Mythic+ Healer Feedback: Please Don’t Strip Away Critical Functionality Without Real Replacements

Community General Discussion
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To the World of Warcraft Development Team,

As a longtime healer and someone who primarily enjoys Mythic Plus as my core gameplay experience, I want to respectfully raise concerns about the proposed addon restrictions, especially those targeting combat-related functionality.

While I haven’t personally done Mythic Sprocket, I’ve seen the frustrations others have voiced about being forced to rely on specific WeakAura packs just to make certain mechanics manageable. I empathize deeply with that experience. When boss progression gets held up because an addon breaks, not because of a lack of skill or preparation, that’s frustrating for everyone involved.

That said, not all addons are about simplifying content. Many of us use them to make essential information digestible. As a healer, this clarity is not optional. It is survival. I use WeakAuras to track personal cooldowns, buffs, and key debuffs on party members. The native UI, while improved in recent years, still lacks the flexibility and visual control I need in high-key scenarios. Removing the ability to customize this would directly impact my ability to perform well.

OmniCD in particular is critical. It doesn’t automate gameplay. It surfaces information already known by the game. Knowing when my DPS or tank has a defensive cooldown available lets me plan externals like Pain Suppression or Life Cocoon intelligently. In coordinated Mythic Plus runs, this is not a luxury. It is a requirement. If Blizzard intends to remove this functionality, then an equally reliable and customizable cooldown management tool must be included in the base UI. Not eventually. At launch.

The same goes for debuff tracking, especially tools like HealBot or VuhDo. These addons are essential for healers to react to cleansable debuffs, triage efficiently, and maintain awareness of affixes. These aren’t gameplay crutches. They are compensating for information that the base raid frames still don’t present in an efficient or accessible way. If these tracking capabilities are being removed, they must be replicated with equal precision in whatever revised UI Blizzard provides. That includes customizable filtering, positioning, sizing, and coloration for debuffs. Not just a checkbox or general icon.

And one more thing that’s concerning. Why is incoming heals visibility being stripped out? This is foundational healer information. Knowing whether another healer or the tank themselves is already addressing a spike can mean the difference between overlapping and wasting cooldowns, or saving a life. Again, this isn’t about ease. It’s about coordination, awareness, and making informed decisions.

I understand Blizzard’s desire to reduce overdependence on third-party tools, especially when encounter design starts assuming them by default. That’s valid. But there’s a huge difference between banning automation and removing player agency and readability. Combat doesn’t get more fun if we’re forced to play with blurred vision and one hand tied behind our back.

Mythic Plus is the part of WoW that keeps me logging in. It’s where I find joy, challenge, and community. I don’t want the game to be dumbed down. I want it to respect my role and give me the tools to execute it cleanly and intelligently. If Blizzard is going to take things away, then what replaces them needs to be fully developed, customizable, and ready on day one. Otherwise, you are just setting healers and other roles up to fail.

Thank you for taking the time to listen. I truly hope the team will continue to work with the community as these changes develop.

Sincerely,
A Dedicated Healer and Mythic Plus Player

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They’re not taking that away. They mentioned a very specific type of WA they want to eventually limit: one that solves mechanics. WAs such as Mythic Brood for eggs that throws out marker assignments for everyone. Ion said this would also entail a boss design philosophy shift to creating mechanics that can’t be solved like that.

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Thanks for the reply. I understand the focus on mechanic-solving WeakAuras like Brood egg markers, but my concern goes beyond that.

As a healer in Mythic Plus, I rely heavily on seeing party cooldowns with tools like OmniCD. If that visibility is being removed or restricted, it affects performance and coordination. Ion may not have mentioned it directly, but the vague language has raised real concerns.

Same with Plater. It provides threat clarity, cast bars, and debuff visibility that the base UI still struggles with. If Blizzard plans to limit that kind of functionality, they need to replace it with something equal and be clear about what’s changing.

This isn’t about defending automation. It’s about keeping access to the critical information we need to play well.

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He wasn’t really vague at all. He actually said specifically that removing all of the addons would make for a terrible player experience and they weren’t going to do that. He said their goal, before they do anything to even touch the process of limiting combat addons, is to have comparable options native to the game so that players don’t feel forced to go to a 3rd party and download a bunch of mods just to be able to play at a competent level.

