I have played WoW since for ever. Always used addons, from MC and later.
I wonder if we talk to any good players, +10. +15, +20, HC raiders and beyond and ask,
“Remove all addons, just disable all and every addon. How far in the game would you get to?”
Blizzard designs the game with addons in mind.
Without the addons many of the endgame fights will have a lot of issues because they lack enough telegraphing for people to see and react to.
I do not think that Blizzard will give up on letting Free labor patch the gaps in their game for them.
Ufff, you’re gonna get blasted cause of this comment.
Pretty sure majority of WoW players would quit if they remove addons. And I don’t mean casuals.
I wish there weren’t any add-ons as I see them as cheating especially in pvp that tells you your enemies cooldowns etc.
In reality though add-ons and wow has a symbiotic relationship since the beginning so I don’t think we gonna have an addon free wow ever.
The only addon I would keep would be details just to know what dmg u can do
If that’s true,i imagine they’re doing it now cause of said addons.
Old content is probably even easier with addons,so they had to something to not lose 90% of subs.
One just has to see how raids mechanics escalated between Molten Core and Naxx
There are plenty of MMOs with much harder mechs and even less tooltip to show what you need to do .
Neither has addons , don’t personally have problem with addons in WoW , but i do think rhat lots of " pro" players wouldn’t be “pro” if there were no addons.
Or simply decide not to use them?
Win/Win
I try to play as addon light as possible - but not always easy since the way the game is designed. Sometimes you are also forced to use an addon since over the years the game is now created around these addons so you really have no choice. Dungeons and raids are primary examples. Dev’s don’t bother trying to make it easier for you as they well aware someone will just patch it for them. If they changed this and their own mindset then I believe addons could become redundant/optional.
I dont believe you would lose many players over this - as the option to create would still be there. Most of the 1% create their own addons via Weak Auras anyway.
WoW however has evolved into something that has a symbiotic relationship with addons. I fear the host will die if the symbiont is removed.
Then they should change their design to allow the game to be playable without addons, while also disabling them entirely.
One of the reasons that this game has no new players is that noone wants to install 200 additional things just to enjoy this game.
Disable dbm but make bosses more intuitive
Disable weakaura but make important spells be visially distinguishable
Disable gladius but add crucial arena mechanics in the interface
There are ways to make this game playable without addons. They made the game with addons in mind and you got WoD archimonde. Its enough
Without addons blizz need to go all in on customizing UI’s and better telegraphing of next mechanics on boss/trash fights. With the current client it is impossible to play the game without addons.
One thing I have always wished was a default is something like spellstealer aka spellstealmaster. If you play a class that can dispel, purge or steal then by default a box should pop up on your screen somewhere lettings you know.
I do that from time to time, play with no addons… i travel a lot for work, so sometimes i play from work laptop, and if i havent updated addons i run with none…
I’ve done 20+ keya that way and mythic raiding. Is it more anoying, yes… but the base UI gives most of the info anyway, just in a far less nice way.
I have enjoyed FF14 which is an MMO without (legal) addons. I cannot imagine Blizzard would have the will to make such a transition anytime soon.
The new Dragonflight UI is the first time since at least TBC where one could possibly be an endgame healer without using healing addons or a ton of macros.
Blizzard without addons would need to even revamp the class ability rotations because a lot of people have grown dependent on at least a few addons to help them improve their rotation with custom reminders, extra icons etc.
Sage, FF14’s counterpart of the Disc priest is many times simpler than in WoW.
I think that one of the reasons that WoW manages to remain profitable is that the addon developers are making a lot of the work that Blizzard would have to do.
Just check how sophisticated ElvUI is for example.
I don’t do much pve, so if I didn’t have DBM installed I would probably be doing a huge disservice to my party members.
Weak auras are useful too, because when you have 3-4 action bars cluttered with stuff it’s hard to tell what’s going on. Seeing an icon pop up in your peripherals can really make you more efficient.
Try telling arena players to remove their omnibars and stuff and they will probably cut you.
The arena players will not just cut them, they will tell them that “they are already dead” if you get there reference
If they baked in some AddOn features to the main game I’d live without them but I need several to just play the game.
I need co-ordinates for so many quests, especially ones with cave entrances. A lot of collect 8 shinies have the items scattered so widely and often tricky to see that co-ords are needed here too.
I use Storyline to make Quest text readable, I’d stuggle with that squiggily font on the yellow background (if they had a light text on dark background option, like when read a stone tablet I’d be fine).
GTFO tells me (sometimes) that I’m standing in bad.
Some are just very handy such as MogIt, it tells me I can sell stuff as I already have that in my wardrobe without having to mail it to my cloth or plate alt to check.
I find it more skillful to react to enemies cooldowns rather than guessing if they used them.
Try to keep track of everyones cooldowns when you have a demonology zoo in the arena without any addon.
simply if u dont want addons than remove for your self … DONT EXPECT OTHERS TO DO SAME