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Addon Spotlight: WhoDrop
Lots of us have encountered those wide-eyed and eager WoW players who walk up to anyone with epic gear and say, "WoW! Where'd you get that? That's uber-cool lol!" We may even be that sort of player from time to time, if we see a piece of gear we think looks really wonderful or seems particularly useful. WhoDrop answers that question for you before you even ask. Whenever you inspect another player (I'm using Examiner for that in the screenshot above), WhoDrop will insert a line at the bottom of the tooltip for each item you examine, telling you where exactly that item can be found. It'll tell you which boss drops it, whether it's crafted or not, or even how many Honor or Arena points it'll cost you to buy. Another addon which has a similar function is called Mendeleev, but I found that it overloaded me with too much information, so I went with WhoDrop instead. (Incidentally, the other two tooltip-info addons prominent in this screenshot are RatingBuster, with the stats, and Auctioneer, with the price information.)Additionally, if you're approaching a certain boss fight, grinding a certain reputation, or PvPing for certain rewards, WhoDrop also features an expandable list of the items you can get from these various sources. It was also recently updated to include the Arena Season 3 gear, so you can now drool over that any time you wish. If you want a prettier interface just for looking at boss drops and such, you might consider AtlasLoot, which has most the same information and is easier to browse through (but it has no tooltip info -- you'll still need WhoDrop for that). AtlasLoot is a plugin for Atlas maps, which can help if you ever get lost in instances.You can get WhoDrop at IncGamers, but I prefer to get mine direct from wowace.com, and keep it up-to-date with the WoW Ace Updater for the Mac.
WoW Ace Updater for the Mac offers another update solution for Mac users
We have mentioned Mac Ace Updater in passing before (or rather, I think you commenters have-- thanks!), but if you've had problems with that one or are on the hunter for another Mac-based addon updater, here's a handy link from the LJ-- WoW Ace Updater for the Mac is designed to update all of your Ace addons on any OS X system you happen to have sitting around.Here's all the Ace files-- as you can see, tons of popular addons are in there, from FuBar to Atlas to Omen. Odds are that if you use any of these, you probably already use WoW Ace Updater (or a program like it) to update the ones you need, but if you're on a Mac and for some reason have been having problems, this is another solution you could try.
A new way to search for WoW mods
You know how it is. One of your favorite addons breaks down completely after a patch, so you go looking for the updated version, but then you realize you don't remember where you downloaded it. You check your favorite mods website, only to find that they only have the out-dated version. You end up having to check several different websites in order to find the update, and you wish there were a better way.KitKatsFTW over in Europe has developed a simple solution: a site called "WoW Mod Search," which uses Google's custom engine to search through the four main WoW mod sites: WoW UI, WoW Interface, Curse, and WoWAce. The site is simple, unobtrusive, and aside from some google text ads, there's absolutely nothing to get in your way.I use Inquisitor on Safari to quickly use shortcuts of any search engine without actually visiting the website itself first. If any of you out there are also using Inquisitor, or any similar search plugin, you should be able to just copy and paste this search url into your plugin preferences as a shortcut for quick access to WoW Mod Search later. (The "%@" in that link represents the space that will be replaced with your searched keywords when you use the plugin.)
CoX Splasher
Poking around on the CoX forums this morning I came across an amazing little tool brought to us by the blossoming development community surfacing in the player base of the game. This fabulous bit of coding is called Splasher, and it's a program that allows you to customize the login and character selection screens for your client. Beyond simply letting you put up a custom screenshot, the program includes a music function that will let you change the music played for you when the game loads. In this way you can create a custom anthem for your hero to serenade you while you select which character you would like to roam Paragon City with. In addition to the customizable music, there is also a randomizer function that will select a random custom login screen for you from a selection that you put into the program. I created a login screen that featured my favorite moments from Trick or Treating last month. You can download Splasher here, and soon you'll be on the road to a custom login of your very own.
