Is Blizzard Adding WeakAuras-Like Buff Tracking to the Default UI? - New Files Datamined

Posted 2025/02/12 at 6:45 PM by Squishei

Addons in Endgame Contentbefore Dragonflightwhen Private Auras were announcedcertain addon functionalities are likely being clawed backPCGamer's Interview with Ion HazzikostasI think an area where we likely will want to start clawing back some functionality, as long as we can make sure that our baseline game experience is offering players the information they need to have an engaging, elegant time.was askedCrash Reed who is one of the UI designers speaking in that deep dive, one of the things that he's worked on is kind of trying to replicate what a lot of people do with weak auras, which is centralizing information about buff uptime, debuff uptime, cooldown tracking - kind of pulling that information towards the center of your screen, so that the default UI experience, we can flag abilities for your class as things that you should be able to track very visibly. We can even show externals; if you're a tank and someone puts Pain Suppression on you, Pain Suppression duration should be right there on the middle of your screen under your character if you opt to have that on, next to your Shield Wall or whatever else, because that's helping you manage your own ability usage. So again, of course a pro tank with weak auras is going to customize things just for them, but we want the default out of the box experience to be much much better, and we know that it's not realistic to design mechanics that ask you to track uptime of a buff, when that buff is a flashing thing in the corner of your screen 12 inches away from where your eyes are focused otherwise. We need to do better, Dragonflight's UI isn't just aesthetic, it's trying to tackle that too.The New Lua Filesplayer housing documentation

There are a couple of categories:
Essential

Utility

TrackedBuff

TrackedBar

cooldowns

spellID

linkedSpellIDs

selfAura

hasAura

charges

OmniCDSpeculationFull FilesCooldownViewerConstantsDocumentation.luaCooldownViewerDocumentation.lua

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Comment by LenaCupidThey must've watched Tally's video, hahComment by frenchbassguyBeen saying for a while that the only way to end the arms race is Blizz to take over the addons' functionality. I sure hope they can pull it off!Comment by BrylicETThese would be great additions especially if addons can hook into them so you can customize them exactly how you want. Would love to get rid of some addons or have them be a little bit lighter in raid encounters.Comment by OridanIXI'd love thisComment by llozllozGood guy Blizz: Implements Weakauras into their game, but undoubtedly it will not be as powerful as Weakauras is today. Let's call it BlizzAuras

Bad guy Blizz: Kills the weakaura addon, by essentially making everything act as a private aura unless it is done through BlizzAuras.

Call me a pessimist, but this is where I anticipate this going. It would be diabolical, but clever.Comment by NagisaStreamsDo this then kill cheese aurasComment by ThePrefessionalThe buff bar is movable, so it's not really an issue of being far away from our eyes. The issue is that there are so many buffs and procs that don't truly matter. A single raid you can have 7 buffs before you even pull, after the pull you can have 25 but you only need to truly know when 3 of them are active.

More customization is desperately needed here.

They aren't going to get rid of weakauras they've mentioned the arms race forever. Quit making such mechanically intensive fights and block weakauras from working for mechanics. Mythic raiders (because that's where weakauras is actually needed) have created a large bot population for lfr, normal, and Heroic. It's annoying.Comment by SageSilverheartThe buff bar is movable, so it's not really an issue of being far away from our eyes. The issue is that there are so many buffs and procs that don't truly matter. A single raid you can have 7 buffs before you even pull, after the pull you can have 25 but you only need to truly know when 3 of them are active.

More customization is desperately needed here.

They aren't going to get rid of weakauras they've mentioned the arms race forever. Quit making such mechanically intensive fights and block weakauras from working for mechanics. Mythic raiders (because that's where weakauras is actually needed) have created a large bot population for lfr, normal, and Heroic. It's annoying.Comment by KiorelleI just hope that whatever it is they add/do, there's an option to completely disable it and not use it.

Feels like there's a whole lot of the revamped UI that's forced on me against my will, and I don't really want -more- of it.Comment by SchattensangThe buff bar is movable, so it's not really an issue of being far away from our eyes. The issue is that there are so many buffs and procs that don't truly matter. A single raid you can have 7 buffs before you even pull, after the pull you can have 25 but you only need to truly know when 3 of them are active.

More customization is desperately needed here.

They aren't going to get rid of weakauras they've mentioned the arms race forever. Quit making such mechanically intensive fights and block weakauras from working for mechanics. Mythic raiders (because that's where weakauras is actually needed) have created a large bot population for lfr, normal, and Heroic. It's annoying.Comment by yeooeyGood guy Blizz: Implements Weakauras into their game, but undoubtedly it will not be as powerful as Weakauras is today. Let's call it BlizzAuras

Bad guy Blizz: Kills the weakaura addon, by essentially making everything act as a private aura unless it is done through BlizzAuras.

Call me a pessimist, but this is where I anticipate this going. It would be diabolical, but clever.Comment by RasaricNone of this needs to exist in the game. Just ban addons.Comment by conchChange is going in the right direction. It’s always been a pity that they leave critical UI to third parties, regardless of trivializing encounters.

That said, the long term payoff of this should be better and more predictable encounter design.Comment by Wolfaxe451None of this needs to exist in the game. Just ban addons.Comment by phaizBlizzard could just stop trying to "win" an imaginary race. If you make simple and easy to understand encounters no one will need to make super ultra advanced addons or weakauras. This is already a thing in other MMOs.Comment by westomoprestoThe designers realized they cant beat their own fights without weakauras so they make their own
that's what im getting from thisComment by DindongBlizzard could just stop trying to "win" an imaginary race. If you make simple and easy to understand encounters no one will need to make super ultra advanced addons or weakauras. This is already a thing in other MMOs.Comment by markdallBeen saying for a while that the only way to end the arms race is Blizz to take over the addons' functionality. I sure hope they can pull it off!youe-wasteComment by KryonyxThey pretty much let it slip in an early TWW video that they were working on this. I forget which dev video or interview it was but I remember hearing about it. This will be a good evergreen solution for them to have more control over things.Comment by polksc33Make the game easier and fun, and let only damage meter or something like transmog addons are allowed.

Oh sorry, Blizzard is incapable to do that.

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