Tag Archives: Add-Ons

Addon Spotlight: Gear levels at a glance with iLvLr

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Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

One of the best ways for addon developers or fans of addon developers to get their addon some attention is to have it featured here on Addon Spotlight. If you're a developer who wants to see your addon in the spotlight or you're a friend of a developer looking to do your buddy a solid because of that thing you did in Cabo three years ago with the guy's on-again, off-again love interest, send me an email at mat@wowinsider.com and tell me to feature the addon. I try to read all my email, and you'll most likely have the experience JerichoHM did.

Some time ago, I covered Skill Helper, an addon that was sent to me by its creator, JerichoHM, that made missing a skill point because of forgetting to train a thing of the past. Now, Jericho sends me another email discussing his newest addon called iLvLr, which adds new information about an item's ilevel and durability percentage to the character pane. Addons that add to the already existing user interface are some of my favorites, since I don't have to clutter up the screen with new pictures, boxes, and other crud.

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Addon Spotlight: Gear levels at a glance with iLvLr originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader UI of the Week: Cleaning up a distressed laptop UI

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Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend, because it's time to get serious -- interface serious. That's like the most intense kind of serious, next to super-serious. This week's reader submission needs some super-serious help, tips, and tricks to help make things more manageable for its user, Shamonkey. And while I'm not the most forgiving person when it comes to novelty pun names, I am forgiving when someone is in need. Shamonkey, we've got your back.

Shamonkey's UI is a little out of sorts -- not unusable by any stretch of the imagination, but things could use a bit of a tidying up, don't you think? There's no shame in asking for some help, and laptop UIs are always a hot topic amongst emailers and commenters. Take a look, read my advice, and maybe post some of your own in the comments.

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Reader UI of the Week: Cleaning up a distressed laptop UI originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Addon Spotlight: Replacing Raeli’s Spell Announcer

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Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

We might occasionally forget that the addon community is comprised of real live human beings from time to time, when these wonders of science and technology shield our eyes from the truth -- mere mortals made these addons, and we love them for it. However, as humans do, addon creators move on from their Lua toils and leave behind their creations either to be picked up by new project managers or to rot in the sun. Readers ask me all the time what alternatives there are to favorite addons that have been discontinued or no longer updated by their creators. Let's find some alternatives, shall we?

Tivoni of the Shadowsong (EU) server sent me an email professing her love for Raeli's Spell Announcer and the sad fact that the creator of this amazing addon, Raeli from Arathor (EU), was quitting WoW and his addon work. It's always a shame to see a great addon creator leave for different worlds or new work -- but there are people out there willing to pick up the pieces, and there are already alternatives out there.

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Addon Spotlight: Replacing Raeli's Spell Announcer originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader UI of the Week: Clear goals make better interfaces

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Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

Have you ever been in the situation where something that you had utterly convinced yourself was out of reach was in fact right in front of you the whole time? Sometimes people just don't know that they've got the right thing working for them when it's already working. I suspect that many people feel this way about their user interfaces and the addons that they choose to use during their play experience. One of the reasons people are in such positions is because they don't have clear goals set when they begin to tinker with their user interfaces.

Addon newcomer Curokk doesn't know how good he has it already. With a few clear-cut goals, Curokk's interface is a solid piece of simplicity and function. Primarily a 5-man dungeon type of player with Raid Finder aspirations, Curokk forged his setup in the boredom and hopelessness that is the Time Lost Proto-Drake hunt. It features nice borders, a simple layout, and a whole bunch of screen real estate left open to view all the pretty action for his shaman to experience. Let's see what Curokk has to say about his UI, whether we can help out some ... and if he actually got the Time Lost Proto-Drake during all that UI building.

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Reader UI of the Week: Clear goals make better interfaces originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Addon Spotlight: Loot addons 2

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Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

There's a whole lotta loot going around these days, if you haven't noticed. New loot, loot that looks like tentacles, armor pieces, armor set pieces, transmogrification gear, upgrade gear, heroic gear, Raid Finder loot ... you name it, it's dropping. As players complete the Dragon Soul raid on every difficulty, they are learning what a nightmare loot can be in a raiding environment. Let's make loot a bit more manageable, yes?