The end of the (patch) day
It's the end of the day (or nearly there) and, if you've logged on at all, you've patched WoW up to the latest version. Oftentimes, patch days are fraught with server instability and all sorts of other issues in game. On top of those problems, UI mods get thrown out of whack and usually must be updated in order to avoid screens filled with annoying error messages.Personally, this patch day was one of the smoothest I can recall in recent memory. Once the servers came back up, I was able to log on right away with no queue and no apparent latency. As the afternoon wore on into evening, there were a few rough patches of lag, but they smoothed out after a little while, never to return. My most important mods were already updated and I can live without the rest for a couple of days. I purposefully try to avoid a reliance on UI mods, which is always helpful on patch days, so I'm not sure that my experience was shared by many other WoW players. Even so, my guildmates who rely on mods more than I do also seemed pretty happy with the transition to the new patch, so hopefully things went well for the majority of WoW fans. How did the patch treat you today? Did you bother logging on at all? If you did, have you had a good experience thus far?
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Breakfast Topic: Using server downtime productively
It's patch day, and considering the changes that are being implemented, it's practically Christmas morning. Except, many of you are stuck at work and no one can open their presents. Here are a few tips to help pass the time. Read up on Zul'Aman, from the lore to the loot. Make a plan to update your addons. My first stop will be Curse's Patch Portal, which will list the addons that have updates. You may also want to consider automating the process if you find it too time-consuming or stressful. Try downloading the Curse Client and/or WoWAceUpdater. Check out Eric's guide to updating addons, viable even when your usual methods are not working, often due to the fact that everyone is also updating. Also see Elizabeth's guide. Head over to Massively and peruse some of the WoW-related content. Browse through past editions of AddOn Spotlight, the Creamy GUI Center, and Reader UI of the Week, or poke around websites like WoWAce and Curse to maybe inspire you to try something new. Play around with Wowhead's updated talent calculator and get your new build all planned out. How will you be spending today's server downtime? Will you be making lists, researching, and daydreaming, or will you be playing it cool?
Updates for 2.3 already rolling in
In anticipation of the patch, many addons, calculators, and the like are already being updated. Wowhead's talent calulcator, which affected the evolution of Blizz's own calculator, has been adjusted for 2.3 and is now live. While you're waiting for the servers to come back up, why don't you go ahead and play with it? If you are the type to get your legwork done ahead of time, then don't forget to check the websites for your favorite addons. Curse already has their patch 2.3 portal up, and several have already been made Tuesday-ready. Gazmik Fizzwidget has also been busy, having already posted updates for his wares. They are not only compatible with the new patch, but have had some spiffy tune-ups. Hunter's Helper has itself a new pet skills database, and AdSpace has new vendor recipes. We also say goodbye to Trackmenu, our beloved and invaluable hunter addon that Blizzard will finally be integrating into the default UI. Stay tuned for more information on updates for 2.3, as they're bound to be rolling in all week.
Easy macro for getting your coordinates
Here's an awesome tip from amib over on WoW LJ. Sometimes, we all could use a little location check from time to time. While I usually am OK with finding quest coordinates, every once in a while, I'd just kind of like to know where I am. So here's amib's tip-- a macro that will easily and simply tell you (no addons required) where you are in game./script px,py=GetPlayerMapPosition("player")/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(format("( %s ) %i,%i",GetZoneText(),px *100,py *100));(As commenters have noted, the formatting is weird here on the blog-- it's meant to be two lines, both starting with script. The other line breaks will need to be taken out.)Just put that on a button, call it "Where am I?" or something like that, and then click it to get your current ingame coordinates in the chat channel. Considering how poor my addon-updating abilities are, that's perfect.Of course, there are lots and lots of addons floating around that will do this even better-- showing your coordinates and cursor coordinates in the window, and all kinds of other ways. But if you only use coordinates every once in a while, and never remember to update your addons, this little macro could be pretty useful to have.
