World of Warcraft has actually been around for almost 20 years, and countless individuals have actually played it. In that time, gamers have actually put a great deal of energy into refining their interface. They’ve established addons to customize whatever from system frames to action bars to talk panes. Some of the modifications are cosmetic, some are small quality-of-life enhancements, and some offer effective performance that is otherwise not available in the video game. In this guide, we’ll review the very best UI addons presently available for both World of Warcraft Classic and the latest Dragonflight growth.
The Best UI Addons for WoW Right Now
Every addon in this list can be downloaded for both Dragonflight and WoW Classic.
ElvUI
Download: TukUI
Plugins: TukUI, CurseForge
Profiles: Wago
Command: /elvui
ElvUI is a total UI overhaul. It was initially established as a customized variation of its sibling addon, TukUI, however has actually developed into a beast of an addon in its own right. ElvUI touches just about every element of the user interface and is deeply customizable.
Some users will find that it’s much more than they need, with an intimidating number of options in its settings menu. But for those who like to tweak every facet of their interface, ElvUI can combine the functionality of a large number of addons into one convenient and cohesive overhaul.
The massive popularity of ElvUI has led to the development of several plugins for it which extend its functionality even further. Profiles can also be shared, and downloading one can save you a lot of time in getting it to look how you want it to.
By default ElvUI has a sleek, minimalist look, giving every UI element a semi-transparent dark gray background with an unobtrusive square border. It stands in stark contrast to the heavily stylized look of the default UI, and it will be a matter of personal taste if you prefer it or not. The colors, border, and transparency of every element can be changed in the settings. There is also an edit mode that allows you to move everything around on your screen. But that’s just scratching the surface of the deep customizability of this addon.
Shadowed Unit Frames
Download: CurseForge
Command: /suf
For those who want custom unit frames, but don’t want the complete overhaul offered by ElvUI, there is Shadowed Unit Frames. With this addon, you can customize the size, position, and appearance of every unit frame in the game: player, target, party, raid, arena, boss frames, and more.
The addon’s options are extensive, and it also allows you to show or hide any element based on where you are. So if you want to hide pet frames when you’re in a raid, or hide your reputation bar when you’re in an arena, you can do that.
If Shadowed Unit Frames isn’t quite what you’re looking for, you can also try Z-Perl Unit Frames, which is similar.
WeakAuras
Download: CurseForge
Profiles: Wago
Command: /wa
WeakAuras is one of the most powerful and widely used addons available for World of Warcraft. It’s a framework for tracking everything from buffs and debuffs to resources to cooldowns. You can track auras with timers, icons, progress bars, text, and animations in all sorts of styles and layouts.
Like any complex addon, WeakAuras can be intimidating to get started with. Luckily it’s easy to import auras from other users, and there’s an entire website for sharing them. There you’ll find WeakAuras for rotation assistance, useful warnings for bosses, displaying your party’s cooldowns or healer mana, and just about anything else you can think of.
If you’re too overwhelmed by all the options in WeakAuras, TellMeWhen is a good alternative that is almost as powerful, though not quite as customizable.
OmniCC
Download: CurseForge
Command: /omnicc
OmniCC is one of the simplest addons on this list. All it does is add text timers to your spells and buffs. Where the base game simply grays out a spell that is on cooldown, OmniCC tells you exactly when you will be able to use it again.
Quartz
Download: CurseForge
Command: /quartz
Quartz lets you customize your cast bars, and also has options for adding progress bars to a few things that don’t normally have them, like buffs, flightpaths, and swing timers. You can customize the appearance, size, and positioning of the bars. You can also see when a cast has been interrupted, and by whom, as well as seeing your latency and global cooldown on your player cast bar.
Plater Nameplates
Download: CurseForge
Profiles: Wago
Command: /plater
Plater Nameplates lets you customize nameplates, which sounds simple, but this addon is deceptively powerful. It’s a kind of sibling addon to WeakAuras, and has similarly robust customization and scripting options, as well as the ability to share profiles.
If Plater doesn’t turn out to be quite what you’re looking for, KuiNameplates is a similar addon. One thing to note with any nameplate addon is that blizzard doesn’t allow addons to modify friendly nameplates inside of instances. So no matter what you do with those nameplates through addons, they won’t work inside of a dungeon or raid. Enemy nameplates do still work, however!
OPie
Download: CurseForge
Profiles: Wago
Command: /opie
OPie lets you bind almost any ability in the game to customizable radial menus. This includes spells, items, professions, battle pets, equipment sets, macros, and raid or world markers. There are a few premade rings included by default, such as a ring that displays all of your quest items.
This addon is incredibly useful for cleaning up your interface. No need to clutter up your action bars with abilities you don’t use in combat. Now you can bring up a radial menu when you want to access those abilities, and they don’t have to take up space on your screen the rest of the time.
Bartender4
Download: CurseForge
Command: /bartender
Bartender4 replaces your action bars with customizable ones. This also includes your stance bar, pet bar, bag bar, micro menu, and XP/reputation bar. You can change the appearance, size, positioning, and transparency of these bars, and even set conditions for them to fade or hide.
If Bartender4 isn’t your cup of tea, there’s also Dominos, which does a lot of the same things in a slightly different way.
Bagnon
Download: CurseForge
Command: /bagnon
Bagnon adds some useful features to your containers, including showing their contents in a single window, highlighting important items, sorting, and searching. These features apply to your personal inventory, your bank, your void storage, and your guild bank. Some of these features have been added to the game itself for Dragonflight, however Bagnon still has actually more customizability than the default bag system. It’s especially useful in WoW Classic, where the UI hasn’t been updated.
A similar addon that’s also worth mentioning is AdiBags, which offers an alternative method of sorting for your inventory. AdiBags doesn’t have the same scope as Bagnon, though. For example, it doesn’t include guild banks.
Masque
Download: CurseForge
Skins: GitHub
Command: /masque
Masque is a skinning addon that lets you change the look of your buttons, be they action bar buttons, bag buttons, or auras. It plugs into addons like ElvUI, OPie, Bartender4, and Bagnon, letting you create a consistent custom look across all of your buttons. There are a lot of different skins available for Masque, all linked on the addon’s GitHub.
Prat
Download: CurseForge
Command: /prat
Prat is a deeply customizable chat addon. With it, you can change practically every aspect of your chat window’s appearance and functionality. You can add class colors and character levels to players’ names, as well as timestamps. Your chat history can also be saved between sessions. You can copy text, including URLs. Chat windows can be resized and re-positioned, and their fonts and coloring changed.
Another chat addon that’s worth mentioning is WIM (WoW Instant Messenger), which creates a new chat window for every conversation you have in whispers. It’s a good way to keep track of multiple conversations.
Titan Panel
Download: CurseForge
Command: /titan
Titan Panel adds a bar to the top and/or bottom of your screen to which you can add all sorts of data texts. Data texts offered by default include bags, clock, gold, location, repair status, volume control, and XP. Other addons can add their own data texts as well.
The bar(s) can be customized in terms of scale, font, and background skin, among other things.
SexyMap
Download: CurseForge
Command: /sexymap
SexyMap lets you customize your minimap, including size, positioning, and border. You can also modify the clock, coordinates, and zone text, as well as which buttons appear and when.
If you don’t want to change how your minimap looks, but do want to be able to hide all those little addon icons that get added to it, you can try Minimap Button Button instead. It gives you one button to toggle all the others so they don’t clutter up your minimap anymore.
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Thanks for reading! We hope we’ve helped you discover the best UI addons for your personal WoW setup. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, and be sure to subscribe to High Ground for more helpful guides!
Happy video gaming!
