Breakfast Topic: What addons can you not live without?
by Amelia Ramstead 
Jul 19th 2011 at 8:00AM
My husband is the king of addons. If someone, somewhere, devised a method of making his WoW experience just a smidge easier, he has probably downloaded it and tried it out. I, on the other hand, have this strange sense that addons are "cheating" in some way, and I don't use them unless I can't get through the game (or at least raid) without them! I'm not sure where I picked up that particular attitude, but one other significant difference between me and my husband is that he loves gadgets, and I'm not such a fan. Isn't that kind of what an addon is? A gadget to make things in the game more convenient?
That being said, I can't live without Deadly Boss Mods. All the warning noises and flashing words and warnings to Run away! make me look like I know what I'm doing, even when I don't. Of course, the raid leader requires us to have it, but I wouldn't want to try raiding it without it. Otherwise, I'd probably just hang out standing in the fire. For the record, my husband's favorite addon is Titan Panel. He likes that pretty much every bit of information about his characters is one mouse click away, but I feel like it's information overload.
What about you? What addon can you not live (or at least raid) without?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Naina Jul 19th 2011 8:07AM
Grid. Cannot raid without it - Maybe it's the fact that I have a smaller monitor, but I don't know how others cope with all the screen space covered up by the default UI.
myst Jul 19th 2011 8:09AM
hmm... i've gotten used to using wow's default raid frames, its pretty useful eventho its been buggy since 4.2.
Dan Jul 19th 2011 9:23AM
The default frames are okay, but I still prefer the functional simplicity and customization of Grid (customizing Grid used to be not-so-simple, but the configuration interface has improved dramatically since BC). And as a healer, I would DEFINITELY add Clique along with Grid as a "cannot live without" addon. I *can* heal without Grid + Clique, but it just feels clunky, whereas Grid + Clique fits me like a glove.
Cambro Jul 19th 2011 10:18AM
When I first started healing, I found Healbot and was very confused by it. Then I tried Grid and it made sense, much less setup. I never tried Clique though...at one time, was it a Windows executable? That's what I was told, and being on a Mac it wouldn't work.
I migrated to Healbot when I discovered that I could assign multiple mouse buttons to spells. Grid doesn't do that by itself, does it? Doesn't it need Clique? (Which leads me to wonder...if Healbot can incorporate the functionality of Clique, why can't Grid...)
Ninerva Jul 19th 2011 10:39AM
Cambro: Clique isn't an executable. It adds click-casting functionality to ANY unit/raid frames, not just Grid. You can tell it which frames to affect and not affect, mine only affects Grid. Grid doesn't have built-in click-casting because it's not designed to be healer-specific, it's a general purpose raid frames addon that just happens to be infinitely customizable. Healbot and Vuhdo are specifically targeted to healers, so they have click-casting built in.
I have used all three. Grid+Clique is the best of them, Vuhdo is nearly as good, and Healbot is not worth your time.
myst Jul 19th 2011 8:08AM
altoholic as i run 10 toons, DBM for raiding, Postal cos clicking everything is annoying, Ingela's Rapture for my disc priest, PoMTracker again for my priest, SexyCooldown, and of course, Recount.
Docseuzz Jul 19th 2011 5:00PM
All kinds of agree- altoholic ftw
MusedMoose Jul 19th 2011 8:09AM
Healing without Healbot was one of the most frantic, stress-inducing things I've ever done outside of work. Healing with Healbot means I spend the entire dungeon thinking "No worries, I *got* this" and singing Queen's "Keep Yourself Alive." ^_^
Also: I love NPC Scan. My hunter is going for the achievements in Outland and Northrend that involve killing all the rares, which would be nigh-impossible without NPC Scan and the additional overlay addon.
And the tiny little addon that I can't live without? Coords. Plain and simple.
Revnah Jul 19th 2011 8:10AM
When I was lucky enough to receive a Cataclysm Beta key, I quickly realised that I can, indeed, live without any addons.
Having said that, healing without my Healbot *is* a pain. DBM, like the article says, is also kind of essential. When I dps, I like Recount to measure my own performance and to see when I'm getting better; it makes the whole thing interesting. Otherwise, hmmmm. I also depend on my Power Auras a lot.
Altoholic is handy, so is Ackis Recipe List, and of course my UI addon of choice, Dominoes.
