Do this or watch your game die in midnight (Not even kidding)

Community General Discussion
41

Hey everyone,

I have been playing Elemental Shaman for quite a while now. The addons I use are nameplates, WeakAuras, and ElvUI. The reason I use nameplates and ElvUI is purely visual, they just help me see things more clearly.

I started using WeakAuras (Luxthos setup) after reading multiple posts from other shaman players saying it is basically essential if you want to reach the full potential of the spec.

That being said, I have to admit that no matter how much I play or how often I try, I simply cannot get used to WeakAuras. I have moved them around, resized, customized, and tried every possible layout, but my eyes just refuse to cooperate with them. My attention always drifts more toward the cast bar.

After playing this class and spec long enough, you kind of develop a natural rhythm or intuition for when things happen, so I do not constantly look at my bars anyway, I just feel when to do what.

The truth is, after some M+ runs, my hand and fingers already hurt from all the constant pressing and reacting to alerts. Adding another layer of visual tracking on the screen just becomes too much and actually hurts my gameplay experience.

At some point, it does not even feel like I am playing a shaman anymore. It feels like I am playing something that is supposed to meet a damage quota, track this proc here, that alert there, this timer and so on. Sometimes it feels like there is an extra layer of addons covering the main game, suffocating the raw feel of gameplay and making everything feel overwhelming.

Maybe it is just me, maybe I am getting old (I am 32), but that is how it feels. I still support addons and addon creators though. I genuinely hope Blizzard finds a way to give those people, many of whom have worked on addons for over 20 years and some even make a living from it, proper recognition and support. They have been an inseparable part of WoW for decades, and they deserve it.

42

and how would you know that exactly?
you are just scared to learn, instead of an addon telling you what to do

i dunno … maybe, figure it out.

google is still there for you, if you want to follow an arrow to the endgoal.

addons are a failure Band aid. blizzard are addressing it and making the game better and people are getting mad about it.
crazy take.

1 Like
43

Addons are not telling me what to do. I use them to customize my UI so stuff is more centralized on my screen, and I replace most DBM/WA sounds with my own. I learn mechanics, encounters and rotations on my own without watching guides either. So yes I would know because aside from the visual garbage in the game I would not be using said addons, and Blizzard have said next to nothing about it.

44
  • Addons are telling you what to do—just because you customized the sounds or layout doesn’t change that. You’re still relying on external tools to feed you info the base game doesn’t provide. If you really learned everything on your own, you wouldn’t need addons at all.

they are introducing most addons into the base game in midnight and you will be able to play just fine.

stop hating

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45

Well we kinda shouldnt have addons to fix the issues and overcome problems. I guess, it would be better if those issues are fixed by devs instead addons. Maybe this is the way to start solving everything. :man_shrugging:

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46

Nope, addons do not do that. Everything in the game is telegraphed, ots just telegraphed very poorly. DMB telling you to use “DR” means a mob/boss is casting casting something, and if you do pay attention to the boss/mob and see the cast you would know to ise it without any addon. The issue is that a tiny cast bar under a nameplayte in a sea of nameplates is sometimes really hard to pay attention, especially since you need to pay attent to 6 more tiny cast bars under nameplates.

47

I agree.

Here is where I disagree. First they should solve the issue with a WORKING solution and then we could talk about banning addons. Right now we are going to see these issies get 100 times worse, all in order for Blizzard to maybe start working on them next expansion maybe.

48

Addons still guide you—custom sounds and layouts don’t change that. If you truly did everything on your own, you wouldn’t need them in the first place.

you can change the cast bar size on the edit screen currently .
also
Blizzard are introducing a cast sequence which you can edit and change the scale .

so my point is still valid.
you just dont like change and are scared about it

in the end, addons are third party and its blizzards product.

49

Well im getting simmilar vibes from shadowlands here and hope not blizz should be copy and pasting thing like kui nameplates elvui weak auras and other things and make simmilar features in their own game but i very much doubt wow wont recover from another shadowlands episode that is for sure.

Im holding off until buying it either way so im not too invested atm even though i do want the game to do well but if they dont want to listen to the players and what they are saying that is up to them.

1 Like
50

Not good enough. I could also use the personal resource bar instead of a custom WA to track my holy power, but I dont because the build in feature is absolute garbage.

51

thats a YOU problem.

ive gave you plenty of info about the changes, the options to edit. and scale
the implemented addons into the basegame

and you still dont think its good enough.

you are just scared of change ( normal human response)

all i can say is. its not your property. blizzard will do as they wish to it.
you must adapt or look for another game

52

Yes if blizzard go with a mindest like you have you will be looking for another game also because no one will want to play with you haha.

Ahh you think our crappy add on replacements / lack of customization is our problem ? no that is a you problem we blame our players good luck with that

1 Like
53

No you havent. You listed option to resize stuff. That is not a solution. You can make all cast bars as big as your screen if you want to, that still doesnt solve the telegraphing issue. That still does not solve the buff/debuff tracking issue. And that sure as hell does not solve all the other problems with the base UI.

And if you truly believe that Blizzard will be able to make a replacement for DBM, WA and Platter when they couldnt crack a simple CD tracker idk what to say anymore. The only “successful” addon implentations Blizzard have made were GearScore and RaiderIO, where they just stuck a binch of numbers on stuff.

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  • If you really think Blizzard can’t replace DBM, WA, or nameplate addons just because they struggled with a CD tracker, you’re missing the point. The game is evolving—get on board or get left behind.

Addons need a crackdown. Too many players rely on them as a crutch because they’re too lazy to engage with the game as it is. You don’t get to redesign the UI in other games like Call of Duty or RuneScape—you adapt. Same applies here.

  • No matter how you justify it, it’s not your call. Blizzard is finally pushing back on the addon arms race, and it’s a good thing. It’s why we got messes like Dimensius. Encounters going forward will be simpler to read but require actual attention, not a wall of WeakAura pop-ups to tell you what to do.
55

Ah yes let me check my addon that lets me move my UI around what I should do at this boss
Oh wait, it doesn’t say it, because all it does is let me move my bars around.

Brother do you even read what you’re reacting too?

I do agree that removing combat addons is a good first step but only if blizzard stops developing stuff around people having it, void DH implies they are still intending to make builds where there’s several buffs running in the background to check.

Blizzard removing addons has to be at an agreement that they decomplex the game, an agreement they seem to be breaking already with the new spec.

Also making it so that you don’t need tools isn’t what blizzard is doing, they are replacing the tools with in house ones. Which I personally don’t see going over as they hope it will, it won’t engage people who don’t want any tooling and it’ll probably just anger the players who feel that the new tools are subpar to what they had.

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56

I bet Blizzards nameplate options lack basic customization like choosing colours or tanking mode, which could be a major issue for players who struggle with visibility. Time will tell them saying they will improve it later wont be good enough the damage will be done by then.

57

we will see with time

but great first steps to a better game.

no more 3rd party developers stepping in to cover

2 Likes
58

Poor guy believes any developer read this.

59

An arms race that never neede to be fough in the first place. Oh no Billy complains that boss X is very easy sinse he using an addon, then maybe Billy should stop using the addon if he wants a challenge - > problem solved.

Whats wrong with him? I made a few attempts on him on HC and while I didnt get a kill, the encounter itself looks easy enough.

I very much doubt that, but will see.

60

Yes it will but blizzard need to put some effort in here their options should be better than or atleast match any external add on creator they are AAA game developers their will be no excuses for them i hope they do it well but only time will tell.