Add-Ons

Inspired by my buddy and guild-mate Comehither, I decided to comment on a few add-ons that I find really useful.

XPerl. So, in talking with a co-worker that is a bit more raid-savvy than myself, I thought I was using XPerl until he mentioned some features I didn't have. Turns out I was running Perl Classic, which is also quite good, but XPerl is the shiznit. It replaces your unit frames and gives you a ton of options to get more information in less space than anything else I've seen. It takes a bit to customize, but it's worth the investment. It also made Quartz obsolete, which is tough to do.

Grid. If you heal, dispel or do anything in a raid that involves targeting outside your group, then this add-on is worth a look. As a main healer in a 10-man, this is my source of who has aggro, who needs heals, and who needs dispels. Couple this with Clique (see below), and you have a powerful tool.

Clique. Best configuration window of any add-on I've ever seen. It plugs into your spell book. How smart is that? It allows you to bind hot keys to pretty much any screen element you have, including Grid and XPerl frames. When shackling one of the extra mobs for Moroes, just set the mob as my focus and use shift-right click to re-shackle without taking my target from the tank.

RatingsBuster. If this is the first time you are hearing about this add-on, then shame on you. Never ask anyone "which piece of gear should I use?" when compare items. Let RatingsBuster show you the benefits of each in a side-by-side fashion to know what you gain/lose from the new item.

Bongos. Remove the built-in button bars and bring out the highly customizable Bongos bars. For my shammy, I've got all the totems in a small grid on the right. Nifty. For most of my toons, I keep a bar just for miscellaneous skills that I wouldn't use frequently in combat, such as the Skettis bombs, Booterang, Tempest Keep potions, etc. Another staple in my add-on library.

Lightheaded/Double-wide/TomTom. This trio is a must for those still leveling, and as an alt-aholic, I'm always leveling someone. Integrate quest info with Wowhead in a single wide window with clickable coordinates? Shut up!

nQuestLog. New one I'm trying and liking. Target a mob needed for a quest, it tells you the quest. Hover an item needed for a quest, it tells you what quest. I believe it only works on quests you have, so it doesn't have a massive database of quest info. That's good in my opinion as it would be a resource hog if it did. So far, it's a keeper.

TitanPanel. I still can't shake this one. I've had it for nearly 2 years now. I only used the money, bags, ammo, xp rate, and clock features. But it still provides all of that in a nicer format than anything else I've found.

TotemTimers. This add-on should be the king of shaman add-ons. I'm stubborn so I only get partial benefit from it. It provides an intuitive bar with your different elements and the totems you can drop from them, as well as shields and weapon buffs. You can do everything from this bar. So why don't I? I'm not sure. The delay in drop down on the totem bars bugs me. Having to get on the right element and then move down leaves room for me to goof and lose the drop down. I just use the Bongos bars I've setup for my totems instead. But I still use this guy to keep track of time remaining on my totems. If I had that another way, I would take it, but I haven't found another I like as well as this one.

Omen. If you ever are in a group, get this. No, shut up! Go get it. It helps measure your threat within the party on the current target.

Recount. Probably the worst add-on ever. Huh? You've got it/seen it? You like it? No, it's the debil! Mama said... This thing keeps great stats on dps/healing/whatever your party does. The down side is that you start using this as a measure of who is good and who isn't. Damage isn't everything.. but it sure gets to the loot faster. Used right, this a great tool. Used wrong, and it can cause problems. Don't ask how I'm using it... the vote is still out.

That's my initial list. As I think of others to add, I'll update.