wow-add-on-guide
Latest
Addon Spotlight: Scrolling combat text addons
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. The Addon Spotlight Team and I have been hard at work combing through emails in the Addon Mailbag, doing our best to get answers to as many questions that come in. Sometimes those questions are so good that they get featured right here on the column. Today is one of those magnanimous days. A reader named Jeff sent me an email that stated he is in the market for a new scrolling combat text addon. His email didn't give an exact reason for the sudden swap from SCT staple Mik's Scrolling Battle Text, so the exact reason why he needs a different scrolling combat text display isn't known. I also don't want to assume that everyone just defaults to Mik's, but it has been the predominant force in scrolling combat text engineering and design in the last few years. Here's the whole email: Hey Mat, What's another scrolling combat text addon other than MSBT? Thanks! Jeff For a while, Mik's just didn't work. I think this was back a few patch ago, either in the patch 4.1 days or back near the end of Wrath of the Lich King. I had turned on the default floating combat text that came in the box, and lo and behold, the thing wasn't half bad. I needed more options and information, however, so a search was on for alternative scrolling combat text displays. It is good fortune, then, that I may pass on this timeless knowledge to all who wish to learn.
Reader UI of the Week: How to build a preliminary monk UI
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. An odd email was sent to me by a reader expressing his concern over some of the new additions to the user interface coming with Mists of Pandaria and, more specifically, with the monk class. This got me thinking -- we need to start getting ready for the next expansion, and we need to do it now. Klaxons are sounding and alarm bells are ringing! Monks and pandas are coming! So how do we go about talking about designing a preliminary UI for the monk? First, we have to look at what is being added to the interface through the new class. Second, we have to use our current vocabulary to discuss what could potentially be applied to monk-specific UI elements.
Addon Spotlight: Stop spending and start saving with NazScrooge
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. Addons can be surprising little fellows, breaking out of the perceived boundaries of what is right and easy and giving us something more intelligent or behavioral. These, my friends, are the really special addons, addons that change some aspect of the game that doesn't really affect your character as much as it affects you. Behavioral addons are all around us. DBM is a behavioral addon because it changes the way you react to situations through audio and visual cues. There are new interactions between you and the information that are not happening for your character in-game. What about Auction House addons that force you to conform to a series of clicks each time you hit town, further changing your behavior based on the way the addon works? Interesting.
Reader UI of the Week: Get personal with Absinth's redesign for raiding
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. The raiding game comes upon us faster than ever these days, as the leveling portion of the game shrinks just as much as it expands with each subsequent expansion. While raiding should be a focus for design teams, because you need constant current end game content, the path to raiding is still a long and arduous one. And when the mighty finally ascend the stairs of destiny and plant their flag at the top of the world, then you realize your interface just isn't going to cut it anymore. "But it's been fine like this for 85 levels!" you exclaim. Yes, yes, I agree. It's a weird phenomenon in video gaming, where as you progress through a journey learning skills, gaining allies, and collecting equipment, the fundamentals of your play experience radically shift. It's less of a problem these days with the Dungeon Journal, random Raid Finder and Dungeon Finder tools, and a general understanding of what raiding is among the video gaming populace.
Reader UI of the Week: Healing with Stormstrong
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. As interface concerns continue to move from function to form, player user interfaces continue to move toward simplicity and pared-down constructs. You wouldn't think that players would want interfaces with fewer graphics and a separation from oddities by fixing interface problems themselves, what with the fixed user interfaces of so many games these days. I will never stop championing the UI as one of the prime factors that made WoW the juggernaut it is today. To celebrate the freedom that we all share in this addon world, we hold up our community's creations to the sky and ask the community to appraise them. Is this worthy, UI lords atop Lua Mountain, from where all addons come? The Addon Kingdom. This week's UI comes from resto shaman Stormstrong (love the name) who, like many of my readers, praises minimalism and wants to get his healing job done with as little in the way as possible. Good man, I'd say. Also, has anyone noticed the trend of fewer healing buttons lately? What changed? How are people healing with seemingly fewer buttons these days? Man, I really haven't played my paladin healer in a while ...
