Why can't casters cast while moving?

[Deleted]

It has nothing to do with being interesting and everything with ranged being directly superior to melee if they were able to freely cast while moving.

Like it currently is, barely 1-2 ranged specs can keep up with dominating meeles with skills like blink-while-casting. But share more of your game dev insights.

[anon5123]

Because there'd never be a reason to play melee if that was possible.

Because otherwise noone would play melee.

Because if casters could cast while moving, there would be absolutely no reason to bring melees.

I'll take "Interrupts" for $500, Alex.

Also, at the moment, melee and ranged do the same DPS for the most part, so....yeah.

Excuse me? Shadow Priest is one of the most mobile casters in game. Please try Elemental Shaman or Destruction Warlock.

What Legion are you playing where Spriest is "the most mobile caster" ?

You can't channel Mind Flay or cast Mind Blast while moving, so having to move to do a mechanic or something causes you to drop voidform, which is a massive blow to your DPS.

[Lochton]

It is better balanced because they can't cast while moving. Not saying best, but could be worse.

[Glorious Leader]

It's a tradeoff for being able to stand wherever you want within a 30-40 yard radius of whatever you're attacking, as opposed to a melee who has to stick close to the target at all times.

This would be a valid trade off if they didnt add so many gap closers making the disadvantage of having to stick close to a target relatively minor. Actually even in cases where gap closers exist but are limited (say ret paladin or dk) groups will tend to favor strategies that require melee move as little as possible.


Theirs basically little to no gameplay reason to play ranged anymore over melee anymore.

[Sinte]

Like it currently is, barely 1-2 ranged specs can keep up with dominating meeles with skills like blink-while-casting. But share more of your game dev insights.

Oh shut up with that bs. No raid leader in the history of this game would ever overstack melee to ranged unless a mechanic asked for it. Ranged has always been preferred in every part of PvE content,both for damage,safety and utility they bring. You've always had to excell or outgear your ranged coujnterpart if you wanted to be brought anywhere outside your guild raids. Outside of unbalanced power spikes,ain't nobody ever posted a "need melee advertisement anywhere.

[Temp name]

Like it currently is, barely 1-2 ranged specs can keep up with dominating meeles with skills like blink-while-casting. But share more of your game dev insights.

Outside of NH (and Nefarion), when did you see raids going with less ranged than melee? You want ranged to deal with mechanics, and while they're not doing that they can dps. If you need more people to stack up in melee, ranged can do that, but if you need more people outside of melee, oh look, melee now can't do shit

[Sencha]

Ranged used to have one spell castable on moving. Now they have none. Playing a caster in pvp is just horrible.

[Henako]

They're too stupid to talk and walk at the same time.

[Glorious Leader]

Ranged used to have one spell castable on moving. Now they have none. Playing a caster in pvp is just horrible.

And because the gap closers are now so wide spread their is virtually no advantage to being ranged. Every class has something that lets them get close or get the drop on ranged, some classes have multiple instances of these abilities but it was too fucking good that some ranged could cast while moving. Melee got spoiled imho. Id be all for the ranged vs meler paradigm if it wasnt painfully obvious that the supposed disadvantage melee faces was abated by a million and one diffefent abilities. You want ranged to have to plant themselves? Fine. No leap, no charge, no wraith walk, no shadow step, no displacement, no paladin horse thing, no chi torpedo. You hoof it. Christ they built a melee dps class whos got a staple dps ability thats also a gap closer. Ffs...

[niil945]

Antiquated gameplay mechanics from mmo's over a decade old that the developers refuse to modernize.

[Terahertz]

Because if you were able to move, combat would become much more boring as there'd be much less risk for ranged in combat encounters. You wouldn't have to plan out the encounter and combat would become much more binary.

Besides many casters are compensated for the fact they have to stand still to cast. If you want to cast while on the move, you'd be sacrificing other abilities for it.

It'd be cool if the next class they released was a mid range caster that could cast on the move though.

[Glorious Leader]

For sure. I have the most hours in resto shammy and sin rogue this expansion. Went Ele a few times in raids and my god, it is unplayable compared to my rogue.

Thats the best part. Ele used to be able to move while casting. It was just lightning bolt but it was something. Gap closers on the other hand just got more and more pervasive.


Ivr played resto druid this expansion. Fairly mobile ranged class. I used to play holy paladin but it was awful having to constantly move and being unable to perform my role because of it. I wouldnt go back. Mobility is just too key and to argue that its okay for melee to have all the mobility in the universe but range need to be punished is just poor balance.

[Dalheim]

Because they tried it during MoP and it was a balancing nightmare.

Best of times...

[Aggrophobic]

After getting the legendary boots that let you cast while moving for a few seconds, I just find myself wondering why this isn't baseline. It feels absolutely amazing to be able to cast while moving, even for just those short 4 seconds at a time.

This restriction becomes especially noticeable for Shadow Priests, where if you have to move more than a little bit, your DPS just drops like a rock. On top of having bad mobility, you don't have much in the way of instant cast spells, so if you have to move for more than 1-2 seconds, you're fucked, due to how Voidform works.

I do remember at one point, I think during WoD, Hunters could freely cast while moving. That seemed to turn out okay, as far as I could tell. So...is there any specific reason why we can't cast while moving? With more and more movement-based mechanics, having to stand still to cast just seems weird and clunky.

If it's a PvP balance issue, perhaps it could be restricted in PvP areas.

They could in MoP and it was awesome. Sadly fun was not balanced in Blizzards world.

[chazus]

Dresden said it best, when it comes to casting spells.

In regard to having effectively a fire shield active:

“And that’s hard?”

“Tell you what, ” I said. “Why don’t you go play Simon, Concentration, checkers, chess, solitaire, Monopoly, Sudoku, Clue, Risk, Axis and Allies, poker, and blackjack all at the same time, while counting to twenty thousand by prime numbers only, standing on one foot and balancing a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee on your head. And when you can do that, we’ll start you with walking through a small campfire.”

[Deleted]

Hunters say hi.

Hunters are not Casters
We use simple weapon for our skills Casters needs time and concentration to do their Abhra-Khadabra

[Glorious Leader]

They could in MoP and it was awesome. Sadly fun was not balanced in Blizzards world.

It wasnt as if melee were especially punished in mop. They had so many fucking gap closers. I played a warrior for a bit in mop. Leap, charge, intervene etc etc. It was dumb. I remember dueling my warrior buddy in bc. I was a frost mage. He wouldnt even get close. Now hed be in my grill 24/7. You want casters to not move and cast? Fine lets move back to bc era for both melee and casters and then we can talk. Things got better for melee i fail to see why it getting better for ranged is a problem.

[Aggrophobic]

It wasnt as if melee were especially punished in mop. They had so many fucking gap closers. I played a warrior for a bit in mop. Leap, charge, intervene etc etc. It was dumb. I remember dueling my warrior buddy in bc. I was a frost mage. He wouldnt even get close. Now hed be in my grill 24/7. You want casters to not move and cast? Fine lets move back to bc era for both melee and casters and then we can talk. Things got better for melee i fail to see why it getting better for ranged is a problem.

There were better ways to balance casters than just making them all into turrets like in WoD though.

[shaunika123]

why cant melee hit the boss from 40 yards?

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Its just a game balance choice made by Blizzard. Once the choice was made I am sure they could also create lore to support it. If it changes they can create lore to support that. That is the nature of a fictional universe built within a multiplayer video game.