World of Warcraft devs respond after revealing plans to massively restrict addons as many blocked features will be added to the MMO

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In an upcoming update, Blizzard plans to limit modifications within the World of Warcraft community. Although mods for WoW may not be as extensive as those for a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, players have created useful add-ons that improve user interface functions.

WoW devs attempt to calm fans after reducing modding

Currently, World of Warcraft add-ons are designed to enhance the player’s experience by making the game more user-friendly, offering quicker combat strategies, among other features. Yet, it’s important to note that in the near future, combat add-ons will no longer be able to display key information that has been visible for years.

This modification coincides with Blizzard introducing their own official versions of widely-used addons within the MMO, although the initial release was plagued with numerous bugs. Currently, the game developer intends to limit the functionalities available to addon developers, which has left many disgruntled.

Through WoWHead, World of Warcraft developers have addressed the significant criticism from mod creators. Blizzard explained that there’s been a lot of misunderstanding regarding the timing, objectives, and characteristics of these changes, while also assuring addon developers that they will receive “plenty of time in advance before we make the switch”.

The developers aim to give addon creators ample time to check out the changes, report problems, and offer suggestions. They plan to reveal where these updates will be implemented in advance and make efforts to gather extensive input from addon developers prior to activation.

Blizzard clarified that they don’t plan to prohibit add-ons entirely and strive to reduce any negative effects on accessibility add-ons. Moreover, they will incorporate features like damage meters, enhanced nameplates, and essential combat details into the main game, which are now provided by popular add-ons.

Regardless, there remains a significant amount of uncertainty. Although Blizzard admitted that mythic raiding “has grown more dependent on add-ons”, they haven’t fully clarified their strategy for “balancing the playing field.” The question arises as to how long players must endure this blockage before these features are integrated into the game? At present, everything seems rather unclear.

It’s troubling for some World of Warcraft players that add-ons play a significant role in the game, and it seems unlikely that all requested features will ever be integrated. In other words, while not having add-ons may put a player at a slight disadvantage in WoW, is this disparity so substantial that dedicated, longtime players should be penalized for it?

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2025-06-05 15:40