Add-on-O-Rama

Today I want to talk to you about add-ons! If you're not using add-ons, you're probably not getting the full game experience you could be getting. While some add-ons do a retarded amount of work for you, others just make simple tasks a little bit.. well.. simpler. With add-ons you can change your entire User Interface, or just make throwing an item in the mail easier by doing it with alt+click. I think even if you're a "naked UI" kind of guy or gal, there's at least one add-on out there that once you download, you'll suddenly wonder how you ever played the game without it.

Now these mods come in many varieties. (I'm going to refer to add-ons as mods a whole bunch, since it is quicker to type.) They are usually categorized into different sections like "Class", "Combat", "Tradeskill", etc. There's also things called "UI Packages" which are basically a potpourri of mods that some leet dude downloaded and clumped into a package for you in advance so that you don't have to do any sort of thinking of your own. I've never used a UI Package, but some people like them so that they don't have to download a bunch of mods separately. I don't really like the idea of using a bunch of pre-selected mods, so I'm going to recommend you pick them out yourself. That way you get only what you really want and nothing more.

Now if you're totally new to the UI modification scene, you might want to just browse one of the many UI download sites, read descriptions and try out what sounds interesting, but if you're one of the masses who already use add-ons and are just looking for some suggestions of new ones to try, I'm going to go over a few I really enjoy or can't live without.

Bartender - If you are a noob like me who is easily confused by some bar and unit frame modifictions, you will find that Bartender is refreshingly easy to use. You can customize your bars any way you like with it. Resize them, make them into columns, make them only appear when you hover their cursor over them, etc. It's so user-friendly that I love it to bits.

Cy-Circled - I use this mod alongside Bartender and it's purely for aesthetics. What it does is change the appearance of your buttons. You can make them round, glossy, shaped like Hello Kitty heads, gears, etc. Some of them are silly and make your buttons hard to see, but some will actually make it much easier for you to see and use your buttons, so try different ones and see what works for you!

Pitbull - This mod is for changing the appearance and utility of Unit Frames, which are the windows that inform you of a person's health, mana, name, etc. It's highly customizable to a point that it can become almost maddening. You can display all kinds of information about your target, your party, your target's target's target, etc. You can also just make your unit frames look prettier by using a skin or adding animated portraits. If you've ever used AG Unit Frames, this is almost the same exact mod, but personally, I like it a little better.

Grid - Even if you can't heal, I'd recommend that if you raid, you download Grid. In fact, Grid is a great set of raid frames for those that can't heal because it displays information about your whole raid's health in a very small amount of screen space. Basically, it is a little set of colored boxes. Each box represents a raid member. You can set the colors to reflect the class of that person, and you can set the box to either fill up or empty of color depending on that person's health. Conceptually I think Grid is one of the coolest mods ever, but for some people it can be very difficult to use for healing. You can set the borders of boxes to change color depending on different variables, as well as each of the boxes corners. For example, if a person is low on mana, you can set it so that when they are low, a blue border appears around their box, and you know that that person would appreciate an innervate! You could also set the top right corner of that person's box to turn purple if they are cursed, etc. I think while going from something like ct raid frames to Grid can be a daunting change, there are ways to make Grid very similar in appearance to other raid frames (for example, you can change the height and with of each box to make it more like a bar if it helps!) while still saving loads of screen space and being very glad you switched to this mod.

Fubar - It wouldn't be a list of cool add-ons if I didn't mention Fubar. If you ever used Titan Panel, Fubar is the same thing, but it's an Ace mod, so it's a lot less bloated. If you're still using Titan Panel for some ungodly reason, switch to Fubar now. With Fubar you download all kinds of little extensions that display information on small bars that you put at the top or bottom of your screen. Most of these end with "-fu", so that you know they are Fubar mods. (Ex: AmmoFu, MoneyFu, DPSFu, etc.) Some Fubar mods I like are MoneyFu, FactionsFu, EXPfu, ClockFu, PerformanceFu, DPSFu, among others.

ItemRack - I would die without ItemRack. It would be like owning 10,000 shirts and not owning a closet. ItemRack allows you to create gear sets and to change them at the press of a button. I have a tanking set, a pvp set, a pve dps set, an RP set and more. And it only takes a second to switch into each one, thanks to ItemRack.

Now, that's just a snippet of the add-ons I use that I really like. There are hundreds of thousands of add-ons for you to choose from, and many that do the same thing in different ways. I highly recommend any addons from WowAce as well as their super spiffy application called "Wow Ace Updater" which makes updating your addons regularly really easy.

Here's a list of some other add-ons I use regularly, and love:

AtlasLoot - Information on all dungeon drops, rep & pvp rewards and more.

Cartographer - A map mod with coords that saves locations of herbs, mining nodes, etc. Also shows recommended zone levels. All kinds of cool options!!

Enhancer - A really sweet class-specific mod for shamans. Totem timers, ability cooldowns, loot ratings and other sweet things.

Chat Link - Basic mod that allows you to link items in channels other than trade.

CraftList - An easy way for other people to see what tradeskill patterns you know and what materials they take, on all your characters! I also use it to check and see what patterns my alts already know. :P

Decursive - The classic mod for cleansing people of poisons, curses, magic effects, etc.

Fishing Buddy - Right click casting, fishing gear sets, drop percentage info for different fishing zones and more.

Omen - A threat meter that you really need for raiding!

SmartyCat + SmartyCat Mana Bar - I use these two addons to keep track of my mana while I am in cat or bear form.

Possessions - Use this to look up which of your characters own which items and how many.

WhoHas - Like Possessions in your tooltips! Hover over an item and if any of your characters on that faction side have that item it will say which character has it and how many of it in the tooltip.

Rating Buster - "Rates" gear for you in its tooltips. Set it up to show how much damage, crit, healing, mana regen etc. are on that particular item. One of my all time favorite add-ons.

Quartz - Customize your casting bars! Change their appearance and location to your liking. The swing timer in particular is really awesome for hunter shot rotations.

Class Timer - Keeps track of time remaining on your buffs and debuffs. I use this for keeping an eye on the remaining duration of mangle, rip, faerie fire, etc.

Scrolling Combat Text - While there's now a built-in version of this in WoW, I much prefer the original add-on, for it is insanely customizable. :) Scrolls damage and heal information across your screen so it's easy to see.

Well, that's enough about my add-ons. Remember, there's a bajillion to choose from, so try everything that looks interesting to see what you like. Try to keep an eye on the memory usage of your addons with something like PerformanceFu, that way if your game feels bogged down you can check the list to see what is taking up so much memory. Some addons, like Auctioneer (or any other add-on that creates a database of item information), are extremely bloated. You may wish to only load them on a mule character where you sell things. And of course, if you're using a class specific mod, like Enhancer for shamans, set it up on the addon screen so that it only loads for your shaman. This will save memory and loading time for your other toons. Get a feel for how much memory usage you should be using for addons; it will vary depending on your computer specs. If your game gets slower and your FPS lowers, you may be using too many and will have to cut back or find some that are less bloated.

To those of you who were looking for something a little more interesting and in depth, I will pledge to make the next entry a bit more... um... hardcore, I suppose. I do hope, however, that perhaps I've helped other long-time WoW players to discover a new add-on or two that they hadn't used before and will be able to appreciate. And to all the newbies out there, go pimp out your UI!