Addon Spotlight: ReforgeSaver lends a hand

Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

Few times in my World of Warcraft existence am I truly stunned when an addon does something so simple and effective that a happy laugh emits from my dropped jaw. Truly, hyperbole is necessary when we talk about ReforgeSaver, a wonderful utility from addon creator Jordans. Pressing one button and making many things happen, almost like magic, is a good thing in my book.

Before we talk about ReforgeSaver, I wanted to share a quick personal addon anecdote (addonecdote?) with you fine people. You seem like the kind of bunch who enjoys hearing addon stories (considering you're reading this column, which focuses primarily on addons, with the occasional side topic on my cats or making fun of worgen). Sadly, the latter pasttime is somewhat out of style, considering I now have a worgen character, although he is a bank alt in a top hat.

No, my addon anecdote comes from raiding earlier this week. As a tank, I get to do some pretty fun jobs in Cataclysm raiding (as opposed to standing next to another tank on Lana'thel, which could be considered a type of fun), and heroic Magmaw construct tanking is such a job most would describe as "funsies." Well, there is a whole lot of Magmaw on screen if you're pointed in certain directions, and it is a bit easy to lose control of your mouse pointer for clicking on things that need to be tanked. This, however, has never been an issue for me, since I am an avid _Cursor user and advocate; a blue line streaks behind my pointer for easy tracking.

For some reason, after my server transfer last week, and without notice by me, the cursor color had changed to red. Maybe I loaded a profile incorrectly. Maybe I made the change and do not remember doing so. Who knows? The point is is that when push came to shove on heroic Magmaw, for my first attempt, there was a whole lot of red cursor on a whole mess of red Magmaw, and I couldn't help but laugh.

ReforgeSaver

Reforging is kind of a pain in the butt. I think the reforge system in WoW is one of the best new additions to the game that has ever been added. Stats are, in general, a pain, but managing those stats and knowing what benefits your character the most is a point of pride and an applicable marker for the level of skill that a player possesses.

The task of reforging is a bit tedious, as each item is placed into the reforger's window and stats are adjusted. The first time you do this act, you're excited and nervous, watching the stats change to just the right amount of rating to make it all click. The second through billionth time, however, things take a turn for the boring.

When I say how blown away I was at the simplicity and ease of ReforgeSaver, you'll soon understand why. ReforgeSaver adds a profile system to the top of the reforging window that allows you to equip and reforge gear, save that setup as a profile, and then automatically reforge the gear you are wearing back to that setup with one button press.

For you power gamers or power PvPers out there, this is an invaluable tool that will save you so much time. Have two different stats you want to bump up for PvP with the same gear set? Are you working on heroic content and have a setup for just that, while you still want to be able to do your dailies with a different set of stat priorities? Just save any of your reforge sets and press the reforge button -- you confirm the cost, and the addon goes to work.

The automatic nature of this utility is what sets it apart from other reforge addons. While not as feature-rich, the simplicity is where I fell in love. It's lightweight, easily incorporates into the already existing reforge UI, and does its job simply and without fuss. Those are qualities you can't say no to.

Download ReforgeSaver at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].

SafeQueue

While we're on the subject of really neat utilities from Jordans, I wanted to quickly highlight one of his other addons that I found, as usual, by checking out the author of the addon I had planned on using for the feature. This addon is called SafeQueue and stops "that guy" from ruining your awesome night of rated battlegrounds and arenas.

SafeQueue blocks out the "leave queue" button and disables its use. In addition, when you're in the queue for a rated match or arena, the minimap functionality is changed so that a right-click leaves the queue instead of selecting it from the drop-down box. Sometimes, although rarely, you'll get a queue pop while in the drop-down box and then hate yourself when you click to leave. It's happened to me, and I still hate myself.

So, be safe tonight when you pal around with 9 other goofballs and do stupid crap like go, "Maybe this time we'll all go to the lighthouse, because hahaha we're hilarious -- oh wait, how did we lose?" You know who you are.

Download SafeQueue at [Curse].

Quick mailbag question, then I'm out of here. I have to do so much laundry you wouldn't believe it.

Thanks for the email, A. Personally, I use a collection of addons and UI features that I've configured myself and built my own simple UI from the ground up. You can check it out in the Reader UI article I did on my own UI at the beginning of the year. It still looks fairly similar to that one. There is nothing wrong with a prepackaged UI, however.

As for prepackaged UIs, I use ElvsUI as a backup for when my UI decides to flatline, which it did in fact do.

Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wowinsider.com.