Timers added to Torghast

[Awkward-frostmourne (Awkward)]

@Grecko-boulderfist

Edit: My summary of the issues with using time pressure mechanism in a dungeon crawler.

Addressing these arguments:

@Grecko-boulderfist

Its not needed to solve their stated goal of preventing players from delaying moving forward until big abilities are off cool down. Just have the “Exhaustion” debuff not clear until the start of the next level/floor (as stated by Bellular and others).

Bloodlust isn’t the only buff that Blizzard are concerned about people waiting on. They want downtime, especially at the higher levels, to be something that has to be managed.

The level of power classes have while their cooldowns are active is not something that can be tuned around at the highest level, while the overall power of classes is something they can tune it around.

@Grecko-boulderfist

• It removes player agency for being able to AFK if needed WHEN needed.

When have you ever been able to AFK in the middle of content? Torghast should be the same as any content, you have to judge what you’re going AFK for is worth it.

The fact you get a safe zone at the start of a floor is plenty generous.

@Grecko-boulderfist

Its not normally done in a rogue-like dungeon crawler. It defeats the purpose of a dungeon crawler. It ruins the dungeon crawling experience. (Quick aside: I LOVED the idea of Islands, until I tried them and found out I was being rushed, and could not explore. Never walked into another Island instance after that.)

Most dungeon crawlers are single-player, and thus don’t have the issue of the whole “not being able to pause”. MMO’s are a different genre and have different restrictions.

Because while Torghast may be a nod to a dungeon crawler, the game it’s in still has never had any sort of pause feature.

@Grecko-boulderfist

We already have speed trial gaming mechanics in the game (Islands, Mythic+) that already exclude much of the customer base, don’t add more.

The fundamental issue with any sort of content that allows you to leave content is that there is no way to balance the challenge against the strategy of waiting for your cooldowns, exploding a pack and then doing the same against the next one.

Timers in content such as M+, Islands, Horrific Visions don’t exist for the purpose of a speedrun (at least not simply +1’ing a M+). They exist as a counterbalance to that strategy.

@Grecko-boulderfist

• Blizzard said they would not use timers, and customers returned to the game because of that.

They said they wouldn’t, then they realized that there was a reason that EVERY form of challenging content over the past 15 years has had them in one form or another.

Because at the end of the day, they want Torghast to be a viable form of solo progression, and there needs to be some sort of limit to avoid the prevailing strategy of it to be “cooldowns, AFK, repeat”.

For people returning to the game because of that? Well that’s on you for not expecting the earliest public iteration of a game to change when it goes live.

Blizzard also said that they want Frost Mages and Affliction Warlocks to be desirable for big AoE pulls in Shadowlands, but if I go into the expansion with the expectation that I will win every AoE fight, I’m going to be sorely disappointed.