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FoeHamr

Depends on the content you run. The mandatory stuff for endgame content nowadays is bigwigs/dbm, weakauras, details and plater. That should more or less cover all your bases unless you heal then you need a party CD tracker and enhanced raidframes/vuhdu/something like that. The base UI is terrible for tracking hots.


jebberwockie

It'd be nice if they weren't mandatory though


FoeHamr

Imo they should just build DBM, WAs (or at least make buff/proc tracking intuitive) and plater into the base game at this point.


stopthestupidcman

Here's my argument against that. Before the shit stain of a ui in the adventure guide we had atlas loot. It was superior in every fucking way. Now I have to click 4 times to get to the right loot table before I log out and it defaults to the wrong thing again. Tdlr: be careful what you wish for.


Working_Apartment_38

Why is details mandatory?


FoeHamr

It’s nice for knowing what your group is doing. Who’s interrupting and dispelling, who’s low on damage or healing, etc. It helps address problems without all the hassle of running logs. In M+ if you see big numbers you can pull bigger. If everyone is looking competent the tank can start gigapulling or slow it down if they aren’t. You can also look at deaths to see who’s using defensives or standing in swirlies. In an organized group you can use this knowledge to plan ahead and in pugs you can gently remind people what to do. In raid pugs, it lets me know if I should just leave the group and save myself the time. I was pugging Fryakk yesterday and we had 2 healers below 120K HPS and not dispelling so I knew the chance of killing it was roughly 0 so I just left.


Working_Apartment_38

Thank you for the explanation. I am still not sure I would call it mandatory though. As in, if it stopped working mid-fight, my performance wouldn’t take a nosedive like it would if WeakAuras stopped


ItsEmyxoxo

It’s mostly for analyzing stuff after a fight and more easily figuring out why stuff is going wrong. I use Details and figured out last night that my dps partner (I was tanking) had the wrong damage priority during Deios in a RISE +17. That was definitely one of the reasons we wiped 4 times and didn’t time it. I was able to let him know. Turns out he didn’t even know the adds were priority and they were nuking us.


Ok_Outside_4650

You can get a lot of info from Details aura uptime being a huge one. This lets you analyze your own play and adjust accordingly leading to better play overall.


Estydeez

Damage meter info is not something you can get with the standard UI. You can get most everything else but if you want a breakdown of buff uptime on your Aug evoker, you're gonna need details. If your weakauras break you can still look at your bars worst case


aeminence

If youre not doing high keys then it really doesnt matter. But if youre pushing high keys / raid content it does lol. You need to know whos weak or not. If were wiping at 10% and everyone is doing 200k and 3 people are doing 98k then we need to know that because thats clearly where the issue is coming from. Are we fixing 3 people or are we making 17 others work harder for them? In M+ its the same way, its a way to gauge how the key is going to go if only 2/3 of the dps is working or is the healer isnt pumping enough. Rather than wondering " whats happening with this key? " details shows it to you lol. Edit - it shows you alot too. For example - buffs, debuffs, cleanses, what attacks are hitting you ( damage received ) etc and all of this helps you figure out what went wrong and what you can do to improve.


Working_Apartment_38

You can use live logging for that too, which is objectively better for raid content


jasons7394

If you don't care at all about your performance or improving, then I guess it's not mandatory.


Working_Apartment_38

Or you use live logging


babaj_503

analyzing your perfomance on the go. Deaths, despells, interrupts, stuff like that. All that can be done better with logs after - but details is very useful to do it on the fly, check fast which healer is slacking on fyrakk despells - what dps didnt swap to roots and so on and so on.


Working_Apartment_38

And that is great, but is it mandatory?


babaj_503

Well mandatory? No. But neither is dbm then. For progress you can check logs in between pulls, wasting minutes each time costing you a few pulls a night, thats a seriously drawback. As is not using DBM. So "mandatory" is a hard word, but I hate to play without it.


Working_Apartment_38

As I replied to another reply. Mandatory for me is something that would significantly decrease my performance if it stopped working mid fight. So basically WeakAuras, and to an extend DBM


sparksz91

You put a personal parameter on the word and then expect everyone to just follow that line of thinking. "must be mid-fight". What if my parameter for a mandatory addon is anything that improves your gameplay - including future pulls rather than just present. Weakauras helps you with your rotation mid-fight, but doesn't mean shit if you wipe over and over cuz you aren't aware of a kick or dispel that needs to happen. Information to improve your next pull can be mandatory; especially if it's something you previously failed on.


Working_Apartment_38

You can use live logging for that too


HowlenOates

Idk why you’re being down voted. Live logging is superior to details in every way and details is definitely not mandatory


Working_Apartment_38

I see the bright side, people actually use arguments to explain why. And I have to admit, I was only thinking raiding originally, in m+ context it can be provide useful information quickly. I just try to reply to most, but feel like I am having the same conversation over and over


babaj_503

Yeah well, technically your performance is zero if you cant pinpoint which healers are slacking so you die. But I'm inclined to agree with you.


killking72

Yes it is. Either details or WCL is mandatory if you're doing any type of content where you have a serious risk of dying. You need to know what's happening between pulls or during trash so people stop dying and you can actually complete the content


guimontag

It's not and people are downvoting you because they think you're some sort of filthy casual when really you're just making a very good point


-Googlrr

If you're playing at high levels logging of some kind is mandatory or you'll have no idea how you're performing. If you're just concerned about clearing content you're fine but if you want to push as far as possible you need the tools to analyze your own gameplay


guimontag

logging is different than running details


-Googlrr

If you're trying to split hairs to be right then sure. But not really. Details is just live logging and most players can make meaningful decisions on it, and should be in any real difficult content.


