Addon Spotlight: Best. Addons. Ever. -- The Bestening

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.

We haven't done this in a while, have we? Listen, students. There are two types of addons out there: addons that serve useful purposes and are functionally superior to the Blizzard user interface elements, and addons that provide information in new and exciting ways that make the minutiae of the game more palatable and accessible.

OK, I lied. There are also the best. addons. EVER.

Sometimes, addons don't have to be useful at all. In fact, some critical addons are the opposite of useful. Today, it's all about some fun addons that aren't going to make or break your raid game or drastically change the way you play in any meaningful way. Instead, these addons are about having fun.

Enhanced Bloodlust

One of the biggest things I miss over on the Horde side is the Bloodlust sound. Alliance, I love you guys, but Heroism has the lamest sound in the history of cool stuff that happens in WoW. Time Warp sounds like my microwave, and Heroism sounds like a standing ovation at the Northwestern Bell Festival. Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding cheers all around! It's not frightening -- it's adorable. When Heroism goes off, I turn around, look out the window, and think the ice cream truck drove by.

The gutteral, deep roar of Bloodlust is one of those iconic Warcraft sounds that has lived on in the game series for years. But what if you want something more ... enhanced? Enhanced Bloodlust is an addon that substitutes L80ETC's Power of the Horde for your Bloodlust and Heroism sounds, for that extra metal with your extra haste. Oh yeah, now we're rocking.

A quick word of caution: Don't use this addon during raids. Not only will you press your buttons too hard and just blow all of the other DPS out of the water, you will gain mega-DPS tunnel vision and kill extra bosses even after the one you're currently fighting is dead.

If you're Alliance and you don't want this song playing when you pop Heroism, well ... I'm sorry. Guild transfers are coming soon.

Download Enhanced Bloodlust at [WoWInterface].

Transformers

All right, fine. Here's something for the Alliance that the Horde will have a bit more trouble finding use for. Worgen have the unique ability to swap between their two forms out of combat and walk around in their cool form or their dopey human form for some reason. Well, how can we make that transformation even cooler? Is that even possible?

Sure, it is. Anything is possible. It's possible for a man to turn into a wolfman, at least. Well, what do nerds like more than lycanthropy and video games? Transformers.

I can't really type out the Transformers iconic transformation sound. I'll give it a shot, though: KZZH kzzh KKZZH KZZTH KHZZ ZZZZ. Something like that? Hell, it's not Snikt, but it'll do.

So, yeah. This addon plays the Transformers sound whenever you go from human form to worgen form or vice versa. This addon is great for:

• Nerds

• Worgen who want to add to the list of awesome sounds they make, like the sniff

• Roleplayers

• Roleplayers whose worgen is actually a robot in disguise as a human in disguise as a wolf creature

• Moonguard roleplayers in the "garage" area of Goldshire Inn

What are you waiting for? This stuff is free.

Download Transformers at [WoWInterface]

Warcraft Music Maker

This one is actually pretty fun. I first found the Warcraft Music Maker back during Wrath and never really talked about it because it was my little secret for downtime during raids. The Warcraft Music Maker is a fun little tool that lets you set up tracks of in-game sound effects into a rhythm creator and make your own wacky songs. Sword clank dubstep? You betcha. How is this not the coolest thing ever?

You're going to want to avoid using Warcraft Music Maker anywhere where FPS is a problem, because it's a giant resource hog. But who cares? It's a music maker with WoW sound effects. Just remember to turn it off during raids, unless you are me and you want to have something fun while you wait for the damn Icecrown Citadel raid to start. Hoo, boy. Those were fun waits back in the day. Please, gentle WoW Music Maker, soothe me with the gentle rhythms of swords clanking and opening my bags.

Download Warcraft Music Maker at [WoWInterface].

I hope you guys enjoyed another edition of Best. Addons. Ever. Part 2. The sequel. If you've got some candidates for best addon ever, you're going to want to email those hot picks to mat@wowinsider.com. I always appreciate a good addon submission, but amazing addons like these go straight to the top of the list.

Mailbag, and then I will leave you.

Well, Oroko, you have a few options. You can switch out Spartan UI for another compilation, like my preferred compilation ElvUI, or you can wait for Spartan to come back and suppress your Lua errors until the time comes that everything gets updated. The problem with compilations and such is the crazy number of hooks that the UIs get into your addons and setup, meaning if part of it breaks, it's hard to separate the whole from the parts that are screwing up.

I don't personally follow the Spartan UI project, but I know some readers do, so does anyone know what's up with Spartan, for our good friend Oroko?

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.