Today I thought we'd look at an addon that many guilds require their paladins to use. To be honest, I'd never really understood why until I transitioned to 25-man content. Coordinating blessings with one other paladin (our Karazhan runs rarely had more than two paladins.) was never complicated, but when you've got three or more paladins, it can get messy and can waste valuable raid time.

As my guild continues its efforts in The Eye and Serpent Shrine Cavern, I've found myself somewhat frustrated by paladins who don't use this one. Granted, I was that guy until recently, thinking that because ZOMG Buffs played nice with buff assignments via PallyPower, that I was good to go. Now suddenly I'm taking a more active role in buff assignments and realize that like Omen, Healbot and logging for WWS, the more players using a utility, the better.

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Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Add-Ons, Raiding, AddOn Spotlight, Buffs, Battlegrounds

Welcome to another installment of Addon Spotlight. Today I thought I'd present you with four addons that make minor changes to your UI while providing little or no additional functionality. Call these vanity addons if you like, although you may find one or more of them actually useful.

In the spirit of the holiday weekend (for those of us in the U.S.), I thought I would start with some color-oriented addons. I use these almost entirely for the sheer joy of some more bright colors on the screen, but I as I always say, having a quick visual reference to information adheres to the simple but powerful UI philosophy that less is more.

oGlow is a very simple addon that does one thing, it lights up the icon border of an item with the color matching it's quality. As my paladin's character pane shows, epic items are brightly lit with a purple border, rare items are blue and green items are green. (Okay, no green items there, but you get the point.) I think I replaced that green item with my Medallion of the Horde last week, am I supposed to get a pen for being green-free or something? The only real use I have gotten from this, aside from a pretty glow, is being able to quickly assess another player's gear while inspecting them. I would like to think I am able to tell this by just looking at them, but I like to snoop anyway.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Add-Ons, Features, AddOn Spotlight

We've discussed both Totemus and Necrosis here at Addon Spotlight, and praised the way they wrap things into a neat little package. OPie does the same thing, but to an extent that not only are your spells hidden until you need them, but they can be easily integrated with a minimalist play-style.

What OPie does is take spells, items, trade-skills and macros and creates virtual rings for them to reside in. By assigning a keybinding, one can simply press a button and have a quick menu (a ring) appear on the screen, which will cast a spell, use an item or a macro based on where the mouse is hovering in relation to the ring.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight

Welcome to the Father's Day edition of Addon Spotlight. I honestly tried to think about an addon that would match the holiday theme for all of thirty seconds before deciding to just write about an addon I've found to very useful. (Although perhaps you got your Dad some tools, or your Dad is a tool, so take it for what its worth.)

TipTac is a tooltip mod that adds a load of features to the little informative frames that appear when you hover over characters and objects in the game. As I've implied before, I enjoy quick and easy visual references to important information. This includes a character's class, health and reaction. (in the case of NPC's)

TipTac provides another way to discern details; a redundancy I embrace for the sake of easy targeting and planning.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Add-Ons, Features, AddOn Spotlight

It's Friday, which means that it's payday for some of you. With that in mind, why don't we take a look at an addon that helps you stay on top of your virtual finances. For those of us who are not only information junkies, but also control freaks, this addon is a great way to maintain sovereignty over how your gold comes and goes.

AuditorFu, contrary to what the name implies, will function with or without the Fubar addon. However, I find it best suited as a center-aligned, top-bar, Fubar mod, as it allows me to see the important stuff at center stage. (Alongside AuldLangSyne) There's nothing worse than having an inflated view of your gold total and quickly realizing the mats for your Red Belt of Battle are out of reach.

The good news is that this addon can help you be more diligent if you're saving for a crafted epic or your Artisan Riding skill. Every copper counts, my friends.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Economy, Add-Ons, Features, AddOn Spotlight, Making money

Welcome to a special "maintenance day" edition of Addon Spotlight. Today, we're going to take a look at one more Hunter specific mod, wrapping up my week of hunter love. Thus far, we've taken a (another) look at Fizzwidget's Feed-O-Matic and some off-the-beaten-path macros. I'm going to, once again, feature an addon that integrates macros into the major functionality and one written by my favorite developer: the ever-candid Tekkub.

