Blizzard reworks spell density for better performance and visibility in patch 11.2

World of Warcraft is a visually-lovely game with sweeping vistas, towering villains, and other stunning sights, but sometimes the visuals you experience the most are also the most grating — spell effects. That visual “volume” experience dial goes straight to 11 during combat as player hardware improves and spell visuals become more ornate. All those pretty, sparkly pixels flashing on your screen at any given time in combat can take you from focused to frustrated in no time at all. But in patch 11.2, Blizzard is reworking spell density settings (while continuing its trend of accessibility improvements) by… chopping the list of options to almost nothing?

Let’s talk about this newest system rework and how it’s actually a good thing (despite sounding wildly confusing).

The feedback post provides some needed clarity, leading to our plain language translation: Blizzard recognizes that visual density is almost overwhelmingly high in combat. Friendly spell visuals have officially overshot on value-add. Coming in 11.2.0, this new version of spell density adjusts the visuals you experience from party or raid members, with a simpler option list to boot — effectively providing an “easy button” option for dialing back the non-essential noise.

Right now, pre-Ghosts of K’aresh, spell density settings include six options (that most of us probably never look at), which will condense down to three with patch 11.2.0: Everything, Reduced, and Essential. All previous options for partially reducing spell density are now bundled in the (aptly-named) “Reduced” choice. Reduced replaces both the percentage-scaling options for reducing non-essential spell effects (previously helpful if your gaming rig is a potato) and the default Dynamic option that links spell visual density to your current framerate.

Instead of being quantified, Reduced is simply targeted as “ideal for dungeon and raid content” and takes over the default value slot for everything except the top and bottom of the Graphics Quality collection of settings. Now, this setting will not change the spell visuals for you, your pets, NPCs, and enemy players in PVP (although this last one may change down the road). This is critical clarification — visuals are critical sensory cues for telegraphing what you need to do in combat (along with audio cues), but especially more so if you rely on one sense over the other.

With the current system, if you have any kind of visual processing struggles (or play a gnome, goblin, or vulpera)? Good luck. Heck, the wild visuals of a full raid group in full combat glory can be enough to trigger a migraine for me.

But it’s not just about how you experience visuals; it’s also how said visuals impact your playing. I’m not the best raider on any given day, but add 10-20 other sets of spell effects to the screen in additional to whatever the Big Bad of the Day is throwing at me? Something’s going to get missed. This makes me the perfect “Reduced” candidate — anything that can reduce the visual noise and help me focus on the boss is a win. Plus, I probably shouldn’t be admiring the scenery, or our Frost Mage’s Blizzard, mid-combat (well, unless I’m floor-tanking).

Blizzard’s feedback post clearly notes that the devs plan to “continually update and iterate on this system… for the foreseeable future.” Maybe we can anticipate some additional improvements to the cluttered graphics menu! And of course, the less spend you time on tweaking your settings, the more you can devote to enjoying those graphics — ideally through transmog. And it’ll be here soon, with Ghosts of K’aresh!