Top 25 Best WoW Addons Every Player Needs (Shadowlands)

Updated: 01 Feb 2021 12:48 am
Best WoW Addons shadowlands
The Addons That Make WoW A Slice Of Cake
Archazx's picture BY: Justin Wagers


25 Best WoW Addons Every Player Needs in Shadowlands.

 

    In World of Warcraft the encouragement of users to create light programs to run alongside the game to enhance your experience is a great aspect of the game. Blizzard allows players to make addons that while not actually altering the main points of the game make your life as a player much easier. These addons range from simple bag frame redesign to unit frame redesigns and even raid warnings.

With so many addons at your disposal you can very easily be overwhelmed. The addon manager Minion is here to help you in your quest! With a simple interface you can download and manage all your addons with this simple program. Minion makes keeping your addons up to date, an essential task, easy!

There are addons for everyone be it solo, raiding, pvping, mythic +s or even an auction house player there are certainly addons for everyone. This is a list of addons that make your life extremely easy, not listed in any order because of the major benefits of each!

25: ElvUi

Bars, bags and more!

Elvui is an amazing not only modifies the unit frame appearance, but also includes the ability to customize all aspects of them. With the ability to resize, drag and drop, toggle on and off and recolor just about everything ElvUi is recommended by most high-end users.

Why ElvUi Is Needed:

 

24: Deadly Boss Mods

run away little girl, run away

Basically, the definitive baseline for any raiding guild or even Looking for Raids. This addon has timers for boss events, ability cool downs and one of the most important: the “GET OUT” boss alert.

DBM is usually a prerequisite of any guild who you would want to raid with. This is since without it you are left in the dark on what the Blizzard alert system tries to tell you. “Onyxia Takes in a Deep Breath” what do I do in this…. dead…. With DBM you have both a text alert the audio alert (customizable) that tells you what’s going on.

Why Deadly Boss Mods Is a Needed Addon

23: Big Wig’s Boss Mods

maybe no running?

Basically, a Deadly Boss Mods replacement, Big Wigs are a great substitute. If you do not like the appearance or the settings for DBM then this is a perfect alternative. Packed with just as many benefits and alerts this add on is for anyone who wants to raid without DBM. Many raiding guilds will also allow this addon, just clear it with your Raid Leader! 

Big Wig’s Boss Mods Positives:

  • Same Performance as Deadly Boss Mods
  • Different Appearances and Settings As DBM
  • Still Raider Friendly

 

22: Details! Damage Meter

DPS Kings

Details! Is a great addon to have. It shows how much healing, healing per second, and damage people within your party are doing or taking. The huge draw to this addon, as any DPS knows, is showing how much damage and what who is doing the most DPS. This addon not only acknowledges your skill but allows you to trim your parties with those who are not doing enough damage to be able to clear a bosses enrage.

Why Details! Should Be in Your Folder.

 

21: Skada

Alternative ways to find that DPS king

This is another DPS monitoring addon with different customizations and skins. It works the same way as Details! but allows you a different set of tools to accomplish this goal.

Greats of Skada:

 

20: Omen3 Threat Meter

Knowing when NOT to hit is very important!

Another big and baseline raiding addon is Omen. Much like the name implies this addon simply shows you how much threat you have in relation to other members of the raid. Not being the one to pull aggro off the tank and wipe a raid is something you NEED to do. Most guilds will not let you raid without this addon.

Omen’s Reasons for Usage

 

19: Capping

Anyone have timers?

This addon is a great help in Battle Grounds. It gives a simple and light timer system for Battle Grounds. This addon also shows certain health levels and wall health. Also having the ability to report timers in a channel of your choice by clicking on the bar will allow you to keep team members who do not have the addon in the know.

Capping as An Addon For You

18: Ask Mr. Robot

THAT'S the gear upgrade I've been looking for!

Mr. Robot is a very well-known website where you can “sim” your gear. In doing this you can see what gear you need based on current gear and stats. This addon allows you to export a string of text from inside the game to the website to correctly sim your gear. This addon makes things both more simple and more precise when doing so.

Ask Mr. Robot’s Recommendations for Use.

 

17: Simulation Craft

AHA! That item upgrades too!

This addon is like Ask Mr. Robot. It does the same thing including the string export. The difference is that it transports your data to the simulation craft website. This website is a well-known and accurate website for DPS rankings of all classes in raid situations.

Simulation craft Positives of Being in Your Side:

  • Simple String Export
  • Precise and Accurate Readouts
  • Used by Very Well-Known Website.