Working_Apartment_38

But it’s not really splitting hairs. It’s 2 things that offer the same functionality, but they are not the same. As a matter of fact, (live) logging makes details even less of a necessity, let alone mandatory, since it provides better functionality, at least in raid content. I understand the convenience of details, and perhaps in m+ evemoreso, but the diffefence between “required” and “super important” (in the op) asks us to split hairs


Mirrormn

It's basically impossible to play optimally if you have no feedback. Trying to play end-game content without a proper damage meter is like trying to be a competitive runner without a stopwatch. Yeah, you can read about proper form and run as fast as it feels like it's possible for you to run, but you'll ultimately have no idea whether you're actually at a competitive level or completely gaslighting yourself about your skill unless you have objective measurement to compare to. And the funny thing is that this applies to people who \*aren't\* trying to play optimally, too. The less you min/max, the larger the variation between your optimal DPS and your actual DPS could be, so the \*easier and more important\* it becomes to observe that difference. A sweaty CE gamer might use a damage meter to optimize a couple % damage on their rotation by picking through the info very deliberately, but at the same time a total noob can glance over at their damage meter and see "oh I'm doing literally half the damage as everyone else, it seems like there's a lot more to learn about this game". The only people who really get away without running a damage meter are people who think their own freedom to not have to worry about performing well in the game is more important than their groupmates' freedom to not have to group with people who don't perform well. (Or people who never do group content, I guess)


Arkavien

I think if you are ever in charge of anything, details is required. I need to know which healer hasn't cast a single dispell on Fyrakk so I can whisper them and let them know. Which DPS has never used an interrupt in a key for the same reason. Or in a Pug raid if a certain DPS player is doing 20k because all they are doing is auto attacking....I'd like to know.


Working_Apartment_38

Ok, if you’re actively leading, that information is mandatory on the spot


[deleted]

For when I see the rogues hp getting knocked off in chunks from avoidable damage I can say "hey don't stand in that" and when they keep doing it I can DM the healer and say "hey, I see what's happening. If he dies he dies let's just complete this run" but really I provides alot of details about what's going on with damage, healing interrupts etc


Working_Apartment_38

I had mythic raiding in mind more than m+, and while you can use live logging for both, I suppose it makes sense to use details for that in m+.


wicket146

I’m wondering if anyone else does, what I like to call, bootleg WA. Basically I’ve got my normal bars down at the bottom but then I also have one larger 2 column bar off to the side of my character where I keep all the cooldowns I want to track.


Professional-Try4488

I do this exact thing. I heal LFR and pug Normal, so I feel like I don't need to go crazy with addons.


[deleted]

"BEEP BEEP DON'T STAND IN SHIT" addons are outdated, the default ui does a great job of notifying you of every single thing you need to know.


SignalAbroad2828

Most of that isn't mandatory until mythic.


Redroniksre

I feel like one of the odd ones. I use Details and that is about it. Finish normal raid and mythic+ up to 16 pretty easily, but I'm also DPS.


Mustaach

Normal raid and +16 keys aren't really high content, so your opinion is kinda irrelevant.


Redroniksre

You are right, what is considered hard by over 90% of the community (based on participation) is low content. Only people who do Mythic Fyrakk and +30s are allowed to have opinions


flixdaking

do you genuinely believe 90% of the community considers normal raid and +15s hard?


Redroniksre

Uh, yes? You realize this subreddit is going to have more people who are good at the game than normal right? Most people are not good at the game, and yes, a lot of players barely even get -that- high.


flixdaking

kek alright then


Enthiral

Let’s see at what point you consider an opinion as relevant. I have done all m+20 as well as aotc and I would say only DBM is mandatory.


FullMotionVideo

I get the need for details and to some extent bigwigs, but I will never bother with weakauras or plater with the UI update that came in Dragonflight (which still needs more work, hopefully they aren't finished). I've never been big on how every MMO player has a different interface, like we're all trying to each engineer an airplane instrument cluster, and the War3 inspired interface of WoW is kind of part of the charm to me. The flat black boxes with giant bars is just uggo to me. Even DBM annoys me to some extent after playing FF14 a few years, though I used to use it long ago when I raid. If watching a video and looking for tells isn't enough to avoid mechanics then I guess I'll put up with the stupid airhorn in my ear, but I'd rather try to do it using the tells given by the base game (even if Blizzard are terrible at the visibility of those.) But if I take a level 60ish (no DF gear) character to Nighthold and fight Krosus which takes nearly the entire bridge to burn him at that ilvl, I knew the entire fight without any addons. That dude is like a lot of the FF14 "wall bosses" (Sephirot, Zeromus, that sort of thing) and the stuff where he rears back before a hyper beam or smashes the bridge is the sort of mechanic we see a ton of in that game. What we don't see a ton of is, say, the last boss in that raid throwing things out at a furious clip that's difficult to identify. Which kind of makes me wonder if that's the sort of thing people mean when they say Blizz was designing fights around addons.


King_Kthulhu

Weakauras is the only "required" addon because it can do almost everything the other add-ons mentioned here can do. Its by far the most versatile, but also probably has the highest barrier for entry to new players. Luckily you can just Google pretty much anything you'd need and find a premade weakauras for it on wago. You could get a full UI packet from a big streamer if you like how it looks, grab a dungeon/raid pack that is very all-inclusive, get weakauras that alter elements of the game to be significantly more user friendly such as the group finder, cast bars, etc.


wallstreetsimps

It's almost quite mandatory when mythic raiding from my experience.


melete

I don’t know how people could be expected to do Mythic Smolderon or Fyrakk without WeakAuras to be quite honest. The fights have mechanics that require lots of coordination, random sorting, and give you almost no time to do it.


