The full breakdown of each add-on change and upcoming feature timeline is below.
The full prepatch for Midnight introduced several significant changes to the user interface and add-on landscape. The most prominent was the official release of ElvUI, which shipped its first public build after a beta period, giving players a single add-on to consolidate much of their UI setup.
ElvUI's comprehensive framework covers most of the functions that previously required multiple separate add-ons:
Despite the broad coverage, ElvUI does not replace cooldown management add-ons. Players still need tools like Better Cooldown Manager or RQI for that function. The developer, Luckyone, noted plans for a dedicated cooldown manager feature, though no release date was confirmed at launch.
For players who previously ran four separate add-ons to handle these functions, ElvUI consolidates the entire setup into a single configuration system.
A player known as Norskin built "MidAuras" — a community attempt to recreate the WeakAuras functionality that Blizzard removed from the API. The project mimics WeakAuras' interface but is missing most of the combat tracking features that made the original tool valuable, since the underlying Blizzard APIs those features relied on are no longer available. MidAuras currently serves as a visual layout tool rather than a combat awareness system.
Blizzard confirmed that the available add-on capabilities at launch would remain unchanged until the 12.0.5 update (Lingering Shadows). Hotfixes and class balance patches continued, but no new API access or add-on feature expansion was on the table before that milestone.
Timeline for add-on changes at launch:
| Update Type | Expected Timeline |
|---|---|
| Add-On Feature Updates | Not before version 12.0.5 |
| Class and Balance Hotfixes | Ongoing |
| Base UI Improvements | Ongoing |
Those parameters set the floor for what add-on authors could build at Midnight's launch and shaped which third-party tools remained viable without API expansion.
Work through the prepatch focused on combat UI stability. Key improvements shipped with the prepatch build:
These additions fed into a new raiding combat filter designed to cut healer noise: irrelevant buffs are suppressed and short-duration effects (healing over time, atonement, condition-based buffs) are surfaced prominently. For healers in ten-plus player content the filter meaningfully reduces visual overhead on busy pulls.
✏️ Technique tip: Healers should configure the combat filter's short-duration threshold to match their specific spec's key buffs — a Discipline Priest wants Atonement surfaced at all times, while a Restoration Shaman benefits more from Riptide and Healing Rain uptime tracking.
Several highly-requested features were not available at Midnight's launch. Blizzard indicated these would be addressed in the 12.0.5 update:
With 12.0.5 (Lingering Shadows) now live, the foundational ElvUI and MidAuras builds that shipped with Midnight have since received the API access needed for these features. For players looking at the launch snapshot, the Midnight release served as a stable starting point rather than a feature-complete overhaul.
ElvUI's first public Midnight build and the MidAuras community project established the add-on landscape at expansion launch, and the 12.0.5 window has since expanded what's available to both users and developers.
📌 Common mistake: Relying on WeakAuras export strings from previous expansions that reference combat events the Midnight API no longer exposes. Test any imported aura set in a low-stakes environment before using it in a raid or Mythic+ to avoid silent tracking failures.
ElvUI's full Midnight release covers chat management (replacing Prat), action bars (replacing Bartender), unit frames (replacing Grid), and bag management (replacing Baganator). It does not cover cooldown tracking, which still requires a separate add-on.
No. At launch, ElvUI does not include a dedicated cooldown management module. Players who tracked cooldowns with specialised add-ons like Better Cooldown Manager or RQI still need those separately. The developer indicated a cooldown manager module was planned but gave no release date.
MidAuras is a community-built add-on created by a player named Norskin, designed to recreate the look and some functionality of WeakAuras. Because Blizzard removed the API access that WeakAuras relied on for combat tracking, MidAuras lacks most combat-related features and currently functions as a layout tool rather than a full aura system.
Blizzard confirmed that significant add-on API expansions were planned for the 12.0.5 update (Lingering Shadows), which is the current patch. That update included custom buff and debuff positioning and advanced player-frame filtering options that were not available at launch.
The raiding combat filter suppresses irrelevant buffs from raid frames and highlights short-duration effects like healing over time and Atonement. It is designed to reduce visual noise for healers on busy pulls by surfacing only the buffs and statuses that require immediate attention.
Some auras will carry over, but any that reference combat events or API calls removed in Midnight will silently fail. Test imported aura sets in a low-stakes context before relying on them in Mythic+ or raid content to confirm they still track correctly.
The 12.0.5 (Lingering Shadows) update expanded API access for add-on developers, enabling custom buff and debuff positioning within unit frames and more advanced filtering options for player and raid frames — features that Blizzard held back from the initial Midnight launch.
