Are you an addon addict?
by Dan O'Halloran 
Jan 23rd 2008 at 5:00PM
We've covered alt-aholics, recipe completists and non-combat pet collectors, but Phaelia of the Resto4Life Druid blog has a different kind of addiction: addons. Using WoWAce Updater she was forced to realize that excluding the ones that come with the game, she has a grand total of 115 addons installed. That's a lot of bells and whistles.She has taken it upon herself to cut down her addon list to what is really necessary. After all, load in and zoning times are important, too. After deleting some that were rendered obsolete by recent patches, some that weren't that great after all and some she couldn't remember what they even did, she got down to 79. Yikes.
I recently got a new rig so I have very few addons going right now. But I do have to clean out my Interface folder on my old rig which I still play on. One addon for sure I couldn't live without though is Outfitter which automatically switch gear sets between Druid forms.
Does your addon folder need spring cleaning? What addons can you simply not live without? Are you an addon addict or an addon newbie?
Filed under: Odds and ends, Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Azza Jan 23rd 2008 5:08PM
I'm too lazy to research and put together all those great addons, so usually just roll with the essentials.
SbE Jan 23rd 2008 5:12PM
I have 153 addons installed and active at this time, and i actually use most of them daily:P
Scoottie Jan 23rd 2008 5:14PM
yes
TomWolf Jan 23rd 2008 5:17PM
I guess I'm sort of an addict here. My addons folder have 376 folders in it. I use many addons all the time though I'm sure there are some I could live without ;)
Arnold Jan 23rd 2008 5:24PM
If I had to pick one addon, well, I couldn't. I'm kind of in the same boat as Phaelia, though not quite to the same extent.
One problem I have is that I have a lot of alts, and they each have their separate set of addons...
But if I had to choose just one addon to use, I would choose the threat-meter Omen.
If all else had to go, that is the one which helps keep groups going smoothly, so I would hang on to it. For most things the default interface is actually fairly serviceable, though I personally love customizing my entire interface...
Other addons that rank very highly on my list:
* itemrack (I play a druid, you need to swap gear)
*proximo for arenas
*archud to see my energy ticks in cat form
* bongos for custom bars
* auctioneer/gatherer
*deadly boss mods for timers
etc etc etc
the list goes on and on and on and....
Avery Jan 23rd 2008 5:25PM
I apparently have 95 folders in my addon folder :\ Some of those are multiple folders for the same addon (titan anyone?)
So yeah, I'd say I'm (sadly) an addon addict.
Fadll Jan 23rd 2008 5:29PM
This is kind of funny in the fact that i just dumped all my addons two days ago and am in the process of downloading the ones that i need and want. I only fun around fifteen at one time. So, i guess iam in the middle road
PropagandaPanda Jan 23rd 2008 5:32PM
I have about 200 folders in my addon folder, but alot of them are just the same thing, bongos, fubar, cartographer, lightheaded, its just a bunch of the same.
Aichon Jan 23rd 2008 5:36PM
250 folders in my Addons directory, but many of those are libraries since I like to decrease my initial load time by unembedding the libraries (the difference is significant for me, but I'm on an older machine). I'd guess that probably 80-90 of those are addons proper and not addon libraries.
The sad thing is, that's actually after I trimmed it down some when I recently redid my UI. I used to have a lot more bloat. Most of these are one-trick ponies or ones that I've tested against others to see how bloated they feel and run.
ladyshiva Jan 23rd 2008 5:42PM
I am an addon-addict :( My load times are terrible, but I love my addons too much. I do think I need to pare down to the essentials however.
Couldn't live without:
auctioneer/gatherer
Lightheaded & TomTom
Xperl
Omen
Outfitter
I also like the Atlas mods, Fubar, and my crapton of fubar plugins... And my pretty mods eepanels, quartz and cycircled...And and...(this goes on for some time)
Naix Jan 23rd 2008 5:43PM
I have 0 add-ons. In fact I alt+z to clean up my entire wow interface and play with nothing on the screen at all.
