Insider Trader: The crafter's toolbench
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.
This week's Insider Trader rounds up some of our favorite professions-related add-ons – and more importantly, it's a spot to share your favorites. I've learned that no matter how much time you spend poring over add-on sites and forum threads, as soon as you mention your latest cool find to a friend, he'll pop back with the name of another great new mod that you've never heard of. It's a fast-moving field, certainly.
As you browse the list of mods we've discussed in the past, be sure to scan all the comments for more ideas. Keep in mind, too, that some of the mods mentioned may have been replaced by newer, shinier mods or might even be defunct and no longer maintained. Read on for a taste of some of the sweet little tools that make life easier for every profession.
A good place to start looking for professions add-ons is last fall's Insider Trader look at some of the most downloaded professions-related mods at the time. Again, be sure to read the comments – just because some of them were most highly downloaded at the time of the original post doesn't mean they were or are still being updated by their authors.
Auctioneer, the king-daddy of auction statistics and item information mods, is a trader's dream come true ... Unless you're easily befuddled by its immense array of options, which can nudge it toward nightmarish if you're the only player you know who can't seem to figure it all out. Also included in this package is Enchantrix, the mod that breaks it all down for the enchanting profession. WoW Insider will review Auctioneer's features in the weeks and months ahead, bringing you a special series on the entire Auctioneer suite of functions.
Next, let's turn to Add-on Spotlight and see what its authors have to say about various tools for the trades.
Ace add-ons "Ace isn't a specific addon, but instead a code library on which addons are built -- and you can get countless different mods in Ace format."
Auction Filter Plus "It allows you to manipulate auction search results in ways that the default auction interface does not. How many times have you been to the auction house looking for silk cloth for example, typed 'silk cloth' in the search field and had results that included "bolts of silk cloth" as well?"
Possessions "For people who have multiple characters on the same server and especially characters devoted exclusively to storage, this add-on may send tingles of pleasure through your body that you have not previously experienced in an online game."
Cartographer "Cartographer is a map mod. In fact, from what I've seen, Cartographer is the map mod -- it provides every feature I've wanted for my various map needs, and looks rather pretty while doing so."
WoWEcon "Some people, myself included, believe that by going off of what items sell for, as opposed to what they're listed for, WoWEcon gives more accurate and realistic pricing data."
TBag "When I compared EngBags and Advanced Bags Plus a while back, a commenter named Purity commended TBag to me in the comments. Well, Purity, I'm glad you did, because ever since I installed TBag, I haven't looked back."
The big lists you've been looking for
For the nitty-gritty, professions-specific mods you're looking for, try browsing the tradeskills category of your favorite mod site -- for example, WoWInterface.com's professions page. There's a nice list of professions add-ons in a forum post by Elly over at worldofwar.net that I've seen referenced by a number of traders around the WoW community.
What do you think about these mods? And what mods do you use for crafting that you can't imagine doing without? Pull up a chair and head down to the comments section below to hobnob with your fellow craftspeople.
Insider Trader's Lisa Poisso tries to make regular housekeeping sweeps of her bloated add-on collection ... "tries" being the operative word.