Chat spam measures shut down multi-line reporting addons
The latest uprising on the forums (seems like there's one almost every day now, doesn't there?) has to do with what seems to be an anti-chat spam measure on Blizzard's part. Players have discovered that multi-line messages don't work anymore, even in guild and group channels. Spammers are very fond of guild or group inviting folks, and then filling their chat window with ads for less-than-TOS-compliant activities, and Blizzard decided to cut those folks off at the pass.Except that we kind of need those messages. Sure, lots of annoying macros use them, but so do legitimate healing and DPS meter addons. So Slouken says that Blizzard will change things, and messages like these "will be allowed in guild chat and private channels with 25 people or less." Which should cover most exceptions-- you'll still be able to show off the meters in guild and raid chat, but then again, you'll still have to be careful about what guild and raid invitations you accept anyway.Thanks, Shilarva!
Insider Trader: Tools of the trade
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products. It takes it to make it – and let's face it, craftspeople love goodies and gadgets. Addons for professions are some of the most satisfying, relieving the drudgery of tasks such as repetitive combines and character-hopping to verify inventories. Today's installment of Insider Trader is a reminder to revisit your favorite addons site and take a peek at what's fresh for craftspeople. New addons come out every week, and if you haven't surveyed what's out there recently, you just might be in for a pleasant surprise.Read on for a sampling of today's most downloaded addons for craftspeople – no profession-specific addons this time (we'll save those for a later installment), but rather a taste of some of the sweet little tools that make life easier for every profession. Don't forget to stop by to post a comment and share your own favorites.
How to increase your camera distance
It seems to me like we've covered this before, but I can't find it, so it must have been a while. The standard camera distance in World of Warcraft isn't bad, especially if your computer is right at the system requirements-- you can usually see most of what's happening and yet it's close enough to keep you focused on your character.But if you've got a really nice PC and, like me, want to see a little farther than normal (or as in the picture above, a lot farther than normal), there are a few easy ways to increase your camera distance, as Dr. Laxative found over on LJ.ImprovedCamera is probably the easiest-- it's an addon that will give you a slider to increase camera distance up to the max allowed range. You can also see, in the description on that site, that there are ways to edit your WoW files and increase the max range even farther. By editing the "SET cameraDistanceD" number in your config.wtf file, you can change one of the preset lengths for the camera, and then cycle through them with Home and End. You don't even really need an addon to tweak your settings-- type "/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",30)" (or whatever distance you want) into the chat console, and then you should be able to scroll out to the max distance that you just set.If your computer's not that great, doing this stuff will definitely introduce slowdown and pop-in to your graphics, so run these commands with care. But if you've got the gear for it, you can see Azeroth at a whole new distance.
Curse interviews Omen creator
Curse has a great interview up with Antiarc, creator of that Omen threat addon that you raiders like so much. He talks about how he got started in WoW addons (with this crazy awesome Zelda UI), dealing with WoW 2.0, and the big differences between KTM and Omen.It's a good read-- Antiarc seems like a smart guy who not only knows the ins and outs of the UI system, but knows how to bring them to our screens elegantly and simply. He's also really positive, which is great-- even though Blizzard said at BlizzCon that they're thinking about building a threatmeter into the UI, Antiarc doesn't see it as a "threat" (pun intended)-- instead, he's excited that Blizzard is acknowledging how useful threatmeters are, and that hopefully Blizzard will include API hooks into anything they release.Very good read, whether you're just an Omen user, or someone actively developing addons for WoW.
Fixing addons and macros after 2.2
The patch hit on Tuesday morning, and Tuesday afternoon, I began my usual cycle of addon laziness-- instead of actually updating my addons, I just checked "load out-of-date addons" setting myself up for trouble down the road, I'm sure.But while I'll be having addon problems for a while (at least until the next patch-- I'll probably finally fix everything right before 2.3 breaks them all again), you don't need to. Kaydeethree has put together a terrific guide to fixing your addons after 2.2, with links to addons that have updated, addons that haven't updated, and a few great tips on how to update your macros as well.It seems like KD3 is keeping an eye on addons as they update as well, so the thread will probably be updated accordingly. If, unlike me, you're motivated enough to keep your addons as up to date as possible (so that they all, y'know, actually work instead of throwing error messages at you every few seconds), then KD3's guide should help.
