Everyone has their favorite AddOn to use in World of Warcraft, and since I’m still relatively new to the game I don’t really have the faintest idea on which are ‘essential’ to get. So let me start this post off by saying that if you’ve got an addon suggestion for me by all means leave a comment below so that I can check it out. I play a priest if that makes any difference.
I don’t use too many addons and those I do use don’t really affect the game per say but add to it. I do use recount for my own personal tracking system but it’s not something I ever put into group or brag about to others. I use gearscore but again this is for my own personal knowledge and not because I want to belittle others. I want to improve myself, and these tools allow me to do that. I also use a hotkey mod called dominos just to allow me to cust0mize my UI layout, I like keys in a certain place. For anyone who knows me you’ll know I am a huge fan of lists and keeping track of things both in game and out. Yesterday I installed a mod that allows me to scan my current profession recipes and lists all of the recipes that I do not own, and where they come from. This mod is probably my favorite, and one I’ll end up using the most. I think it’s incredible, and also just a lot of fun. On that same hand I installed fishing buddy, which allows me to track which fish I have obtained, and where they came from. I learned yesterday that fishing is actually a lot more complicated then I would have once thought. It was a refreshing revelation.
Aside from exploring Mana-Tombs for the first time, I also inched my enchanting to 350 – which means I trained for Grand Master enchanting. That’s right, for the first time ever I have enchanting and tailoring at a Grand Master level. I am also fairly close to grand master fishing, although the skill ups are so far and few between it will take a few hours / days to reach the goal. My cooking is already grand master, and I imagine one of these days I’ll work first aid up there just so that I can have all three secondary professions. I love doing daily missions, even though so far I have only found the cooking one in Dalaran. Once I reach level 70 I’ll be able to do other cooking dailies.
I’m still having a lot of fun in game, despite my burn out on EQ2 right now I know I’ll return as soon as that passes. In the mean time, I’m having a lot of fun in WoW, and I’m happy for that. Safe travels, and happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.
I have been using Shadowed Unit Frames for a while now and I like them a lot. However, I am not picky. I basically wanted something compact that I could move around easily and SUF fit the bill.
Grid + clique is a must have for me, even though I am a pally tank. Why? Because clique makes it super easy and intuitive to assign spells and abilities to a given mouse+key combo. For example, I have it set up so that I can cleanse ( cure poison/curse effects ) a person in my party simply by right clicking on their little square in grid ( or any unit frame for them actually ). A left click on them casts a flash of light spell, but last night I needed easy access to casting Hand of Freedom ( remove speed debuffs ) on party members and clique made this super easy to set up.
If you are a healer … you need grid + clique or healbot for sure. Healbot works, but I find clique nicer to set up. Grid, right out of the box, should work for you and all it does is provide clickable unitframes that you can easily resize and move around however you want. However, if you just install clique you can assign spells to it and cast them by clicking on whatever unitframes you already have. However, the BIGGEST upside to Grid is that each party member appears as a square and the color behind them represents their life so you can easily see who needs a heal without having to have your eyes wander around. Then with clique you simply click on the little box to fill it back up with life.
You say you are creating keybind macros for your spells. I assume you have to create one for each party member, or maybe you are actually targeting them before you click your spell. Grid + clique also has the added bonus of allowing you to cast your spell on the clicked person without having to target them. With clique, if you want to bind a new spell to a certain mouse click + key combo it is as simple as navigating your skill book, finding the skill and clicking on the skill to assign it to that mouse + key combo. It will then cast that spell, with that mouse + key combo on whatever unitframe you clicked on.
Using the right, left, middle mouse buttons + shift, alt, ctrl you can easily assign your most used healing spells and have them ready at the drop of a hat. Another option that many people do is to not use clique, but DO use grid, and then they make a mouseover macro for each spell they need available for their main job. Then the spell will fire on what ever unit frame you have your cursor hovering over. The benefit to this is that you aren’t restricted to mouse clicks for your spells, but the downside is that you HAVE to press the key to cast the spell, since it relies on the position of your mouse cursor for a target. If you are a clicker, this wont work well. :)
Other than this, deadly boss mods and the Burning Crusade/Classic WoW expansions of it are a must have for running instances and raids. It will alert you to certain special events in boss fights and tell you when you need to not stand in fire and stuff like that. :)
@Stargrace Ooh! I’ve not tried GatherMate, I’ll have to check it out.
I’ll probably get some flak for this, but I’ve also tried a couple of levelling addons (wow-pro) and the like for getting alts up to speed. It’s fun and interesting, but not great for stopping and smelling the flowers.
I’ve used X-Perl and Pitbull in the past, I don’t really like them that much so I’ve not used many since then- But they are pretty cool looking. Search around curse and check out the ratings and comments to gauge them. There are probably some new ones out since I’ve used those heh.
@Pip – I actually picked up GatherMate which I like a lot better then Gatherer, especially the shared data portion for it. Works wonderfully. Does the same thing as gatherer pretty much, but with a lot more options and a clean interface.
@Dril – I picked up Clique and Grid, but then remembered I also have a G110 keyboard, so I’ve been spending more time customizing hotkeys for that instead of using either program so far. I’m going to check out ButtonFacade today.
Anyone have a suggestion for a unit frame mod? I really dislike WoW’s circular group / target windows.
Yes, healbot is great if you are going to be healing, some people use Clique but I don’t like it as much. It’s simple and easy to use. Recount if you want to watch the dps meters, DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) is handy as well. While the new quest system is handy, carbonite is awesome, as it shows everything on the map as well as some other beneficial things. I don’t use it anymore as I know where everything is, but it might be handy for someone newer to the game.
Atlas loot is great also, if you want to see what items drop in what instance or what faction has what. If you like the feel of the EQ2 skill bar, bartender is nifty it basically changes the look and groups them all together much like the EQ2 UI. http://www.curse.com/ is the best place to grab anything you need.
I’d recommend ‘Gatherer’ as having harvesting nodes on your map can save you a lot of time. I also use Omen to keep an eye on my aggro when in a group. Lightheaded is one of my favourite addons, it gives you an extra page on your quest journal that is linked with wowhead.com so you can read the comments on the quests in-game.
Finally I use Titan Panel, a plug in bar on which you can show all sorts of funky information. I have co-ordinate on there, my xp per hour, how much damage my gear has taken and the price of repairs and my available/maximum bag space.
I can’t help when it comes to raid addons as I’m not really much of a raider, too many other games to play.
I disagree with Healbot; it doesn’t add anything at all, it looks clunky, and quite frankly Grid and macros/Clique are much easier to set up than HealBot, imo (and this is someone who spends about two hours every week redoing parts of their UI, so I’m no lightweight when it comes to configuring addons.) But aye DBM is good, but obly if you’re planning to raid, otherwise it serves no purpose at all.
If you want nice looking buttons (something I can’t live without) then ButtonFacade is the way to go, Star.
Healbot and Deadly Boss Mods would be ones I’d consider essential. Healbot especially, since it gives an easy to use interface for heals/dispells/buffs etc. DBM will help you through most raid encounters and several 5 man instances as well.