Classic has been out for a nearly a week now, and we’ve had a chance to play with several new and returning addons being maintained by devoted fans. Whether you’re looking for UI improvements, help managing your inventory, or where to find the next quest, there seems to be something for everyone, and so we’ve updated our list of recommended addons for Classic WoW in the hope that you might like them too!

Of course, not every addon from either Retail or the Vanilla version of the game has been ported to Classic; as with any fan made project some are no longer maintained or their authors may not be interested in Classic. If you can’t find your favorite addon, try reaching out to the author on WoWInterface or CurseForge to see if there will be a new version. In the meantime, check out our list and maybe you’ll find something new to love, or tell us your favorite WoW Classic addon in the comments below!

The Wowhead Client

We can’t leave this one out! Help build the Wowhead database by automatically recording your drops and game information, to increase the accuracy and reliability of your favorite World of Warcraft website.

• Wowhead Client – Your most important addon.

User Interface

Covers everything from Action Bars, Unit Frames, Buffs and Debuffs, Nameplates, Bags, and more. These addons enhance, rearrange, or otherwise customize the User Interface – what you see and interact with while playing the game. Keep in mind this is just a sample suggestion, as there are several similar versions of each of these types of addons available.

• ArkInventory Classic – A configurable bag addon which allows you to sort, categorize, filter, and manage your inventory according to your own desires.
• Bagnon – Another bag addon which helps manage your inventory, as well as keep track of your inventory on other characters and banks, great for keeping track of your crafting mats. The Retail version is also setup to work for Classic, using the same version for both.
• Bartender4 – A customizable action bar, allowing you to hide the Blizzard art, separate, or completely hide the bag bar, micro menu, xp bar, and your regular action bars for binding buttons. Contains a wide variety of functionality, such as hiding bars until they’re moused over or the player goes into combat, great for keybinding spells you don’t necessarily need to see, and keeping your UI clean.

• ClassicSpellActivations – Adds a highlight for spells that have special activation requirements.
• ClassicAuraDurations – Adds a duration clock to your
  debuffs, feature not present in Classic. Works really well with OmniCC.
• Masque (Classic) – Simple button reskinning which supports a variety of styles. Doesn’t add anything in the way of gameplay or information, it just looks pretty!
• NeatPlates – A Tidyplate-like nameplate addon with a variety of preset and customization options, including debuff tracking, color coding based on hostility or threat, and more. Ensure you download the Classic version from the Files section, rather than the Retail version.

• SimpleMap – Small and straightforward addon which reduces the size of the world map and removes the black background, allowing you to see the map without blocking out the rest of your screen, with an optional fader while moving.
• Pitbull Unit Frames 4.0 – A powerful and highly customizable unit frame addon, which allows you to rearrange, hide, or otherwise personalize your unit frames.
• Shadowed Unit Frames – Another customizable unit frame addon, similar to Pitbull. Ensure you download the Classic version from the Files section rather than the Retail version!
• Tukui and ElvUI – An extensive premade all-in-one UI which combines the elements of several of the addons above. Great for players who don’t want to set up their own UI, but makes a lot of changes, which can be a pain to undo if it’s not to your liking, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before installing!

Combat and Information

Similar to the UI section, these addons add information, rather than simply customization, which can help give you an edge in combat

• Classic Cast Bars – Adds target cast bars, so you can tell what an enemy is casting and when in order to make interrupting the correct spell easier.

• ClassicThreatMeter – An invaluable addon for all players, but especially Tanks and DPS, showing player’s relative threat values, letting you know who is close to taking aggro. Managing threat can be an important part of Classic combat, and it’s important that every player in the group or raid use this addon so that others can track their threat! A must for any serious endgame dungeon or raid group.
• Details! Damage Meter Classic – A lightweight robust damage meter.
• HealComm – Healing addon that informs other healers about your incoming heals, feature not present in Classic.
• MikScrollingBattleText Classic – Customize and move the default damage numbers, along with support for incoming healing, and other information Highly recommended to spend some time setting up, as the “out of the box” settings can display extra information which may be unnecessary for many players.
• OmniCC – This is a simple, yet remarkably useful addon to have, regardless of what you’re doing in the game. This adds a simple timer over your cooldown abilities. That lets you know precisely when they’re going to come back up, so you know when you can use them again, or line up major abilities with cooldowns as necessary.

