG in anima powers sometimes blocks your progress because mobs one or two-shot you, the floors are wildly unbalanced (fine-fine-fine-fine-lol you are dead), etc.
Every time we have a new week, are you looking forward to doing Torghast? I know I don’t. And no, Twisted Corridors are making it worse, not better. The last thing Torghast needed was being 3x longer than it is. Can you at least add savepoints on each broker floor? How stupid can this get?
Islands in BFA weren’t great at all, but at least they gave some rewards (azerite / pets / mounts / transmog) and were short. If you wanted to do 10 of them, you could do that, but if you wanted to do just 1 and come for more next day, you could do that as well.
Torghast was supposed to be the highlight of this expansion. Instead it shapes up to be one of the most boring and unpleasant features ever created. Disgusting.
Is Torghast challenging? Yes, somewhat.
Were Islands challenging? No, not at all.
Is Torghast soloable? Yes.
Were Islands soloable? No.
Does Torghast have longevity? Sadly, no.
Did Islands have longevity? Sadly, no. Sure you kinda needed to grind them for AP but in terms of when they got boring… well, really quick.
Does Torghast introduce new gameplay? Yes, for some classes at least.
Did Islands introduce new gameplay? No, it was just an AOE spamfest.
Does Torghast feel rewarding? No, not really. Once you get a decent leggy its unrewarding, the Twisting Corridor rewards are meh.
Did Islands feel rewarding? No, not really. The mounts and transmog items were incredibly bland and clearly an afterthought. The AP was a “reward”, sure, but you needed so much of it a single instance of Islands didnt feel rewarding either.
Is Torghast rewarding? After a couple of first legendaries, no. There’s just one mount, one pet, one title and one more thing, forgot what it was.
Are islands rewarding? Not supremely, but yes. Azerite, pets, mounts, tranmog. Every week.
Is Torghast tedious? Yes. Oh, god, yes. 45 min per 6 floors for a single wing. If you want to do Twisting Corridors, multiply by 3.
Are islands tedious? No. A single run is 10-15 min.
It’s a clear win for islands. And no, this is not a pose. It’s the entire thing that yes, really, although islands were pretty meh themselves, Torghast is so terrible, that I would absolutely take islands over it.
Islands were a brainless time sink with no room for player creativity or challenge. The worst part is they were infinitely mandatory so long as you needed AP. Got your ash for leggo? Great Torg is done.
People call call Torg a slog all they like, even if it’s trivial, killing mobs on my own in a seemingly random setup with powers that make it a bit more fun is still more interesting than rounding up mobs and just aoeing them down, same strategy every pack, same stuff start to finish. No time to explore, no time to “muck about” or have a bit of fun with it. Just grind grind grind.
Boring.
Even if both amount to meh like content Torghast still wins ahead of islands. Fact is you see people who state they enjoy torghast. I can’t remember one post on the forums about people enjoying islands, not even one.
I actually liked Islands, just wish they weren’t geared for rushing around like headless chickens. Certainly the mogs/mounts etc made them worth running.
Islands were over in an instant with some net gain. Torghast is, for some, hours of endless chores with maybe a net result of Ash if they can defeat the boss and then climb to another floor and do it all again.
At this point i’m just waiting for the “warfronts was my favourite content” thread, that’s the only thing more stupid than saying Torghast is worse than islands.
That’s just it though, that’s for me why Torg is better.
Islands were designed in a way where you are punished if you don’t “gogogogo” despite the resources sank into them. That is crap design. The best way to do them was to basically tunnel and treat it like a giant grind. If you didn’t do this, you’d get basically nothing.
With Torg at least you can do it at your own pace, you can actually explore a bit, powers make for variation each run in varying amounts, but at least more ways than islands where every run was the same formula of “round up mobs, aoe, move to next pack” no matter the island, no matter the mobs, no matter the classes.
You can’t call the content “good” if the majority of players were looking for ways to make that content as short as possible and get it “over and done with” asap. That to me, tells me players find the content chorish or boring and only speaks virtues of the potential rewards the content offers, not the content itself.
Once we did all the layers for the first time, 2 layers can be done in an hour. I don’t know where this “hours of endless chores” comes from. Maybe it is if you go afk every 2 minute.
Exactly. It’s crap design. The gameplay was uncreative.
But Torghast is worse because it is (a) less rewarding and (b) takes faaaaaaar longer.
I mean, I don’t mean to convince you that Torghast is worse. For you it might be better. But for me it is absolutely worse. And I don’t think I am alone.
And yes, this is a problem. Torghast was supposed to be this great piece of content. Instead it is simply a pile of trash.
A 5 minute activity can feel tedious, a 3 hour activity can feel amazing.
Islands were completely and utterly braindead. You literally ran in a circle around the island then spammed all your buttons without a care in the world for 5 minutes then it was suddenly over.
Those 10 minutes you describe felt tedious to me, because they didnt require me to think, be quick on my feet or be challenged in any way.
In Torghast not using interrupts on certain mobs, not knowing how to kite, not using your CDs properly (especially defensives) and not changing your playstyle around the anima powers you get basically means you wont finish a run.
Torghast is completely braindead boring. I ran it enough times and it is.
The comparison is thus between a short activity with uncreative gameplay and a very loooooooong activity with uncreative gameplay. The short one wins for me.
For people like me torg is nice.
I can go afk almost anytime I want.
I can find a group a play Diablo without actually playing Diablo (spent some fun time in it with friends long ago, so brings memories).
I can do some fun stuff with Hulk jump power (even die stupidly).
The issue with it being less rewarding is two things
a) we’re still in season 1, we have no idea whether more may come out of torg given it’s a central expo feature.
b) the players are the force against this, because if blizzard try to add stuff into torghast, players whinge that “they shouldn’t have to do it” you can already see this with the mount.
I mean i don’t know about you, but I see a unique mount that can be used in the Maw where others can’t as infinitely more vlauable than Islands giving me some ground mounts that are reskins which i won’t use because I fly, or some mogs in a slightly different colour to sets I already have. Those things are nice, but their utility is limited.
The maw mount gives unique utility. We can argue about whether it should exist or not, but that’s a different conversation. The point is Torghast offers this reward.
I’ll echo my post above. If you’re saying islands were good because they could be done in 5 minutes as you essentially zugzug them and ignore them completely, that’s not really a resounding commendation of how good they were. Rather it’s a comment on how people like rewards for doing very little- but not so much that islands were amazing in and of themselves.
Kirthael put it well, 5 minutes of tedium. Hell, if you weren’t a tank many of your optimal runs were just you waiting in some location looting azerite as you go, waiting for the tank to come back with 20,000 mobs and then you all aoe them down with no challenge or risk and then it’s over. Not for me no thank you.