When I am raid healing I will turn it back on, but normally I have a screen full of game and not useless UI info.
I had a raid member last night ask me what Add on I was using to heal. I said "I don't use add-ons" and he started to run down a list of add-ons I needed to go get before the raid.
I said "Umm I said i don't use any add-ons, that means I don't want any add-ons" he when on and on about why I should use them and how much better it will be. I said "/raid If you want the main healer to leave cause you can't coupe without me having add-ons let me know". After we finished Kara no one said a word about my lack of add-ons.
Add-ons are not a substitute for skill.
Xeren Jan 23rd 2008 9:02PM
i try to alt+Z as much as possible, I feel more immersed in the game when I do, but i wish there was something in between, maybe that got rid of everything but you health and mana bar, so you could actually play and not have to constantly switch back and forth to make sure you're not out of hp
Naix Jan 23rd 2008 5:44PM
I have 0 add-ons. In fact I alt+z to clean up my entire wow interface and play with nothing on the screen at all.
When I am raid healing I will turn it back on, but normally I have a screen full of game and not useless UI info.
I had a raid member last night ask me what Add on I was using to heal. I said "I don't use add-ons" and he started to run down a list of add-ons I needed to go get before the raid.
I said "Umm I said i don't use any add-ons, that means I don't want any add-ons" he when on and on about why I should use them and how much better it will be. I said "/raid If you want the main healer to leave cause you can't coupe without me having add-ons let me know". After we finished Kara no one said a word about my lack of add-ons.
Add-ons are not a substitute for skill.
Charlie Jan 24th 2008 1:03AM
Unless your raiding, you don't need addons
Sometimes there are things like ctraid/ora2 that help with organization. /radur (check's riads durability), and /raitem [item] (checks to see how many of an item people have, great for mana pots, making sure people came prepared). Are phenomenal for officers, but if someone doesn't have ctraid/ora2 they wont show up.
Other things, like DMB/Big Wigs are very helpful. If you have only 2 seconds to cast a heal on the MT in gruul before a groundslam, your not going to know to cast flash heal instead of GH (priests) if you don't have dmb, etc etc.
Threat meters are really important for DPS. There's an assumption that threat meters are making sure you don't pull agro. Yes, that important, but their greatest benefit is alowing you max your dps. Being able to stay only a few thousand under the tank at all times is going to allow you to have higher damage tahn just laying off every once in awhile.
dpak Jan 24th 2008 2:25PM
No addons for the sake of no addons is no sign of a presence of skill.
I could possibly build a house with only a hammer, but that does not mean it is a good idea.
Dread Jan 23rd 2008 5:53PM
I have 20 addons. That's it. There's no point in have 4,000,000,000,000 addons.
Flambeau Jan 23rd 2008 5:54PM
only 200 directories, but then, it grows and dies as new addons come out. still haven't foun a good discord replacement. and damn so many fubar and titan plugins
CM Jan 23rd 2008 5:59PM
185; Yes, I'm an addict, and very aware of it. One of the 185 is inoperable at the moment. I'm hoping one day I can find an updated version of Minimap Button Bag (MBB) that will work.
However, I can, when necessary, play without any of them. I just prefer to have them to make my gaming experience what I want it to be.
Ciross Jan 24th 2008 4:02AM
Minimap Button Frame is a great (and working) alternative to MBB.
On topic, I have a lot of addon folders and I admit im an addict, but I find that a large portion of my addons are only used on certain classes and types of characters so at most I use perhaps a 3rd of my total addons per character.
CM Jan 23rd 2008 6:00PM
185; Yes, I'm an addict, and very aware of it. One of the 185 is inoperable at the moment. I'm hoping one day I can find an updated version of Minimap Button Bag (MBB) that will work.
However, I can, when necessary, play without any of them. I just prefer to have them to make my gaming experience what I want it to be.