Shadowlands Alpha - Torghast Abilities


Shadowlands Preview - Torghast, Tower of the Damned
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
At the heart of the Maw lies Torghast, Tower of the Damned, a cursed otherworldly prison where the wickedest souls in the universe are locked away. Highly replayable and inspired by roguelike games, heroes are invited to explore its ever-changing halls and chambers and do battle with the minions of the Jailer, Torghast’s vile ruler. Those who brave its trials can claim legendary treasures and help free the heroic spirits wrongfully trapped within.

The Torghast experience is in a true alpha state. It is not yet feature complete and many design decisions are still being made. Due to our desire to get pointed feedback on class-specific Anima Powers, we are only testing a few classes at this time. The following classes are currently available for testing: Demon Hunter, Mage, Priest, and Warlock. We will keep you updated on when other classes are introduced.

Torghast is an otherworldly place, with an ever-shifting interior. There are many areas to discover, and at this time players will be able to explore Skoldus Halls and Fracture Chambers.

Skoldus Hall
Warden Skoldus oversees this wing of Torghast. He is a cruel warden who uses rats, dogs, and other beasts to torment his quarry.

Fracture Chambers
Prisoners from Maldraxxus are held here, their bones broken over and over again. With the player's help, they escape their cells and assault their captors.

Your Mission

With every floor, enemies will become stronger but you’ll also become more powerful by using temporary skills called Anima Powers. Levels will also become more complex the higher you climb—the first few floors will have a simple layout, but higher up you’ll be dealing with traps, puzzles, and locked doors that will require keys held by ruthless enemies.

Always Changing

These dynamic wings change their layout each time you step inside, and they can also be influenced by the Jailer’s command—changing the types of enemies you encounter and the Anima Powers available for you to choose between.

Every time you enter the tower you will need to explore it; don’t rely on memories of past ventures lest you get lulled into trap or ambushed by a horde of enemies!


The Power of Anima

Anima Powers grant you the incredible strength needed to take on the Jailer’s more challenging allies. They will often directly improve one of your Covenant class or signature abilities, modifying it with powerful properties for you to wield. Anima Powers can be found hidden in corners, tucked away in phylacteries, or carried on the bodies of the Jailer’s servitors. Keep an eye out for powers that interact with one another in interesting ways!


Anima Powers can also be found while discovering an area, be on the lookout for floating anima orbs as you make your way to the next floor.

Phantasma and Vendors

Sometimes enemies will drop Phantasma, a currency that is unique to Torghast. You may also find Phantasma from Anima Powers or breakable objects. Your Phantasma all disappears as soon as you leave Torghast. Occasionally, you may find a Broker, a Phantasma vendor within Torghast, who will allow you to spend your Phantasma to buy Anima Powers, along with other consumables that will aid you on your run.

Deaths and the Tarragrue

By and large, your failures in Torghast are measured in deaths, not with a timer. Dying repeatedly alerts the Tarragrue, a lumbering iron-clad creature that will appear at the level’s entrance and slowly move toward its end. If he sees any heroes, he will chase down and kill them. If he reaches the end of the level or kills all the players in the level, your run ends and you are thrown out of Torghast.

The Tarragrue cannot be defeated, but there are whispers that it is possible to slow him—if only for a moment.

Legendary Rewards

As you climb the tower, you may discover a floor that contains a Legendary chest. Inside you’ll discover reagents to craft legendary items that can be taken to a mysterious rune sage who will help you build legendary items. You are in full control—you can choose which type of equipment you’ll make and what powers will go in them to make them truly your own.

We look forward to sharing more information as development continues, and we hope this preview prepares you for the trials of Torghast!

What kind of Anima Powers would you like to see? Join the discussion on the forums.

Torghast is still in development and subject to change. Legendary items are still being worked on and are not currently available in alpha. Check back for periodic updates on worldofwarcraft.com as we approach the release of Shadowlands.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Shadowlands Preview - Torghast, Tower of the Damned started by Lumy View original post
Comments 77 Comments
  1. Stickiler's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zubacz View Post
    I don't know why people are saying this isn't timed.


    That's the timer. This thing will chase you and if it catches up, you fail. It's probably a forgiving timer, but still a timer.
    Good job cutting out the exact bit which counters your argument:

    By and large, your failures in Torghast are measured in deaths, not with a timer. Dying repeatedly alerts the Tarragrue,
  1. Apology's Avatar
    As you climb the tower, you may discover a floor that contains a Legendary chest.
    Ayyyy we're back to RNG legendaries. Fucking fantastic.
  1. Ophenia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by taishar68 View Post
    There's no timer on the run, how would they quantify best?
    Someone replied with the number of floors which will probably be the #1 criteria, but if you have 200 teams at the same floor, they'll need an additional criteria.

    And it's not because the runs are not limited in time that a timer cannot be considered. You can still reach Floor 25 in 2 hours while another team will do that in 1h45.
  1. ClassicPeon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by iosdeveloper View Post
    what a situation we have here: mmorpg's future is decided by it's solo content quality
    Unless you are an actual human and engage in communities that make you able to do fun raids/dungeons and even Torghas in groups?

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    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    so can be visions - yet nearly anyone chooses to do them solo .
    Thats just not true.

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    Quote Originally Posted by azkhane View Post
    they are limited(kinda suck) but they said that not as hard as visions are, what i think sucks is they said you can take your time inside that it wasnt timed and now they introduce that shit mechanic tarragrua to artifially limit the run, that is shit and i dont need to even test it to say it needs to go, let people take their time.
    Not timed != not limited.

