Addon Spotlight: Goin' commando (or close)
Each week, the Tuesday server down-time gives us all a little time away, which I often spend contemplating the state of my User Interface. As a semi-pro (long on semi, short on pro) addon enthusiast, this often means I visit various addon sites for updates and to peruse the new and exciting developments since my last visit. Although I am meandering towards automatic updates, because it makes me feel so connected, I still enjoy browsing what's new in the world of addons.
However, sometimes I start to wonder if life would easier without addons. I could spend less time worrying about updates, memory footprints, configuring addons and a potentially cluttered UI. I would not have the same power to make changes to the look and feel of World of Warcraft, as well as the opportunity to change my game play. With so many alts, and my known commitment issues, I need to add variety to grinding. What, then, for the freedom of giving it all up and just playing the game out-of-the-box?
I have actually begun converting as many addons as I can to the Ace system, just to see how it turns out. I had recently seen a decline in my system's performance, and suspected an addon had gone rogue. I'm happy to report that so far, my Ace conversion is going very well. (More on that in the future). During this time of trials, I was forced to decide which addons I simply could not live without. Could I even play without my beloved mods? Would I have to keep at least a couple of must-haves?
What merit is there in going addon-free? Would I be able to hold my head a bit higher, knowing that I can play without added software? Will my Mac breath a sigh of relief and reward me with more frames-per-second? I turn to you, fair reader, to delve into these two deep, and philosophically daunting questions?
Why go addon free? (I'm giving you addon-objectors a chance to sell me your way of thought).
For those of you who opt to use addons, which of your repertoire could you absolutely not play without?
