World of Warcraft

My history with World of Warcraft goes back to its original Stress Test back in 2004. It was the first MMO I had ever played and I was blown away. Life would get very busy and I never ended up playing the expansions, but I never forgot the magic of the game.

That's why it is no surprise that there has been continued interest in this version of the game with private servers over the years. With the official release of World of Warcraft: Classic, I'm hoping a whole new generation will discover that same magic.

Over time, I have been putting together the tips and tricks I have learned over the years to help others get started and have the best time possible in World of Warcraft.

Guides

The Addon system is different between the original game and Classic. In many cases, there is no way to port old addons over as the functionality has simply been entirely removed. So I have created a guide for each version with all the addons that I have found useful. I have also written a couple of guides with some of the other tips and tricks I've learned.

• The Best Control Scheme for World of Warcraft
• Leveling a Hunter in Vanilla World of Warcraft
• Vanilla World of Warcraft Addon Guide
• World of Warcraft: Classic Addon Guide
• How to Buy Your Mount at 40 - Vanilla World of Warcraft

Single Player Project

Even though World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer game, there are many reasons to want to be able to play it on a single player, local server. It makes it much easier to try out different classes and explore content that you just don't have time to get to on a live realm.

There are bots that populate the world, and they are surprisingly effective at making the world feel alive. Most interestingly, you can directly control them when they are in your party, which morphs the game into a party-based RPG, which is really interesting to play with.

It's amazing the work people have done to make this even possible, but it can be a little confusing to get started. To help out, I have written some guides with all the things I learned from running and playing on a single player server.

• World of Warcraft Single Player Server Quick Start Guide
• World of Warcraft Single Player Server Advanced Settings
• World of Warcraft Single Player Server Bot Control
• World of Warcraft Single Player Server GM Commands

Macros

As a programmer, one of my favorite parts of WoW was playing with the macro system. In the original game, macros were incredibly powerful. You could create elaborate macros that would choose an ability to use based on nearly any data the game client had access to. For many classes, you could greatly simplify combat with these macros. Blizzard was unhappy with this, so they changed the macro system starting in The Burning Crusade to greatly limit how powerful the macros could be.

World of Warcraft: Classic uses the modern macro system, so all the old macros need to be updated and, unfortunately, a large number of them aren't even possible to recreate. With that in mind, I decided to create separate pages of macros for the two versions of the game.

Addon Reference Guides

There were a lot of addons created during the initial World of Warcraft release that have long since been abandoned. Since this makes it very hard to find any documentation for them, I have created these reference guides for many of the addons that I use. I didn't create any of these addons, just this documentation.

• AntiDaze
  • For Hunters. Automatically removes Aspect of the Cheetah (or Pack) if you become dazed.
• AutoShot
  • Automatically take screenshots at regular intervals.
• Bagnon / Banknon
  • Display all your bags in one window and view any of your other characters inventories.
• BetterAlign
  • Display a customizable grid to align your UI elements perfectly.
• Bongos
  • A highly customizable Action Bar replacement addon.
• ClassicSnowfall
  • Abilities trigger as soon as you press a key down, rather than when you release a key.
• DebuffTimers
  • Display a countdown timer on the debuffs you have applied to a target.
• DoctorDruid
  • A Druid overhaul that combines multiple abilities into a single button press. A must-have for Druids.
• EquipCompare
  • Display your currently equipped item when you mouseover the same type in any other part of the interface.
• Gatherer
  • Display all the mining, herbalism and treasure nodes you have found on your map.
• GFW Hunter's Helper
  • An in-game database of all the pet abilities in the game and which beasts you need to tame to learn them.
• GMail
  • Quickly open all your mail and send multiple attachments at a time.
• Informant
  • Display the vendor prices and more information about an item in their tooltips.
• LunaUnitFrames
  • A highly customizable Unit Frame replacement addon.
• MobHealth3
  • Display the calculated enemy health numbers over its health bar.
• oCB
  • A Casting Bar replacement addon.
• OmniCC
  • Display a numeric countdown timer over your abilities on cooldown.
• SimpleMinimap
  • A highly customizable Minimap replacement addon.
• SmartRestore
  • Use the most efficient food, potion or bandage to heal and restore mana, depending on your current status.
• SpamThrottle
  • Filter out spam in the chat window.
• SuperMacro
  • Create longer and more complex macros.
• TinyTip
  • Customize the position and information in the tooltip.
• YaHT (Yet another Hunter Timer)
  • A weapon timer for the Hunter's AutoShot ability. Crucial for maximizing DPS as a Hunter.
• Zorlen
  • An enormous function library that can drastically change the way you play the game.