Anyone know any essential addons I should get for raids? Are there any I should avoid? Thanks.
DBM. That is the only essential addon.
Others like WeakAura, recount/skada, UI addons, etc, are just personal preference and not necessarily needed.
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ā¦it isnāt. BigWigs is a fine alternative, and much of their functionality can be done as WeakAuras, too.
Depending on what level youāre raiding at, you may not even need a bossmod, or any addon at all.
In other worse, none are really essential, but there are a number of them that help a lot. A boss mod like DBM or BigWigs is one, WeakAuras, better unit frame and nameplate addons are another.
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Some decent nameplate addon is advisable I would say. Personally I use Plater but I know there are many other options out there.
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Yea indeed, iād say Bbqflavours hits the nail on the head, thatās the main one.
A bossmod addon (DBM or bigwigs, ideally whichever of the 2 most of your guild uses if youāre raiding in a guild environment), is generally advisable, but more than that, youāll want useful nameplates.
Thereās a lot of information that you want instant access to, but you also want your interface to be clean/minimalist so it leaves a clear view of the game world, balancing those is usually the trick.
I like Threat Plates, but Plater or Tidy Plates are solid as well, and i know thereās a fairly well known kuiNameplates that i have never tried.
The main thing that you want to see (besides the health% of mobs), is what your threat/aggro status is on every mob and their castbars. Threat Platesās default (i think) is to have healthbars of mobs that youāre tanking in 1 color (green) and mobs that are not being tanked by you in another color (red). When in dps/heal spec those 2 colors flip around (as you usually prefer not to have aggro in those roles).
As raiding usually involves 2 tanks , you can also setup another color for mobs that you do not have aggro on, but for which your partner tank does. Plater can do all these things as well, and then some. Threat Plates has a lot of customization options. Plater offers even more customization, and more copy/paste profiles similar to Weakauras, but Threat Plates has had many more years of history under itās belt (tried and true). I donāt think you can go wrong with either of those 2.
The Weakauras addon can be useful to have, for adding fight-specific- or more personal/class-tailored things to your interface.
A damagemeter like Details is generally worth having, but wonāt really affect your tanking.
Being able to track what buffs/debuffs are active on you at all times is also an important part of tanking, and ideally the same for your partner tank (either through raidframes or a focus frame). For some the default UI may suffice for this, others may prefer some addon like Grid or Shadow Unit Frames or things like that.
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Thanks for the huge response, Iāll be sure to take a look at the ones you mentioned. But about that Weakauras addon, I hear it getting mentioned everywere, what exactly does it do?
Weakauras can do basically anything. On its own it does nothing, you can either import strings or write your own.
For example you have a trinket that when it procs it gives you haste. WA can track that for you better, letās say itāll put an icon in the middle of your screen or wherever you want with the duration of that trinketāa proc. It can also track different boss mechanics.
For a beginner, try looking on wago .io for wa import strings.
Imo, itās a must have addon, it makes your life so much easier.
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Plater
DBM or Bigwigs
GTFO is handy
Weakaura
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Scrap and postal
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Only DBM~ dont need anything else. It just screams at you ārun away little girl!ā and other kinky stuff allowing you to turn-off brain completely. (Not only for tanks)
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I want to say that the main usage of a damage meter as a tank is not to look at your twilight devastation damage, but to take decisions based on group performance (combat resses, pull sizes, deciding to just leave the dungeon mid run etc)
True itās useful info to have, and i use it, but i wouldnāt say itās important.
Youāll notice if the dps is low by how long the last pull took as well 
Thereās tons of other add-ons that will all improve your life a little bit but i think the genres that were mentioned should keep him busy for a while already.
Since tanking in a group often ends up implying leading a group (not so much in raids, more so in dungeons), it can be useful to have addons to quickly plonk down world markers and/or place markers on mobs. Maybe buttons for readycheck and pulltimers.
Aside from the already named stuff;
In M+ it can be useful to track some of your party membersā CDs, Combustion for example. This can help you timing bigger pulls. So for this Iād suggest an addon like OmniCD, by default it tracks defensives but you can add any ability you want per spec.
That statement is false, itās a great moral boost as a tank to see these numbers
Show these pesky dps who is the daddy here!
For raids ? None. Focus target is only thing you may need, when you do not use weakaura that does debuff tracking for you.
But to get better dps, and be able to improvise when things go haywire I use boss-mod tracking boss cooldowns that may impact me (i.e. on Raden I only track essence spawns as I have to move boss/roll away from melee if not tanking, on hivemind I only see mind control timer to move, as well āblastā so I know when I can or cannot move Tekris - things like that, on Wrathion I only see the breath timer to decide which cd I use or dont use etc etc), and weakaura that has sound and tells me the stacks and moves, so I do not have to even look at this.
Actually DBM/Bigwigs is optional, and you do not need it if use weakaura. I use Bigwigs timers only because it allows me to optimise my dps better, but for tanking in nyalotha bosses actually pre-warn tanks on any of important abilities. If you need cds, there are cast times, and when there are no cast times it is damage increase gradually and you need to start using dps longer you tank.
For me Bigwigs is just a bonus at this stage.
I personally use TUKUI+WA+BigWigs in mythic Nyalotha. Although Bigwigs is not needed as much as there have been raids where I have Bigwigs accidentally turned off and I find myself reacting to weakaura voice commands more than visual hints from bossmod or weakaura.
Weakaura also tracks my co-tanks debuffs because I did not w ant to use focus all the time, and use of weakaura co-tank abilities with voice also keeps UI cleaner.
I prefer minimalist/clean UIs.
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It does whatever you want it to do. It would bring coffee to bed too, if you ask nicely.
Or like the addon makers advertise it :
WeakAuras is a powerful and flexible framework that allows the display of highly customizable graphics on World of Warcraftās user interface to indicate buffs, debuffs, and other relevant information. This addon was created to be a lightweight replacement for Power Auras but has since introduced more functionalities while remaining efficient and easy to use.
Often other players make their custom auras available for public and you can find some of them from here :
https://wago.io/weakauras
But be careful - you should always use only auras you need and not go overboard with them! Wrongly done aura might cause lag or even disconnects. So always think before adding new and custom strings.
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itāsmainly Ui stuff for QoL use.
Many classes benefit from not sitting on āuse on cdā abilities, and in the fray itās not always easy to track when these things are available due to resets or whatnot as they donāt always come with in-game indicators to tell you when this has happened. Weakauras can be used to make it so your important ability CDs like this are dispalyed near your character so when theyāre ready or nearing being ready you get graphical flashups to let you know.
it can also be used to give you graphical auras (like the in-game ones ie Hot Streak) when other stuff triggers or procs that the game only displays with a buff. For example trinket procs and stat corruption procs. It can also be used to give you a timed graphic for the duration of buffs to make knowing then theyāve dropped easier.
It requires a bit of playing around to optimise but thereās a lot of good setups already built by players.
For example on my disc priest I had a setup that indicated with a glowing graphic when atonement was up on a player and it would slowly shrink as it faded, so i could very quickly see who had atonement and who didnāt, same for my Monk and tracking who has renewing mists.
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