 

Full info for Simulation craft addon: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/simulationcraft

 

16: Pawn

Got this from a Thrift Shop

Yet another addon that helps with your gear choices Pawn will give you in-game insight on what item to equip. This addon starts input from Ask Mr. Robot or a custom weight set to give you real time input on your gear. This can be a great help if you do not want to set up the other gear sims. Also, to be noted is the multi-language support.

Pawn Advantages

  • Another Gear Helper
  • Easy Setup
  • Multi Language Support

 

15: Weak Auras

Anything BUT weak

This is one of the most powerful addons available. With this addon you can add timers, text, flashing text and even flashing icons! This addon revolves around a community effort. All active effects are controlled by scripts written for the addon by members of the community. Ranging from cooldowns to buff reminders you can find just about anything with Weak Auras.

Strong Points of Weak Auras

  • Powerful Support
  • Wide Range of Uses
  • Max Customization
  • Makes Life Much More Livable

 

All you need to know about Weak Auras: https://wago.io/weakauras

 

14: Quick Quest

Holy cow! That WAS quick!!!

Quick Quest is an amazingly useful addon for questing or soloing when you just want to get through the quests without the story line or any of the clicking. This addon “clicks” all the points on a quest log and auto accepts and completes each quest available. It repeats the action for all quests on the NPC. Also, in this addon’s abilities is the ability to share a quest with your group or raid after acceptance.

Reasons for Quick Quest:

  • Makes questing super-fast.
  • Share quests with group.

 

All you need to know for Quick Quest: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/quickquest

 

13: VuhDo

That Healing VuhDo that we do

This is a quintessential healer addon. This addon replaces party and raid frames with a new customizable one. These frames can be made to show buffs and debuffs. But the main draw is the ability to assign mouse clicks to spells. This means that you can assign a heal spell to left mouse click and cast this spell when you use left click on the target frame. The ease of not having to click a spell or press a key then target or mouseover your heal is amazing. This addon saves raids. With a full spectrum of customizations you can find your healing groove with supreme ease and confidence in VuhDo.

VuhDo’s Recommendations:

  • Supreme Customization
  • Supreme Ease of Use
  • Fast Healing for Raid Saving Speed

 

VuhDo’s information link: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/vuhdo

12: Auctionator:

I part time in Booty Bay

This powerhouse addon lets you shop the auction house with a ton of customization and ease of access abilities. With customizable frames to start you can change the way the AH looks. Then you get into the grit of the addon and you can change filters and search settings all over the place. With correct customization you can play the auction house game! Yes, this addon allows sniping auctions and reselling for profit.

Reasons Auctionator Is Amazing:

  • Customize Auction House Skins
  • Customize Searches
  • Enable the Auction House Game!

Autctionator Info https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/auctionator

11: Rare Scanner

THERE'S WALDO!!!

This is a super useful addon for anyone who completes all unique items and rare item hunters. This addon scans your immediate map and shows you the rare mobs that are near you. It does so with alerts in text and images. This addon will also allow access to custom NPC additions. Getting the alerts on all these rares will be a big boost to any mount hunter’s quest!

Rare Scanner Benefits

  • Highly Customizable Alerts
  • Prompt Rare Mob Alerts
  • Easy to Setup
  • Custom NPC Additions

 

Rare Scanner info link: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/rarescanner

10: Bagnon

Sorted and clean!

Bagnon is an amazingly simple addon for keeping track of your inventory. It replaces the default inventory frames with one big frame. It allows you to track different currencies and even separate your bags into herb, ore, leather the whole nine yards. This bag also keeps track of your bank when you are away. And a huge perk is cross character tracking of Gold and other resources.

Bagnon Advantages

  • Very Simple Setup
  • Very Useful

Bagnon link for more info: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/bagnon 

9: Raider IO

So this is what you've been working on, eh?

When you are looking for potential guild mates or even just checking up on party members to see if you can clear the content you are staring down you need to know what they can do. Their gear and what they have already done say multitudes. With Raider IO you get an improved tooltip that includes information from the Raid and Mythic + Ranking site. This tooltip has everything from the website including raid progress and IO Score. This all comes without leaving the game to check their site!

Greatness of Raider IO:

  • Screen for Party Members
  • The Ability to Make a GOOD Party Easily
  • Little Setup Involved

 

Raider IO Info: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/raiderio 

8: Tom Tom

Recalculating

We have all been lost. It happens but there is always someone who know where to go because they were in your shoes! Tom Tom is a marvelous addon that allows us to put in a set of coordinates and have a nice little yellow arrow to pop up on our screens guiding us. This also pops up when you die and can’t find where that darn corpse went. You can input coordinates by typing them or clicking a point on your map making things even more easy.

