Power Auras has been my favorite addon for over a year now.

Gatherer and Outfitter are two other standards.

 

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I have

- SpartanUI
- Power Auras so I can easily see things like Holy Power
- Mail name thing for alts. (I don't trust the heavy weight altaholics)
- Tidy Plates: Threat (this is great for tanks)


The only thing I need is a better hud that displays debuffs and dots on the target.

 

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Grid, Bartender4, OmniCC, Pitbull

 

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decurseive
rogue power bars
error filter

 

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"Must Have"?

Bagnon
DBM
Grid
Shadowed Unit Frames
Totem Timers

"REALLY REALLY LIKE"?

Auctionator
Postal
Atlas Loot
Recount
Omen
OmniCC

For example:

Woah, I forgot about decursive... that was a must have for my Mage, especially in BG's/Arenas.

I used to use this little super simple addon was pretty flipping sweet, but not a MUST HAVE by any means, just convenience:

TrinketMenu

It gives you a little floating 2 button hotbar with your trinkets on it, you can resize it and move it around, etc. like any bar mod. The cool thing about it though is when you hovered your mouse over it, another bar popped up with all of the trinkets in your bags on it, and you could swap them out instantly with one click.

 

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I've been using addons since Vanilla and have actually written a few, though I only released one for general consumption on Curse, a warrior mod that monitored "red text" to switch you to the correct stance when you tried using an ability. Of course this was in Vanilla before they changed a lot of the API.

I'm only going into what I personally consider the basics, not what most consider mandatory like DBM.

1.) Pitbull - I HATE the default unit frames. Sort of a steep learning curve, but once you figure it out, it's cake and does everything you want it to.
2.) Dominos - I HATE the default bar system. I love this mod just because I like putting bars in odd configurations, some with hotkeys, most without.
3.) Clique - This along with Pitbull provides all the functionality of Healbot without the crap, and a little bit more.
4.) ZOMGBuffs - Not so much a required anymore since so many buffs are interchangeable, but still very nice for keeping track of self buffs.
5.) Phanxchat - With all the customization I get from all the above add-ons, this one is a must so the chat frames don't overlap my design.
6.) Chinchilla - It's a minimap add-on, but just fits so well with all the modifications I've done that I simply can't see my custom UI working without it.
7.) ChocolateBar - There are quite a few people that swear by TitanPanel and FuBar. Both of those have a lot of outdated plugins. ChocolateBar is a Broker bar, which means all Broker plugins will work with it, so less worry about out-dated and non-fuctioning plugins (dpsFu is a prime example).
8.) Elkano's Buff Bars - This is probably the main mod I couldn't live without. Having all my buffs and debuffs arrayed and organized in a rational and feasible manner is a God send.

I've got over 100 add-ons installed. Most I could live without if I had to, but some, like the above, I just can't imagine playing the game without. In fact, if I were forced to play without them, I know I would sooner cancel my account.

 

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You say an addon sucks and then list good qualities about it, that's about retarded right there.

 

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Apparently I'm the only one using Carbonite!

 

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Heard good things about Carbonite, but that was quite a while ago. And it was in reference to Quest Helper, like "it's better than quest helper!".

And since WoW pretty much has its own built in quest helper now, I don't see much point in it.

It probably has other features though, I'm sure

 

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