Midnight's removal of combat addons lets WoW designers make raids more puzzle-based, lead says

World of Warcraft: Midnight will be the game’s first expansion without combat addons after Blizzard removed many addons' ability to read combat data in the pre-patch. That change forced widespread class redesigns—many classes had been built on the assumption players could use tools like Roll the Bones—and left Blizzard to provide alternatives for some essential features while other addons no longer work.

Lead encounter designer Dylan Barker says the shift has design benefits. Previously, world-first teams often had Weakauras-fluent programmers creating custom auras for specific mechanics, and addons that tracked interrupts and other details shaped what designers could reasonably expect in fast formats like Mythic+.

Barker argues you shouldn’t need coders to raid. Without those tools, Barker believes designers can introduce mechanics that demand puzzle-solving, communication and coordination rather than simply increasing incoming damage.

wow, midnight expansion, combat addons, blizzard, dylan barker, raid design, weakauras, mythic+, class redesigns, encounter designer