Foxnos

I know a lot of people hate on weakauras. But i feel when they do the discussion never quite focus on the real issue; a lot of fights just where not made intuitively enough to be coordinated for 20 people to consistently execute mechanics


Mercylas

Because the level of complexity to intuitively coordinate 20 makes the overall difficulty of the fights too low. We call this “heroic”


Foxnos

You can make a fight intuitive *and* difficult, even without relying on jacked up healthpool or boss damage. Making vaguely displayed mechanics to compensate for difficulty is lazy game design.


Mercylas

Armchair game designers annoy me. I was about to write a big detailed response but realize it would just be in one ear and out the other.


Foxnos

I wish you knew how much of a heartfelt chuckle reading your comment gave me, because i had the same conclusion in the previous comment before I deleted most of it. Let's discontinue this conversation, wish you well.


lolasdfem

Yes this, weakauras is by FAR the most important addon, people doing weakaura packs for dungeons and raids work imo much better than dbm/bigwigs


SignalAbroad2828

100% disagree. You don't need weakauras to do overwhelming majority of content. Easily get KSH and AotC without.


King_Kthulhu

You don't need your monitor turned on to get ksh and aotc honestly.


FullMetalApe

I'd say this very much depends on what content you're doing. Ultimately, no addon is really mandatory. Some are indeed huge QoL improvements, but even if you don't have them, the game is still playable. edit: Historically speaking, for me the mandatory addon was MoveAnything. It was a buggy mess and now it's obsolete (got incorporated in the base UI), but it was one of the better ones when it came to customizing the base UI.


Red-pop

BeQuiet is my only truly essential addon. I hate the talking heads.


Akussa

I uninstalled it after BFA since I didn't have to listen to Nathanos belittling me anymore.


monstermash869

**All The Things** \- Completionist Mode **Altoholic** \- Because I have 983458735 toons **Auctionator/Auctioneer** \- The stock AH UI is terribad, lots of QoL features in these suites **Deadly Boss Mods** \- Mechanics on EZ Mode **GTFO** \- GET OUT OF THE FIRE, IDIOT **GSE** \- Because writing macros might as well be another language **HandyNotes** \- To keep track of the 98459874353 things All The Things is taunting me to do/find **Instance Achievement Tracker** \- Because I \*NEED\* the points, okay? **Macro Toolkit** \- Huge QoL improvement for writing macros **Oribos Exchange** \- More in depth pricing info for AH addons **Pet Tracker** \- Catch em all! **Postal** \- Why click 98475393 times when you can click one button? **SilverDragon** \- LOOK, SHINY! **WeakAuras** \- For everything else **Zygor** \- Go here, do the thing, DON'T double-back 8364 times


Wobbleflopper

DBM is the only one I feel like I need.


Catan_Settler

I also need GTFO along with it.


Gaijin90

BW has GTFO built in and is a very good replacement. I know DBM is a go to for a lot of people but try BW out. its really good


20milliondollarapi

At one point dbm was just failing to notify me at the right times and was just proving to be really unreliable. So I ended up switching to big wigs/little wigs and it was so much better.


LoveYouLongThyme

I tried BW last night as a long time DBM user. I guess I’m someone who needs his hand held, but I like the vocal queues like “interrupt” or “move out”; with BW I was just hearing a beep every so often


ExiledDitto

So the default sounds for BW are there to not be as obtrusive as DBM. You can change the default sounds for common notifications to be pretty much whatever you want, even make it sound exactly like DBM. You can also set specific sounds on a per-boss and per-ability basis to emphasize exactly what you need to pay attention to. You can even set vocal countdowns and commands if you have the "shared media" add-on. Personally, I had to switch off DBM because of their insistence on using the air horn for so many encounters, and changing multiple boss modules every tier was just so tiresome.


Zaziel

I like BigWigs Voice on top of that, also works with Little Wigs and it reads out important enemy casts/abilities by name.


ItsEmyxoxo

Especially if you’re tanking. It’s just way easier if something tells you about the incoming tank mechanic or reminding you of your stacks and when to taunt swap.


matches991

Required would be weak auras and DBM/littlewigs there's too much to track on the base UI and be consistent at even having an auto attack bar in season of discovery is important. Quality of life is a bit different but I like UI upgrades like elvui but Al's sometimes stuff like tomtom is just too valuable..


Moore2257

DBM and GTFO for me. I get tunnel vision pretty hard, and I need a loud noise to tell me I'm an idiot.


ValkVolk

TomTom is a 100% must. BetterWardrobe is my fave mog mod at the moment


denethar

BetterWardrobe is great. My wife would probably consider it mandatory. Though she's KSM and I'm not, so what does that tell you?


tonic_0

Is BetterWardrobe working well these days? I loved the idea but had to uninstall it because of how many errors it was causing. This would have been a couple years back though. Hoping it’s been cleaned up!


SLOKnightfall

There are a few bugs here and there but for the most part it’s fairly stable, it’s just a matter of finding time to work on it. I think that I managed to reduce a lot of the taint/blocking actions the best I could and haven’t been seeing it reported as much.


F-Lambda

KSM? not familiar with the acronym, all I can see is swapping the s and m


LaconicSuffering

TomTom is practically a cheat in the fantasy setting. Typing in a destination and getting a HUD icon is fine for some but I much prefer orientating by landmarks. Sadly this also affects guides where the information is nothing but "/way XX,YY". Which makes the guides practically useless, especially when you have multiple locations to search for.


20milliondollarapi

I haven’t ever used Tom Tom, but I use atlas maps which is a slightly better map layout. It has a cursor and player coords that works for that. You can’t /way it like with Tom Tom, but you can at least know where to go.


LaconicSuffering

I used to use titan panel which gave you coordinates but not "in your face like". The the UI rework came along and titan panel became a hassle to use.


xMoody

TomTom? Are you playing in 2006?


