MeinMMO demon Cortyn has to hold back hard not to lose composure. Because the biggest promise of World of Warcraft Midnight is currently being taken.
There are few expansions I look forward to as much as Midnight. I love Quel’Thalas and the Blood Elves and have been a big fan of Xal’atath – ever since she was my Artifact weapon in Legion. Now housing has also come and brought WoW very close to perfection for me. The last issue was the (often deemed necessary) addons that one could use for raids or dungeons. Those should disappear soon as well. I thought. But Blizzard is diluting its own red line.
Midnight was supposed to be the end of combat-relevant addons
World of Warcraft Midnight is supposed to lead Blizzard’s MMORPG into a new era. Not only is the overhaul of the fundamental game systems continuing, but an important thing is also on the agenda: the “disarmament” of interface addons.
The Game Director of World of Warcraft wrote a long blog post about this and made it clear what is to be achieved: Interface addons should no longer provide any gameplay advantage. This means that pretty much all addons that extract any information from fights will no longer function.
Untouched will be addons that are purely visual or represent accessible information visually differently. Cosmetic adjustments should therefore still be available, as well as role-playing addons or databases that help in farming (like the addon “All The Things”).
At the same time, Blizzard is providing its own solutions for many addons, such as an internal “Damage Meter” or a timeline on which you can see when a boss uses special abilities. This aims to ensure that all information is accessible to everyone and that addons never become a necessity or expectation.
Strong start, strong decline
When the beta of Midnight launched, it was clear how serious Blizzard was about this. Addon authors, like those from WeakAuras, quickly threw in the towel and said: With these restrictions, we will no longer exist.
The cuts were so drastic that even primarily cosmetic addons like ElvUI also stated: We can’t continue like this.
The developers at Blizzard then communicated closely with the addon authors to loosen restrictions and give cosmetic addons back the freedoms they need.
Basically, this is a good thing – but we all know how the World of Warcraft community works. As soon as there is a way to exploit something and gain even a minimal advantage, there will also be addons that implement it.
An example mentioned by YouTuber and analyst Bellular in his latest video is “Northern Sky Raid Tools”. You can see the relevant passage from minute 2:22 to minute 5:38:
Why does this work? Because you set everything that can be set on an external website before the actual fight. You specify which characters participate in the boss fight and also which characters have which tasks – such as, which enemies need to be interrupted by whom. Then you receive lines of code that you insert into the addon in the game.
Since most boss fights have a fixed timer for when things happen, these are not “live information” from the fight – but rather prepared calls that are then converted into clear readable information. This makes it possible to display a big “INTERUPT THIS MOB” directly on the enemies’ health bars – without having to find out which mob actually belongs to which character.
And yes, strictly speaking, these are not combat information, but simply complex agreements made beforehand. However, for most it is probably clear that in the end it is just WeakAuras with extra steps
.
Not so bad
is still bad enough
Bellular believes that we should not view the whole situation so negatively. Because the new possibilities are still not as powerful as addons like “WeakAuras” currently are. Additionally, one would have to install a variety of addons to even come close to the capabilities currently possible with WeakAuras. This would only be interesting for hardcore raiders playing at the top mythical level and should have no significance for the vast majority of players.
I see it differently. If there is a possibility to gain gameplay-relevant tactical advantages through addons that go beyond just cosmetic interface adjustments, then that will also be utilized. Right now, in World of Warcraft, what “the pros” use is slowly trickling down, and more and more is seen as necessary by larger parts of the community.
I have no reason to believe that things will be different with Midnight when Blizzard does not cut addons as heavily as initially announced.
From my perspective, there are only two ways Blizzard can salvage this situation.
- Either Blizzard admits that they couldn’t manage it. It is simply not possible to completely cut down addons in their combat effectiveness without also disabling cosmetic addons and those that enable more accessibility.
- Or Blizzard says: “We allowed too much again” and imposes more restrictions that will deactivate numerous addons again.
Because now we have the absurd situation that World of Warcraft Midnight starts with the pre-patch already next week, but “addons with advantages” somehow still exist – they are just slightly less powerful and significantly more difficult to implement. But they exist and can be used. This is exactly the opposite of what was promised and aimed for.
There is still time – but the clear line is missing
Fair is fair, Blizzard still has a few weeks of buffer time between the pre-patch and the actual release of Midnight at the beginning of March. But Blizzard needs to act quickly and clearly state where they actually want to go with addons. Because the “red line” has already been diluted again to the point that one could say with some cynicism: It all essentially remains as it is.
The big initiative that World of Warcraft wanted to create for more equality and fair conditions for everyone, regardless of whether with or without addons, seems to be more than just cracked.
My clear opinion on this: Kill all combat addons. I want to see a World of Warcraft where addons are only cosmetic. I want to see the developers’ vision that they have built an entire expansion around, with fights designed so that powerful addons belong to the past.
Do not deviate from this goal. It was simply not enough to just “disarm WeakAuras”. All other addons that provide any gameplay advantage in combat must be eliminated. In this respect, I am clearly for a “all or nothing” variant. Because if it is not done “all the way”, addons will end up being a requirement for many groups. In the end, it hinders everyone, who would like to get back into World of Warcraft.
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