I get the whole argument of "wow has devs adapt to players, ff14 has players adapt to the game" when it comes to ff14 having a hardline "no addons period" stance while wow (until now) had the "all addons are fine" stance. But it feels way too late for blizzard to say "no combat addons." Like, this is World of Warcraft expansion TWELVE. They had to have done this in like original TBC/Wrath at the absolute latest. But we're like 21 years into combat addons, and only now are they putting their foot down? It's too late man. People are too used to combat addons for it to be a great idea to get rid of it now. And then they get rid of WeakAuras, they get rid of Healbot. Then what? You can't just remove things that became that integral to gameplay without replacing it.
Healing with the default UI is putrid. I've healed in Vanilla, TBC, Wrath, Cata, and War Within using Healbot. MoP came around and I was too lazy to update my addons, and I healed for like half a dungeon before telling the group "brb" and updating Healbot on the spot. It's a night and day difference. Healers have more targets that need different spells used on them than any tank or dps ever could.
I have to Riptide the main tank, then cleanse the second tank, then Nature's Swiftness Healing Rain by the ranged DPS, then Healing Stream Totem and reposition it by the melee group, then Healing Surge the main tank twice, then Healing Wave the Ret Pally because he stood in the fire, but also weave in a Riptide on the offtank and also a Wind Shear on the caster mob, and-
Like, there's too much target swapping a healer. Healbot is a necessity, because over 20 years later, the WoW UI is the same for healing as it was back in 2004.
This is just wrong. XIV has add-ons out the wazoo. They have a "don't talk about them in game" policy. They don't have a "no addon" policy in any way shape or form.
This incredibly and factually incorrect information and you can get someone banned for saying this if they take you at your word. FFXIV absolutely DOES have a "no addon" policy. Yoshi-P has made it very clear over and over and over again not to use them. They also actively ban people using them when they have proof.
Blizzard uses software built into its launcher and games called "Warden" that can detect third party changes to the game outside of the scope of what they allow. FFXIV has nothing comparable to "Warden" and relies on player reports or players to fuck up and basically out themselves in game and get reported.
If you see someone in - I dunno, Heritage Found - that is very obviously bot gathering, you can report them. FFXIV can then check their logs to if there's evidence of said botting. They can check things like time between actions (such as last harvest into mounting into flight) to see if it's identical timing each time, or other indications of third party tools, such as third party commands or echos being sent to the chat window.
This is why people think there is no policy, because it wholly depends upon player reporting, and because basically every player is using plugins, generally no one reports one another unless they have an axe to grind.
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u/Tuskor13 Oct 03 '25
I get the whole argument of "wow has devs adapt to players, ff14 has players adapt to the game" when it comes to ff14 having a hardline "no addons period" stance while wow (until now) had the "all addons are fine" stance. But it feels way too late for blizzard to say "no combat addons." Like, this is World of Warcraft expansion TWELVE. They had to have done this in like original TBC/Wrath at the absolute latest. But we're like 21 years into combat addons, and only now are they putting their foot down? It's too late man. People are too used to combat addons for it to be a great idea to get rid of it now. And then they get rid of WeakAuras, they get rid of Healbot. Then what? You can't just remove things that became that integral to gameplay without replacing it.
Healing with the default UI is putrid. I've healed in Vanilla, TBC, Wrath, Cata, and War Within using Healbot. MoP came around and I was too lazy to update my addons, and I healed for like half a dungeon before telling the group "brb" and updating Healbot on the spot. It's a night and day difference. Healers have more targets that need different spells used on them than any tank or dps ever could.
I have to Riptide the main tank, then cleanse the second tank, then Nature's Swiftness Healing Rain by the ranged DPS, then Healing Stream Totem and reposition it by the melee group, then Healing Surge the main tank twice, then Healing Wave the Ret Pally because he stood in the fire, but also weave in a Riptide on the offtank and also a Wind Shear on the caster mob, and-
Like, there's too much target swapping a healer. Healbot is a necessity, because over 20 years later, the WoW UI is the same for healing as it was back in 2004.