The bigger issue for new players isn’t just addons, it’s base settings.

Everyone has rightfully covered how difficult WoW is to get into because of the required addons. While that’s been discussed to death it takes time to make those changes. An under talked about point is how awful base settings are. This would be a significantly easier change to help get momentum short term. Some examples:

1. Default Action Bars: Imagine you just bought a game like Diablo 4. The game gives you Q, W, and E. So you do your best to juggle spells you want between them. Later you find out there is a setting in options to enable the R key. This is essentially what WoW does to every new character you make. Why the other bars outside of the first 12 aren’t on by default is just silly considering how quickly you get new spells.

2. No structure for keybinds: I get it, everyone is going to have different keybinds. That said, there should be a pop up box when you make a new character asking you to set up keybinds OR choose a pre-set option. It absolutely will not work for everyone but it would at least take the burden off new players so they can just log in and go. You can always remind players if they choose the pre-set option they can change them anytime and to encourage them to find their own.

3. Raid Style Party Frames: These should be on by default along with class colors and mana bars. It’s so weird how players who join a raid for the first time just see a giant wall of lifeless green. It also makes it harder for people to pick up roles like healing using the default portraits.

4. Mouse Over: Speaking of healing, it’s criminal how long it took Blizzard to add a feature for mouse over so you didn’t need to learn you needed to macro ALL of your healing and utility spells. Now that it’s finally added there is no reason it shouldn’t be default on. You wonder why new players are bad? Because Blizzard tells you that you need to click each party frame to select the person and then press your heal to play the game.

While there are other examples like major QoL features like Auto Loot that fit into this category the main emphasis is Blizzard desperately needs to update default settings. Players shouldn’t need to look up a guide to know what to turn on. They should be able to just log in and start playing without having to worry about why they can only use 12 spells.

In short, Blizzard needs to set new players up for success the second they log in. People are stubborn and once they learn something they are resistant to change. Start them with basic QoL and functional settings on by default so they can build good habits from level 1.