Loot addons are a fun category of addon to talk about because they don't really clog up your screen or add much to the user interface in a notable way -- well, until you open up a chest full of loot and you get to clicking.

teksLoot

Yes, teksLoot still works. Sure, it hasn't been updated in almost a year. It's still one of my favorite addons, dammit. I'll be using teksLoot until it horribly falls apart in my hands, reduced to a small mound of dust at my feet ... clinging to the last, hopeless rolls I will make in the Raid Finder for that cool sword off of Madness of Deathwing.

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Addon Spotlight: Loot addons 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharing the same UI across all characters

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Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

We've talked about the standard all-characters user interface before, but with my own experience moving to level up an alt over the course of the next few months bookended by raiding on my main, I wanted to talk again about building one UI for all your characters. Let's get the myths out of the way first.

The first myth about building a UI for all of your characters that I want to dispell is the fact that you can't actually do this. That's totally wrong. One UI that you build and maintain can be worked into a setup that works for all characters, no matter what spec or class. Sure, you may have to move something here or there, but if you relegate those movements to addons with simple move commands, you'll cut down on your own confusion pretty quickly.

Reader Ymer sent in his user interface that aims to be used across his bevy of alts, ready to roll for any of the four characters who decide to log in on that given day. Let's take a look at his setup, see what we can glean, and then make some general comments about using your interface for multiple characters.

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Sharing the same UI across all characters originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Addon Spotlight: Hermes, Extra Button, and the mature language filter addon

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Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

One of the most often asked-about topics around these parts concerns the issue of raid cooldowns. A raid leader armed with sufficient knowledge and a knack for planning can orchestrate a cooldown rotation like no other. His excellence could only be improved by a cooldown monitor, allowing that intrepid leader to see what was at his disposal. Many players ask me where to find such a display. This week's Addon Spotlight pick is just the ticket. Allow me to introduce you to Hermes, a wonderful little addon that knows who has what raid cooldowns available.

But first, we need to talk about a pressing issue, a dire matter that has threatened the very virtual world we inhabit. I am of course talking about the worst bug in the history of bugs: an eternal mature language filter.

Let's fix that too, shall we?

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Addon Spotlight: Hermes, Extra Button, and the mature language filter addon originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader UI of the Week: A tanking UI with a flair for scale

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Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

Welcome to another installment of Reader UI of the Week, WoW Insider's showcase for your awesome interfaces, customizations, and works of UI art. Sometimes we even learn a thing or two about how to assemble a working user interface from the charred remains of one poor soul's cooking disaster. Anyway, this week's user interface surrounds a subject close to home for me -- tanking. Warrior tanking, to be precise.

Arothand's user interface boasts a clean layout that lets the addons themselves do the contrasting rather than a black background or border system, with an emphasis on keybinds and prioritizing buttons based on size. Let's jump right in and see if we can offer some tips and tricks, as well as praise, for this solid tanking setup.

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Reader UI of the Week: A tanking UI with a flair for scale originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Addon Spotlight: Patch 4.3 news, fixes, and troublemakers

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Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

After a fairly smooth patch launch, Hour of Twilight is in full swing, with players Raid Findering and getting ready for the Darkmoon Faire. On the whole, patch 4.3 did not give us many of the UI errors and mishaps we've come to expect from a big patch such as Hour of Twilight, but there were some bumps along the road.

Most players' concerns were dealt with by clicking that magic little box, Load Out of Date Addons, found at the top right-hand corner of the addon menu at character select. By choosing to load out-of-date addons, you let the game bypass restrictions and let addons that probably don't have any problems continue running in the new patch 4.3 environment. If your game isn't loading, turn off your addons and load only a few at a time until you find the culprit. There are a few specific addons that were causing people trouble, so check them out below if you've still got some problems.

Remember, update your addons first! OK, now you can continue reading.

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Addon Spotlight: Patch 4.3 news, fixes, and troublemakers originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader UI of the Week: Raiding without the clutter

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Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

One of the more common criticisms that commenters and players make about most user interfaces they see anywhere, this column included, is that interfaces that are made for raiding never show their true colors. Raiding players have a huge amount of clutter on their screen, from timer bars and boss health frames to cooldown notifiers and a bunch of meters. Well, not all raiding user interfaces are cluttered messes, and it's actually easier than you think to contain the cacophony of interface elements.

Our featured UI this week was crafted by Scalions, a raiding rogue on the Stormrage server. His UI takes all of the cluttered, messy aspects of the common raider's user interface and works with those pieces to add them to the whole, rather than tacking them on as an afterthought. Let's talk raid UI elements!

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Reader UI of the Week: Raiding without the clutter originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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