Addons In World of Warcraft

What do addons do in World of Warcraft?

In World of Warcraft and pretty much every other PC based MMO game there is something called addons. Addons are exactly what they sound like, they are something added on to the game to serve a specific purpose. Addons specifically in World of Warcraft display information that the game has but is not showing you. For example Deadly Boss Mods, an addon many World of Warcraft players are familiar with. What it does is show you boss timers that are counting down to let you know when a specific ability will happen. All of the boss timer information is stored within the game, Deadly Boss Mods, just lets you see that layout of information in a very organized way. This is just one example of an addon, there are many other addons such as those to help you with your dps rotation, let you know the cooldown on your mitigation abilities, and the widely used raid frames for healers and raid leaders alike. All of these things display information on your screen in a more desirable and neat fashion to let you know whats what when your in the middle of a boss encounter where every second matters.

Are addons necessary to play World of Warcraft?

Addons are a preference and are not necessary to play the game because if they were then Blizzard would have included them in the game to begin with. However, addons in certain situations are extremely helpful and whether in a raid encounter, arena match, or rated bg, are widely preferred to be used rather than not. In a sense they make the game easier to handle when your in a situation where you need to know a layout of information without going through each tooltip or looking at each players health. Personally I could not do without my raid frames as a healer that has been use to click-to-cast his whole raiding history.

Should using addons be considered cheating?

Addons aren't necessarily cheating, because they aren't playing the game for you. The definition of cheating in a video game, however, is defined as making the game easier through non-standard methods. But if you take this definition and apply it to the situation, using addons in World of Warcraft has become a standard method and as far as Blizzard is concerned, isn't against the rules of the game. So if someone without and addons is fighting someone with an addon and the second guy wins because he has an addon, he isn't cheating. Because the first guy is allowed to use those same addons if he chooses to.