World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas explained that the use of addons that provided a competitive advantage was a primary driver behind its decision to pull back API access for several player-made mods. Despite these sweeping changes, World of Warcraft will still allow users to implement addons that customize specific user interface elements to their liking.
World of Warcraft‘s upcoming Midnight expansion has already proven to be controversial due to Blizzard’s shift in policy regarding the use of addons in the game. While addons are still allowed, Blizzard curbed access to certain APIs and the information that mods can read and utilize during combat. However, some of WoW‘s latest baseline features, like the Cooldown Manager and One-Button Rotation, were added to the game after drawing inspiration from popular mods. Hazzikostas previously explained that the upcoming changes for World of Warcraft: Midnight will stop addons from offering a competitive advantage during combat, regardless of player skill level.
World of Warcraft Remains Committed to Midnight Addon Curbing
While Midnight‘s changes have forced addons like ElvUI and WeakAuras to pause development, Blizzard remained firm on its design philosophy moving forward. Hazzikostas said in a recent developer post that, while limiting addons will be jarring for some World of Warcraft players, he admitted that the game needs to be tuned accordingly, and it should give players the necessary tools needed to succeed as part of the baseline experience. Hazzikostas said that, while some cosmetic addons may break as a consequence of Midnight‘s changes, the company is working on offering new API functionality that will allow players and addon creators to continue customizing most parts of the user interface within Midnight.
Hazzikostas said that they wanted to avoid another expansion where some of the encounters they designed could be trivialized by specific addons, but also acknowledged player doubts and concerns about how things will fare in Midnight compared to previous WoW expansions. Hazzikostas added that a recent change to the Midnight beta client will allow addons to change how secondary class resources, such as a Paladin’s Holy Power gauge, appear in the UI. Additionally, feedback from the ongoing Midnight beta test will be used to make adjustments to boss encounters and the base UI experience ahead of the expansion’s 2026 launch.
However, World of Warcraft players will still have one final update to enjoy addons in their current state, when Patch 11.2.7 arrives on December 2. As of this writing, World of Warcraft: Midnight has no exact release date.
