Cataclysm mobility raids

Cataclysm will take mobility fights to the next level.

Already a feature in WotLK but not a new idea to WoW, most famously starting with Baron Geddon in Molten Core where you became the bomb and had to move away from the raid or wipe everyone. (I reflected on MC for the five-year anniversary). In ICC, the easiest examples are Putricide and Rotface where mobility, situational awareness and directional-sense are crucial.

Situational awareness is a selection criteria to get into hard-core raiding guilds. See the interview series I did, all those top 250 guilds talk about it as absolutely crucial.

If you die in the fire in Northrend, you are going to get wtfpwned in Cataclysm. If you are not already using proper keybinds, take the opportunity to learn now.

I make this statement simply by observing:

• healing will be more strategic, so tanks and healers can be more mobile in an encounter
• Blizzard already use mobility mechanics more and more in encounters each expansion
• Blizzard need new mechanics to make the Cataclysm boss fights feel markedly different to what we already know (rather than us saying ‘oh this is Vaelstrasz mixed with Rotface’)
• the Cataclysm class previews include plenty of new mobility skills, which will give the designers even greater freedom to incorporate motion.

Class	mobility change
Warrior	heroic leap
Hunters	losing mongoose bite, since melee hunters are so last-year
Mage	time warp, giving personal movement haste (also a Bloodlust)
Priest	leap of faith (a reverse death grip)
Rogue	redirect: more about target switches, but boosts to dps while mobile
Druid	stampeding roar (movement haste aura), 3 min cooldown
DK	outbreak: like rogue, about target switches for DPS DKs
Shaman	spiritwalker’s grace: 2 min cooldown, 10s duration, cast whilst moving

Discuss here or in this forum thread.

Related Posts:

• First new sigil from quests (alpha) has stamina
• On stamina, avoidance and healing in Cataclysm
• Cataclysm DK healing absorption mechanic
• Tanks just want to tank, plus supply-demand
• Number of tanks required, a game design issue