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Addon Spotlight: Mailbag 3

Mathew McCurley
Updated ·7 min read

Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley 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.

Do you know where I am right now? I am probably at the Anabella Hotel in Anaheim, Calif., about to hand out some seriously sweet prizes to you awesome fans who are showing up for the party. If you're not here, you're most likely getting yourself pumped for the live stream. If you don't care about any of this and you're just reading Addon Spotlight today, well, I appreciate it and I love you, loyal readers.

Since I am writing this column in advance of my impending journey to California, I went with the mailbag motif. If you have a question for Addon Spotlight, want to recommend an addon for the column, or have a comment about addons that have been featured, send an email to mat@wowinsider.com with something Addon Spotlight-related in the subject. Let the good times roll.



Our first question comes from someone who is just too dang tired of being asked how many times someone died to a fire tornado. Seriously, people, they move so slowly now. Stop dying to fire tornadoes.

Hi Mat!

I need an add on that will track how and why my raiders died and allow me to access that information later. World of Logs does wonders but it's difficult to navigate and I'm tired of explaining it to people. I need something that my officers and I can discuss later and see who might need help staying out of the fire.

- Tired of being asked how many time someone died to a fire tornado...

Many raiders (myself included) like to run with an addon called Fatality. Fatality is a great way to track in real time what is killing your raiders, be it Lava Spew from the Alysrazor fight or Torments from Baleroc. Sure, it's a bit of a call-out in raid if you died from something you shouldn't have, but the information is right there and ready for discussion as soon as the wipe is called or the boss is beaten. Plus, the shame of dying to something and everyone knowing about it kicks some raiders into concentration mode.

As for long-term, after-the-fight discussions, I honestly love World of Logs. Fatality also has logs and recording if you want to use it for the email's stated purpose, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for parsing World of Logs after a raid, checking my deaths and DPS, taking in all the sweet smells of fresh numbers ... Where was I?

Yeah, download Fatality. You'll enjoy it.

Download Fatality at [Curse].

Our next email comes from James, who wants to know what I personally use as my addon core.

Hi Mathew,

I came across your addon spotlight articles while getting my recently revived WoW account back up and running. How things have changed since 2.3.0.

Having found your articles interesting and objective, I decided to pull up all of your other addon related articles and start working through them looking for things I could use or needed.

I found a couple of things I liked or did the job better; however the entire time I was reading through your articles, I couldn't help but think that what was really missing was a comprehensive list of what addons you used personally.

While addons are clearly a subjective topic, each to their own as it were, I would have liked to have known what you were using (and why) so that I had a starting point to build upon. At the very least, I think it would be an interesting read for anyone with an active interest in addons, or people tossing up between Dominos and Bartender (for example).

Either way, I figured I would shoot you an email in the hope of planting the seed in your mind.

By the way, having just brought it up, I am now curious. What do you use; Dominos or Bartender?

Sincerely,
James

Thanks for the question, James. I would love to give a list of my core addons that I currently use every day. The main addons that make up the visual elements of my UI are kgPanels and ButtonFacade/Masque. My raid addon of choice is Deadly Boss Mods. Grid keeps my raid and party frames organized, and Shadowed Unit Frames takes care of all things unit frames. I switched from ArkInventory to AdiBags for inventory mod because the complexity of Ark wasn't worth the ease of AdiBags. I haven't looked back yet. Chatter takes care of my chat box, Dominos takes care of my action bars, and Fishing Buddy makes fishing a tiny less ridiculous.

That's really it for the core of the setup. Some addons come and go, and the best ones get absorbed into the core over time. _Cursor, for instance, used to be on the short list of addons to drop, but over time, it became essential. I'll do a longer, more comprehensive list later for another column, buit I love the question. Look for it all soon.

This next question is a question that I had to answer for myself not six months ago and thought I would share the answer.

For Addon Spotlight, yet another mog-related question: How can I find out what armor an NPC is wearing?

Thanks!

The best resource I've used for figuring out what NPCs are wearing at the comments for said NPC over on Wowhead. The commenters do a great job picking apart NPC models and figuring out how to make replica outfits. You can also do a search for many of the WoW fashion blogs out there, our very own World of Wardrobe might start something similar in the future, or even hit up Wowpedia to see if that NPC has any comments associated with it and its outfit.

Our final email of the week is a simple one but nonetheless important.

So, I've taken the plunge and scrubbed my "all in one" UI and am building a UI from scratch and the question I have is; is there an action bar add-on that allows bars to be vertical or allow for the main bar switching a la the generic Blizzard action bars? I really don't like the default action bars and would like to be able to put my bars wherever I like but I would like some of the bars to be vertical as well as using "1-10" for other spells, like when fishing.

Thanks much in advance!

Tammy

Thanks for the email, Tammy. Any bar mod like Bartender or Dominos will allow you to make vertical bars by selecting the bar's options and changing the columns to 1. One column means all of the action bar boxes will be stacked up on top of each other, and you can plan from there. The main bar switching can also be done with these mods, where you set each bar up to be visible while in a certain stance or mode.

Check out Bartender or Dominos on Curse.

That's it for this week, friends. I hope to see you all at BlizzCon or on the live stream. Get ready for a crazy weekend of information and reveals!

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.