Addon Spotlight: Twitter followers recommend addons, again
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. Once in a while, I head over to Twitter and ask my followers for information. Some answers are just found better through crowdsourcing. People send recommendations to my Twitter and email accounts unprompted, as you might expect, but when the floodgates open with a call for submissions, people like to put their dog in the race. I recently hit up Twitter for another round of addons recommended by my Twitter followers. These addons run the gamut from old favorites that will never die to new dynamos that shook up the addon community. Be sure to follow me on Twitter so that you always know when I make a call for submissions and get your favorite recommendations into the column.
Reader UI of the Week: Interview with Vhei and a Reader UI update
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Oh, Reader UI of the Week readers, we have a treat for you today. I've wanted to do more interviews on the column for awhile now, and Vhei was a perfect candidate to start this whole thing off with. If you haven't seen Vhei's UI, it's been featured on the column twice, both beautiful revisions of great setups with amazing art and slick settings. Not only do we have a fun interview with Vhei, but we have a UI update from reader Shamonkey, whose UI was profiled here at the end of 2011. Shamonkey was looking for some help setting up his WoW UI on a 13-inch laptop. Let's see what suggestions that he took from the commenters and the article itself to see how a UI can transform with just a few simple changes.
Addon Spotlight: Grab Bag 7, probably the best grab bag
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 I need to remind you again that right now is the perfect time for you to tinker with your user interface? WoW feels much more relaxed now. A second cataclysm has been averted, Deathwing has been defeated, and life is feeling pretty good right now. Sit back, relax, and clean up your interface. You'll thank me when Mists of Pandaria comes out. Grab bag Addon Spotlights are some of my favorite editions of the column because the regular format means a lot of words about just one addon. That's great and all, but what about those addons that just don't have many words worth saying about them? These little guys fall through the cracks and land in my grab bag collection sack, thrown into the back of a shady-looking truck and taken off for "processing." It's totally painless -- no one complains too much.
Spice up your boss kills with custom victory music
Looking to tajazzle up your boss kills with a snazzy tune to celebrate your accomplishment? Here's a great trick for raiders who use the raiding addon Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) that lets you play a song of your choosing when you kill a boss. Deadly Boss Mods - Victory Sound is a cool little addon that adds to your already existing DBM installation and allows you to select the music you would like to hear when a boss dies. There are plenty of premade victory sounds included with the addon when you download it, but the real magic is copying over your own tracks to play.
Reader UI of the Week: Kaikuri's fork formation
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Welcome, friends, to another edition of Reader UI of the Week, WoW Insider's showcase of your crazy, cool, or just plain useful user interfaces for WoW. This week's tank UI was sent in by Kaikuri and features minimal interface artwork, a clear workspace, and a lot of words to say about it all. But first, we have the matter of the new year to attend to. With Mists of Pandaria most likely coming out some time this year, we're all going to be on auto-pilot for a little while. This is the best time to set some of your precious moments away to work on your UI and tinker around with things. Your raid group might be on hiatus or your buddies just want to take a couple weeks off, but you're still jonesing? This year is going to be gangbusters for Reader UI of the Week, as we keep the hype train going while we wait to roll out our awesome new interfaces when Mists hit.
Addon Spotlight: Glance, a multi-use top bar
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. Keeping your interface neat and tidy while still retaining a lot of your precious information can be a tough feat. Some poor souls never get away from a disaster UI, started and finished in sadness, shame, and wreckage. Do not fret, young ones. There are addons that can help you be neat and tidy without too much work on your part. I promise. Glance was an addon that I first discovered while trolling through the comments on my various columns, as am I known to do. My readers are a steadfast bunch, always willing to show support for their man and recommend some great tools to players in need. Well, as it turns out, I am one of those players in need. A few weeks back, I got an email that asked me what was an easy way to get into LDB bars and addons, and I didn't really have a great answer. The first thing that popped into my head was the concept -- the bar addon works as a dock for other LDB plugins. It didn't feel right explaining the whole thing in that way, so instead I went looking for an addon that resembled LDB but didn't take the setup some LDBs require. That addon is Glance.
