Filed under: AddOn Spotlight

Archaeology has been subject to some considerable improvements in Mists of Pandaria. For starters, you now get six digs at any one dig site, meaning artifacts complete faster, and leveling the profession is therefore faster. I've also heard of various other improvements that have been applied to Archaeology in Pandaria, but, alas, I have no Archaeologist characters with a sufficient level to do any Archaeology in the new continent.

A lot of players have messaged me asking about Archaeology addons, thanks for your emails as ever. Chief among the addon requests are the following:

Lately we've been talking a lot about addons for features that have been implemented in Mists, and today is no different. However, we are going to be shying away from re-treading old ground, and moving into some new areas. If you're looking for pet battle addons, there have been three posts about them recently, two from Addon Spotlight, and one other.

As we're all grinding out our reputation with each faction, last week's Addon Spotlight took on reputation addons to try to make this experience easier and hopefully less frustrating! This week we're examining some other addons that help with some new features brought in in Mists. As ever, your feedback and addon suggestions are much appreciated, and if you think there's a type of addon I should be featuring, drop me a line!

And in exciting news, we can announce that Reader UI of the Week is making a return! Send me your UIs, and we'll get to posting!

With Mists of Pandaria, reputation has gone from being something you need a tabard for, to something that's really quite a big deal. Currently, with patch 5.0.5, the only way to spend your valor points is to grind out reputations with the various Mists of Pandaria factions. Disregarding my personal stance on this, it seemed logical, after two consecutive weeks of Pet Battle addons, to move into a category of addon that actually helps you do something useful for your characters!

Not that pet battles aren't useful, of course, they're just not directly contributing to your character in the same way as reputation grinding. And they're hopelessly addictive, unlike doing daily quests and other reputation grinds.

So, let's get started. I actually think the default interface for reputation monitoring is quite good from Blizzard, as it's a feature that's existed for a really long while, I suppose they've had the time to get it working well. But there are always ways you can improve on it!

So, from an addon perspective that Mists launch went off pretty darn painlessly, didn't it? I have to say I was impressed, as you may recall from last week's Addon Spotlight, I was not entirely sure how it was all going to go down. Did you have any addon problems? I know I had to switch off addons to actually get myself to Pandaria in the first place, but that is far more a reflection on my abysmal rural internet, and heavy server loading, than on the quality of work of our beloved addon authors.

I've been doing a lot of addon mailbags lately, to help people over the hump from Cataclysm to Mists, but this is the last one for a little while. I will, potentially, continue to tack them on to the end of other Addon Spotlight columns, depending on whether I receive questions that I think might be troubling a lot of people or not! If you have questions, or suggestions, do email me on olivia@wowinsider.com. I will try to get back to you!

Let's delve into the mailbag once again with a great question about Pet Battle addons!

It's almost here! If you've been living under a rock at the bottom of the Thousand Needles lake, there is a faint possibility that you might not know about Mists of Pandaria's arrival on the 25th of September.

We did a lot of work here at Addon Spotlight for 5.0.4 addons, giving you a list of addons that are ready, a survival guide, and a couple of question and answer sessions, which will carry on below.

For Mists, the process is all quite similar. I'll be uploading my list of addons that are ready for Mists, much closer to launch day this time, but I'll also be relying heavily on what I've started to call the "big three" addon sites (WoWInterface, Curse and WoWAce) and their lists of addons which are ready. As I'm sure you can appreciate, there are a lot of addons out there being updated, and, unlike for 5.0.4, these sites are running dedicated, automatically generated lists of Mists-ready addons, and I'm just one girl!

So, is there much you can be doing in advance? If you're a Curse Client user, then a lot of the updating process will be automated, and if you haven't set up WoWInterface's email alert system, now would be the time. Bear in mind that it's a good idea to try to check the addon's home site rather than just blindly following one site's system. Beta files and versions may not appear on each site. Additionally, these "big three" sites are the places where the vast majority of addons are hosted with the authors' permission, meaning they are in line with copyright rules, ethically sound and home to the authors' most recent updates.

