Like a lot of WoW players, I use addons. I use a lot of addons. According to the Curse updater, I currently have 25 installed [and I'm using a few others from alternate sources, so let's say... 30]. And this is assuming that I count all the multi-piece mods as one [all of the DBM stuff for example]. This is also the fewest amount of mods that I've had installed since I was in a raiding guild and we were still progressing in Molten Core. I constantly install, remove, and modify the addons I have installed. Emphasis on the modify. If I find an addon [or mod; I'm using the terms interchangeably here] that has one feature that I like, and three that, while nice, I'll either never use or are done better by something else I have installed, I'll go into the code and snip it out.
So, I thought it might be nice, from time to time, for me to go through mods that I've tried recently or am currently using indefinitely and give mini-reviews. I'll be avoiding the mods that are usually installed by the average user, whether they should be or not [Omen & GearScore for example]. So let's start things off nice and easy, shall we?
!BugGrabber and BugSack
These two mods are essential to me due to the sheer amount of add-on editing that I do. I've been fooling around with programming for fun for the past ten years or so, coding by hand everything from a javascript to LiteStep to Linux. !BugGrabber does pretty much what you would expect it would do based on the name; it grabs any LUA errors that pop up during gameplay and makes them faff off [unless you call them via the slash command]. BugSack is another mod by the same author that works hand-in-hand with !BugGrabber [it has a hard dependency on it, so you can't run BugSack without !BugGrabber]. What it does is takes all those LUA errors you may or may not have gotten and sets them aside for you to view in full, copy/paste to an outside source, etc. Usually after I've messed around with a mod's code, I'll log in and run around for an hour or two doing dailies and archaeology, and then have a look in the sack to see what - if anything - I need to fix.
_NPCScan and _NPCScan.Overlay
There are other mods that do what these two do - SilverDragon for example - but I personally find these two be easier to work with. _NPCScan, much like !BugGrabber above, does just what you'd think; it scans for NPCs. Specifically BC, Wrath and Cata rares for the achievements [or in the case of the TLPD, a mount]. It also allows you to add custom NPCs to scan for. All you need to know is the mob's ID number. Other information like what continent/zone it's in, helps reduce the memory use by only scanning for it in that area, but it doesn't really use that much to begin with. The separate Overlay mod puts an - surprise, surprise - overly on the map [world, mini or both - your choice] that indicates the mob's patrol path as well as spawn points if you desire to camp it, though that only supports the NPCs that the main mod scans for out of the box.
One gripe that I have with _NPCScan is that it doesn't have a config option within the game that allows you to select which raid marker it will put on the mob once it's found. It will put on the green triangle only, unless, of course you modify some files.
Overall, _NPCScan is a convenient mod to have if you're after those achievements, and the ability to add other mobs to search for improves it's potential greatly. Though the more mobs you add, the more often you have to clear your cache [info on that is on the main addon's website.]
Two additional things for _NPCScan that are of note:
If you desire to change what raid marker this addon applies to found NPCs, it's a really simple edit of one file.
Go into the addon's folder [Your_WoW_Install_Path\Interface\Addons\_NPCScan\] and open _NPCScan.Button.lua with any text editor [I recommend Notepad++, but whatever floats your boat] and search for the text "me.RaidTargetIcon = 4; -- Green triangle" [line 19] and change the 4 to the corresponding number for your preferred icon [The list here will tell you the numbers if you don't already know them]. You can change "Green triangle" too if you so desire, but there's no need; the double dash denotes a comment in the code, it has no real bearing on the final result. Save the file and you're done. [Obviously, unless you know what you're doing, you should leave the rest of the file alone ;p]
If you're like me, you're not content to have it just search for BC, Wrath and Cata rares. You want the mod to look for all rares. Everywhere. Well, that's some time-consuming work - searching for rares, rare elites, finding their ID number, blah blah blah. I know it's time-consuming, because I did it. A couple warnings before I give you a download link though =)
- First of all, you'll have to clear your cache a lot more often if you want to continually scan for the lower level rares.
- Secondly, I know that I'm missing some, so if you find a rare that doesn't trigger the mod, then please tell me the mob's name, as well as what zone you found it in.
- Thirdly, I did leave four mobs out intentionally - the Scarshield Quartermaster and the three beast bosses in the Servant Quarters of Karazhan. If you want to add them yourself, by all means, feel free, but I won't.
- Finally, how to "install" the bloody thing. Install _NPCScan and log into the game with it enabled at least once per character that you want to run it on. Then download my file. Browse to Your_WoW_Install_Path\WTF\Account\YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME\Your_Server_Name\Character_Name\SavedVariables\ and paste the file there. When asked to, override the original file with mine. You'll have to do that for each character you want this done to.
WARNING: If this messes up your WoW, your computer, your social life, your dog's eating habits, whatever - it shouldn't, but if it does - it is not my fault. Download here.
I think that about does it for this post tonight. This has taken a lot longer to put together than I originally thought it would, and I have some Juicy Bear Burgers just waiting to be nom'ed.
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