Addon Spotlight: Worgen Auto Transform

Each week, WoW Insider 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. This week, I spotlight your suggestions for Community Choice 3!

It has come to my attention that there are worgen in Cataclysm. Like... wolf people. Real-life wolf people. I see them scampering about the fields of battle and inside the keeps of Tol Barad, sniffing the ground, frolicking in the grass, and chasing abandoned siege vehicles. Bark all you want, worgen -- you aren't taking The Slagworks.

As a Horde player, seeing worgen is a novelty for me. And, for the most part, I see worgen in their combat wolf-state -- a growling, menacing wolf man who will occasionally act like a worgen mage and make funny arm motions at me. Is he trying to tell me something? What is is, boy? What is it? The Alliance are losing Warden's Vigil?! Come quick?!

Arf arf arf

So, worgen, I'm throwing you a bone on Addon Spotlight this week with a neat little utility called Worgen Auto Transform. Aesthetically, I think the male worgen are one of the best character models in the game, looking incredibly menacing and teetering on the edge of sanity. As I've said in the past, I'm not a fan of the female worgen model, mostly because they just don't look ferocious enough for me -- I'm not too scared of a wafer-thin she-wolf.

Worgen Auto Transform is a great addon that has one basic function -- any time you are in a state where the worgen form is not forced upon your character, Worgen Auto Transform will revert you back into human form. It's that simple. Great for roleplayers and aesthetics hounds alike, Worgen Auto Transform will let you blend in with the masses and not scare children in the streets of Stormwind or get you thrown in the pound. Going into combat as well as using the worgen racial mount Running Wild both force the player into worgen form, and with good reason. I would not, personally, want to see the human model running wild.

Arooooo

I had always wondered how Blizzard would add more races to the Alliance without going out on a draenic limb again, pulling some super-ancient race out of thin air or bringing in panda people or something. Turns out, the answer was right in front of us all along -- humans with a twist. It's interesting, then, to imagine what other types of races we could get in WoW that are just variations on the other races we already have. Taunka could be brought in as a sister race to the tauren, new models and types of undead could always be added, etc. Or, instead, are those better left to skin customization options, rather than whole races?

Worgen, this is your ticket to humanity. Right here. If you're one of those players who enjoys human form out of combat, this is the addon for you. Now, if only someone could make you an addon that could make you into a worgen again after level 12 ...

Download Worgen Auto Transform at [Curse].

Super addon bonus time

Double your fun today on Addon Spotlight! Have you ever heard of an addon called Wintergrasper Advanced? Well, you should have. Wintergrasper Advanced was my addon of choice to see when the next Wintergrasp battle was happening and now it's updated for my favorite place -- Tol Barad!

Wintergrasper Advanced puts a little graphical clock on your screen alerting you as to when the next Wintergrasp or Tol Barad battle will be taking place. The addon even has the option to turn off Wintergrasp completely (turning the addon into TolBaradister?). Whatever. I turned off Wintergrasp and now have a convenient Tol Barad clock right there at my disposal, any time. The addon even has LDB support to fit nicely onto your already-installed LibData bar.

Included in the addon are a few extra features for these open contested areas. You get an automatic pop-up at the end of the battle to leave the raid group, as well as time notifications with sound effects, and even an auto-release on death option only in Tol Barad and Wintergrasp. It's a great all-in-one package for Tol Barad, and I highly recommend it.

Download Wintergrasper Advanced (with Tol Barad!) at [WoWInterface].

How about a mailbag, then? You guys love the mailbag!

Thanks for the email, Kraft. I've got some bad news and then a little ray of light for you. At this point in time and my own knowledge of the subject, WoW only allows you to have 144 action bar buttons. So, if you wanted to go over that number, you can't.

As for making button sets that resemble the peripherals you use, that is a much easier thing to deal with. Macaroon is a great addon, but I could also recommend Bartender or Dominos, as they are both easy to set up. Now, when you're going to make the bar setup look like your mouse and Belkin peripheral, do it by row instead of trying to make the whole thing out of one bar. You could do a 3x4 button grid for the mouse and then use another 3-4 bars to replicate the Belkin pad. That would probably give you the result you want with minimal setup time.

Thanks for the email, Aidan. Using the Curse client is a good way to remember what addons you have and get updates for them. As for the actual setup of the addons, you can make copies of your WTF and Interface folders and, after you reinstall WoW, place those two folders back into their respective directories where you found them. You'll probably have to click through some profiles and make sure it's all back to the way it was before the reinstall, but a majority of the work should be done for you doing just that. The best part of addons are that they are read-only, for the most part, so just sticking the code into the right folders should work with any install of WoW.

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@wow.com.