WoW continues its trend towards adding popular addons as important, in-game features in update 11.1.7, Legacy of Arathor. In the most recent WoWcast, Ion Hazzikostas (Senior Game Director) sat down with Liquid’s Maximum, and noted World of Warcraft caster Dratnos to talk about a variety of upcoming changes to the game, especially involving addons.
However, I’d argue the most important thing talked about in their conversation was Rotation Assist/One-button Casting. This WoW update will help somewhere, where the game quite frankly lacks in the new player experience: teaching the actual combat. Here’s what we know, and why it’s a good thing.
WoW update 11.1.7 will offer players Rotation Assist and One-Button Cast
Earlier this year, Holly Longale revealed WoW’s commitment to improve the new player experience, and this update will go a long way to improve that. In the Blizzard-produced video posted on April 30, 2025, Ion Hazzikostas revealed that a version of a popular addon is coming to the main game: Rotation Assist. Perhaps better known as the World of Warcraft addon Hekill, it would help players learn their class rotation.
Rotation Assist builds upon the most recent update to WoW, 11.5, which added Cooldown Manager. One of the problems World of Warcraft has, is that there are so many “required” addons — or at least, they feel required. Damage Meters, addons like Deadly Boss Mods that show you raid encounter attacks, and so forth.
The team at Blizzard want to make that less of a requirement, and have been updating the game to reflect that. The Rotation Assist update in WoW 11.1.7 will go a long way to helping new players out. While not every class is complicated, knowing the optimal way to play (your rotation) isn’t something that’s taught in-game.
This upcoming Rotation Assist feature will make the game highlight your next attack, so you know what to press to figure out your rotation. Then, as time passes, you will naturally get better, and stop relying on it as much. However, there’s another feature that’s coming with this, and it’s One-button casting.
This will just let you mash one button to use your rotation, but it comes at a cost: It will feature a GCD (Global Cooldown), so you will ultimately lose DPS mashing this one button. Some players are going to no doubt complain about this, but there is something to keep in mind: You don’t have to use it ever.
This is an excellent way to see exactly what your class is supposed to do, rotation wise. I also see another use for this one-button casting, depending on how long the cooldown is between attacks. As long as it can still kill things, even if it’s not efficient, I see it being very popular. The goal isn’t to be optimal, but just to help teach players, which I think is very important.
World of Warcraft has changed a lot over the years, and some older players have a hard time keeping up. Some of those players wind up playing Classic instead, because there’s less to remember, and keep track of in terms of actually playing the game. This way, they could probably do exactly what they want to do on the Retail servers: Log in and just kill monsters.
This feature will be coming with update 11.1.7, and I’m glad to see it coming in. One of the problems the game has always had is it doesn’t really teach the intricacies of combat. You’re just supposed to go in and know, or use outside resources to learn. This keeps people in the game and learning.
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Edited by Jason Parker
