Now that we are a couple months into Shadowlands and the rush has settled down, issues with longevity start to become more obvious. While Torghast started as something fresh and exciting, I’m starting to struggle to find the motivation to even finish my weekly Soul Ash runs, let alone continue my slow grind through Twisting Corridors.
Torghast isn’t fun. I found myself super excited to try out Torghast on my freshly capped 60s just so I could see what kind of nonsense I could get into with them. But now that I’ve played through it on multiple classes, I realize that the powers are boringly “balanced.” From what I saw of the beta, you used to be able to scale your character to ridiculous levels of power that easily led to some great “did you see that?” moments. The Torghast we have now however is no where near as exciting; it’s too balanced and boring.
Don’t misunderstand my use of balance here, I know that many classes/specs struggle while some classes excel. What I mean is that runs usually end up being pretty close to the same every time. Due to a lack of Anima power diversity and the relatively small impact most powers have, you end each run at pretty close to the same power level.
Torghast also doesn’t feel rewarding. Twisting Corridor’s cosmetic rewards are a good start, but it’s a one time thing, on one character. Once I finish, I don’t see myself ever going back into the Twisting Corridors. Even if my friends want help, the idea of another multi-hour run that could very well end in complete failure with nothing to show for it doesn’t sound fun to me.
Unfortunately fixing one of these problems, rewards or fun, will likely hurt the other. Is Torghast supposed to be a part of the endgame grind, or is it just for fun? Blizz needs to pick one, because this conflict is ruining Torghast.
Serious Game Mode – OR – Just For Fun
A New Endgame Mode
Torghast could be a whole new endgame mode, similar to Raids, PvP, and Mythic+. Adding more difficult content while balancing across classes/specs could make Torghast something people spend a majority of their game time playing. Imagine a Torghast where you actually chose to craft the Torghast +Phatasma legendary first, where you picked your covenant and soulbinds based on which one was best in Torghast. WoW has always lacked challenging single player content. The Mage Tower challenge back in Legion was a great example of a personal challenge. It seems that it was quite well received by the player base who had little to no outlet for challenging content that didn’t rely on at least one other person. Torghast can be a replayable, challenging, endgame, solo game mode alongside the group based endgame modes we already have.
However, with increased difficulty needs to come increased rewards. Every main game mode can currently stand on its own in regard to gearing. While you can augment your gear through the other main game modes, your character will increase in power by just doing that one type of content. That is currently not true in Torghast. To do well in Torghast, you need to get gear from elsewhere. If Torghast is to become a main game mode, the rewards need to be comparable to other modes.
A Fun Casual Experience
WoW has continuously moved away from the idea of “just for fun” content with every new system introduced being required to keep your character at maximum efficiency. Torghast had the opportunity to be something that you do for fun, rather than because you feel like you are required to to remain relevant. Unfortunately, the fact that legendaries require you to complete many Torghast runs, it’s not “just for fun.”
I’ve had a few really fun experiences in Torghast that have stuck with me. During the first week of the Torghast event where you can pick and buff the dogs, I had the death explosion of my pet take more than half of the final boss’s health. My friend recently leveled up his Priest and was excited to show me a build he had gotten that allowed him to one shot the final boss with a single super-buffed Mind Blast. Getting a free Starfall when swapping into Moonkin along with a free Stampeding Roar from cat, when matched with the Stellar Drift talent, makes Balance druid exhilarating. There are some great opportunities for fun in Torghast, but they are the exception when they should be the norm.
Torghast’s longevity would be so much better if these types of experiences happened more often. I guess the concern would be that one-shotting bosses is too easy, but isn’t the point of a game to have fun? Fun can be found in difficulty, yes. But if you are already having fun with the ridiculousness of the situation, difficulty isn’t really needed. There are plenty of other outlets for difficulty in WoW, but few modes that are just for fun. Another critisim of a just-for-fun Torghast would be that legendaries would be too easy to get. But, is that really an issue? If legendaries should be challenging to earn, why not take Soul Ash out of Torghast and have it only drop from Mythic Raids, Mythic+20s, or 2400+ rated PvP?
