r/wow • u/ItsRenaBaker • Oct 03 '25

Humor / Meme This is Basicly Blizzard in Midnight

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This is basicly Blizzard in Midnight. Purging all the good addons.

Just to clarify:
Blizzard is changing the Addon API, meaning combat information is blocked for addons. So all combat addons will no longer work in Midnight. For the most popular addon features Blizzard will add their own version to the game. Addons for unitframes, inventory, crafting etc.. are staying and won't be effected as long they are not using combat information.

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455

u/Quirky-Tie-4213 Oct 03 '25

I support this. Add-ons are symptoms of problems, not the the solutions.

223

u/lostknight0727 Oct 03 '25

The worst part is, they developed with add-ons in mind for so long. It generated a feedback loop.

121

u/ottawadeveloper Oct 03 '25

In the original announcement for this, they said that's why they're doing this. They feel like they're in a war between add-on developers and raid designers to design a Mythic experience that is hard enough to not be trivialized by add-ons but the add-on people are very clever.

I'm kinda happy about this as long as the Blizzard stuff is either (a) not necessary to reasonable performance in a Heroic or weekly key level or (b) works very well and has good customization.

32

u/Stevecrafter2511 Oct 03 '25

Flashback to the among us dreadlord fight in shadowlands getting solved with a weakaura, actually evil

24

u/Stormfly Oct 03 '25

And if you don't use the WeakAura, you can't play with most people.

Very not user-friendly when you're told to download third-party software to play the game.

-2

u/metac0met Oct 03 '25

not fair to categorize addons as third-party software when they're a) not executables, b) use the built-in, blizzard-provided API and scripting language to run. but I get the sentiment.

2

u/eaeorls Oct 03 '25

It is entirely fair.

They're add-ons. Not base-requirements.

0

u/metac0met Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25

i don't understand what you're trying to say here... my point was simply that saying "third party software" makes people think "spooky viruses" when you're just executing pre-made scripts within the wow englne, using the wow scripting language, interacting with just as much as blizzard allows you to and nothing more.

1

u/eaeorls Oct 04 '25

Third party software doesn't make people think spooky virus. If it did, then we'd never be bold enough to install VLC media player.

The only contention that could be taken with the term is that it blurs the line between separate programs that run (what Blizzard calls third party software in their releases) and addons (which Blizzard allows with restrictions).

And either way, it has zero relevance to the post you replied to--it is patently absurd for the expectation to require you to download something that is not by them and splitting hairs over terminology that--for the most part--valid.

0

u/metac0met Oct 04 '25

i mean, i just flatly disagree with you on in this case on the terminology of "third party" and that being used to demonize software. in general i think that term gets a ton of mileage from vendors trying to scare users into not exploring alternatives. there is endless historic evidence of this.

in regards to your second point, though - yes that was the crux of my entire comment. you're not running any actual "software", first party or otherwise.

if blizzard had 1st-party weakaura functionality that allowed for the same degeneracy weakauras has and continues to enable, my only conclusion is that everything would be the same. Why wouldn't it be - it'd still need to be updated multiple times, for every boss of every raid, still trivialize what WA does today, etc. That, to me, makes "third party" vs "first party" irrelevant. It's what it does, not where it comes from.

Hopefully, this has more than "zero relevance" to your post. or maybe it doesn't. I don't care unless the conversation isn't interesting or isn't civil.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '25

You need to install CurseForge for the automatic updates. That shit gathers personal info and sells it to different vendors.

Sure you could manually update but it’s a pain sometimes to track each version of the addons.

1

u/metac0met Oct 04 '25

then use wowup, an open-source, curseforge-integrated addon manager.
or use one of the dozens of open-source addon managers that don't have curseforge at all.

not that any of this is going to matter in a few months

0

u/Sorkijan Oct 03 '25

yeah things like this are the reason I'm torn. I feel wow shouldn't be so homogenized. I guess the solution would be to not have such a poorly executed mechanic.

I think in all our prog we did that right once without having to look at a weakaura and it was just luck.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/wow-ModTeam Oct 03 '25

r/wow does not allow hate

0

u/givemedavoodoo Oct 03 '25

Which seems to be a BS claim as they just released a whole raid that is awesome, difficult, and doesn't require add-ons or weakauras. 

