Why Addon Changes Are a Positive Step for World of Warcraft

Love or hate them, World of Warcraft's addons are up for changes. Game Director, Ion Hazzikostas, recently sat down with PC Gamer, announcing plans to limit combat addon functionality, which prompted mixed reception from both the PvE and PvP communities. If you've found your way to this article, you might be feeling excited, confused, sceptical, or convinced that this is a poor decision for WoW; that's all valid, so let's talk about it.

- By Alyssa Rochelle Payne

• Alyssa thinks positively

Do note: addons are still allowed and working as usual in WoW! These changes do not have a set date yet, and not all addons will be affected. Additionally, I’m approaching this mainly from a PvP healer lens. Arena and Battlegrounds are the main modes I log into WoW for, and I’m a frequent viewer of AWC (Arena World Championship). That said, the contents below also apply to PvE.

For the uninitiated, WoW’s proposed changes will stop addons from reading the combat log and aura hooks, which will affect many popular, “must-have” tools, such as Deadly Boss Mods, Bigwigs, and WeakAuras. These third-party addons succeed at giving players clear and customisable details on enemies and allies, which the baseline WoW experience heavily lacks.