Addon Spotlight: Little helpers
by Mathew McCurley 
Jun 23rd 2011 at 1:00PM
Additions to the default user interface come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You've got your monumental addon and UI renovations that change almost every aspect of the substance and style of WoW's UI. You've also got the essentials, pieces of Lua code that change the fundamental nature of your class, like threat meters. Then there are the little guys -- utilities that add functionality to pieces of the interface that sort of live in the background.
Today is utilities day on Addon Spotlight. I've got three little addons for you that add functionality or just plain help you out with your game play experience. One of the greatest functions of addons is creating this sense of power in the user's hands, and I think these three little guys prove that point. Sit back, relax, and rev up those comments -- it's Addon Spotlight time.
OptiTaunt
Tanks! Tanks! Tanks! Sit down with me here, friends. You're a fan of helping out groups, right? Of course you are -- you're a tank for crying out loud. Selfless and courageous, stalwart and honorable, the success of the group hinges on your selflessness and ability. Or you can scream at healers. Either way, I've got an addon that will make both of those awesome activities a little more bearable for everyone.
OptiTaunt used to be the addon I would recommend for people to announce when taunts missed. Taunts, however, no longer miss. So what's an addon to do when a primary function is rendered useless? Upsell the other features!
It turns out OptiTaunt's truly awesome feature is working like a spell announcer like Raeli's but working specifically for tank classes and specs. When you use a cooldown ability like Shield Wall, paladin Shield Wall, death knight Shield Wall, or druid Shield Wall (what? I play a warrior...), you'll let the group or raid know about it!
Healers, especially the reactive types, value a tank whose cooldowns are communicated in a quick and no-frills fashion. Knowing that your tank is going to be taking a certain amount of incoming damage allows for mana conservation spells to be used, as well as the ability to replace less-efficient heals for something more standard. Good tanks communicate well. OptiTaunt can help with that.
Open up OptiTaunt's configurations by typing /ot config. You'll see plenty of options to set, including warning customizations for your party or raid. OptiTaunt comes loaded with all of the cooldowns and vital abilities that would require a shout or some warning. Your healers will thank you, and you'll look like you know what you're doing. What's not to love?
Download OptiTaunt at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
Bad pet! Bad! Stay. Stop. Hey, get back here. Stop it. Don't pull every spider in Tol Barad. HEY. You know what? Fine. Do whatever. I'm not going to save you. You're on your own, pet. Look. See? I just feigned death. You're surviving an awfully long time. Crap. Tenacity pet. It might actually just be quicker to kill the spiders. Fine. You win this round, bear. You happy?
Bad pets are in every hunter's arsenal or stables at some point or another. We are humans -- we are fallible. That goes the same for our pets.
BadPet seeks to help out your bad pets keep their composure in instances or raids. BadPet works best for hunters and warlocks and lets you know when your pet is taunting, growling, thunderstomping, and more. The addon was designed with hunters and warlocks in mind so that they could reign in their taunting pets, and for tanks who are sick and tired of hunters and warlocks forgetting to turn off their pets' taunts in instances.
We all jump into the dungeon finder queue while out soloing, so a gentle reminder that taunt or growl is still up and running might not be such a bad thing. It will, at least, make the tank happy.
Download BadPet at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
Color Tools
I have probably talked about ColorTools in the past, but this addon basically epitomizes the concept of adding bits and pieces to the UI.
Picking colors is a tough business in the default WoW interface. You've got a color wheel and a slider. Yay. How about adding some RBG values, hm? ColorTools does exactly this, allowing you to input RBG values or enter your color into a hex edit box. It's simple and it works, adding these features to all of the color wheels you find from addons or even in the default UI itself. You'll barely notice the addon, but it is phenomenal for designing your UI.
Commenters are also a fan of more-recently updated ColorPickerPlus, which also provides a color swatch for copy and paste functionality. I absolutely love that feature, now that I know it exists. Ooooo. Curse being down for what feels like forever puts a bit of a damper on addon-related discoveries, yeah?
Download ColorTools at [Curse].
Download ColorPickerPlus at [Curse].
Juggler (it's that time of year)
It's that time of year again! Are you working on your Flame Warden/Keeper title and the Torch Juggler achievement? Were you screaming at the top of your lungs last year when juggling torches was the spiritual equivalent of punching yourself in the no-no spot just because you could?
Last year I recommended Juggler, an addon that made this achievement much more bearable for everyone, including gamers who just did not have the physical capacity to complete this achievement. Dalaran is a whole lot less laggy these days, but the Juggler addon is still a nice thing to have so you don't throw your computer out the window.
