AddOn Spotlight: Warrior, rogue, druid, hunter addons

Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. We'll look at everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your interface folder will never be the same! This week, the actual answer is always Power Auras, but for the sake of talking about Power Auras later, here are some other addons.

At last, we come to the final chapter in the first edition of class addons here at the AddOn Spotlight. The only classes that remain are the warrior, druid, hunter and the rogue. Behind the jump is the answer many of you awaiting, my opinion on addons for these four wonderful classes. What are you waiting for? Pull back the curtain!

Warriors, rogues, druids and hunters. Wonderful classes. Shall we jump in?

Warrior knows best

Warriors, especially of the protection variety, need to know what the heck is going on on the battlefield and when pressed up real close against a boss type. I want to recommend Event Alert for those warriors out there who do not want to deal with the occasionally steep learning curve of Power Auras. Event Alert comes ready to go out of the box.

Power Auras is the superior addon -- I know it is. The reason I want to highlight Event Alert is because of its relative ease of use. For the novice or the player who doesn't want to spend the time configuring Power Auras, Event Alert works well. (Power Auras tutorials and use cases are coming soon, however, for all of you who are looking for some good Power Auras techniques.) In addition, Event Alert comes preloaded with settings for almost every class, which makes the addon a no-nonsense tool for dealing with alts as well. Up top is an example of a death knight's Event Alert, but the warrior's experience is similar.

Event Alert will give warriors out-of-the-box warnings and notifications for abilities such as Sudden Death and Taste For Blood for arms warriors, Sword and Board for protection, and other abilities like Victory Rush, Execute and Overpower.

Download Event Alert at [Curse].

Simply rogue

Rogues get the simple suggestion this go-around. Combo Points Redux has been around for as long as I can remember and has been a staple for my rogue since, again, forever. Combo Points Redux is simple -- the addon displays your combo points as a number next to your player frame and gives the player options for different types of combo point indicator shapes and colors. It's that simple. Let me give you a terribly stupid scenario that is 100% true and makes me look like a complete idiot.

When I first started on my rogue, I had no idea where the combo points were. I don't really know why I didn't know this simple fact. Maybe it was a simple oversight. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Perhaps my terrible eyesight at the time contributed to my incredibly stupid moment. Whatever the reason, since I had trouble finding my combo points, I downloaded my first combo points addon that did exactly what Combo Points Redux does. This mod has a special place in my heart because it showed me where my combo points were.

Download Combo Points Redux at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].

Raid hunting

Hunters (usually) have one important job in the raid setting -- damage, and lots of it. Again, Power Auras is excellent for hunters just for the ability to set notifications based on mana percentages. For the player who doesn't want to go through that rigamarole, there is simple and sweet ViperNotify.

ViperNotify gives the raid hunter a small utility that alerts the player when Aspect of the Viper is active when the hunter is at full mana. A "ding" signal is sounded to get the hunter to snap out of their intense devotion to the battle and switch out stances. It is a simple but powerful addon that works out of the box and is essential for any raiding hunter.

Download ViperNotify at [Curse].

Feral by night

I asked two druids about addons for this particular part of the column this week and I got two different answers. I'll give you six space horses if you can guess which addon was recommended first. Hint: it rhymes with "hower mauras." Feral by Night (FbN) is the druid's version of CLCRet for the retribution paladin but on steroids.

FbN tracks not only a preferred next move in the feral rotation, but also has counters for combo points and lacerates, Omen of Clarity notifications, energy display and much more. If you would like most of your pertinent feral information up in a compact and simple addon, FbN is a good choice.

Download Feral by Night at [Curse].

This concludes the first class addons quick look at some specific addons for specific classes. Next week we return to the regular format. In the meantime, let's open up the Addon Mailbag!

Will writes:

Thanks for the email, Will. First off, Ultima Online was my personal favorite MMO of all time. That game had everything, and we had some crazy real money transactions going on there -- much more expensive than a $25 horse. Funny story -- I wanted to place my large tower in Trammel but forgot it was house placement night and we all went to see the original X-Men in theaters. Doh.

All right, on to the questions. First, ButtonFacade is an addon that works in conjunction with other bar addons like Bartender or Dominos. It changes the look and feel of the button shape and art. You can access ButtonFacade from the interface menu and change the look of your buttons there. It's that simple. I will be doing something in the future on ButtonFacade and the general idea of matching motifs, so stay tuned for that.

On the second question, I use Grid in my tanking and DPS setups all the time. I think the reason so many people use Grid is because it isn't a giant, obnoxious raid frame. Gird is just little squares that people don't really have to pay much attention to, especially as DPS, but nice if you still want to be able to have some sort of raid frames up. Plus, Grid can be augmented with some extra addons to make it beneficial for tanks to see who has threat or who to do targeted taunts on. All in all, Grid is the most unobtrusive raid frame, which is why I think it is so popular even outside the healing circles.

Stay tuned for next week, and as always, I love getting your suggestions for addons to be profiled on AddOn Spotlight!

Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. Last week it was all about priests, mages and warlocks, or something. No one really plays casters, do they? Oy. And remember, Addon Spotlight is fueled by viewers like you, so if you have a mod you think we should take a look at, email Mat at mat@wow.com.