Addon Spotlight: Utilities with Bliky

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, Bliky will never, ever get his heroic bow.

Addon Spotlight is a collaborative effort on occasion, when you fine community folks send me addons in my email or over Twitter to use for the column. Sometimes, a guildmate or Mumble compatriot will fire off some addons that they find particularly useful. One such compatriot is hunter extraordinaire and begrudging worgen Bliky. We have a special relationship; Bliky gives me misdirects, and I send him awful and weird whispers. It's a balanced relationship.

When I asked Bliky for a few of his favorite addon utilities that might be able to help out my readers, he was happy to oblige, since he scours my columns each and every week to see if I made another terrible hunter joke about him. No, there will be no hunter jokes or snipes today. Instead, I will celebrate these recommendations, since they are some pretty cool utilities that everyone can benefit from.

Action Bar Saver

When you're playing a strict DPS class, you've got two out of your three specs chambered and ready to go whenever you need them. For the most part, the gear you collect for one spec is relatively the same for the other specs, allowing you to go from one to the other with minimal reforging and gemming. The problem comes from the dual spec dilemma of the game's saving keybindings and action bars based on your spec. What happens when you want to save more than two sets of action bar setups?

Action Bar Saver is a simple fix to the action bar issue. By typing /abs save (name), you save your current button and spells layout. By typing /abs restore (name), you will swap out your spells and abilities for the saved set. Action Bar Saver is a no-frills way to keep more than two sets of abilities ready to go without fiddling with profiles.

Let's say that you're a hunter who likes to jump between all three specs. You've got ReforgeSaver to easily manage your gear reforge profiles and Action Bar Saver to deal with the added hassle of moving buttons around that you set up. Now, you can swap between three specs whenever you need to with little downtime and setup.

While Action Bar Saver hasn't been updated in a while, the addon still works perfectly well as of this writing. At some point it might explode, but you're safe for the moment. We miss you, Shadowed. Sadface.

Download Action Bar Saver at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].

Reflux

Everyone talks about Reflux as the easiest addon profile manager out there, and they are right. Hunter Bliky mentioned Reflux, and a conversation ensued. I think I've already discussed Reflux, but that might have been the constant commenting about Reflux. Who knows?! What matters, however, is how cool Reflux is.

Reflux is an addon that allows you to add specific addons and their profiles to a sort of "meta" profile that you can then switch between. For multiple characters who use different addons or different configurations of addons, this is a lifesaver. All you have to do is type /reflux create (name) to create your profile. All of your Acedb addon profiles are now saved into the Reflux profile.

Your addon does not support profiles? Well, Reflux has got your back, with just a little bit of trickery. Pop into the addon's .toc document with a text editor, look for the #SavedVariables line, and copy the addon's "name." Type /reflux add (whatever was in the #SavedVariables line), and you will get a snapshot of that addon for your Reflux profile. So far, it's worked like a champ.

Check out all the commands Reflux offers over on its Curse page. If you're looking for an easy way to save profiles and change around addons from character to character without going into each addon every single time, Reflux might be the addon for you. Don't thank me, though. Thank Bliky. Oh, and the other 9 billion people who recommend Reflux.

Download Reflux at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].

There you go: two great management utilities from my hunter buddy Bliky. If you'd like to recommend addons to Addon Spotlight for discussion because you think they are useful or cool, send me an email to mat@wowinsider.com, with the subject Addon Spotlight or something easily decipherable.

Addon Spotlight isn't complete without some addon mailbag!

Thanks for the email, Hazger. Currently, my buff/debuff frame addon of choice is Raven, which I talked about recently in Addon Spotlight: Grab bag 4. It is, for me, the most competent replacement for Satrina's at the time and has some awesome options and robust customization to boot. You'll feel right at home.

Thanks for the email, Orkchop. Using outdated addons, for the most part, is fine if they work. If the game is slowing down or if your framerate is being destroyed by an addon, obviously something has changed in the code that makes using that addon detrimental to your play experience, and you'll want to look for an update or new addon. With that being said, some addons are never affected by the changes to the code calls and all that jazz from patch to patch and work perfectly as long as you select "load out of date addons" from the addon screen at the character select.

As I recommended above, I like Raven for buffs and debuffs, but Sexycooldown and Forte are great, too, if you like the bar model more.

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.