Addon Spotlight: 5.0.4 Addon Mailbag
I've been doing my level best, along with Bluspacecow, Mac Technical MVP extraordinaire and general incredibly helpful person, to keep you in the loop on addons that are ready for 5.0.4, as well as an addon survival guide for handling broken and updated addons. The article on addons that are ready is still being updated, as I'm going to be redoing it for the Mists launch.
But of course, I can't possibly anticipate all your 5.0.4 addon questions, and I've been getting a good number of emails with addon problems, addon frustration, and addon-related cries for help. If you want to email me with questions, do feel free. I will try to get back to you as quickly as I can, or reply to you in a future article!
Let's get started with your questions.
Loads of different readers asked:
Oh my god, where's Carbonite? I can't play without it!!!?!?!!!!1!!one!
A lot of you wrote in to me asking what had happened to your beloved Carbonite. Some of you were very upset indeed by its apparent departure, but never fear, WoW Insider is here to help.
Firstly, a caution. If you're so over-dependent on any particular addon that you genuinely can't play without it, you're setting yourself up for a fall. The vast majority of addon authors write, edit and maintain their addons for free. Some have links you can click to donate some money to them as a thank-you for their hard work, but the donations they get are not going to be sufficient to support them. As a result, if real life gets in the way, or if they just get tired of writing addons, or of playing WoW, addons do fall by the wayside. Don't be completely dependent on one addon.
Secondly, good news! A Carbonite fan called Rythal has updated Carbonite for 5.0.4! It is not, however, an official release, so it won't show up on curse, wowinterface or wowace. Rythal is adamant that there are no nasties in the package, but of course, do make sure you're running a virus scan on it, and only downloading it from the thread in which Rythal posted the link. Back up your WTF and Interface folders before installing it so you can easily restore your previous settings. It seems there are still some bugs, but Rythal is doing his best to work through them.
If, however, you don't want to go with the fan update, or if you're a carbonite addict who's desperate to get away from it, there are replacements I can recommend.
[EDIT: Carbonite has now been updated by its developers. You can get it from carboniteaddon.com]
Carbonite is such a huge addon that there is not another addon I know of that does all its tasks in one fell swoop. But, as is often the case with bulky addons that fulfil a lot of tasks, the ones you can get which take on one part of Carbonite's arsenal of features do that job better. If you're worrying about the memory useage of running several addons instead of just Carbonite, don't. I've never tried an addon that took up as much memory as Carbonite does.
For the mapping part, a combination of Chinchilla Minimap for general mapping needs, and REPorter for PvP will sort you out. Both offer additional functions that Carbonite doesn't. For farming, I recommend GatherMate2, coupled with GatherMate2 Data. These add as many nodes as you'd ever want to your map, and provide a HUD if that's your thing. Questing and navigation can be covered with the excellent TomTom, or QuestGuru while Altoholic has got you covered for cross-character information. Adibags will handle your bag needs. Most of these do what Carbonite did, but better, and using a fraction of the memory. Your call!
Sirinara asked:
Since the patch, my FPS is struggling to get above 10. I don't have any errors coming up, but if I turn all my addons off, it goes back up to 60! What's going on?
Another question I've had from a few people. Firstly, did you follow the survival guide instructions and get Bug Grabber and BugSack? And secondly, are you definitely displaying .lua errors? There's a checkbox to turn them off, you see, which is the equivalent of ignoring a crying child. Your UI can't tell you what's wrong unless you listen, and whatever's wrong will likely not fix itself without your input.
Go into Interface, then into the Help section and make sure Display LUA errors is ticked. Reload your UI by typing /reload into chat, and you may well see a ton of errors. If Display LUA errors was ticked all along, then something fishy is going on! Download Addon Control Panel and switch off all your addons, then switch them back on one at a time. Keep an eye on your FPS as you do, and you may well notice that one addon is the culprit. I heartily recommend the survival guide for this!
Lots of readers asked:
Do you know if my favorite addon is being updated? I can't play without it and it's not on your list!
Don't despair! I'm only human, and can't possibly know about every single addon's update schedule. I'm still updating that list, so if you find an updated addon I've missed, email me with a name, description and link for the latest version.
If you really can't find an updated version of your addon, chances are it's not being updated. I'm sorry for your loss. But let me help you! I'm putting together a column or two with replacements for reader requested addons, so let me know your departed addons by email, and I'll look into what you could use instead. You could be in a future Addon Spotlight!
Toomuch asked:
Thanks to your guides, all my addons now work in 5.0.4, so does this mean I won't have to do the same thing again when Mists launches?
I'm afraid not. Mists will still come with more changes. This period between 5.0.4 and Mists is likely to be a rocky one for addon functionality. Mists is changing a lot of mechanics and similar, and there will almost certainly be hotfixes and other changes rolling in as the weeks progress. Any one of these hotfixes could be the one that breaks your addon!
Be patient, and keep an eye on the pages for your preferred addons, use Addon Control Panel to maintain sets of addons that work and addons that don't, so you're on top of the problems. When Mists rolls around, you will likely have to go through the exact same process all over again, but there are some addons that won't break. It really depends on what exactly the addons do and how they do it, but you should presume they will all go horribly wrong if you don't update when Mists launches. That way, you'll only be pleasantly surprised!
Ballaman wrote:
Your guide is wrong by the way, it says DBM works but it doesn't and there are others that also don't work.
Please do keep checking the links for updates and that you have the latest versions installed. I did check the majority of the addons on that list, and they all worked for me!
Deadly Boss Mods is a bit of a special case, they've modified it for 5.0.4, but in order to get the Cataclysm bosses on it, you need to grab the Cataclysm module. The Cataclysm module needs the latest version of DBM to work, so get that if you haven't already.
As I mentioned above, be patient. This is one of the periods of time when addons will be updated a lot. Don't condemn an addon without making sure you're using the right version, and if you're getting persistent bugs make sure you let the authors know!
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 olivia@wowinsider.com.