• Real Mob Health – Numerical health values for enemies aren’t shown, only percentages. This addon evaluates your damage done to a target in order to estimate and display its actual health values.
• Spy Classic – Scans for enemy players and warns you when they’re nearby, inordinately useful for open world PvP. While some might complain that it’s not fair, hardcore PvP players know the only fair fight is the one you lose.
• WeakAuras2 Classic – Robust interface addon that allows the player to create auras to track different aspects of the game. Wago.io has a separate section for Classic, so you can see what auras have already been made and shared by others.

Dungeon and Raids

• AtlasLootClassic – Addon to check all loot tables from the game. Useful as Classic does not have a Dungeon Journal like retail.
• BigWigs Classic – Adds timers and warnings for boss mechanics.
• Deadly Boss Mods – Classic – Adds timers and warnings for boss mechanics.

Questing

These addons will make your questing experience easier, helping you keep track of, find, and complete appropriate level quests.

• Classic Quest Log for Classic – Despite the awkward name, an invaluable addon which restores the two-pane quest log, allowing you to see all of your quests on the left, and the currently selected quest information on the right, for much easier navigation of the quest log.

• Azeroth Auto Pilot – A Speed leveling addon which automates several parts of the questing experience, and directs you where to go based on your level. As with many automated addons, it can be quirky at some times, taking you on an otherwise questionable route, but good for players who want to move through the leveling experience as fast as possible.
• Classic Codex – A mix between Azeroth Auto Pilot and Questie, showing available quests and quest mobs on the map, with several customizable options for auto quest accept/turn-in, and various filter options.
• Questie – Quest helper, which marks the location of quest givers, drop locations, and turn ins on the map and minimap, filtered for your level range. Unlike other addons, there is no automation, so you still choose where to go, what to pick up, and how to do it, but helps inform the player and makes the experience a little smoother.

• Quest Frame Fixer – A simple addon which correctly shows ? and ! icons in quest giver dialogue.
• Quest Icon Desaturation – Another simple addon which correctly turns quest giver dialogue markers grey for uncompleted quests. Pairs well with Quest Frame Fixer.

Quality of Life

• Advanced Interface Options – Exposes all interface options hidden by Blizzard. Also includes a useful cvar explorer, perfect for players that like to tweak their WoW Client.
• ItemTooltipProfessionIcons – Adds a small icon to item tooltips, indicating whether they’re used for a profession or quest. Compact and non-invasive, although unfortunately does not tell you what quest the item is used for or if you have completed it yet. Good for knowing what items you can safely vendor, and which you might want to hold onto, or look up on Wowhead to see what they’re used for!

• Leatrix – A highly customizable quality of life addon meant to enhance the default user interface. You can do things like automatically sell gray-quality vendor trash, automatically release after death, auto accept pending resurrections, and select, accept and turn-in quests without having to click through in-game prompts or menus manually.
• MapCoords Classic – Adds coordinates both to your map and minimap, allowing you to easily check your current and relative position.
• TomCat’s Tours – An alternative lightweight map and minimap coordinates addon.

• Peace and Quiet – Automatically disables the General and Local Defense channels when you enter a PvP instance, dungeon, or raid, then re-enables them when you leave.
• Peggle Classic – Arguably the most important addon, allows you to play Peggle on flight paths, when haggling over loot, while waiting for a rez, or whenever you want. You can even challenge your friends!

• endor Price – Shows the selling price of an item on the game’s tooltip for that item. Pairs well with ItemTooltipProfessionIcons (see above).

Auction House

• TradeSkillMaster 4 – The ultimate Auction House addon, powerful and complete, it provides every tool you might need when dealing with the Auction House, but has a learning curve attached to it.
• Auctionator – A simple Auction House addon to supply your every-day needs.

How to Install Addons in WoW Classic

Installing addons in Classic follows the same flow as installing one manually in retail WoW. First, you must download the addon from WoWInterface, CurseForge or other Addon repositories. Then, you need to extract the addon in your Classic WoW folder, which will look something like this:

C:\World of Warcraft\_classic_\Interface\AddOns

Note that the interface folder won’t exist if you haven’t opened the Classic client in your computer yet.If successful, a new button will appear when you reach the character screen, that is used to list all addons installed.

Twitch App Support for WoW Classic

Earlier last week, the Twitch App addon updater released a new version that finally supports Classic for addon management. In order to manage your Classic addons, you must go to Mods>World of Warcraft as normal, and then select your Classic WoW Folder in the dropdown box in the right corner.

From there, you can update your addons for Classic and look for new ones on CurseForge as well.