Suggested addons & helpful extras

Things that make a 3.3.5a client nicer to play on — better maps, a proper item database, sharper art, and macros that can do rather more than Blizzard's. Take whatever appeals and leave the rest.

Addons are folders you drop into Interface\AddOns inside your WoW directory, then enable at the character screen. Nothing here needs a patched client except the two guides at the bottom, and those say so plainly.

Carbonite — maps and quests

Replaces the world map with a zoomable, always-on window, and the quest log with a tracker that draws routes and marks objectives on the map. The biggest single quality-of-life change available to a WotLK client, especially while levelling.

Get the 3.3.5a Remastered fork, which is maintained for private servers. The original 3.34 build from 2010 still works, but nobody has touched it in fifteen years.

Not compatible with Project Reforged's Patch-M. Patch-M rewrites the client's map tables and Carbonite cannot survive it — see the Reforged guide.

HealBot Continued — for healers

Replaces the raid frames with a compact grid you heal by clicking: bind a spell to each mouse button and modifier, then click the bar of whoever needs it. It shows incoming heals, and flags dispellable debuffs on the frame so you are not scanning buff icons mid-pull.

If you heal at all seriously in Wrath, this or something like it is the difference between casting and hunting for the target first.

Download HealBot Continued

Omen Threat Meter — for tanks (and everyone else)

Live threat percentages for everyone on your current target. Tanks watch for DPS creeping up behind them; DPS watch for the moment to stop. It is the standard WotLK threat meter and the one most guides assume you are running.

Everyone benefits, not just tanks — pulling aggro off your tank is a DPS problem before it is a tank problem.

Download Omen Threat Meter

Recount — damage and healing meter

Tracks damage, healing and threat per fight, with a breakdown per ability when you click a name. The genuinely useful part is the death log: it replays the last several seconds of damage taken by whoever died, which answers "what killed me" far better than the combat log will.

Download Recount

Wowhead (WotLK archive)

wowhead.com/wotlk is Wowhead frozen at 3.3.5 — items, quests, spells, NPCs and drop rates as they were in Wrath, without retail's changes bleeding in. Use it instead of plain wowhead.com, which shows the modern version of everything and quietly misleads you.

Our realm runs 2x experience, loot and gold, so drop rates on Wowhead are the base numbers — expect better in practice.

Client mods

These two go beyond addons: they change the client itself, so each needs a one-time patch to Wow.exe and has its own guide.