Preordering Mists of Pandaria may break certain addons
WoW Insider has received a tip that preordering Mists of Pandaria makes a change to your account in the API that may cause some addons to malfunction. Rosanera sent us the following message:
The API call GetAccountExpansionLevel() is returning 4 for accounts that have pre-ordered Mists of Pandaria on Battle.net, instead of 3. This is causing several addons to break, where they don't check for GetAccountExpansionLevel() being any higher than 3 (for level 85). 4 is supposed to be for level 90.
... Any addons that check to show a UI element or not for experience will now behave improperly.
If you haven't pre-ordered, the API call returns 3.
But what does it all mean? Basically, an API is the publically available set of data that Blizzard makes available to addons and addon makers worldwide. The 3, in this instance, means "This account has Cataclysm, and you should adjust your behavior accordingly. 85 is max level." Conversely, 4 means "Hey, this account has Mists of Pandaria, and max level is 90" -- but many an addon hasn't been set up for this, and indeed, it's not possible to actually level to 90 right now.
Some addons that aren't recognizing that number when it's larger than 3 are just seeing a value that makes about as much sense as hieroglyphics do to me. Rather than being able to figure out what's going on for themselves, addons will likely just throw all their toys out of the cot and give up, so if your addon has an experience element to it, this could cause it to break. Bug reports have been submitted, but this little kink could take a while to iron out!
I've preordered, and all my addons seem to be OK at the moment, but we'll see how this progresses. If your addon's broken, this might be why. Try turning off XP-related elements if the possibility exists to do so, and that might solve your issues.
Let us know if your addon is broken in the comments below.
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