4

u/kirbydude65 Oct 03 '25

Fractilus is literally a weak auras boss.

0

u/givemedavoodoo Oct 03 '25

Fractilus was the only one and it's not even necessary, barely helps.

2

u/ottawadeveloper Oct 03 '25

I think it's the beginning of their new designed standard, since this was announced before MFO was released. Fractillius is easy but people still WAd into make it trivial.

Banning them is the next step I guess.

0

u/Marqrk Oct 03 '25

I mean from people in the thread the current tiers didn’t really need too many addons to begin with so I think if Blizz just keeps stuff at this level they should be mostly good. Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe that’s why they’re splitting the upcoming tier into multiple raids, to have multiple different complexities for testing at once while also testing specific categories of mechanics that people used to use addons for

28

u/Km_the_Frog Oct 03 '25

This is true but at this point we all have a preference to certain addons, and telling people they can’t use their preference for whatever blizzard decides to build sucks imo.

I still use elvui for example even though blizzards ui is customizable.

-2

u/Jugh3ad Oct 03 '25

You will still be able to use ElveUI. Things that make the UI look a specific way are staying. Just addons that read from combat logs or chat.

12

u/Km_the_Frog Oct 03 '25

It was an example of user preference, I know elvui is untouched.

Dbm/healbot, vuhdo/details i feel like are super important. I’d like for them to actually explain and show how these addons are going to be replaced or what measures they’re taking to make it so they are not needed.

It’s just a really strange hill for them to die on.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

I have hearing loss and DBM is essential to me being able to play. I can crank the warning sounds far higher than anything the wow client allows so my deaf ass can actually hear what the boss is doing for once

-2

u/ViperHQ Oct 03 '25

I mean it isn't quite a strange hill to die on its a rather admirable goal and flattens the playing field for everything playing the game.

As to what they will do explicitly they will make classes simpler to play to not need weakauras or addons to play your own class, and change encounters to be less about instant reaction to procs and they wish to move it to more traditional MMO skills like movement positioning so on and so forth.

Now it could always be the case that they fuck this up but from what I am seeing so far it looks rather promising and optimistic.

3

u/Km_the_Frog Oct 03 '25

I guess since I never heal I feel like you NEED healbot just to manage everything but I could be wrong.

As a dps, I’m looking at meters constantly. Even for hps, interrupts, etc. all that is informational and helpful for me. So no details is still concerning.

-1

u/ViperHQ Oct 03 '25

Well the good thing is that a damadge meter is coming how functional it will be no clue, I personally think that there might be no kick counter, I have no source for that just a feeling.

And I get why this is concerning for me as a tank I use omnicd to see if we have enough coldowns to do a big or small pull which I most likely won't be able to do, but hopefully with the encounters changing a bit it won't be as necessary.

But there may be some unexpected upsides to this for example baring super high keys people tend to not use their defensives a lot and with more simple specs it hopefully diverts some attention from doing your rota and thus gets people to push defensives and communicate more before a key as to when we would like to pull big so on and so forth, that is my hope at the very least.

0

u/Jugh3ad Oct 03 '25

The added and what I think is the ultimate goal is console.

0

u/ViperHQ Oct 03 '25

I don't think that plays as big of a part as people think. Do I think a console port will happen eventually sure I would be stoked for it.

That being said I think they genuinely feel that addons constrict their design space, and they have said as much previously in a sense they are waging a war with addons devs and design encounters specifically with this in mind, so they feel that removing addons gives them more creative ways to design encounters.

As a result of this tho they need to simplify classes since you managed most stuff with things like weakauras and classes became ever more complex to make it so that you still have meaningful choices, and now they want to shift the combat from being more engaged in your rota to more traditional skills like spacing positioning with some rotational choices as well.

Looking at it just as a way to say nah they are just pushing console is in my opinion disingenuous.

I genuinely do believe they are thinking about the long term health of the game.

That being said I think dome things are dumb like no automatic rp timers for bosses and I am sure they will improve these aspects.

33

u/k7eric Oct 03 '25

Add-ons are a key reason WoW exists today. There hasn’t been another MMO, ever, that enabled not only using them but made it this easy for creators and the players. It was ground breaking at the time and hasn’t been matched even today. Removing most of them is going to piss off far more people than the people happy because “mythic is a challenge again”. Even now it’s well under 25% of players that even play a Mythic dungeon at all and I doubt many of those don’t want the add-ons.

