How to install addons in WoW Burning Crusade Classic: Best addons to download

Ava Thompson-Powell
WoW Burning Crusade addons

World of Warcraft Classic’s Burning Crusade addons completely change up how the game is played. While Classic was originally released to a slew of nostalgia-hungry fans back in 2019, one of the first priorities for many players will be knowing how to install addons.

Addons have always been a major part of WoW, becoming increasingly common over the years since the game’s release. They allow players to do everything from customizing their UI and calculating their DPS, to using complicated systems to rake in Gold at the auction house.

Long-time World of Warcraft players will undoubtedly be familiar with the process of installing addons and how to download them. For those who are trying out WoW for the first time with Classic, or are returning to the game after an extended absence, though, it might not be so obvious.


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Blood Elf in Silvermoon TBC Classic
You’ll need the help of some addons to make your life a little easier in TBC.

How to install addons in WoW Classic

Before diving into the addons themselves, the easiest way to streamline your WoW Classic experience is to download an addon manager. Of course, you’re able to install these manually through various sites, but a client takes out all of the hard work, allowing you to get right to business.

WoW Classic addons client

In terms of the client to use, we recommend using WowUp. Before selling CurseForge to Overwolf, Twitch was also a good choice to download addons from, but mod support was eventually dropped for the game.

Managing your addons with WowUp is incredibly convenient and efficient. Right from the client, you’re able to install, search, and update available addons for your game.

WowUp user interface
WowUp is a clean and intuitive way to handle your addons.

Best addons to download in WoW Classic

Once you’ve got your addon manager downloaded and ready to go, you’ll need to pick out some addons. Depending upon your preferences, there’s a whole host of ones that are best to use for different things.

Some add damage meters into the game to aid in tracking your performance, while others can be used to tweak the whole UI and its features.

Bagnon

The default bags in World of Warcraft can be a bit cumbersome at the best of times, and in Classic, you’re likely to have less space and more items.

To save you from searching through multiple bags trying to find the items you’re looking for, Bagnon is designed to unify your bags into a single window with more options and tools for organization. Clean up your bags with the click of a button, quickly search for an item, or even view what’s stored in your bank no matter where you are.

Bartender4

While you’re able to customize your UI without the need for Bartender4, it’s essential if you’re looking to fine-tune everything to your liking. With support for up to 10 actions bars, and the ability to tweak their transparency and size (including pet bars, stance bars, and XP bars) – Bartender4 is a must-have for any Warcraft player.

Details! Damage Meter Classic

Want to improve your overall performance in WoW, see how well your rotation works and how you stack up against your allies? Details! does just that.

It’s a fantastically useful tool, especially considering that damage and heal data can be stored, allowing you and your guildmates to see just how well everyone is doing when you’re attempting that big Raid run.

WoW Classic Blood Elf Mage
Any new character in WoW Classic will benefit from the use of some addons.

Deadly Boss Mods

If you’re looking to make Dungeons and Raids easier, DeadlyBossMods is where it’s at. Memorizing boss mechanics is a thing of the past, as DBM guides you through encounters with on-screen warnings and pointers for upcoming abilities.

This is another one that’s right up there on the assistance scale, but when faced with the frustration of multiple wipes in raids and dungeons because you can’t quite get the mechanics down, it can quite literally be a life-saver.

GTFO

Rule one of almost any MMO is ‘don’t stand in the fire’ – or any other avoidable source of damage for that matter – and GTFO will warn you (rather loudly) whenever you’re taking environmental damage that you should get out the way of.

Incredibly useful for hectic boss fights in Dungeons and Raids, it’ll help to give you one less thing to have to concentrate on when taking them down. It’s also useful for those who are playing on lower graphical settings.

Questie

Questie aims to return some of the functionality that players of Retail WoW are used to. With this addon, Classic players have the ability to track available objectives, turn-ins, and quests to the map, and also locate things faster, due to the icons it adds to any enemies and mobs that you’ll need to take down to complete them.

The addon’s Journey tool takes things one step further, too, by telling you just how much of a particular zone you’ve completed, as well as being able to find out specific locations of NPCs and objects.

Downloading WoW Classic addons manually

WoW Classic Addons
Addons are a must for most raiders to help keep track of crucial information.

If you really want the full Classic experience, though, or for whatever reason want to install an addon yourself, it’s still possible to install them manually.

After downloading the addon in the form of a ZIP file from a site such as CurseForge or WoWInterface, the file must be extracted and placed in your addons folder for Classic WoW.

How to install WoW Classic addons manually

The method used to install addons to your game manually is relatively easy to do, too. All you’ll need to do is:

  1. Download the addon you want from a host site.
  2. Find where your version of Classic is installed. By default, this will be in Program Files.
  3. Unable to find it there? No problem – Open the Battle.net app.
  4. From there, click the WoW Classic logo at the top left of the app, and at the bottom left next to ‘Play’, click the cogwheel next to it.
  5. Select ‘Show in Explorer‘. This is where your game is installed.
  6. Having done that, extract the files and place them in your WoW Classic AddOns folder.
  7. The path for this is: World of Warcraft / _classic_ / Interface /AddOns.
  8. That’s it, you’re all set!

Once you’ve done this, you can head back on over to your game.

How to use addons

Once you’ve got addons installed, an ‘AddOns‘ button will appear in the lower left-hand corner of the character select screen when you log in. This will open a menu that allows you to enable or disable your addons and, in some cases, their constituent parts.

Addon settings can also be found in the settings menu while you’re in the game itself, although some changes might require you to re-log in to take effect. Some addons also come with their own menus and settings.

Sometimes you might find your addons become out of date and no longer function correctly, or at all. Assuming the creator is keeping them updated, you can easily download any available updates through your website or addon manager of choice.


So, there you have it! All you need to know about installing the best addons in WoW Burning Crusade Classic.

Want to become the best adventurer Azeroth’s ever seen? Check out our other handy guides:

5 best WoW addons, rankedBest fishing spots in WoW Classic | Best healer classes for Classic dungeons and raids Top tank classes for Classic dungeons and raids | How to find each faction’s Auction House |

About The Author

Ava was formerly Dexerto's Evergreen Editor, based in England. With a BA (Hons) in Media and Communications, and a passion for RPGs, The Sims, Pokemon, and Dead by Daylight, she primarily covered tips, guides, and reviews.