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Blizzard raid frames are egregiously outdated. They are stuck in the past when there was 1 debuff per fight to watch. Now we have several popping off at the same time, overlapping each other, expiring at different times, and are different types - all handled by a single healer. The Blizz default frames don’t cut it, and I sincerely hope this is on their radar to update in the near future. Ideally, I’d like to be able to rely on Blizz’s UI to deliver the information I need to play efficiently. At least the built in click casting was a step in the right direction.

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He did say they will not yank everything all at once, but he also clearly stated, “Tracking of group abilities will no longer function in add-ons… Incoming heals will no longer be trackable, nor will specialized buffs or debuffs.”

That is not vague. That is confirmation. And while Ion said they will “need to add customization and improve [the Cooldown Manager] to make it feel like a reasonable substitute,” nothing close exists yet. Removing key healer tools before solid in-game replacements are live is exactly what players are worried about.

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In the interview with Max and Dratnos? He most definitely did not, because I just control+F’d the transcript.

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They word for word said they’re taking this away. More specifically, the ability to track other players’ cooldowns.

No, there’s a PCGamer interview that’s more recent than this and Ion talks about a LOT more specific stuff they’re trying to get rid of.

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You have excellent points that are also well-written, I hope they see it!

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I get them wanting to nuke weakauras because it’s easy mode for lots of people and makes developing encounters harder for the dev team, but plz leave the rest alone. Don’t mess with vuhdo functionality please.

Not losing sleep over this though until they actually drop real notes/information on any changes.

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They don’t even have to change the fight design there to make it not weakaura reliant. Just give us enough time to actually solve the mechanic manually.

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Agreed on all points. I’ve been playing my priest as a healer since launch. I remember when grid launched. I was raiding MC it was a game changer the blizz UI was horrid. The mechanics were simpler. But the UI couldn’t even handle that well…

I’ve gone from grid to grid 2 to vuhdu and now il using Cell which is phenomenal. Unless the blizz raid frames have the functionality of something like Cell or any of the modern raid frames it’s going be hell.

We need to be able to blacklist things that are unnecessary. Or add things that will invariably be missed by blizzard. We need to beable to put them where we want. I have habits and places I look while healing. That I’ve 20yrs of muscle memory for.

Debuffs and raid frame tracking is a hill I’m willing to die on. Knowing when a teammates defensive is up and active. Knowing when it’s off CD. All these things really have helped me be a better healer.

They don’t solve problems for me they just give me data I then use to make decisions about healing. If I had to remember all of my teammates defensive etc. the cognitive load would be insane. How does a spec like Disc even work in this world you’re proposing

Something as simple as tracking my shadow priest teammates PI CD so we don’t overlap. Being able to see who’s going to burst so I can decide who gets it. I enjoy being able to optimise. My game play like this. None of this makes the game unplayable for people who don’t want to track it. It doesn’t solve problems for me it’s not computational it’s just information.

Stripping away Cell & omniCD without comparable functionality for me is honestly something that will make me quit Wow after 20yrs.

Healing is already one of the most unforgiving roles. Removing this functionality effectively blinds us and makes our job harder.

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They are so out of touch

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I’m utterly disgusted by this. And why aren’t they going after addons that truly automate the game for you like auction, quest automation, auto accept for dungeon roles etc. these actually do actions for you. Clicks.

I remember back in classic when blizzard removed the one button dispel addons. Click a button/keybind it targets a player and casts dispel for you. That I had no problem with you going after. It played the game for you essentially. And I was never a fan.

Cooldowns and debuff tracking in/on raid frames are just data tracking. It’s not solving anything or doing anything for me. I make the decisions on what to do with that data. Very different.

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It is obvious to me that Ion is not a good healer. No good healer would voluntarily stop knowing that a dispel was needed, or that a teammate was not going to be able to mitigate imminent incoming damage, or that a teammate is slowed or frozen or feared and needs to be sped up or freedomed or have a totem thrown down. Isn’t it the job of a good healer to be more than reactive, but PROactive? Doesn’t a good healer use their entire toolkit in order to get the team through an encounter? How on Earth can that be possible if the info about our teammates is not there?

Good healers do so. much. more. than just try to keep healthbars up by tossing out healing spells.