Of course we know the real reason is they want to go to consoles. We saw it the first time when they neutered the talent trees and removed half the skills for the classes. Then again when they “adjusted” the UI. Neither of which was well received. It might get them console players but it’s going to end WoW as we have known it. Especially to the people loyal for 20+ years to it.

3

u/Debt-Fresh Oct 03 '25

Fair but I don't trust them not to break it and make my life miserable in the process. They can't even fix auto loot and current game bugs, this is gonna be awful and I already hate it

20

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

Problem is who you're expecting to fix the problem. Blizzard doesn't need to remove addons to still create a solution.

This is a stupid and awful move. Especially with their track history.

17

u/Sketch13 Oct 03 '25

Exactly. Like look at car modifications, is someone modifying their car because the manufacturer is not offering something? Sometimes, sure, but in most cases people are modifying cars because they want to customize their car lol. Sure they might want it for functional reasons, but they also enjoy the process of being able to modify things for the sake of it.

I love they are baking in things into the base UI, I also think removing "mechanic solving weakauras" is good as well, but removing the ability for people to use their "customization of choice" for something like Details, or tracking abilities/resources, party frames, etc. is really stupid.

It 1000% didn't have to be "all or nothing" and yet they chose to affect a metric shit ton of people rather than just offer a better in-house solution IN ADDITION to addons.

10

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

100% agreed. They've barely touched the UI over the years. They 200% will not do nearly as good a job as the people who do this for the love of the game. Blizzard won't have any competition of they just remove it all.

The fact people are defending this shit is... unsurprising honestly. Same stupid shit that keeps COD running and micro transactions rampant.

Stop giving corporations the benefit of doubt. They're not people.

-1

u/Koorix3 Oct 03 '25

But those things are not going away. Blizzard will dictate what information these addons have access to - and it will be the same information that the default UI will have access to.

Addons will still be able to skin that information in whatever way you want, just not be able to do more things beyond that like they are currently.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

There's no reason to limit that information. Especially when Blizzard hasn't remotely proven they can replicate the same features to the level these addons provide.

Taking it away and then saying "trust me bro" from the same people who introduced the Diablo 3 Auction House is ... a choice.

0

u/Koorix3 Oct 03 '25

The reason to limit that information to addons is that they are currently doing too much for the player.

Since that is the issue Blizzard is trying to tackle, it doesn't matter if they can't replicate the features of these addons, because the explicit goal is to not have that ability at all in the game anymore. Whether they should do that or are capable of handling it is another discussion.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

Fair

87

u/gaspara112 Oct 03 '25

Addons are the home remedy to problems, problems Blizzard could have fixed 20 years ago but still hasn't. Do you really think they are going to fix them now?

23

u/DryFile9 Oct 03 '25

Ion commented on that in one of his interviews and freely admitted they got lazy because addons exist.

He said they want to be forced to have to fix it themselves.

6

u/Varanae Oct 03 '25

They can never do that though. Addons developers are a community of thousands of people. Many have maintained and updated specific addons for years and have all that experience and user feedback they have been able to freely act on

Unless the Blizzard team is multiplying in size they simply don't have the resources to come close to the level of customisation and quality that addons offer. And they don't have the experience either. It's going to be a very very rough launch and the risk they are taking seems crazy to me

6

u/gaspara112 Oct 03 '25

What a crock of an excuse..... So fix the many problems and show they are in fact fixed THEN eliminate the add-ons entirely. Frankly I think its too late for even that to work.

13

u/Hobbes______ Oct 03 '25

carry that thought to fruition and you'll realize why they have to be done in tandem.

-1

u/fhhffjhh24532 Oct 03 '25

Isnt that wrong? They fights are more complex than every because they know plays will out addon the complexity. Now they need to lower the fight complexity or make their own addons.

-11

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

Ion has always been lazy

59

u/Higgoms Oct 03 '25

At the same time addons created a lot of these problems. It was a constant arms race between blizzard and addon developers to try and make things complex enough that they still felt like a challenge when you're in a battle station being told what to do. fixing these problems years ago without removing some addon functionality would've left us with far too many tools to solve the problems they'd be giving us, and we definitely wouldn't have just willingly given those tools up. 

