Updating Torghast this Week

Since the launch of Shadowlands, we’ve been constantly evaluating and reacting to the player experience in Torghast, Tower of the Damned. In previous weeks, we’ve made surgical changes to address pain points. This week, with the opening of a much more difficult section of the tower, we’ve seen a great deal of feedback from players that we feel is best addressed with a whole slate of updates. Some of these changes have already gone live with hotfixes over the last 24 hours, and the rest will be applied to the game today (and possibly tomorrow).

In summary, we want to reduce the length of a Torghast run, increase players’ success rates for a few specializations that are struggling more than the others, and give players more options in dealing with the challenges that Torghast presents. Here are the changes we’re making:

Torghast, Tower of the Damned

• Health and damage of all creatures in Torghast reduced by 6% at Layer 1, increasing to 26% at Layer 8.
  • Developers’ note: The net effect should be that Layer 8 is now roughly as difficult as Layer 6 was prior to this change, with other Layers’ difficulty is reduced proportionally.
• Health of all creatures reduced for players in groups by up to 25%.
• Damage of all creatures reduced for 4- and 5-player groups by up to 20%.
• When the Empowered enemy at the end of a floor is a spellcaster, they should now have a longer delay between their basic magic damage spells.
  • Developers’ note: The goal of this change is to make powerful spellcasters less punishing for specializations that lack a frequent interrupt.
• For all classes, major cooldowns will now reset when you transition to a new floor.
  • Developers’ note: This functionality should mirror the way cooldowns reset at the end of a raid encounter, or when starting a Mythic Keystone dungeon, affecting most abilities with a cooldown of 3 minutes or longer.
• Anima Powers/Cells
  • The starting Anima Cell in Torghast now offers a stronger selection of Anima powers.
  • Anima Cells dropped by rare creatures within Torghast now always have at least 3 choices to choose from.
  • The chance for an Anima Cell to drop from a creature on any given floor has been increased.
  • Unnatural Power no longer provides immunity to crowd controlling effects at 10 stacks.
• Enemies
  • Massive Crusher’s Armor Plating cast time increased to 3 seconds (was 1 second) and can be interrupted and/or dispelled. Recast time increased to 16 seconds (was 8 seconds).
  • Tower Sentinel’s Oppressive Aura haste reduction and slow now scales up to 10% (was 25%).
  • Deadsoul Chorus’s Death Blast now reduces healing received by 15% and stacks 5 times (was 25% and stacks 4 times).
  • Skeletal Remains and Lumbering Creation’s Bone Shrapnel now marks the ground and then explodes after 2 seconds, giving players time to move away (was instant).
  • Deadsoul Stalker now fades away after 15 melee attacks (was 7) and remains hidden for 15 seconds (was 30 seconds).
  • Deadsoul Devil now reincarnates with 15% health remaining (was at 40% health).
• Bosses
  • Elder Longbranch’s Bounty of the Forest cast time increased to 4 seconds (was 2 seconds), time between casts increased to 45 seconds (was 30 seconds), and Hardened Shell now only requires 6 attacks or skills to remove (was 9 attacks).
  • Decayspeaker’s Hardened Shell now only requires 6 attacks or skills to remove (was 9 attacks).
  • Goxul the Devourer’s Health and damage decreased by 10%, and time between casts of Mass Devour increased to 36 seconds (was 18 seconds).
• Torments and Upper Reaches
  • Fracturing Forces and Eye of Skoldus enemies’ health and damage reduced by 50%, now increase assassin health by 5% per stack (was 10%).
  • Fracturing Forces and Eye of Skoldus enemies will no longer ambush players who have recently been in combat.
  • The Jailer’s Directive now increases health by 10% (was 50%).

You’ll find all of the changes above noted in our ongoing Hotfixes Update post soon after they go live.