World of Warcraft: Midnight is on the horizon and set to streamline the game for players of all skill levels, giving WoW a more approachable combat system for all. Class specializations are being revamped to make it easier to track key buffs and debuffs, reduce pressure to rely on addons, and make the path to mastering every specialization clearer. Midnight keeps the excitement of combat alive while opening the door to WoW wider for everyone!
wow that was a frightening read…
with an eye towards approachability by reducing complexity
aka “dumbing down”. i sure hope that means there are paths to take that will keep a spec easy to pick up and more seasoned players can continue to press buttons like they might disappear. maybe just offer a “beginners” spec that new players can pick that will give them the core abilities and cut all the flavor?
Restoration Druid’s Efflorescence is an example of a simple maintenance buff, and Restoration is gaining options to make maintaining Efflorescence easier.
who complained that resto has difficult??? its literally the most snooze-happy healer spec! oh no i have to watch for a mushroom on the ground to expire, man that is so difficult to do! please dont dumb down my spec anymore, its already boring enough thanks.
Gameplay with high actions per minute—this can be physically demanding and uncomfortable.
then don’t play ones where you have to hit a lot of buttons? you have options! leave fury alone, i like whackamole
Abilities that are very complex, such as Adaptive Swarm, Surge of Power, or Blackout Combo.
please direct us to anyone who ever said blackout combo is difficult. we can ask them kindly to get out of the monk class right now.
you need to do much more work on your in game addons. its pretty sad what you have released so far.
aka “We gotta steer this ship toward console play eventually…”
I don’t see much in Midnight that makes me even want to pick it up, Cool Silver moons getting refreshed but the story makes no sense and it honestly looks like a mid expansion with it’s features maybe the 3rd will actually be good.
You can make Paladins even easier to play?
Impressive.
Combat is already accessible. For all but the highest of mythic plus keys, or mythic raiding, players barely need to know what their class is doing to complete that content.
What this is going to do is make the high end content substantially worse, while doing practically nothing to aid the players who are already using the one button rotation, or feelycrafting their own builds.
This can only be bad for the game.
Okay so we are just going to be dumbing the game down to the lowest denominator. I’ve been wondering how killing addons was going to work considering how pathetic the attempts at replacements have been.
So we are just going to make the game easy enough for an untrained monkey to play it? I’m sure that won’t backfire at all…
This game has already simplified almost every spec to absurdity. This game is actually doomed for anyone with a pulse.
I honestly don’t even know what to say. We are about to witness a self sabotage unlike any we have seen before. 
Oof.
Catering to the lowest point on the left side of the bell curve is never the right move.
I mean…
If they are going to start designing the game around not being able to count to 3, I don’t really know where we go from here. This all sounds way worse than even their original announcements about changing addons was.
I… don’t get it.
I’m not trying to be mean. I myself am a mediocre dps at best for instance. I primarily heal. But one of the things i Like is how different some healers feel. Some have a lot of set up for big rewards, some are simpler. Same with dps.
Not every spec has to be "accessible’ to everyone. I worry these changes will make some of the more interesting and engaging specs … boring.
They’re literally just catering to people who can’t read the tooltips in the talent tree.
Sounds good to me. Sorry sweats, looks like times change, regardless of what you think.
Just like D4 then …
We have definitely seen this before. It was called Warlords of Draenor.
This is just a bad take. One of the appeals of WoW is it’s ease to pick up. Yes anybody can cast some spells right now and do damage. However, the difference between the damage floor and the damage ceiling is often a chasm larger than the maelstrom. Should top end players do more damage? Yes. Should some people be doing 25M while some struggle to do 3? No. The lower end being brought up improves lives for literally everybody playing the game. More people to join guilds, do dungeon runs with, and raid with. If they want to add in specs for people who feel like they need to try harder for no reason then do it (there’s a reason there’s SO many ret paladins right now), but allowing people to play the game without needing to go to resources not in the game will not be bad for the game, it will make it more enjoyable for everybody.
And then Legion…tablet pruner did lasting damage.
Combat for everyone! Except the visually impaired. Get out!
Seriously the “no combat addons full stop” is going to seriously harm my ability to even engage with the game as someone with severe sight impairment.