🗜 Should Addons be Banned? [In Classic]

[Akaidian-earthen-ring (Akaidian)]

If you don’t want to be stuck healing, either roll another toon

As it stands right now, I’m rolling warrior, but regardless, I shouldn’t have to and I should be able to play any spec in such a way that the community at large is accepting and accommodating of at least my spec. Let my performance dictate my spot.

or find a guild that will take you as ret.

Also no. Any guild accepting of the performance difference between ret and a good DPS is already fail and not the type of people I want to be with. I’d rather just roll what we know is OP. I’d really rather just be able to be ret and not have to settle for a group of scrubs by doing so, but I know that’s not happening.

Being a “heal bot” is exactly why people are saying they don’t want add-ons.

Good for them. Blizz already said they’re breaking the automation, but just because that’s why they DONT want addons doesn’t mean they’re any more valid or important than my opinion that is the opposite.

You’re not even playing the game at that point.

Healing to me is already not playing the game. You could heal and tank a boss for infinity and never kill it; that’s why damage is the defacto “hero” role and why the epeen competition is relegated to it. If I’m not doing that and I’m being someone else’s side-kick, I might as well be afk waiting for my loot so I can swap to ret and go enjoy my free time elsewhere.

Like I said, I’m already set on rolling the OP manly man, but that doesn’t mean addons should be removed, or that anything needs to change around them, or that I have to be wholly happy with the fact that I have to reroll warrior just to get close to my ideal experience.

[Belkira-tichondrius]

The only people who complain about addons are the ones that are so bad at the game the need something to blame and settle on something that is supposed to improve the game play experience.

“These people are only better than me because they use addons.” or “I’m so much better because I refuse to use addons”.

[Malfosa-whisperwind]

The API will be the same as it was in 1.12 with some modern changes to it. And by changes I mean things like calls that would allow addons like Augmented Virtual Reality to work again (they broke it in Patch 3.3.5) will still be in place.

Things like UIs (ElvUI), and anything else that functioned in Vanilla should still function in Classic.

[Deathmasta-alexstrasza (Deathmasta)]

Not everyone wants add-ons. Not everyone used them. Why do some people push for classic and yet want ‘their’ add-on.

[Somechange-aegwynn]

There’s actually been no claim about the API being the same as it was in 1.12.
Otherwise you’d see people freak out on the forums with topics like “1.12 API breaks the game”, “1button push isn’t Vanilla-like ”, “1.12 API = dead rotation” and the likes.
But yeah modern API changes on UI are more than likely to be added. It’s just a prettier and easier to implement UI, the add-ons functions and content would be the same.

[Rhyanna-whisperwind]

No Decursive and Omen for raiding. Let’s the lawls begin.

[Cilivia-illidan (Cilivia)]

Addons I’ll use :

• Grid2
• ElvUI
• Auctionner
• Quest helper
• Some kind if GearScore (To avoid fully inspect people)
• Some kind of LFD (Staying in city reading/spamming trade chat is not playing)
• Auto vendor (Included in ElvUI)
• BossMod
• Maybe Gatherer
• Maybe something for Pally blessings
• If possible, some kind of raiderIO

[Malfosa-whisperwind]

There’s actually been no claim about the API being the same as it was in 1.12.
Otherwise you’d see people freak out on the forums with topics like “1.12 API breaks the game”, “1button push isn’t Vanilla-like ”, “1.12 API = dead rotation” and the likes.
But yeah modern API changes on UI are more than likely to be added. It’s just a prettier and easier to implement UI, the add-ons functions and content would be the same.

Well, they probably are using the 1.12 API as the base though. Hence why I made the statement I made.

[anon83669306]

That is why the #NoChanges argument is so important

So to be on the safe side, ALL addons should be banned in Classic

Change is bad, so make a change?

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At BlizzCon in the panel, Addons came up. It is worth watching for yourself. The WOW Classic dev team is planning to look at addons closely and may act to prevent addons that would pretty much do exactly the things they’ve decided aren’t appropriate in the game for reasons of authenticity and the social dynamic.

An example would be the team already decided “No LFD/Group Finder”, so an addon like oQueue which is nothing more than a Group Finder is likely to find itself blocked from doing things. (In fact, people seem to forget or not know that Blizzard has “broken” addon functionality multiple times over things.)

It’s not about the API so much, though my take from the panel was that we’re getting the modern API as there’s a concern that addon-makers are much more knowledgeable and sophisticated these days. It’s about what functions are possible.

Trivializing leveling

Meh, this one to me is shrug-worthy. Your claim that in vanilla everyone figured it out is off, also. I remember many having a map coordinate addon and telling people to use Allakhazam or Thottbot.

Automatic Auctioneer

Is there even such an addon? Yes, I know all the whines that someone bought an auction “too fast” - but the only Auctioneer addon I’ve ever seen was fast at showing the list, but did not and could not buy an auction automatically. (Doing so would put it in the realm of automation, a ToS violation.) Given how many sore losers to auction snipes complain and report, I’d expect more news to have cropped up if there was automation.

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Do you see the problem?

Not so big a problem that the baby should be thrown out with the bath water.

