The latest update below will have yellow text.

Addons can enhance your WoW game play. They can also clutter it up. They can completely change the look and feel of your WoW experience or it can frustrate you to no end. They do require system resources to run (read: lots of RAM). I recommend the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple "Silly"). There are dozens of sites that have them available. Just Google them. I recommend sites that have major gaming companies advertising on them. That assures you to some degree that they are probably safe sites to go to. Others...maybe not so much.

I do recommend that wherever you get your addons from...that you get them all in one place as much as possible. However, you cannot get them all at one site (figures huh). Some of these sites you find them on have their own updater that you would need to install on your computer as well. If you get your addons from 15 different sites, you may have to go to 15 different sites to get all the updates every time that Blizzard updates the game (yes, most if not all have to be updated with every update of the game).

With all that in mind, my personal recommendation is: WoWMatrix

Well, things have suddenly changed. Currently both curse.com and wowinterface.com no longer allow wowmatrix to download from their sites. So, now that no one updater provides updates for most addons in the game (like wowmatrix did), I am now running Curse Client 4.0 once everyday before I log on (/eye roll) for now. Here are the links:

#1 WoWMatrix Any Mac & Any PC

#2 Curse Client 3.0 Mac 10.5 & PC

#3 Curse Client 4.0 PC ONLY

There are thousands of addons out there. There are complete packages as well as custom designed User Interface (UI) packages for each WoW class (Priest, Mage, etc.). These addons listed below (among others) are what I use everyday. These will get you started. They need to be configured to your liking and that will take some time. But once that is done, your gaming life can become much easier. Just remember that its easier to K.I.S.S. then to create "personal aggro" via P.E.B.K.A.C. (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair).

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So here is my recommended list for beginners. [color=yellow]Install them one at a time in this order till you are familar with them. Then add another. I recommend for your first install of these addons that you use the links provide below. They will be updated from there on by the updaters above:

1. FuBar (REQUIRED FOR ALL "Fu" MODS)

A panel for mods to be placed on.

2. FuBar_LocationFu (REQUIRES: FuBar)

Shows you where you are and relevant locations for your level and how to get to them.

3. AuldLangSyneFu (REQUIRES: FuBar)

Shows you where your friends and guild members are along with other features.

4. FuBar_DurabilityFu REQUIRES: FuBar)

Shows you what armor has taken damage and the cost to repair it.

5. Bagnon

In short, Bagnon is a group of addons that improve the way the player manages his or her inventory.

6. FuBar_ExperienceFu (REQUIRES: FuBar)

Lets you know how efficient your game play is among other features it has as well.

7. Prat

A framework for chat addons that can make editing and changing chat channels very easy compared to ig commands.

8. FuBar_PerformanceFu (REQUIRES: FuBar)

Tells you what your computer is doing in the background as well as many other very helpful features.

The following addon is updated ONLY by WoWMatrix at this time:

9. Auctioneer Suite

The Auctioneer Suite provides Auctioneer, all of the popular modules, and the complete set of associated AddOns. The suite contains Auctioneer, Enchantrix, Informant and SearchUI bundled together. I highly recommend this full package download (as opposed to the slimmed down version on other sites)! Auctioneer Suites' components in this version increase the functionality of the whole suite.

But wait... there's more! AND THIS IS THE COOLEST PART! No more having to go to 3 different places to get the information about an item when just rolling over the item with your mouse will do the same thing. Bottom line: Auctioneer Suite is an addon that allows you to view information about an item that is very useful in helping you determine what it's worth.

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The following mods are required for you to be part of Guild dungeons and raids and can be downloaded at these links:

1. Cartographer

A map mod that has dozens of dependent mods that can make your travels easier throughput the WoW world. Gives you coordinates on your location.

2. Recount

Recount is a graphical damage meter that monitors damage and healing done by and to yourself and other nearby players. It keeps a running total for each player and displays the information as a bars chart in a frame on the screen. It is perfect for real-time comparison of the various members of your party or raid. At any time the text results can be output as "says", to raid or party chat, or whispered to another player.

3. Deadly Boss Mods

Helps you manage your attacks on bosses in the game.

4. Omen Threat Meter

Omen is a threat meter. Basically, enemies in WoW decide who to attack by deciding who is the most threatening based on the abilities you use. What Omen attempts to do is provide reasonably accurate estimates of your group's relative threat level on individual enemies, so that you can see when you're in danger of pulling aggro. This info is usually only critical in raids, where only tanks can survive aggro, but it's useful for any multi-player situation.

5. Atlas

For some reason, Blizzard decided to include beautiful maps for every area of Azeroth except instances. You can still see the area surrounding you in the minimap when you're in an instance, but never the overall layout of the entire dungeon. This is where Atlas comes in.

6. Ventrilo Client

As always, questions and comments are welcome via igmail addressed to myself.

- STREBORAHP, Guild Leader