Juggler requires a mouse with a scroll wheel to work correctly. Just open up Juggler with the commands /juggler or /juggle, and your scroll wheel will be bound to your torches. Grab 15-20 torches from the Midsummer vendor, pick a spot to target on the ground, and spin that wheel like you're on The Price is Right. Your key bindings are restored to their original settings when the Juggler window is closed.
Download Juggler at [Curse].
That's it for this week, kids. Next week, I've got a few ideas, but I think I may end up with a Reader's Choice, so keep sending in those great addon recommendations and your favorites and maybe you'll see yours featured here. As for a commenter question this week, I was thinking about addons that have been so thoroughly made obsolete over the course of WoW's development. What is your favorite obsolete addon?
See you guys next week!
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jaslm Jun 23rd 2011 1:23PM
An alternative to ColorTools (which has not been updated since 2009) is ColorPickerPlus. It provides all the functionality of ColorTools, and adds a color swatch for the copy/paste functionality.
Mathew McCurley Jun 23rd 2011 1:33PM
I added in ColorPickerPlus to the article itself. I like it. Curse being down has put a huge damper on addon-related investigation.
woecip Jun 23rd 2011 1:29PM
Cant download anything from curse right now :(
chyllyphylly Jun 23rd 2011 1:47PM
Yeap, the entire Curse Network is down. I can't update addons, read mmo-c, or even log into my guild's website.
How can one site have sooo much power? :s
Unain Jun 23rd 2011 1:55PM
Wowinterface is still up :).
Check: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info18580-ColorPickerPlus.html
adam Jun 23rd 2011 2:15PM
All those sites are operated together they had a critical network piece fail yesterday they have been testing the new one out for stability before going live
Erik Jun 23rd 2011 1:31PM
Just wanted to say this was some great writing about a not that exciting topic. I laughed out loud a few times; well done.
Tordenflesk Jun 23rd 2011 1:49PM
I use Broker_pettender for managing pet-skills. A bit fiddly, but once the profiles are set up It's two clicks to switch profiles.
Miskatonic Jun 23rd 2011 1:53PM
awesome. gotta grab 3/4 of these as soon as possible.
Dez Jun 23rd 2011 2:41PM
Can I just say, that as a long-time healer playing a Druid, Shaman and Priest, I absolutely HATE those announcement addons like OptiTaunt and the rest.
Well, hate may be a bit of a strong word, but still, they're bloody annoying. :P If I want to keep an eye on tank cooldowns, I'll use my own addon for it - it's not exactly tricky. DBM even has a plug-in for it, I think. And if I'm monitoring stacks of dudu Shield Wall on my own UI, I don't need the tank to be spamming party chat every other second about it as well.
Of course, there are plenty of less addon-prone healers out there, and doubtless some of them will welcome a bit of prompting. I imagine it might be handier in a raid situation, though if all the tanks were using it, things would get very confusing very fast.
jeffbr Jun 23rd 2011 3:32PM
I'm with you - I can't stand add-ons that announce things to /p (or whatever). I've found that most PUG groups get pretty ornery when you have them enabled too. The last time I auto-updated my UI compilation, it re-set my announcements back to default (which, apparently, is 'announce everything').
Unfortunately, since I'm a considerate Tauren Fury Warrior, it announced to /p every time I interrupted a spell caster. So my PUG got spammed with "Oryx has just interrupted Dark Bolt" every CD. The comments ranged from, "Do you want a cookie?", to "Oh, look, we got paired with the interrupting cow!", to "Hey, at least he's using his interrupts".
Moral of the story: Turn all announcements off for PUGs.
Dez Jun 23rd 2011 3:55PM
Oh no! Not the interrupting c... MOOOOOOOOOO.
Draev Jun 23rd 2011 5:51PM
Ignore is your friend. Dont like it then you can ignore them, why should I turn off my addon that I like to appease someone I may never play with again? I have them set a certain away I don't want to have to modify them again until major patch day.
Katherine Jun 23rd 2011 7:34PM
Long cooldowns are ok to announce, but interrupts should really be turned off. Not just for pugs, but everywhere. In a raid, if it's crucial that you interrupt, noones going to be checking the chat box for whether you got your interrupt off or not. I don't rage at pugs or anything, it doesn't overly bother me. And I cracked up at the rogue who had a macro binding /s Nutkick to his kick.
