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World of Cluttercraft?

World of CluttercraftRecently I was shown an interesting article in Wired that featured World of Warcraft. The piece mentions how much customization is available in WoW and highlights a handful of common addons that are used by WoW players to enhance their playing experience. Among the ones they list are a couple that I use, like Catrographer and Ventrilo.

The screen they show with the covers the entire screen with interface elements, which happens sometimes, but isn't the main experience of WoW. First of all, there aren't many times when you're going to have to worry about casting spells and looking at the map while you are browsing the auction house. It did get me thinking, though, about how much time I spend in WoW while not even paying attention to the graphics going on in the background. I'll be crunching numbers trying to figure out which piece of gear to use for a 16% hit set versus a 13% hit set, looking at AH to find out how much it might cost to gem an item to get my meta gem activated in both sets, and I sometimes have trouble finding space to open some of the larger interface elements while still being able to see everything that I need to. Another example is when I have my achievement pane open for a list of recipes I need to make while browsing my cooking window to figure out if I know the recipe and looking at my bank to find the mats I know are in there.

There are some addons that help greatly with this, but there are others that just add to the clutter. I'm going to cover a bunch of the ones that I use in the future, but for now I'd like to ask what you think. What is your take on addons? Is WoW too cluttered or do you want more windows? Do addons just make it worse or do you use them to make your UI more streamlined? What addons are essential to you? Drop a line in the comments to chime in.

Reader Comments (52)

I really love addons, but I only stick to the essentials:

1. Carbonite & QuestHelper - Basic must-have
2. Zanzer Hunter Mod - Hunter must-have
3. Deadly Boss Mods - Fully automatic, doesn't take space
4. Auctioneer - Saves money and Time
5. Atlas (+LootEnchanted)

Some times when I Alt+Z and look at WoW, I really wish I could just play like that, seeing all those beautiful graphics and stuff. But I guess if you buy a high resolution screen it would solve the problem.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterRugi

Im not using a lot of addons, becouse some of them makes playing too complex, and they r unwanted. But some of them r indispensable. Im using; Atlas, AtlasLoot, DamageMeters, KLHThreatMeter, MozzFullWorldMap, Proximo, Bartender and Questhelper (just, when leveling).

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterPetden

I generally like the fact that it is customizable, but it can be a bit much. My personal favs are Recount(being a rogue it's a must), Omen, and QuestHelper. Really all I need, the rest are just annoying.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCypherblok

I use Omen (IT everyone knows what that is), QuestHelper (Absolute godsend for questing. No more "Where the heck is that guy?"), Cartographer (I like how I can keep running while keeping the map open), KHunterTimers (handy for not wasting mana on mend pet, and I absolutely love the auto shot cast bar).
Those are my "productivity" addons.
My "fun" addons are: 1337Player (puts the little elite symbol around your char portrait, just for you to see), and CoolLevelUp (makes dinging hilarious, and shows you what new abilities you have to train).

Love your show, hope to see more of Zand with Soloing!

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOwenharper

Never used an addon myself. WoW isn't that hard to play to begin with so I never understood people who say "it makes the game easier".

Plus game works fine on patch day for me. :P

If someone uses addons, meh, doesn't bother me. Though I do have an issue with guilds/groups that *require* addons to run instances or raids with them. Don't tell me you need -addon name- to raid, I did MC, ZG, BWL, AQ20 pre-bc as a healer with no addons and had no trouble at all.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDrowNoble

I avoid most addons, they add too much clutter, and there've been so many problems with account hacking I often dont feel like trusting unknown addons.. :\

I do use Atlasloot. Used to use Omen (dont bother anymore), CTRaid assist, and a few others.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOzzel's Cousin Fred

Forgot I still use Recount

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOzzel's Cousin Fred

well tbh.. if u don't like addons, don't use em.. I only use the ones i need, cuz of my terrible computer xD

