Blizzard has released patch notes for the next build of the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands alpha, detailing their next additions. With the alpha being patched near-constantly, there’s always some new addition to the content.
This latest set of additions and alterations are focused primarily on the repeatable endgame content of Torghast, Tower of the Damned. While things are always subject to change by the nature of an alpha client, this new set of changes goes so far as to roll back previous additions.
The first and most important thing is that Blizzard has finally added Anima powers for all classes! This means that every class is able to challenge Torghast, Tower of the Damned, whereas before it was only those with the Anima powers.
With everyone now able to properly challenge the content, Blizzard also saw fit to roll back their addition of Torments. While not an outright removal of the system, the changes have drastically altered the way Torments will interact.
If you haven’t read up on them yet, Torments were essentially working as soft timers that would gradually increase in difficulty as a run continued. Eventually, they would reach the point of effectively locking the player out, as the challenge would grow statistically insurmountable.
With this new alpha build, Blizzard is making it so that Torments will no longer scale with time. Additionally, Torments are being changed to serve as extra challenges based on the type of floors you’ve run through Torghast for the current run.
“We’ve heard your feedback that Torments were adding too much time pressure,” Blizzard assures the fans. “The Jailer may still torment you on higher levels of Torghast, but Torments will not scale with time.”
Blizzard has made the following changes to the Torments in accordance with their new alterations:
- Breath of Coldheart will now increase the health of enemy monsters by a flat percentage based on the number of Coldheart Interstitia floors defeated
- Mort’regar’s Echoes now increase Magic damage from enemy monsters by a flat percentage based on how many Mort’regar floors climbed
- Might of the Upper Reaches now increases enemy’s Physical damage by a flat percentage based on the number of Upper Reaches floors climbed
“The changes above were inspired by feedback that Torments that reduce your power feel worse than torments that affect your enemies,” Blizzard explains. “As always, we will continue to tune and keep a close eye on difficulty.”
It’s fantastic to see Blizzard so readily listening to their fan base and providing the change rather than leaving the extremely unpopular alterations they had made in. With Torments altered in such a way, Torghast is certain to remain an incredible challenge without feeling like a sluggish and unfair one.
