WoW Forever will block combat-calculation addons, just like retail's Midnight

One of the biggest open questions about World of Warcraft: Forever now has an answer. Addons will be allowed, but not the ones that do the thinking for you in combat.

What Blizzard said

In a Kotaku interview, Classic designer Tim Jones and lead encounter designer Mike Nuthals confirmed that the “addon disarmament” introduced for retail WoW in Midnight comes to Forever too. Blizzard also shared the news on the WoW UI Discord.

In practice, addons that:

• run calculations on combat data to tell you what to do, or
• automatically mark targets or send callouts to your group

will not get the information they need during a fight.

Why this is a bigger change for Classic players

Classic Era, Hardcore and Season of Discovery never had these limits. Aura trackers and automatic boss warnings are part of how many Classic guilds raid. Forever starts with the retail rules instead, so raid leaders may need to lean more on in-game tools and voice chat.

Blizzard has not published a list of affected addons. Bag, map, auction and quest addons do not work on combat data, so they should be fine, but that is our reading, not a confirmation.

How players are reacting

Much calmer than when retail made the change. Many players point out that Forever raids are not expected to be as demanding as modern Mythic bosses, and it is easier to accept a rule that exists from day one than a feature being taken away.

What to do now

The beta that opens on September 17 is the first chance to test. We track which addons load and which lose features on our addons page, and will update it as authors report back.