But really, honestly indispensible? Only Healbot and DBM.
Marac Jul 19th 2011 8:11AM
Feral druid, so classtimer to watch my bleeds is an absolute must have.
Shoikler Jul 19th 2011 8:12AM
"I, on the other hand, have this strange sense that addons are 'cheating' in some way, and I don't use them unless..."
I don't use any at all, and this is part of the reason. I know it's not really cheating, and I don't have anything against them or people who use them,* but I just stick to the default game and UI. I also don't raid, so I haven't had to deal with the "You MUST have this add-on!" issue.
*Except the ones that actually are cheats, like whatever one it is that lets them insta-mine a node right out from under me.
MikeLive Jul 19th 2011 9:02AM
I'm absolutely convinced that DBM is 100% unabashed, shameless cheating. I got rid of it around 3.3 (I moved to a guild that no longer required it), and didn't affect my performance at all. In fact, I got better, since when I read up on a fight, I actually had to remember what I learned.
Dan Jul 19th 2011 9:29AM
People should definitely read up on the fights, but Blizzard has not said they view DBM as cheating - on the contrary, they've incorporated elements of it into certain fights in the case of on-screen warnings and things like the Corrupted Blood/Sound meters - and any addon that reduces raid wipes is one I will endorse until Blizzard says otherwise, so DBM is a must-have for me (and most of the guilds I've been in).
Noyou Jul 19th 2011 9:51AM
I do agree somewhat with the feeling that add ons are cheating. There is no way you can say that it does not give you certain advantages. DBM is probably one of the 2 addons I should have but don't. All of the addons that "help" you play your class- kind of like having someone sitting over your shoulder and saying "press this button now!" come on. The worst part is then these people with 2-3-4 addons helping them play their class tell others how much they suck. I would love to have an arena option where you can fight players who use NO addons. That's when you see the real skill level of PvP. There are definitely some good addons out there and Blizzard has done a great job of incorporating things to make the game easier and more playable. After a patch though I generally don't turn on my addons for weeks and they are only recount (so I can see how much I suck :p) and gatherer.
gewalt Jul 19th 2011 11:09AM
I'd love to see someone try to gong out searing flame without dbm or equivalent.
Scratch that, I would love to see someone actively participate in the fight AND hit the gong on time. Leaving one person standing at the gong not doing anything but waiting to ring is unacceptable.
Saeadame Jul 19th 2011 12:30PM
I'm assuming you're talking about addons that actually present the ingame information to you in a different/simpler way, because the majority of addons I've ever come across are really just to make your UI look pretty more than anything else.
For me personally, the majority of the addons I use have absolutely nothing to do with gameplay, they're purely aesthetic. I'm not a big fan of how the default UI LOOKS, so I've changed it extensively until it suits my definition of "clean." But none of that fundamentally alters how I play the game in comparison to people who don't use the addons - just because my map is at the bottom and my action bars are smaller or my quests show up on the left doesn't change how I play at all, it just changes where I look for information.
TBH, I could live without DBM, Power Auras (it's mildly annoying to not see how much time is remaining on my clearcasting with the default auras, but it's otherwise fine), etc, but I probably wouldn't be able to live without Dominos making my action bars look pretty.
Smashbolt Jul 19th 2011 12:42PM
Spec-helper addons aren't really that great... they can be useful when learning a DPS rotation, but I don't think any of them are even remotely encounter-aware. And they're all based entirely on PvE rotations, so if you're losing in PvP against "cheaters" who only press a button if their PvE rotation addon tells them to... well, the addon isn't the problem here...
all8280bcc Jul 19th 2011 8:13AM
GTFO, holy power meter. I have a buff meter on one of my alts that is getting put onto my pally as well. Cant forget DBM!
naixdra Jul 19th 2011 8:14AM
Mik's Scrolling Combat text.
I know custom combat text doesn't seem that important, but for some reason the game feels weird when I don't have it on.
I don't need boss, bag, or even bar mods, but I can't stand to play the game for more than an hour without my combat text.
Luis Alluren Jul 19th 2011 8:17AM
i'm using ElvUI (while I take my time building my own interface) so a few addons in the pack already -- but DBM, Auctionator and Clique I consider essential (even thou I haven't been playing healing class
a quick question for the original post: do you only move your char when deadly boss mods tells you to ?