Add-Ons I Use

TellMeWhen (De)Buff Monitor

Pros:

• Provides a centralized display of class/spec/role critical buffs and debuffs; this is a lot easier than looking in three or more places in the default UI to get the same information
• Provides a static location to monitor a specific buff/debuff rather than visually scanning a row of icons and then reading the number or stacks and/or time remaining
• Can track multiple equivalent buffs/debuffs with a single icon which helps coordinate with other players/pets which may have already applied it for you

Cons:

• A lot more complicated, and in my opinion a little less visually appealing, than Auracle (De)Buff Monitor, but TellMeWhen is being actively maintained where as Auracle is not
• Setup is not at all intuitive, and there are a lot of different dialogs and tabs to navigate just to add what should be a simple indicator; I ended up watching a YouTube video to get me started; I got everything I wanted in the end

 

Quartz Cast Bar Replacement

Pros:

• Makes cast bars larger and more centrally located for higher visibility; this makes it a lot easier to catch enemy casts and interrupt them
• Provides a latency indicator at the end of the player cast bar to provide a visual cue when it is safe to either move or start another cast

Notes:

• I noticed the default player cast bar will incorrectly display that a cast was interrupted, when it really wasn't, if you move and/or start another cast before the UI finishes the entire cast

Skada Damage Meter

Pros:

• Tracks a number of combat statistics including damage, healing and interrupts; this is good to know for personal improvement as well as making raid management decisions
• Tracks threat so another add-on is not required
• Can flip to tracking threat in combat, and show damage or healing from the last fight out of combat, to save space
• Provides a data broker plug-in to show your current damage or healing per second; this is pretty handy to compare how various things can affect your performance

Cons:

• Doesn't have all the pretty graphs that Recount does, but it is a lot less resource intensive

Bazooka Data Broker Bars

Pros:

• Can create multiple bars to display data broker add-ons which can dock at the top or bottom of the screen or be left free floating to stick them in whichever hole you like

Notes:

• I keep a couple small bars to the left of my action bars, under my chat area, where where is a big empty hole on my widescreen  display

DropTheCheapestThing Data Broker Add-On

Pros:

• Can be used to drop the cheapest item in your bags when you are not near a vendor and something needs to go, this saves a lot of frustration when trying to figure out how to shove something in your bags while the rest of your party/raid has moved on
• Can automatically sell junk/grey items when talking to a vendor; lets face it junk items are an annoying waste of time to deal with, even if Blizzard now marks them all with a gold coin icon

Notes:

• In addition to getting rid of grey items it is possible to add other items you always want to get rid of to a list which will also be sold/discarded as if they were also grey items

Auctionator Auction House Extension

Pros:

• Can search for a specific item and purchase the cheapest buyout available, this isn't something that can be done easily with the default UI since it is only possible to sort by the current bid, not the buyout amount
• Can quickly post items to sell for a price based on the current market, this eliminates the need to bother following prices or investing that much more time than just vendoring an item

Notes:

• Auctionator is a lot less bloated than Auctioneer for people like me that couldn't care less about the auction house except for the occasional instant gratification buying crafting mats or large lump sum for selling a BoE item.

CastBy2 (De)Buff Tooltip Extension

Pros:

• Shows who applied a particular buff or debuff in the tooltip

Notes:

• This is handy to figure out who dotted your crowd control target, who has aspect of the pack on, which paladin applied which buff, etc
• I'm amazed this isn't part of the default UI

I'm trying to find new and/or different add-ons to fulfill the following requirements:

• Visualizing which mobs I have threat on
• Tracking/searching inventory on alts
• Display of current location coordinates
• Movement speed indicator
• Track gathering nodes and path traveled on map
• Determining at a glance which alts can use which crafting recipes
• Determine at a glance which BOE items an alt can use for transmog
• Change targets on the click down event when clicking on a player, mob, or unit/raid frame instead of the click up event

I've tentatively eliminated the following add-ons in order to give the default UI another chance after over half a decade of enhancements:

ArkInventory Bag/Bank Replacement

Added benefits:

• Tracks inventory in the guild bank, as well as on alts, and displays inventory counts and locations in item tooltips; this can save a lot of time and is something the default UI does not do
• Search feature will also search guild bank and alts for specific items in addition to your own bags
• Supports customizable groups for specific items and/or item types which basically divide the one giant bag into smaller bags of arbitrary size; this makes it a lot easier to find a specific item

Notes:

• I'll likely be looking for an add-on that handles the inventory of my alts, particularly cross-realm; if only there was an account wide reagent bank
• The rudimentary bag sorting provided by the default UI seems to be sufficient for my needs; I mostly relied on the custom sorting to be able to find quest items quickly, but now they can be used directly from the quest tracker which is even easier
• I'm still getting used to opening individual bags again
• This is a really resource intensive add-on so I'd like to find something more light weight

Carbonite Map/Quest Tracker Replacement

Added benefits:

• Provides a resizable, Google maps style, minimap which can be placed off in a corner
• Can track and display gathering node locations on the minimap which would normally require another add-on
• Shows current speed and location coordinates

Notes:

• The default quest tracker has caught up in functionality to Carbonite to the point where the extra bloat of the add-on isn't really worth it
• While the default quest/map UI cannot be resized, it does become translucent while moving, and causes your character to loop at a map when it is open
• Most of the quest information Carbonite would show on its map is clearly visible on the default minimap
• I'm pretty happy to be rid of Carbonite

