Blizzard continues to bake features and capabilities into World of Warcraft previously relegated to third-party add-ons, but it's going a step further with the newly announced Rotation Assist option coming in the MMORPG's next patch. As announced by WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas in a new episode of the WoWCast, the new optional UI feature is coming as part of WoW's 11.1.7 update. It will make it so the game's UI will display which ability a player should use next to deal optimal damage, mimicking the functionality of the popular add-on Hekili Priority Helper. According to WoW add-on manager Curse Forge, Hekili has been downloaded more than 56 million times. However, WoW's Rotation Assist tool will actually go even further beyond add-ons like Hekili by having an option to simplify WoW's gameplay into a single button, one that will serve as an "auto rotation" that will automatically use the next optimal ability. There will be some penalty to using the single-button rotation option in the form of a small global cooldown penalty. The longer wait to cycle between abilities means those using it will perform worse than a skilled player doing the same rotation without assistance, but it's still a huge change for Blizzard's 20-year-old MMO. Hazzikostas said the option of the single-button rotation is being added for accessibility purposes, as well as for those who don't care about playing the game at a high-level or learning their class. "We want to make sure this is for accessibility purposes," Hazzikostas said. "That it's there for people who maybe, honestly, aren't interested in the gameplay of mastering their spec. They want to explore Azeroth and experience the story, and mechanics get in the way of that sometimes. This should be for them. Ideally, this is not a tool where someone is being told by their raid leader to stop trying to DPS manually and just turn on the one button mode to meet some DPS check. That we want to give you the tools to go through that organic progression naturally." The announcement of the Rotation Assist feature comes as part of larger discussion between Hazzikostas, WoW content creator Dratnos, and Team Liquid guild leader Max about Blizzard's philosophy when it comes to add-ons, expanding the base capabilities of WoW's UI, and how the game is designed around some of the information only add-ons can currently provide. Hazzikostas said while he doesn't have any specific dates, the team is also looking at building a DPS meter (the most popular WoW add-on by a large margin, he said) into the base UI, as well as improvements to nameplates and more raid encounter information, like a timeline of upcoming boss abilities. "We are looking at all the places where players are saying, 'You need this WeakAura, you need this add-on to be competitive', and asking ourselves, 'How do we change our game to make that not the case?'" It's a path Blizzard has already been on for several years, starting with a customizable UI overhaul in WoW's Dragonflight expansion and most recently with the introduction of the Cooldown Manager to the game's base UI, a replacement for the popular add-on WeakAuras. At the end of the video, Hazzikostas made clear none of Blizzard's decisions were set in stone going forward on the subject of add-ons and that it's listening to the community for its feedback However, he also laid out Blizzard's current philosophy on how it's approaching add-ons going forward. "Our sense is that for many players, the feeling that they have to download and use certain add-ons in order to play the game competitively, isn't really part of what's attractive about the game or healthy in the long run," Hazzikostas said. "So if we can pull things back to a place where add-ons are available for those who want to use them, but people aren't feeling pressured by their groups, by just the natural demands of competition and not wanting to lose out to someone who is using more advantages, that's going to be the healthier route in the long run." WoW's 11.1.7 patch does not have a release date but will be available for testing on the game's public test realm later this week. Meanwhile, if you want to see what happens when a WoW Classic player installs every available add-on at once, well, you've been warned.