Blizzard insists that now is the right time to axe World of Warcraft's popular combat mods: 'We're going to be paying very close attention in the weeks and months to come'

Despite all the talk about removing combat mods from World of Warcraft, players weren't expecting them to be axed as early as the next expansion. The assumption was that it would happen gradually over time, but with the launch of the Midnight alpha, Blizzard has made it clear that it wants them gone as soon as possible.

Players and the creators of said mods, or addons, were surprised by the sudden removal of tools they've relied on for decades. The idea of fighting a raid boss without sound alerts to keep you safe or even a visual tracker for your ability cooldowns is worrying for the many players who play WoW at a high level.

Blizzard has been saying since April when it announced the changes that encounters that require combat addons are a failure of design that it wants to fix. In a recent interview with IGN, game director Ion Hazzikostas calls them a "crutch" that the developers have been leaning on too long. "We want to level the playing field, and ensure that everyone has the information at their disposal as part of the base experience that they need to succeed," he said.

Hazzikostas believes the Midnight alpha is the right time to hit the reset button and experience the MMO without addons telling you what to do. He said this kind of change "needs to happen with an expansion rollout," and that it couldn't be done in a mid-expansion update. "I think it's important that we are able to build an entire tier of dungeons and raids, all of that in this world," he said.

Most of the skepticism from players is directed at the default tools Blizzard has added as an alternative. WoW now has its own cooldown manager and damage meters available for everyone to use, but they're still missing features from the popular addons, like customizable sound effects to help you play your class optimally—which are apparently coming soon.

There are sweeping class changes in the Midnight alpha that reduce the number of abilities and buffs each class has to manage, and Blizzard hopes this will help players transition to life without addons. Hazzikostas admits that there's plenty of work to do on the developer's side to design classes and boss encounters that anyone can do with the default UI, and that they plan to address all the feedback as the alpha continues.

Midnight doesn't have a firm release date yet, but is expected to drop early next year. That doesn't give Blizzard a lot of time to figure this all out. However, I get the sense that this is a major focus for the team and just hope Blizzard doesn't inadvertently destroy the kinds of addons players use to be able to participate in raids in the first place, whether that's for accessibility or visual clarity.