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I will stop healing if they remove the ability for vuhdo to track things like bleeds/debuffs from enemies and my own abilities on people ( HoT’s, Temporary buffs like PI/PS ). Without healing I doubt I will play much too.

Like how the heck are we even supposed to react to certain things if they remove that? Bleed on dps? How will we know to PI/DR/Life Cocoon them? I don’t care if I can see if that rogue popped his DR, but as a healer I want/need to be able to see the tick down of MY OWN PI or the absorption of life cocoon/PWS.

Kill off weakauras and omniCD…whatever, I already play without those crutches…but please don’t make life for us healers harder ffs. Healbot/Vuhdo have exists along side wow for literally the whole life of wow and they havent been an issue for designing fights. WA/Omni are the 2 main issues that should be nuked before you even try anything else, hell even limit DBM significantly if you want.

Your base game UI will never be good enough for healing unless you copy things like vuhdo/cell perfectly or just buy out what they have already made. Binding abilities to clicks is still very broken in retail even with the changes you did make to party frames. ( the click casting on the party frames is extremely buggy and also requires even more set up / macro manipulation than 2006 healbot did ).

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Honestly, you’re dead on. If Blizzard guts VuhDo’s ability to track HoTs, debuffs, and personal cooldowns, that’s not just an inconvenience. It’s a death sentence for high-end healing. People underestimate how vital that info is for triage and proactive cooldowns. It’s not about cheesing mechanics; it’s about functionally doing your job.

You’re absolutely right on the core issue. If Blizzard removes VuhDo’s ability to track HoTs, debuffs, and personal cooldowns, healing falls apart. That’s not optional info. It’s critical for reactive and proactive play. Knowing when your PI is about to expire or when to Life Cocoon someone with a bleed isn’t some luxury—it’s how you keep people alive.

WeakAuras can definitely go too far and trivialize mechanics, but lumping OmniCD in with that is off base. OmniCD doesn’t automate anything or give unfair foresight. It just shows what cooldowns are available across the group so you can coordinate defensives and externals. That’s communication, not cheese. It helps with synergy, not with skipping mechanics.

VuhDo, Healbot, Cell—these aren’t exploits. They’re patches for a healing UI that has been neglected for over a decade. If Blizzard wants to cut out addons, they better match or exceed the functionality players have come to rely on. Until then, breaking healer tools is just asking people to quit.

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Yeah the Vuhdo author thinks this is what they’re going to do. I don’t know if that’s actually what’s going to happen or not. But if it does, and raid frame addons like Vuhdo go away, I’m quitting the game for good that day and not returning. I have a huge backlog of stuff I could be playing instead of WOW. But I came back to WOW because it seemed like they were listening and made the game fun again.

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100%. And the healing frames have been bad since the game launched. So 20yrs of seeing addons make playing a healer in WoW functional. The blizzard UI… I have zero faith that this is going to work. You’d think 20yrs would be enough time to catch up to Grid, vuhdo or cell. There is so much wrong right now in the base frames & the base cooldown manager.

I was excited for the new CD manager. I set it up tried to use it. Got an addon to make it usable. Then abandoned it for my basic weakauras.

when things I didn’t need were shown and had no way to turn off. things I wanted show were missing. Or we’re in an order I didn’t like. Stacked in a strange way. They didn’t hide when on CD.

The weakauras I made… literally all they do is show the charges of an ability. Then become invisible when on CD. And appear when off CD.

That works better than the blizz CD manager. Don’t get me started on it resetting itself all the time and me having to set it up all over again. After the 6th time I was done.

So not letting us track the debuffs unless they’re in the default frames is going to be an utter nightmare because I can guarantee it’s not going to be good enough. Unless they hire the folks who make Vuduo and/or Cell and listen to them. I’ve zero faith they’ll get this right.

I’ll leave off ranting about watching other peoples CDs. That was in an earlier post.

All I have to say is either prove me wrong and do it well. Or stop going after healers unit frames.

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tbh if they really do that i think that if everyone who says they will leave actually do blizzard will have no choice but to bring it back just to avoid the hemorrhage they caused. the amount of people ive seen say there going to quit wow depending on how this is handeled should have been enough to get ion to come out and either clear this up or back track it. i havent seen a high end player say there going to stay its all people saying i will leave.

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