Addon Spotlight: Loot addons 2

Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley 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.

There's a whole lotta loot going around these days, if you haven't noticed. New loot, loot that looks like tentacles, armor pieces, armor set pieces, transmogrification gear, upgrade gear, heroic gear, Raid Finder loot ... you name it, it's dropping. As players complete the Dragon Soul raid on every difficulty, they are learning what a nightmare loot can be in a raiding environment. Let's make loot a bit more manageable, yes?

Loot addons are a fun category of addon to talk about because they don't really clog up your screen or add much to the user interface in a notable way -- well, until you open up a chest full of loot and you get to clicking.

teksLoot

Yes, teksLoot still works. Sure, it hasn't been updated in almost a year. It's still one of my favorite addons, dammit. I'll be using teksLoot until it horribly falls apart in my hands, reduced to a small mound of dust at my feet ... clinging to the last, hopeless rolls I will make in the Raid Finder for that cool sword off of Madness of Deathwing.

Since Teksloot hasn't been updated in a long time, I wouldn't classify it as reliable, per se, but it still works just as well as it did at the beginning of the year. I love the fact that you can see how many people rolled need, greed, or disenchant for an item, which is awesome for assessing your chances at loot in the Raid Finder. You can easily move the loot window around the screen by typing /teksloot and moving the bar. Right-click the bar when finished to hide it and set the location as the starting point for all loot roll bars.

For an addon that takes care of the actual rolling bars for loot that drops, you can't go wrong with teksLoot. Well, until the inevitable day when the duct tape, twine, bubblegum, and Krazy Glue that is holding it together decides to not hold it together any more.

Download teksLoot at [Curse].

I guess you could always download XLoot, the addon that teksLoot is based off of. Why didn't I think of that earlier?! Oh, no ...

Download XLoot Group (requires XLoot) at [Curse].

GreedBeacon

While on my daily forum browsing spree, I came upon a discussion that piqued my interest. One sad fellow had just finished a Raid Finder dungeon and was distraught with having to scroll up and down through the chat box window in order to find group and raid chat that was obscured or pushed out of relevancy by roll numbers being published into his chat. We've all dealt with the roll spam in dungeons and raids, and it's time that this menace was curbed.

Almost minutes later, an email from an Addon Spotlight fan hit my inbox and filled my heart with joy, glee, and probably internal bleeding because my body is so broken. Can your heart bleed internally? Maybe it could bleed incorrectly? Anyway, here's that email:

How fortuitous!

Enter GreedBeacon, a simple addon that monitors loot rolls to block the huge roll spam that happens after everyone selects their preferred rolling option. GreedBeacon goes a step further and adds a link in chat that you can click to get the detailed version of the roll list. Now you can choose to see what people rolled versus having it shoved in your face, especially after that awful death knight wins both two-handed swords off Deathwing at the same time. You can't even dual wield, buddy! You can't dual wield.

Download GreedBeacon at [WoWInterface].

So there you go -- two great loot addons that can help you survive in Raid Finder, never miss a roll, and hopefully see who has rolled need on what so you can plan your ultimate loot takeover of the rest of the instance.

Shall we answer some Addon Spotlight mailbag questions?

I personally have not used TurningTest in a long time due to the fact that my BG experience these days is on the fairly nonexistent side of things. However, if there are any modders or addon authors out there who want to update this project, I'd take a look. Anything to keep AFKers and botters out of our PvP, right?

I may not be remembering correctly, but I am pretty sure that AtlasLoot can do this. Commenters, friends, allies, do you remember the name of this addon if it is not AtlasLoot? For a long time, I've been wondering if I should go back and update a bunch of these addons that I used to use for tooltips and mob information, but just haven't let myself do it. Honestly, I don't see enough creatures these days other than raid bosses to care what they drop.

However, this email is all about the reverse direction, adding mob information to an item's tooltip. Give AtlasLoot a try. If that doesn't work, I am certain the commenters will have an answer. Thanks in advance, guys.

Unit and target frame addons such as Pitbull, Shadowed Unit Frames, and Stuf all have the configuration options available to put the boss' health percentage and numerical health in their target frame. Head into the options, find "Target" bars or frames, and set the display of health to both percentage and amount. If you want something that goes above the creature, I'm not entirely sure. Personally, I've found addons like TidyPlates do not do so much for me as a DPSer in raiding because threat isn't really an issue anymore. On the Spine or Madness of Deathwing fights, I could see using TidyPlates as a DPSer to see which adds need to die the fastest, but they die fast enough that you're probably not going to get to see the mob hit 35% in order to start the backstabbing -- unless the commenters have a better idea. They usually have very good ones!

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.