Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, Addon Spotlight reaches into the addon grab bag and pulls out some delicious randomness for you.

Looking over all the columns here on WoW.com must be amazing for you Cataclysm information hounds. All that cool new art, talent trees getting changed like crazy, new races and sound files ... Too bad you'll find no Cataclysm stuff in Addon Spotlight. Not yet, anyway -- addons are currently disabled in the beta. For us addon junkies, then, we can only sit back, relax, drink 30 cans of Arnold Palmer and drift the night away. Or, I can recommend some addons. Both work for me.

Today's Addon Spotlight is a grab bag of sorts. I had a couple addons planned for this week but decided to do them later in spite of some other projects I am working on. A lot happened for me! I'm totally a part of the WoW Insider Show, which you should be listening to, on a more permanent basis. If you can't get enough Mat, you always have a weekly dose available on the show! I did what any good WoW player would do during a busy week -- I asked my raid group for their favorite addons, and this is the result.

SquawkAndAwe

Some of my best friends are balance druids. Seriously. In fact, now that I think about it, a good number of my WoW friends are druids of some kind, mostly balance. You know how they say that you can learn a lot about a person by looking at who they surround themselves with? What does the moonkin thing say about me?

Much like ShockandAwe, a staple addon for enhancement shaman, SquawkAndAwe replicates the experience for our boomkin brethren. Squawk provides timers for Eclipse procs, trinket procs and use timers, and everything in between. If you're a balance druid, you know that watching your buffs and procs intently is the name of the game, so anything that can help out in the slightest could be useful.

Download SquawkAndAwe at [Curse] or [WoWInsider].

OmniCC

I wish OmniCC was a bigger, more involved addon, because I want to be able to write 2,000 words on it. But I can't. I mean, I could, but you wouldn't want to read it. Who knows? It would probably be a bunch of Varian/Garrosh slash fiction cleverly woven together with a review of one of the simplest, yet best, addons I have ever used.


OmniCC is an addon that places cooldown timers on top of the corresponding action bar. So, instead of having a bar showing your cooldown for an ability like Crusader Strike, you can see a large number overlay on the action button itself. OmniCC is really great for those fast cooldowns, giving you a better visual on shorter time periods. For me, at least, seeing a 3-2-1 countdown registers with me quicker than a bar ticking down the same 3-2-1 time period.

OmniCC has an excellent option set, including a duration threshold option that blacklists out cooldown times until they reach a certain point in the cooldown countdown.

Download OmniCC at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].

Fishing Buddy

Get ready for Cataclysm fishing easily and worry-free with Fishing Buddy, many of my friends' favorite fishing addon. Fishing Buddy features a fish watcher than shows the types of fish you've caught in any given area, as well as fishing outfit support and easy casting.

Easy casting is probably one of the biggest boons to my WoW career. Fishing has always been mind-numbing, but easy casting takes just a bit of the pain away. After enabling easy casting, a double right-click casts your line. Single right-click loots the bauble. One-handed fishing is the greatest improvement ever.

How can you not love an addon that rates your fishing outfit with style points? I mean, really.

Download Fishing Buddy at [Curse] or [WoWInsider].

Mail bag? Certainly!

Dear Mat,

I currently use Altoholic for my alt management(for lack of a better word). Are there other addons that allow you to see everything that Altoholic lets you see? For example, mail on other toons, the amount of gold each individual toon has, the contents of multiple guild banks, etc.

Duulket
Brotherhood of Steel
Antonidas - US

Thanks for the email, Duulket. To be honest, Altaholic is the one big alt addon that I keep around for all that tracking. I would love to know if there is an alt for alts to this alt addon. Too many alts! Comment question: Are there any alternatives to Altaholic that can do this type of tracking? I know that FuBar_MoneyFu will track all of your characters gold on the realm, but mail? I'm at a loss.

Hi Mat

Your columns have completely overhauled my ui...it needs to be cleaner but learning about skada and combuctor have been great.

I'm having a suf issue...I can't to seem to find how to see an enemy cast bar which is affecting my tanking...can you help me with that its driving me nuts.

Ittes

Thanks for the email, Ittes. Here's your answer:

Hi Mat

Love the column, I'm also an addon maniac and I am writing with fantastic news. I've been playing WoW almost six years and the whole time there's one thing I've always hated with a mad, blazing, nuclear passion: the 'fizzle' error sound when you can't cast a spell. I found this little fix that merely configures the client to play blank sounds instead of that horrible game-breaking annoying sound.

NoErrorSoundhttp://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info10162-Noerrorsound.html

Best regards!
Eli

Yes. Yes. Yes. YES. A thousand times, yes. I have found my third addon on all time. Please, humble readers, take this beautiful piece of knowledge and spread it. Spread it like warm butter on toast. Sweet, sweet addon butter.

In all seriousness, as a retribution DPSer and now a warrior tank, I'm mashing buttons like a crazy person. I probably don't have to, but I feel like I'm doing more DPS the harder I press. Don't judge me! This addon has made life a little bit better by getting rid of that absolutely awful sound. Cha-chunk. Cha-chunk. Cha-chunk. Is that the sound? I can't even write it. Ugh. Look, I hate that sound, and now it's gone. Thank you, Eli. Thank you.

See you all next week here on the Spotlight.

---

Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. Huh? What? Oh. You're still reading this. Ahem. Tidy Plates! Yes ... yes ... so neat and tidy. And remember, Addon Spotlight is fueled by viewers like you, so if you have a mod you think we should take a look at, email mat@wow.com.

---

Tags: add-on, add-on-configuration, add-on-guide, addon-configuration, addon-guide, addons, balance, balance-druid, boomkin, featured, fishing, fishing-addon, fishing-buddy, fishing-daily, guide, moonkin, omnicc, omnicc-addon, wow-add-on, wow-add-on-guide, wow-add-ons, wow-addon-guide, wow-addons, wow-guide

Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight