While World of Warcraft remains a fantastic game, its user-interface, both in its appearance and the way it presents information to the player, can be pretty poor at times. There’s also information that simply isn’t available to you without an addon, such as how much damage per second you’re doing and where resources spawn in the world.
Thankfully, the WoW community has always been proactive in resolving these issues by creating addons.
There’s thousands of WoW addons out there, and some better than others. If you’re getting into WoW for the first time or are simply looking for some new addons to try out, we’ve created an essential list of the most popular—and useful—addons in WoW.
Also Read: How To Install WoW Addons
Deadly Boss Mods
If you’re considering sinking your teeth into some endgame PvE content, Deadly Boss Mods is one of the best addons. Whether you’re doing Mythic+ or raids, many of the boss fights are demanding, and in many cases, downright confusing.
Deadly Boss Mods acts as a helping hand through these fights, alerting you when key mechanics are coming up and letting you know when you’re standing in something you shouldn’t be. This helps you to do a better job of planning cooldown usage, coordinating with your group, and positioning your character.
Deadly Boss Mods works pretty much out of the box, you’ll just need to tweak a few settings to your liking. Make sure you get this addon before tackling any difficult content, or your group will probably kick you!
Details!
If you care about the performance of yourself and your group during a fight, Details! is the go-to addon. You’re able to track many of the key performance metrics, such as damage dealt by each player, healing done, debuffs dispelled, and more. All of this is presented in an interface that’s incredibly intuitive and easily customisable.
It’s a great addon for competitive players who want to see how they’re stacking up against their peers, while also flagging players that aren’t pulling their weight. Clicking a player’s name lets you see performance in much more detail, including spells that did the most damage, number of interrupts in a fight, and more. You’re also able to share the data with your party so you can show off your big numbers.
Bagnon
Let’s face it, WoW’s default bag UI is pretty lackluster and outdated. Finding items can be a chore, and a unique window per bag is just unnecessary. Thankfully, Bagnon makes inventory management in WoW far easier and less time consuming.
Probably the most notable feature of Bagnon is the way it turns your bag and interface into one large window, and does the same with your bank. There’s also a sorting feature that you can customize, and the way Bagon color codes item icons based on rarity makes it easier to sell junk and less valuable gear at a glance.
There’s also a ton of advanced features, my favorite being the ability to check the banks of all my alts on one character. The tooltip counts for items are also handy, and means you’ll never have to spend money on crafting materials you don’t need.
Speaking of crafting materials, GatherMate 2 is one of the best WoW addons for all the gatherers out there. The spawn points of herbs and veins aren’t random; they’re coded into the game. GatherMate 2 removes the need to repeatedly circle a zone looking for materials, as it populates the spawn points on your map.
You’re able to set the addon to only register a node once you’ve picked or mined it, or you can download other players’ data to add all the common spawns automatically. To stop the map getting populated by useless nodes, you’re able to filter the ones you actually want to see, or set it so they only appear when you’re nearby.
Bartender 4
If we’re being honest, Blizzard hasn’t done all that much to update WoW’s UI since the game came out, 18 years ago. Bartender 4 transforms the old-fashioned action bars and allows you to customize and rearrange up to 10 action bars to your preference.
With Bartender 4, you can control the layout of your action bars, their position on your screen, transparency, size, and more. You can even switch between different action bars seamlessly, allowing you to optimize your bars depending on whether you’re raiding, running Mythic +, PvP, crafting, or any other type of content.
ElvUI
Keeping with the topic of UI, ElvUI is a true powerhouse when it comes to customizing your entire interface to your own tastes. While there’s a bit of a learning curve to this addon, it’s well worth spending some time with it if you really can’t stand WoW’s default interface.
Whether you’re a minimalist or prefer your screen to look like a spreadsheet, ElvUI allows you to change every little thing, from action bars to name plates, bag interfaces to buff and debuff displays, and much more. Just be prepared to watch a few YouTube videos to get the most out of this addon.
WeakAuras
Like the previous one on this list, WeakAuras can be a difficult addon to get to grasp with, but once you do, you’ll struggle to play end game content without it. It’s essentially an incredibly customisable way to present different information in the game, such as buffs and debuffs, cooldowns, energy meters, cast times, and more. Certain set-ups can even help you with your rotation, telling you what to prioritize.
WeakAuras can be made significantly less complex by installing other player’s set-ups. There’s plenty of dedicated players out there who have designed optimal templates for every class and spec, so you needn’t worry about doing it yourself.
ALL THE THINGS
If you’re a collector, this is the addon for you. This addon helps you to achieve 100% complete in WoW, by tracking your completion status of appearances, mounts, titles, toys, and just about anything else you can think of.
For stuff you’re missing, ALL THE THINGS has a ton of information about what quests you need to do, bosses you need to kill, or achievements you need to obtain to get each reward. If you’re seriously considering the mammoth task of getting everything in the game, this is the best addon for it.