Nitpicking a few big addons you don’t like does not mean no addons should exist. There are addons to make the mini-map square instead of round. There are addons to set up a HUD with health and resource around the character. There are addons to customize the location and shape and position of the action bars. There are addons to display the inventory (bags and bank) all in one block, as well as search. There are addons to keep track of money earned and spent. So many addons that are “quality of life”, that existed in vanilla, and that don’t damage enjoyment of the game or how much like vanilla it is.

Addons existed in vanilla.
Addons will exist in WOW Classic (so has Blizzard said).
Addons in WOW Classic will be evaluated based on Blizzard’s criteria of authenticity and not undermining the social dynamic.

I’m happier with Blizzard’s solution than yours.

[Belkira-tichondrius]

Some kind if GearScore

That’s the only addon out of place in Vanilla unless it is using some sort of BIS list to determine values. Some blue items are best in slot until AQ40/Naxx. I’d take a properly geared player over someone in just high ilvl every day.

You get some gearscore addon like that and you’ll end up in raids with people running 7/7 d0 sets over people in mish mashes of bis items.

I mean mages can stack TBC levels of frost damage using green “of Frozen Wrath” items pre-Dire Maul. I’d take a frost mage in greens with +300 spell power close to hit cap over a mage in full tier 1.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

Just for the record, for those saying that Decursive and the likes were broken down in Vanilla, it wasn’t until patch 2.0 that the API restricted the “CastSpellByName()” and “TargetUnit()” functions.
So it was still OP through all Vanilla’s life

It definitely wasn’t broken in Vanilla, I agree, but Blizzard has said it will remain broken in Classic.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

Well, they probably are using the 1.12 API as the base though. Hence why I made the statement I made.

They’ve already said they’re using the modern client with its Addon API, rather than going back and moving forward with all the bugfixes etc. Classic’s API will be nothing like what we had in 1.12. Their initial tests to confirm that it would work were 7.3.5, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the 80100 interface, and it improves as the Retail API improves.

[Nimoai-dalaran]

I don’t mind the use of the newer updated tech, including the API. This should make it easier for them to simply “disable” whatever they want to mimic the classic limitations as needed.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

I don’t mind the use of the newer updated tech, including the API. This should make it easier for them to simply “disable” whatever they want to mimic the classic limitations as needed.

That’s exactly why they’re doing it. They don’t want to have to repatch every security flaw, or forget about any and have them exploited. They’re using Protected Frames, so all the Decursive, PallyPower, Healbot and other auto-targetting in combat mods are broken. Hopefully we’ll get a blue on the actual API details soon so we can start modifying our existing addons to work in Classic, but they’re also going to proactively prevent types of addons they don’t like.

For me, I’m going to rewrite the addon a friend wrote for me, which tells me which buffs I’m missing based on scanning the party for different classes. Have a Pally and no Kings or Wisdom - warning. Have two Pallies and don’t have Kings AND Wisdom - warning etc.

[Caelle-exodar (Caelle)]

They did something to it in Vanilla though because all of my friends went from cleansing gods to not being able to cleanse crap. Maybe it was in the pre-patch but I remember one ticked off raid leader when people were suddenly struggling with cleanses farming MC, BWL, and AQ40.

[Cilivia-illidan (Cilivia)]

Well, it all about stats weight and maybe some exception for items with specific stat or on use.
In your case “+ frost damage” stat will be highly weighted by addon.
This addon can also help people gear them self. There are a lot of stats in classic. About 75% of them are useless for a specific class/spec.
If I remember, for rogues and fury warriors “Hit %” was pretty high on the list (was it 30 or 33%?)

[Belkira-tichondrius]

They did something to it in Vanilla though because all of my friends went from cleansing gods to not being able to cleanse crap. Maybe it was in the pre-patch but I remember one ticked off raid leader when people were suddenly struggling with cleanses farming MC, BWL, and AQ40.

In early vanilla there was a mod called “Decursive” which would display a list of everyone in your group/raid that was affected by something you could cleanse/decurse. You simply just had to click on the name in the Decursive UI and it would cleanse/decurse that player without you having to actively target and cast. You could create priority lists that would place people higher up (like tanks/healers).

Essentially you just had to spam click the Decursive UI as fast as you can and it would take care of all the cleansing/decursing for you.

This was changed so that you could still see who had a debuff but you had to manually cast/target. When they broke decursive they also broke the underlying API calls that made HealBot such a required addon.

Eventually MouseOver and Focus functionality was updated and players could essentially mimic both addons with macros but they never did allow something like Decursive/Healbot fully back.

[Cilivia-illidan (Cilivia)]

Oh no, before decursive UI we had more “braindead” decursive :
• Spam decurse button (No target necessary): It automatically select the target and decurses it. It even communicated with other players having the mod to avoid losing GCD
This one is definitely shouldn’t been in classic

[Belkira-tichondrius]

Right, now i remember! that’s how it originally worked. The list came out after they broke the button. I remember suddenly wiping on Lucifron for the first time ever because people didn’t update their UIs and couldn’t figure out why Decursive wasn’t working anymore.

[Caelle-exodar (Caelle)]

I’m not sure how it worked, I never used either, just always did it manually. Explains how I went from mid pack cleansing to blowing everyone’s doors off the next. I just remember when they did something with it people had issues. The guild I was running with broke up before TBC so I knew it was before that.