True to form, Tekkub wrote this addon to be simple, efficient and easy to use. The aptly named Fuzzy Logic is a macro-based addon that will react differently based on the current status of you and your pet. As with many of Tekkub's Random Crap, this addon works with pretty much no memory footprint, and very little setup required.

What I love most about this type of addon is how much they add to my own gameplay while asking so little in return. I use this, amongst others, so often during my daily grind (when I get around to rolling my Hunter), that I can't imagine life without them. In a sense, Fuzzy Logic has become part of my own "default UI".

Come on back after the jump for Tekkub's description and how to configure this one. (Just for you, Tekkub)

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, Add-Ons, Features, AddOn Spotlight

It's been awhile since we talked about Gazmik Fizzwidget's little trinkets. As I promised in this week's Macro Anatomy, here is an addon designed specifically for Hunters and their pets.

Feed-O-Matic handles feeding your pet, automating the process of opening your bag, finding food and stuffing into your pets face. The part I find most useful is the reminder it creates for feeding my hungry wolf. I've configured the addon to create an emote when I feed my pet, just so everyone knows how humane I am in my treatment of a pet I ask to fight on my behalf. (Ironic I know, but it helps me sleep at night.)

You can configure this addon to avoid foods needed for quests, anything that provides a "Well-Fed" buff and/or is used for Cooking recipes. You have complete control over what food your pet is allowed to eat, through a series of slash commands, so with just a bit of configuration Feed-O-Matic can streamline the entire process.

Come back after the break for some tips on setting up your new pet-feeding addon.

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Tricks, Add-Ons, Features, AddOn Spotlight

We recently had a request for some Hunter macro help, so I thought I would present some unique little gems for you ranged DPS types to use. First of all, let it be known that we we have talked about Hunter macros here before, more than once actually. Secondly, a good source of Hunter-specific macros would be WoWWiki's Useful Hunter Macro page. However, given those resources, you may find yourself wanting more.

I turned back to the World of Warcraft forums, where I, once again, found some of Belleboom's work. The witty troll from the Earthen Ring server has written some useful macros for hunters, complete with slightly silly descriptions.

I'll start us off with this macro, which determines what type of pet you have, and uses the appropriate ability:

Dive/Dash/Growl/Wrench!: Casts Dive if you have an owl, dash if you have a cat, or growl if you have anything else... wrench optional.

• /cast [pet:owl] Dive; [pet:cat] Dash; [pet] Growl

Next, a macro that feeds or uses Mend Pet depending on your current status:

Feed/Mend Pet: Based on combat status.

• /cast [combat] Mend Pet; [nocombat] Feed Pet
• /use [nocombat] <FoodLinkHere>

Come on back after the break for a few more.

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Features, Macro Anatomy

For today's Addon Spotlight, we'll be spending some quality time with an addon that serves one function; to make your UI look very, very pretty. I only recently began using Skinner, as I hadn't ever bothered to change the default skins of my UI. Skinner will apply different backgrounds to the different windows of your UI, from your character sheet to the Auction House interface. It will also handle skinning many of your addons, tying your UI into a neat, attractive package.

You have the option to skin just about any part of your UI, as well as creating background panels on the top or bottom of your screen. When I don't auto-hide Fubar, I like to have it sitting on a gradient-background courtesy of Skinner.

There is also an option to create a viewport, which changes the size of the rendered world, allowing you to put UI elements outside of it. There are a number of options and ways to configure this one, so check back after the break.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Tricks, Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight, Guides

After last week's Reader UI, there was a low, guttural rumbling for Shaman UI's, something I am happy to provide. My own shammy dinged 50 this week and I'm finding it more and more difficult to manage the multitude of spells, totems and abilities in my UI.

Allow me to present Papalegba, proud Troll Shaman of the Skullcrusher server. His UI has got to be one of the most unique I've seen, bearing only a passing resemblance to the default user interface. His approach is circular in nature, providing a different type of utility, one that "square-minded" players might struggle to grasp. If you've used Necrosis or Totemus, this might be right up your alley, so join us after the break for Papalegba's addons, description and biography.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Add-Ons, Features, Reader UI of the Week