The server hamster is having a coronary
Yes folks, 2.2 has gone live and most of you who are reading this have already been greeted by the lightning-fast login screen that was a result of of the new patch disabling all your add-ons.Fear not, you can "Enable Out-Of-Date Addons" and most of them will return to life. Some however, most notably those that affect unit frames, may not behave as you would like them to. As a result, a lot of you are hitting the add-on sites right now. The add-on site I visit regularly hasn't moved this slow since 2.0 went live. The hamsters powering the servers of these sites are near collapse, as pictured. Here are a few notes and tips to get you through the next 48 hours and back in the game. At the time of this writing, voice chat isn't enabled yet on the launch servers. Don't ask in General. Don't shout from the rooftops. It's not online yet. It probably will be soon. Be kind to the server rodents. There are lots of good add-on sites on the internet, and if we can distribute the traffic a little bit, it will make the experience less arduous for everybody. Curse seems to be getting hit pretty hard at the moment. If it's not responding or too slow, don't forget WoW Interface, or ui.IncGamers.com. If you use a lot of Ace2 addons, you might want to fire up the updater application, or check files.wowace.com. If all else fails you might luck-out with Google or by looking in the readme.txt of the add-on in question to find the author's personal site. There's always strength in numbers. Many hands make light work. All those folks you've bragged your addons to are likely looking for the update too. Share information.
What to do? What to do?
When I was a guild leader, one of the most frequent questions that was asked in our guild chat channel was "Where should I go at level <fill in the blank>." Although I'm not going to write a full-fledged Addon Spotlight column today, I want to take a brief moment to point new players toward resources that will make your progression through the PvE world a little easier. And if you're a seasoned player re-rolling a new character maybe these little gems will help you take a less familiar path and explore some content you might not have seen before. First off, I want you to grab an add-on and a module for that add-on. If you've seen Titan, Fubar is very similar in function. Fubar is simply an add-on that other "information" modules plug into. So for the purposes of this exercise, please grab Fubar and the LocationFu module. They both install as normal add-ons and if you need help installing add-ons then check out this article. Despite what some silly people will tell you, using the majority add-ons will not get your account suspended. I'm sure there are some floating around the seedy underbelly of the internet that try to exploit the game that are illegal, but for the most part add-ons are perfectly legal in the game.
A sneak peek at AuctioneerAdvanced
Whenever I ask people what the best way to make money in game is, chances are the word "Auctioneer" will be somewhere in the reply. Recently we received a head's up from Tagor that this fabulous addon is getting a revamp, but it isn't available to download just yet. They call it AuctioneerAdvanced, and soon it will be available to organize all your auctioning needs.They've added a ton of new features to this already powerful tool, the chief amongst them being a smart scan ability that will enable you to walk away from the Auction House when you are in the middle of a scan. No longer will we have to stand for 20 minutes at a time doing nothing but letting the addon do its thing, only to have it cancelled in the middle and have to start all over. You can now pause and resume Auctioneer, to run to the mailbox, buy reagents, have a dance contest on the AH bridge, whatever. Also of note is the retooling of the memory usage on this mod. Evidently it will no longer take up a huge chunk of your memory as it goes, which is definitely good news. I'm also pretty excited about the incremental scanning feature that will scan items even when I am not standing in the AH. I dunno about you, but spending that half an hour once a week standing around like a dope in the AH was really cramping my style.Currently AuctioneerAdvanced is available as a preview only, and if this doesn't strike you as odd, it should. I can't for the life of me remember when an addon received demo time like this. If you are interested in demoing the mod, it can be downloaded here. In any case, it looks like this mod will definitely be worth the wait.[thanks Tagor!]
