Totally unexpected and frankly this as rough as it feels very well may be the right move to save the game.
I am now truly thinking retail may actually be truly awesome again, for the first time in years I am eyeing retail in a serious way.
Come to think of it, this addon limitations kit would actually help make MoP and Vanilla and TBC all better experiences.
If you live under a rock
I do, its called Classic. This shift in policy on addons tho, I never expected this and its jarring but really could actually be a Good thing overall. Seeing that they are killing the ability to automate play is actually exciting in a way and now some of the class changes are making more sense.
i know theres heaps of reposts, but theres a lot of players with these addons who don’t frequent the forums/internet
they should mention these changes on the Bnet page.
That is a good idea, I didnt know until last night.
I spent the last few days converting to the default UI. I moved my player and target frames next to the cd tracker. I used MoveAny to move my holy power bar beneath the tracker. I turned off Kui Nameplates. I replaced VuhDo with the 5-man stock frames and assigned Lay on Hands and Intercession to click casting. Ret is completely fine with the stock UI.
That is a really smart move. I can see this whole thing going REALLY good if the default UI has something sorta like tidy plates built in… That’s the only addon I use because it shows your CC and debuffs on the enemy health bar right there for you to to see… Its not new or additional information just a better position on the screen.
I do hope they improve the default UI a lot, because it has never been good.
I’m not in the alpha and can’t comment in the development feedback forum, but like many I have concerns. I hope you don’t mind me venting those concerns here.
Midnight Add-on purge feedback:
It is often very difficult to understand mechanics from the Adventure Guide alone. Even with watching tutorial videos on YouTube I still struggle to fully understand without actually doing it myself. Thanks to the content creators who produce those, they do help significantly.
I need to learn by doing and need to experience boss mechanics with clear indicators in real time. DBM and WeakAuras have been vital to me for learning boss mechanics and situational awareness once I have learned the fights. In particular these addons help my ADHD brain keep up with where we are in the timeline of a fight and what mechanics are coming out “soon”.
Historically, there have been situations where voice lines are unclear or inaudable leading to sudden unexpected death. Likewise there is a history of ground effects being used interchangeably for soak and “floor is lava” mechanics. It has sometimes felt like there’s no consistent design language for communicating mechanics to players. It has also felt like there is too much reliance on written descriptions in the Adventure Guide and not enough in-game opportunities to learn mechanics before confronting the bosses.
I’m very concerned that the black boxing of all combat data will severely impact dungeons, raids, scenarios, and delves. Even unique rares and world bosses have mechanics we need to be aware of.
We’re seeing the looming loss of these addons and hearing about a lack of ready replacements on the Alpha. This does not inspire confidence.
If Blizzard is unwilling to compromise on this then the replacement systems need to be robust and customizable enough to clearly communicate mechanics to players in real time. These systems need to account for accessibility as well or risk alienating players with disabilities.
Finally there needs to be ample opportunities to learn mechanics beyond just reading about it in the Adventure Guide and then getting thrown to the wolves. And YouTube videos aren’t enough. Some players actually need experience in-game to fully understand the mechanics.
I really hope Blizz is listening to this and taking it seriously. The loss of combat data without clear and consistent systems for communicating mechanics to players in combat could end situational awareness for many players. This would make most endgame content much less approachable if not completely inaccessible for many players.
That is soild brother.
They truly do need to make the BASE game easily understanable for everyone no matter how challenging the content gets you should not need addons to see and detect the mechanics at any time.
If addons are a need to do the content, then the PVE content team has failed, the animation and sound designers have failed and the UI team has failed.
There is no rationalization for failure on a paid sub game with this level development expense.
What was stopping you from playing retail without add-ons?
They’re killing far more than weak-aura combat solving add-ons.
Nothing, this is what I am adapting to now and I really like it
Could I play retail without addons now?
Sure.
Would I enjoy playing without addons?
Not really.
Legion Remix is providing a great litmus test for this. In heroic world tier I keep dying to DoTs during and after combat with empowered enemies because the only indication of incoming lethal damage is a cast bar that isn’t visible to me long enough to read assuming I can even see it through all the chaos on screen.
Would I run delves, scenarios, dungeons, M+, or raids without addons?
Hell No! Not without the base UI providing equivalent situational awareness and accessibility to the addons we are losing.
A lot of talk focuses on defeating automation and “combat solving”. I’ve heard some people talk about it like it’s an arms race between addon devs and Blizz.
But I have to ask, where do you draw the line between “combat solving” and accessibility? Because from where I sit addons are currently the primary providers of accessibility features for WoW and have been for a long time. Especially features that make combat in instanced content more accessible to vision impaired and hearing impaired players.
Sure, it’s great that Blizzard is finally adding much needed features that addons have been providing for most of the game’s existence. It just worries me that they’re nuking addons that have provided those features before they even have a working prototype on the Alpha.
Hopefully they’ve been looking at more than just what these addons have provided. Hopefully they are studying why this combat information needed to be exposed and visible to players in the first place. Not to automate or “solve” combat, but to make encounter mechanics more accessible to more players.
I really hope the effort is more than just “automation bad”. I hope they are really aware that there are players who cannot fully enjoy the game and play their role in a party or raid without additional visual and auditory cues.
This got a bit long so I collapsed a large part of it under the “details” thingy.
Blizzard deforested the rainforest. They will replant something new.
Let’s hope what sprouts is worth the wait.
