AddOn Spotlight: Loot Addons
by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 18th 2010 at 9:00PM
Everyone loves learning about little utilities and other random addons that you might not think about everyday but that are useful and can make the WoW experience run a little bit smoother. Some weeks on AddOn Spotlight will be informational weeks, where I get to showcase some smaller addons that might not change the way you raid or experience the game in a huge way, but help make the little things seem even more insignificant. Think of these as "lifestyle" addons. This week is one such lifestyle AddOn Spotlight.
This week on AddOn Spotlight, we delve deep into the dark reaches of each and every one of our souls, past the hard candy shell and into the squishy, lootwhorey center. Today we showcase some addons that make looting more fun, profitable and easier for everyone.
teksLoot is an excellent addon by Tekkub that slims down the default loot roll window into a more manageable, color coded list. Each item to be rolled on has a counter that displays the number of people who have already selected an option (Disenchant, Greed, Need or Pass), while mousing over an option shows the players choosing that option. I like teksLoot because, as many people have already figured out, I praise addons that turn clunkier Blizzard UI items into more streamlined, smaller packages. The only issue I have with teksLoot is that there is no scaling option. Tekkub, please, I would love some scaling!
teksLoot - Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
VendorBait
Tekkub strikes again with VendorBait. VendorBait is a simple and useful addon for the money-conscious quester in mind. VendorBait's purpose is simple -- upon completing a quest, the reward selection dialog has the item that vendors for the most gold highlighted for the player. Choosing this item will net the biggest gold gain. When I was working towards Loremaster this addon proved invaluable. You're already going through a painstakingly annoying process getting the achievement, why not make the most gold you can in the process? VendorBait only saves me a few seconds, really, but all that time adds up. So, thank you VendorBait, for making my WoW experience run a little bit smoother.
VendorBait - Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
tekJunkSeller
Well what do you know. Another simple plug and play addon from Tekkub. It's a Tekkub addon love fest! But what can I say? He makes clean, simple addons that do what they set out to do simply. tekJunkSeller is one of those invaluable addons that takes one of the routine tasks that you perform in WoW over and over and simplifies them by, you guessed it, doing it automatically. This addon automatically sells all of your gray quality items when you initiate conversation with a vendor. I personally hate going through my bags to pick out the trash, and tekJunkSeller has saved me many an annoying moment. Be careful -- if there are gray items that you do not want to sell, do not use this addon. There is no filter available for it! Leave those precious grays in the bank if you do not want them gone.
tekJunkSeller - Download at [WoWInterface]
So there is my little love letter to Tekkub. Thank you for these little addons that make life run a little bit smoother when it comes to menial tasks in WoW.
I wanted to take the time to answer some reader e-mail as well, since I have the space! Send in your addon or user interface questions to mat@wow.com and I will try to answer them personally or publicly, if the question seems to have broad appeal. Also, a new graphic for ADDON MAILBAG!
Dear AddOn Guy:
Hiya. I have a quick question that I cannot really find an answer for online. I installed a bunch of addons and for some reason my vehicle picture (when I'm driving a vehicle in Wintergrasp for example) and my little repair man (the guy that tells you if your armor is damaged or red) have disappeared. Is there anything I can do to get these two user interface things back?
-JoeD
Hi Joe. I do enjoy the "AddOn Guy" moniker. I feel like I should be wearing overalls and a tool belt with Addon Profiler and a hammer hanging off of it. What happens when the addons break? Call the addon guy. Anyway. This problem is probably being caused by SexyMap. If you have SexyMap installed, go into the addon's options and select the "Show Movers" option. You should see the areas of the screen allocated for those particular user interface modules (repair man and vehicle UI) and be able to move them to any spot you like. This happened to me when I moved my minimap to the bottom right hand corner and accidentally dragged both of those exact UI pieces with it. Hope that helps!
Say, Mat, I was curious: if I were to transfer servers, how would I be assured that my addon settings would remain intact, particularly if I changed names?
