The Warcraft Hunter

If you don’t know how to install add ons in Warcraft, this post will explain how, at least for Windows users who know a little bit about the file system. Later posts will talk about specific add ons that are good for Hunters or good for WoW players in general.

To install an add on, you first need to download it. Presumably you have read about the add on, or some other player has told you about it. You then go looking for it with Google or maybe you were given a URL for it. Either way, there should be a option that will let you download the files to install the add on. But before you download, check the following:

1. Is the version of the add on that you want to install compatible with the current version of WoW? You can usually be safely a patch or two behind, but not major patches. For instance, an add on that is made for version 2.x will not work with 3.0.8, but one that was made for 3.0.2 might.
2. Do you trust this source? Have you heard about lots of other players using it, or is this some secret new add on that your friend told you about and no one else knows about? Does your friend have a sick sense of humor? Perhaps you should wait before installing this one, because there is no guarantee that what you are downloading is what it says it is. Only download reputable add ons.
3. Does it use a lot of memory, and can your computer handle it? Most add on sites will tell you whether it is “light” or not. Too many “heavy” add ons will slow down the game unless you have lots of RAM and a good video card (lousy video cards rely partly on RAM to make up for their lousiness).
4. Is there documentation for this add on? If not, then either it cannot be configured (reasonable for simple add ons), or the programmer couldn’t be bothered. The documentation does not have to be elaborate; it can even be just a list of simple instructions on the Web site you downloaded from. Either way, make sure you read it; and if there isn’t any, think twice before downloading.

When you download the file you will likely be given an opportunity to pick the location you want to store the download in. I recommend the desktop because it is easy to find the file afterwards, but if you have a favorite location that you can find easily then that will work just fine.

The file that you download will be a compressed (zipped) file, so you will need a program to extract it. Windows computers with Operating Systems  of XP or later have built-in options to compress or extract files, but you may also have some other programs available such as WinZip or WinRAR. Normally you just need to right-click on the zipped file (it might be called a “compressed folder”) to see what your extracting options are.

I will assume that you will be able to figure out how to extract the file; if you cannot then look for some tips either in the help file or on line as there are too many different variations for me to cover here, but it really should be obvious. What you really need to know is where to extract to.

To know this, you must know the location of your World of Warcraft program. The default location in most computers is “c:\Program Files\World of Warcraft”, but it might be different on your computer. If you are not sure, then you can try the following:

Right-click on the icon you use to start WoW, and choose Properties. You should see a box labeled “Target” that will tell you the folder the program is in, plus the program name itself. Everything after the last “\” is the program name; what is left is the folder location.

Inside this same folder is another folder called “Interface”, and within that one is another called “AddOns”. This is where the AddOns go (hence the name!) Even if you have never installed any add ons you will still see some because Blizzard uses some of their own add ons to run certain parts of their software. This is in part because not all software needs to be loaded all the time, such as the Auction House interface.

You will need to extract the downloaded file to this folder. The zipped file you downloaded should contain only folders itself, and it (or they) should be named the same as the add on or add on components; if you see other files then you should not install it.

Once you have installed the add on folder to the right location, you now need to verify whether it is turned on. After you launch WoW and sign in with your account info, you will see the character screen for whichever server you last played on. At the bottom left there will be a button labeled “Addons”. Click this, and you will see a list of add ons that are installed and what their current status is. The status can be changed for one character, or globally for all characters on this server.

There are four reasons why an add on might not be loaded when you start playing on a character:

1. You have not selected the add on for this character or this server.
2. WoW has determined that this add on is Incompatible, which is usually due to being so out of date that it does not meet the interface requirements.
3. The add on is only slightly out of date, and you have not selected the option to “load out of date add ons”. This sometimes gets de-selected after patches.
4. The add on is “dependent” on another add on, and that add on is not loaded for one of the above reasons. If an add on cannot load, then none of the add ons that are dependent on it can.

As for using the add on in game, you need to check the documentation for the add on you downloaded. You did read the documentation…didn’t you?

Erik Basics Add Ons, Basics, Hunter, Warcraft