Addons

[Tifone]

Ok so there are usually three type of people when it comes to addons...

1) What the heck are those
2) I use enough to help me play (Me)
3) I need a bigger screen so I can have more addons (Pirtuk)

I will start by covering the basic addons that I think everyone should have and then move into the mage specific ones.

First is how to get and manage addons. I personally like to use Curse Client. It runs in the background and lets me know when I need to update the addons (as they update the game your addons can stop working so they rewrite them to make them work again.)

Ok so now on to the basic addons that everyone should have:
1) Recount - this tells you the dps (damage per second) that you are doing which is a fun number for us dps to be keep track of. Also it tells you total damage, hps (heals per second) total heals and some other good info.

2) Omen Threat Meter - Necessary if you are going to be a good dps...you need to watch your threat (the amount the mob wants to attack you vs the tank) and keep it below the tanks. On those rare occasions that you move in front of the tank, to keep from getting squished run towards the tank (not away) and stop casting so they can pull threat off you.

3) TomTom is your personal navigation assistant in World of Warcraft. This addon is very simple, but provides a nice set of functionality including setting waypoints, and most importantly a draggable coordinate display.

4) While leveling WoW-Pro - gives you optimized questing orders to help you level and get the achievements in the zones...highly recommended.

5) Once you hit level 80 - Deadly Boss Modes - commonly called DBM - this tells you all kinds of important info on how the fight is going and what bad thing the boss is about to do to you...a must have if you intend to raid!

Ok now on to the mage specific one

I really highly recommend mage nuggets. It tells you all kinda cool things on your interface like when certain things proc, when you are hit capped, your haste, crit % and sp. I don't think I could raid without it and do nearly the job that I do.

Curse will take care of installing all of these addons except wow-pro for which you have to go to www.wow-pro.com - they are promising to have the updated guides available prior to the release of cataclysm so you will be able use them to level your character to 85 quickly without a lot of guess work.

If you want to know about all the other addons...and I do mean all the other addons - talk to Pirtuk. He has used or is using just about everyone.

-Toomey

[Pirtuk]

:P

OK, as Tifone (Tiff ANY) mentioned, there are a whole additional set of add-ons that can be of use. And to clear things up, yes I did buy a new monitor because I could no longer see my toon behind all the add ons!

The biggest category that Tifone missed is interface customization, or addons that allow you to create new buttons on you screen to "click and cast". I use Bartender, it is customizable and you can drag up to 12 new button bars anywhere on your screen you want. This helps me keep my work flow smooth without moving my cursor much.

There are also a host of HUD or Heads Up Display type addons, this allows the display of information right up front and center where your eyes are most of the time. I use IceHUD, which can display my health and mana, plus my targets, and my target's target, then also what totems I have down, and a whole host of other things. Another HUD I use id FlightHUD, which will look really familiar if y ou have ever played a jet combat flight simulator, and it is only up when you are flying, but it will let you know you if y ou are slightly ascending or descending. (I just wish it had a altimeter, oh well)

There are also informational bars you can set at the top and bottom of your screen. There are a coup[le favorites for this Aislyn still uses TitanPanel, I use FuBar. FuBar is more customizable, and there are, yes wait for it, alot of addons for this addon. Therefore you can get all types of information like position, gold, gear status, guild members online etc. always up on your screen.

For levelling I would recommend QuestHelper vice TomTom, but that is a personal preference thing.

Then, there is keeping track of your buddies. Lots of people like sRaidFrames, but specifically for healers HealBot is a favorite. These let you know the Debuffs health nd Mana for all of your group members, and also let you configure button and mouse click combos to cast your most frequent spells on the frame for each group member, instead of trying to find there toon on your screen. Also for healers, Decursive is a must, which is pretty much the same idea, but for keeping track of debuffs and dispelling them.

Keeping track of what everyone else is saying is something else all together. Some favor Prat, but I like WIM (WOW Instant Messenger) that generates a different windoe for each type of chat (guild, raid, party, etc.)

Finally, as Tifone mentioned, there are a ton of options that are class and role specific. I am most familiar with healing, and there are even better addons for Priest healers versus Shammys' etc.

One note of caution. Much to Aislyn's dismay, I went out and bought a big monitor and a desktop beefy enough to set all my graphics sliders all the way to the right and run all these add-ons. If you were not foolish enough to overspend on you machine, you may need to make some choices on what to run and what not to run since some of the addons are processor hungry.

But as also mentioned, I am more than willing to help anyone trying to figure out what they would like, so just give me a shout!

Pirtuk

[Pirtuk]

I put my UI as a screen shot in the gallery.

[Shortngeeky]

Tell us more about wow-pro... safe?

[Tifone]

Short,

Yes it has always been safe in my expierence. I actually just rechecked it tonight and there was an update and you can download it through curse client (as well as a couple other addon managers) now. Good questing - this is the best quest helper addon out there IMO!

-Toomey

[Waytoopimp]

my addons, by character, look like this.

Waytoopimp- Nothing. "you should have dbm and omen" no i shouldnt, dbm just helps fail players become less fail, but doesnt help the great to be greater. and omen inst my problem. you wanna tank, hold threat, or tell the heals to redirect all heals to me.

Deathpimp- Nothing. DKs are so OP that they dont need addons to be the best.

Damnpimp- Healbot. I dare any healer to heal through anything with out an addon like sRaidframes or Healbot, i could not have survived in vanilla.

[Griffygriff]

My thoughts:

Dps - can get by with just dbm and omen, or use nothing if you want to be a clothie tank like waytoopimp. The second part won't apply in cata though. The healers will just point and laugh as you die.

Tank - It's possible to tank with just dbm and omen, but I find the Threatplates version of Tidyplates to help a lot with figuring out which mob just killed Akine.

Healer - You straight cannot heal without at least a raidframes addon, which is a ridiculous game design flaw. The default health bars are so small and illegible that I don't know why they are even there. I use Pitbull for big, fat, color-changing health bars and Clique to bind a few things to mouse clicks.

[CrazyJedi]

Griffygriff wrote:

My thoughts: Tank - It's possible to tank with just dbm and omen, but I find the Threatplates version of Tidyplates to help a lot with figuring out which mob just killed Akine. .

To be real honest as a tank if you need any addons to tank then you are doing something wrong , addons for good tanks is just to make sure who is responsible for wipes.:P. If you need one is dbm but common sense can help you get by also .

[Griffygriff]

I'll see your "common sense" and raise you a "complete lack of passive threat-generating abilities".

I'd go on, but I've exhausted my vocabulary of poker jargon. Ante up?

[Shortngeeky]

I used very few... till loremaster =/

[CrazyJedi]

Griffygriff wrote:

I'll see your "common sense" and raise you a "complete lack of passive threat-generating abilities". I'd go on, but I've exhausted my vocabulary of poker jargon. Ante up?

"complete lack of passive threat-generating abilities" ? Tankadin here , I just walk into the room and piss everyone off.

[Pirtuk]

So you guys don't use recount? Do you have any information bar addons?

[CrazyJedi]

Pirtuk wrote:

So you guys don't use recount? Do you have any information bar addons?

I used to have recount but it did nothing for me other than tell pimp how high was his dps when his wasn't on or working .