Single-Button Assistant: What, why and who is it for?

What is the Single-Button Assistant?

The Single-Button Assistant was revealed during a WoWCast episode where Dratnos (@Dratnos), content creator, and Max, raid leader of Team Liquid, interviewed Ion Hazzikostas, current Game Director of World of Warcraft: The War Within. 

What does the Single-Button Assistant do?

"This Single-Button Assistant will cycle through a prioritized list of abilities that your character knows and automatically use them against your current target" (Blizzard).

In a nutshell, this is a button that will go through your rotation using a single key. Blizzard states it's smart
enough to know when to use AoE or single-target abilities, but the true extent of that remains to be seen.

There is a 0.3-second GCD penalty, meaning this button is very unlikely to replace your full rotation or the skill involved in mastering it.

Blizzard has confirmed that the Single-Button Assistant is not meant to replace manual rotations, but instead to give newer players a chance to compete fairly while still learning dungeon or raid mechanics.

They also stress that the tool is not designed to optimize your rotation. So if you're aiming for peak performance, you're still better off making GCD-to-GCD decisions yourself.

Design Guidelines

The Single-Button Assistant and Assisted Highlight modes do a lot of things, but they will not fully play your character for you. There are several decisions we made about our expectations for what these functions perform or recommend for you:

The Single-Button Assistant and Assisted Highlight modes will:

• Adjust to abilities you know from changing talents and include them in the cycle of abilities used or highlighted.

  
• Swap between single target and AoE damage spells based on proximity of enemies near your primary target.

The Single-Button Assistant and Assisted Highlight modes won’t:

• Move your character around in the world, or use any mobility buttons like Blink, Sprint, or Heroic Leap.
• Change targets for you if your target dies or you want to debuff multiple different enemies.
• Use major offensive cooldowns like Avenging Wrath, Bladestorm, or Ascendance.
• Interrupt enemies or otherwise use utility or crowd control spells.
• Heal your low health character or use defensive abilities.
• Use any trinkets, potions, tradeskill items, or other similar items in your inventory.
  
  

So as we can see, Blizzard just wants this to be a tool to learn, not to play your character. 

So Who Is This Really For?

Well, besides explaining what it does and what their intended goal is, Blizzard has not come out and specifically name a target demographic for this tool. Blizzard seems to be purposely vague on who they expect to be using this tool and how the tool will be used. 

For me, I find this tool to be amazing... for dummy practice. I find it incredibility comforting to be able to have a tool IN-GAME (NO WowHead guide or even a blog like mine) to learn how to play a class. I can press a single button, and see what the game recommends, lets me observe, learn, and eventually apply that knowledge in real gameplay—like Mythic+—without the tool.

A Real Concern

My concern is with players who may come to rely on it too much, to the point that they don’t feel comfortable playing without it. With the 0.3-second GCD penalty, their damage may suffer—and if they never move beyond the assist tool, it could become a crutch.

Now my concern may be misguided or I'm not trusting new players on being able to learn the game themselves, but I do know of a lot of horror stories of either current new players or people who use to be noobs who would be cussed out by more veteran players and would be turned off from World of Warcraft. 

On The Flip-Side

I do believe this tool does indeed, have some good! For new players, they can easily learn their class while doing the dungeon. If a player can learn how to NOT DIE that will increase their DPS 100X!

And it’s not fully automated, either. You’ll still need to know how and when to use major cooldowns like Avatar—so there’s skill involved.

Final Note:

This feature is part of Blizzard's wider effort at "add-on disarmament" This is where Blizzard is going to be adding the most popular features that addons have into their base game. My only concern is that this Single Button Assist, may lead Blizzard down to more unhealthy path of automation.. but maybe not... they really hate single button Macro rotations...   

I will create a future blog post once this feature comes out with more of my opinion. 

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