User Interface Updates in Classic

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Hello,

This week, we updated Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary from patch 2.5.5 to patch 2.5.6. Although this patch was almost entirely to support critical service systems, it also included changes to nameplates and raid frames. We’d like to tell you about these changes, highlight options you have to edit some of the user interface (UI), and look forward to patch 1.15.9 coming to WoW Classic soon.

UI Using Shared Code

All versions of WoW Classic share code with modern World of Warcraft. The games gain significant benefits from this, including the support of modern hardware, additional options for graphics and accessibility, widescreen support, and the ability to integrate with Battle.net services in the first place.

This shared code also allows the introduction of UI elements to fill gaps in the original World of Warcraft UI. For instance, the original Burning Crusade only supported the “drag out” raid group UI from the Raid Frame. With the release of WoW Classic in 2019, the game included an additional option to use raid frames from modern World of Warcraft. This means that WoW Classic launched in 2019 with Battle for Azeroth’s raid frames, and then with patch 2.5.5, Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary utilized frames from The War Within. With patch 2.5.6, the game’s raid frame option has aligned with updates to modern World of Warcraft, now matching the offering from Midnight.

Modifications Using Chat Commands

Since we released patch 2.5.6, we’ve been listening to community feedback, and we recognize that players are looking for ways to modify their nameplates and raid frames that were updated. In addition to the settings that exist in the Options menu, players can use the following chat commands for further customization:

  • Nameplate Class Color (Enemy Units):

/script C_CVar.SetCVar("nameplateShowClassColor", 1);

  • Nameplate Class Color (Friendly Units):

/script C_CVar.SetCVar("nameplateShowFriendlyClassColor", 1);

  • Disabling Raid Frame Dispel Highlights:

/script C_CVar.SetCVar("raidFramesDispelIndicatorOverlay", 0);

We’re currently working on surfacing these settings in the Options menu itself, so that players will have access to them there, in addition to the option to use chat commands. We expect to implement this next week.

Upcoming WoW Classic Patch 1.15.9 – Week of July 19

Similar to this week’s Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary patch, the WoW Classic games (Classic Era, Season of Discovery, Hardcore) will receive a similar patch with the start of weekly regional maintenance the week of July 19. As with the Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary patch, this patch will bring in Edit Mode and changes to players’ nameplates and raid frames to the WoW Classic games.

Some third-party addons may experience errors until they are updated by their authors. As all versions of World of Warcraft share most of their UI code, the addon API in 1.15.9 very closely matches the addon API from 2.5.6. For addon authors, we encourage you to use 2.5.6 as an environment for updating addons to be compatible with 1.15.9.

We will continue to refine our updates in the future, so that we’re providing additional options for players to modify settings wherever possible.

Thank you, as always, for your passion and feedback.

3 Likes
Blizzard, why do you break everything you touch? Revert the patch immediately!
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Updated the code for easier well coding. Yet bags are still messed up keep overlapping the action bars. So technically all bugs that were there stayed and are not adressed.

Visual change wasn’t needed, the colors etc. Tho thats a matter of taste.

5 Likes
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Could you please - before you implement this on Era repair the CD numbers, CD popups, Nameplates jumping around and several other issues.

I do not understand why I - that just want the UI to look just as it did originally in TBC - should be bothered to find - or even try to write a lot of addons to make this happen!

As it is now, I have exactly nine days playtime left before you break the game totally for me.

The visual noise level with all the popping and moving objects makes me tired and the game not enjoyable any more, please help!!!

4 Likes
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The response to the UI update on Anniversary servers has been overwhelmingly negative and NuBlizzard responds to this by forcing the update on Era and Hardcore players too.

Era was promised to be a permanent museum piece and yet slowly they continue to change things permanently to align the game with the Retail, breaking that promise.

When severe, real issues pop up like botting and casino bots, they ask us to use in-game mechanics like dropping Infernals on them and manually mass reporting each and every single bot rather than them coming up with a cohesive, permanent solution on their side. Then when it comes to things that no one asked for, they force unpopular and irreversible changes on us, introduce a ton of new bugs, break addon compatibility and then have the gall to ask us to “look forward” to it.

6 Likes
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Look, there clearly are some good things on the backend for the UI in this patch, and I think most people wouldn’t be mad if the features and functions added weren’t so broken. I’m not even talking about addons here but the Blizzard features themselves. They’re spewing LUA errors on their own and barely work. Besides, why make a “Classic” skin for the nameplates if it doesn’t even look remotely close to what they actually looked like in Classic?…

It’s just so rushed and poorly implemented and on top of it all you managed to break a bunch of other older UI features. Such as the default Auction House sort function and some of the camera center/pivot point for a bunch of race and mount combinations… I’m sure there are plenty more. Those were just some I manged to find in literally minutes of playing the game. Why is QA so garbage these days?

This patch should clearly have been left on the PTR for another few months at least. Shame

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  • Nameplate Class Color (Enemy Units):

/script C_CVar.SetCVar("nameplateShowClassColor", 1);

  • Nameplate Class Color (Friendly Units):

/script C_CVar.SetCVar("nameplateShowFriendlyClassColor", 1);

  • Disabling Raid Frame Dispel Highlights:

/script C_CVar.SetCVar("raidFramesDispelIndicatorOverlay", 0);

Also, the commands you listed are /script and not /console meaning they dont even write to the Config file so we have to use them every time we start the client. How bad at your jobs are you allowed to be before action is taken? It’s negligence to point of being criminal at some point.

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Wait, does that mean that WoW Classic versions now have the same updated UI as retail ?!

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No, it means that they implementedd some hybrid that was supposed to look Classic while disabling addons as in Retail.
They did neither, only lots of bugs, visual and othervise.

3 Likes
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I fail to see any reason why you decided that this way is better than adding a user interface settings UI for this

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Great job! I absolutely love the new nameplates for Classic. All of the options look fantastic, and honestly they already feel better than many of the existing nameplate addons. The only thing I think is still missing is class-colored nameplates for PvP.

I really hope you continue in this direction by replacing popular addons with built-in UI features whenever possible. While addons are incredibly useful, they’re not always as well optimized as native game features and can sometimes cause bugs, frame rate drops, or latency spikes. Having these features integrated directly into the game makes the experience much smoother, more stable, and feels much more modern.

Thanks again for all your hard work and for continuing to improve the Classic UI. It’s greatly appreciated!

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I fully agree. Just also give us a TBC Classic option that actually looks and feels like OG TBC.

1 Like
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The recent UI update in WoW Classic has broken many default UI elements. It’s not about addons, I’m reporting this with all addons disabled:

- The time under minimap is misaligned - it’s higher than it should be

- When the cast bar is locked to player frame and a cast is finished, it has a broken animation - it shows default rectangular borders as if the cast bar wasn’t locked to player frame

- AH issue: Price sorting options don’t work. If you try to sort prices by Buyout or Unit Price, nothing happens. It’s by far the biggest problem since it can lead to falling victim to fraud. Some people post their items at a very low bid price (e.g. 1 silver) and insanely high buyout price (e.g. thousands of gold). And since sorting by buyout prices doesn’t work, these fraudulent listings will always be at the top.

Tested on TBC Anniversary, EU, Thunderstrike

1 Like