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSimon

Addons are good in the game but sometimes i believe i have to many. Until now i use:
Xpearl
Atlas
Atlas Loot
Gatherer
Titan Panel
ArcHUD
DBM
Druid Focus (for my druid)
Khunter Timers (for the hunter)
Zhunter Mod (also for my hunter)
Rating Buster
Critline
Dr. Damage
Mob Info 2
Town_guard
Omen
Recount
and ....last....but not least....One bag
Sometimes it's a bit crowded but in time i managed to make "some" space.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterIronhoof

I use 24 add-ons and plug-ins. After WotLK launched I, like many others, had to deal with my add-ons being broken, which was irritating. But I can honestly say, with the add-ons I use, WoW becomes much easier to organize and I have much more space to see what's going on!

Screen shot: http://twitpic.com/10k7i
What you can see there is ArcHUD, SCT and SCTDamage, xPerl, Macaroon(for bar customization), FuBAR(+ some plug-ins), Wardrobe, Omen and Recount.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWML

Oh, and of course LightHeaded and TomTom... Duh!

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWML

Thanks for posting all your addons people and i got mine to work! Thanks again.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDeidare

Also use Ackis Recipe List, although the displayed required skills are off by about 5, to see what recipes are available and at approximately what skill level.

Also use CCBreaker and CCWatcher, CCWatcher let's me know when CC's end, be it my traps, or morphs, or banish. CCBreaker to announce who broke what CC.

January 7, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterTwest

The only addons I use are healbot for my paladin, decursive for the chars that can decurse and DBM. So my UI is pretty much the same except I have a small square in the middle of the screen all the time. I used to have loads and loads of addons but that's over now. I like it when people can play with as less addons as possible.

January 8, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterFallor

As a hunter whose gotten used to the default action bars the only addons I use are DBM, Omen (for raiding) Quest Helper and ZHunterMods.

ZHunter is very nice, if you're a hunter and you don't use it, go download it.

January 8, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJosh

Some of my favorites are:

Omen
Carbonite Quest
Atlas
Atlas Loot
Recount
One Bag

I also have some of the useless ones that really don't help you in game and just take up space, key example for on my Death Knight...Death Knight Sounds. /shy

January 8, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMr.Vincent

I don't use too many addons...just:
-Atlas
-AtlasLoot
-Gatherer
-Deadly Boss Mods
-Omen Threat Meter

January 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlex

Most of my addons were mentioned already; but cause Im crazy about fishing in wow, I use fishing buddy. For all of us fishmen Its just unreplacable:)

January 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commentervoydd

I love Addons. but they dont love me. my computer is getting on a bit now and i find that if i have them all running on busy server times it can affect the performance, which can be annoying when in arena or raids.
some of the addons i use are....
+ Titan panel - great for showing bag space, durability, performance etc. without opening a new window.
+ X perl - nice interface for parties, can customise how you have your targets and who is targetting you.
+ Questhelper - because i am a lazy noob :)
+ Atlas and Atlas loot enhanced - i dont like wasting time in instances if i dont have too.
+ Quartz - great castbar/swing timer - shows you and targets perfect for timing CS or earth shock etc.
+ Auctioneer - great considering i sell lots of shit on AH and i just simply cannot be bothered to see how much everyone sells stuff for.

as you can probably tell i am pretty lazy but thats only because i use the addons to save what precious little time i have whilst playing the game without wasting my time with unnecessary tasks like reading
x

