Throught the 15 odd years world of Warcraft has been around, the game has added many quality of life features that make the game simpler, and, for many, more enjoyable. Many of those tiny changes to the user interface can be replicated through third party addons. With addons, you can make World of Warcraft Classic exactly the game you want to play. Some addons are even necessary for end game progression. In this list, I'm going to go over the top 15 best addons for Classic. The addons you may need for raids, the addons that can make playing your character optimally easier, and the ones that are just downright convenient.
15. Questie Classic
Leveling your character is a huge part of Classic WoW. It's very different from the modern game where you rush to max level and then the content begins. Leveling is content, but sometimes you're going to need help finding locations for a quest or maybe you simply don't feel like reading quests. Questie Classic makes leveling easier if you run into these issues.
- Map markers that let you know where to find quests, where to get the items necessary for your quest, and where you need to turn in your quest.
- Makes leveling faster, less of a headache if you want to rush to endgame.
- Great for new players or players who have grown accustomed to modern roleplaying games.
14. OneBag3 Classic
Keeping track of your inventory in MMORPGs is a chore all its own. You need to make sure you have inventory for new items. You want your items organized and easy to find when you choose to sell or turn in quests. It's much easier managing one large bag that 5 small bags for many people.
- Fewer inputs to see all the items you have in your inventory.
- Much sleeker and more aesthetic user interface.
- Makes it much easier to find your open inventory slots.
13. Vendor Price
This is another function that is in the modern game, but it hasn't been added yet in Classic. Vendor Price shows you how much your items are worth to NPC vendors in the game. It's the minimum amount of copper, silver, or gold you can get for selling an item.
- Know how much your item can be sold for at a minimum.
- Prevents you from selling things on the auction house for less than the item's vendor price.
12. Auctionator
For many people, playing the auction house and getting as much gold as they can get their hands on is their purpose in WoW Classic. Auctionator is a necessity if you plan on spending a lot of time buying and selling on the auction house. This is a must for traders.
- Allows you to post multiple stacks of an item at the same price at once if you're selling in bulk.
- Shows the current price for any item in a more comprehensive search function.
11. AtlasLootClassic
AtlasLoot has been a staple for many years. Have you ever wondered what phat loot awaits you in a dungeon, but you don't feel like pulling up Google? AtlasLoot solves and issues you've had with that.
- Complete lists of what boss drops what item. Percentage of the time that item drops.
- Great for players who don't want to play in Windows mode. No need to Alt + Tab out of the game to get one small piece of information.
- Great for planning your best in slot lists. Perfect for knowing where you need to go next to get the gear you need to maximize your potential.
10. Gatherer
Professions are lucrative and needed for many best in slot items. Alchemists need to collect herbs to make potions. Engineers need stones and ores to make bombs that may be part of their rotation or give them huge advantages in PvP. Gatherer shows you where to get the plants or ore you need.
- Comprehensive list of where different mining nodes or herbalist plants spawn. Even if the item is not in the location, you know where it will be when it spawns.
- This program learns from you. If you like running certain routes, it will show you the map markers for YOUR routes and pinpoint your stops.
9. OmniCC Classic
Timers on your debuffs and cooldowns are not so visible in Classic WoW. It's a chore for warlocks to know when their damage over time spells need to be reapploed. It's a stressor for rogues and warriors to know when their savior cooldowns are ready to be activated. OmniCC takes the guesswork out.
- Visually aesthetic way of knowing when you need to apply spells.
- Time your cooldowns better to maximize your damage, healing, survivability. Whatever your needs are. Useful for every class.
8. Extended Character Stats
Classic WoW has many unintuitive ways of showing you certain stats for your character. You might think you can go to your character sheet to see your critical strike chance as you can in the modern game, and you might be surprised to find, no, you can't. Extended Character Stats will show you what you need to know about your character on your character sheet.
- Faster and more intuitive way to figure out what your character's stats are when you're trying to optimize.
- Shows stats that you cannt find anywhere in the base user interface that you may want to know. Mainly hit percentage.
7. Capping Battleground Timers
Alterac Valley can be confusing when your group is trying to get the most honor and reputation every time. Sometimes you need to know exactly how much time you need to buy for an Arathi Basic node. Capping Battlegrounds Timer will let you know when nodes and flags will belong to your faction.
- Strategic information that allows you to coordinate when to play defensively or offensively in large scale PvP.
- Track not only what you are accomplishing in the battleground, but what your teammates you may not have contact with are getting done.
6. Dismounter
To ender battle, mine a node, take a flight... to do almost any action in Classic WoW requires you dismount your steed or wolf or whatever you're riding. This can be irritating to right click the aura and start your action all over. Dismounter solves this pesky issue.
- Perform actions quicker without getting an error message requiring you to dismount.
5. Recount Classic
Any damage dealer in WoW Classic wants to know how much damage they're doing on encounters. Recount has been around as long as WoW has been around. Is it necessary? Not really. Does everyone use it? Yeah.
- Track your individual damage. See how you're competing with your group on damage and make adjustments that help your performance.
- See that everyone is pulling their weight in raid groups. If you have a damage class below a support class on the meters, you may not want to group with that individual anymore.
- Bragging rights. Link the meters in chat when you're at the tippy top. It feels good to be the highest damage in the group.
4. WeaponSwingTimer
For rogues, shamans, paladins, and warriors, you may want to use certain abilities immediately after a weapon swing to prevent your abilities from interfering with your character's automatic attacks. This can be difficult if you're only watching your character's animations because of server lag or a number of other issues. The auto swing timer tells you exactly when your character is swinging and how far you are from an auto attack.
- A swing timer can allow you to take your damage to a new level as a melee class. It opens up a small minigame and micromanagement to the game once you've already got the macromanagement under control.
- WeaponSwingTimer might buy you enough foresight to stop you from breaking a crowd control effect with your auto attack.
3. ClassicCastbars
Here's another thing you might know from the modern World of Warcraft game that you miss severely in WoW Classic. A castbar will give you a timer on when a spell will go off. For classes that can interrupt spells, you will have to catach those spells somewhere in the middle of their cast to use those abilities. This addon is almost a necessity in PvP.
- Foresight on where an enemy or ally is in their cast time.
- Great for sneaking in kicks, pummels, or counterspells at the last second. Ensure your enemy wastes more time casting and has to wait longer to begin their next cast.
2. BigWigs or DBM-Classic
If you plan on raiding in WoW Classic, you're going to need to install BigWigs, DBM-Classic or a similar timer addon at some point. As much as it's a hassle to update these addons, keep up with the changes to the latest version, find a way to get them to work with your UI, ect -- you need this information popping up on your screen to prevent mistakes. Every guild will ask you to download this addon or something similar.
- Boss timers make the game fool proof. You will not make mistakes when you know exactly when a raid mechanic is about to happen and how to respond to the mechanic.
- Sound and visual indicators on mechanics.
- Every raider will hit a wall in progression when he or she needs a DBM addon to survive a fight and carry their weight for the raid. It's better to have it when you need than wait until you need it to download it and set it up. Molten Core and Blackwing Lair are straight forward, but Ahn'Qiraj and Naxxramas will be more demanding.
1. ClassicThreatMeter (KTM Threat Meters, Omen Threat Meters, TinyThreat)
There are a number of options for threat meters, and most of them are compatible with other threat meters. If you don't pick up any other addon, you need a threat meter. You don't want to waste your time plus the time of 39 other people trying to raid with you.
- A visual representation of how much threat your tank has. When you can start damage, when you need to slow down.
- Watch your threat. Don't be the person who wipes the whole raid because you wanted to look like a hero on the damage meters.