-Anonymous Boomkin
Awesome question, Boomkin. Making sure your addon settings stay the same from character to character, and from server transfer to server transfer, is very important after you've spent all that time and energy crafting your beautiful user interface. To make sure it stays, the first thing you should do is backup your WTF folder in the /World of Warcraft directory. Within the WTF folder is a list of your accounts. Select your account name's folder. Inside that folder is a list of servers, with those folders containing individual character folders. You will want to make a copy of the folder of the character whose user interface settings you would like to keep, naming it something like MyCharacter_Copy, just to have as a safety net. Then, copy this folder into the server folder where you are transferring and rename that folder the name of your character. Voila! All of the user interface settings of your pre-transferred character should remain on the new character.
If you have a question about addons or user interfaces in general, please e-mail them to mat@wow.com. Next week, Automaton.
Addons are what we do on AddOn Spotlight. I love this job, because I get to tell you about addons like Elitist Group. And remember, Addon Spotlight is fueled by viewers like you, so if you have a mod you think we should take a look at, e-mail ADDON GUY at mat (at) wow dot com. Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Austin Feb 18th 2010 9:03PM
I prefer using the default UI for my loot interface.
Deathknighty Feb 18th 2010 10:40PM
Then this article must have really helped you, which is why you are offering up such a valuable and constructive comment.
Amirite? ;)
P.S. So do I, it's just not really very tactful to post that on an article about customising UI. :P
Falcom Feb 19th 2010 1:27PM
In his defense, he wasn't rude about it. He simply stated an opinion without berating the article at all. It may have had no real value, but it wasn't obnoxious or anything. Why no just let him state his opinion without downrating to oblivion? *shrug*
Austin Feb 20th 2010 10:09AM
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be off topic or anything, I just don't see the point of these loot addons. I bet tons of people use them and love them, just giving my two cents was all. :)
humperdinck Feb 22nd 2010 3:17PM
It's like replying to a car review saying "I prefer to take the bus."
Nandini Feb 18th 2010 9:05PM
Addons that use the Ace2 or Ace3 profile system for saving their settings will not always automatically work just by renaming the folders under the WTF folder. In those addons, if you weren't using a default profile previously, you may need to choose one of your previous profiles after renaming a character.
Deathknighty Feb 18th 2010 10:46PM
I'm ashamed to admit that I always lol a bit inside whenever someone says "WTF folder" :O
Asmor Feb 19th 2010 12:09AM
Sometimes there's no way to transfer the settings but to go in there and edit some files by hand.
Case in point, I transfered my character Vanesta across servers. One of the addons I care about most, and which can have the most annoying "re-customization" time is Baud Manifest.
Anyways, I found the configuration files, looked inside, and sure enough the characters were identified not only by name but by server. I backed everything up, changed what looked like needed to be changed (in this case, I think I had to move all of the vanesta settings from a grouping labeled cenarius [old server] to one labeled kirin tor [new server]), logged back into wow, and everything was golden.
Moral of the story: Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. If you need to edit a file, look at what's there and try to replicate. And, of course, make a backup first!
Hedwinkle Feb 19th 2010 5:57AM
@ Deathknighty - "lol a little in side"
laughing OUT loud inside? i think you need nerfed my friend :D
echo Feb 19th 2010 2:03PM
Please up-rank Nandini's comment! It is very important as the instructions for transferring a character are woefully incomplete. For the majority of addons, settings are not saved PerCharacter.
These settings can be transfered in 1 of 2 ways.
First, and easier, is that many addons have a "Profile" section in the options. Just select "Load Profile" and load a profile called "OldServer - OldCharacter". You can then optionally do "Save Profile" and call it "NewServer - NewCharacter", and then purge or delete the old profile.
If the profiles feature is missing (doubtful) then you need to do something more complicated. The file you need to edit will be called [WoW]/WTF/AddOns/[account]/[addon].lua , where
[WoW] is the directory where you have Warcraft installed, [account] is your account name, and [addon] is the addon name. (If you don't know where [WoW] is, then I'm guessing you are the type of person who would use the default location, which is c:\Program Files\World of Warcraft if you use Windows.) So mine would be c:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\echo\EverybodyLovesTek.lua.