    You are limited by deaths, not time.

    The misunderstanding is on you

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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles123 View Post
    You're not wrong, it is "too good to be true".

    At first it'll seem like it's ever changing, but with time we'll learn the room paterns. They did that in division, it was pretty fun tbh but don't go thinking it's a different dungeon every time because it becomes repetitive after a while.
    Its going to be procedurally generated. Its not going to be pre made pattern generated.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Zubacz View Post
    I don't know why people are saying this isn't timed.


    That's the timer. This thing will chase you and if it catches up, you fail. It's probably a forgiving timer, but still a timer.
    Its not. The creature spawns when you have a specific amount of deaths, not after a specific timer. It then starts running towards the exit - creating a timer. Its either that or just instantly loose after x deaths - this option is more fun.
  1. Asotcha's Avatar
    Torghast sounds Super Badass This Outlaw Rogue can't wait!
  1. Redroniksre's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ClassicPeon View Post
    Its going to be procedurally generated. Its not going to be pre made pattern generated.
    Rooms and hallways will all be premade, but the layouts and content of those rooms will be randomized. Having completely procedural content in WoW is likely something that will never happen.
  1. chiddie's Avatar
    Curious to see:
    - how many deaths before the hunter appears
    - how many runs per week you can do WITHOUT having to farm stupid essences as now with horrible visions.
  1. SoundOfGuns's Avatar
    Oh oh. That Anima sounds horribly like fucking Azerite...
  1. ClassicPeon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Redroniksre View Post
    Rooms and hallways will all be premade, but the layouts and content of those rooms will be randomized. Having completely procedural content in WoW is likely something that will never happen.
    Thats exactly what i said. You dont proceduraly generated everything. That would be absolutely nuts. There would be no point. The gist is that the layout and dangers will be procedurally generated. This way you wont regognize patterns in layout

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    Quote Originally Posted by SoundOfGuns View Post
    Oh oh. That Anima sounds horribly like fucking Azerite...
    They already came out and explained that anima is going to have a cap thats rather easy to meet. It wont be a grind fest. Thank god
  1. Bloodyleech's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zypherz View Post
    Gettin’ Binding of Isaac vibes, hope it plays out similarly
    Let's dodge all these tears and destroy some rainbow poop!
  1. Calibar's Avatar
    I'm going to be in Torghast 24/7. Shit sounds dope af. Like a dungeon crawler is supposed to be. Slowly making my way through as many floors as possible, exploring each one completely. Can't wait to get in there! I'm really hoping that there's a diverse set off art for each floor and that they don't all look to samey. The best part of this for me is that there aren't any timers. I hate timers where they don't make sense. Love the idea of Tarragrue, that's a timer done right, triggered by actual gameplay and the timer is also gameplay that you can try to "beat" by out running and hopefully getting to the next floor. So excited for this, can't wait to get in there solo and with my buds.
  1. chiddie's Avatar
    I’m also wondering if there’s a sort of save/check point in order to be able to start from where you were if you have to logout for “reasons” or once you log out it’s bye bye and one of your weekly tries is gone.

    I hate visions because of the timer but the nice thing is that whatever the final result it’s over in about 20 minutes. If I have to foresee one hour at least for every try in Thorgast I fear I won’t be able to do many runs.
  1. Arikus's Avatar
    This dungeon with its levels sounds a bit like dungeons from some animes like Sword Art Online or Phantasy Star Online.
    Oh and that's a positive for me, I loved these series.
  1. ujellyx's Avatar
    So just like Diablo 3 rifts?
  1. Inuyaki's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ujellyx View Post
    So just like Diablo 3 rifts?
    Not really. No bar to fill, no endboss, I guess.

    This seems exactly like Tower of the Damned in FF14. So far this reads exactly the same.
    Using TotD as base is a good start, let's hope they don't screw it up when changing stuff.


    PS not exactly...
    this reads as 1 bigger level per entry, in TotD it was 10 floors per entry and then you can do the next 10 afterwards. So you did 1-10 first, then 11-20 after, and so on. This guaranteed that your sessions were not too long, if you did reset it.
    Also those 10 floors had a kinda endboss. Endboss for that entry. Not really endboss, since the tower went higher, guess this is personal preference if you call that an endboss

    Let's see how the WoW one will look.
  1. Nero Duskwind's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zubacz View Post
    I don't know why people are saying this isn't timed.


    That's the timer. This thing will chase you and if it catches up, you fail. It's probably a forgiving timer, but still a timer.
    Considering that it's an unkillable monstrosity that probably can only be momentarily slowed down, it's going to make things a lot more tense. This is the WOW equivalent of having Mr. X relentlessly pursuing you. Personally, that kind of tension is a lot more fun to work against.
  1. taishar68's Avatar
    I have to say, after watching some of the streams today, I am really excited about Torghast; the mobs drop loot, the anima powers are nuts, and the fact that you can go at your own pace is awesome. The Tarragrue addition is brilliant; a built in gear check rather than a hard timer. The easy mode seemed way too easy, but the streamer did have a full party. Can't wait to see what its like with more difficulty. I am curious as to how we'll earn keys for entry, but I am going to guess they drop from heroic dungeons, battlegrounds, certain world quests, caches, and of course, gold; for that I can see them using the raid token system, where you can buy 2 a week, and have a cap.

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