Build of the Month
Recent Blue Posts
Yet another Timewalking loot post ( As directed by GM)
Opened timewalking Cache before hotfix
Recent Forum Posts
The WoW Companion App is Retiring
Did Blizzard just hotfix an ilvl requirement onto Awakened LFR?
Polygon recently interviewed Paul Kubit to find out more about Torghast, Tower of the Damned.
- Torghast offers players materials to create legendary weapons, capped weekly so that you don't have an infinite grind.
- At launch, players can only equip a single Legendary at a time. You'll be able to make more if you play more though.
- No plans for a Torghast leaderboard at this time, but they could always do one in the future.
Torghast Torments Feedback
We agree that one of the best things about Torghast is that you can play at your own pace, without feeling rushed. We certainly don’t want to make Torghast into a fast-paced, timed game mode. We have instead added Torments, which are designed to provide some additional texture for players at high levels, and to solve a problem that arises when extremely difficult content meets our often cooldown-based class design.
Here’s what Torments should do.
Imagine a perfectly-efficient Torghast group. They are willing to do whatever it takes to climb the tower. At the highest difficulty they can manage, that means waiting for all cooldowns on every pull – unless there’s some reason not to do so. This is our problem: that’s not fun to play, but it’s the right way to play if you want to win.
Torments should apply just enough pressure that this group can still kill every single creature on the floor (which takes a while, since these enemies have lots of HP), while still being careful, using crowd control, taking a few seconds to rest or strategize between pulls, and even then, maybe sometimes waiting just a little longer for a cooldown before engaging. If that is the most efficient way to play Torghast, then we’ve hit our mark exactly. If that perfectly efficient group has to skip big portions of a floor because Torment debuffs are getting too out of hand, we have a problem.
Here’s what Torments shouldn’t do.
How can testers help us tune it?
Playtest Torghast, and let us know how it feels. We appreciate all feedback, and the most valuable feedback for this feature will come from experience in Torghast, rather than discussions about time-based difficulty that aren’t informed by in-game experience.
If something feels bad, let us know why.
There are several different Torments in the current Alpha. Some affect spawning and environment, and others affect your character directly. Some increase over time, and others remain at a fixed difficulty.
We’ve seen some emotional response to this change, which we take to mean that you care about Torghast being fun. We do too.
Please keep up the productive discussions, and we’ll keep listening.
Here’s what Torments should do.
Imagine a perfectly-efficient Torghast group. They are willing to do whatever it takes to climb the tower. At the highest difficulty they can manage, that means waiting for all cooldowns on every pull – unless there’s some reason not to do so. This is our problem: that’s not fun to play, but it’s the right way to play if you want to win.
Torments should apply just enough pressure that this group can still kill every single creature on the floor (which takes a while, since these enemies have lots of HP), while still being careful, using crowd control, taking a few seconds to rest or strategize between pulls, and even then, maybe sometimes waiting just a little longer for a cooldown before engaging. If that is the most efficient way to play Torghast, then we’ve hit our mark exactly. If that perfectly efficient group has to skip big portions of a floor because Torment debuffs are getting too out of hand, we have a problem.
Here’s what Torments shouldn’t do.
- Make Torghast into a fast-paced, time-constrained feature that feels too similar to existing timed features like Mythic Keystone Dugeons, Horrific Visions, or Island Expeditions.
- Prevent you from taking a break when you need one.
- Intimidate casual players from playing Torghast altogether.
How can testers help us tune it?
Playtest Torghast, and let us know how it feels. We appreciate all feedback, and the most valuable feedback for this feature will come from experience in Torghast, rather than discussions about time-based difficulty that aren’t informed by in-game experience.
If something feels bad, let us know why.
- Did you feel rushed when you didn’t want to? Was that pressure because of actual game difficulty, or was it simply the presence of the Torment itself?
- Were you unable to defeat a level because of Torments, even though you were playing at a normal pace?
- Did you want to take a break mid-run but felt like you couldn’t?
- Do you feel like Torments are appropriate, but should be introduced at a higher level than they currently are (12)?
- Alternately, did a particular Torment feel underwhelming? Do you still feel like you can wait 10 minutes between every single pull without threat of being overwhelmed?
There are several different Torments in the current Alpha. Some affect spawning and environment, and others affect your character directly. Some increase over time, and others remain at a fixed difficulty.
- How do they feel in comparison to one another?
- Does a particular Torment feel more punishing or unfun than the others?
We’ve seen some emotional response to this change, which we take to mean that you care about Torghast being fun. We do too.
Please keep up the productive discussions, and we’ll keep listening.
Shadowlands Paladin Class Changes
Word of Glory was buffed recently on alpha, in particular for Holy.
Some people have seen, but, a few things not clear on Blessing of the Seasons from tooltips alone: the party is only in one Season at a time (whichever you’ve cast most recently). So you are not simply pressing a button every 15 seconds to maintain 4 buffs. You can let each season last anywhere from 15-60s. Assuming you have a favored buff based on role/context, that you want to keep for 60s, it’s more like 4 presses every 2 minutes, but you might vary that based on planning ahead to have certain buffs at certain times.
Ashen Hallow was pretty recently iterated upon, and its tuning might be pretty far off. Increasing value or reducing cooldown could both be options there, although increasing value might be preferable because the visual is so enormous. Also, a long cooldown is better contrast to the other Paladin options.
Seraphim + Inquisition is uncomfortable, we agree. Candidly, one reason it’s hard to address is that there’s probably a split among people thinking one or the other would be cooler to keep. Open problem for now.
Shield of the Righteous: This is an example (with respect to Ret and Holy) of something there hasn’t been much of in the past two expansions or so. A button mainly intended for another spec, that is given to the class while leveling, that you don’t have a strictly clear max-level use for. You certainly can use it, and one can imagine situations where you would. But if you don’t, or don’t put it on your bar, that’s fine. Our current thinking is that instead of taking it away when you choose your specialization, we can just … not. We are discussing the UI that lights up buttons you don’t have on your bar, for cases like this.
Some people have seen, but, a few things not clear on Blessing of the Seasons from tooltips alone: the party is only in one Season at a time (whichever you’ve cast most recently). So you are not simply pressing a button every 15 seconds to maintain 4 buffs. You can let each season last anywhere from 15-60s. Assuming you have a favored buff based on role/context, that you want to keep for 60s, it’s more like 4 presses every 2 minutes, but you might vary that based on planning ahead to have certain buffs at certain times.
Ashen Hallow was pretty recently iterated upon, and its tuning might be pretty far off. Increasing value or reducing cooldown could both be options there, although increasing value might be preferable because the visual is so enormous. Also, a long cooldown is better contrast to the other Paladin options.
Seraphim + Inquisition is uncomfortable, we agree. Candidly, one reason it’s hard to address is that there’s probably a split among people thinking one or the other would be cooler to keep. Open problem for now.
Shield of the Righteous: This is an example (with respect to Ret and Holy) of something there hasn’t been much of in the past two expansions or so. A button mainly intended for another spec, that is given to the class while leveling, that you don’t have a strictly clear max-level use for. You certainly can use it, and one can imagine situations where you would. But if you don’t, or don’t put it on your bar, that’s fine. Our current thinking is that instead of taking it away when you choose your specialization, we can just … not. We are discussing the UI that lights up buttons you don’t have on your bar, for cases like this.
Site Navigation
vBulletin Message