Arcane Brilliance: Five magetacular mods
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, your one-stop mage shop for all your magical caster needs. Last time we spoke about the macros mages should know and love, those little additions to your game play that will make you even more uber than you already are. At the end of that article I mentioned we would next talk about the addons that mages simply shouldn't do without, and even the comments in that article mentioned a few (thanks for stealing my thunder guys.) This isn't to say that as a mage it is required that you use mods when you play. Think of these more as the added features on your luxury sedan, the DVD player and the auto-adjusting seats. The mods I use are an extension of the way I already play, but they don't play the game for me. Try them out, see if they work for you, and let us know how it went. Like I've said before, no one can tell you how to play your class; we can only suggest things that might make playing your class easier or more fun.
Reader UI of the Week: Nikkita
This week we feature the UI of Nikkita, level 70 Gnome Warrior from the guild <Vagrant> on the US PvP server, Dunemaul. I must confess -- while there are parts of Nikkita's UI I would never use, I was especially glad to get this one. I've always said if I was going to jump to the Alliance side, it was going to be to play a Gnome Warrior. Something about the idea of a wee bite-sized Gnome tanking a boss as ridiculously enormous as Rags just makes me giggle. Apparently the fellow at the helm of Nikkita agreed that it was a fun idea!Nikkita sent two screen shots just chock-full of UI for us. The above shot is him on the flying mount, checking out bags, quest items and quests before touching down. (I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for forgetting shards in the bank after raiding the night before... gah!) The second screen shot of Nikkita in all his raiding glory can be found after the jump as well as a really great listing of all the mods involved in this week's Reader UI!
AddOn Spotlight: Fizzwidget's Trackmenu
Do you suffer from buttonitus? (I'm amused that word didn't trip a spell-check alert.) Symptoms of this dreaded disease include having more spells and abilities than you have buttons, exploring assorted action bar add-ons that allow you to have more buttons than the default UI, and overall general frustration. Although this plague is not limited to a single class in World of Warcraft, hunters in particular have it worse than most. In addition to the usual combat abilities, the shots, the traps, and whatever other profession-based buttons a hunter may have setup they have an added burden: tracking skills. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that nobody can track as many different kinds of things as hunters, especially if the hunter is a miner or herbalist as well, or even a dwarf. So, listen to me hunters (and others). Look at your action bars and all the tracking skills you have hot-keyed there. Now describe to me in a hundred words or less (in the comments section if you wish) the happy dance you will launch into if you could reclaim each and every one of those buttons and use them for something else. Allow me to introduce you to Fizzwidget's Trackmenu. Installation of the add-on could not be simpler. Simply open it in your archiver of choice and extract the folder into your \Addons folder as per usual. Then launch World of Warcraft and look where the tracking indicator used to be on your mini-map. In it's place is the Trackmenu button. Click this button, and a list of all your tracking skills will drop down allowing you to make a selection. Unless there are some you want to hot-key you can now safely remove all your tracking abilities from action bars. Enjoy one of my absolute favourite add-ons. You can look forward to further reviews of other Fizzwidget products in the future. He's got what you need!
Breakfast Topic: Refreshing addons
I'll admit it-- I'm a lazy addon user. Whenever Blizzard updates the client, I always manage to forget about my addons. I'll log in, realize I have no addons working, and then jump back out and just "enable out-of-date addons." Eventually, those addons will show bugs, so I'll log back out, disable them, and then keep playing without them for a while.And sooner or later, as happened this past weekend, someone will point out that I'm not running KTM, or that I don't have the latest version of CTRaid up and running, so I'll write down a list of everything I need, go and download them all at once, and refresh them all completely. When I do this, it's a good feeling. It makes the game seem new again to me-- everything works, and everything does what I want it to once again.Until Blizzard puts out a patch, and then the whole grueling process starts over. I would just download new addons when a new patch drops, but addon authors aren't all on the same schedules. And I know programs like the WowAceUpdater help (by checking for updates for me), but so far I've never gotten around to installing those programs either.But that's just me, and I've got to deal with my own problems. How often do you refresh your addons completely? Do you have a good system for keeping your addons up to date, or, like me, do you only get around to redownloading everything when something stops working?
