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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A WoW Without Add-Ons

What would WoW be like without any add ons? Would we even be able to function? Has anyone forgot to check "load out of date add ons" when your add ons where out of date and you were forced to run something without some of your favorite add ons? I am curious if we could even run raids without using add ons. If we don't know how much damage we are doing, how do we know how to improve ourselves? How would we ever know if our rotation was right? What about boss timers, how would we know when the overcharged add is coming? or bone storm? We would just have to like, react or something instead of anticipating.

I would like to address what my favorite add ons are, and what add ons I doubt I could live without. I am also curious what other people view as the have to have add on. I even have add ons that I hate using!

For me, I would have to say the add on I depend on most would be a tie with Deadly Boss Mods, and umm.... don't judge me... recount. Deadly Boss Mods(DBM) is absolutely awesome. It yells at me when I am standing in crap. It gives me the ability to yell at my raid when bone storm is coming in 5 seconds, or blood beasts in 10 seconds, or w/e is needed. Without DBM we would have to react when something happens without knowing beforehand. This add on is so essential when I lead a raid, I think I would be lost without it. What about /range, how do I know what 12 yards is? I know recount can be limited in usefulness, but it helps me in my personal raiding and as a raid leader. It is important for me to know if people are improving on certain fights. I like to know what fights are a struggle for certain classes, and what fights favor others. I also like to compare my dps week to week, to see if my upgrades are improving my dps. Recount can be abused, but it can also be awesome. I use it to check on my healers, if they are having mana issues how much overhealing are they doing? What classes are prone to overheals? By watching recount and always checking heals, overheals, dps, etc. I can know what should be a trend for certain classes.

I also use GRID for healing. I just started using grid during ToC, so I know I can fully function as a healer without it. But I love being able to see incoming heals from other healers, and see in a nice format who is taking damage. This add on is a luxury for me, not a need. I know many healers who could not live without healbot or grid. I can definitely see how it is easily addicting. I also use de-cursive. I realize that I can use grid for this, but I like how de-cursive yells at me, and when I am on my mage, I don't watch grid too much. I use omen when I am doing dps, but could definitely live without it for bosses, I have learned to use the in game threat meter.

I love using Quartz or IceHud for my cast bars, but it isn't necessary. I also live off of AtlasLoot, which is totally not necessary, it is kinda fun to be surprised by what the boss drops. Oh and my new favorite feral by night for kittys. What about the new add on I found for tanking, tauntmaster? I love it!  I use so many add ons, I am not sure I could play without them.

It seems like every time I use a friend's computer they have one thing that drives me nuts. Gatherer!!! Ok, I know this is completely useful, but I can't stand all of those pictures on my maps. I also hate when it tells me someone in my guild picked an herb, because I really don't care. Lucky for me this is an add on, and I don't have to download it, it just drives me nuts when I realize the computer I am on has it.

So, what would WoW be like with no add ons? I wonder how raids would work. I can't imagine that things would go well at first if they were all taken away. We rely so much on these add ons. Is there anyone who raids who does not use add ons? I can't even imagine one of my raids where I can't go back and check what went wrong. We would be raiding blindly! What a scary thought. I will definitely try to get some screenshots and post them later of all my add ons. I just think it is interesting on how dependent I have become, and I wonder about others; Are we add on dependent?

1 comments:

Purelight said...

I don't remember when I first started to use addons, but it must have been about a year after I started to play. I do remember I only used Atlas Map and Atlas Loot for the longest time. I love those two addons. Only recently have I started to use DBM, Pally Power, IceHUD, and X-Perl. All of those were suggested by no other than Kayllnn. I actually refused for quite awhile but she was right to get me to use each one of them especially DBM. I can't say I can't raid without all these addons because I did raid to some extent with NO addons, lol. I find addons to be a really nice luxary in WoW. Ofcourse I do spend time looking for new addons now, but usually because I'm wanting help with somethiing in game. Great thought and great article.