The 3 WoW Addition's You Absolutely Need

World of Warcraft (WoW) can be a pretty complicated game. I think that's the primary reason that very smart people build add-on's (modifications to some default aspect of World of Warcraft).

If you play World of Warcraft, then you've at least heard, if not visited, Curse Gaming (or some website like it). Curse Gaming features, in my opinion, the most comprehensive list of WoW add-on's. That said, it can get a little confusing. I mean, there are probably 30 modifications relating to damage alone. Its overwhelming, or can be, for newer players especially.

If you're new to World of Warcraft, then this article is for you. I'm going to provide you with a brief synopsis of the most important, that is, the most essential modifications you shouldn't be without!

Mod 1: Gatherer

Gatherer is a modification that lets you keep track of various gatherable items in a particular zone. Actually, depending on the version of Gatherer that you've got, it can probably keep track of your guildies' tracking history.

The way it works is that whenever you go to gather something (so if you're a miner, whenever you prospect ore) it "remembers" the exact location you gathered it and the kind of thing you gathered. It then represents the item on your map so that whenever you view a map of a particular zone, you'll be able to see what parts of the zone are likely to have the kind of thing you're looking for.

If you've got a version that support guildies' tracking histories, then all the work has been done for you, at least probably! Here, gatherer will keep track of the spot and type of thing that any guildie has gathered in any zone. That includes any zone you haven't been to, as well as zones you have seen.

As you might have guessed, the benefit to gatherer is that it essentially gives you a roadmap to the items you'd want to gather-depending on your profession---simply because items in the world tend to spawn in exactly the same places, or roughly the same places, over time. WoW is very consistent about where things spawn, trust me. If you plan on being able to farm items and make some gold with your profession, then this is a necessary mod.

Mod 2: Auctioneer

Auctioneer is a modification that allows you store very important information about items posted on the player auction house (AH). The AH is just about as complicated as everything independent of it in WoW, and making educated guesses about which items to auction and at what price is simply impossible. You couldn't remember all the relevant data: such as average buyout price of a given item, or if the current buyout prices for an item represent a characteristic trend in your server's economy.

Auctioneer gives you data you need to make informed decisions. I live by it and its probably responsible for my becoming (somewhat) skillful with auctions such that I can make a decent profit.

What kind of information does it store? The latest version is so featured that I couldn't list all the things it can do if my life depended on it. Some of its essential features include the average bid and buyout price of any item, the potential profit reselling a given item could yield (given your server's economic trends), and the ability to scan the entire auction house or a part of it to update its own records.

It may slow your game's performance a bit but that should only be when its scanning, and that doesn't happen all the time so long as you make it so via the options menu.

Mod 3: Titan Panel

Titan panel adds a top and bottom taskbar-like structure to the user interface. It can tell you how much gold you have (so you don't have to check yourself via looking in your bags), how much honor you've gained, what stance you're in (if you're a warrior), and most importantly, your current location.

It might sound intrusive but titan panel is actually very accommodating and should not at all interfere with your regular play. You can set the kinds of information displayed as well and for a UI mod it's surprisingly low-maintenance: it shouldn't take more than a few MB of memory to run.

One of the more useful features is its ability to tell you how much gold you've made and the rate at which you're making it in a given session. Of course this kind of information should be taken with a grain of salt if you're only logged in for a very brief duration, but over the course of an hour or so it should give you a good idea of how productive you've been,

Another great feature is that is displays your current rate of experience points gained both in single sessions and in total play time. This gives you a good idea of how efficient you're grinding for experience and it also is necessary for Titan Panel to calculate how much longer it should take, given your current rate of experience points gained, until you reach a level up.

Well, that's it: the three most important mods that you really need! Well, maybe you don't need them, but once you have them, you won't be able to imagine not having them because they're that useful.