Addon Spotlight: Altaholic
Altaholism is something we've all heard of, talked about and possibly suffered from. I have struggled with this as long as I've played World of Warcraft. I use a variety of addons, as you can well imagine, to enhance my game play. Some of these addons provide information about my alts, although not across servers and factions. The information I am typically concerned with is rest bonus, gold and recipes. I usually use the Armory to check my alt's gear and reputation, or God forbid I relog to the character in question to check something.
Enter Altaholic, an addon I have recently started using to keep track of just about every detail about my alts. Developer Thaoky tipped us off to his addon, and I thought I'd give it a test drive. I'm not going to lie, I was a little doubtful about the usefulness of this one, but I have changed my mind. Altaholic looks akin to Auctioneer (and therefore the default AH interface) to allow the player to navigate different information regarding alts. Some of my addons duplicate features of this addon, but this package brings much more to the table. It's an Ace addon, and the developer seems to be very proactive about the future of this one. One warning, however, this addon will total up your /played time, which may cause you to ask serious questions about the direction fo your life.
Come back after the break for a look at Altaholic.
Alright, there's quite a bit to cover, so lets get started. Altaholic opens up with a list of your characters, which you will want to log into to allow the mod to gather the necessary information. The main window will list your alts, their builds (a summary, not a full break-down), time /played and the amount of rest experience each has. All of this information is great to have, I am using it to track alts across servers, one of my favorite features. Oh, but wait, there is so much more. Subsequent categories will list:
Now for the really fun part; searching. This addon allows you to search the inventory of any character, on any server or the loot tables. This means if you're wondering which character has the Mallet of Zul'Furrak or which dungeon Dragon's Call drops in, you can execute a simple search. Once found, you can link the item and try it on as well, so its got great functionality.
That's about all I've got so far, as I'm still using this one and trying out its many features. Also, finals are still trying to destroy my life, so good luck to my fellow students! For the rest of you, check this out and give me your thoughts, I'd love to hear what you think of this handy addon.
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Enter Altaholic, an addon I have recently started using to keep track of just about every detail about my alts. Developer Thaoky tipped us off to his addon, and I thought I'd give it a test drive. I'm not going to lie, I was a little doubtful about the usefulness of this one, but I have changed my mind. Altaholic looks akin to Auctioneer (and therefore the default AH interface) to allow the player to navigate different information regarding alts. Some of my addons duplicate features of this addon, but this package brings much more to the table. It's an Ace addon, and the developer seems to be very proactive about the future of this one. One warning, however, this addon will total up your /played time, which may cause you to ask serious questions about the direction fo your life.
Come back after the break for a look at Altaholic.
Alright, there's quite a bit to cover, so lets get started. Altaholic opens up with a list of your characters, which you will want to log into to allow the mod to gather the necessary information. The main window will list your alts, their builds (a summary, not a full break-down), time /played and the amount of rest experience each has. All of this information is great to have, I am using it to track alts across servers, one of my favorite features. Oh, but wait, there is so much more. Subsequent categories will list:
- Professions (with suggestions on how to skill up)
- Bag usage
- Reputation (which Thaoky plans to change to mirror the default reputation pane)
- Containers (does my rogue have the Key of Time?)
- Guild Bank (which guild has Void Crystals?)
- Mail (who has mail and what is it?) This actually showed what items were in my inbox
- Equipment (look at who has what equipped)
- Quests (in case you need to know which of your alts still has to finish the Zelda chain)
- Recipes (with item information and materials required for each)
Now for the really fun part; searching. This addon allows you to search the inventory of any character, on any server or the loot tables. This means if you're wondering which character has the Mallet of Zul'Furrak or which dungeon Dragon's Call drops in, you can execute a simple search. Once found, you can link the item and try it on as well, so its got great functionality.