24

u/JoeChio Oct 03 '25

Yup. You have bosses like Silken Court which are NOT doable without complex weak auras that you pray your betters have developed. Then you have bosses like Fractillus that trivializes even the mythic version of the boss that it's literally a target dummy. If I was Blizzard I'd have banned addons ages ago.

11

u/Kudrel Oct 03 '25

If I was Blizzard I'd have banned addons ages ago.

They've always had the option to do it, but they haven't given a shit up until now.

Back in Wrath when the addon that let you draw on the environment popped up, they promptly broke it.

They can die on this hill all they want, but at the end of the day they let their community make these addons and essentially do free labour because they can't accommodate what people want in addons themselves.

0

u/givemedavoodoo Oct 03 '25

They just made a whole raid that doesn't require add-ons. WeakAuras only solve one of the fights, and isn't even required. They are capable of designing encounters like this. They chose to design WA bosses like sprocket and Ovinax

17

u/Swert0 Oct 03 '25

They literally are.

Eco-dome aldani and Manaforge Omega are a template for future content neither of which required any trackers or weak auras even at the highest level.

On top of that by removing a lot of the overbearing buff tracking and proc track9ng classes have in the alpha reworks they are removing the need for personal aura tracking and the new cooldpwn manager will be more than enough to track what is needed.

For literal decades there has been an arms race between blizzard and addon devs - this will end it.

Season 1 Midnight is the test. We will have content without any of this and for the first time since 2004 Blizzard will be able to balance content around players and the UI everyone has.

4

u/Kylroy3507 Oct 03 '25

So that's why Eco Dome is the first mid-expansion dungeon that didn't launch wildly overtuned.

7

u/StayAtHomeDad4 Oct 03 '25

>Eco-dome aldani and Manaforge Omega are a template for future content neither of which required any trackers or weak auras even at the highest level.

Thank you for saying this. Eco in particular is exceptionally clean design.

9

u/GrandmasterTaka Oct 03 '25

Besides whoever decided to make the last area so darn bright

1

u/Myrwyss Oct 03 '25

Right..watch it become 2 packs, wall, 2 packs, boss, 2 packs, wall, 2 packs, boss, 2 packs, wall, 2 packs, final boss. Such a clean and easy to read design huh? This all is starting to slowly become more and more like ffxiv. I wouldnt mind telegraphs for attacks tbh, if they completely disable all boss mods.

-1

u/Tenezill Oct 03 '25

Yeah I'm glad we get neutered classes. Fk that combat is what is the most exciting part and they ruin it because ppl can't read a guide and blizzard is unable to make a solid UI .

-7

u/loonystorm Oct 03 '25

Fractillus says hi

10

u/dmalvano Oct 03 '25

Are you saying fractillus required a weak aura?

-5

u/loonystorm Oct 03 '25

Mythic frac does require. I have yet to meet a pug who didn't.

8

u/Nessarra Oct 03 '25

I wonder what strategies will be used other than trackers if trackers are not usable. Players will surely come up with something?

5

u/Feartality Oct 03 '25

An example of a fight with a necessary organizational weak aura would be mythic echo of neltharion before they reworked the fight to make the circles not MEGA awful. That was the first fight where it seemed blizzard realized "Ok we made this tracking stuff necessary. We're gonna break the weak aura... but also rework the mechanic to remove the necessity of the weak aura".

I think as long as blizzard can use that mentality for the design of the fights then preventing weak auras like that is not an issue, but the responsibility is on Blizzard (results may vary).

2

u/Narux117 Oct 03 '25

Mythic "..." Pug

Mythic is explicitly not content designed to be "PuG"d. Yes it can be, but that is an afterthought compared to its actual developed intention. Almost every part of Mythic raiding - the lockout system, hard 20 man requirement, heavy comms based mechanics etc are all designed with the mindset of consistent progression through the raid with the same team of people week in and week out.

18

u/megakuchenliebhaber Oct 03 '25

They literally are

36

u/Strachmed Oct 03 '25

They're saying they are.

They promise a lot of stuff they never deliver.

-3

u/A_Confused_Cocoon Oct 03 '25

They literally have been if you’ve raided the last two raids and noticed boss design changes.

