Bye Bye, DBM: Blizzard’s New Vision for ‘World of Warcraft’ Eliminates the Need for Some of Its Most Popular Add-Ons

In today’s WoWCast, World of Warcraft senior game director Ion Hazzikostas explains Blizzard’s philosophy toward in-game combat add-ons and how a future without them is in the works. Some of the most widely used add-ons, specifically those that read World of Warcraft‘s combat events and auras, will eventually stop working. That means no more Deadly Boss Mods, bye-bye Bigwigs, and see ya later, Details. I can already hear the salt mines churning.

However, this can only be a good thing for World of Warcraft, if you ask me. Blizzard plans on implementing features that replace the necessity of these mods. Like an in-game Rotation Assist function, among many other systems that ultimately lead to more intuitive gameplay. For years, World of Warcraft and third-party add-ons have been joined at the hip, suffering from a toxic yet symbiotic relationship. As more complex raid mechanics enter the game, add-ons update to assist players. As add-ons all but automate the raiding experience, WoW‘s designers compensate with even more complex mechanics. An ouroboros of World of Warcraft‘s raiding scene.

“…Ideally, it is about ‘What do you want? How do you prefer to have things presented to you?’ And not, ‘What do you have to do? What is a groupmate or raid leader, or whatever, telling you you must download?’ Or if you ask people, ‘Hey, how can I get better? I’m really struggling at this.’ The first answer shouldn’t be, ‘Well, download this add-on, this add-on, and this add-on, otherwise you’re doing it wrong.’ Cause that’s starting to get into that mandatory place whether we like it or not,” says Ion Hazzikostas.

No more mandatory add-ons in ‘World of Warcraft’ means a more intuitive experience

It’s been one of the biggest turn-offs for me and World of Warcraft. And also, the reason why I’ve always been a staunch proponent of Final Fantasy XIV‘s raiding scene. The idea of having to use a laundry list of add-ons to compete? Mods that hold my hand, tell me what to do, where to stand, and what bosses are doing? Gross, pathetic, even. (I’m aware that many FFXIV raiders now use similar mods and, no, you don’t have any friends.)

This won’t happen all at once. Blizzard’s plan is to slowly introduce in-game functionality and replace their add-on counterparts bit by bit. Starting in World of Warcraft patch 11.1.7, which will introduce Rotation Assist, a feature that will highlight recommended abilities players can use based on what’s happening in their game. Meant to replace popular add-on Hekili, Rotation Assist seeks to help players learning a new spec. As well as those with a nearly incomprehensible number of skills on their hotbars. Later, Blizzard aims to introduce native damage meters, improve nameplates, and implement more informative presentations for raid encounters.

Hazzikostas ends the broadcast with an open invitation for player feedback. “…Basically, nothing here is locked in. You know, my hope today is to kind of begin a conversation about that direction and what areas are welcome, what areas maybe have more to do to convince the community on, and what areas we might be wrong on and should, you know, reconsider. Because I think, at the end of the day, this game belongs first and foremost to our millions of players.”