Quest / Objective NPC Nameplates

Guides UI and Macro
1

After the most recent maintenance update on July 4th, I’ve noticed that I always see the nameplates for Quest / World Quest NPCs regardless of any other settings or mods that should affect them.

I have my nameplates to On (Combat) by turning off the “Always Show Nameplates” option, and toggling the nameplates setting with the default “V” hotkey. This is the normal behavior I’d like, and before the maintenance it was fine. Now, however, if the NPC is marked for a quest item, the nameplate shows as soon as I get in range of it. I know it isn’t all nameplates as other neutral and hostile NPCs do not exhibit this behavior, just the quest / objective NPCs. As soon as I gather all the items and/or complete the objectives, the nameplate behavior for those NPCs goes back to normal.

I’ve tested this with addons that modify / affect nameplates, and with no addons at all / fresh interface by closing WoW and renaming my Interface, WTF, and Cache folders so WoW can create new ones when I launch it again. This odd behavior is the same with a fresh interface and default Blizzard nameplates.

I’ve searched through the settings and I can’t find any option to toggle nameplates specifically for quest mobs, and some Googling showed me a post on the WoW forums that indicated at one point there may have been, but I can’t find it where the user said it should be.

I know for sure it happens with the TWW quest “Those are Chitin Words”, and the DF quests “Build-a-Blanket” and “Heated Hearthstone Hustle” with the respective NPCs that drop those quest items. This also seems to happen with World Quest kill / loot objective NPCs.

2

You may want to ask about this in UI and Macro. Tech Support is for P2P help with installation and crashing issues.

3

Thank you. I just found out I can just move the whole topic without having to re-create it.

Just an update with a bit more testing:

I did a completely fresh install and created a new character, and the behavior happens as soon as I grab the first kill quest in Northshire. I walked to the worgs, and their nameplates behaved normally. I grabbed the quest, and their nameplates were active as soon as I got close to them.

This was with a fresh Cache, Interface, and WTF folder and on a brand new character with a randomized name I’ve never used before just in case it was somehow a character setting.

4

Does changing Interface > NPC Names affect it at all?

5

It does change what it is supposed to, but it doesn’t affect the nameplate situation at all. Having the names on/off makes no difference to how the nameplates behave.