That's about all I've got so far, as I'm still using this one and trying out its many features. Also, finals are still trying to destroy my life, so good luck to my fellow students! For the rest of you, check this out and give me your thoughts, I'd love to hear what you think of this handy addon.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight, Leveling, Alts









Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
drjonesac2 Apr 25th 2008 5:40PM
Looks neat! I'll have to try this one out with my 10+ toons.
Aurdon Apr 25th 2008 5:48PM
sign me up...even though i only play a handfull of characters this addon looks pretty useful
Erika Apr 25th 2008 5:48PM
I will try it also. Good Find.
Cailleach Apr 25th 2008 5:54PM
Oh. My. Stars. Damn work for making me stay another 1/2 hr before I go home and DL this!
Nick S Apr 25th 2008 5:59PM
just tried it... omg.
you weren't joking about the totaling /played time issue.
Oldbear Apr 25th 2008 6:06PM
"One warning, however, this addon will total up your /played time, which may cause you to ask serious questions about the direction fo your life."
Is there a way to hide this feature - before it shows up on screen? I'm a part-time player since beta... But I keep telling my wife that I don't play enough. This feature could get me in trouble.
juhakosk Apr 25th 2008 6:12PM
I tried altoholic too, but i still like Armory more than that. I mean the addon Armory, not the Blizzard's website.
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7952-Armory.html
Traz Apr 25th 2008 6:18PM
Damnit I hate the way WoWI links their pictures. If I click on a small, barely readable picture, I expect to get the big, readable picture, not to suddenly be on a different site (and in the same window even)!
Eternalpayn Apr 25th 2008 6:35PM
Middle Mouse Button + Firefox FTW?
Mike Apr 25th 2008 6:51PM
Oh man. I think what you mean by "total up your /played time" is "will add immensely to your overall /played time". This is incredible. Alt info? Check. Alt inventories? Check. LOOT TABLES? Check. It's like a dozen addons in one. One of the best things I've seen in ages.
skoh-fley Apr 25th 2008 6:51PM
Woah Sean, my brother goes to University of Utah! Maybe you know him.
Griff Apr 25th 2008 8:07PM
Very nice mod! My only gripe is that *real* altoholics have multiple accounts and it doesn't provide a way to view data from characters on accounts other than the one I'm logged in to.
Harlequinné Apr 25th 2008 8:45PM
I'm tempted to try this... But the total /played over all characters is scaring me.
Oh heck, why not.
Robert Kingsley Apr 25th 2008 9:09PM
Sounds almost perfect... If it will work across multiple accounts it WILL be perfect.
Gessilea Apr 25th 2008 9:50PM
Wow. I love it.
Gessilea Apr 25th 2008 11:59PM
Having spent some time with it... I really love it!
Argent Apr 26th 2008 1:27AM
heh. on the positive side, i replaced four mods i had been using with this one mod today.
negative side?
519 days played...
Damien Apr 26th 2008 7:22AM
"519 days played..."
Come now, that would mean you have played around 41% of the available hours since 23-Nov-04. Assuming that you work (big assumption) and sleep (bigger assumption) that would mean that you have essentially done nothing with your life since late 2004 except play WoW for around 10 hours a day - without any days off.
Runstadrey Apr 26th 2008 12:45PM
Argent - which 4 mods did you replace? I'm running CharacterViewer & CharacterProfiler and believe they will go away. But, what other 2?
I've got so many addons that they're conflicting with each other and if I could reduce some it might help. I spend Saturday mornings looking for updated mods. InventoryOnPar has been really troublesome lately.
Thanks for your time.
Argent May 3rd 2008 8:22PM
i replaced possesions2, whohas, playedFu and..uhm...oh, recipebook (though the lastone would have some virtues if you're still busyily buying recipes on the AH -- i'm not anymore.)
as for my bloated-ass /played -- i work at home and have had WoW running in the background a lot of times. 362 days of that time were on my main and i'd have to say of that, at least 100 of those days were waiting for the WSG to pop (which amounted to tabbing in every 10 mins to un-afk while doing other things.)