There seem to be changes in my guild (Ex Cinis Cineris on Farstriders US.) I think I’ve made mention that I felt hopelessly behind my guildmates. Now, while I’m still behind, it seems like I came back much more able to participate. I’ve been running heroics enough that I’ve been able to skip right over Naxx and get into our baby ten man Ulduar raid team. (ECC fields three ten man teams at the moment.) I do want to go back and experience Naxx but don’t have a driving gear need to do so. Presently I’m one trinket short of being in all two hundred plus epic gear.

How am I doing with the addictive aspect of World of Warcraft? Not too bad I think. I have put in several long play days but I’ve also been able to set it aside when appropriate or limit my play time on occasions.

So yeah, I’m back and actually a viable baby raider. It feels good to be participating in the “endgame” if only on a limited basis.

When you get over World of Warcraft addiction, you don’t play nearly as often. Makes sense, right? But one of the side effects of not playing as often is that disorientation when you do sit down to play again. What the heck was I doing last time I played? Where was that quest giver? Or maybe where were those pesky Timbermaw anyway?

First thing to get over is beating yourself up for not remembering. At least it is for me. When I’m living, eating, breathing World of Warcraft ie, addicted, I know everything. (Or at least think I do.) Now I sometimes feel like I know nothing.

Back in the addicted phase, I almost considered it cheating to have to resort to sites like thottbot.com and wowhead.com. Now they are my first line of reference. I don’t have time to wander around aimlessly. Tell me where it is and what I need to do. Thottbot and wowhead do that. (To be fair, there are other sites that fulfill the same role. Those are just the two I use.)

Even better though, I’ve discovered a couple great addons. Questhelper and Carbonite Quest. Both do almost the same thing, so choose between them. Don’t run them at the same time.

What they do is keep track of your quests and try to show you the most efficient route to completing them. If you are in a group, (and all group members are using the addon) they also consolidate the list of quests and coordinate you through the groups quests as efficiently as possible.

Neither tool is perfect. But both are right enough of the time to make them immensely worth installing. (Note: Carbonite Quest becomes even better with the Cartographer addon installed as well. Questhelper stands alone.)

Lately I’ve been using Carbonite instead of Questhelper for one reason. Carbonite shows you a path of where you’ve recently been. As someone who is constantly getting lost in dungeons, I find this feature a great benefit.

Questhelper is a totally free addon. Carbonite comes in two flavors. One free and one paid for. I admit I did pay for Carbonite and find the added features worthwhile. But it is a useful tool even in its free version.

Evidently there are addons that take the concept one step further. They not only guide you through the quests you have, but help you decide which quests and quest paths are worth following. I can see the value in that but since I’m one of those that enjoys the trip as much as the destination, I’ve never explored them further.

Do you know of other time saving addons? Let me know. You can either write them up yourself for me to post at myworldofwarcraftaddiction.com (giving you credit of course) or alert me to them and I’ll write something up. I’ve already thought of a couple more addons that I’ll be writing up in the near future.

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