IceShadow's recommended WoW addons

One question that comes up frequently is what addons are recommended for use in World of Warcraft. I will give my advice here.

Introduction to Addons

First, what are addons? Addons are programs that modify the user interface in World of Warcraft (WoW), using a Blizzard-approved scripting language. They are NOT a breach of the terms of service for WoW, and as long as you use the correct method of installing addons, you know that you're not running afoul of any requirements that Blizzard sets forth. If they don't want an addon to do something, they'll simply remove the ability of the scripting language to do it (and this has happened several times in the patches for WoW).

To install an addon, you should ALWAYS download a .zip, .rar, or some other compression format. NEVER install an addon from a .exe, unless you are CERTAIN of its source (and even then, it's iffy). Executable files can have hidden keyloggers and other nasty software piggybacked on the install, and it's not safe to install from them. To actually install the addon, just unzip the file into your World of Warcraft\interface\addons\ directory. You should now see a little red button that says "Addons" in the lower-left hand corner of the character selection screen. NOTE: After a patch, addons will often still work, but Blizzard has them disabled by default. To re-enable them, you must check the "use outdated addons" checkbox on this screen.

Where to get Addons

There are several websites that allow people to upload the addons they create and share them with other players. The more prominent ones are here:

A word on Ace2

Ace2 acts as a set of libraries for the scripting language World of Warcraft addons use (LUA). It has become a very popular tool for addon creation, and like all popular things, comes with some controversy.

Many people who use Ace2 to program are rather vehement about the superiority of using Ace2 as opposed to coding without it. They claim that while the interface takes longer to load (and I can attest to that part, as my loading screen takes a good 60-120 seconds for me, now), the game will run faster with Ace2 addons, giving players better pingtimes and/or framerates. Personally, I can't compare...my framerates can drop, but I have a LOT of addons installed, and I don't know if non-Ace2 addons would fare better or not. I do know that Ace2 has one big advantage over non-Ace2 files: WowAceUpdater.

A lot of authors of Ace2 programs use the URL above to distribute their addons. There is a utility, called WowAceUpdater, that allows you to quickly update all of your addons that use the above URL to distribute all at once. It is an executable, and as such you should be VERY careful as to where you download it, but if you get it from an official site you SHOULD be safe. Being able to update a majority of your addons with one button press is EXTREMELY useful as you run more and more addons, and I personally look for Ace2 versions of addons for this reason.

IceShadow's recommended WoW addons

Introduction to Addons

Where to get Addons

A word on Ace2

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