The Lack of Custom Buff and Debuff Filters - Why are healers mad?

Guides UI and Macro
1

I apologize in advance, but this is going to be a bit of a rant. I write this post out of passion and love for the game, and I want it to be the best it can be. I mean no ill towards anyone.

What are we even doing here man??

I frankly find it inapprehensible that it can come as a surprise to anyone at Blizzard that people are upset about the loss of custom aura filters. Did they seriously think that healers were going to be okay with the mess and chaos it creates on our raid frames? Even DPS and PvP players are struggling with the bloat of debuffs they see on their nameplates.

If you are surprised that people are so upset about this clear ensh*ttification of the UI and UX, then ask yourself; what tangible improvements does the overall addon restrictions bring to the players who were fully capable of installing and using addons before?
If I as a player actually enjoyed tinkering with my UI and making sure that I only see information I want to see, is suddenly unable to do so, then what tangible benefit do I gain from the UI and addon changes in Midnight?

The answer is obviously nothing. Everything is an objective downgrade, and I have to jump through a thousand hoops and work arounds to get my UI to just look somewhat similar to what it did before. But I will never be able to have the important functionalities I actually relied on to remove the useless clutter from my raid frames, nor the ability to highlight things I do want to see.

And don’t even get me started on the cooldown manager.. that thing is such an abject downgrade compared weakauras that it is frankly insulting that they thought people would be okay with it..

Is having a clear and clean UI that can easily be understood and parsed by each player in their own unique way, really such a problem?

Of course it isn’t. And nor do I believe anyone at Blizzard would say it is. But the inability to create a UI that only gives information you need to see, is a completely artificial problem, created entirely by Blizzards own attempt to make their own life easier when it comes to combat design, both class wise and boss wise. I seriously do not think most players will feel any difference in boss and dungeon gameplay as a result of these addon restrictions.

This loss of customization is a totally unacceptable side effect of those restrictions. We are supposed to believe they were way ahead in the development of the UI changes and your replacements for the functionalities we would lose with the restrictions. What a load of crap.

If they were so far ahead, then how come we do not have a native way to filter auras, both buffs and debuffs? The loss of this functionality is not an acceptable downgrade, especially when there is no tangible benefit to losing it for me as a player.

I completely understand that they wanted to end the supposed arms race between the best guilds and addon devs, and their own boss and class designers. But to me as a player, there is 0 benefits from losing these functionalities. I could not care less if an addon is able to tell me to go stand on Blue with X debuff or not.

The main selling point of the expansion is, that I need to give up the ability to filter useless buffs and debuffs and settle for an incomprehensible mosaic of icons, just so addons can’t tell me where to go when I get a specific debuff? Come on.. that has to be a joke..

Why are Blizzard Curated Filters not Good Enough?

I fully recognize that the Blizzard curated filters are completely fine for most players, but the beauty of WoW is, or was, the totally and fully customizable UI the addon framework provided. It has been a core pillar for 20 years.

The reality is that every player is different and has different opinions on what they want to see and not see on their UI. Now Blizzard are seemingly creating more and more pre-set filters we can pick from, so we end up having to hope that we can mix and match it so it suits what we want, but if we can’t, then tough luck.

These Blizzard curated filters are honestly a laughable half-assed solution to a problem that should never have existed. The day they decided to implement the addon restrictions, someone in that room must have said “How is this going to impact aura tracking on raid frames and nameplates?”. But it seems like someone overruled that concern and decided the players would just have to accept this gigantic loss of customization.

Having the ability to pick the information that is important to me and how I want to display it, is not a bloody CYBERNETIC ENHANCEMENT, it is the bare minimum of what a UI in 2026 should be able to do, because it has been able to do it for 20 years without it breaking the game…

If you cannot come up with a solution to this issue that is compatible with your new “secret” addon API system, then you need to throw it all out and rethink what on earth you are even trying to achieve, and who you are doing it for. Are these changes seriously to the benefit of the players? Or is it just to make your own life easier when it comes to boss design?

I find it that the fact that these restrictions are not being rolled out on other versions of wow, to be a damning reality, that completely undermines any argument in favour of them. If we are supposed to believe that not having the ability to filter auras is an improvement, then how come Blizzard themself do not even believe it when it comes to other wow versions?

I hate being a doomer, but there are genuinely 0 benefits to me from the overall addon restrictions. Yeah, I will continue to play the game, but my god what are we doing man..

48 Likes
2

From my own perspective playing preservation evoker, the only way I’ve found to “properly” play around these changes is to only display 2 buffs on my frames. (If they had rightfully made echo priority 1 I would only show 1 buff).

Get that right, I’m choosing to not display information because it’s the only way to properly parse the information I need most of all. These changes are an abject failure to me. And no, I don’t believe in the design goals either. Blaming weakauras for Blizzard’s failures at boss design is beyond the pale.

