Hello, hope everyone is doing well.
I recently came back to World of Warcraft and have played a lot this past month. I don’t use AddOns, so I’ve been messing around with the Edit Mode feature and have noticed certain aspects that could be added or improved, which is why I’m making this post. I’ll try to share the same thing on the official forums, the subreddit, and through the in-game bug report/feedback option, in hopes that someone at Blizzard will notice it.
First and foremost, I want to make it clear that I love the Edit Mode function. I think it’s an amazing feature for customization, and people like me who don’t use AddOns really appreciate it. With that being said, if I’m not mistaken, this feature was released with Dragonflight. I didn’t play during that expansion, so I don’t know if all the current functionality was there at launch, but I’m guessing that wasn’t the case and more features were added over time. Still, considering it’s been several years since its release, I think the feature is lacking in many areas. From my time playing this past month, these are some of the suggestions/complaints I have:
- Automatic raid frame layout based on group size: There should be an option to automatically change the raid frame settings depending on the number of players in the raid. In my case, when I’m playing as a healer in battlegrounds, I have to go into Edit Mode and manually choose a different layout depending on what battleground I’m in and how many players are in the raid. If I’m in a 10v10 or 15v15 battleground, I use taller and wider frames since there aren’t as many players. But in a 40v40 battleground, I need to make the frames as small as possible and place them in a less intrusive part of the screen. I think healers would benefit the most from this option, but it would be helpful for the entire community.
- Better distinction between friendly and enemy nameplates: This one also comes from my experience as a healer in battlegrounds. By default, only enemy nameplates are active, but when you’re healing, focusing on the party/raid frames often means not looking where you’re going and mispositioning yourself. To avoid that, I enable friendly unit nameplates so I can see which players near me need healing, while also keeping track of my own position. The issue is that the only difference between friendly and enemy nameplates is the color of the name text: green for friendlies and red for enemies. This distinction is hard to notice while playing. I think something like an optional red/green outline on the nameplates (for enemies/friendlies respectively) would be a great improvement.
- More control over UI element behavior: For example, both the Modern and Classic presets in Edit Mode have the Vehicle Seats, Boss Frames, Equipment Durability, and Arena Frames sitting on top of the Objective Tracker. When you’re not in a vehicle with multiple seats, in a boss fight, in an arena or your equipment isn’t damaged, the Objective Tracker sits below the minimap. But when any one of those four elements shows up, the Objective Tracker moves down to sit beneath them and adjusts its size accordingly. I tried to replicate this behavior in my custom layout by snapping elements together, hoping that when one element appeared or disappeared, the others would shift position automatically, but that doesn’t seem to work and I believe it would be a really nice addition. Another thing I noticed with the HUD Tooltip element is that, in both the Modern and Classic presets, the tooltip window grows from the bottom right. However, if you make a custom layout and move it anywhere else, it grows from the top right or top left, regardless of snapping or placement.
- Important UI elements can’t be customized at all: Achievement frames, the “Dungeon Complete!” frame, the cart/area progress frame, the flag/crystal carrier frames, the “New Recipe Learned!” frames and the “You Received” frames, for example, can’t be modified in any way. This feels frustrating because these elements tend to cover others and they could be repositioned somewhere else to avoid overlapping.
- Some movable elements can’t be resized: The Talking Head frame, the Encounter Bar frame, and Status Bar frames are a few examples.
All of these specific issues boil down to one main suggestion/complaint: there should be more customization options regarding automatic settings for different scenarios, more control over UI element behavior, and more elements that can be customized in the first place.
I’m usually out of the loop when it comes to Blizzard news regarding game development, but I did read somewhere that some AddOns will stop working when the Midnight is rolled out, which would make improvements to the UI and Edit Mode functionality even more important.
These are just some of the things I’ve noticed while playing this past month, mostly while leveling and doing PvP. I’m sure there are other areas that could be improved too, but I haven’t had a chance to experience that content yet (like raiding). If anyone else wants to add more suggestions/feedback in this post, you’re more than welcome to do so
Links aren’t allowed in the forums, but I made an identical post with the same title on the World of Warcraft subreddit with linked images to better illustrate some things, in case anyone reading this wants to have a better idea of what I’m talking about.
Cheers.