Segment 35: Starting Over

As I write this, it has now been almost a week since patch 4.0.1 went live. Anyone who has been through a major World of Warcraft patch before knows that this means instability, numerous server restarts and mini-patches, and broken add-ons for several days. For add-ons, it can be even longer, depending on how complex the changes are, and if the add-on developers are still maintaining their products. In this…

Segment 34: Add-ons for Death Knights

NOTE: I have not had the opportunity to test these add-ons with 4.0.1 and would appreciate comments from those who have tested them.

In this segment we’ll look at add-ons meant strictly for Death Knights. As you might imagine, most of them are for management of runes and diseases. Since those all perform pretty much the same function, my advice is to try them – one at…

GoGoMount and GoGoPet

Edited for Patch 4.0.1

If you have have made any effort at all to learn about the World of Warcraft achievement system, you are probably aware that there is an achievement for obtaining fifty mounts. There’s another for one hundred mounts. There are also achievements for fifteen pets and for fifty pets. Breanni has even created a guide to the vanity pet achievements over at WarcraftPets.com

But how do you…

Segment 33: Essentials for all classes

Starting this week, we’re going to go over the “bare essential” add-ons for each class.

Now, let’s look at what every class should have, in no special order:

1. An inventory management add-on. I prefer ArkInventory.
2. Carbonite. Carbonite is the essential all-in-one add-on that provides so many different functions that the only toon you won’t need it for is your banker. If you play on a

…

Note remaining download size. Gee, I hope that’s wrong!

Click thumbnail to enlarge.

Attention, Death Knights! This is your opportunity to suggest add-ons for the Emporium to look over next week that are specific to your class. I’m looking at you, Modem… And every other DK reading this blog!

Please use the Contact Us page to send me your list of “must-have” add-ons…

Segment 32: Talented

One of the most important character customization means in World of Warcraft is the Talents tree. While Blizzard’s default Talents UI is usable, it’s not possible to see all three branches at the same time, nor can it easily import or export talent builds. This is where Talented comes in.

Talented replaces the default Talent UI and adds a lot of useful features. The first is obvious; you get to see…

Segment 31: Panda and Xloot

Xloot is a replacement for the default loot frame, with a few options. The one we are specifically interested in here prevents the loot window from appearing at all if you have autoloot turned on. The slash command is:

/xloot behavior swiftloot

Panda is another of the many add-ons from Tekkub. Originally mean…

Segment 30: ControlFreak

ControlFreak is a small crowd control assist add-on. It provides a small frame for fast click-casting of CC spells onto the player’s focus target. It also provides visual cues of the focus’s status and audio cues of CC breaks.

ControlFreak is designed to be an “install and go” add-on for all classes with sustainable CC spells, but it also provides direct access to edit the macro used by the frame for players…

Segment 29: AutoAspect and OmniCC

This week will be another “Twofer.” One of our add-ons this week, AutoAspect, is strictly for hunters, so if you don’t have a hunter or don’t care about hunter aspects, you may want to skip ahead. OmniCC, however, is for everyone.

Firstly, AutoAspect. AutoAspect is a fairly simple add-on for hunters that will remind you to switch between Aspect of the Hawk (or Aspect of the Dragonhawk for Level…

This is a little outside my usual territory, but I love this comic so much, I just wanted to share.
Click the picture to go to World of Warcraft, eh?

Segment 28: XToLevel

This week I would like to tell you about an add-on that provides information only; it won’t necessarily improve your DPS, HPS, or even your mood, if you’re in a hurry to reach the next experience level. However, XtoLevel is a simple addon that will provides detail about the kills, quests, dungeons, battlegrounds and experience required to gain a level.

After each kill, quest, dungeon or battleground, the exact…

Back in the Emporium Segment number 4, I covered Grid as the must-have add-on for healers. A couple of comments (which have been lost due to the server change) invited me to look at Healbot as an alternative, and I must say I am impressed. Most impressed! I am actually reviewing Healbot Continued, the successor to the original Healbot. I’ll refer to it as “Healbot” to save my voice, and a few million…

…

Segment 26: Leveling Guides

This week we’re going to look at leveling guides; specificly, Zygor’s Leveling Guide, and an alternative.

Let me start off by saying that I emphatically do NOT recommend Zygor’s Leveling Guide, and I’m not going to give you a link to the official Zygor site. If you still want it after listening to this segment, you can find it easily enough.

Zygor’s Leveling Guide is an in-game guide; that means…

Segment #25: LightHeaded

This week we’ll look at a very lightweight add-on that adds speed and accuracy to your questing.

LightHeaded is a very simple add-on that displays quest information and comments from Wowhead in-game, eliminating the need to Alt-Tab when you get stuck on a quest. Data is only loaded when you first request it, so you can be sure you’re not using more memory than you need to.

Lightheaded supports TomTom,…

Segment 24: AutoEmote and AutoProfit

NOTE: AutoProfitX2 is now your best bet for automated vendor trash sales after 4.0.1.

This week we’re going to look at two small add-ons; one just for fun, and one to help you get the junk out of your bags and put some jingles in your pocket. Both of these are considered outdated, but they continue to work and so I continue to use them. Remember to…

Segment 23: ArkInventory

This week I would like to tell you about a mod that will help you keep your bags organized, and also let you check all your various storage spaces on the realm when you are pretty sure you have an item, but can’t remember where you put it.

ArkInventory (or “AI”) as it comes “out of the box” allows you to have one large virtual bag instead of the vanilla WoW…

Segment 22: RaidBuffStatus

Are you a raider? Are you a raid leader? Either way, you need to know the status of buffs on yourself and, if you are the leader, of the entire raid. Proper buffs can make a marginal raid successful, while missing buffs can make your raid fail.

RaidBuffStatus is an add-on to check, show and report on the complete buff status (including flasks etc) of a party or raid. It shows…

Segment 21: SkillScore

SkillScore is a lightweight addon that will let you quickly check a player’s experience in specific raids.

SkillScore is a much more useful indicator of a player’s experience than GearScore, because it doesn’t depend on the luck of the Need or Greed roll. SkillScore will tell you how many times the player has completed ICC 10 and ICC 25, for example.

Similar to GearScore in the abbreviated mouseover display,…