Blizzard Entertainment is restricting the use of third-party software in World of Warcraft, the company announced on Aug. 21, following the rise of new tools to help players win raid fights by giving real-time information that shouldn’t be available.
In an official forum post, the developer revealed it intended to “make changes to how the Advanced Combat Log is populated” that would prevent it from being used by third-party programs to draw overlays.
Those would be introduced ahead of Dragonflight season three, whose release is planned for fall.
Overlays are a clever way players found to display game-breaking information on raid fights with a very slight delay.
These overlays are different from add-ons. The latter are generally tolerated by Blizzard, although some of them will be in a gray area when “facilitating gameplay” or offering an unfair advantage. They have been widely used for years to get quality-of-life features and data to weigh your performance in a raid.
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The third-party software Blizzard is restricting, however, read the combat logs to get real-time information players shouldn’t have access to. Examples of some of this information according to Wowhead include bypassing Private Auras and being able to see stats and contributions from different specializations in real time.
After the website shared the article highlighting the main overlays players used to get easier raid fights on Aug. 17, debate arose in the community on whether it should be prevented by the developer.
Blizzard gave a fast response, although it’s still unclear when the changes will be implemented between now and the release of Dragonflight season three.
Meanwhile, some balance changes are being implemented with Aug. 22’s weekly reset, bringing nerfs to Guardian Druids, Holy Paladins, and Fire Mages.