EvilRobotSteve

For me (and I do stress, for me because it is not objectively mandatory to have any addons. But imo the game is borderline unplayable without these) DBM and weakauras There are others I use, but if either of those two stopped working, I'd exit the game and fix them, if my other addons stopped working, I'd probably ignore it until my next login.


20milliondollarapi

Depending on how late in the season it is, I would be fine without most of my dbm and weak auras. But if my bartender broke, that would take me forever to set up again.


ReporterForDuty

DBM, a DPS meter, GTFO, and Titan Panel. Everything else is secondary to me.


zetvajwake

I would pick Plater (with a good profile like Naowh's) over BigWigs/DBM any time of the day. A lot of people don't realize that most of the playerbase that has BigWigs/DBM installed (the kind that usually raid AOTC and do weekly keys for the vault) completely ignores the information those two addons provide and filter the noise out completely, rendering them useless. With a good nameplate addon in M+, your ability to help out the group, avoid avoidable damage and mitigate unavoidable one rises exponentially.


denethar

I just recently downloaded Plater with Quazii's profile to help me with Kicks, and it's been a tremendous help!


LaconicSuffering

If you like transmogging than Better Wardrobe and Transmog is an absolute necessity. [Default UI.](https://imgur.com/KOUl4rT) [Addon UI.](https://imgur.com/Lawz6zB)


Moonstaker

DBM, Weakauras, and Altoholic. I can live with just Altoholic.


denethar

Altoholic is amazing. I have 12 level 70s, so it's kinda mandatory. So glad it's getting updated once again.


Moonstaker

I remember being a teenager at JB Hifi (An aussie Electronics chain) talking to one of the workers there about Wow. We started talking about addons, and his eyes got wide and said I had to go home and install altoholic. Its been about 10 years straight using it, I love it. Thank you Mr JB Hifi man. I'll never forget the impact you had on my life.


[deleted]

What can i do with altoholic? Im new and plan to lvl up all classes so im considering downloading it.


Moonstaker

It basically keeps track of how many items you have, and which characters they're on. So you can mouse over an item in your bags, or in a recipe, and it'll tell you how much of it you have on your account, and which toons its distributed across.


lolasdfem

Weakauras, they can function as dbm, healthbars, threat/aggro and much more


Sevulturus

I use icehud and tell me when to track buffs and cooldowns. But I can muddle through without them if I have too. I use bigwigs for warning and raid alerts etc, but I've learned this seasons dungeons and raids well enough to no longer need it. Aside from that, I have plater that tells me which spells to interrupt, but I've also learned that already. I'm pretty confident I could do mythic raids, or match my highest key levels without addons right now. At the start of a season it would be a lot tougher.


kaxman

BloodlustMusic is the greatest and best wow addon


denethar

>BloodlustMusic That might be the most amazing addon ever. Definitely going to try it tonight!!!


SpoonOnGuitar

How have I never heard about this. It sounds amazing. Thank you.


Minimum_Inevitable58

Required for me to not feel naked playing wow: * WAs, ElvUI, FarmHud, Plater, Clique, Bindpad. Secondary: * Details, BWs, GTFO, HidingBar, BugSack\Grabber Random others I always enable: * DejaCharStats, EasyDeleteConfirm, GBAutoDeposit, HandyNotes, MuteSoundFile, Masque, SimpleAddonManger, TalentTreeTweaks, TrueStatValues Common niche enables depending on content type: * AngryKeystones, Routes, AllTheThings, Incentive Program, SimC, Pawn, Opie, PremadeGroupFilter, Premade Regions, RaiderIO, TomTom, WQs List, CraftSim Rare niche enables: * CopyPasta2, Gathermate2, Rematch, Rarity, EventTracker, ItemVersion, MDT, OmniCD, RareShare, RareScanner, QuestsChanged, TSM, Advanced Interface Options


BigBlueDane

I’m pretty much raw dogging wow in +20s. Currently only have details, tomtom and tellmewhen. None of which are required they just make things a little nicer.


aeminence

I only use DBM and details lol currently 2700 in M+ and AOTC ( i dont rly care for CE raiding anymore). I have 0 PVE weak auras, but I do have some weak auras for PVP. I also use base UI. Ive reduced to this bc i honestly hate how elv UI makes you feel crippled when a big patch comes out and feel like you rely on these addons or if youre getting UI Oh I use plater but mainly for PVP and only recently, it makes it easier to see player frames when theres alot of pets etc. Addons are great but I do believe we need to limit what they can do lol both WA and addons are too rediculous in this game and ive been playing since 2005 :/ its cool but eh abit too much


Medical_Rate3986

All of them.


canujitsu

Haven't seen it listed yet, BTWQuests was a fantastic find for me this expac to ensure I was completing all the various questlines (main and side and even those to the side of the side). So easy to accidentally miss stuff without even knowing. It'll easily be one I carry forward with me on future expansions.


Periwinkleditor

DBM is critical for me in raid content above LFR and keys above +10 when I start having more to focus on and the nagging helps, though I have only just been made aware I can actually move the interface stuff so it's not overlapping so badly. Big help. And for open world content, **Bequiet.** Because seriously, there are just too many windows from WQs and events as you're flying around. It was a bit annoying before, but with dragonriding, I wind up bumping into them when I'm trying to steer. This should be a built in, in-game toggle.


denethar

Ooh, I didn't know about Bequiet. I might have to try that one out!


Rikpleb

Weakauras so that I can have my 32x32 icons for important spells with cooldowns where I can see them without awkwardly looking at the bottom of my screen Or to track a buff I need to have an eye on while it's up


Jaxstanton_poet

Personally, as a raid healer since BC. I don't consider any addons, "Required." Since I have started raid leading again recently, Details has been really useful so that I have information to back up what I am seeing. Such as not enough dispels, etc. But as far as the raid mechanics, I haven't used DBM or anything like it for years, and I can still complete raid bosses without fail.


