Personally for me I like my UI to be free from as much cognitive junk as possible. I like to watch what's going on for example, not 'read' about it. Addons, for the most part, I find don't actually provide anything new or meaningful to the game and only truly succeed in moving ones UI to become more like many other games out there. I enjoy the relative uniqueness of ESO's interface. But of course, each to their own. That's just the way, I like to play.

Razzak wrote: »

Rev Rielle wrote: »

Personally for me I like my UI to be free from as much cognitive junk as possible. I like to watch what's going on for example, not 'read' about it. Addons, for the most part, I find don't actually provide anything new or meaningful to the game and only truly succeed in moving ones UI to become more like many other games out there. I enjoy the relative uniqueness of ESO's interface. But of course, each to their own. That's just the way, I like to play.

You, and many others, seem to be confusing add-ons in general, with UI add-ons. Hop onto esoui.com and you just might be amazed at how many add-ons there are, that will not clutter or change your UI.

Agreed. The one I had the most fun making but didn't get as much traction with as I was expecting was definitely Dye Station Achievement Links. This thing is pure convenience and does not include any new UI clutter.

In fact, none of mine produce any persistent UI additions that would normally fall into the category of "clutter"

Greyminds Quickslot bar. I'm really not sure I 'd be able to play without it, given the alternative is that awful quickslot (a misnomer if there ever was one) wheel that makes in-combat switching pretty much impossible.

Razzak wrote: »

Rev Rielle wrote: »

Personally for me I like my UI to be free from as much cognitive junk as possible. I like to watch what's going on for example, not 'read' about it. Addons, for the most part, I find don't actually provide anything new or meaningful to the game and only truly succeed in moving ones UI to become more like many other games out there. I enjoy the relative uniqueness of ESO's interface. But of course, each to their own. That's just the way, I like to play.

You, and many others, seem to be confusing add-ons in general, with UI add-ons. Hop onto esoui.com and you just might be amazed at how many add-ons there are, that will not clutter or change your UI.

No, not really. My experience with them over many years has lead to that. Most are clunky and not overly useful. It's a personal preference.

I'm currently using 73 addons and even if I can play game without all of them, I will really miss every single of them.

If any of those addons will stop working I will fix it or create alternative addon.

Azurah.

It's what I use to move my UI so that I can see it in the Oculus.

Without it, would not be able to play and be aware of my resources, target hp bar, compass or anything else.

Closely followed by AwesomeGuildStore and Research Assistant.

It's too hard to boil it down to one, but I'll throw my $0.02 in in case it helps someone choose some addons for themselves.

I personally don't prefer addons that eliminate discovery and adventure in the game like LoreBooks or Skyshards or Destinations. To me, the addons I use are ones that should be in the game anyway and I'm not sure why they aren't if they have an API to be able to access these parts of the game.

Advanced Filters - Enough has been said about this. It's essential

Awesome Guild Store - At it's basic, why can't the game just save your store search criteria? This addon is a huge time saver to select the exact same search from one guild merchant to another. (and have saved searches which is nice too)

Azurah - There is customizing power in being able to move UI elements, but to me, the most basic thing about this one is that the target health bars change colors. I mean.. why is a friendly's health the same color as an enemy's? There is no indication when you are coming up on an NPC if it is friend or foe. Azurah's helps makes that distinction.

Binder - If you have customized your key bindings as I have, Binder lets you move those key bindings to other characters without having to take the time to rebind everything. I'm not sure why the game has bindings per character in the first place. That makes no sense to me. Binder solves this issue.

Harven's Improved Skills Window - Why should we have to wait til we get the morph to see what the morph will give us? And if we've chosen a morph and are leveling it up, why can't we see what the alternative morph would have given us had we chosen that one instead? Harven solves that problem with Improved Skills Window.

Harven's Extended Stats - This one really blows me away. Why would we need an addon to show us our character sheet information such as spell penetration or flame resistance? But that's what Harven is giving us with this one.

MrPlow - A simple addon with no options. All it does is group your inventory items into categories. All wood is grouped together, all cloth is grouped together all potions are grouped together, etc. Combined with Advanced Filters inventory management is significantly improved.

RAETIA Subtitles - Because sometimes you need to play the game without sound and subtitles should be an option in the interface anyway.

S'rendarr - I'm not sure why buffs and debuffs are't part of the interface in general. Not permanent ones that are in the character sheet like boons, but combat buffs/debuffs and procs. S'rendarr gives us this in an movable status bar type cue.


There are others that I use for tweaking the chat, or quickly changing from my DPS setup to my healer setup, damage/healing tracking, etc but I wanted to address the ones that Zeni really should put in the game itself.

-Aletheion

If I HAD to choose just 1 add-on.....and I could only use 1......I would quit playing. I only have 54 add-ons (I am always looking to add more) and they all contribute significantly to my enjoyment of ESO. These add-on creators have done a phenomenal job and I wish ZOS would license some of these to be optional features in the core game, especially when it hits console.

I've been playing this game for about a month. Within my first week I'd encountered several frustrations that were thankfully alleviated by addons. So, thank you, pChat, Lootdrop, and Advanced Filters. (pChat was my first, for one simple reason (though I use many of its other options): I really, REALLY hate missing whispers/tells, and pChat allows you to set a sound for incoming messages. THANK YOU.)

I've added more over time, and I appreciate this thread for cluing me in on others that, while I might not use them yet, I likely will in the future.

Here's hoping 1.6 doesn't bung them up too terribly, and/or that they get updated and continue making our gaming less frustrating and more enjoyable!

I use Wykkyd's but for the most part the only thing I use it for is to hide most of the UI. I prefer to not see the compass or any other informational displays. I prefer to immerse into the game and play without "data". Which also means I do not like DPS, DOT, or AOE terms and info. At times when running a summoner I do kind of wish I had a rear view mirror so I could see if my minion is still following me, but I find looking back is not that inconvenient.

Sort of a tie between FTC and Wkyds one that allows you to save skill bar sets.

Wykkyd's toolbar would be the one I miss most. All that info in a tiny bar at the very top of my screen not blocking anything.
Librarian is another, to keep track on what books I have read etc.

Sure I could play the entire game without any, but some just make the game more pleasing to play imo.

If I ran a guild or looked after a guild store there's certain addons that would be a must.

And sure I can spend ages and hunt through the guild bank for various things, hence no addon needed, but using say advanced filters, I doubt many people who have tried it would prefer going back to not using it.

While it's obviously up to the individual, I suspect many people who say no addons have never tried things like advance filters?