Addons shouldn’t be necessary in my opinion I also shouldn’t have to go to third party web sites to find out how to do things in game.
But here we are. Those things should be built into the game in my opinion but of course they never will be so it is what is.
No one will admit to being a cheat here 
That would be a complete waste of time on Blizzards part.
You simply do not understand why addons exist and what makes them so great.
If Blizzard didn’t want boss fights to have timers and information, they could block add ons from being able to do all that.
People like you simply do not understand that if Blizzard blocked addons then they would have to put all those features in the game themselves which would take so much development time literally NOTHING would ever get done.
Addons are simply a way of handing over the boring, time consuming aspects of development over to the player communities who are happy to create and help.
tldr if it wasnt for addons wow you’d be waiting 5 years between expansions because Blizzard would have to come up with all these and program into the game manually themselves.
There is also the customisation factor, I think it’s great that with addons people can customise the game and UI and tweak it exactly how they want it.
People often make fun of the default Blizzard UI but the reason the default UI is so bland is because Blizzard totally expected that people would rather customise the game how they want instead of being forced into using a default UI.
tldr people who are against addons are smooth brains that don’t understand why addons exist in the first place, at no point has blizzard ever suggested add ons are cheating, the people who believe addons are cheating are just short sighted and don’t see the bigger picture.
I’m not against addons and I do think blizzard should be building the functions that the most popular addons serve into the game.
Nah, next topic.
The missing piece here is that the API for AddOn development, which is what AddOn developers use to interface with WoW’s view frame, is maintained and developed by Blizzard themselves, for the purpose of AddOn development. And updated with most major patches.
It’s moderated, and in the past has had functionality removed because those functions were allowing add-ons to automate behaviour that is not intended or allowed. So if something is declare out-of-line, blizzard address it by changing what AddOns are allowed to do.
Doesn’t mean Bliz endorse all AddOns, but they have taken due course to make functional and data access that leads to rule-breaking protected or impossible–such as not allowing it at all, or forcing a hardware-input (key-press) to trigger the action.
I agree but like I said it comes down to saving development time.
People are already complaining about how long it takes for new content to come out, if blizzard had to incorporate every addon as an in game feature the amount of time between patches and expansions would increase dramatically.
You would also anger alot of players.
Some people like Shadowed Unit Frames, other people like Z-Perl or some other raid frame, people also like to customise their DBM so only certain timers appear in certain locations on their screen etc, some people want to keep the default UI but use things like bartender to put the action bars where they want or to re size icons etc.
Simply put, you can’t just “bake in” addon functionality in the game without sacrificing alot of flexibility and customisation that alot of people enjoy, just because some people can’t be bothered to install add ons doesn’t mean the rest of the playerbase should suffer.
Addons are very easy to install and set up, most are are simple as installing and away you go but alot of people treat addons like they re gatekeeping the experience or something.
Considering Blizzard has baked in some add-ons as features in the game, I don’t really think so.
This.
They probably wouldn’t have given users the ability to create them if they didn’t want them to be created. I don’t think it’s ‘cheating’ but when you need addon’s to be able to play it’s an indication that there is an issue with the games basic design. (I’m not talking bout things like addons to manage bag space but addons that people use to do content and that groups may require of members)
What’s funny is that they do actually develop quality of life stuff, but players are so stuck on using addons that they have no idea. For example, the game has a built in Deadly Boss Mods now.
The only addon I’ve ever used has been a RP addon. Lol. I play the game just fine!
I can understand how WAs can seem like it’s overstepping bounds in certain instances, but me using it to track CDs, uptime of spells, debuffs, buffs, and the like, I’m going to give you a hard “no” on that being cheating. I want certain information displayed on my screen for a reason, and WAs allows me to do that in all sorts of different ways.
Try Skada or Details I believe both are less of a resource hog then Recount.
Some can be since they go beyond what some players can do but Bliz usually steps in to correct such ones.
Yup. Anything that is automatic on gameplay is a form of “cheating”. However, Blizzard allows it. We have to live with it.
Its funny when when Blizzard breaks addons and macros on a patch, its a landslide for those players that thinks they are “skilled”.
Oh, I can play with no addons and macros. Even on raids. I just have to work a lot harder with all the hotkeys and mouse. Addons just makes it more convenient for me. I’m getting old you know.
I seem to remember way back in early Classic days, a vocal minority of the player base considered addons to be cheating.
automatic would def break the tos but there are addons that assist, or even make it possible, for players to achieve levels they may not have been able to reach without them.
im not really talking about the ui freaks that arrange their screen to look like rainbow vomit but more of your DBM’s, HHTD, etc. ones that almost hold a players hand in gameplay.
Yeah, some people are surprised seeing my UI on my streams. I still stock UI.
DBM assists you on bosses with timers and markings. They just make it easier. All bosses are mostly fixed on their ability timings. It can be done without DBM. Just that it will need more attempts for new bosses.
Blizz settled this already:
they also allow carries for gold, micro transactions, any many other degenerate practices. js.