Addons on vanilla wow

As a frame of reference, I'd like to pick some points made on the mmo-champion forums about vanilla wow to explain what my personal experience is on Kronos (focusing on raids and raiding) and how it differs from the original vanilla experience. I've currently done all dungeons including UBRS, done Onyxia, MC and 7/8 BWL.

Add-ons..wtf is that? you played with skill and not some add-on carrying you
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I've been playing with over 15 addons and I know most other players on the server (or at least in my guild) do just as much. Some are for comodity purposes, like Titan panel to know how many bagslots I have, what the coordinates are and if my armor's broken, TNE_Nightfall to have a more visual effect on Nightfall procs, SellValue so I know what the items on by bags are worth and if I should keep them, QuestLevel to know whether it's a good idea or not to give a quest a try, Lern2spell to add the highest rank of a spell on my action bar and so on. There are addons that I would consider as required, such as TitanClock since back in 1.12.1 you can't get to see what hour it is without alt-tab and EzDismount to instantly dismount when you're trying to cast something while on your mount (or you'd get stuck and nothing happens). Any serious warlock that wants to raid will have a threat meter like KLHThreatMeter (otherwise nothing tells you if you'll get aggro or not, you can hope all you want that your tanks are golden but you'll still aggro), a bossmod with timers like Bigwigs and a damage meter like SW_Stats (arguably I could raid without). 

That small box to the lower-left? Likely the one thing I pay the most attention to.

The truth is that skill doesn't matter much to my job on a raidboss. All I have to do is to cast a curse and then cast shadowbolts until oom at which point I'll go with Life Tap. Maybe sometimes I have to run in/out (Chromaggus, Razorgore, Firemaw), follow a boss (Onyxia flying), run away from other players (Vaelastrasz, Baron Geddon), switch to an add (Garr, Gehennas, Ragnaros) or switch spells (Chromagus vulnerability to fire) but rarely are there two of those things to do at once. The hardest taks is probably to do some damage and not overaggro. But then I have to agree, addons do make some bosses much easier like Chrommagus (tells you when Frenzy is incoming, when he'll breathe), Firemaw (Wing buffets timers, Flame Buffet timer) and Vaelastrasz (Burning player marked). If you don't have a threatmeter you have no chance at raiding. Still, they won't do the job for you.

To conclude I would say that most players have addons. Some are pretty much needed but most aren't. They do make a difference and make encounters easier. They can't kill a boss for you or do your rotation, you still have to play and look a bit. Skill does matter but the amount required is quite low. 

Chromaggus in a nutshell : Summon felhunter on passive + Dispell, hide before the breaths, cast a scorch and attack with the wand once after a vulnerability, if it's fire go with Immolate > Searing Pain, if its shadow then CoA > Shadowbolt > Death coil before breath. If it's another vulnerability then attack with wands or /dance.

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