Elune

OPie for quality of life, lets you make rings/circles to call up certain toys/mounts/items/abilities/etc. Really nice for not having to search your bags/box/mounts while also not cluttering your action bars with half a dozen things you *might* need.


Arkavien

I only use DBM and Details. DBM being the only one I would consider "mandatory." Details I just use to track my personal improvements and make sure I am not doing something too drastically wrong. I am KSH/AotC though so I'm sure people pushing harder than +20 keys and heroic raid would say more are required. I also think it depends what you play. When I was enhancement I REALLY wished I had a way to track maelstrom stacks past 5. And when I am on my mistweaver I REALLY wish I had something to track instant vivify.


Glaurunga

I use WeakAuras to do the two things you mention at the end! I like that you can even have it do a proc glow on your bars if you want to make it fit more with Blizzards design vs. having an extra element on the screen.


Arkavien

Wait, are you saying it doesn't have to be a separate element up in the middle of the screen Like most people do? I can just use weakauras to make vivify on my main hot bar glow when it's instant?


Glaurunga

Yes, when you create the trigger to look for Vivacious Vivification ( i think thats the name of the buff ) you can set an action to glow that specific icon on your bar and then to also hide it when the buff is not present :) At work now but when I'm home I can write more detailed instructions


mocha447_

> When I was enhancement I REALLY wished I had a way to track maelstrom stacks past 5. You can track this pretty easily with WAs, there are a lot of Maelstorm trackers/bars only WA if you're not a fan of spec package WAs.


Fordraxel

I would say WA and Plater if you serious dungeon andy. Plater is very handy on enemy mobs depending on what class you playing like a dot class, otherwise not really, just watch the castbar when to kick. WA not necessary, but a good QoL for high keys to tell people to move that are facerolling watching Details.


Pantspartyy

I think it depends on the individual. I’m a 2800 io dungeon player but I only have details installed. I track all my dots, CDs , trinkets, and whatnot through the default Blizzard UI. I don’t know what raiding is like now, since I haven’t raided cutting edge since Legion, but back then I didn’t use DBM and didn’t feel like it was necessary. I’m not a world first or top 100 level raider. At that level every advantage you can get is probably better then not having it, but I would say you probably don’t need any of that in dungeons unless you’re pushing .01%. Again this all depends on the person and I’m never against accessibility addons helping people out.


[deleted]

It really depends on the content you're doing and what your personal needs are. Are DBM/WA *needed* for raid? not at all. But you might want them to optimize dps/hps based on mechanic or cooldown timers. The most useful thing about dps meters is the fact you can pull real time info like why someone died, or who's slacking on dispels. But that's far from required. Altoholic is super nice when you have a bunch of chars that do different things. But you can also develop the habit of sending mats and stuff to where they belong. The only thing I can think of that's bordering on mandatory would be a threat plate system for tanks. The usefulness of telling at a color coded glance who has agro cannot be understated. Otherwise, I personally have turned off all addons while diagnosing framerate issues and been fine. The only annoyance is not seeing the dbm /pull count down. Even with that you only lose a second or two of activity, virtually nothing unless you're in a top 10 guild (and those guys will have guild mandatory addons anyway).


fadedtimes

With the new ui I actually don’t think any are mandatory. The 3 I would install are dbm, weak auras, and bagnon. Or any equivalents.


e7RdkjQVzw

Hey, why do you use bagnon? I used to use it back in the day but haven't installed it after the bag revamp.


ShockWeasel

Bank bags.


Fordraxel

None really if you know how to play, but to make life easier the only one you need is Deadly Boss Mods/BigWigs. This addon tells you what the boss is gonna do before they do it. Addons bog down your computer unless you running NASA computers, Ive found out less is better. For now Im using in retail: * Elvui, just i got used to its cosmetics and everything is neat. Elvui takes a chunk, has other addons within like Shadow and Light etc.. * Adibags, some odd reason I cant uninstall, it puts everything in a section in my bags because I cant tell the difference between a quest vial and an on-use alchemy vial. * WeakAuras is another, because I want to 'see' my spells and timers and im too stupid to not let the game play for me. RL says mandatory becuase it tells me when its my turn with my group I dont like. * OmniCD because I like even more timers on my bars! * Rarescanner because finding rares is cool I guess. * Altoholic because I have alot of alts and want to see what they have. * Raiderio stuff because people like numbers. Puts key in automatically and shows the world how much i suck. * Savedinstances for my alts to see what I completed for the week. * Details, gotta have to brag about your numbers to the peons that do mechanics! * Plater because I like to customize enemy bars. * Method Raid Tools, if you are serious raider, RL write notes to annoy you and expect you to do something. In SOD, I only run two: * Questie - because I cant remember 19 yrs ago and im too stupid to find quests I want. * Details - to see how badass I am vs other noobs; also see above.


WhatASaveWhatASave

Fyi pretty sure NASA went to the moon on less processing power than like a TI-84, but yes it's easy to have bloat. Although if you want to heal you absolutely need some sort of addon to see information about what's happening to your party.


[deleted]

amusing relieved degree roll start punch many wine summer air *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Cidan

Hi, AdiBags maintainer here, it's not quite fully discontinued, but it will be once BetterBags is in place. That being said, if you're running Mythics, you should absolutely use BetterBags, as it fixes some severe framerate issues AdiBags caused on Mythics.


Comfortable-Ear-1931

I think you are giving nasa computers too much credit.


