So what addons do you NEED? And by need I mean the ones that without mentioning in your application would get it deleted immediately! Now most accomplished raiders will know these but if you are new to the scene don’t fret! Here is a heplful list and brief explantion of each one and what they do. Let’s get stuck in:
1. Deadly Boss Mods
If you do not have this addon you must must must (enough?) have it. It is essential. For the uninitiated, it is an addon that helps you on every single boss fight in the game. It display timers and warning for all of the boss’ abilities. The timers flash up on your screen as they are about to expire and alert you to whatever you need to do, be it move, jump or dps an add.- It displays range checkers for the bosses that require you to spread out.
- It has some great sound effects to alert you to boss mechanics (Big Bad Wolf anyone?)
- This addon is so simple to install. Simply install and turn on and you will be good to go. Should you wish or need to, it also is very easy to customise.
2. Recount / Skada / WWS
Those are three names – the biggest and most commonly used is recount but they all work.- They are all damage meters and will display how much damage and dps you are doing or healing if you are a healer.
- They are not just good for displaying damage or healing either; they display everything from number of dispels made to number of deaths, activity, absorbs and number of times hit by various boss mechanics (very useful for raid leaders.)
- WWS stands for WoW Web Stats and is slightly different in that it uploads your logs to the internet so that you can compare them with other guilds and see where you can improve and who is slacking!
Personally I believe that those two are the only two mandatory ones across the board but of course there are essential addons for specific classes which will be covered in future posts. Now if you do not have those two and want to get into raiding then go to google and type in their names. Download them and stick them in your interface folder and then come back for more tips!
I agree with these two choices. I would like to suggest CooldownPulse as one that should also be up there. A great help for keeping track of all important cds.
I prefer recount to skada but I suppose as long as you have a meter its kl.
Why do you need a dps meter? Surely that is only needed by the raid leader to check that noone is slacking?
Thanks for the suggestion Xenhia. I actually use that one a number of characters and I agree that it helps a lot. I used to find it very handy on my priest especially. I will think about writing a post for it in the future.
@Jenthehen You need a dps meter to check how you are comparing to other classmates. If they are beating you then you can compare logs and see where they are eeking out the little bit of dps. I also believe that it makes you focus a lot more and can be a great motivating tool for trying to improve.
I’m not quite sure I’m inclined to agree with a damage meter as being ‘essential’. I’d go as far as to say that for all but the Raid Leader / Officers, it’s redundant.
Many raiders tends to get a bit DPS-horny from times to times, and not having recount accually counters this. After all, even for a DPS, damage isn’t everything!
@ Rocketsauce
I agree that “dps is not everything” and awareness is extremely important. It is no use topping the meters if you are causing healers to burn through mana by not moving from the fire fast enough.
However I really think that proper analysis of a damage meter is a skill that all dpsers should develop. There is no reason why two players with equal gear, spec, enchants etc should differ on a damage meter (apart from getting lucky with crits) but you regularly see this situation, even in decent guilds. If the lower player simply broke down their log and found out where the other player was outperforming them, then they could adjust their playstyle accordingly.
Damage meters should not become more of a focus than playing around the boss mechanics correctly but they are a useful tool for all players.
I think Recount/Skada are great tools if for nothing else, then for the Deaths tab which shows what happened to players just before their death. Of course, sometimes it’s obvious why they died, however sometimes it’s not.
I agree that the deaths tab is a useful feature Imakulata but some players prefer to use the combat log for that. I actually never realised that it told you how a player died – I always though it just showed the total number of times that the player had died during the raid.
the dps meter is great for analyzing how your numbers com pair with other similarly geared and built members so that if you are not putting up numbers that you should then you can look to see who in your group you should talk to.