Addons for new players.

[moon_river]

Hello guys! I'm new player. I'm just starting playing wow. I'm thinking about addons. I know that addons are in packs. Which are the best for beginners? And how can i get some addons? Sorry if my questions are stupid, but wow isn't the easiest game. At least for beginners

[Nimhfree]

Normally I would suggest that you experience the game without addons first. This will get you used to how Blizzard presents the data and what types of things you can do. The game is rather complicated with all you can do and you probably should figure that out before you attempt addons.

Some addons are grouped in packs, but this is not the case with all, and you need not worry whether addons are in packs. There are addons that change the look of the UI so mostly all traces of the Blizzard UI are gone, others that add new panels for different functionality, etc. Because a lot of addons change or add things they will probably need to be learned. That is why learning what is already there first is important, because it makes learning other things easier.

When you get addons, it is best to get them from wowinterface.com or curse.com because that is where most authors will post their addons. Other sites that group together addons should be avoided. There are a few developers that maintain their own sites, which should be fine if you cannot find their addons on wowinterface or curse. Remember that addons are free so you should never pay for them.

[ckramme]

I'd say just start playing without addons.Then when you at some point go "That ... really annoys me" or "Would be neat if..." come here or go to curse.com and search for what you need.
Be it a fix to a problem or a new way of doing things.

[Phanx]

I would also suggest playing without addons first.

Once you have an idea what you want to add to the UI, or change, then look for individual addons -- not packs/compilations/premade UIs -- that add or change what you want. The only real reason to use a compilation is for a custom art setup. Otherwise, you're better off just getting the specific addons you want and setting them up exactly how you want.

[Petrah]

Originally Posted by ckramme I'd say just start playing without addons.Then when you at some point go "That ... really annoys me" or "Would be neat if..." come here or go to curse.com and search for what you need. Be it a fix to a problem or a new way of doing things.

Very good advice! I totally agree.

[Magicalhats27]

Originally Posted by moon_river Hello guys! I'm new player. I'm just starting playing wow. I'm thinking about addons. I know that addons are in packs. Which are the best for beginners? And how can i get some addons? Sorry if my questions are stupid, but wow isn't the easiest game. At least for beginners

This brings me back to when I used my first add-on 6 years ago - level 21 NE druid in Ashenvale. I spent 3 hours trying to download a dis-honerable kill add-on (back then dishonerable kills used to lower your rank). I eventually got it working once I found out you had to open the wow folder (something I never did).

I experienced the game very early with add-ons and got through fine so I can give my recommendation to go ahead and experiment as much as you want.

Start Simple:

All in one Inventory - (inventory displayed in one bag)
Gatherer - (To display nodes on your map after you gathered them via mining/herb)
Tidy Plates - (A basic UI altering add-on)

If you want to download the easiest way would be to use the curse client over at curse.com OR you can get them right here at wow-interface. Check youtube for some detailed explanations.

[Tonyleila]

My first addons 6 years ago were DamageMeters but since its and old addon not working any more I suggest using Recount.
Later I added Omen Threat Meter its still working but since its too much info for me right now I woud use BasicThreatBar.
If you are at max level BigWigs Bossmods is a nice addon if you want to raid.
I think this 3 are easy addons that provide extra options to Blizzards interface and they will not replace any of Blizzards options. Everyone shoud have them

I don't agree with Magicalhats27 the 3 addons you suggested are addons I woud recommend for more experienced players. I personaly did not even use Nameplates my first year of wow and I did not level up any profession because it was just to much for me and not fun so why Gatherer?
Also I was realy comfortable with the normal bags for a long time.

[SDPhantom]

In all honesty, my first addon, I created on my own 7 years ago after fooling around with code for a while. I've had 3 years of experience with Lua already, so it wasn't that difficult to pick up. With few exceptions, all of the addons I've ever used, I wrote myself.

Some of the ones I published would help new players a lot, one of which I would recommend is SlashHelp, which would allow a new player to discover the game's slash commands.

Originally Posted by Tonyleila My first addons 6 years ago were DamageMeters...

I remember DamageMeters, I also remember hacking their sync system in BC and randomly bumped someone with a harmless damage output like the healer or the tank to the top of the damage list. As a rule, I never altered my own damage or the damage of any other DPS in the group. It was funny enough as-is.
Fun times.

