What addon features Blizzard should consider adding to the WoW UI next?

World of Warcraft has had addons available since the original beta in 2004, and some of the addons available today have been around since launch. Many of the same types of addons remain in play, even if the originals are no longer the best-known iteration. Addons tend to perform one of two core functions: either packaging game information in a way that’s more easily  understood by the player or allowing the user to alter the base interface to make it easier to use in some way. There are also entire UI replacement packs like ElvUI that totally reskin your interface and include other popular UI mods under the hood.

Blizzard recently showcased a new Cooldown Manager being added to the default UI in patch 11.1.5, and a number of people have described it as a WeakAuras replacement. WeakAuras is essentially a toolset for building simple graphical UI elements for non-developers: it’s like the Squarespace of Warcraft addons.

Some of my personal favorite WeakAuras are the Ability Timeline (Bossmods) module which replaces the countdown bars used by boss mods with a single timeline display, and the Ultimate Mouse Cursor module which puts a ring around your cursor making it easier to find on a large screen, and can display the CGD or cast time using a growing or shrinking line around the cursor ring.

Using addons isn’t required to play Warcraft, but most serious players use at least some, and over the years several popular addons have had their functionality (at least in part) added into the base UI. In some cases this has results in the original addon becoming redundant, in other cases the addon continues to offer more functionality than the Blizzard version, and players who want extra features or more customization keep using addons. Examples of addons that Blizzard have incorporated into the base UI in some form include:

• Clique for click-casting, which tends to be used by healers in more difficult content for the improved speed of reaction.
• Atlas Maps, an early precursor to the current dungeon journal.
• Bagnon or ArkInventory which groups your inventory into a single bag display, with many more tools for custom filters and subgroups of items.
• Bartender, which lets you resize and position action bars, easily map keybinds, and create button bars that are larger or smaller than the standard 12 buttons.

But there are many other popular addons Blizzard hasn’t tackled yet. For example the most popular addon is Details! Damage Meter, and some type of damage meter addon has been around since launch, trawling players’ combat logs to give real time information on performance. Such addons let players see how they compare to others’ in their chosen roles, and it also allows raid leaders to see who is doing interrupts or dispels, or why people died — all in real time. That kind of info can help you direct your group and make decisions like who to leave on the floor and who to battle rez.

Other popular addons are boss mods such as DBM or LittleWigs/BigWigs, which give predictive information based on data pulled from combat logs and the dungeon journal about encounter mechanics, helping walk players through what they need to do in raids and dungeons. (Does something need to be interrupted? Does something need to be soaked? Do adds need to be focused? Do you need to get out of the fire? These addons will tell you.) Blizzard has certainly improved that ways that encounters telegraph information to the players in the base UI, but it only really tells you what’s happening now, and the clarity of that information has varied significantly over the years. (Though it’s certainly on the rise, particularly with new circles for ground effects that were added in patch 11.1 that make the edges of effects more obvious.)

A lot has changed in the WoW UI over the last 20 years. But what features would you like to see Blizzard add to the base UI? Which functions have they added that you would like to see them take another pass on — or you don’t use because you prefer the third-party version? With WoW soon to have a built in cooldown tracker, what should Blizzard work on next?