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WoW TBCPatchesPatch 2.5.6

TBC Anniversary Patch 2.5.6: New Raid Frames and Nameplates, and How to Customize Them

In July 2026, Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary moved from patch 2.5.5 to 2.5.6, which brought raid frames from modern World of Warcraft and changed the nameplates. Blizzard first published chat commands for the settings players missed, then added them to the options menu on July 17.

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Players fighting in a Warsong Gulch battleground
World of Warcraft artwork © Blizzard Entertainment.

What 2.5.6 changed

Blizzard described 2.5.6 as almost entirely a patch for critical service systems, but it also changed nameplates and raid frames. The raid frames now match the ones in modern World of Warcraft's current expansion, Midnight; patch 2.5.5 had used The War Within's.

Every version of WoW Classic runs on code shared with modern WoW, which is how these interface pieces arrive: WoW Classic launched in 2019 with Battle for Azeroth's raid frames, and later patches brought newer ones. Wowcalc's TBC calculator reads the same 2.5.6 client, build 2.5.6.70006.

The settings players asked for

After the patch, players asked for more ways to adjust the new nameplates and raid frames. Before the settings were in the options menu, Blizzard published chat commands for three of them:

SettingChat command
Class colors on enemy nameplates/script C_CVar.SetCVar("nameplateShowClassColor", 1);
Class colors on friendly nameplates/script C_CVar.SetCVar("nameplateShowFriendlyClassColor", 1);
Turn off raid frame dispel highlights/script C_CVar.SetCVar("raidFramesDispelIndicatorOverlay", 0);

New options since July 17

A week later, hotfixes added the same controls, and more, to the game's options on Burning Crusade Classic:

  • Raid frames: choose the health bar color and the background color.
  • Raid frames: show or hide indicators for dispellable debuffs (off by default).
  • Edit Mode: raid frames gain Layout Template, Opacity and Aura Icon Size settings, and aura icons no longer look larger in the Edit Mode preview than in play.
  • Nameplates: color friendly or enemy nameplates by class.
  • Tooltips: the item comparison tooltip now appears only while you hold Shift, instead of all the time.

Blizzard said it will keep adding options wherever players need more control over these settings.

Addons and Classic Era

WoW Classic patch 1.15.9 brought the same kind of interface update to Classic Era, Hardcore and Season of Discovery in the week of July 19, and its addon API closely matches 2.5.6's. Blizzard pointed addon authors to the 2.5.6 client as the place to update their addons for both; see WoW Classic Era 1.15.9 Brings Edit Mode, New Nameplates and Raid Frames.

Setting up your raid frames

  1. Turn on class colors for nameplates in the options, or with the chat commands above if you prefer a macro.
  2. Decide whether you want the dispellable-debuff indicators: healers who dispel often may want them, others can leave them off.
  3. Open Edit Mode and adjust the raid frames' layout, opacity and aura size before your next raid.
  4. Update raid and nameplate addons to versions made for 2.5.6.

Sources

Official announcements this article summarizes, in its own words.

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