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The release of World of Warcraft: Forever brings a third — or, depending on how you count them, a sixth or seventh — way to play World of Warcraft to everyone with a WoW subscription. Joining the modern game and the Classic servers, Forever is based on WoW as it was at launch in 2004, but with new content, rebalanced classes, graphical enhancements, and lots of modernization.
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World of Warcraft: Forever and addons go together like Alterac Swiss and the finest bottle of Dalaran Noir. There are a ton of them out there, from major overhauls that completely shake up your UI, to roleplay-bolstering mods that track your journey across Azeroth. Quest helpers, bag managers, and even fishing enhancers, you can switch up almost any aspect of the game.
With thousands of addons out there, many of which having been ported over from Retail and Classic, it’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. It’s doubly-difficult to gauge what’s worth using now that Blizzard’s brought its own in-built tools to the fore in the reimagined MMO. Having spent north of 100 hours in Forever’s beta, and a good amount of time hunting for promising new additions to our collection, we’re here to bring you the best WoW: Forever addons to install at launch and beyond.
CurseForge is our go-to WoW addon manager, so the included links will send you that way. That said, you can also download each file as a standalone from there if you prefer to do things manually.
WoW Forever's UI is as classic as it gets, and the thought of changing that may be sacreligious for some. While Ellesmere UI, ElvUI's spiritual successor, is known for its ultra-sleek, modern layout, the Forever version allows you to maintain a more Vanilla look. Or, if you're after a middle ground, it even boasts a Retail setting.
This is, however, scratching the literal surface of what Ellesmere UI brings to the table. It is absurdly customizable. You can tweak pretty much every interface element to your liking, which is always handy when you're parsing info or reaching for that unbound skill. Considering how much functionality it packs, Ellesmere UI is also surprisingly lightweight, so props to the devs for the optimization work.
If you're not interested in Ellesmere UI's fanciness, but still desire a little extra manoevurability, BlizzMove has you covered. This handy little addon makes the default frames moveable, so you can drag Forever's myriad windows around as you please.
Azeroth is as visually stunning now as it was 20 years ago, and the UI can often impede your ability to enjoy it. Cinematic gives Forever that Lord of the Rings feel by fading out the UI and bringing in black bars while you're out of combat. You can even keep desired elements hidden while you're blasting down Murlocs, so there's plenty of modularity to be enjoyed.
What's more, Cinematic's camera behaves differently in certain situations. It'll spin around you while hearthing, and sit above your shoulder for a dialogue shot when talking to a quest-giver. There are also a range of filters that'll automatically be applied based on things like weather and time of day.
The Vanilla dialogue boxes aren't the prettiest, oftentimes presenting you with a hefty scroll of information that is swiftly disregarded. Immersion fixes that, offering up quest and gossip frames that are infinitely more engaging.
Gathering is hardly the most interesting element of WoW Forever, and the default UI does little to help with this. Node Sight not only provides actual images of which herb or ore belongs to each minimap node, but it'll also make it known if it's too-high-a-level for you to snag. For a little extra panache, you can toggle on sparkles for interactable objects in the world, making it easier to spot elements of interest.
If you're new to WoW, or have gotten out of touch with the local lingo, SlangSight is here to help you out. Simply mouse over those pesky abbreviations and this addon will immediately tell you what it means. Additionally, you can shift-click a location in chat and it will instantly open the map to where it is. Now you're down with the (middle-aged) kids.
Without going to a trainer (or opening up a wiki), it's hard to tell what your next levels bring in terms of skill unlocks. We're efficiency fiends here, and What's Training? removes that downtime by adding a simple tab to your spell book that reveals all, including how much it'll cost to learn each ability. Bonus professions functionality has been added in Forever, helping you keep track of available recipes that can be snapped up.
We've been using Auctionator for a long, long time, to the point that we can't actually remember what it's like to use the default Auction House. This addon lets you quickly parse the current market, preventing you from underselling your goods in the process. It'll even show you what your items are worth on the AH with a simple mouse-over, and you can utilize its scan feature to ensure prices are always up-to-date.
While Forever's default bag layout isn't bad by any means, Bagnon consolidates those disparate inventories into one, easily-manageable place. If that isn't delightful enough, the addon will further let you keep tabs on what's in your bank and guild vault wherever you are, whatever toon you're playing.
Few things make us let out a deeper sigh than having to declutter our bags so we can loot a shiny new bit of kit, wasting precious seconds as we try and find the cheapest thing to toss. Loot Triage removes the legwork by indicating not only what's junk, but which order you should get rid of it in. It's peak QoL and we absolutely love it.
OpenMap is one of our favorite new addons, and for good reason. This beautifully polished map mod presents a seamless, continuous flow as you click, drag, and zoom. This means that, from the world overview, you can scroll all the way into, say Durotar, then into the detailed city map of Orgrimmar. It's essentially Google Maps for WoW Forever, and you can even check out underground paths and dungeon layouts on the fly.