Ragen Jun 24th 2011 5:10AM
I'm with Draev here.
Announcing usage of tanking cooldowns is about the best thing you can do in -any- situation. I'm afraid your pet peeve here falls short of the actual good use that comes from announcing things. Now, if they announce something like "Interuptedz MOFO!" or "Look at me! I invincible!" I will agree. If it's something like "Guardian of Ancient Kings is up!", it's a wonderful way to let people know that you've used a cooldown.
I'm searching for a nice way to put it, but this is all I can think of: Deal with it. It harms nothing. It does not affect anything but your chat interface.
Sinthar Jun 24th 2011 8:09AM
@Draev
Ignore is NOT the way to go with this one. Ignore does other things than just ignore the spam some tank (who is trying to do his best - and hence probably a decent tank), the most important thing it does here is it PREVENTS you from getting that tank through LFD again.
With tank shortages, and the silly queue times, the LAST thing you want to do is to ignore a decent tank.
Next I would ask - is it really appropriate to ignore the person who is controlling and leading your dungeon group? If he asks for cc from you, you wont hear or do it, he asks if you can kite/offheal/pause for 2 secs while he grabs a drink etc.....You WONT KNOW. This would make YOU the weak and emminently kickable link in that run then.
Still wanna ignore the tank? If not then just politely ask him to disable the addon - and give him 2 mins - then continue killing stuff. Simple.
duskhawk Jun 23rd 2011 3:03PM
Little utility addons are my favorites. A few quality of life ones:
EnhancedStackSplit - gives you more options when you shift+click on a stack. Buttons with common quantities, and the ability to stack a split into x number stacks of y size.
UnitPrice - if you ever still browse the default auction house, this will break out the price per each for bid & buyout under the item in the list. (Getting AuctionLite mostly made this obsolete for me, but it's still nice to have.)
Homing Digeon - puts your archaeology sites on your flightmaster maps and highlights flight locations closest to them.
Gracandrea Jun 23rd 2011 3:18PM
Juggler. I love it. It's amazing.
It has saved my wrists and fingertips.
Enough said.
Worldworstretadin Jun 23rd 2011 6:03PM
On the subject of addons that will help your sanity, I don't think I've seen one for FishermansFriend. Equipping your fishing rod turns up your ambient sound and turns down everything else. Double-clicking the right mouse button will auto-lure with the best available lure in your bags. All you need to do is double right-click and it casts. When you want to reel in, just double right-click on the bobber and it automatically loots what you've caught and re-casts.
With this little gem, I maxed out my Fishing skill in only fifteen years - half the time to max Archaeology! Or rather, my seven year-old indentured labourer (read: son) maxed my Fishing skill.
On the subject of letting your munchkin play on your account, does anyone have any horror stories. Mine was when my son discovered the toy store in Dalaran - and went nuts! That was after he /gquit my main character (somehow) and joined a random Christian based guild. After receiving a call from my GM, asking why I'd just left the guild, I walked into my office and found him running around in a dungeon with his new guildies. He had no idea what he was doing, the group had no idea what he was doing.
There was much apologising and explaining on my part - and my son was forever consigned to the xbox for the hour he was allowed to play games before bed.
Sinthar Jun 24th 2011 8:11AM
As to your horror storey, mine seems a little weak.
But its amusing - so.....
I was raiding - back a long time ago in TBC. As a mage and newly geared I was invited to my first raid by the GL and RL. I didnt know at the time but it wasnt due to skill, rotation or anything else. I was the ONLY (semi) geared mage online - and we were going to raid Gruuls lair. I was very excited and nervous. My cat sensed this and wanted to play - but I had no time so gentle pushed him away.
For those of you that have never done this fight - there is a boss encounter where one of the 5 bosses has to be tanked by range - mage specifically to allow them to spellsteal the shield from the boss. They also have HUGE aggro range.
After a couple of false starts (stand there - what here - ARGH - as the bosses were body pulled) I was finally in position - everyone was ready. The hunter pulled with MD, and I ...........
Stared in shock as the familiar tones came from the computer, followed by wow closing and the legend 'Logging off' appeared, before the computer turned blank. I then heard a small thud behind me.
I turned round to see my cat, sitting on the sofa, looking both sheepish and startled. The remote control for my PC was lying on the floor just in front of him. The cat had turned my PC off!!!!!! The cat took one look at me and after a frozen second, I moved and the cat ran as if his life depended on it (it didnt).
I made a point of fussing my cat BEFORE the raid for a long time after that.