#12 - Aug. 20, 2012, 3:26 p.m.
Hello Niamei,
I won’t deny that some add-ons can make certain encounters easier than they were planned to be, that’s why we are always keeping an eye on what’s out there in the add-on jungle and modify the add-on API any time we feel it’s necessary.
We’ve done so in the past regarding add-on and macro functionality, for example, one obvious add-on comes to mind: AVR, this one made certain encounters so trivial that we obviously had to restrict the API functionality.
So in short, no, encounters are designed so that players without any add-ons can still defeat every single boss in the hardest difficulty mode. Can add-ons make certain encounters a bit easier? Sure, not much though, in the past that could be the case but nowadays, even add-ons that give out boss warnings are not as important as they used to be since most encounters have them already built into the game, it can be in the form of a shout from a boss, a visual effect, a chat warning or just a sound, so you won’t feel much of a difference nowadays when raiding if you’re paying attention to those details.
Regarding healing and raid frames, players have a tendency to stick to what they’re used to (if it works don’t change it), and so a lot of players are still using raid frames from add-ons even though the game itself already has some really good ones.
I think it’s fair to say that nowadays the use of add-ons is at a place where it just gets down to personal preference and needs.
I do use quite a few add-ons, I love being able to customize my interface, my raid frames, my buttons, and show boss warnings the way I want them to be shown, I understand that giving add-ons this kind of “power” comes with certain risks, but in the end I believe the gameplay experience is highly enhanced because of the freedom of choice that the add-ons provide.
Also, great add-ons of a tendency to show us awesome ideas that we can use in the standalone game, because of them, I believe the WoW of today is a much better game without add-ons than it would be if we had never allowed add-ons to exist in the first place.
Also keep in mind that WoW is in a state of constant evolution and all the functionalities, including everything interface related is always getting better and better, add-ons are a great addition to the game and we’re not in competition with them but are instead in a very deep cooperation, and occasionally they do show us something that most players would enjoy, when that happens we try to add it to the game in our own way.