Classic Guide to Mages' Best Addons

Classic Mages want to have the cleanest UI possible, in order to constantly be alert to their surroundings and never miss a Frost Nova / Polymorph / Counterspell MVP save of the day!

At the same time, WoW Classic is a game that can easily get tedious in some of its menial tasks, such as repairing your gear or selling gray items once you reach a vendor. We will list addons that automate this sort of tasks for you, so that you can focus on playing the fun parts of the game as much as possible.

If you are looking for Mage PvE / PvP addons or functionalities that we did not list here, check this spreadsheet for an exhaustive list of WoW Classic addons.

We recommend always using the following addons on your character, as they either bring very useful functionalities which cannot be easily passed on or represent significant quality of life increases for your WoW Classic life.

ElvUI Classic, just like its retail counterpart, allows you to replace most elements of the default UI with a customizable, modern set of action bars, unit frames and most other conveniences you can think of. By using ElvUI you can avoid using a lot of other, narrower, addons.

Alternatively, TukUI lacks some of ElvUI's functionalities but is even cleaner, if you prefer a minimalistic UI.

Annoyed by the slow scrolling quest text? Dying due to having red gear because of forgetting to repair? Getting carpal tunnel due to all the spam clicking to sell your gray items? Want to know what the items on your inventory will sell for at the vendor?

Leatrix Plus Classic automates these tasks for you and more, such as automatically accepting summons or releasing. All configurable in case you do not want certain things to be automated.

Weak Auras 2 allows you to configure all types of warnings for yourself with a simple user interface.

Due to its large user base, there is a huge library of auras already created for you to import at the Wago classic Mage section, make sure to check it out before starting your adventure!

There are also a multitude of general weak auras available, such as:

• Combat Time shows a timer when you are in combat, useful to instantly know when you are in / out of combat;
• Max Camera automatically sets the maximum amount you can zoom out with your camera higher than the UI normally allows, which would require you to type a / command every time you logged in, otherwise.

You can get the latest version of Details here, complete with all of its modern functionalities adapted to Classic.

ItemRack allows you to configure and quickly swap between different sets of gear. This is incredibly useful for easy swapping between PvP and PvE gear, or between AoE and Single Target gear!

DejaClassicStats displays detailed stats on your character pane, allowing you to know exactly how much Spell Hit rating you have at any moment, for example, which is great to avoid going over the cap accidentally.

Questie Classic marks level-appropriate quests you can pick up and quest objectives you can turn in on your world map and minimap. Use it for efficiency, or don't use it for the real Vanilla Experience!

MapCoords Classic places coordinates on your world map and minimap, which allow you to communicate, and understand, exact locations on WoW Classic easily when reading guides such as ours.

Guidelime will allow you to download and follow a predefined optimized questing path, complete with an arrow pointing towards your next location and World Map notes on what your next steps are and their location.

There are many guides available to download at Guidelime's Guidelist. We are currently using Sage's guide for Alliance leveling and Sevenleaves for Horde leveling.

Finally, if you are mostly leveling by doing dungeons we would recommend Hakurai's dungeon leveling guide!

GatherMate2 allows you to gather world materials more efficiently by remembering the location of spots at which you have gathered before. It also comes with a pre-filled database listing many of the possible locations for herbs, ores and such in WoW Classic. Using this addon is highly recommend for Mage Gold Making in the world.

While the previous addons dealt with general UI, which is your main priority, when you start raiding you will want to have a few more tricks up your sleeve to make your life easier.

Boss mods are addons that warn you about boss abilities and give you live advice on how to handle some mechanics. Deadly Boss Mods has already released a WoW Classic version, so make sure to help on its testing!

Optionally, DBM Voicepack VEM can be used alongside DBM to audibly warn you of upcoming mechanics.

A threat meter is indispensable for raiding in WoW Classic, as you should always aim to deal as much DPS as possible without ever pulling threat from the tanks. We recommend using the TinyThreat plugin for Details Damage Meter. which you can find out how to configure in this video, by Autonomic.

RC Loot Council allows you to distribute master loot more efficiently and quickly than doing it with the default UI.

Player vs Player is a huge part of what makes WoW Classic great, and while most addons are useful for all aspects of the game, some were made specifically with PvP in mind.

LoseControl creates an icon in the center of your screen whenever you lose control of your character (due to Fear, for example) that displays the ability that caused you to lose control, and its duration.

OmniBar adds icons to your screen that display your target's cooldown (such as Counterspell) timers. This allows you to fake cast and know exactly for how long you can cast uninterrupted, and you can configure which cooldowns you want to track.

TrinketMenu makes trinket swapping a breeze, by allowing you to click a configurable trinket menu in order to quickly switch to any trinket in your inventory.

Spy Classic scans for nearby enemy faction players and announces their presence / lists them and their class / level in your UI. This is very useful in order to be aware of potential world PvP activity going around you and to avoid being caught off guard!

HonorSpy inspects every player you meet and stores their current honor system data. By comparing this information with the information obtained by other people using this addon, it is possible to create a database with the estimated brackets / standings for ranking every week.

While these addons are not quite as impactful as the ones listed previously, they can still be helpful to certain people, especially for those who dislike the setup we presented beforehand.

TomTom is a navigation addon which allows you to set waypoints on your map with /way CoordX CoordY (replace with the numbers of the coordinates you want to go to). An arrow will then point towards that waypoint, making it easy to reach a set of coordinates, such as the ones we use on the Mage leveling page.

Auctionator Classic makes it easier to search and post on the Auction House. It also lists the price per item on stacks of items being sold. While it has much simpler functionality than something like TSM Classic, it is also much simpler to use for most users.

If you dislike ElvUI / TukUI Unit Frames, try Luna Unit Frames or Dominos, which are great alternatives!

By installing Classic Aura Durations, the buffs/debuffs on the default UI gain a duration indicator. This includes raid frame debuffs, which are very handy when raid-wide decursing is needed.

Classic Castbars adds information on what spell is being cast, along with a rough estimation of its cast time, to the default target frames and nameplates. This makes it much easier to land a timely Counterspell!

By installing Atlas Loot Classic, you become able to browse loot from various sources (PvP, Raids, Dungeons, Crafting, etc.) inside the game, without the need to visit third party websites.

This addon allows you to change a lot of UI options that are normally hidden, such as Floating Combat Text customization options, mouse wheel chat scrolling, the displaying of Lua errors, among other options.

Twitch Emotes is all about having some modern day fun with many of the emotes we are used to from Twitch. This is not for everyone, but if memes are part of your experience, this is a good addon for you.

Macros are a great complement to addons for your WoW Classic experience, allowing you to do more with less buttons in your interface.

For this reason, we recommend that you also read our Mage Macros page, in order to improve your interaction with the game.