Midnight Pre-Patch OverviewMidnight User Interface Hub
In the latest Midnight Beta build additional functionality was added to the Damage Meter, but it's still unknown if players will see these changes for the Midnight Pre-Patch.
Damage Meters in WoW
With the advent of Midnight, Blizzard seeks to eliminate the competitive advantage provided by addons and offer intended functionality across the spectrum of base UI elements so Addons don't feel mandatory for playing WoW. Damage meters are one example of functionality that has been exclusively available to Addon users.
Specifically, Damage meters are combat tools designed to help players perform quick in-game combat analyses and performance comparisons through a wide array of metrics without the need to open a third-party website. With over hundreds of millions of downloads, popular damage meter Addons like Details, Skada, Recount have cemented themselves as near-required essentials for most players for WoW multi-decade history.
Blizzard's Damage Meter
Starting in the Midnight Pre-Patch, Blizzard has not only created their own damage meter as part of the base UI but also restricted the combat log data available for Addons to parse; essentially attempting to provide the level playing field between Addons and the base UI.
The first iteration of Blizzard's Damage Meter does manage to replicate a lot of the base features that players are used from modern Addons, but does fall short in a lot of categories:
Included Features
Unavailable Features
As you can see above, there's a lot of customization, metrics, and features that at present do not exist for the Blizzard Damage Meter. While it's not game breaking, players who require more thorough breakdowns may need to more heavily rely on Warcraftlogs for additional information.
Blizzard's damage meter will likely continue to be iterated upon with more functionality hopefully added in future updates or restrictions on log data relaxed. In the latest Midnight Beta build additional functionality was added to Blizzard's Damage Meter, so it's definitely something they're continuing to look at and address based on feedback.
Addon Alternatives for Blizzard's Damage Meter
The most popular damage meter addon, Details!, looks to be sticking around in Midnight albeit with a reduced set of features due to Blizzard's new limitations.
Details!
While Details metrics and breakdowns are much more limited due to Blizzard's restrictions, they still offer a suite of customization options in a UI that players will find incredibly familiar. If you're looking for a more advanced damage meter beyond the base UI with easy setup and exceptional customization, you can't really go wrong with Details.
Details was made by Terciob (developer of Plater) and can be downloaded through Curseforge.
What other Addons have you found that augment Blizzard's damage meter? What features do you miss the most compared to live and hope get implemented soon?
