World of Warcraft will receive its new expansion Dragonflight in 2022. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was able to try it out and found that Dragonflight renders many “necessary” addons simply redundant.
I can no longer play WoW without addons. With every patch, I launch the addon manager WoWUp and update everything I need first. And that is a lot: I regularly use at least 20 addons.
Since I am a progress raider, meaning I regularly visit raids with my guild, many addons are a “must”. I use others because they simply make playing easier. However, when I tested Dragonflight, I noticed that I will at least not need 3 addons anymore.
What addons are those? Specifically, I thought of 3 addons that I no longer need in Dragonflight:
- Bagnon – Combines all bags into one, good for overview
- Dominos/Bartender – Breaks up the UI and makes bars freely movable
- CursorTrail – Highlights my mouse pointer. I need that to place abilities and macros correctly, as the cursor often gets lost in the chaos of the 20 players in the raid.
Some of them are among the best addons for World of Warcraft, but probably not for long. With Dragonflight, they are integrated into the interface, so external functions are no longer needed.
In the video, we show you everything you need to know about Dragonflight in 3 minutes:
WoW incorporates addons into the UI after 18 years
That’s why I can finally do without addons: One of the major changes in Dragonflight is a completely new user interface that differs from classic WoW. The minimap is larger and there are dozens of customization options.
Two of my favorite new settings are the options to move, enlarge, and shrink the action bars. This makes Dominos, which I normally use, completely obsolete.
Additionally, the cursor can be easily enlarged, as you may have noticed in some of our gameplay videos. I often have trouble finding the mouse pointer on my screen. The new option makes it stand out much better.
All of this can be easily adjusted through menu editing. Even combining all bags into one can be activated with a single click. Since the inventory in Dragonflight is getting even bigger, this option is very welcome.
What really excites me, though, is the new “Quick Binds” feature. Keybinds, or assigning activation keys to action bars, can be done simply via UI in Dragonflight. I start the “Quick Bind” in the options, hover over the ability, and press the key that should be assigned. No more tedious counting of action bars and fields.
Why is this such good news? Addons often lead to unwanted LUA errors, especially after major updates or when using too many addons. It’s possible for addons and the UI or various plugins to interfere with each other.
But since all the options are now included in the UI itself, this should lead to significantly fewer problems and complete packages like ElvUI might even become completely redundant.
Certain expansions like WeakAuras, BattleGroundEnemies, or Boss Mods will still be necessary at least for raids and PvP. But with Dragonflight, I can at least shorten my list of installed addons somewhat.
Dragonflight wants to be like the old days but still modern
What else is in Dragonflight? Despite the surprising but not unwelcome UI change, Dragonflight aims to pursue a “back to the roots” approach. In an interview with Product Director Pat Dawson, he stated that Dragonflight places more value on old-school values.
For example, class fantasies are to be brought back into focus by reintroducing talents that give all characters more identity. A good example of this is the new Evoker class that I tested for 7 hours.
You can find information about the Evoker in our special here in the video:
The talents give even the DPS spec of the Evoker at least 2 different playstyles, similar to how it used to be. Presumably, “the best” will crystallize quickly, but those who prefer to play their way can do so again in Dragonflight.
The feeling is also more… classic, as silly as it sounds. In the quests and the whole world, there is more humor and wit than in the last expansions. Perhaps a small spoiler, but: a strong warrior you fight against gets called for dinner by his child in the middle of the battle. Delightfully silly and completely unexpected. Such moments occur more frequently in Dragonflight.
For more about how Dragonflight played in alpha, read colleague Marylin Marx on GameStar. You can read more about the features of the expansion in our summary article:
When can I play? Theoretically starting now. The alpha of Dragonflight is now live and you can still register for it. However, access is currently still heavily restricted, and only selected people can participate.
A beta is expected to follow later, and a release is still planned for 2022. A specific date is still pending, but the community is currently circulating late November as a possible release window, which I also consider very likely.
The discussion about the release is quite controversial. Some think it is too early, while others think it’s too late, and reaching a consensus seems quite difficult:
WoW: Is Dragonflight really coming too early? Statistics say: No, but …
