Are addons required to play the best?

[Solidseal]

Re: Are addons required to play the best?

NO .

Suddenly in the middle of the fight all yer pr0 addons start to phail ..

2 things can happen:

1. You keep on playing pro but with more focus dealing with your problem but do it like the days when addons were not even there yet.
2. You fail.

[ItachiZaku]

I think it depends on the player. As the above person said, it is optimal to have for a class like SPriest, Feral Kitty, Lock... but I never had a spriest specific addon and always topped the charts. It just came naturally and disproved all of the "spriest dps sucks" that does on. On the flip side, I have badkitty and I'm still terribad at kitty dps. I just can't do melee dps very well. My best results is to be the asshole pvp feral cat that jumps all over the place like a retard.

I do admit, standing in the fire does happen with the tunnel vision. I'm hell focused on my grid and not watching the boss or shit on the ground, only the dropping bars.

While I know of people that use ZERO addons and still do insanely well (Glad PVP as clicker and no addons with 7.5K raid dps) they are freaks, I do believe to be the best at what you do, having a few addons helps you get there.

I wouldn't make the PEDs comparison, since that's a bit extreme, I'd say it's more like getting a gym membership vs lifting canned goods or doing 8000 pushups at home to get in shape.

[Liliyah]

In my opinion -
no.

Omen - In game threat meter
Grid/anything else - In game frames
DBM - Just know the fight / listen to others
MSCT - In game dagame thingy
Recount - not needed at all really

However:
The in game threat meter is only going to show me who has aggro on a mob. It isn't going to show me who is creeping up on the tank.
In game frames are cluttered. I cannot get the in game raid frames to show me, as a large image, a set list of important boss-generated debuffs or health deficits(and only deficits). And while I can see my PoM charges and PW:S/Weakened Soul on players, it's hard to find in the mess of all the other buffs and debuffs it displays.
DBM is useful for tracking range. I can estimate 10 yards pretty easily, but it's just an estimate. DBM gives me more certainty. The timers are also something I employ to track when I need to recast certain spells.
MSCT - In game combat text is not as customizable as an outside addon. I like being able to control all aspects of how and where those numbers & texts are displayed.
Recount - I enjoy not having to scroll through a ton of fucking text to find the death log for why a raid member died. It's also nice to evaulate DPS so I know who would make the most out of my Power Infusion while healing as disc.


The default is simply adequate. Addons are able to provide me more infomation with less fuss. But, I think that healers are required to have more information than dps. We have to monitor the status of 25 people, dps only have to worry about themselves and boss (usually).


To the OP: As others have said, addons will not turn a bad player into a good player. But if you're a good player and aren't using addons, then you're gimping yourself. Not sure if you need a whole ton of addons to do arenas (I mean, don't tournaments require default UIs?), but in general, addons will enhance your performance.
Using your lifebloom example: While that may be easy enough to track on the default, you will find GridStatusDruidHots or GirdStatusLifebloom to be much more effective in tracking such a thing if you were to heal a 25 man raid, seeing as how you will have rolled HoTs on many people and have much more information that needs to be tracked.

[DocQuantum]

Are they required to play the best? Yes.
Are they required to play very well? No.

One of my pet peeves with the default UI is the placement of information. Three of the most important things to know in a fight are position, your health/resources (e.g., mana), and your opponent's health/resources. In the default, position is in the center (optimal)... but the health/resources are located in the upper left corner. That means your eye has to move to catch 'em all... which is less optimal than if they were all in the same general location.

Does this mean that if you have health/resources in the upper left you suck? Not even remotely. Just means it's not the absolute best.

Thing of add ons like epic gems, and the default UI like blue quality gems. There is a difference between the two. Elitists will claim you suck if you don't have epic gems... even if your skill or connection isn't good enough to show a real difference between the two.

[Cilraaz]

They raise the counter point that all the elitists and hard-core raiders and PvPers use addons and swear by them because it makes them better.

I'm surprised nobody hit on this specific point. A lot of hardcore PvP tournaments require a vanilla UI (MLG tournaments, for example). So I would actually think that the upper echelon of PvP players would swear against addons. I don't know from experience, though, since I suck at PvP.

[diffuzi0n]

Since you bring up arenas in your original post, I will say this..

The "best" players to compete against each other in tournaments, making thousands of dollars if they win, use absolutely 0 mods / addons. If you setup one of the best tournament teams of that season tournament-wise against some of the "best" live teams of that same season with the same gear restrictions, where the only difference is that the live teams get to use addons, it will still come down to skill.

