wow Torghast Interview with Senior Quest Designer Paul Kubit

[Starym 3,779]

 

As the tower has entered the Alpha and taken over Twitch, Towelliee interviewed Senior Quest Designer Paul Kubit on everything Torghast. With a lot of new info covered, let's head straight into the major details.

There will be some sort of key system that restricts constant entry, but you will be able to access the tower as many times as you want, you'll just have to do other activities once in a while to get the keys. One example/suggestion was that you'd get one key every 3 days but also be able to buy more for the Maw (endgame zone) currency, but you also couldn't farm the Maw the whole time either but would have to go to another zone and do something else for a while. Here's the pitch in more detail:

Average Torghast runs will not be very long. They don't want them to be an hour and a half or similar, as it's based on rogue-likes. None of this is set in stone or even fully developed yet, but one of the options is very different from the current Alpha experience (where players are getting to floor 72), with individual runs possibly being only 6 floors, with a boss at the end which you can beat and which will then end the run. These can be 20 minutes, with it possibly stretching to 40, and the idea is to have you make a specific Anima build for that run and that boss. Once you defeat the boss, you can then head back into the tower and continue from floor 7 (presumably getting a free key to re-enter, or  you just continue without leaving), and if you die then you can restart at 7, but probably without your Anima powers, so you might want to start from the beginning instead.

There won't be many or possibly any actual item-level relevant gear dropping in the tower, as its main purpose is legendaires and Freed Souls, which will be needed for your Covenant (since souls are in short supply in Shadowlands' current situation). The loot from Torghast is aimed at all types of players, both hardcore, casual and in-between, so presumably there will be lots of cosmetics in there as well.

There will be a cap on the main rewards (aka the legendary crafting mats), like Mythic+, so after a certain floor your rewards will be severely decreased (again, presumably this would leave the higher floors for things like cosmetics), but nothing has been decided yet.

You should be getting your first legendary from the tower a few weeks after hitting 60, so around raid time. There will be legendaries for each slot except for trinkets and weapons.

The higher you climb the better the rewards, but the specific rewards haven't been set yet. They wanted the tower out there as soon as possible in Alpha, so the rewards just haven't been designed yet, and even the legendary dust that drops now might not be in there in the final version.

The Tarrague

There will not be progression buffs for the tower, aka you won't get "your next run you'll have 10% more damage" etc. The idea is to get through the brick walls you face either with better Anima builds or by getting better items in the rest of the game (or by just "gitting gud"). Torghast isn't intended as the only activity you ever need to do in WoW, it's a part of the larger game and you'll have to progress through all of it to get higher and higher.

They can now tune the tower based not only on role but also on spec, since the balancing wasn't that solid on Horrific Visions. They might not need to balance it at all, however, as Anima powers might do that job for them as each spec gets more powerful in different ways through them.

And here's some of the smaller details:

• The Jailer is keeping a lot of high-profile people in the tower and we'll meet them.
• There may be per-floor timers to discourage just sitting waiting for cooldowns, but they will be generous so you can explore freely.
• The balance between solo and group should be equal, but if it's not possible they will lean towards groups more.
• There's no queue for Torghast, you have to have a pre-made group.
• Current aim is to have 3 Anima powers gained per floor if you clear everything.
• The Easy, Normal and Heroic difficulties are Alpha only, the system will be different.
• The floors are pre-made but the mob spawns are procedural.
• There could be an affix system as well, but no plans yet.
• There are "break" levels, where there's not that much action so you can get a breather.
• You'll be able to head to Torghast very soon after dinging 60, with a few quests and having to choose your Covenant beforehand.
• Torghast might be one of the possible sources for the weekly chests, as well as world quests, but it's not decided yet.
• Possible legendary Anima powers, but no plans yet.

You can also check out the entire interview right here:

That's a whole lot of info on one of the main features of Shadowlands and between this interview and the many streams happening, we now know a whole lot more about Torghast and it's all sounding pretty damn impressive.

Are you looking forward to the Tower of the Damned and has all the new info in the past couple of days gotten you more or less excited about it?

 

Latest Shadowlands News

Classes	Leveling
All Covenant Class Abilities Covenant Signature and Class Ability Upgrades Shadowlands Class Changes AOE Ability Changes in Shadowlands Frost Mage Winter's Chill Changes: April 10th Druid Class Changes Clarifications: April 13th Druid/Shaman/Warrior Class Changes: April 16th Hunter Stable Size Increased in Shadowlands Class Buffs Nerfed in Shadowlands	Allied Races No Longer Require Grinding Reputation to Exalted Death Knights and Demon Hunters Start at Level 8 in Shadowlands Exile's Reach Starting Zone (Official Preview) First Level 50 in 12 Hrs 16 Minutes on Shadowlands Alpha Flying Available at Level 25 in Shadowlands Legion Legendaries Disabled in Shadowlands Level Requirements for Unlocking Talents in Shadowlands Quest Interface Improvements Coming in Shadowlands
Datamining	Misc
Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Creature Models Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Mounts: Part 1 Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Mounts: Part 2 Shadowlands 9.0.1 Build 33978 Mounts: Part 3 Potential Allied Races Coming in Shadowlands Optional Crafting Reagents in Shadowlands Runeforging Updates: New Death Knight Runes Ardenweald Faun NPC Customization Options Bastion Kyrian NPC Customization Options	Dying in the Shadowlands Controller Support Coming in Shadowlands Icecrown Skybox Updated for Shadowlands Item Level Squish in Shadowlands Unread Mail Indicator on Character Selection Screen New Graphic Options in Shadowlands New Character Creation Screen in Shadowlands
Development Updates	PvP
Initial Shadowlands Developer Update Shadowlands Development Update Notes: April 9th Shadowlands Development Update Notes: April 16th	PvP Vendors Return in Shadowlands
Interviews	Zone Previews
No War/Titanforging or Corrupted Items in Shadowlands: Ion Hazzikostas Interview Lore Interview with Lead Narrative Designer Steve Danuser	Bastion & Kyrian Covenant (Official Preview) Bastion Zone Screenshots The Necrotic Wake Dungeon Torghast, Tower of the Damned Official Preview Torghast, Tower of the Damned Sample Run