cartographer-routes
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Addon Spotlight: Getting your addons ready for Mists
It's almost here! If you've been living under a rock at the bottom of the Thousand Needles lake, there is a faint possibility that you might not know about Mists of Pandaria's arrival on the 25th of September. We did a lot of work here at Addon Spotlight for 5.0.4 addons, giving you a list of addons that are ready, a survival guide, and a couple of question and answer sessions, which will carry on below. For Mists, the process is all quite similar. I'll be uploading my list of addons that are ready for Mists, much closer to launch day this time, but I'll also be relying heavily on what I've started to call the "big three" addon sites (WoWInterface, Curse and WoWAce) and their lists of addons which are ready. As I'm sure you can appreciate, there are a lot of addons out there being updated, and, unlike for 5.0.4, these sites are running dedicated, automatically generated lists of Mists-ready addons, and I'm just one girl! So, is there much you can be doing in advance? If you're a Curse Client user, then a lot of the updating process will be automated, and if you haven't set up WoWInterface's email alert system, now would be the time. Bear in mind that it's a good idea to try to check the addon's home site rather than just blindly following one site's system. Beta files and versions may not appear on each site. Additionally, these "big three" sites are the places where the vast majority of addons are hosted with the authors' permission, meaning they are in line with copyright rules, ethically sound and home to the authors' most recent updates.
Addon Spotlight: QuestHelper
We love quests, but they can be excessively frustrating sometimes. Usually they annoy you most when they make you wander all over, back and forth, without seeming to accomplish things efficiently. The fastest levelers will tell you to try to "stack quests," or do all the quests in a small area first, then gradually move around the map to other areas. But often the best way to do this isn't clear -- you may not even know exactly which area a quest is asking you to go to.Addons to the rescue! First, there was LightHeaded: an in-game database of comments from Wowhead.com that could help you when you get confused. Now, there's QuestHelper: an in-game guide which can tell you which direction to go, what to do, and what order to do everything in, all before you even get confused in the first place. QuestHelper isn't always right -- you still have to use your own brain, for sure -- but using this addon you'll be much less likely to make silly mistakes in your questing that slow you down and waste your time.
Overview of Cartographer Routes
We have highlighted the addon Cartographer in past AddOn Spotlights. In fact, it was even named one of the essential must-have addons that will work even for a beginner. Now, The Khorium Toolbox has written up an in-depth, step-by-step guide to Cartographer Routes, an addon that let's you track your gathering nodes and map out a farming route that's comprehensive and efficient. While this addon was featured in a recent Insider Trader column, I believe the guide deserves its own spotlight. As the author of AddOn Spotlight: For the Timid, I was skeptical once I saw the screenshots provided. It looked complicated, and impossible to set up. Fortunately, this guide will walk you through what to download, where to get it, and how to install it. The guide also helps you configure the addon so that in the end, you will have a map complete with farming route to optimize your farming time. It also walks you through the mechanics of gas cloud tracking and harvesting. This is a great guide, not only for engineers, but for any gathering profession. Even if you are weary of complicated addons that take time and know-how to set up, this guide will walk you straight through it. What addons have you been using for your gathering and farming exploits?
