October 3, 2025 – A statement from WeakAuras has been added to this report.
The World of Warcraft Midnight alpha has just launched, and it’s making waves by taking a firm stance against combat modifications. This new update drastically limits access to combat-related information for addons, effectively crippling long-loved tools like WeakAuras and Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) that have been integral to the MMORPG for years. In a recent video, DBM’s creator offered insights into what these changes mean for players in the long run, reassuring the community that DBM “isn’t going anywhere,” though it will certainly need to evolve.
Deadly Boss Mods, often simply called ‘DBM,’ has consistently been ranked among the top WoW addons, considered “essential” for serious raiders. Its precise mechanics callouts and timers are crucial for managing the toughest boss encounters and coordinating effectively with a team. This ongoing struggle between game designers and mod creators has reached a critical point with the new World of Warcraft expansion. Blizzard is now pushing to integrate vital combat information directly into its own UI, intending to make these powerful addons less necessary.
Adam ‘MysticalOS’ Williams, the mind behind DBM, elaborates on the current changes in his video. He acknowledges, “Even as the author of DBM, I’ve said that the base UI has not been accommodating enough and has led to the situation where addons have become mandatory, because the base UI does not provide sufficient combat information for what’s going on.” He supports Blizzard’s fundamental goal of improving the clarity of fight mechanics to reduce reliance on third-party combat addons.
Game director Ion Hazzikostas clarified the situation in an interview, stating, “I just want to super clarify, a lot of the shorthand here has been like, ‘Oh, Blizzard’s killing WeakAuras.’ That is not what we are doing.” He elaborated that the new system essentially places certain “secret values” into an inaccessible “box.” While the UI and addons can acknowledge the existence of this box and display some basic information, they are prevented from definitively knowing its contents or executing complex logic based on them.
Hazzikostas reaffirmed that the primary objective is “to restrict that problem-solving, real-time computation that’s used to aid moment-to-moment combat and do the least possible damage to every other addon that millions of people use and enjoy.” The development team aims to design encounters where “all information required to use abilities with intention is available in the interface.”
However, Williams believes the initial changes go too far. “What’s not okay is that in alpha one, they’re going way, way beyond breaking just combat addons, they’re breaking a lot more.” He points to a Blizzard document shared with mod creators, suggesting the broader implications are significant. “Anything I discuss here is subject to change, and hopefully it will change because the first iteration is very bad.”
Beyond the expected combat log restrictions, WoW Midnight also treats chat messages within instances as ‘secret values.’ This means addons will lose the ability to read from or send communications to other players through chat. Williams describes this as a “disastrous change” that could disrupt out-of-combat break timers, note sharing, durability and latency checks, and even loot addons like RCLootCouncil.
Williams speculates, “I suspect that Blizzard’s changes are extreme on purpose. It’s a good negotiating tactic: if you play hardball to begin with, but then make concessions right away, it makes the negotiation appear more friendly.” He suggests that this aggressive, “thermonuclear war” approach might be a strategic starting point, anticipating gradual rollbacks to some restrictions as pre-launch testing progresses.
Regardless of how the situation evolves, Williams remains committed to his project. He declared via social media, “DBM isn’t going anywhere in Midnight. It’ll just be shaped around the kind of game Blizzard wants in Midnight. Our goal is merely to help shape the best game for everyone through communication and feedback.” The WeakAuras team initially stated they would “post a statement about the future of Weakauras once we have more details and talked about it among the team.”
Update – Friday October 3: In a subsequent post to its Patreon, the WeakAuras team announced, “As it stands, we do not expect to release a WeakAuras version for Midnight. We will continue to support WeakAuras for Classic.” They further explained, “The restrictions are so severe that core functionality, such as conditions or actions, or having multiple triggers in one aura or a cloning trigger, would become impossible. Producing a stripped-down version of WeakAuras without these features would require several months of refactoring. The result would be a barely recognizable version. Given that, we have made the difficult decision not to create a WeakAuras version for Midnight.”
If you’re not participating in the Midnight alpha, explore some of the best fantasy games or top multiplayer games available on PC.
Are you excited for potentially more engaging encounters without heavy addon reliance, or are you an addon enthusiast concerned about WoW’s future? Share your thoughts with us!