"Torghast, Tower of the Damned" is one of the most ambitious features in "World of Warcraft" history. It is a sprawling, multi-floor dungeon that is essentially a self-contained roguelike. The layout and enemies change as you explore, and as you progress through the more challenging floors, you gain overly powerful abilities that can transform you into a demon-slaying badass. If you fail to defeat the last boss, your 45 minutes of effort will go down the drain and you will have nothing to show for it.

"One of the biggest points of feedback we've gotten since Shadowlands' release is that while the feeling of going through the Torghast and breaking all the rules to become a powerful ball of destruction is super fun, on the flip side, losing in the Torghast is one of World of Warcraft was that it was one of the worst experiences ever," said game director Ion Hazzikostas in an interview today. 'That's a problem. It's the worst."

Torghast is the main source of a valuable currency called Soul Ash, which is used to power up Legendary equipment. Since the amount of Soul Ash obtained each week is limited, Torghast must be defeated in order to keep pace with guildmates and take on harder challenges. However, Soul Ashes can only be earned by successfully conquering a dungeon. If you die repeatedly, you are sent back to the beginning without gaining anything. I can personally say that it was so miserable that I actually quit for a few days in a fit of rage; Hazzikostas agrees, and Torghast will be overhauled in Shadowlands' next major update, Chains of Domination.

"For 'Chains of Domination,' we want to revisit the successes and failures of Torghast," Hazzikostas said. This is because the big monster that is kicked out of the dungeon after dying repeatedly is actually the boss of the upcoming raid. Since players will be killing it, it makes sense that the rules it upholds will also go away.

"Instead, what if there were more ratings and scores. What if there was a spectrum of success, a continuum, trying to do better, trying to be more efficient, trying to be faster, trying to have fewer deaths, but with some kind of reward for it? Hadjikostas said. 'As long as you don't fail on the first floor and your run ends there, that's fine.'

A simple fix, but it already sounds much better to me. Unfortunately, Mr. Hazzikostas didn't have many specifics to share, but just the fact that "Torghast" is being overhauled is good news.

"We'll have more to show you when the [Public Test Realm] of 'Chains of Domination' begins. We look forward to a lot of feedback and iterations on this system." Our thoughts on "Torghast" are that while the setting is great, the gameplay is great, and the variety of content and experiences there are great, it needs to be a place that provides a challenge without frustration or despair, even if the challenge ends up being beyond your control.

A release date for Chains of Domination has not yet been set, but it is expected later this year. An interview covering the most exciting features can be read here.