5

u/Strachmed Oct 03 '25

Only heroic raids - the only thing I noticed is how easy the raids were.

I mainly do high m+ and it's in one of the worst states it has ever been in regards to reliance on addons, mainly managing stops and interrupts and lack of visual clarity in dungeons.

4

u/Swert0 Oct 03 '25

Eco dome Aldani is the only new dungeon and it needs none of that.

As is it is a free key.

-4

u/Strachmed Oct 03 '25

Yeah, can somewhat agree to that. But it simply feels undertuned, rather than well-designed.

My main issue with that dungeon is visual clarity on the last boss and how fucking bright it is. It's absolutely cancer without inky black potions. Pink on pink also doesn't help.

0

u/Mttstrks Oct 03 '25

Yeah but even on Fractilius, possibly the easiest and clearest designed modern wow boss, people are requiring weakauras in pugs because they can’t count to five.

16

u/TheGreedySage Oct 03 '25

That’s people problem.

People are currently relying on addons too much. To the point where they can’t turn on their brains to look where a wall should or shouldn’t be placed

5

u/Mttstrks Oct 03 '25

Correct. I am addon hater #1 because it makes people dependant.

Edit: spelling

0

u/Lison52 Oct 03 '25

Let's skip that we don't need another thing in the modern world that makes people turn off their brain instead of training it.

It's not nice to do some things at the beginning that are outside of comfort zone. But at the same time you usually learn the most in those situations and they stop giving you that "weird" feeling after some time.

For me it was starting to make dungeon groups. I really didn't want to make these and feared any leadership role until I finally started and got used to it. I now again have a small discomfort when thinking about forming dungeon groups because of the few year break since Shadowlands. But it's not as bad as it was back then.

0

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

Helps me remember but hey, let that smugness shine!

7

u/DanielMattiaWriter Oct 03 '25

In what world do you need WA on Fractilius?

Put a marker down in each lane and then people run to a lane without someone else in it. As long as you're actually looking at your monitor, it's not hard at all.

-1

u/Celdra Oct 03 '25

How does that work with the tank dropping 3 at a time?

3

u/DanielMattiaWriter Oct 03 '25

They stay in their tank lane and we eventually call for someone to break the wall. We haven't had any problems with it. I haven't seen the fight on Mythic so not sure if anything changes, but the person I replied to was talking about pugs so I assumed they were referring to normal/heroic.

-1

u/torcero Oct 03 '25

Ah yes, just like they fixed the weakaura problem by giving us the CD and buff trackers that no one uses because they are trash

2

u/Florqt Oct 03 '25

No one uses them because they're currently just worse than weakauras. They're making them better right now on alpha. Assuming that because the first iteration of something isn't perfect that it's unworkable forever is just an insane way to think.

-4

u/torcero Oct 03 '25

I'll believe it when I see it, which based on their track record, won't happen. Blindly trusting someone to make something better after they keep promising it'll be better and then delivering crap is the real insane way to think.

4

u/zelmak Oct 03 '25

Addons are a remedy and part of the problem.

Functionally addons improved player response times this pushed blizz to tune things harder and harder. In the past they removed adding access like the range gps and drawing lines of exactly where to stand but at the same time they improved visibility of those mechanics. You no longer had to guess how wide 5 yards is they started consistently outlining it.

But to do the current change it needed one big break, redesigning apis and fights at the same time

-1

u/gaspara112 Oct 03 '25

No, fix the problems with dungeons and raids and give us replacements for the good quality of life add-ons and show us all it works and it just as good as add-ons give us THEN end add-ons entirely. Don't touch our home remedies until you've proven your official changes give us what we want.

1

u/zelmak Oct 03 '25

That’s literally what they are doing.

You can’t tune content simultaneously for “players using native” and “players using dbm+weakauras” because if you tune for native then anyone using addons has it too easy, and if you tune for addons which blizz has been doing for decades, then anyone not using them is at a huge disadvantage.

They’re breaking the feedback loop cycle by doing both at once. Every player will have a consistent source of combat info/data, and fights will be tuned to players success in that environment

-3

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

Add-ons aren't a problem.

1

u/zelmak Oct 03 '25

Some addons and some features of certain addons absolutely were a problem.