Reader UI of the Week: 2011 user interface review
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. For me, 2011 was a great year in terms of getting to know you guys and writing about your user interfaces. People sent in a variety of different types of UI, great tips, tricks, and cool new tweaks to a game that's pushing eight years old. As WoW grows the UI community that has sprouted up around it has grown as well, showing the drive to create and be a part of the whole WoW phenomenon is still very much alive. Mists of Pandaria will only serve to fuel more fire. I wanted to thank you all for your submissions last year, as well as issue a preemptive thank-you for all the great UIs that you have sent in over the year. Now, as we are knee-deep in Cataclysm's final patch, we all have time enough to hang out, sit back, and watch The Destroyed explode into sparkles while we tinker with our UIs getting ready for panda time. Here's a little taste of last year's highlights and my thoughts about 52 Reader UI of the Weeks.
Addon Spotlight's top 5 addons of 2011
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. Addons and the WoW interface had a big year in 2011. Many famous addon authors and developers left World of Warcraft for different games or exited the genre altogether. Some addons were incorporated into WoW itself, like the oft-requested bag search and a really cool new altitude notification system for tracking on the minimap, making exploration in 3D environments that much easier. Transmogrification and void storage were introduced, and new interface elements like the new Extra Button and PlayerPowerBarAlt confused and amazed us as we scrambled to get our action bars working before raid night. Here are my top five favorite addons of 2011. Remember, these are not addons that came out in 2011, but rather the five addons that I just could not live without this year. These are the five addons that I will never be able to live without, and you probably have some choice words about this list. Let's hear your own top five lists in the comments.
Reader UI of the Week: Ring in the new year with something basic
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. We're going to start the new year off with a simple setup from Emandiputs from the Stormscale realm. Emandiputs is a self-described long-time WoW Insider fan -- and since this is the first Reader UI of the Week of 2012 and my 100th Reader UI of the Week column, I figured I would give the floor to a veteran of the site. So thank you in advance for the submission and the screenshots, Emandiputs. And thank you all for coming along with me on this journey. I didn't really know how long I would be writing for WoW Insider when I joined on. One hundred Reader UI of the Week columns as well as a host of other content later has really hit me today as a substantial thing. Thank you all for reading and letting me get to do this awesome thing. I appreciate it more than you could ever know. Let's get down to business, then. What we've got here is Emandiput's crack at another user interface after a new computer purchase and a trip back to the world of Azeroth. I cannot tell you how much I recommend trying to come up with a whole new UI on a new system. You'll feel fresh and clean and have that happy feeling when everything fits the way you want it to. An old UI from an old computer can sometimes leave behind a weird taste in your mouth. Something just isn't right, you know? It happens for me, at least.
Addon Spotlight: Gear levels at a glance with iLvLr
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. One of the best ways for addon developers or fans of addon developers to get their addon some attention is to have it featured here on Addon Spotlight. If you're a developer who wants to see your addon in the spotlight or you're a friend of a developer looking to do your buddy a solid because of that thing you did in Cabo three years ago with the guy's on-again, off-again love interest, send me an email at mat@wowinsider.com and tell me to feature the addon. I try to read all my email, and you'll most likely have the experience JerichoHM did. Some time ago, I covered Skill Helper, an addon that was sent to me by its creator, JerichoHM, that made missing a skill point because of forgetting to train a thing of the past. Now, Jericho sends me another email discussing his newest addon called iLvLr, which adds new information about an item's ilevel and durability percentage to the character pane. Addons that add to the already existing user interface are some of my favorites, since I don't have to clutter up the screen with new pictures, boxes, and other crud.