What you’ve done here is say “we don’t want addons to be required so we’re making them unusable, we won’t fix the issue that made them required in the first place.”

3 Likes
3

Yes, I have to agree.

This heavy-handed approach to the Addon situation was not it.

And filtering, or rather more control over filtering of buffs/debuffs, is something that should be included from the get go. Not something we have to beg for.

Having a game with such bad visual clarity and insisting that’s the way it’s meant to be played would be a curious decision ot say the least. So I hope blizzard addresses this issue.

2 Likes
4

I think the frustration here is completely understandable, and it’s worth separating why people are upset from the assumption that players are simply resistant to change.

The issue isn’t that Blizzard touched addons at all. Most players understand the desire to rein in the arms race between encounter design and automation, and many of us agree that addons telling you exactly where to stand or what to press can undermine gameplay. That goal, in isolation, makes sense.

The problem is that the current restrictions don’t just target automation — they also remove fundamental UI customization, especially around aura visibility and prioritization. Those two things are not the same, and treating them as if they are creates real collateral damage.

For players who invested time into tailoring their UI — healers most of all, but also tanks, PvP players, and high-end DPS — custom aura filtering wasn’t about gaining an unfair advantage. It was about reducing noise. Being able to hide irrelevant buffs and highlight critical debuffs is basic information management, not gameplay automation. Losing that capability doesn’t make encounters more engaging; it just makes the UI harder to parse.

What makes this feel particularly bad is the lack of a compensating upside. If a system removes power or flexibility, players naturally ask: what do I gain in return? Right now, the answer seems to be “nothing tangible.” Blizzard-curated filters may be serviceable for many players, but they cannot account for the huge variation in roles, specs, accessibility needs, or personal preferences that WoW has supported for two decades. Presets are not a substitute for agency.

The cooldown manager highlights the same issue. It isn’t offensive because it exists — it’s offensive because it replaces something far more capable without matching even a fraction of its functionality. That creates the impression that the UI overhaul was not actually “ahead of” the restrictions it depends on.

Most importantly, this doesn’t appear to meaningfully change how encounters are played by the majority of players. Boss mechanics will still be learned, executed, and optimized in largely the same way. What has changed is that players now have fewer tools to present information in a way that works for them. That’s a steep price to pay for solving a problem many players never felt was theirs.

If aura filtering and prioritization truly cannot exist within the new addon framework, then that framework needs to be reconsidered. A modern UI should, at minimum, allow players to decide what information matters to them and how it’s displayed. That has been a core strength of WoW for 20 years, and removing it feels less like progress and more like regression in service of development convenience.

People aren’t upset because Blizzard made changes. They’re upset because those changes sacrifice customization — one of WoW’s defining features — without delivering a clear, player-facing benefit in return.

4 Likes
5

Yes, the restrictions for buffs and debuffs are just stupid.

Why it should be a good idea to force players having only one anchor for their buffs, is not understandable. It just makes the game worse for healers. And no free blacklist/whitlelist function just makes no sense too.

Oh, and boss debuffs do not get shown as magical debuffs even if they are btw - also maximum nonsense.

6

People are acting like vuhdo played the game for me just like the One Button Rotation that actually did play the game for you.

Yes, those people who use that OBR are now loudly shouting about how they are glad these changes are happening and that no addon should play the game for you. As they use the OBR that plays the game for them for real………………………………..

FYI, Vuhdo does not tell me when to cast a spell. Vuhdo does not cast a spell for me. What Vuhdo does is allow me to present the info i need to make decisions based on what is in front of me. I can place the HOTS icons where i want

Ive used the same setup now for 16 years. Same look and fell with Vuhdo. Now blizz is saying you are not doing that anymore and here is your replacement.

Their replacment is woefully lacking in customization. I can re-create the look of the Vuhdo frames in size, color, shape and healing displayed. What i cant do is place the HOTS icons in the corners like Vuhdo allows you to do and the way ive healed for 16 years.

Did they just think that people would accept this and move on?

I am not. Not bought midnight yet and wont either until i can do with the standard blizzard frame what ive done for the last 16 years.

Management rushed this thing out like there is no tomorrow since they knew they only a few months to get this done. This is why everything in the game is now suffering. From Q and A to all the bugged quests i am seeing. The game is neglected so they can rush this thing out.

This is so simple to fix. Give healers the ability to be able to place the icons, the HOTS icons where they want inside the frames. I placed mine in the corners. Vuhdo has two ways of letting you do that. I chose the one with the corners. Options two i think it was.

Allow that and i can actually live with the rest of the changes as i have deal with them for now. Most dont affect me anyway. I use a minimal changed UI from default.