[Tepetkhet]

Recommendations would also depend somewhat on the player's role and focus in the game. If OP (original poster) is really into crafting, then Gatherer might be appropriate. If OP likes the new Pet Battles, there are AddOns to help with that.
Honestly I think WoW is a very easy game to pick up and play (especially compared to Vanilla WoW so many years ago). You can get by - in fact MORE than get by - with no AddOns. We have a Death Knight friend who has raided quite successfully and is an amazingly good player with zero AddOns. Default WoW UI has come a long way, but still some ways to go.

As others have pointed out, AddOns exist to solve a problem. If OP has a problem with something in WoW that a UI adjustment or alert would help, chances are there is an AddOn that will fix it.
Possibly the most BASIC UI element that is STILL missing in WoW is the ability to move parts of your UI (user interface) around. With that in mind, I'll just leave this suggestion here:
MoveAnything

Enjoy!

-T.

[Clamsoda]

I agree with the several posts that suggest playing WoW without AddOns for a little while. Some AddOns have a tendency to take over a player's game play, and that can be pretty detrimental to your development as well rounded player.

That being said, the WoW UI has some very serious issues (the element placement is horrible at best, et cetera). You should begin introducing AddOns when you are unsatisfied with the amount, and way information is being presented to you.

For example: If you find yourself losing track of the cooldowns on your spells, then you should invest in a cooldown tracker that suits you. If you find that you can't keep track of enough relevant data, because the UI elements are in the stupidest places ever (can you tell I hate the default UI?), then get an AddOn that addresses their placement.

There is a section on these forums where users may get help in locating specific AddOns. When the time comes, I am sure you'll find the needed help there.

Good luck starting WoW, and have fun!

[Coote]

Originally Posted by Phanx I would also suggest playing without addons first. Once you have an idea what you want to add to the UI, or change, then look for individual addons -- not packs/compilations/premade UIs -- that add or change what you want.

/thread


I agree wholeheartedly with everybody that said stick to default for a while. See how it works, and if you find things lacking, or dislike how things look/work, then replace just those. It's best to find out what works best for you before you go trying to add every addon under the sun. After you've already found what works for you, and what your wants/needs are, then you should try to look into some premade UIs.

[moon_river]

Maybe you're right. For start i'll try to play without addons and try to learn the game. When i'll be on higher level, i'll try play with addons you mentioned

[twizt3dkitty]

while recount, omen and dbm/big wigs are all esential raiding addons, to a new player are they really that necessary? Probably not... I know I couldnt live without Combuctor, which is an all in one inventory mod, also ProfessionTabs makes things easier, but not needed, CombuctorProfTabs while broke is also something I needed until it broke Titan or and ldb bar is nice too, Titan was the very first mod i played with in vanila, followed by mobinfo.

[Phanx]

I'd recommend staying away from Titan Panel, since it still has not been rewritten to use the modern DataBroker API that lets plugins work with lots of different display addons, and instead includes a bunch of additional code to "translate" DataBroker plugins to its own archaic and horrible API. Titan was one of the first addons I used, too, but today there's just no reason to use it vs. a real DataBroker display -- ChocolateBar, Bazooka, DockingStation, NinjaPanel, ButtonBin, and others can give you the same "info bar" style -- and I don't really understand why the current developers (it's gone through a lot) don't just rewrite it already.

But, I can easily say that if I had to pare down my addons, my "info bar" would be one of the ones I cut. It can be convenient having shortcuts right there to access some addons' options, toggle some frames, switch between equipment sets, see my current bag space count, etc. but all of those things can be accessed through other means, and I don't really need to see which subzone I'm in and how much rep I have with my watched faction all the time. I have mine set to show only on mouseover, and don't really find myself looking at it that much.

Good addons unit frames and action bars are probably the most important things. The Blizzard unit frames are just awful, especially for healing. The Blizzard action bars are functionally okay, but waste a lot of space on junk that doesn't matter. If you play on a smaller-than-average screen or larger-than-average screen, or are visually impaired, then the default UI's lack of scalability for individual elements becomes a problem; I need bigger unit frames, for example, but don't need a minimap that takes up 25% of the screen.

If you want to try an action bar addon, Bartender and Dominos both work out of the box with little to no setup, but have plenty of options.

If you want to try custom unit frames, I'd actually recommend an oUF layout. All of the big-name generic unit frame addons these days -- PitBull, Shadowed, Stuf, etc. -- are pretty bloated with thousands of options for every possible adjustment of every pixel, and I would not recommend anyone, especially a new player, try to figure out that much configuration. By contrast, oUF layouts usually just look and work the way they look and work, and have few options, if any, which means there are tons of different looks for you to choose from.

[Barleduq]

... especially compared to many.

