Addon Spotlight: Atlasloot Enhanced updated for Wrath

That's right, Atlasloot Enhanced has been updated to include the Northrend instances and raid. Personally, I've been waiting to be able to browse and try-on the gear from the new dungeons and raids since the expansion launched.

Atlasloot Enhanced is absolutely one of my must-have addons, and I've watched it grow with loving admiration since the day I realized I could see what my toons looked liked wearing Sunken Temple loot.

For those of you not using this one, it's a wonderful way to spend your time while waiting for your groups to get situated, double check drop rates on certain items, or even link items from your wish list for typically uninterested group-mates. (Go ahead and take advantage of the captive audience.)

Although we've featured this one before, Atlasloot Enhanced has some great features for the curious player, and in light of all the new content, I thought we'd review some of the reasons to install and use this very useful mod.

Atlasloot Enhanced is feature-rich, with different ways to find specific items in World of Warcraft. Let's take a look at the different categories you'll find when you load this mod.

Instances / Raids
The developers have added the Northrend instances and raids, everything from Utgarde Keep to Naxxramas. You can use a couple of drop-down menus to navigate the dungeons and raids from the four continents.

Collections
One of my favorite features is the ability to sort through, and preview, the different armor sets in the game. This includes the sets from 10-man and 25-man Naxxramas.

Factions
Selecting this button will allow you to browse through the different factions from the original content and both expansions. Go ahead, check out that awesome plate helm from the Argent Crusade.

PvP Rewards
This helped quite a bit when I needed to constantly double-check just how much honor I needed to grind for my next piece of PvP gear. Although this includes some new content stuff, you can't actually preview it, as it's not on live servers and will, in fact, disconnect you if you try to query the server. (More on that later)

Crafting
This has been updated with Inscriptions, some Leatherworking and Alchemy recipes. Over time all of the Wrath stuff will end up here; patience my young crafty crafters.. patience!

World Events
This came in very handy when I was farming Necrotic Runes for some fun, and cheap trinkets during the Second Scourge Invasion. It's also a nice place to find cool items from in-game events like Brewfest or the Lunar Festival.

WishList / QuickLook
These features have been around for a while, but many of you may not be using them. Basically, you can create a loot "wish list" or store a set in a QuickLook tab for quick reference to gear you're hoping to get your hands on. A great place to keeps tabs on that Arena set you're after, or a collection of items from Northrend dungeons you're hoping to nab on your way to 80.

Tips
While easy to use, I find some of the options in Atlasloot Enhanced absolutely necessary to tweak. I prefer to load modules on startup, just for the sake of having things ready to go when I want to browse loot tables. Secondly, I suppress the query spam, as it can get out of hand quickly. I also turn on comparison tooltips for quick reference.

If you're looking at an item, and the icon is bordered in red, you'll need to query the server for the item information. This is where you need to be wary, if you query the server for something it doesn't yet recognize, you'll get booted and have to relog, which can annoy party and raid leaders to no end. This is typically only an issue if you're browsing brand new stuff that may not be on live servers yet. To be frank, I am not certain how this process works, but I get booted often enough to tread lightly. If you think it's a safe bet, go ahead and use that "Query Server" button and it will lookup any item you hover over. You can also right-click and item, then give it a moment to query the server for the item.

When you're looking through a dungeon's loot tables, you can view each boss by selecting their name in the right-hand column. (Bosses with a silver coin next to their name have loot listings.)

Finally, don't forget to make use of the Search function at the bottom of the Atlasloot Enhanced interface. It's a great way to find out which boss drops a specific item you're interested in.

That's it for this installment, folks! I know Atlasloot Enhanced has been around for a long stretch, but I thought its update warranted mention. It's an 'oldy-but-goody', so use it, love it and, as always, let me know what you think.

For those of you wondering, Wrath brings two evil entities back to the game, the Prince of Darkness (one of them at least) and me. I'm excited to be back in-game, on the site and amongst the army of addons. I'm feeling a bit rusty, so send me your addon suggestions, I'll do my best to give your favorites some face time. Dismissed!

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