Nameplates above and below you: the narrow change after a battleground range complaint

Battleground players worried that nameplates were giving enemies away across the map got a narrower change than they asked for. On 12 October, a beta player raised the problem on Blizzard’s US forums: nameplates seemed to work at very long range. They worried that addons built to track enemies across a battleground, of the kind used in modern WoW, would let anyone follow anyone on the map. Replies went further. One described seeing where a flag carrier was through terrain. Several hoped it was an oversight, and one suggested filing a bug report.

Those were player reports. The thread did not establish what the intended range was.

The change that followed

Blizzard’s development notes for the build posted on 16 October contain one relevant line. To reduce nameplate clutter, the visibility distance for nameplates of enemies and NPCs above and below the player has been adjusted. Your current target’s nameplate is not affected.

What it addresses

This is a vertical change. It concerns units on a different level from you: on a ledge, up a tower, on the floor beneath a bridge. Blizzard framed it as a clutter fix, not as a battleground or anti-cheat measure, and the notes give no distance.

What it leaves open

The change says nothing about horizontal range across open ground, which is where most of the battleground worries were. It does not mention targeting macros, addons or pings. And because your current target is exempt, it does not hide the nameplate of an enemy you already have targeted.

So it would be wrong to call the 16 October change a fix for the 12 October complaint. It may help with part of it.

If you report it after launch

Note whether the unit was above you, below you or on your level, whether it was your target, and which addons were running. Those details separate the vertical adjustment from the wider question the thread raised.