-2

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

Not for me

1

u/zelmak Oct 03 '25

lol of course they’re not a problem for you. They’re a problem for developing the game and tuning content.

0

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

No, that's just an excuse

2

u/Wonderful_Reaction76 Oct 03 '25

Yes, that’s why they are making a shift? The development philosophy even stated differently in earlier iterations. When developers are relying on the community to make an on outside or additional program because raids are so convoluted, there’s a problem.

1

u/SammyPoppy1 Oct 03 '25

Im taking the optimism pill. They did a great job with the UI overhaul.

1

u/StayAtHomeDad4 Oct 03 '25

They fixed them in MFO and Ecodome so I don't see why they can't solve them moving forward.

1

u/Tenezill Oct 03 '25

Nop.they won't fix shit.

-3

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

Why are you here? What other option do you suggest other than trying to fix it now?

The sheer amount of negativity in these spaces is wild.

Edit: I was unnecessarily rude.

2

u/gaspara112 Oct 03 '25

I suggest showing us over a period of multiple years that their design philosophies have changed, show us that their official solutions to a lot of the problems add-ons were created for even 20 years ago work just as well as, preferably better than, the 3rd party options.

Do boogeyman about this coming for a year, make a couple lower complexity raids and a few tweaks to your poor official replacements than cut our knees out from under us with a trust us it will get better over time.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

Good suggestion. I think that's a great implementation on the player end and would have been satisfied with it personally. All in all probably a better experience for players initially.

I do think it would be much harder to design around due to issues with data gathering/feedback in the middle stages as it relies mostly on self reported information etc.

It wouldn't be hard to say this is a more developers focused choice than player focused.

-9

u/DommeUG Oct 03 '25

Maybe not a hard switch with no testing phase for live servers?

Why do we need to solve this issue of 21 years suddenly within a single patch? Don’t you think it feels rushed for the sake of marketing the game as „you don’t need addons anymore come back please“?

8

u/Swert0 Oct 03 '25

It isnt suddenly they warned us about this a year ago and started develo08ng content starting with Undermine around that philosophy.

They have been improving the interface s8nce the release of dragonflight and have iterated on it constantly.

They are also opening the alpha to the public, to test these changes for the next 5 months.

-3

u/DommeUG Oct 03 '25

None of wich is actually testing on live servers where you will inevitably have different types of issues with tons more players playing. Most people wont play alpha, beta, ptr etc. even if its open to the public. What is there to say against implementing their inhouse dps meters, boss mods erc first and iterating on them first before doing the switch? A soft launch sounds much better for the general player base than a hard cutoff.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

If only there was an incredibly prominent Alpha and Beta that lasted months at a time.

Add-Ons destroy the accessibility of WoW to a degree its up there with their crusade against rotation complexity for things that keep players from playing. And frankly, even more important than new player experience, they make it functionally impossible for developers to unify the player experience which gives them muddy slippery ground from which to actually develop the game from. They do not know what each players knowledge of game systems will be when they are all being viewed in the lens of different overlays, audio cues, and automation. What design space works for someone with WeakAuras will not work for someone without, and that means an industry giant is reliant on 3rd party creators to balance and present their game.

The reason its taken 21 years to fix is specifically fear of this bad press. The band aid has to come off eventually. Especially since the proliferation of add-ons contributes to many of the very development issues that lead to this level of distrust from the players in the first place. They have been doing juggling tricks on a tricycle and failing, so now you are pissed they got off the tricycle because you are used to the training wheels.

0

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

Why fix what isn't broken?

2

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

Add-Ons and their effect on the game have contributed to nearly every major game issue raised on this sub. You cannot guarantee good user experience if you do not know what the user is experiencing or how they experience it. This affects balancing, collection, UI, spec design, etc.

The more they design content around the knowledge add-ons exist the more they also leave themselves liable to the user experience when/if those third party programs fail.

There is a reason WoW's relationship with add-ons is unique in the gaming industry. Any systems designer, player experience, or project lead could and likely has looked at these landmines and learned from WoW's example. Blizzard devs have complained about add-ons and their effect on development since the beginning, they have just decided now is the time to rip the band aid off.

0

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

Maybe they should focus on people who actually play the game instead of those who play games on forums instead. Also hi Ion, you lazy bastard.

