Addons

UI

ElvUI replaces almost all of the default UI, though some ElvUI elements are disabled in favor of various addons below (e.g. gladius for arena frames instead of ElvUI’s). ElvUI is highly customizable so yours won’t look like mine out of the box (setting bar textures to “Blizzard” and fonts to “Emblem” will get closer to mine if that’s the look you’re going for).

Critical addons

Those most crucial for me to PvP effectively

  • TellMeWhen - Can be configured to show a visual (and/or audio) notification for nearly any cooldown/ability/buff/debuff/etc. This addon is pretty similar to WeakAuras, I just happened to discover/use TellMeWhen first - if you’re already using WeakAuras you probably won’t have much use for this one.
  • HealBot - I use this as a party frame replacement (ElvUI’s party frames are enabled, but I rarely look at those) because it not only allows configuration of which buffs/debuffs to show but also allows customizing bar coloring based on buffs/debuffs present which together makes it a great and compact way to quickly see all the information needed to keep my teammates (and myself!) alive. (Please note out of the box this addon comes with the ability to click on the bars to trigger various spells - I would highly recommend NOT using this aspect of the addon)
  • OmniBar - Tracks enemey cooldowns (for healers and casters I would suggest using a separate bar just for interupts and another one for cooldowns)
  • Gladius - Arena frames
  • NameplateAuras - Displays buffs/debuffs of players above nameplates (I use this primarily for enemies)
  • BigDebuffs - Shows major buffs/debuffs anchored to frames and/or nameplates (and this one I use primarily for allies)
  • Ability Team Tracker - Tracks the cooldowns of your teammates
  • Threat Plates - Extremely customizable nameplates addon (I have it set to only apply to allies and use Blizzard’s default ones for enemies so there’s a bigger visual distinction between them)
  • Arena Names - Replaces arena enemy nameplate names with their arena number

Custom addons

Addons created by yours truly

  • DontCast - Warns when the current target has buffs/debuffs that would eliminate (or greatly reduce) the effect of damage.
  • PvPAudit - Shows the PvP experience and current ratings of another player as well as tracking win/loss rates with others.

Other addons

These aren’t absolutely necessary but are useful for the purposes they serve

  • REFlex - Records statistics of arena matches
  • OmniCC - Adds cooldown text to most images of anything with a cooldown
  • Details - Damage/healing/etc meters
  • jaxSurrender - Changes /afk in arena (and only in arena) to surrendor the match instead of immediately leaving (this is particularly useful if you use addons like PvPAudit or REFlex as they will be unable to record match data if you leave before the scoreboard triggers)
  • Pawn - Allows comparing an item to the one currently equipped to better determine if an item is an upgrade or not.
  • SavedInstances - Allows easily seeing currencies/lockouts/etc across all characters
  • ArkInventory - Inventory addon that allows splitting/organizing bags by various criteria
  • TrufiGCD - Shows last used abilities of self/party/arena/whoever, I don’t really do anything with this in realtime but it’s sometimes useful when rewatching my games and determing which abilities were used
  • TomTom - Waypoints