If you're talking about raiding, or moreso endgame PvE, I think certain addons are incredibly helpful, and will make your life so much easier. Being able to see predictive incoming heals, a cleaner way in which health bars are displayed for 25-40 people, or having warnings pop up for known fights will make being a healer less stressful and more streamlined.

You can only play to the best of your ability if you're comfortable in what you're doing. Will you get completely rolled over by someone who knows their controls inside and out and has keybinds for every situation with a stock UI? Yes. Will you get completely rolled over by someone who doesn't even look like they're playing WoW due to interface customization? Yes. It's all about being comfortable with what your style is.

[Dudits]

There are some people that can play this game just fine with out add-ons. But others it helps them keep track of all them smaller things. I use a simple Cool down timer and dot tracker to help with my rotation. But that is about the only add-on that i have that does somthing that helps me with dpsing. all my other add-ons are for looks and feel of the game

[Xeries]

Pvp-wise, well you need SOME addons, but you should be fine with the addons you are using now+ afflicted.

Pve-wise, as healer you might have an easier time with some mods for raid-targeting/dispelling.

[gyre]

Although addons make life easier, people who are unable to function at all without them are bad.

Right now there's a lot of in-game features that work just as good as addons. The only addon that you need for hardcore pve raiding is Omen if you are a dps/tank since the ingame threat meter doesn't show percentages afaik. Anything else is optional, even if you play hardcore.

[Shawaam]

The only essential addon I can think of is DBM. Makes raiding FAR much easier as it warns you before something happens. Blizzard UI warns when the ability/spell/whatever is being cast/used/whatever. So yeah, DBM do actually improve your performance.

Otherwise, I cannot find any addon which are that much of importance.

Well, for me, the addons I must have are: DBM, Quartz and Atlasloot ofc.

[Arason]

DBM is useful for tracking range. I can estimate 10 yards pretty easily, but it's just an estimate. DBM gives me more certainty.

.../range 10

:

[Deleted]

Addons are not NEEDED to play to game the best but they do give you an advantage over people that don't use any if well selected and configured and this is pretty much just a fact. There are tournament players who get rank one on live in arena without using any addons, but then there are players who do very well on live with all the addons and custom UIs and not so well in tournament with the forced default ui.

Same thing goes for pve. Some addons make it easier for you to keep your rotations, give you special warnings when something is going to occur etc.

Obviously addons aren't exactly required but they do give you an edge over people with none and unless you've a really really good reason I don't see why shouldn't you use them. Personal preference ofc.

[Larivas]

Are they required to play the best? Yes.
Are they required to play very well? No.

I believe this says it all. Others are saying you can play without addons, which you can, but you will do better with them. Try some out, if you don't like them and you don't think they help you, don't use them. Try another one, find some that you do like. When you get the right UI it will improve your performance.

[Azyoulike]

The operative word here is 'best'. In order to think that addons weren't needed to play the best we'd have to believe that the default UI was the best and could in no way be improved.

This seems pretty unlikely doesn't it?

[Zka]

The original game still has some severe shortcomings:
- no numerical cooldown counter (seriously, how could they not add such a thing before 1.0?)
- raidframes are bad for healing, health bars are not prominent enough & they take up too much space
- dot timer handling does not exist
- debuff timer handling does not exist
(yeah have fun looking for your own dot and debuff timers on a boss with ~50 debuffs)
- hotkey assigment is clunky on the original bars and they are ugly, also they take up a lot of space
- some debuffs/aoes are still hard to notice, boss mods help to correct that
- no built in meters (these are really useful to get instant feedback on your performance, on the raid's performance & tracking deaths)

Most specs are really affected by those things so you need addons to make your UI more effective or ergonomic.

[Wulon]

.../range 10

:

Log into the game, disable your dbm then do a /range 10
It is a dbm addon to use that range tracker, it is not default

[Arason]

Log into the game, disable your dbm then do a /range 10
It is a dbm addon to use that range tracker, it is not default

You sure? I think i can remember not using DBM while having it up...

[Liliyah]

You sure? I think i can remember not using DBM while having it up...

Positive. /range is not a command built into the default Blizzard UI.

[Taryble]

Liliyah is correct. Without DBM enabled, there is no /range command.

[anuket]

Let me know if the best post here. lol

Well I'm the best Shaman and Rogue player to ever grace WoW and I post here soooo yeah...some of the best do post here.