When I *first* started playing (sometime in the middle of WotLK), the folks I was playing with badgered me into getting an addon to help with questing, completely ignoring the fact that learning how to find things (and how Blizz expected things to be found) was something that was valid in and of itself, not only in terms of me learning to maneuver and how to look at things (like, what the sparklies that meant 'pick this herb' looked like, vs sparklies from a spell) but learning the patterns/flow of the game. That said, when I ended up on a different machine, for a bit, and didn't have that, I definitely missed it. So, if you're going to get an addon, I'd recommend one that helps with questing, since that's really what you're doing most of at the start.

I definitely want to maintain as much continuity with 'plain ui' as I can, because I am frequently playing WoW on different machines (we have a pile of cheap linux boxes in my house, and I can be on any one of three machines...) and keeping them all in sync is a royal pain. So I tend to go for things that do one thing, and one thing well. I pull it down, set it up, and see if i notice it, use it, etc. If I do, I keep it - say, if I've put it on one machine, and when I'm on another I'm looking for it and missing it. And if not, I ditch it. (There was one 'all in one button' that had all the professions on buttons around it, and an open/close thing... I loved the idea, and never used it, as I'm much more a keyboard person than a mouse person, and always forgot to reach for the mouse to click the fancy button.)

At this point I'm up to 40+ addons, with a large stack backed up in my 'oh hey, this looks interesting' list. There are a couple that I only use sometimes - one that helps with the world-event achievements I only enable during world events, for instance - and others that I go nuts if they aren't installed. I'm on my ... fourth, I think, quest aid, the first one I was using failed for lack of data when Cata came out, and while the developer keeps posting that they're working on bringing it up to date, I've moved on to trying others and being somewhat more discriminating about what, exactly, I'm looking for. But, for the most part, I'm using the plain UI. I also don't raid, and only sometimes run dungeons, so I'm not really working in much data-dense situations.

One thing is certain - your experience *will* vary.

Have fun!
- Barleduq

[Phanx]

Blizzard has done a really good job with the quest UI, to the point where I don't think you need any questing addons. Everything you need to see is marked clearly on your map. The only quest-related addon I'd suggest for new players is QuestPointer, which will make TomTom show a 3D arrow on your screen pointing you to the nearest quest objective so you can be spared the horror of opening your map to see where to go.

Originally Posted by Barleduq I definitely want to maintain as much continuity with 'plain ui' as I can, because I am frequently playing WoW on different machines ... and keeping them all in sync is a royal pain.

Use Dropbox to sync your AddOns and WTF folders.

The only caveat is that Dropbox doesn't handle junctions/symlinks/whatevers very well, so unless you want to manually tell it to check for changes to files every time (I don't!), you'll have to actually move your AddOns and WTF folders into your Dropbox folder, and then set up junction points in your WoW folder, since WoW doesn't care if the folder is "actually" there or not.

Then, any time you change anything on one machine, it will automatically propagate to the others.

[Seerah]

Originally Posted by Phanx The only quest-related addon I'd suggest for new players is QuestPointer, which will make TomTom show a 3D arrow on your screen pointing you to the nearest quest objective so you can be spared the horror of opening your map to see where to go.

Doesn't TomTom do this on its own?

[Phanx]

Not really. It has/had an option to point to whichever quest is currently at the top of your watch frame, so theoretically you can use the watch frame's sorting options to make the arrow point to the closest/furthest, hardest/easiest, or a custom quest. In practice, though, it does not work very well and is officially not supported. Cladhaire instead recommends people use his other addon TomTomLite to point to quest objectives, but I would not recommend it, not least because it only supports pointing to Blizzard quest objectives, and does not support custom waypoints or waypoints set by addons.

QuestPointer "just works" and you can still use TomTom's regular waypoint features, which are very handy. Coordinates and "/way 42, 80" macros are post everywhere; it's very convenient to just feed these to TomTom and have an arrow point right to the place I want to go. I think I'll have to add TomTom to my list of "must have" addons, actually.

[unstoppixel]

I'd highly suggest ElvUI (link is in this link). It has a lot of the best addon features wrapped into one, is well maintained, and looks very nice to boot.

[Phanx]

I've seen a lot of posts recently about ElvUI conflicting with addons, and the author being unwilling to make changes to resolve such conflicts. Also, the fact that it's only available on some third-party site with questionable ads -- any ad that's asking me to download "patch management software" or to download something without actually saying what it's asking me to download cannot possibly be offering a legitimate product or service -- is a pretty big argument against using it. If you're offering a legitimate addon/UI, take 10 seconds to upload it to a trusted site like WoWI or Curse that doesn't run ads for shady malware.