We don’t think Blizzard will add any more events to Torghast — here’s why

A couple weeks back, the Beasts of Prodigum bonus event for Torghast premiered, and like the other two bonus events that change up Torghast in different ways, it came and went with little excitement. While we don’t have access to Blizzard’s internal metrics, the lack of chatter and enthusiasm around these events gives the impression that this Shadowlands feature just didn’t take off how it was intended to. With patch 9.1 and the Sanctum of Domination raid largely ending the story of Torghast, it’s unlikely that Blizzard will revisit or expand the feature. So what went wrong?

A reward-less bonus isn’t fun

The easiest answer is that there was no additional reward to encourage partaking in the bonus events — in other words, it was more literally a non-bonus event. Not that the concept of variety in a repetitive task is a bad one, but with the wealth of options available to players on how to use their in-game time, some form of carrot probably should be involved when it comes to an activity that risks wasting your time if the bonus conditions ends up ruining your run (and thus resulting in few or no rewards).

Bonus events make a tough experience even more inconsistent

A more likely answer, though, is that content designed to be challenging should also be designed to be consistent. Mythic raids and Horrific Visions don’t come with events because the point is overcoming the content itself, not to spice up your Friday night raid run by having Kel’Thuzad summon all the Naxxramas bosses in Phase 2 because it’s a bonus event. There’s already intrinsic variety to Torghast runs due to the Anima Power system, I’m not certain I understand why Blizzard added bonus events in the first place. I get that variety can help make a rote task more palatable, but that should be coming from the maps and powers embedded in the system, not an optional playstyle thrown in every month.

They just don’t happen often enough

The infrequency of the events — if you loved Beasts of Prodigum, it’ll be back in 12 weeks! — is probably the final nail in the coffin of the concept. Challenging content like Legion’s Mage Tower is overcome through repetitive gameplay; isolating and spacing out the bonus events does not give players the ability to gain expertise in them, making them no more than diversions. Throw in the lack of additional rewards and the plethora of alternate options in-game and it’s easy to see why the bonus events didn’t work for Torghast.

But hey, maybe Blizzard will add more in patch 9.1.5, and maybe players really do enjoy these bonus events (albeit silently). There’s also something to be said about general interest in the game being low right now due to the accusations against Blizzard’s work environment, and maybe that’s contributed to the lack of excitement around Torghast events. All the same, the events seem to have fallen flat — here’s hoping future events can provide more fun.