This is a continuation of the ongoing work in progress that always takes place around a big patch such as 5.0.4. Last time we had a few reader emails, asking some questions about certain aspects of the 5.0.4 addon changes and how to deal with them, and this week we're doing much the same, except that we're focusing exclusively on broken addons and some alternatives that do work in the current patch, and therefore may well work when Mists arrives in two weeks' time!

Raeli's Return!

First, ladies and gentlemen, I have some great news! A while back, my esteemed ex-colleague Mat McCurley wrote a piece on replacing Raeli's Spell Announcer (RSA). He referred to the Raeli's Apocalypse, which it appeared took place when 5.0.4 dropped a couple of weeks back. Mat did find some alternatives, so if that's what you're after, have a look at the original article.

But just the other day, I received an email from Raeli himself with the great news I was talking about: Raeli's Spell Announcer is back! Raeli isn't the guy holding the reins any longer, he has handed that hefty responsibility over to Xadurk and stapler2025. And the updates are coming in thick and fast! There's already been over 12 beta versions for 5.0.4 added in the past 2 days, and the new developers have stated that they are determined to have a stable version up and running for the launch of Mists, if not before. A release version has recently become available. If, like me, you're thrilled to hear this news, get on over to the RSA project page, download the latest version and do some testing for the new developers!

I've been doing my level best, along with Bluspacecow, Mac Technical MVP extraordinaire and general incredibly helpful person, to keep you in the loop on addons that are ready for 5.0.4, as well as an addon survival guide for handling broken and updated addons. The article on addons that are ready is still being updated, as I'm going to be redoing it for the Mists launch.

But of course, I can't possibly anticipate all your 5.0.4 addon questions, and I've been getting a good number of emails with addon problems, addon frustration, and addon-related cries for help. If you want to email me with questions, do feel free. I will try to get back to you as quickly as I can, or reply to you in a future article!

Let's get started with your questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, the patch is upon us! Brace yourselves for a total UI meltdown. Here at Addon Spotlight, we are as ever here to help you with your patch day UI blues. There was a preparation guide a couple of weeks back, but it's too late for that now. If you didn't take those steps already, you're going to have to pin your hopes on this survival guide. Once more into the breach, my friends!

First and foremost, check out last week's post on addons that are ready for 5.0.4. I've been doing a ton of updating on this piece every time someone informs me that an addon is updated. It's a work in progress, of course, but it's pretty accurate right now. If you don't see your preferred addon on there, then have a look on the big three addon sites: WoWInterface, WoWAce and Curseforge. You're looking for recently updated files in the download section.

If they don't show up there, have a Google. Your addon may have a stand-alone site. You can look elsewhere, but these are the places where the vast majority of addons are hosted with the authors' permission, meaning they are in line with copyright rules, ethically sound and home to the authors' most recent updates.

Once you've checked for the most recent versions, download any that show compatibility with 5.0.4. If there are none, then make a note of that addon and check back in a few days' time. WoWInterface can also be set up to email you when addons are updated; check out how to set up email notification for addon updates.

Patch 5.0.4 is less than a week away, and we need addons. I've been in touch with various addon authors and established who has addons ready to go for 5.0.4. I've compiled the results here for you, along with the authors' preferred download links.

This is far from an exhaustive list -- it's always going to be a work in progress -- so if you know of addons I've missed that are ready to go for 5.0.4, pop a link in the comments or email me and I will add them to this list. There may well be many addons that are prepared for Mists' full launch in September but are not set up for 5.0.4 -- they're not what we're after here! If that's what you're looking for, though, there's a huge list of addons ready for Mists itself at Curse, and another at WoWInterface.

Please note that in the majority of cases, the addon page's live download will be updated at 5.0.4's launch, not several days in advance. Use your brain when downloading addons via these links; many of the authors who've contacted me have told me that their addons are ready to go but that they will not be uploading a release version to their live pages until patch day. This list of addons here represents those I have confirmed either through my own testing or directly from their authors that are ready for 5.0.4, and the links provided will be the links to download the addons on patch day or shortly before.