First, save a backup of the file. I typically ctrl-drag the entire [account] folder onto my desktop as a temporary copy then delete it when I'm finished. The file looks like this:
["ServerName1"] = {
["Server1Char1"] = {
..... (more stuff) ...
}
["Server1Char2"] = {
}
... (more chars) ...
}
["ServerName2"] = {
["Server2Char1"] = {
...(more stuff)
}
... (more chars)...
}
.... (more servers)...
What you want to do is look for your old character's name, and make sure it's within the correct server if you use the same name on multiple servers. Then highlight from ["OldCharName"] = { to - the closing brace } that comes before the next character. Include the } in the highlight. Next use the cut command and paste it after the ["NewServerName"] = {
NOTE: It's possible that the old char will be the last one for that server in which case there will be two }'s in a row. The first } ends the char's info, and the second } ends the server's info, so you want to cut to - and including - the first }.
If this is confusing, it's because I don't have pictures. Maybe AddOn Guy can do it better with his super blogging permissions!
echo Feb 19th 2010 2:05PM
EDIT: In the example, my file would be located at
C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\AddOns\echo\EverybodyLovesTek
I forgot the \WTF\AddOns bit
Sleutel Feb 18th 2010 9:07PM
Another great loot-related addon is EPGPLootmaster. A guild I was with for a while that has a Loot Council used this, even though they didn't use EPGP, and it made distributing loot insaaaaaanely easier than any previous LC method I was used to. Basically, it pops a roll window up (with Master Looter enabled) where players can select mainspec, minor upgrade, or offspec, include a note, etc. The window won't even pop up for items people aren't eligible for (e.g., tier tokens that are class-based).
Acceptable Risk Feb 18th 2010 9:12PM
I used Lootfilter for a long time. You can set filters to automatically sell any class of item, sort things into appropriate bags, automatically open clams, or just throw certain things away as soon as you pick them up.
I don't think it's updated anymore. Shame, really. Anyone know of a good replacement?
Alpaca Feb 19th 2010 9:00AM
AutoProfitX is an awesome Junk-seller. It has character- and account-based exclusion lists. (Different versions exist... Autoprofit on WoWInterface, AutoProfitX2 on Curse)
In addition to selling off your gray items, it can:
1) Exclude a list of gray items from being sold. (Maybe you like collecting Rocks and don't want to sell the gray quality ones?)
2) Sell off white items in a list you specify:
[ Light Feather, Fish Scales, various types of fish not worth cooking, etc]
3) do 1 & 2 based on the character you're logged in as - or -
4) do 1 & 2 for all characters on your account
5) Gives a total sell value of all applicable items in your inventory
6) Reports Items sold and Amount gained into your chatlog
It can also be configured to only sell items by clicking a button in the open vendor's screen. (Instead of automatically selling everything.)
Viper007Bond Feb 18th 2010 9:21PM
Is it just me or does teksLoot look to be a complete ripoff of the awesome XLootGroup addon?
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/xloot-group.aspx
(The whole XLoot family of addons are awesome BTW!)
Noah Feb 18th 2010 9:48PM
Actually, if you visit teksloot's page on curse, you'll see it's actually a rewrite of XLoot, but with cleaner code.
mchris2 Feb 18th 2010 9:56PM
If you follow Tekkub's addons, you will find he hates poorly written addons. I have read somewhere before that Xloot was one of those addons. Not sure where. So he duplicated the functionality as a cleaner, smaller and more efficient addon.
Viper007Bond Feb 18th 2010 10:44PM
Hmm, interesting. I may have to give it a try then. :)
Avan Feb 18th 2010 11:26PM
Not only that, but quite a few of Tekkub's addons have a tendency to not get updated very often. It's not because he's lazy, no. It's because his addons just don't need updating; Something that was made in 2.4 days will still work now, in 3.3, without error or fail. The only thing that does need updating are the TOC files, but that's fixed by clicking on the "Load out-of-date AddOns" button.
Wulfkin Feb 19th 2010 4:07AM
I don't see whats wrong with XLoot. I've been using it and its sister addons for ages and never had any problems.
I've got to say, even if this tekkub guy is some kind of addon god, it would have been nice to see some addons on this thread NOT written by him, just for variety of options.
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