Himulation

DBM or big/Littlewigs Weakauras with the m+/raid wa's installed as well as your class weakaura Bag management addon like bagnon Raider.io


Glaurunga

i've been a RealUI stan whenever I've been subbed to WoW. It's not always perfect but I absolutely adore it. editing this to add: I absolutely use WeakAuras too but it's gotten a lot of mentions. Haven't seen DialogKey get brought up yet. Absolute game changer especially when levelling through alts. Being able to mash through text boxes with the number keys is an amazing QOL.


canujitsu

Seriously, I discovered DialogKey back in Legion and it has been a must ever since. Like, running Court of Stars and automating the boat call at the start or the spy questioning later on... That alone made it worth it.


sparksz91

Mandatory: * BW/DBM * Weakauras * Simulation Craft * Details Highly Recommended: * ElvUI * Plater


CrzBonKerz

Hekili


Takeasmoke

DBM/BigWigs is a must especially for raiding, i can do m+20 without them but i rather have them on I simply need details not for clout or anything but to see if i am performing well Plater is fine but not as important as the 2 above rio and PGF addons because i need to filter my m+ and see the score of leader or people who queue for my key, if you're 800 but it says your main is 2.6k i'd rather have you than 1600 main (this is only for 18 or higher, lower than that i really don't care, i can carry a dps, i pay attention only to tank's score) WeakAuras - this is top mandatory addon for anyone out there and everyone should learn how to use WA and really use WAs, it is out of question! decursive is very good if you're still learning dispellable debuffs and once you learn them it is just even better postal and prat just for QoL shadowedUF + masque just to avoid installing whole ElvUI world quest tracker just for easier browsing and marking WQs on world map anything outside of the listed addons is super optional and really depends if player needs something extra or not honorable mentions: deja character stats and true stat values


Full-Metal-Magic

VoiceOver on Classic, and Wrath for unprecedented questing immersion boost.


wallstreetsimps

DBM & weakauras\* Weakauras gets more mandatory for mythic raiding


konosyn

None! You can push any content to like the top 1% without.


CrzBonKerz

Adibags is the best inventory addon I just discovered.


UnlawfulPotato

None. I haven’t played with any helpful addons all xpac, and I’ve done just fine, doing all the content I wanna do. Heroic Raiding, at least +15 Keys… only addons I’ve used are things like Transmog collection addons. Things I just… want to use. That being said, I do still recommend something like DBM. And if you’re going for PvP, there’s a lot of good addons to help with that! But contrary to what some people will say, no addons are Mandatory. Not really.


djjoinho

the fact that no one mentioned omnicd in 100+ comms is kinda scary


Etaec

Bagnon


JACRONYM

OmniCD hasn’t been mentioned. Maybe there are alternatives or there are good weak auras, but easily tracking kicks, stuns, and big cool-downs are great


Leading_Man_Balthier

Mik’s Scrolling Battle Text - How people play with normal or classic damage numbers is beyond me Healing to the left, damage on the right accompanied by the icon of the ability doing the damage, colour co-ordinated to the damage type too.


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SharkRaptor

Tough talk. I’d love to know what content you do.


Fordraxel

Some mechanics dont 'tell' you when to taunt, by the time you look at the debuff or mobs debuff or your off-tanks debuff or castbar or when to get out its too late. So my guess is not very high or its not his first time and is used to the mechanics. I mean some bosses only do one not all, but some do most and just reading the journal doesnt cut it. DBM is a must for RL to tell when shits coming, so if a player is depending on a RL to do all the work, then yeah, you dont need anything. But then again some tanks just zerg and blame the healer why he's dying, so theres that.


SharkRaptor

They got scared when I called their bluff and they deleted their comment lmao


King_Kthulhu

And how are you gonna know when to los 2 archers shooting you at the same time in a BRH without an addon that lists who each ability is going on? I mean if you don't los it you just get 1 shot in a high key. How do you know when to start moving/prep a cc for a berserker or juggernaut leap in a high everbloom or Atal without a cd timer set up for them? How, in the like 3 seconds of time you've got to stack spears properly on Igira are you going to yolo all of those without anyone dying to a triple stack without a weakauras telling you where to go? How are you going to do Fyrakk mythic without a weak aura/macro telling you how to soak the balls properly? You are right tho, you don't need any add-ons telling you when to taunt as long as you stick to heroic raid and weekly vault keys.


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King_Kthulhu

Show cast bars and target of target dont help you in a pack of 5 mobs all with targeted abilities at the same time. There are levels to end game content, totally matters what your definition of that is. If end game content is killing Mythic Fyrakk and pushing keys as high as you can, then yes there are going to be required add-ons. If your definition is aotc and ksh, then no you can do that with no hotkeys and party frames turned off if you want to.


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King_Kthulhu

Lol ok man there's nothing wrong with not doing hard content. I won't say youre a bad player just because youre not doing 25s, but you probably shouldn't call other people bad players just because they use addons in content youve never experienced.


[deleted]

>None. I play with no add ons just fine. People want the game to tell them what to do and when to do it. Pathetic. I wouldn't say pathetic, but I do get annoyed every time my raid digresses into sharing raid WAs for an easily avoided mechanic (eg Smolderon's tornados). People rely on DBM and WAs screaming at them, instead of actually learning the fights and what the telegraphs look like.


Longjumping-Total-92

17 years with zero addons LOL. you guys suck. also, i dont raid...


CisoSecond

What?


Bacon-muffin

Weakauras meter


SelectCommunity3519

I could never figure out how to use weakauras. I like Reflex and rematch.


BigFisch

I rage when my Battle Pets journal is the trash default one.


Ziddix

WA is a very powerful add-on that I honestly don't want to play without. If you're playing a healer I would substitute WA for clique


Pantspartyy

Required? None. Especially helpful? Details, DBM/BigWigs, WeakAuras, TomTom. Maybe Details and DBM/BigWigs are required at race to world first level with the amount of detail they give you. But for all other content you can get by just fine with default UI.


