I don’t understand you guys, really. I don’t recall a single positive Torghast post, only negative negative negative. I personally had a blast. And yes, it had some issues and flaws, and let me point them out before I go on with my post:
It was absolutely wrong to tie that much Soul ash, cinders and legendaries to it. Why? First of all, because it was time-gated to a certain extend, since you could only get rewards from 2 runs per week, and since it was a rotation of 2 towers being active per week, this meant that some players received their legendary only on week 3.
If you missed a week in start due to IRL responsibilities, you were set back and it was no chance to catchup.
Sometimes it would be too RNG with anima powers, especially while soloing and TC & JG.
Certain classes were very weak compared to others.
It was abit lackluster at the start as it was just no brainer ‘gather, kill’ thing, same as island expeditions.
Now, let’s discuss everything it brought to the table, and why it 100% devalues the ‘negative’ comments above. For me, it was incredibly fun. I pushed my class to the limits, I tried other classes, I did Jailer’s gauntlet and Twisting Corridors both solo and in group, I got pretty much all possible rewards and achievments from it and so on.
So:
I personally loved that it made your classes omegastrong. If you got the right combination of anima powers, which WOULD happen most of the times, it was incredibly fun. I loved my DH with 500% immolation aura increase, with 400% infernal leap increase and so on, and not to mention how good mages, hunters, warlocks and shamans were.
The majority of them were beautiful in terms of aestethics. It fit the Shadowlands theme perfectly. Especially coldheart interstitia.
When I walked inside them for the first few times, it brought a sense of ‘mystery’ and being a pebble in a huge world, which is something that wow misses nowadays. When I went in for the first time, the first instinct was to explore it abit rather than ‘zerg zerg’.
Twisting corridors were just incredible. Yes I know it was a mix of all other towers, but I found layers 7 & 8, especially the last 3-4 floors so cool. The only bad part was that it didn’t give any additional rewards after you got your layer 8 done.
Jailer’s gauntled was even better. I didn’t push to layer 8, since it wasn’t really needed, but the first 4 layers were just so fun.
I loved the changes in 9.1. or in other words, introducing scoring and the flawless system. This should maybe be available from the start, as it made it much more engaging.
Bosses had straight to the point and self explanatory mechanics. I personally hate it when bosses have complex mechanics that require addons / third party sites to help you. They were also appropriately difficult at the start.
All in all, it was a huge feature of SL, and I’m quite sad it turned out to be so hated. They fixed the time-gating in 9.1.5., making it drop the same amount of reagents whenever you do it instead of twice per week. I believe this is something that should have been available from the get go.
9.2. also brought that all towers are always up. While I don’t thing this is needed so much, it’s without a doubt a nice bonus.
So yeah, I for sure liked it way more than I liked Visions to be honest.
Except you could do lower difficulty levels in torghast if the highest was too hard for you. There was only one difficulty level for mage tower and CMs.
Yes, I pointed that out. That’s true, but I still find it hard to understand why people hated it so much. At the end of the day, it was content, and it was fun content. It was challenge and it was a perfect opportunity, to learn more about your class. The runs took maybe 20 min each, so 40 min combined. 40 minutes of doing something per week is not so much.
For me, this is not the reason to hate it. And even if mage tower and Visions were tied to player power (vision sort of were since it granted corruption resistance), I wouldn’t hate either of them.
Also, vision had 2 scenarios (SW and OG), while Torghast brought 6 usual ones, and 2 additional ones, so 8 in total.
Good post, but for me it was something that i expected turning into something i absolutely hate.
I expected Torghast to be solo-instances, where you progress at your own speed and get rewards (loot from every mob!) while you go. So i can let my character afk there for an hour and then continue at my own pleisure.
No, it turned out to be endless grinding, with only that essence?(i cant even remember anymore) from every mob, rewards being more something souldust and maybe memories for skills i would never use or legendaries i would never make.
Then they added timing, like how good you are with your ADHD. No more pauses, only rushing like grazy. And then there was also Timegating.
I think the feeling of reward was so minimal compared to the grinding it had.
Making it mandatory but reward nothing other than materials was a mistake. Once you’re done with your legendaries there is really no reason to be there. Tying in some achievements and mounts was nice but not enough, because after that it’s dead again.
2: Has no drops in a game that revolves around drops.
3: At the start it took way WAY too long to complete for rewards that were basically FU for time spent there.
4: Not only was it boring to play it also looks EXTREMELY boring and depressing.
5: Getting there requires you to go through Maw that is even more boring than Torghast.
6: Powers you get in them are nice but only makes me reminiscent how crap and boring the actual class design is.
7: No real story why i am there or what there is so boring or forgettable that in 2 minutes you have already forgotten why am i there.
8: Class balance in Torghast was and still is atrocious for some classes from the get go the place was a cake walk while on some classes i would rather have my doctor do prostate exam with hes fist.
9: Instead of “fun” side activity they made it mandatory character progression and a main feature of the expansion.
10: Without powers the place felt like a complete drag to do while with correct powers it felt like i was doing it with god mode on neither felt any fun to do with superior powers it just was faster and less annoying.
Should have just been optional and progressively hard with progressively awesome toys, tmogs, mounts and a title and awesome mount for completing the highest difficulties.
There are no meaningful rewards other than mandatory lego and conduit progression. Add some mogs which not involve only shoulders or backs, add some pets, add something.
Don’t mislead players saying timer is a huge factor for the secret floor, and then I complete 5 floors in 7 minutes or less and I can’t even access it.
I personally enjoy it, there’s a few classes that’s boring as hell in there, but my favorite is definitely Monk, Mage and Warrior. I do Thorgast for fun.
That said I’m seriously hoping they keep it around in a form or another for the next expansion. It should be scaled up to the new max level and continuously worked on, cause it’s a great addition to the game.
Your summary list of the problems is pretty accurate.
For me, on main, it was a thing I didn’t want to do, that I had to do, which ate an hour of my week but was at least difficult to fail because monk. For some of my alts, it was a thing they could barely solo, and ate another 1-2 hours, per alt, doing content I didn’t want to do.
That’s why I personally hated it. I didn’t want or need Torghast, but I was told I had to have it and it got between me and the things I actually enjoyed. It was a barrier to progress, a wall between me and something I like, a commitment that I never agreed to make. It cut into my week and reduced the time I had available for the things I enjoy.
And I’m sorry, but I personally don’t have any positives about it. I’m not interested in Torghast-style gameplay and I never will be. It’s not for me and I resented being forced into doing it as much as other people would resent being told they have to spend an hour a week fishing.
…wait.
There is one positive. I haven’t touched Torghast since season 2 because it is now optional.
And that’s great! That’s how it should always have been! Players who enjoy it have been enjoying it - some of my guild are regularly found in the gauntlet, and I’m happy they have things to do. Players who don’t enjoy it can ignore it.
Perfection.
Finally, at last, now, Torghast is what it needs to be. An experimental optional type of gameplay.
