How to Disable NPC Outline and Sparkles

If you're a returning player to World of Warcraft, like me, you were probably turned off to see the amount of peeves added since you were gone. You probably even scavenged through your options to turn off these annoyances disguised as "changes" and found where one ended, another began. Bling bushes and glowing NPCs are irritating because most veteran WoW players want to lose themselves in the game and not be reminded they're playing one. Things that seek to get your attention, take away from that experience. After all, your mom doesn't glow when she has something to say to you. Having a real world experience is what draws players to MMOs, which is why we enjoy the time sink. However, in the last few years, the OGs of this genre have moved on. They've now been replaced with developers who have deteriorated the game's quality by promoting instant gratification and laziness.

Unfortunately, for those of us who prefer the original real world experience, some of these "features" don't have a straight-forward way to be turned off if at all. But have no fear, I've gone through the frustration for you! As of this writing, it's version 8.0.1 and 3 days before Battle for Azeroth release, so here's how to disable NPC outline and sparkles.

Disabling NPC and Player Outlining

 

Outline Mode was implemented about 4 years ago. It adds a highlight around NPCs and players that makes them look like they just partied with irradiated gnomes in Gnomeregan. Seeing NPCs was never a problem and miserably takes away the world-like feel of the game. So to disable it, it's as simple as just hitting ESC to get to the Game Menu > System > Graphics and under Effects, go to the very bottom and change the drop-down menu for Outline Mode to disabled. Easy peasy right? But wait! There's more!

 

Remember when I said when one annoyance ended, another began? Well, once you turn off Outline Mode, NPCs will be replaced with sparkles instead and this cannot be turned off. Luckily, the sparkles will only reappear when another player is on top of the NPC, so for the most part, they aren't visible. Well, until launch day when dozens of players will be standing on the NPC which may cause a clusterfuck of sparkles because the sparkles aren't only on the NPC but on also the players who are standing on it. Another kicker is if the player is on a large mount, the sparkles also get large. You can check out the following video see this phenomenon in action.

 

Disabling NPC Sparkles

Apparently Blizzard likes rape because they can't seem to take no for an answer. Disabling outlining will grant you sparkles on quest items instead and this can't be turned off. However, it's possible to diminish the amount of sparkles by going into the Game Menu > Graphics > Effects and lowering Particle Density to it's lowest which is Low. The drawback of this is that it will not only lower particle density for things that sparkle, but also in other elements of the game, such as spell intensity, as well.

Turning Off Quest NPC Ground Highlight

If you like the element of surprise and prefer to play with enemy nameplates off, then Blizzard forces ground highlights on quest NPCs. There is not a way to disable this. The only way to get rid of them is to turn on enemy nameplates by going to ESC > Game Menu > Interface > Names > NPC Names and change the drop-down to Quest NPCs. They do not go away when selecting any of the other choices.

So there you have it. I hope my mini guide here was able to get you back to a somewhat clean interface, despite Blizzard trying to shove shit down our throats.

Suffer well,

Lady Felwhisper💀

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