The new interface of World of Warcraft is not well received by all players. And there are still some issues that are likely to remain at release.
One of the few major features of the next expansion of World of Warcraft is the overhaul of the interface. After all, it has become quite outdated, and the rather “quieter” expansion Dragonflight seems like the perfect opportunity to modernize the dusty UI.
This is exactly what the developers have tried to do, repeatedly introducing innovations and improvements in the beta of Dragonflight. However, next week the pre-patch will be released, and with it, the new interface will go live – but there are still a lot of problems.
What problems are still present? In the Subreddit of World of Warcraft, posts discussing issues with the new interface are currently piling up. One of the latest threads is from “TheRealTetro”, who lists a whole range of shortcomings. Some of the main criticisms of individual elements are:
- Some checkmarks are missing from various elements:
- Display for experience / reputation / honor
- Inventory buttons
- Menu buttons
- Pop-ups for various achievements (successes, new recipe learned)
- Group looting and bonus loot
- For some elements, there is no standalone control, including: main companion frame, target-of-target frame, target’s spell bar
- The size of the mini-map cannot be adjusted
- The display bar for secondary resources (insanity, holy power, etc.) is detached from the player portrait and has visible spacing
- The level display on the target frame causes many more names to be abbreviated than before
- The buff and debuff bars are not exactly parallel to each other
With only a few days left and the patch already marked as a “release candidate”, it seems unlikely that Blizzard will address the discussed problems.
Do we still need addons? That probably depends. Those who have managed without addons or only with very few interface addons until now will see the new interface as an enhancement and improvement. However, those who had hoped to customize many details and really adapt all elements of the UI to their liking may be disappointed with the interface revamp.
Addons certainly haven’t become obsolete with the overhaul of the interface and will continue to be used with Dragonflight.
It’s just a pity that it’s also needed for things that WoW could have integrated “on the side”.
Community largely expresses disappointment: The existence of numerous such small, yet relevant problems leads to clear discontent. Not only is it frequently emphasized that the new interface somehow lacks the “Warcraft flair”, but also that it could have been so much more than what it is now. Some voices from the community on this:
- “I agree. The new UI has some great options, but ultimately I still need [addons] to display some basic information. That’s annoying.”
- “I’m sticking with ElvUI. The new interface is better than before, but still feels half-hearted.”
- “Hopefully someone will create an addon that allows me to continue using the old UI. I would even pay for that.”
What do you think of the new interface? Do you find it good and cannot understand the criticism? Or do you also feel that the implementation is rather half-hearted?