If you've played WoW for any amount of time, then Questie shouldn't need any introduction. For the unitiated, Questie populates the world map with every available quest within a level range you designate, making it super easy to gauge where to go next in your leveling journey. While it's been considered an essential addon in the past, because Blizzard has added its own feature to Forever that does something similar, we're not so sure now.
That said, you don't quite get the same amount of geographical breadth in the baked-in tool compared to Questie, so it's definitely worth running, even if it's not the must-have it once was.
Whereas Questie replaces the default quest tracker, Forever Quest Pins augments it. This addon adds markers to the world map, effectively giving you Questie's functionality with Forever's standard tooling.
WoW Forever adds over 1,000 new quests that didn't exist in Vanilla, and Forever Quest Tint's subtle, teal quest text gradient will let you know if your new fave is a fresh addition. It's a small thing, but it's nice to see where the devs have been cooking.
RareScanner has been a go-to addon for as long as we can remember, and it's absolutely going to come in handy throughout your time in Forever. As the name implies, it helps you track rare NPCs, treasures, and events as you play, alerting you when something pops up. Rares can drop some rather nice gear, so it's well worth locking this into your setup. You will need nameplates on for it to work, and you can increase the scanner's range using the command listed in the mod's description.
While Forever is designed to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace, you're always going to get the min-maxers seeking out the most efficient leveling route. Follow The Arrow is a true labor of love, with creator 'Harldan' putting in some serious work to provide not only the fastest way to ding, but also detailed instructions on what to do every step of the way.
Although we commonly shorten 'MMORPG' to 'MMO,' addons like Road to Sixty can really embellish the RP element. As soon as you install it, it will begin tracking your journey across Azerorth, recording your exploits to the world map. The thought of being able to go back and retrace your steps is really quite lovely, so get this one downloaded if you agree.
Similarly to Road to Sixty, Social Diary charts your adventures. However, rather than penning your time on the road to your map, it offers up a comprehensive diary full of memorable moments. In-keeping with its name, this addon places more of an emphasis on your interactions with other players, so you can revel in your journey with your newfound besties while you're gearing up for endgame content.
If you'd rather steer clear of extra UI elements while still keeping track of your greatest hits (and misses), BiS>Memories will automatically take a screenshot at key moments. These include each level-up, first boss kills, and even when you finally secure that piece of top-tier loot you'd spent the last couple of weeks grinding for.
It's important to reflect on the past via the above addons, but it's equally-necessary to plan for the future. Forever Goal Tracker lets you set a target, be it gear, an attunement, or a shiny new mount, and provides the necessary steps to reach it. It'll automatically update the planner as you go, making it effortlessly simple to gauge how you're doing.
If you're tired of looking up dungeon loot tables and quest requirements, DungeonJournal has you covered. This neat little addon not only does the aforementioned, but you can also use its in-built dungeon maps to quickly see where each boss is hiding. Used in-tandem with our own Forever dungeon guides, you'll have everything you need to conquer the MMO's new challenges.
Attune is a cracking little addon that makes coordinating attunements with your guildies nice and easy. It'll show you all the steps you need to take to get dungeon or raid-ready, and share your progress with your comrades. It's not so important if you're running content solo, but it's highly-recommended if you're grouping up with the gang.
WoW Forever has a lot of items, and it's sometimes hard to tell from a glance how beneficial they are. ItemTree ties everything together with a neat little bow, making it incredibly easy to see not only how your existing items tie into professions, quests, etc., but also where to find components you're looking for. If you're running Enchanting, it'll also tell you exactly what materials you'll get for disenchanting stuff -- nice.
If you're in the midst of profession leveling, then Reverse Engineering is a godsend. This addon calculates all the materials you need for item crafting, adjusting dynamically as you gather the goods. It even accounts for parent items, saving you unnecessary headaches. We're writers, not mathematicians, so this gets a big thumbs-up from us.
If you wish to achieve maximum power at every step of your Forever leveling journey, GearQuest Forever ensures you're always at your best. Once installed, you'll be able to find upgrades for every gear slot and where to find them. The addon's recommendations can be tweaked based on your playstyle. Don't like dungeons? GearQuest Forever will forget about them at the click of a button.
Trading buffs with random players is one of those micro-social interactions that make WoW so great. Sometimes, however, a mage will drop you an Arcane Intellect, blinking off into the sunset before you're able to return the favor -- feels bad, man. Manners logs these interactions, and pops a one-tap button on your UI that will instantly buff a player back. It's a small thing, but it's good for the soul.
Of course, we've saved the best addon for last -- we definitely aren't fishing minigame fiends. If this wonderfully scuffed trailer isn't enough to instantly convince you to install Angelur, let's talk specifics. This addon basically lets you do all things fishing with a single button, including triggering macros. Auras and custom timers help you keep track of buffs, and you can even adjust the audio to better hear when the big kahuna's snapped up your bait.
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