The release of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is still some time away, but many of the new features can already be tested in the Alpha. MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus is one of the testers and can’t get enough of one feature.
What kind of dungeon is this? It’s about Torghast, Tower of the Damned. Torghast is a kind of super-dungeon where players can earn legendary items among other things.
It’s an endgame feature of the new expansion Shadowlands, designed for players at the new maximum level 60. The dungeon becomes increasingly difficult, providing a growing challenge.
However, there are currently no rewards for this in the Alpha. Legendaries and other items have not yet been implemented. For each run, I am currently only receiving quite worthless placeholders. Moreover, only four classes are allowed:
- Priest
- Mage
- Warlock
- Demon Hunter
Although his primary activity in World of Warcraft is raiding, he has also dabbled in PvP (especially in the arena) and Mythic+ dungeons. During this time, he has looked at each of the 12 playable classes but generally tends to prefer melee fighters.
Although I should probably spend more time as an Alpha tester finding bugs and thoroughly exploring all areas, I must admit that I spend way too much time in Torghast.
By now, surely 10-15 hours of my Alpha playtime have flowed into this dungeon alone and I still can’t get enough. Torghast alone will keep me hooked on Shadowlands for months – and rightly so.
Torghast, the new endgame feature
What makes Torghast so good? The key to Torghast is that the dungeon gets endlessly harder. It is divided into layers, where I must defeat enemies and collect rewards. With the distributed “Anima,” I can strengthen my character during the dungeon run.
Crazy builds are possible because many Anima fundamentally change the functions of spells and abilities or even build synergy with each other. It’s similar to Diablo 3 – only that the entire game is squeezed into a dungeon.
If I die too often, a giant monster chases me, which can instantly kill me if I don’t escape. There is no time limit, but it certainly raises the thrill.
Crazily insane builds and hours of fun
What builds are possible? I personally don’t like any of the classes that Torghast is currently playable with. Actually, I have been playing rogues, warriors, and death knights for many years. But for the test, I created a Mage, placed 6 in the list of the most popular classes in World of Warcraft, and had a blast.
The current selection of abilities in Torghast for the Mage includes many perks that build on the spell “Blink.” In my most fun run so far, my build consisted of the following core abilities:
- Blink has no cooldown and costs no mana, but I can only move at 3 meters per second (“RP-Walk”) movement speed
- casting Blink leaves a mirror image for 10 seconds
- mirror images have more spells they can use
- the spell “Mirror Image” summons an additional copy
In addition, there were many useful abilities like increased speed and damage. In the end, I got to the point where I had hardly any global cooldown on Blink and didn’t fight bosses myself anymore. Instead, I blinked against a wall and let my about 30-50 mirror images do the work:
Just a few me’s as friends. 
A few more of me. What could possibly go wrong? 
With too many egos, chaos ensues quickly. 
The bosses can’t decide which Void Elf they want to nibble on first. Delightful!
The great thing about it is that this Anima can even stack, allowing me to summon even more mirror images or further increase my damage. Certainly not efficient on that level yet, but incredibly fun.
In other runs, I built a build around “Arcane Explosion,” which amplified it by 850% on its first use and steadily increased my damage, allowing me to basically run through the levels exploding.
And those were just the possibilities of the Arcane Mage – a class I don’t actually like. Now, if I imagine what I could do as a warrior, death knight, or in a group there, I’m really itching to try it out.
I just hope that there will be no restrictions for Torghast like there were for the visions of patch 8.3. The actually best feature of BfA, I couldn’t enjoy at all.
Is Shadowlands really going to be that good?
Besides Torghast, there currently aren’t many features that can be tested in the Alpha. The first area “Bastion” and recently the bloody “Revendreth” in Bloodborne style are currently the highlights.
Asmongold claims that Shadowlands will be the best expansion of all time. I cannot agree with that yet, as there is still too little to see. At the moment, it’s mainly about testing and less about content.
But I am sure that Shadowlands will turn out very well and will surely make it onto our list of the best WoW expansions. Moreover, I can already see that I will personally spend much more time in the new addon than I currently do in Battle for Azeroth, even if only to try out more hilarious builds in Torghast.
More on Alpha & Beta of Shadowlands
Now that Revendreth has been introduced, there are still three more of the new areas of Shadowlands missing: Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, and the Maw. I can’t say exactly if and when these will be testable.
Moreover, one of the most important core features of the expansion: the Covenants is still not fully testable and is something I’m also very much looking forward to.
MeinMMO will keep an eye on the development and report on the most important information and details about Shadowlands and the Alpha. If you want to get an impression of the new expansion, you can sign up yourself for testing. All information about Alpha & Beta can be found here in our round-up article.
