In World of Warcraft Shadowlands, new raids and cool mechanics await. For a boss fight, you even have to hit the dance floor.
In Shadowlands, the first major raid will be Castle Nathria, where a large part of the Venthyr resides. The developers have come up with some interesting boss mechanics and revived an old concept. Because those who remember the “Heigan Dance” from Classic and “Wrath of the Lich King” will experience the next variant of it here – and it looks pretty cool.
What kind of mechanic is this? In the boss fight against the “Council of Blood,” there will be many little dance interludes. After all, this is a large castle of vampiric creatures – lively celebrations are part of the deal. Players will be prompted at various intervals to move to a very specific position. After that, they must mimic ‘dance steps’ indicated by NPCs. This means stepping forward, backward, or sideways. Players must orient themselves to the squares on the ground and move exactly one square at a time.
You can see what this looks like here with streamer Sloot:
What happens if you fail? Those who are less musically inclined and cannot follow the instructions of the other dancers will have a hard time in this raid. Because if you fail during the dance scene, it has drastic effects on your character.
- Those who do not reach their spotlight in time will be killed instantly.
- Those who do not complete a dance step correctly will be stunned for 30 seconds – meaning deep into the next boss phase.
Both effects are critical, as both the death of a character and a 30-second stun could mean that the fight is doomed to fail.
However, the mechanic is not particularly difficult. With a bit of practice, even the typical “Movement-Günther” among us should get the steps right.
The mechanic is currently still being worked on and will be updated and improved with little fixes. Whether it will still exist the same way in the finished raid remains to be seen.
In addition to boss mechanics, another topic is currently being hotly debated: The “Ripcord” of Shadowlands, which Blizzard will not pull.
What do you think of such boss mechanics? An amusing change? Or is dancing in a raid just rather silly?