Reasons for Tom Tom:

  • Easy to Use.
  • Quintessentially Helpful When Questing or Using WoW at All!

 

Tom Tom Info link: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/tomtom

7: GTFO

DON"T STAND IN THAT

GTFO provides alerts when you need to move to get out of a damage dealing pool. These are audible alerts so you’re not looking for text or images making it super simple to know when you need to get out! This addon works well for people who aren’t running full graphics all the time and can’t see the crap. This will allow you to run lower settings for potential smoother game play if you aren’t running the highest end rig.

Reasons to Run GTFO:

  • Simple Interface
  • Easy Setup
  • Effective Audible Alerts
  • Allows Use of Lower Graphics Settings for Higher FPS.

GTFO Info: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/gtfo

 

6: Exorsus Raid Tools

TIME'S UP LET'S DO THIS

This is an immensely powerful tool for your riad leaders or anyone who wants to keep track of raid info. This powerful tool shows raid buffs, food buffs, available battle rez and a myriad of other things. There are also features such as raid invite tools and raid inspect abilities. There are so many other abilities for this addon that users need to check and play with it to find all their preferred custom settings.

Exorsus Raid Tools

  • Plethora of Customization
  • Powerful Tools for Raiders
  • Amazing Amount of Customization to Fit All Needs

Exorsus information: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/exorsus-raid-tools

 

5: World Quest Tracker

I've done all these....time to move on

A light weight addon that allows you to keep track of what quests you want to do those as well you have done. Not only this but you can keep track of all the completed quests as well as the rewards for you other characters. This is handy for the achievement hunters who need to keep up with what they have done on all the many characters spread across their account. Included are other little goodies like quest icon changes and multi-language support!

 

World Quest Tracker Pluses:

  • Light Weight
  • Keep Up with Quest Progress on Multiple Characters.
  • Keep Track of Rewards on All Characters.
  • Choose What Quests You Want to Do.
  • Nifty Quest Icon Change
  • Multi Language

World Quest Tracker link: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/world-quest-tracker

 

4: OmniCC

Good thing these don't tick down like a clock!

OmniCC is an amazing addon for someone who has a ton of cooldowns or simply wants an easier way to track what they have. Instead of the clock like ticking cool down this addon replaces it with a text cooldown. Everything with a cooldown works with this addon so you should be able to keep track of everything!

OmniCC Advantages

  • No Setup
  • Super Helpful Making All Cool Downs A Digital Readout

OmniCC Link: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/omni-cc

 

3: Handy Notes

This really IS handy!

This is a handy addon allows you to track rare mobs and which ones you can still get special loot from. This addon also tracks treasures and collectable items. While also being able to create custom waypoints for other addons such as Tom Tom! This addon comes with a base line version with additional packs for each WoW expansion.

 

Handy Notes Suggestions

  • Very Light Weight
  • Keeps Track of All Your Looted Rare Mobs
  • Collection Tracker for Rare Items
  • Comes with Multiple Expansion Packs

Handy Notes: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/handynotes-shadowlands

 

2: Mythic Dungeon Tools

OK are we all clear? Don't run into those adds!

This is an extremely powerful addon that gives you a map of your dungeon! It has all mobs mapped out so you can see what you’re dealing with. This map is also interactive so you can coordinate with your team members to ensure success by drawing plans! While each member having the addon is easiest, this is also a standalone addon as well.

Mythic Dungeon Tools Pros:

  • Actual Map of Dungeons
  • Mobs Clearly Represented
  • Interactive Drawing Abilities
  • Coordinate Your Team for Success.
  • Stand Alone or Used by Each Member of the Party.

Mythic Dungeon Tools Info: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/mythic-dungeon-tools

 

1: GatherMate2

Ok there are the herbs!

This is a great addon for all herbalist, miners, fishers, and all other gatherable materials. It records all the nodes you gather at and marks them on your map. Knowing what spawns where will make your farming paths more fruitful in the future!

GatherMate2 Pros:

  • Easy to Use.
  • Makes for More Productive Gathering Sessions

GatherMate2 info Link: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/gathermate2 

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Justin Wagers
I've been through the 4 hour 40 man raids and to the oh so "easy" LFRs. The pages of the light's power have given me strength to overcome all. And with that strength I give others hope!
Gamer Since: 1995
Favorite Genre: RPG
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Top 3 Favorite Games:World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, The Elder Scrolls Online