How LFG might change the 5-mans of Cataclysm

Blizzard has mentioned that the runaway success of the new LFG system will affect the 5-man dungeons in Cataclysm but didn't specify how. So I thought I would guess.

Attunements, Attunements, Attunements

Patch 3.3 slipped in Blizzard's first ever attunement for a normal-mode 5-man dungeon -- Pit of Saron cannot be entered until the player has beaten Forge of Souls, and Halls of Reflection cannot be entered until Forge of Souls has been completed by the player. Normally this might be a little controversial, but I've heard nary a word complaining about it. Fact is, it's just so easy to get a group for the dungeons (even as DPS) that there's not much reason to complain.

I think we'll see attunements return in a big way in Cataclysm. They were always a good idea, but the difficulty of finding groups made them so difficult that Blizzard abandoned them in Wrath (until now).

Fewer Better Instances

WoW is no longer about running 5-mans : it's about running 5-mans over and over again. In both TBC and Wrath Blizzard felt obliged to include a lot of 5-man instances (both eventually had 16 5-man instances). The instances tend to get a little boring once you've run them a dozen times.

So how about having 10 5-mans instead of 16, and going all out on the new ones? Players, I think, wouldn't tire of 10 dungeons quicker than they tired of 16 -- it would just mean you ran every instance 30 times over the course of the expansion, instead of 20.

So I hope we'll see neat, gimmicky instances in Cataclysm. Sort of like Occulus, only without being awful group-killers.

Either CC Isn't Coming Back, or Every DPS Gets Viable CC

Blizzard is on record lamenting the exit of Crowd Control from 5-man instances that was so necessary in TBC. However, if it were to return in Cataclysm random groups might find themselves without a CC-capable DPS player.

One of two things will happen. Either CC won't return (which I'm totally cool with) or Blizzard will start handing out CC to every class that can DPS -- which is all of them.

There is precedent for this -- every healing and tanking class now has a standard "toolbox" that allows them to be viable in every circumstance. Blizzard could make sure every class has a suitable CC ability.

Blizzard will finally make demo warlocks into viable 5-man tanks

It always bugged me that every healing and tanking class can do decent DPS with the right spec, but no DPS class can heal or tank with any spec.

It will never happen, but one can hope.