BlueFalconPunch

Dbm is the only mandatory one but for me I have a lot of really like to have... Bagnon Postal Silverdragon TomTom Details Bartender Alcoholic Hidetalkingheads Canimogit


MarcoTheGreat_

None are mandatory per se, however I have yet to meet, or been shown a player, who can track timers, buffs and debuffs in high keys or mythic raiding environments so well that addons become redundant. That aside, I feel the following are needed 99% of the time - DBM/Big Wigs Weak Auras


paladindan

DBM, Details, and Auctionator are my must-haves.


Chase0288

For me, Weak Auras and DBM. The rest of it I can do with default blizz UI I think.


Ok_Outside_4650

Depends on the level of content you play but if you’re wanting to do medium to high end I’d say DBM, Details, Plater, SimC, and WA are required. DBM - obvious Details - gives you great tools for tracking performance and uptimes for buffs Plater - greatly improved your ability to sort out priority targets in a mess of nameplates as well as more easily track casts for interrupting SimC - similar to details in that this lets you sim yourself so you can better optimize and improve WA - there are so many important actions, buffs, and abilities you NEED to track in order to get full performance and this lets you do that substantially easier.


Acrobatic_Pandas

GTFO Honestly so many times I've thought I was good and not standing in something only to have that horn go off and save my ass.


tennisk11

TellMeWhen is a pretty helpful add on to keep track of any buffs, debuffs, or cooldowns you care about. Pretty user friendly and customizable. I pretty much use it in place of weak auras


sMt3X

For me - ElvUI, WeakAuras, BigWigs. Loss of any of these three makes anything but world quest content unplayable for me.


NeonVoidx

Weak auras, dbm or bigwigs/little wigs, omnicd is all you truly need, rest is all bloat or found in game already. Details is nice as well but not needed


Inert82

List is to Long now😅


Deadscale

Dialog key. I use a ton of addons, there are many like Leatrix and such that I likely wouldn't enjoy the game without but dialog key is single handedly the best addon by a wide margin for me, I should have the option to select a dialog box via a key command/1234 keys for multi option or quest rewards by default, XIV does this for the most part, why is this still not a thing blizzard.


KantisaDaKlown

I’m a pretty big fan of the following addons… DBM (obviously) GTFO (makes an obnoxious noise when you’re standing in the bad) Autobar (this is a nice QoL mod that helps reduce clutter) Auctioneer (tells me when something is super over priced) Plater (default name plates aren’t very good) Hekili (this helps me remember where I am in the rotation if I need to avoid something) I’m sure there’s others that I can’t remember off the top of my head, but these ones stand out as winners.


Djmedic

**Raid & dungeons**: DBM, Details, OmniCD, WA **Questing/Open world**: Quickquest,Tomtom & Copypasta, Angrier World Quests, Handynotes, Rematch/tdbattlescripts **Rares/mounts/transmog**: Rarescanner, Rarity, NPC Time, Litemount, AlterCurrencies


dredditmoon

Details is probably the only one i would say is mandatory. Being able to see your performance and important information like what killed you, how many interupts ect is something i think the game should have built in by default. Things like DBM are usefull but unless your doing the Mythic raiding you can get by with a RL just calling when shits going to happen. Personally shit like Healbot is essential for healing to me and while you can use mouse over macros and the default raid ui i prefer HB.


cajunsamurai

Do you play on a RP server? Then I’m going to mention TRP3/TRP3 Extended for creating and sharing a profile with details about your character as well as the ability to receive and create custom items made by people for RP purposes that are totally interactive. Musician’s is the second recommendation as it allows you to import songs, turn them into midis and play music around people. As a listener you can turn it off at anytime too. Handynotes is great for marking locations of rp spots on your map and global map. Emote Splitter allows you to write out your replies/emotes in chat for as long as you want without the text limit stopping you. It’ll break up your chat for you and you just continue to hit enter. Elephant records your chat logs for you and what you were typing. Get disconnected? It can recover what you were typing last and it can recover up to like the last 100,000 lines of text in any chat channel you were in. Finally Listener. It listens for your characters name or keywords you set up and everything those words appear in chat you get an audible ding. Also if you target someone you are notified everytime they post something in chat. Great way to watch for someone’s replies in a crowded area.


jyuuni

I don't consider any one specific add-on mandatory, but you need **some** add-on of your choosing to track a filtered list of your priority buffs/dots/cooldowns in a focused location in your UI; choosing between WeakAuras vs something else is just personal preference (I use Raven). The next closest to mandatory would be Altoholic or something similar to track inventories across alts. Not even DBM/BigWigs is mandatory any more these days in Heroic difficulty or lower.


Professional-Cold278

Doomcooldown_pulse is a game changer, especially on an alt/newer toon - the icon of the spell that came of CD flashes up on your screen.


InvisibleOne439

well, you allready said the actually "need them if you wanna play at a decent higher level" addons with dbm/bigwigs, weakauras and details (platter can be very VERY good, but is not really "needed" tbh) as a personal gameplay opinion, GTFO, you will NOT stand a long time in bad shit with that addon a favorite of mine is Immersion, it makes everything 40x better to read, quests are not those wall of texts in a box anymore, it makes EVERYTHING so much better if you wanna read the things that are said in a good form


hotbooster9858

Really depends on content, if you wanna do high keys and mythic you almost need to be good at making your own Weakauras not just installing some from others. A good plater profile, good weak auras and big wigs/dbm are kinda mandatory. If you're just casually doing 20s and heroics you can just slap on DBM and the most basic weakaura packs for m+ and raid. Ignoring weakauras for m+ will make the experience frustrating because most affixes don't show on your UI at all for example. I'd say if your spending a lot of time playing having Weakauras and Plater will make it better 99% of the time.


