So what was the point in addon purge?

[Greengrim]

Can anyone please try to explain to me what was the point in the addon purge? Was it to simply replace addon X with addon Y?

Because that's what is happenening in practice right now. There's no more WA, OmniCD, InterruptBar, and many more, but there are other addons that do the same things.

[Mehrunes]

Since top guilds still use custom addons to a high degree of what was possible before, it was apparently to replace WA gap where top guilds had custom WAs they didn't share with anyone but other people could still have functional UIs with addon gap, where top guilds have custom everything that they don't share with anyone and more or less continue as before while everyone else is forced to play with Blizzard's barebones garbage that they haven't even bothered properly updating to 2026 and just spat out a weak clunky and undercooked cooldown manager.

[Lahis]

The goal was to kill Weakauras.

In that, they were succesfull.

Now we need to download a dozen addons to replace all the functionality Weakauras brought.

[WowIsDead64]

I don't think it's about entry threshold or accessibility of game. Because nothing has really changed here. Casual content is still playable without addons, as it was. Mythic raids are still inaccessible, as they were. Addons are still required due to half of standard interface being broken, as they were.

My idea: no-addons is similar to no-flying. At some point devs run of ideas how to make new content. And they have those terrible ideas like "Feature X prevents us from adding more interesting content" or "Let's make room for new diverse content via removing something". What they usually don't understand - nobody needs this "interesting" content. Like, for example, remove WAs to add 3yr-old puzzles as raid mechanics. Problem is, players use addons to solve such puzzles not because they want to be more efficient. They use addons for this because they HATE such content and don't want to play it. Forcing them to do it - is counter-productive. Same as happened in no-flying case. After about 10 years of no-flying witch hunt Blizzard realized, that instead of saving their game they were causing even more damage to it.

[Greengrim]

The goal was to kill Weakauras.

In that, they were succesfull.

Now we need to download a dozen addons to replace all the functionality Weakauras brought.

So, practically, nothing changed?

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I don't think it's about entry threshold or accessibility of game. Because nothing has really changed here. Casual content is still playable without addons, as it was. Mythic raids are still inaccessible, as they were. Addons are still required due to half of standard interface being broken, as they were.

My idea: no-addons is similar to no-flying. At some point devs run of ideas how to make new content. And they have those terrible ideas like "Feature X prevents us from adding more interesting content" or "Let's make room for new diverse content via removing something". What they usually don't understand - nobody needs this "interesting" content. Like, for example, remove WAs to add 3yr-old puzzles as raid mechanics. Problem is, players use addons to solve such puzzles not because they want to be more efficient. They use addons for this because they HATE such content and don't want to play it. Forcing them to do it - is counter-productive. Same as happened in no-flying case. After about 10 years of no-flying witch hunt Blizzard realized, that instead of saving their game they were causing even more damage to it.

That's a valid point, even though it's kinda sad - things boiling down to Blizzard just not knowing what's good for their game..

[WowIsDead64]

Ah, and this is classic example of "Devs don't listen to feedback". Dunno how much time will it take for them to pull this "Remove addons" and "Nerf class mechanics" ripcord. But it's, again, about another 2 years of ruined game.

And yeah. Classic example of changes just for sake of changes. Blizzard think, that "stagnation" is worse than "change tax". "Change tax" - is when player has to constantly relearn game and can just get tired of this process.

I've got tired of this. My opinion - with small exceptions (like SP, but SP is always broken), DF game mechanics were almost perfect. End of TWW and Midnight changes were completely unnecessary.

Yeah, I understand problem of learning too many things before starting to play game effectively. Downloading 3rd-party addons is one of such things. For example I don't heal, because I don't want to waste time on configuring my Grid2 properly for my needs. But may be it's necessary evil? Because on the other hand standard UI is still way too broken.

Yeah, I understand this problem. Enh Shaman for example. 3 offensive CDs and all 3 can be just used at the same time, cuz using effect multiplication - is great idea. So, let's just make one of them passive and other one to be tied to another. But don't you think, that it's more class design problem, than game design one? Paladin doesn't have this problem. Right? Because Paladin has interesting utility abilities. Stun, shield, that returns absorbed damage. Right? Just add more interesting active buttons to class -> problem solved.

Yeah, I understand "Depending on 3rd parties" problem. People get old, die. They stop addon development due to other reasons and if game would depend on them too much - it would die too. But this problem is caused by standard UI being so bad. No? For now it's more like compromise. Yeah, it isn't that terrible, as it was before DF. But it's still about minimal effort put into fixing it and having so called "priorities", i.e. not fixing problems for ages, while 3rd party devs can dedicate their time to 100% fixing all problems.

[Greengrim]

Ah, and this is classic example of "Devs don't listen to feedback". Dunno how much time will it take for them to pull this "Remove addons" and "Nerf class mechanics" ripcord. But it's, again, about another 2 years of ruined game.

I mean, the game isn't really ruined imho. It's just cringe how addons got purged, but then other addons replaced them, practically doing the same thing...

