The wackiest Torghast anima power upgrade abilities can turn your enemies into chairs… or send you hurtling off cliffs

Most people who go through the Torghast roguelike dungeon in Shadowlands will try to min-max their anima power upgrades, choosing the most powerful options that make them into the best killing machines possible. Whether it’s percentage-based stat boosts or other percentage-based stat boosts, you can’t really blame them all that much for going that route, since excelling at Torghast will give you things like great gear and components to forge legendaries. However, there is a set of anima power upgrades which aren’t exactly the “best,” but give your character a very fun little twist to play around with. For some, this may make running Torghast more interesting the thousandth time — here’s hoping.

As a blanket disclaimer, this post was written relatively early in the Shadowlands alpha process, so some of the more wild abilities may be axed by the time Shadowlands is released.

With that warning out of the way, these are my favorite abilities in Torghast. They may not be the best, but they’re definitely the most entertaining.

For comic relief: Scroll of Elchaver

Dealing Arcane damage has a chance to turn non-elite targets into an inanimate household object, killing them instantly.

This may be the most hilarious ability I’ve ever seen in WoW. Every time you use Arcane damage, the Scroll of Elchaver gives you a small chance to turn a non-elite into a household object, which kills them.

Alright, cool, whatever. But the tooltip can’t really state just how much of a hilarious non-sequitur it is. Picture yourself fighting your way tooth and nail through an extremely dark version of the worst possible hell. There are skeletal wardens and creepy spirits all around you, with virtuous chained spirits you can opt to free from their eternal torment, and tortured disembodied screaming in the ambient soundtrack… and then you hit an ability and there’s a sad slide whistle sound. Suddenly your opponent is a chair that looks like it would belong in Silvermoon City.

A sad slide whistle.

This ability does give a decent amount of combat utility because it kills your opponent instantly, and it’ll make you change the way you play — especially if you’re a Hunter suddenly spamming Arcane Shot. So far I’ve seen threatening hellbeasts turned into boots, chairs, a crate, and a steak. I choose this ability pretty much every time I have the option, and it hasn’t gotten old yet.

For maximum yeeting: Negation Well

Greatly increase the power of your jumps.

The tooltip of Negation Well says that this anima power upgrade will “greatly increase” the power of your jumps. I assumed greatly increase meant I’d jump higher, so I picked this quickly, because several floor types feature levels where you could (theoretically) skip a bunch of stuff by being able to jump straight up a bit higher. Instead, I instantly yeeted myself off a cliff.

In this instance, the thing that increases is the length of your jumps, and every other level features platforms over a yawning chasm in Torghast. The rest are packed with mobs you probably shouldn’t pull all at once. The trajectory of your greatly increased jumps is basically the same as being forced to Disengage forward with every jump, in the same lazy, unalterable arc. It’s an interesting choice, but it’s one that led to the Tarragrue munching my toes on a regular basis as I misjudged the distance I would travel.

For breaking your space bar addiction: Aetherium Weights

Your Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intellect is increased by 30%, but you are no longer able to jump.

I’m not sure who on the anima power upgrades design team is a literal monster, but whether to choose Aetherium Weights was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make. A 30% increase in most primary stats is a no-brainer on paper, but trading your ability to jump for that? Especially as a Hunter main? An Elven Hunter main? That’s the kind of stuff that’ll keep you up at night.

This is a very min-max kind of choice, but I’d encourage everyone to try this out at least once, even if you’re as unable to stop pressing spacebar as I am. Not being able to jump at all means you’ll be going the long way around far more often than you’d anticipate, and it makes some traps super tough — if not impossible — to avoid.

For zooming (sometimes accidentally): Edgelurker

Your movement speed is increased by 60% when close to a wall or the edge of a hallway.

You can use Edgelurker to go faster in long hallways, but due to the nature of what’s considered a wall or barrier, it can also lead to terror on those platforms over nothingness I mentioned a bit earlier. Also, you can get this ability multiple times in a single run, which leads to the bonus percentage rising higher and higher. One minute you’re running toward the stairs to the next platform, the next you’re suddenly pulling a Wile E Coyote because you started running far faster than you were half a second ago.

Did I mention it also activates when you’re on the lip of a platform? Very suddenly?

Don’t forget about synergy!

Some abilities will crop up multiple times per run and will synergize well with each other, simply by stacking a whole lot of the same effect. This can be a min-max situation, but it can also get really funny while increasing your power to a startling degree. Pretty much all classes have an ability like the Hunter’s Tactical Combat, which increases the damage dealt by a specific ability by a percentage-based amount. In this case, the first time you choose it, a specific ability gets its damage done boosted by 30%. The second time you choose it, boosts the baseline ability by another 30% to 60%. Before you know it, you’re one-shotting elites and cackling to yourself.

Not all classes have an ability like the Mage’s Sapphire Prism which will suddenly let you summon a dozen or so additional people to help you with a solo run, but hopefully you’ll find yourself enjoying some of these as much as we did.