If there are addons you use that don't appear on this list, let me know and I will try to look into whether they're ready to go yet or if there is no news. I will do my level best to keep this list up to date and complete as we approach the launch of 5.0.4.

[I'd like to say a huge, huge thank-you to Bluspacecow for all their help with this!]

This, readers, is the final installment of our TradeSkillMaster (TSM) series. We've previously looked at TradeSkillMaster Crafting and TradeSkillMaster Auctioning, and today we're going to be having a little look at some of the brilliant additional functionality of this fantastic addon.

I really want to encourage reader feedback here. I'm certain don't have the space to write about all the awesome little things you can do with TSM to make your gold making life easier, and I'm even more certain that I don't know them all. So please, do share your clever TSM tricks and any tips you think might be useful to other readers. Then we can all learn something.

Download TradeSkillMaster: TradeSkillMaster.com, Curse

TSM Destroying

Firstly, I'm going to talk about a feature that I use a lot and have recommended to guildmates on several occasions. What does it do? Well, with a little setup and the click of a button, it can disenchant all the greens in your bag. OK, so you actually need to click the button once for every green, but quite frankly, that's a vast improvement on the other options for disenchanting.

Last time on Addon Spotlight, we talked about TradeSkillMaster (TSM) crafting. It was a bit of a slog, but I hope some of the readership were able to take the instructions and get TSM and have a bit of a go at setting it up. The setup is definitely a trial, but it's so worth it in the end.

This week, we're taking our hard-earned crafted items, and we're going to sell them on the auction house. It is kind of the idea, after all! Just like last time, if you haven't already, please ensure that if you're trying to follow these instructions that you've got all the relevant modules of TSM installed. PowerWordGold helpfully and correctly pointed out in the last column's comments that TSM Gathering is outdated and should not be downloaded, but get the rest. As you get more accustomed to the addon, you'll be able to work out what you use and switch things off if they're not necessary.

Download TradeSkillMaster: TradeSkillMaster.com, Curse

Again, with this column, I'm not going to be getting into the really detailed super-user aspects of TSM. Like I said before, it's not really necessary to just get up and running with it. Once you've begun, you'll inevitably start working out how the additional elements work, and the more advanced guides will start to make more sense.

I linked setup instructions for these guides in the past, so I won't be delving into the details for each profession. This is just a general guide.

Right, that's the housekeeping out of the way. Once more into the breach, my friends!

Today, we're really getting into it with TradeSkillMaster. This is the big daddy of the gold making addons -- an incredibly powerful addon that revolutionizes your crafting and auction house play. There are alternatives to TradeSkillMaster (TSM) available. Many players use Auctioneer or other similar addons instead, but there's a reason TSM's popularity remains.

With this column, I'm not going to be getting into the real fine details of TSM. For starters, I don't have the space, and furthermore, I don't think you need to to start making a bit of gold. What I plan to do for you today is to just walk you through the basic setup of this addon to start making some gold the easy way.

First and foremost, you have to install it:

Download TradeSkillMaster: Tradeskillmaster.com, Curse.

For now, it's probably best to download and install the entire suite of addons. You may find once you start using it that there are some sections you barely use and others you use all the time. Then you can simply switch off chunks of TSM, thereby lowering your memory usage. I mainly use Auctioning, AuctionDB, Crafting, Shopping and Destroying, as well as the core program.

Last time on Addon Spotlight, I wrote about six addons I felt you shouldn't play without. They were my personal choices, but some readers seemed worried that I hadn't suggested alternatives and so took it upon themselves to do so. Like the curious soul I am, I immediately downloaded the alternative suggestions and have been playing around with them since then, and this is the result.

I should reiterate what I said on the previous column, since some might have missed it, that these addons are not for raiding, not for PvP, not for hardcore Auction House play, and not for roleplaying. This is just a set of addons that improve your general quality of life within the game.

"But there were six addons in your original column!" There sure were, dear readers, but nobody seemed to want to suggest an alternative to the fantastic Addon Control Panel, so then there were five. Bag addons are a whole different ballgame and worthy of their own column. Also, too many were suggested as alternatives, so then there were four. It's like an Agatha Christie novel 'round here.