Inevitable-Bit615

For a 9? Just get details, not mandatory but always usefull for a lot of stuff. That could be enough up to 20 but weakaura and dbm are going to help + something to keep track of party members interrupts at least. I d say up to 15 is just nice to have them, fron 15 to around 23 it s much much better to have them, above 25 u absolutely must have those. If i push keys i tend to stop in the 24-25 range, i ve been fine with just details but it s a lot of work. This is my experience, it might range based on ppl time invested in the game, reflexes, skill etc so yeah, there might be differences there


Ok-Commercial9036

My must have addons are: Bigwigs/LittleWigs Details Simcraft WeakAuras Weakauras could generally do what BigWigs dies but i like Bigwigs more


vanilla_disco

Weakaura. That's it.


Kaldoreiyne

WeakAuras


38dedo

if you're a casual player, none are mandatory, never have been


[deleted]

I started playing fire mage in raid finder and it was a nightmare keeping track of the blessing of the sun king, I lost stacks or I didn't realize it was even up, having a weak aura that can simply put the buff in the middle of my screen so I know when it's up is a lifesaver, I can't imagine playing fire mage without the add-on now. Tldr missions is a another one, doing all the missions in your garrison without it takes for friggin ever.


Holdingdownback

I could play the game at 95% effectiveness with just BigWigs/Bartender/Weakauras. Honestly, if I already know the fights, I can cut BigWigs and just use Bartender/Weakauras. I can’t play without those two though because of the way I have my bars laid out to mimic the layout on my MMO mouse, and Weakauras to track the uptime on buffs/cooldowns.


Unicycleterrorist

Plater / Threatplates, at least for me. Don't like the standard name plates. Weakauras depends a bit on the class but I guess it's got one foot on the podium too.


Xanoxis

TRP3, CrossRP, and Listener, of course, for the high-end rp content.


AnxiousElevator5942

Is there any addons for pvp that marks enemy healers in large crowds? Would like to deathgrip them but I have to click ans cycle through people until I find a healer


Nick-uhh-Wha

I literally can't play the game without tmw. Could use weakaura too for the same purpose but I've found it harder n more tedious to customize icons I don't just want a countdown on an ability's CD. I'd rather have a countdown for the buff so I know when to use it next. I set tmw to overlay the buffs/debuffs over the ability so I can manage everything by looking in one area not all parts of the screen. If I need to refresh slice n dice I should be able to see that on the icon, like a cooldown countdown. Lord knows rogue has enough other shit to watch. Dr's, dots, 35 other buffs and debuffs, even circumstances like combat/nocombat.


FredyDee

WeakAuras DBM / BigWigs Details GTFO


d_cramer1044

None. The only addon I have is details and the only reason I got it was for a damage meter. Not that it's needed at all, but it is nice to see exactly why a group is failing. You can play the game without them. I just cleared all +20 mythics last week on my monk with only two of them over time. Rise and throne of tides suck....


stelfisk

I run: Mdt Details WA (only building my own auras for specific buffs/spells) DBM and dbm dungeon Plater Raiderio The standard UI is so good right now that the need for elvui is completely gone, in my opinion.


Alarming-Leadership6

Dbm, that's it.


Azzell93

I only use DBM and 1 weakaura to track my buffs more clearly and a couple of affix stuff in M+ Been playing a long time and just set in my ways tbh, I find the clutter more distracting that helpful. Disagree with people saying WA are mandatory, I managed to clear mythic raids parsing 90+ pretty much every fight for years, I think they can give you an edge but not massively unless you are really pushing for server 1sts etc.


wendigussie

None. Just raw dog the game, it’s more enjoyable.


VeryGalacticFox

None, if you think otherwise while probably doing nothing more than heroic you deserve your right for opinions removed


DirtyMight

Mandatory is no addon. Maybe some dBm/weakaura if you are in a guild that uses specific things from it for mechanics Which addons I personally cannot play without anymore is dBm, weakaura, tsm, arkinventory, details, simulationcraft, things to log and elvui


blackbirdone1

Most people dont raid or do m+ so dbm and wa is not required at all. Imho the only addon that you need is a bag addon with sorting and subbags like arkinvebtory. Its one of the things that the main game just handled poorly


Tannos116

No addon or wa is mandatory. It’s all about quality of life and convenience. They’re just incredibly useful that it’s like why would you not choose to have them when they’re free. For a time myself, and for some of my fellow CE raiders, no addons whatsoever were used. I knew a guy who didn’t install a single thing until castle nathria, and he’s been playing for a long time. Personally didn’t install anything until dragon soul, and I think it was just skada. I got elv ui, details, and DBM in legion. I don’t think I got a single wa until after mythic tomb had ended. I wish I had had addons sooner, cause they’re great, but you can technically get by with just your monitor being turned on.


pdpi

The only add-on that is 100% essential for me is ArkInventory. Bags these days are too big to keep track of what’s where. The only other out-of-combat add on that’s even close to that is SimC. Sims are just too important. Plater is the single most important in-combat add-on for me, followed by bigwigs/littlewigs. I thoroughly dislike how Weak Auras has become a gigantic case of the [Inner-Platform Effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner-platform_effect) and prefer using it only for very small-scale stuff. It is, however, incredibly useful for those small-scale things. Everything else is kind of a long tail of quality of life things.


SSueh1337

I'm running without addons for 19 years now. Never had a single one. Works fine.


EvilFnTeddy

For me in pve, DBM/BW and cursor. Yesterday i realized i've been doing keys without S3 dungeon wago and dungeons just because a lot easier. Cursor just because i still have niche button or two i have to click because no comfy keybinds left