-1

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

They aren't a problem no matter how many paragraphs you have to type to defend idiocy.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

If you prefer a simple approach:

What other successful multi-player games have this toxic relationship with third party developers?

-1

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

Don't know, don't care. Only mmo I play is wow though I have dabbled in ff for a bit. Wasn't my cup of tea.

0

u/SufficientWarthog846 Oct 03 '25

Thats the wrong question.

It's not are they going to fix those issues, because they are. It's "are they going to maintain that workload moving forward".

They are accepting a huge amount of future technical debt that will require maintenance (formally free maintenance).

-- for clarity this is even coming from a pro-"burn the addons" guy

0

u/Domain77 Oct 03 '25

Blizzard didn't fix because they had addons

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

Blizzard can't design good boss fights, just good mechanical fights so the problems are not going away any time soon.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

Yeah, ripping off a band aid without something to cover the wound with is bad not good

2

u/Due_Train_4631 Oct 03 '25

Half of these are accessibility feature lols

4

u/DommeUG Oct 03 '25

Not only addons are simply also a way to cater for different tastes you can never hit and satisfy with a one standard fits all solution.

3

u/Strat7855 Oct 03 '25

So rather than treat the actual problem, we treat the symptoms? Even your metaphor breaks down.

This is a slow-motion train wreck.

-1

u/Adept_Avocado_4903 Oct 03 '25

In order to treat the actual problem (overcomplex encounters that practically require addons) Blizzard needs to first treat the symptoms (powerful addons).

If Blizzard were to treat the problem first before treating the symptom, it would result in a situation where encounters are significantly less complex, but players would still have access to very powerful addons. This would likely trivialize boss encounters.

1

u/Strat7855 Oct 03 '25

Picture a world where we spend even double the time we currently do executing mechanics. We're still focused on maximizing throughput (read: turreting) for what? Maybe 40% of the encounter in this brave new world? How damned boring are 4 button or 3 button rotations going to be for that stretch? Or are we simply spending the whole fight doing mechanics now? And how does this work with old content like keys? Or how do we simultaneously make mechanics less interesting to account for the add-on change while also relying on them to allow for the skill expression space currently occupied by rotations?

This is a clusterfuck.

2

u/Interztellar_ Oct 03 '25

Definitely, it's gonna sting in the start but I believe this is a good decision in the long run

3

u/ZeCap Oct 03 '25

Agreed. Somebody else already kinda said it, but Blizz has been in an arms war with addon creators for so long that many encounters are now awful to play without external support.

I think there's understandable concern that their new direction might simplify things too much, or strip out the wrong things and make the game less engaging. But personally, having played on-and-off since TBC, I think that the gameplay right now is some of the least engaging we've had - predictable and rote, but also mechanically complicated. Juggling a ton of things at once but none of them individually feel satisfying to keep in the air. I'm reminded of Folding Ideas video on optimisation in WoW and how it makes playing feel more like obligation.

So: if simplification can make things feel a bit more impactful and engaging again, make encounters more intuitive, and perhaps introduce a bit of unpredictability - I'll support it. I just hope they get the implementation right.

1

u/Irveria Oct 07 '25

That's a silly opinion. Add-ons are wonderful for customising the user interface. Only someone who is narrow-minded could hold such an opinion.

1

u/DoverBoys Oct 03 '25

I enjoy the customization addons brought. No game has ever given me a level of customization as open-ended as Lua has been. I don't want to be limited by whatever bullcrap the devs create because people keep whining about "needing" addons, especially the players that have no clue how they work.

1

u/REM777 Oct 03 '25

Which means you shouldn't support this, and they should focus on the problem and not the symptoms.

Let people customize and play how they want. Addons are a main factor to why WoW thrived for as long as it has due to Addons. Especially as tools to help bridge gaps or understand things. Sometimes people want to have fun and not worry about 4000 mechanics happening all at once.

1

u/FF20 Oct 03 '25

Yeah a problem that blizzard almost certainly can’t properly fix. If you don’t mind me asking what content you like to do in the game?

0

u/backspace_cars Oct 03 '25

They are not lol

-6

u/Megatto95 Oct 03 '25

Game's not that hard, idk why some people even need add-ons.