Reader UI of the Week: Cleaning up a distressed laptop UI
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend, because it's time to get serious -- interface serious. That's like the most intense kind of serious, next to super-serious. This week's reader submission needs some super-serious help, tips, and tricks to help make things more manageable for its user, Shamonkey. And while I'm not the most forgiving person when it comes to novelty pun names, I am forgiving when someone is in need. Shamonkey, we've got your back. Shamonkey's UI is a little out of sorts -- not unusable by any stretch of the imagination, but things could use a bit of a tidying up, don't you think? There's no shame in asking for some help, and laptop UIs are always a hot topic amongst emailers and commenters. Take a look, read my advice, and maybe post some of your own in the comments.
Addon Spotlight: Replacing Raeli's Spell Announcer
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. We might occasionally forget that the addon community is comprised of real live human beings from time to time, when these wonders of science and technology shield our eyes from the truth -- mere mortals made these addons, and we love them for it. However, as humans do, addon creators move on from their Lua toils and leave behind their creations either to be picked up by new project managers or to rot in the sun. Readers ask me all the time what alternatives there are to favorite addons that have been discontinued or no longer updated by their creators. Let's find some alternatives, shall we? Tivoni of the Shadowsong (EU) server sent me an email professing her love for Raeli's Spell Announcer and the sad fact that the creator of this amazing addon, Raeli from Arathor (EU), was quitting WoW and his addon work. It's always a shame to see a great addon creator leave for different worlds or new work -- but there are people out there willing to pick up the pieces, and there are already alternatives out there.
Reader UI of the Week: Clear goals make better interfaces
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Have you ever been in the situation where something that you had utterly convinced yourself was out of reach was in fact right in front of you the whole time? Sometimes people just don't know that they've got the right thing working for them when it's already working. I suspect that many people feel this way about their user interfaces and the addons that they choose to use during their play experience. One of the reasons people are in such positions is because they don't have clear goals set when they begin to tinker with their user interfaces. Addon newcomer Curokk doesn't know how good he has it already. With a few clear-cut goals, Curokk's interface is a solid piece of simplicity and function. Primarily a 5-man dungeon type of player with Raid Finder aspirations, Curokk forged his setup in the boredom and hopelessness that is the Time Lost Proto-Drake hunt. It features nice borders, a simple layout, and a whole bunch of screen real estate left open to view all the pretty action for his shaman to experience. Let's see what Curokk has to say about his UI, whether we can help out some ... and if he actually got the Time Lost Proto-Drake during all that UI building.
Addon Spotlight: Loot addons 2
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. There's a whole lotta loot going around these days, if you haven't noticed. New loot, loot that looks like tentacles, armor pieces, armor set pieces, transmogrification gear, upgrade gear, heroic gear, Raid Finder loot ... you name it, it's dropping. As players complete the Dragon Soul raid on every difficulty, they are learning what a nightmare loot can be in a raiding environment. Let's make loot a bit more manageable, yes? Loot addons are a fun category of addon to talk about because they don't really clog up your screen or add much to the user interface in a notable way -- well, until you open up a chest full of loot and you get to clicking. teksLoot Yes, teksLoot still works. Sure, it hasn't been updated in almost a year. It's still one of my favorite addons, dammit. I'll be using teksLoot until it horribly falls apart in my hands, reduced to a small mound of dust at my feet ... clinging to the last, hopeless rolls I will make in the Raid Finder for that cool sword off of Madness of Deathwing.
Sharing the same UI across all characters
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. We've talked about the standard all-characters user interface before, but with my own experience moving to level up an alt over the course of the next few months bookended by raiding on my main, I wanted to talk again about building one UI for all your characters. Let's get the myths out of the way first. The first myth about building a UI for all of your characters that I want to dispell is the fact that you can't actually do this. That's totally wrong. One UI that you build and maintain can be worked into a setup that works for all characters, no matter what spec or class. Sure, you may have to move something here or there, but if you relegate those movements to addons with simple move commands, you'll cut down on your own confusion pretty quickly. Reader Ymer sent in his user interface that aims to be used across his bevy of alts, ready to roll for any of the four characters who decide to log in on that given day. Let's take a look at his setup, see what we can glean, and then make some general comments about using your interface for multiple characters.