[Rageonit]

So, practically, nothing changed?

The goal was not to kill WeakAuras specifically, but to kill computational addons. WeakAuras developers decided to discontinue the project, even thought the addon was used for plenty of non-computational tasks.
The goal was achieved, computational addons/auras no longer work.

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It's just cringe how addons got purged, but then other addons replaced them, practically doing the same thing...

No addons got "purged", some developers simply decided to discontinue development; and no addon replaced the computational abilities of WeakAuras. The main reason why you need ten small addons now instead of one big is because of WeakAuras death.

[Lahis]

So, practically, nothing changed?

Well it did change. Our UIs are now much more worse than before, and the gap between top guilds and normal people got even wider. Top guilds still have their inhouse addon devs that code custom addons to solve mechanics. Normal people will never have access to those addons. Atleast with Weakauras some packs were eventually made public after the race.

[deenman]

basicaly as it was clearly stated, the purpose was to lower the gap between people using 3rd party addons and the ones not using any, and like the mad lads they are, not only have they failed, but they made it worse /slowclap

[Ghostile]

basicaly as it was clearly stated, the purpose was to lower the gap between people using 3rd party addons and the ones not using any, and like the mad lads they are, not only have they failed, but they made it worse /slowclap

tbf, the removal of assistance was always going to hit the worse players harder.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

The stated goal was not to "lower the gap" though, it was, quoting Ion, to have add-ons "not provide any combat advantage."

I don't see how anyone can honestly argue this wasn't a failure by their own standards lol. They are obviously still providing a significant advantage.

My personal UI is basically the same as before, just a little worse. So far, that seems like the only thing they really accomplished - making the game a little worse. The dungeons and raids are 95%+ the same as before, we just have no way to track a lot of stuff now.

Anyone who was expecting a massive redesign of content has to be disappointed. The biggest change is that m+ dungeons are piss easy, but that's a tuning problem more than a mechanics one.

[Greengrim]

... we just have no way to track a lot of stuff now.

What can we not track now?

I think we can track the same things, just with different addons.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

What can we not track now?

I think we can track the same things, just with different addons.

Party buffs and CDs, unless there's some work-around I'm not aware of? I honestly haven't been playing that much, 4 keys a week for vault since nothing else seems worth doing

[Greengrim]

Party buffs and CDs, unless there's some work-around I'm not aware of? I honestly haven't been playing that much, 4 keys a week for vault since nothing else seems worth doing

MiniCC

/10char

[Lahis]

Party buffs and CDs, unless there's some work-around I'm not aware of? I honestly haven't been playing that much, 4 keys a week for vault since nothing else seems worth doing

There are some addons that can track party kicks but those will not work in PUGs as the AddOn is reguired to be installed on every player. Basically the AddOn just tells other AddOns when a kick is used so they can roll a CD. If the kicker doesn't have tha addon, it won't work.

Similarly, party defensives have been arranged to dedicated addon view. This one works standalone, since it can see when a defensive is used because those are shown on party frames and then it just rolls the default Cd timer on it.

But since either of these can read real combat event details or know true CDs, it is much worse than what we used to have.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

MiniCC

/10char

That doesn't show if someone is using their major CD does it? I'm manually watching people to see when to power infuse them, so good luck to anyone who doesn't have a CD with an obvious visual like paladins

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There are some addons that can track party kicks but those will not work in PUGs as the AddOn is reguired to be installed on every player. Basically the AddOn just tells other AddOns when a kick is used so they can roll a CD. If the kicker doesn't have tha addon, it won't work.

Similarly, party defensives have been arranged to dedicated addon view. This one works standalone, since it can see when a defensive is used because those are shown on party frames and then it just rolls the default Cd timer on it.

But since either of these can read real combat event details or know true CDs, it is much worse than what we used to have.

Defensives show up on default and Danders at least, but they need to add a lot more stuff

[Velshin]

Tbh it is Blizzard fault to make the mythic raiding these days way too complex and has a lot of overwhelming amount of mechanics that require the use of such weakauras and all of that stuff.

I used to be a myth raider from the dawn of WoW all the way up to BfA expansion then I stopped and focused into m+ and for raids? I only do normal and heroic now. Blizzard need to learn how to make hard/difficult encounter without super duper over complicated mechanics that require insane amount of spread sheet and communication.

[Greengrim]

That doesn't show if someone is using their major CD does it? I'm manually watching people to see when to power infuse them, so good luck to anyone who doesn't have a CD with an obvious visual like paladins

I think it does show, but I'm not 100% sure since I found out about it today. Haven't had the chance to test it yet.

But even if it doesn't really show if the CD is currently active, with just 2 quick looks (before any pull and shortly after) you can see whos in CDs and who isn't.

[Lahis]

Defensives show up on default and Danders at least, but they need to add a lot more stuff

Default UI shows when a Defensive is on, but it doesn't show the CD on them. AddOns need to catch the indication for whrn it is on and show the CD afterwards.