Blizzard's flagship MMORPG World of Warcraft is in for a serious shakeup and no, we're not even talking about the launch of Legion, the latest expansion to the game, which is set to happen at the end of the month. What we're talking about is patch 7.1, which is set to roll out after the launch of Legion and which in itself is bound to bring some rather substantial changes. Among these changes will be mechanics that will do away with the ability of UI add-ons to tell players where to stand in a raid or competitive instance. The move is one that has apparently been planned a long time ago, but the developer didn't want to actually commit until it was certain that it could pull it all off without affecting other add-ons meant to help with more casual activities like treasure hunting and exploration.
The add-ons targeted by the fix have caused problems, seriously altering the game's intended mechanics, reducing some of the more challenging tasks to menial "stand where you're told" activities. A clear example in this sense is the final boss battle of Warlords of Draenor, involving Archimonde, which has indeed been dumbed down completely. Wrought Chaos for instance, despite the intimidating nature of its name, could be countered through a simple exploit, essentially taking all the challenge out of what should've been the most complex group challenge of the expansion.
Unfortunately, the above one was far from being the only example in this respect.
While a lot is already known about patch 7.1 and the tweaks it will bring, more details will be released about it in the coming weeks.
Philip Thalberg has been working for the e-sports news section of the world's top destination for competitive gaming since 2004.