Addon Spotlight: Grab Bag 7, probably the best grab bag

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.

Do I need to remind you again that right now is the perfect time for you to tinker with your user interface? WoW feels much more relaxed now. A second cataclysm has been averted, Deathwing has been defeated, and life is feeling pretty good right now. Sit back, relax, and clean up your interface. You'll thank me when Mists of Pandaria comes out.

Grab bag Addon Spotlights are some of my favorite editions of the column because the regular format means a lot of words about just one addon. That's great and all, but what about those addons that just don't have many words worth saying about them? These little guys fall through the cracks and land in my grab bag collection sack, thrown into the back of a shady-looking truck and taken off for "processing." It's totally painless -- no one complains too much.

LightMyMacro

LightMyMacro is an ingenious little addon from Adirelle that allows Blizzard's action button glow effect to activate on action buttons that contain a macro. My Revenge macro on my warrior, for instance, will not light up with it's traditional I'm available! glowing alert because it is buried in a macro. Now, with LightMyMacro, macros with abilities that will notify the player of activation with a lit border. Good times.

I used to think that the whole macros not lighting up thing was a bug and was going to be fixed. Has it been fixed? This problem could very well have been fixed a long time ago, and I've just been using an addon for over a year to fix a problem that didn't need fixing. Interesting. Very interesting. If this is still an issue and macros are still not properly displaying the glowing action bar effects, then this is the addon for you.

Yes, yes, it's an old addon, but it works. Like an old Zippo.

Download LightMyMacro at [Curse].

Who Taunted?

Our next addon is finding out who That Guy is. You know who I'm talking about -- the tank with Taunt in his or her rotation. Yes, there are tanks who do this. Yes, they need to stop it. Don't be rude about it; kindly let this taunter know that Taunt should be saved for actual tank swaps and not as a threat gain. Just because you can't miss with it doesn't mean it should be on cooldown permanently.

Who Taunted? simply lets you know in the chat window who taunted what mob with what ability. It is super-simple, works out of the box, and quickly identifies losers in raid groups who steal your aggro with taunts or announce to you that your off tank just screwed up. Wait and see if he says anything about it. Just go on and wait, then move on to the checklist below.

• If your off tank who has just accidentally taunted the boss 'fesses up to his mistake, jokes, or says "my bad," allow this off tank to remain amongst the living.

• If your off tank who has just accidentally taunted the boss remains quiet and says nothing, even after you bring up a potential misclick in your tank chat, you get to throw him off a cliff.

Download Who Taunted? at [Curse].

Aurora

Twitter user @ibzysevic clued me in to Aurora, an addon that changes the default Blizzard user interface windows into a simpler, smoother, and more minimal form. Windows are translucent and thin black lines separate windows and provide contrast. The Auction House interface looks especially nice, in my opinion. There's a simple box around an incredibly complex mechanism. I think it fits.

There are many addons that skin the interface like Aurora, but I've never been a fan of any of them. Colors were always too dark or would clash and hurt my eyes, so they didn't last very long in my interface folder. Aurora is the first time that I've been really impressed with a full reskin. It's easy on the eyes, makes the Auction House look simply awesome, and takes a lot of the texture work out if you aren't a fan of it.

Take a look. I think you'll like Aurora.

Download Aurora at [WoWInterface].

Addon mailbag kaboom coming out of nowhere.

Sadly, there is not an addon that will allow you to do this. Addons are not allowed to request raid IDs from other players without that player's having an addon themselves that gives up that information to the asking addon. One such addon is called WhisperRaidInfo which, if installed, will allow others with this addon to send you a tell and request all of your lockout information. Without these guys' installing the addon, however, we're all out of luck when dealing with these notorious raiders.

I don't think that this type of thing should be required, however. What Blizzard should do is just put a border around the people in a raid group who are ineligible to enter the raid instance so that raid leaders can quickly remove the people who are unable to enter. I feel your pain, man. I feel your pain.

To be quite honest, I think we might see the end of lockouts in a weird way soon. I don't know. It's not even a problem with the Raid Finder, so maybe the PvP/PvE Wintergrasp/Tol Barad type Battlegrounds of Mists of Pandaria will also be included in the Raid Finder.

I was going to recommend Forte after reading the first part of your email and then was dismayed when you had already tried Forte and it didn't do what wanted it to do. Unfortunately, that was my recommendation. Let's see if we can get the commenters' insights for this one. Which cooldown bar that is like SexyCooldown is your favorite that isn't Forte? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

See you guys next week.

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.