January 13, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterTulka

I can't live without addons on World of Warcraft

[*]Atlas and AtlasLoot
[*]AuctioneerSuite (actually under 5.1.3971 rev. - guys I think that blizz have to implement this suite such built in)
[*]AutoBar
[*]Bartender 4
[*]Baggins or Bagnon with Combuctor (most likely Baggins yup)
[*]Badboy (antispam)
[*]Bottom Scanner
[*]DoubleWide
[*]Cartographer (and many plugins for it)
[*]ClearFont2 (MUI version :: from mirageUI compilation here: http://ledmirage.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=7)
[*]CT_Core, CT_MailMod
[*]DBM mods
[*]ElkBuffBars
[*]Enchantrix
[*]EquipCompare
[*]ErrorMonster
[*]Examiner
[*]Fubar (and many plugins for it)
[*]Gatherer (im miner - disabled when raiding)
[*]Grid
[*]Informant
[*]InFlight
[*]LibSharedMedia-3.0
[*]MinimapButtonBag
[*]MobInfo2 (disabled when raiding)
[*]Omen3 (best addons ever)
[*]OmniCC
[*]Quartz
[*]QuestHelper ( :hail: - disabled when raiding)
[*]Prat-3.0 (chat mod)
[*]Recount (disabled when switch to prot war)
[*]ScrollingCombatText, ScrollingCombatText - Damage
[*]Simple Minimap
[*]Skillet
[*]Skinner (not very usefull but i rly dont like blizz-frames)
[*]Swatter
[*]TipTac and TipTac_talents (tooltip enchancement addon imho RLY awesome)
[*]TrinketMenu
[*]WoW Instant Messenger aka WIM
[*]Xloot, XlootGroup, XlootMaster, XlootMonitor
[*]X-Perl Unit Frames or ag_unitframes

I am warrior so i don't use decursive and healbot but both seem to be really helpfull

screenshot: http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/81/wowscrnshot011009045005sf9.jpg

Deathcruiser EU-Chamber of Aspects
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Chamber+of+Aspects&n=Deathcruiser

January 13, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterkaos

i've forgot to mention Clique together with grid - nQuestLog + lightheaded during quests period - RatingBuster and maybe something else

January 13, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterkaos

Any1 know what buff frames iTZKooPA aka the gnome mage uses? They are really nice and i cant find anyone that knows the name of them.

January 14, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterIamsteve

ok well i dont have a lot of addons but i got a fair amount
im a pally so PALLYPOWER is a must and i think any pally grouping with more pallys should have it. below is a list of mine and what i use em for but im in dier need of better ones but im comp dosent like a lot of the "good ones"
pallypower - pally group buffing
Atlas & Enhanced - to look up boss drops and instance maps
mapster - most for cords
gatherer & wow data base - must have as a miner i think
recount - nice to have see you dmg standing in group
quest helper - been thing about deleting but i like to have an idea where to go seem glitchy with lots of new quests and doesnt so multi spawn points a lot
x-perl - ok i dont liket this one but i dont know what to get instead like the raid tabs for everyone and boss cast bars and a few other setting but to much to firgure out for me
after reading lots but not all post im installing factionizer and clique to try out but who know if ill like em. i like simple addons i how ever and it need of some that take little space and memory which is hard to find lot of the time.

January 14, 2009 | Unregistered Commentersmackalolly

can somone tell me the addon that the mage is using that shows the name of the spell and the pic of it wen he does damage

January 19, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterZorcyPoo

Personally, the only thing that keeps me from getting every single addons out there is my system performance. My PC is decent, but i have close to 200 addons installed (tho not all are enabled for each of my toons) My favorites, in no particular order, are:
Cartographer w/ Gatehrmate: Map addon preloaded with a database of every mineral deposit for your farming needs :)
Bagnon: Combines all your bags into one movable, re sizable window and keeps track of items accross all of your characters.
Recount: Best damage meter out there, imo
Xperl and Agu unit frames: Yep, i have 2. Just trying out Agu at the moment.
IceHUD: The only HUD i could find with a combo point display that i liked.
CoolDownTimers 2: Shows my spell/pet/item CDs so i dont have to constantly look at my action bar.
Bartender4: One of the few addons that i have that helps to reduce the clutter
MikScrollingBattleText: Quite possibly the most screen-cluttering addon that i have, just because there is so much info being displayed while in combat.
Also, i used to have a chat frame addon called prat, but it broke with patch 3.0.3. Does anyone know of an alternative that works as well/better?

January 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterBob

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