Thursday, August 5, 2010

Add-Ons

Although I enjoy raiding, there is definitely one word that neatly describes my attitude towards add-ons used for raiding or any other purpose.

Minimalist!

The list of add-ons I use is really quite short. Let's start with those unrelated to raiding. I use BankItems to keep track of what I have stored in the bank and bags of all my characters - with four 80s and another two in their 70s, this saves me a lot of time switching between characters. I also use GatherMate to keep a record of gathering nodes like herbs and ore.

Really, that's it. I don't use Auctioneer because I rarely use the auction house - what my characters gather and craft is for their own use or the guild's use, and I prefer to make money through daily quests when I need cash. I've never used a quest add-on like Quest Helper, although while I was earning my Loremaster title I did use EveryQuest to keep track of what I had and hadn't done. I don't use any map mods.

Raiding add-ons, I keep very simple. I use Quartz because I raid on my mage and a lag-sensitive cast bar is very useful. I use DeadlyBossMods for alerts and timers. I use Omen for a threat meter. I have Decursive for the rare occasions when it's necessary.

I don't have any kind of action bar mod. I don't have any kind of damage meter. I don't use anything besides the default raid frames (although I am cognizant that this is purely and simply because I have the luxury not to use them, since I raid as DPS). I don't even use something like PowerAuras (although I have tried it out) to alert me to Hot Streak procs, since between the sound, the visual around my mage, and the flashing icon on my list of buffs, I never miss one.

So that's me. I raid pretty light on add-ons; I only use a couple of macros, too, and most of them are just adding /cancelaura to Ice Block so I can hit the same key to come out of it (I do the same for Blink so I can use it in situations where I need to de-Ice Block and Blink immediately), or /stopcasting to Counterspell for when that's necessary.

On the other hand, you should see the tweaked UI that Lexa uses . . .

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