Addon Spotlight: Daily Grind

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: grind, baby, grind.

Dailies, dailies, dailies. Dailies are the perpetual new WoW hotness at this juncture -- but really, dailies have been in since The Burning Crusade, introduced in full force during one of the greatest content patches with the Black Temple and then kicked up a notch during the Isle of Quel'danas. We've never really seen a decline in popularity of dailies, as they have been a mainstay in the game for over four years of content.

Today's addon for spotlighting purposes is a nice little tool that not only stays out of your way but adds a little functionality to your daily grind. Coincidentally, the addon is called Daily Grind. Are you looking for an addon to manage some of the clicking and dialogue for all things blue exclamation mark? Read on.

Daily quests have polarized the world of Azeroth. Some people love dailies, and some people hate them. My personal preference has been in flux over the course of three expansions. The Burning Crusade showed us the potential of the daily as a moneymaking machine, as well as a reputation builder for factions like the Netherwing and the Shattered Sun Offensive. My love of dailies waned when the Argent Tournament came to town and whenever I wanted to gain reputation again with Ogri'la on a new character -- not enough dailies or too many complex ones easily stifled an otherwise smooth experience.

Cataclysm's dailies are a mixed bag. I greatly enjoy the Tol Barad Peninsula set as well as the Dragonmaw dailies (for you Alliance, I'm assuming you have a set of similar Wildhammer dailies) but am less enthusiastic about the Therazane daily set. That, however, is the glory of Cataclysm, in that there are many different aspects of the same element in many different places, giving everyone something to enjoy.

Adding on to dailies

Daily Grind is a very interesting addon, mostly because I didn't really consider dailies to be needing such a feature. The more I used Daily Grind and let it work its magic, the more I came to appreciate the new features it brought. Simple at its core, the addon works one of two ways -- you can choose to let the addon sit empty, awaiting your own completion of dailies to add to its database, or preload in completed dailies.

What does it do? Well, a few things. First, Daily Grind allows you to read the quest text of the daily you are accepting the first time; then it adds the quest to its list. You will never need to read the quest text again, and it will automatically accept the quest when you come into contact with it. Second, Daily Grind has an extended feature called the reward list that picks a preferred reward from your dailies if there are multiple rewards, choosing the reward for you and auto-completing the quest.

You can import a list of daily quests from the addon as well if you don't want the whole thing to start out "dumb," as it were. If you want the addon to be ready to go out of the gate, you can import a list of dailies using the command /dg import.

While I was working on some Argent Tournament whatever-it-is-we-do-over-there-these-days, I had let Daily Grind know that I always wanted the bag with the gold in it over the reputation writ -- and lo and behold, the addon saved me a couple of clicks. Not too shabby.

There is also a blacklist feature that will ignore certain quests, for whatever reason; just add that particular quest's name to the list. You'll never auto-accept that specific quest. Let's say you absolutely hate Walk a Mile in Their Shoes. Actually, let's not talk about that.

I like Daily Grind because, like another one of my favorite addons, Automaton, it stays out of my way. Yet even though it is innocuous and hidden, there is still enough under the hood to customize and tinker with that I appreciate the work. Go try it, especially if you're a dailies hound like I am.

Download Daily Grind from [Curse].

Mailbag? Mailbag.

Thanks for the tip, Andrea. Yes! This email speaks truth. The new GearScore, now called Playerscore, is an all-new beast. The addon now looks at gear integration and raiding progression trackers, and it even hits the right spot with a totally modular design. If you are in the market for an addon like GearScore, you probably already have the new Playerscore.

Personally, I like the new philosophy that they are going for with the new Playerscore stuff. The GearScore fervor has died down considerably during Cataclysm, and as the expansion continues onward, the time will come when more people will be available for raiding content. When that happens, I'm sure the fervor will ramp up again -- but I think this time around, we're all going to be smarter about this particular aspect of the game, especially since Blizzard has out and out given us a solid gear number to aim for in dungeons and heroics.

GTFO is a pretty cool addon, I admit. I'm wondering if we should do another set of raid-essential addons, since I'm pretty sure GTFO can take a spot on a list such as that. What do you guys think are some of the best additions to a raid essentials list?

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.