World of Warcraft allowing for add-ons is one of the most important things in regards to its popularity. It allows for full customization of how your interface works, looks and feels. There is that fine line to what advantages it can have in your actual game play. They did it just right to where it’s really a level playing field, but if you don’t utilize your ability to have add-ons and macros your game play will only suffer a small amount. Those who do use add-ons and macros will see their game play elevated that much more. It’s just another thing to boost your ability to play very well.
Play Without Addons? Ha!
I personally can’t log on without having my UI all set and ready to go. I always start looking for the best minimalist UI I can find. I always end up in the same place. This is TukUI’s site where he manages his amazing Interfaces. He no longer updates his original TukUI, but that’s okay–the one he keeps up to date is ElvUI and it’s incredibly clean and functional. I’ve always gone for minimalist UIs such as these all the way back to Vanilla. Back then I used Photek UI. Photek now has a successful graphic design company stemmed from his spectacular work on his UI. I think it was around WotLK release that he stopped.
Keeping it Minimal
The reason I use minimalist UIs is because of how well they run. When the stock WoW interface requires around 100MB to run, for example, ElvUI takes as little as 5MB to run. This allows me to set my graphics as high as I want while maintaining 30+ FPS. Even more importantly, my crap laptop can now run WoW at 45 FPS because of this UI. Another amazing thing Tuk has done with this UI is it still fully customizable.
Full Customizable
You can open a control panel he designed to edit… everything! He even went so in depth that he added a feature where you can unlock every single thing on the interface, unit frames, the map, chat, everything. The awesome thing about this is the way he allows you to move the frames around, you can click and drag them, of course, but he also added a directional pad to each one where each click is just a one pixel movement. This allows you to be absolutely precise in placing your frames.
Using ElvUI is a great start, but he does not include some important add-ons that you should always pick up.
Random Essentials
The first thing that always gets to me is when you’re dealing with the auction house. I don’t mind Blizzard’s default auction house functionality–most people do, though, and will always grab the Auctioneer addon. What gets to me then is when you get to the mailbox where you have potentially hundreds of things waiting to be retrieved. Clicking each and every item twice just drives me insane. So I always go and get Postal. One click and everything is grabbed from your mailbox (*sigh of relief*).
I Always Grab Recount
Recount is the best damage meter you can possibly get. It gives you an insane amount of control over what is recorded and how it’s displayed. It’s amazing how in-depth with DPS you can get. It reminds me of the amount of numbers and graphs you would need to look at and understand to be a big money making stock broker.
Another absolute essential is Deadly Boss Mods
This gives you much needed information in real time as it happens during boss fights. I can’t think of a single raiding guild or raid party that doesn’t give the modifier “MUST HAVE DBM!” It removes a lot of strain from the person running the raid.
Four More Addons Worth Mentioning
AtlasLoot is always nice to have because it can really help you plan out where you are going next for your gear. It also helps in finding your perfect transmog set.
Gatherer is really good for all you money-making farmers out there. It takes note of everything you do for professions and makes it really easy to get back to it. For example, for every herb you pick and every mine you smash, it saves that exact position. It even takes into consideration its respawn time.
Guild Launch CT RaidTracker is for all you raiding junkies out there. This is an amazing addon for tracking all the worth knowing facts about each and every raid your guild goes to. It tracks what raids you’ve done and when. What dropped and who got it and many other little things to keep your guild informed. The best part is it can export all the information it gathers to your guild site.
Finally, Decursive for all us healers out there. This addon makes dispelling a cake walk. It gives you the ability to set up filters and set a focus target for getting the dispell. It takes the time out of dispelling someone. Someone of importance gets the debuff and bam, there it is on your screen and all you do is click or press the button you set. No thought needed. No time wasted.
If you haven’t used any addons or UI’s for your WoW experience before, it’s time to start. I promise you won’t ever go back.
Editors Note: GameSkinny’s sister product is Guild Launch, a guild page hosting site for any game you can think of. I’m not just adding the Guild Launch CT RaidTracker because of this, i’m adding it because its a seriously awesome and essential tool for building your guild and its page.
