Because that’s exactly what it would be ,we’ve seen it countless times already. Blizzard keeps trying to replicate what addons do, and it always ends up being a watered-down version.
Mechanic announcers.
Bag addons.
UI customization.
Cooldown managers.
Dungeon journal.
Premade group finder.
Auction house improvements.
Nameplates.
Raid frames.
All of these are just stripped-back copies of what addons already provide , and they’re still missing tons of features any decent addon includes by default.
I never said ‘people are going to be fine with a watered down version of how its now’.
So you strawmanned first.
All I’m saying is: Addons are actively destructive to the devs’ game development. They’re being fought at every turn and they are completely right to finally reign that in.
I didn’t know you could look into the future.
Must be nice.
The majority of those are not combat addons. This is only about combat addons. You’ll be able to keep using anything else if you want.
You’ll just have to learn to actually play the game and not rely on a crutch.
Sorry, not sorry.
I don’t use WA or any other helper addons, so I wouldn’t know for sure, but almost every time I was doing Mists, the boss puzzle would be insta-marked upon appearance. So, I either had some sort of genius in my group, or it was actually an addon
There’s a WA that is able to mark them all, so on voice you can call out which of the marks is the solution.
I have run so many mists, also just for vaults, on multiple chars and i have never seen any instant auto-solver and marker on the boss.
(i do have countless of wipes on that boss though )
It’ll never ‘work as good as it should’ because players who rely on these addons have conditioned themselves to rely on what is basically cheating to play the game.
Sorry, but you’ll just have to get used to it. In the long run it’s going to be better for the game and the devs can create more diverse encounters when they’re not being shackled by ‘cheats that would circumvent the intended gameplay’.
I find it not a coincidence at all that in the same time period that more and more players are expressing their discontent with amount of spells/modifiers/tools, that such massive core gameplay changes are being talked about by the developers.
It further solidifies to me how the classes are how they are because they have to “match” the game and dungeon/encounter design. And the game and encounter design is in large part informed by addon capabilities.
So it essentially signals to me that they view “bloat” as a problem too, but tackling it is not so simple as just picking a class or spec and just during a round-table discussion voting what we keep and what we remove.
But all of these aspects are interrelated and looks like more and more huge changes are coming and with that, difficult and inevitably very emotional conversations among the playerbase
I could get onboard with banning WA from spoon feeding a boss fight, but removing tracking for party and enemy is where I draw the line.
Removing this information will simply make the game harder to read and pug. My largest concern is that PVP as a caster or healer just becomes impossible because you can’t track kicks or stop overlapping CDS.
Terrible ideas from blizzard yet again. A U turn is needed immediately on this cooked proposal.
Give me one bloody example where Blizzard actually made a better version of something addons came up with first.
My original comment never said only combat addons , yet again, another straw man. in his interview, Ion never specified “combat addons” either. He clearly said, “addons that provide information players aren’t supposed to have.”
That includes tons of casual content addons like ATT, HandyNotes, TSM, Auctionator, RareScanner, Leatrix , the list goes on. Most of these aren’t even remotely tied to combat, and yet they’d fall under that vague umbrella.
‘The base game’ is not a wheelchair. It’s how the game is MEANT TO BE.
You are using an F1 car on a cart track. You are cheating. You are breaking the system.
THAT is a more realistic way of looking at it.
I’m not saying you can’t be disappointed by this decision, but objectively this is going to be better for the game. Players will adapt, they always do. And everyone will be in a much healthier state for it.
Or…hear me out. Leave current Raid and M+ as is, add a special M+ mode for those that want all addons removed/one button rotation and almost all mechanics removed…also they think crayons are haute cuisine.
Much later.
It’s 2025. It would take much longer than 5 years to develop a whole new MMORPG.
But why would they? WoW is making money.
The gaming market has changed considerably. MMORPGs aren’t ‘hot’ anymore.
A lot of games can now be played online. It’s pretty much the norm.
So I don’t believe WoW 2 is ever going to happen (not in our lifetime anyway).
We could see a different type of Warcraft game. But not ‘WoW’.
For PvP and MM+ gaming (without voice), yes, it’s pretty bad, these addons shouldn’t have been modified.
But it’s a different way of playing.
Look at old BlizzCons, the addons were disabled, and there were still meld hoj/fake kicks… (players played with the game’s sound on,look at spells and simply the game in a different way / talking in teams).
Now, players listen to a wa, I find that even less impressive.
And a good player will remain good, a player will remain bad.
Let’s also be honest, we know that the majority of players who have addons don’t know how to read them, understand them, or use them.
In short, if you’re good, you’ll stay good, and you don’t have to worry about that.
(And most classes currently have instants, especially if you’re playing Holy Priest.)
I think it’s the opposite. They are investing in new players and young blood, which means making the game less addon-dependent and improving the game’s own skeleton. That is desperately needed to keep the game alive not just a few years down the road but in 20 years from now. I think the narrative choices and other changes they have made to incorporate more younger players, which was somewhat evident from DF onwards just have not given adequate results and they have understood they have to do it the hard way, meaning core gameplay needs a makeover.
Mind you that all of these changes will make their way to WoW slowly, I see no reason for panicking or for having a strong negative response.
We are in a sort of limbo right now where game is still in a great place and can do well even without a surge of new players, but making it more welcoming for new players has probably got to be a huge priority.
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