Other Issues
Rewards For Failure
I know that many people are against the idea of “everyone gets a trophy,” but there needs to be something to show for partial Torghast runs. Torghast’s binary reward nature of everything or nothing discourages challenging yourself with runs that you aren’t pretty much guaranteed to win. And if you already know you are going to win, then the run itself becomes superfluous.
Almost every successful Roguelite rewards you for failure. In Hades, for example, you aren’t expected to complete your first run. You lose, and when you do, you still gain power. That power makes slowly makes you stronger, and eventually you complete the challenge. You are always making progress, even in failure. Even in WoW, we get partial rewards in every other major game mode:
Raids give loot for every boss killed, not just the final boss. The gear you get from partial completions week after week eventually get you and your raid group enough gear to conquer the boss you are stuck on.
PvP gives honor for losses. Even if you are a fresh capped 60 without your trinket set bonus, you still get some currency after getting destroyed. Even going into Skirms and dying in the opener over and over gets you closer to better gear and a stronger character.
Normal, Heroic, and Mythic-0 dungeons give loot per boss, not for completion. Though it doesn’t happen often, if your group is struggling to finish off a final boss of a dungeon, you at least got a chance at loot from the previous bosses you downed.
Mythic+ is probably the closest to the reward state of Torghast, but even in this elitist gamemode that spawned the concept of Raider.io to filter out bad players in an attempt to minimize wasted time with no rewards, you can still get a reward after you fail the timer.
With rewards offered at every floor boss, or even as a chance from every enemy killed, failure in Torghast will not be as disheartening. Knowing that wiping on a final boss in Twisting Corridors could leave me with nothing to show for the last 3 hours of work getting there is not something I enjoy.
More Variety For More Replayability
Anima Powers
While it was cool to see the powers on my first few playthroughs and fantasize about all the cool stuff I might be able to do, I now know pretty much all of the limited pool of powers each of my classes can get. After a few runs of Torghast, you’ve likely seen almost every power your specialization has. There need to be more choices to keep runs fresh. By the end of each run, most of my characters end at about the same power level. Especially in Twisted Corridors, where you have an increased chance of getting the rarer powers, you end up with pretty similar builds every run.
Also, many choices don’t even end up feeling like choices at all. Am I really going to pick “Mawrats don’t run away” over almost anything else? I’ve tried a full Mawrat build, and can tell you that once you get to the last boss, arguably the most important part of any run, the Mawrat build does not work well with no Mawrats…
WoW has this choice issue elsewhere too. Similar to talents, gear, spec, covenant, and rotation, there almost always ends up be a “best” choice. It makes sense to not make the meta choice if the non-meta choice is more fun, but if I’m choosing between something like “puts a DoT on enemies,” “attacks deal extra damage,” or “your health is increased,” none of these are engaging at all and the choice should always be which one is “best” since none of them are “fun.”
Enemy and Environment Diversity
Why are there so few types of enemies in Torghast? Lore wise, the Maw is currently where every mortal soul is going, so it would make sense for literally any group or faction that exists in WoW to exist here. And yet, all we get is the Jailer’s minions, Fae, Kvaldir, and Fire Elementals… Every wing ends up feeling so similar because there are so few enemy types. A diverse set of enemies would help to keep each run fresh, as certain powers could interact with certain abilities in interesting ways.
One of the coolest things about Shadowlands is that we are in a whole new reality where the perfect world exists for every mortal. I won’t go too far into my disappointment in the fact that not only do we only see 5 of these worlds, no other worlds are even mentioned. Why not have Torghast be a place to show us glimpses of all the other worlds that exist in the Shadowlands? Each floor could be a new world, or perhaps just an illusion of a ravaged version of a world where the Mawsworn are torturing that world’s inhabitants. Shadowlands opens a whole new universe of lore, but we’re seeing such a small portion of it so far. Something needs to be starting to build up the lore of the other worlds that exist in the Shadowlands; why not use Torghast to do so?
The Future of Torghast
Torghast is full of potential. Unfortunately, it currently seems to be going the same way that Island Expeditions in BfA did: a required, boring grind. The conflict between just-for-fun and a challenging, rewarding endgame experience are at odds with each other. If Torghast is to survive, Blizz needs to pick just one.