What Addons are a must? Raid/PvE Content

I wont lie I've been asked in game and here thousands of times what addons I use.  While that can be hard since I have a good number and only a few of them are actually useful rather then entertaining to me.  So I'm going to cut it up and explain why certain addons work for me and others don't.


First we'll start with the Progression/Social side of Addons.


DBM-Deadly Boss Mods

This one gives timers, alerts, callouts, and tracks everything you could need in a bloody raid or instance. 

Its also a HUGE addon that has been cut into about a hundred different sections so you can download only what you need, like say current content but not the stuff for BC and WotLK.

As a former Raid Lead I highly recommend this and a lot of guilds REQUIRE it.

These handy timers start telling you 5-30 seconds in advance, give arrows showing you where to head, and just all around take the guest work out of it so you can tunnel vision a bit more on the DPS chart.

Its also great for the raid lead since it can help them see whats coming and plan accordingly for call outs that need to split the group on the fly.

I truly recommend this one, even for LFR because it can help you understand a new fight a lot faster and save you from the embarrassing walk of shame.



Skada

This one is a damage meter and it reads EVERYTHING and even counts who is actually silencing, whos taking fire damage, and what spells are top damage for a person.

Damage meters can help you see what does and doesn't work, if your on par with others in your class of a similar level, and see whos slacking since it gives a report for time attacking so no one can establish and then auto attack the rest of the fight.


There is Recount as well, but I like Skada more because its easier to figure out, seems to offer more, and it always reads less then Recount.  By about 5-15% it seems.  If Nav's Recount said 100k, I'm reading 92k.  And I think its because you can choose to take overkill out of the total.  Either way, i'd rather say I do less then more on someone elses' meter. 

To put it likely, I converted Nav to Skada.  It doesn't update as much and he felt like Skada's readings were more averaged out then recount.



Addons I DONT USE but I know are popular:

AskMrRobot

This one is suppose to help you figure out your stat needs but I've heard its VERY out of date usually and I personally dont like it since I've played long enough to know that I need more of something.

But I know lots of raiders swear by it, so if your not comfy, you can try it but take it with a grain of salt and check against Icy-veins since they are pretty up to date.



Vudoo and Other Healing Addons


This will shock a lot of raid healers, but I HATE these.  The plates are changed, everything gets macro'd to your mouse or a certain key-it quickly turns into a confusing mess that I cant afford during a raid.

Plus, I felt the benefits it offered weren't really up to par for what it did.  But I've been healing the way Blizz intended since Vanilla and i'll stick with it.  But if you like the idea of clicking plates to heal then give it a try!


So have fun with that info my friends!

Elve