Deadly Boss Mods Boss Fight Timers/Warnings

Added benefits:

• Lets you know what is going to happen in a boss fight before it happens, like the boss will enrage in 34 seconds
• Provides warnings when you need to do something: taunt, move out of fire, interrupt, kill as specific target, etc
• Can automatically mark/announce players who need special attention for some reason, like they are mind controlled
• Provides a proximity/radar window to show how far other players are from you and if they are too close for a specific fight mechanic

Notes:

• This is like raiding training wheels, while it does make a lot of things easier, it also takes away the discovery process of seeing something new and thinking about how to handle it; a lot like watching videos of a fight being completed a certain way can help, but spoils figuring it out on your own (which many raid groups think is a waste of time and ask that everyone have this add-on)
• This add-on is a pain to keep updated, it bugs you when anyone in your raid has a newer version, and the slightest of patches/hotfixes can throw off the timers so that they are no longer correct
• Blizzard has added a lot more boss fight warnings to the default UI since I started using this add-on and any critical fight mechanics can be dealt with by using existing visual clues, so I'm trying to go without it for a while and see how I like it; it's not really a fair test so far since I know all the fights already
• It's been interesting to see what is a part of the game and what is a part of DBM, I've been using it so long I had no idea what was what anymore

Clique Mouse Click Casting

Added benefits:

• Has an obscure toggle to select a target when clicking down on a raid frame instead of after letting go of the mouse button

Notes:

• I've found that the change target on click down doesn't affect clicking on actual people/mobs or their nameplates, so in cases where this matters I've resorted to mouse-over macros to ensure I cast on the correct target
• I never used this add-on for anything else, and in retrospect am glad since that means I don't need to keep the add-on around

WIM (WoW Instant Messenger) Whisper/Chat Frames

Added benefits:

• Opens a new window for each conversation which can be placed in different locations to track multiple conversations simultaneously
• Shows level and class information for whoever you are chatting with

Notes:

• I don't miss the separate windows, I'm not really all that chatty in game
• I have found knowing the level and class of random people whispering me to be useful in the past, and might look for another way to get that information

RepairBroker Data Broker Add-On

Added benefits:

• - Shows your current gear condition as well as what it would cost to repair
• - Can automatically repair when talking to a vendor that can do repairs

Notes:

• Since my guild has been offering a daily repair allowance I've not been using the automatic repair option, that combined with the fact that I've not really needed a constant reminder of how broken my gear is, leads me to believe I really don't need this add-on
• Now if there were an add-on to automatically repair and also maximize my usage of the guild repair allowance, I would jump all over that, but all of the add-ons I've seen seem to use all guild money, or all my own money, never a combination

Broker_Currency Data Broker Add-On

Added benefits:

• Shows how much gold you have available without opening your bag
• Shows how much gold your alts are holding onto
• In addition to gold it also tracks other currencies on alts
• Keeps track of how much gold was made or lost today, yesterday and in the past week, this can be a little depressing on a raid night with lots of repairs

Notes:

• My main reason for using this add-on has been to figure out which alt(s) I am going to steal from to make a larger purchase

ProfessionsVault Crafting Recipe Manager

Added benefits:

• Changes the color and border of a crafting recipe icon based on whether or not any of your characters can use it
• Lets you know which alts can take advantage of a crafting recipe by looking at the tooltip

Notes:

• Hasn't been updated for WoD yet
• I found this most helpful when I came across a vendor selling a bunch of patterns, or was visiting the guild bank, and I could tell at a glance if any of my characters could use them, this was a little more efficient than guessing and/or flipping characters
• I haven't missed it all that much, and it had been a little buggy before this last patch anyway

Tidy Plates Name Plate Replacement

Added benefits:

• Lets you use the threat plates add-on
• Makes name plates more customizable, including showing debuffs on multiple targets

Notes:

• I pretty much only use this add-on as it is a requirement for threat plates
• The add-on itself is a bit of a performance hit, but threat plates are worth it
• The DoT tracking on multiple targets seems neat, but proved to be a little buggy and cluttered the screen, so I gave up on that pretty early

Tidy Plates: Threat Plates Tidy Plates Extension

Added benefits:

• - Highlights the nameplates of mobs which are either not focused on you when you are tanking, or are focuses on you when you aren't; this makes multi-mob tanking much easier

Notes:

• Hasn't been updated for WoD yet; there is an alpha version, but it doesn't seem to work quite right yet
• I am really interested in finding an add-on to do something similar without all the overhead of Tidy Plates
• Rumor has it there is a threat visualization option built into Tidy Plates

Overachiever Achievement Window/Tooltip Enhancement

Added benefits:

• Extends many tooltips to mention when doing something will help get an achievement
• Allows you to move the achievement window

Notes:

• I used this add-on for quite a while and loved many a critter on many an alt because the tooltip told me to, but I don't think I really care enough to keep updating it

AdvancedIconSelector Icon Selection Window Extension

Added benefits:

• Lets you see more icons at a time
• Lets you search icons by keywords which might include a spell name, this makes it a lot easier to find a specific icon instead of scrolling randomly through a list

Notes:

• Not updated for WoD yet; I will probably install it as soon as it is