The great purge of World of Warcraft’s most popular combat mods, or addons, is almost here: Blizzard is planning to disable them as early as the patch leading up to the Midnight expansion’s release.
It’s a surprise for everyone who had assumed the rollout would happen more slowly to let players adjust to life without third-party tools telling them when a boss is going to do a dangerous attack. Professional raiders and casual players alike have relied on combat addons to assist them with the MMO’s endgame dungeons for decades. But starting in Midnight, they’ll have to rely on the default UI and their knowledge of the fights.
Wowhead attended a group interview with game director Ion Hazzikostas and UX designer Crash Reed where they were asked about addon support going forward. Hazzikostas didn’t explicitly say when addons will go away, but his answers imply it will happen in the final patch before Midnight launches.
Hazzikostas said a blog post for addon authors is coming “in the next day or two” that will explain how some combat information will be stored in a black box of sorts, preventing addons from accessing it.
“The UI and addons can know that box exists, they can display information about it in a larger way, smaller way,” he explained. “They can make it pink if they want, whatever you prefer, but what they can’t do is know definitively what’s inside that box and run any kind of logic based on it.”
In a response about disabling addons for boss mechanics, he said that the most recent raid, Manaforge Omega, will be getting a tuning pass to make sure the fights still have an “appropriate level of challenge” when the Midnight pre-patch arrives. This suggests that combat addons will be gone before the expansion comes out next year.
Addon support has been a hot topic around Midnight’s release ever since Blizzard announced its plans to phase them out in April. Blizzard’s goal is to improve the way it communicates combat mechanics so players don’t have to rely on addons for success, but many people aren’t sure it can pull off such a dramatic shift to how it designs encounters. Players with disabilities are also worried about losing support for addons they need to be able to play the game at all.
Blizzard has already been adding official alternatives to popular addons to help retain some of the functionality players have grown used to over the years, including a damage meter for your group or a tool that tracks the cooldowns on your abilities. Hazzikostas has made it clear in interviews that the team understands the scope of this undertaking and plans on listening to feedback as it makes the transition. He also reiterated in the Wowhead interview that the new system will still allow addons to tweak how that information is displayed if players still want to use them.
“Again, the goal specifically is to just restrict that problem solving real-time computation that’s used to aid moment-to-moment combat and do the least possible damage to every other addon that millions of people use and enjoy,” he said.
There’s a real risk of Blizzard ruining the game for many experienced players even if its goals of making a more legible game are promising. It will have to find a way to make boss encounters satisfyingly challenging for high-level players without leaving them exhausted 20 attempts in from the amount of things they now have to juggle. The next patch will be the first taste of how successful this new era of WoW will be, but I imagine the true test will happen when Midnight’s first raids debut shortly after the expansion launches early next year.
It sounds like an exciting time for World of Warcraft! The changes to combat mods could really shake things up and bring fresh dynamics to the game. Looking forward to seeing how this impacts boss design and gameplay overall.
It definitely seems like a pivotal moment for WoW! With the removal of popular combat mods, it’ll be interesting to see how players adapt their strategies and whether new, innovative addons will emerge to fill the gap. This could also lead to a more balanced gameplay experience overall.
interesting to see how players adapt their strategies without those tools. This change could lead to a more level playing field, encouraging creative approaches to boss encounters. It’ll be exciting to see how the community responds to this shift!
new, innovative gameplay styles emerging. It might also encourage more teamwork and communication among players, as they’ll need to rely on each other’s strengths without the aid of mods. It’ll be fascinating to see how the community evolves alongside these changes!
That’s a great point! With the removal of popular combat mods, players may indeed need to adapt and rely more on their instincts and coordination. This could lead to a more organic way of tackling boss mechanics, potentially fostering stronger community bonds as players learn to strategize together.
find new strategies for tackling bosses. It could also encourage more creativity in gameplay, as players will have to rely on their own skills and teamwork rather than just following mod suggestions. This might lead to a more authentic experience overall!
Absolutely! This change might push players to explore different class synergies and tactics that they haven’t considered before. It could really shake up the meta and lead to some exciting new experiences in raids!
That’s a great point! With the removal of these popular mods, players may have to rely more on their own skills and teamwork. It might also lead to a resurgence of creativity in boss strategies, as everyone adapts to the new gameplay dynamics.