World of Warcraft Midnight’s first alpha has disabled access to almost all combat-related addon data, preventing addons such as WeakAuras and Deadly Boss Mods from reading real-time combat information in instances. That matters because those addons provide timers, callouts, and other fight information that players have relied on for years.
Adam “MysticalOS” Williams, creator of Deadly Boss Mods, posted a video discussing the change and its implications. He acknowledged that the base UI historically left gaps that made addons feel mandatory, and said he supports Blizzard’s goal of making fight information more transparent within the official interface. At the same time, he warned that the alpha’s initial implementation goes much further than that.
Game director Ion Hazzikostas told Wowhead that the system puts specific values into a box that the UI and addons can acknowledge but not inspect. You can read his explanation on Wowhead here. Hazzikostas said the team wants to block real-time computation that aids moment-to-moment combat, while minimizing damage to other add-ons. Blizzard also plans to design encounters so that required information is available in the interface, according to a Blizzard post on the official site.
Williams says the alpha’s changes “go way, way beyond breaking just combat addons, they’re breaking a lot more.” The current API adjustments treat chat messages as secret values inside instances, which prevents addons from reading chat or sending communications to other players. Williams called that change “disastrous,” noting it could break out-of-combat break timers, note sharing, durability checks, and latency checks, as well as loot tools such as RCLootCouncil.
He added that the extreme initial restrictions might be deliberate negotiation tactics, and suggested some limits could be rolled back as testing continues. Williams also reassured players that “DBM isn’t going anywhere in Midnight,” stating that the addon will be shaped around the kind of game Blizzard wants, and that the team aims to provide feedback during testing.
There are more details and context in Williams’ video, which you can watch here:
Alongside Williams’ comments, community tools have posted brief responses. The Weakauras account said it will “post a statement about the future of Weakauras once we have more details and have talked about it among the team.”
These changes will affect raid leaders, addon creators, and players who rely on combat mods for timing and coordination, while also prompting Blizzard to improve the official interface. If you liked this piece, follow us on X and Bluesky.
