The current patch 7.3 for World of Warcraft: Legion offers a lot of new content that has already been implemented or is yet to be implemented. Despite controversial opinions the update also attracts many new and former players. To keep up, one often needs not only a basic understanding of their class but also the right addons. We have compiled the most popular and important tools and helpers in WoW for you.
I know what you will have done in the next minute – Bossmods
The most important addons for any PvE player, whether for dungeons or raids, are Bossmods. There are two alternatives in this category, BigWigs and DeadlyBossMods (short DBM). They differ primarily in the overlay and a bit in operation. Most raids, however, accept both and do not require uniform usage.
Bossmods are versatile tools. They indicate through bars which abilities bosses will use in dungeons and raids at what time, give warnings when certain abilities require reactions and alert tanks, when a boss is to be spotted.
For the majority of the raid, there is also a distance indicator, which measures the distance to other players and indicates when you are too close or not close enough for certain mechanics. A heads-up display helps additionally.
In addition to these tools for combat, there are also bars and timers for raid cooldowns (such as a countdown for the next stack of rebirth or for heroism/battle frenzy) and audiowarnings (“Run, little girl, run!”). The position of all bars can be adjusted individually.
WeakAuras – stronger than the name suggests
Another important addon for both PvE and PvP players is WeakAuras. While the addon is somewhat confusing and rather difficult to use, it compensates for this by being extremely helpful and useful.
With WeakAuras, you can individually adjust interface displays to show you anything.
One of the most important things that can be adjusted with the mod are personal cooldowns and buffs. There is almost no cooldown, no trinket, no ability that cannot be displayed.
It is tedious to familiarize yourself with the functionality of WeakAuras, and many of the common combinations of all cooldowns of a class already exist as pre-made templates from other players available for download, but for personalization, it is worth getting familiar with the usage.
Digital penis comparison – Damagemeter
Less important but rather interesting as a data collection for personal improvement are Damagemeters. These addons collect the damage numbers of all players in the group or raid and break them down in detail. The most commonly used mods in this category are Recount, Details! and Skada, with Details providing the most additional information.
In addition to the damage caused by used abilities (and their share of total damage), the strongest and weakest hits, information such as healing done and received, deaths, damage taken, interrupts, dispels, damage received from opponents, and more can also be retrieved.
This data is also important for raid leaders or officers to know, as it allows errors to be analyzed and eliminated, as well as effectively working on improving individual players.
More numbers on the gear – Pawn and Simulationcraft
If you care a lot about your gear, the addon Pawn will serve you well. However, this does not mean looking good but rather optimizing your equipment as much as possible for the highest damage numbers.
Pawn incorporates the stats of individual pieces of gear that have been looted or are already in the inventory and calculates a percentage improvement for the selected specialization.
By default, data from “Ask Mr. Robot” is used, which uniformly assigns the best attributes with numerical values that apply to the respective specialization. However, those who engage more with their character will often simulate their values with Simulationcraft .
Simulationcraft generates from the currently equipped gear a string that can be inserted into the corresponding program of the same name. The program then calculates from the given equipment the values that have mathematically the greatest impact on damage. These numbers can then be entered into Pawn either via command or manually, to show individual improvements.
Help for healers – VuhDo
In most instances, healers have a particularly tough job – with their ability, the group lives or dies. With the addon VuhDo , you can at least ease the work a bit. By changing the group display (“Raid Frames”), it can be moved to any place in the interface, customized in size, shape, and color, making it more accessible.
For healers, it is particularly important that healing can be done as quickly and effectively as possible, without wasting time clicking unnecessarily or searching for healable targets. Also, indicators and warnings for dispels or players with critical hit points help with healing.
In addition to the raid frames, it is advisable to bind your spells to a so-called “mouseover” macro. This allows the current spell to be cast on the target currently under the mouse cursor. This can be achieved through the addon “Clique”, or by manually writing the macro. A helpful template is:
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead] []
It is important to note the empty square brackets, as without them the target would not be selected correctly.
Exorsus Raid Tools – The all-rounder for the raid
If you want to spend most of your time in Antorus when it arrives, and also want to tackle the mythic mode, you will hardly get around Exorsus Raid Tools. The addon was originally written by and for the professional guild Exorsus and contains everything needed for raiding.
The main functions of the tool are the overviews of the raid. In combat, key cooldowns of all participants are timed, tracks who pulled when and with what, provides access to an expanded combat log and allows writing notes that everyone in the group can retrieve and arrange in the interface.
Furthermore, the addon provides insights into the current gear, talents, glyphs etc. of all participants and thus simplifies loot distribution. The presence, invitations, marks, and WeakAuras can also be monitored.
Always right in the face! – Gladius
For all those who want to focus more on PvP and less on PvE, Gladius is an important addon. It is quite simple, but brings many advantages in its simplicity. However, it is really only necessary for Arena players.
The tool checks the classes and specializations of opponents after opening the arena, as well as their hit points, making it easier to keep track of the short but intense skirmishes in PvP.
The rat tail
There are more addons that rather fall into the category of “quality of life”, making the game a bit more pleasant without being really essential. A brief overview:
- World Quest Tracker: Shows in a simplified, short list which world quests in which area provide what rewards and allows filtering.
- Bagnon: Combines all bags into one single bag.
- AtlasLoot Enhanced: A simple interface to look up loot, craftables, and events.
- Bartender and Dominos: Break the action bars apart and allow free movement in the interface. (Examples in the screenshots above)
- MythicPlusTimer, GottaGoFast, Angry Keystones: Simplified overview for Mythic+ dungeons.
Which addons do you use? Do you prefer building your own interfaces or using packages like elvUI? Write it in the comments!
