TL; DR at bottom because reading is hard.
I will admit, I’m surprised and impressed at how well the devs seem to be taking feedback and implementing solutions. As long as that’s happening, I’d like to draw attention to standing still while casting. Maybe now is the time to bring it up, because “we’re not changing it because that’s how things are and so you like it” no longer appears to be their design approach.
First off, I’m not talking about removing casting, or cast time, or the ability to interrupt casting. Pvp is a forsaken niche, sure, but aside from the nightmare that is pvp with no interrupts on healers, there’s nothing wrong with there being some risk associated with a cast bar on a class that can avoid the dangers of melee.
Second, I’m not even saying all spells. Certain select powerful spells could root you for increased risk, sure, like pyroblast, or even hard hitting aoe. Many other games do this split system. Guild wars 2 for example, lets to cast your basic stuff while moving, but something big like meteor storm requires just a moment of still casting. And every dps class now has low damage filler or build spells used to create their damage. Why should hunter steady shot, a low damage focus builder, be castable while moving, but fireball or shadow bolt, used to build crits or soulshards, not be?
But mainly and mostly, playing ranged dps is starting to feel more and more pointless, because moving to avoid deadly mechanics is no longer mostly a melee thing. Yes, there is more for melee to avoid, I won’t deny that, but ranged spends significant time repositioning. It’s nothing like vanilla or early expansions where melee dodged out frequently while ranged repositioned at worst occasionally. Every player is constantly on the move regardless of class or role.
And that’s not a bad thing. Fights are more mobile, and that mobility can and does create more interesting and engaging encounters. And every ranged class with cast times currently has a limited capacity to deal with it in the form of talents, like ice flows for mages or spirit walk for shaman. Because they have to. Encounters are so mobile that you simply cannot compete if you always have to move as a caster. The fact that this change is needed has basically been admitted already, so we’re halfway there.
And I get increased uptime would require some tuning. So tune it. But anyone who has played casters consistently over the years can tell you… every expansion, this game gets more mobile, and as a caster, less fun. Why frustrate caster players when you could allow them movement and really embrace mobility as a fun encounter mechanic. Half the reason casters hated the thundering affix was because the crazy dash to cancel it was extremely punishing on casters. It could have been, if not fun, at least challenging without feeling so arbitrarily punishing.
The time has come. Casting while not moving is a relic mechanic. Mobile casting classes in other games are far more fun and rewarding. I’m not threatening to leave, that’s over done, and really, I’d rather not. But if other games do it better, and more and more games are, there’s no reason to stay, for me or anyone who enjoys ranged dps. And tell me every xpac we don’t see fewer ranged players.
TL;DR : Standing still while casting is frustrating and outdated, and frankly, I don’t understand why it isn’t already gone.
