Addons are important additions that many players use in World of Warcraft for various purposes. Each new expansion and even major patch usually receives updates to function again. Now, with Shadowlands, this will be a problem.
That’s why addons are a problem for Shadowlands: As we have known since June 2020, the largest provider for addons, Curse, is switching from Twitch to Overwolf. Until now, players have managed their addons with the Twitch app. Starting in November, this will be managed through the new Curse client from Overwolf.
The downside is this: The switch will happen on November 24 – exactly the date of the Shadowlands release. According to Curse, it will take until early December for the transition to be fully completed.
During this time, you can still install and manage addons, but the developers will not be able to upload updates for their existing addons or any new ones to Curse. If everything goes well, the client should be functioning again by the release of Castle Nathria on December 9.
What can I do? It’s important to update all your addons before November 24. This way, the chances of running into LUA errors are relatively low since much has likely been tested in the beta environment. However, bugs can be hard to avoid.
Consider ahead of time which addons you want to start with in Shadowlands. In our article on MeinMMO, you can find the most important addons for World of Warcraft.
Overwolf has already addressed the issue. They are trying to reach an agreement with Twitch to ensure that the release of Shadowlands goes smoothly with addons:
Overwolf annoys the players
The new provider, Overwolf, is probably not doing themselves any favors by having this phase coincide exactly with the release of Shadowlands. Many users were already skeptical about whether Overwolf could prove itself.
In the US forum, for example, players are loudly complaining in a large and popular thread about the provider’s marketing strategy and are asking not to use it. However, there are hardly any useful alternatives.
The release of Shadowlands on November 24 is already not ideal for some players. Right before Christmas, the release date is particularly disastrous for raiders, who are under pressure if they want to enjoy any part of Christmas. If there are then additional problems with the addons, even more frustration is likely to arise.
