These are the addons I use or recommend. Any addon marked with an asterisk I have recently stopped using (or replaced with a weakaura), but will keep in this list for reference. Most of these addons are from Curse, and I use the Curse client to keep them updated. A couple of them however are from WoWInterface.com.

Some of these addons may also have become broken since 7.0.

Any addons with an asterisk in the title are ones I have stopped using, but others might find useful.

recommended

_Cursor *

Greatly enhances cursor visibility. Due to a combination of high monitor resolution and crappy eyesight, I am constantly losing track of my mouse cursor. This addon greatly limits that problem. My personal setting is Layer 1: Trail-Holy Bright, Layer 2: Particle-Lava Burst, Layer 3: Glow-Burning cloud, red. (Note: Cursor is currently broken as of patch 7.0 and does not work properly. I have since replaced this addon with a custom weakaura available on my Weakauras page.)

recommended

_NPCScan + _NPCScan.Overlay *

If you want to be informed of nearby rare spawns by being abruptly startled, NPCScan has you covered.

_NPCScan.Overlay

recommended

AchievementsReminder

Spams you with incomplete raid achievements whenever you enter a raid instance.

recommended

AckisRecipeList + All modules

Lets you know what patterns you are missing and where they are acquired.

recommended

Addon Usage

Tool that show you general addon memory/cpu usage.

recommended

Addons CPU Usage

Tool that lets you run a scan over the course of a boss fight to show addon memory/cpu usage, to see if there are any unusual spikes during combat.

recommended

Advanced Interface Options

Restores access to removed interface options in Legion and adds a CVar browser.

mandatory

Altoholic

If you're like me and have far too many characters to keep track of, Altoholic will show you pretty much everything you need to know about your characters across all servers you play on.

recommended

Angry Keystones

Adds additional information to the Mythic Keystone objective tracker.

recommended

Angry World Quests

Adds a filterable lists of world quests and their rewards to quest log on the world map. So you can easily browse through all the world quests available to you.

recommended

Archy

Makes archaeology tolerable.

recommended

AtlasLoot Enhanced

Loot tables for everything. Also pops up a small frame of possible loot for specs once you kill a boss, to make deciding on a bonus roll easier.

mandatory

Auctionator

Yes I use Auctionator and TSM at the same time. I use it for it's super easy to use shopping lists. I could probably eliminate this one and only use Tradeskillmaster.

mandatory

BadBoy Spam Blocker

Spam reporter.

mandatory

Bagnon

One-bag addon. I delete the Guildbank and Voidstorage modules because they suck.

mandatory

Bagnon Facade

Adds Masque skin support to bagnon item slots.

mandatory

BankStack

Allows me to quickly sort my bags, bank, and guildbanks. Features autosorting and autostacking. Far superior to default interface sorting.

recommended

Caerdon Wardrobe + Bagnon module

Shows an indicator on item icons showing if you have learned the wardrobe appearance of that item. Bagnon module adds support for bagnon.

Caerdon Wardrobe Bagnon

recommended

CinematicDisabler

Kills most in-game cutscenes before they start.

recommended

Crosshairs

Shows you on your screen exactly where your currently selected target is.

mandatory

DBM + Voicepack VEM

I prefer DBM over Bigwigs because I am a data oriented person and DBM tells me far more than Bigwigs thinks it needs to. "Bigwigs thinks you're an idiot, DBM tells you you're an idiot."

Voicepack VEM

mandatory

DejaCharacterStats

Improved character stat screen.

mandatory

DeleteGoodItemConfirmHelper

Automatically types "DELETE" for you in deletion confirmation box windows.

recommended

Details

Raid combat log analysis tool. Leagues better than Recount, and a bit better than Skada.

mandatory

Disable Auto Add Spells

Stops WoW from automatically adding newly learned talents to empty action bar buttons during talent swaps. Useful if you have macro buttons that automatically switch between talents.

mandatory

Dominos

Action bar replacement, and in my opinion the best. I use Masque with the Caith theme to pretty it up.

recommended

Doom_CooldownPulse

Lets you know immediately when a cooldown is back up by subtly flashing the icon in your face. This could probably be replaced with Weakauras, but who wants to make that many weakauras for every character for every spell?

recommended

Edit Macro Icons

Provides slash chat commands to edit various icons.

recommended

Elephant *

Chat history log.

recommended

Event Tracker

Allows you to record all the data that is happening behind the scenes so you can see the actual names of events that are being fired off. Useful for making weakauras that track events.

recommended

ExRT

Extensive raid tools addon. Features have waned since HFC, but it still has it's uses. Target marking bar, raid inspect, loot logs, etc.

recommended

FishingBuddy

Makes fishing semi-tolerable.

recommended

FixGroups

Allows you to automatically organize groups by role or dps. Create presets to put certain people always in certain groups, or autosplit the raid by ranked dps from Skada/Details.

recommended

Fix Order Hall Map

Fixes zooming out the map from order halls located in weird places.

mandatory

FlashTaskBar

Alerts me of important goings-on while I'm tabbed out watching youtube videos.

mandatory

GarrisonMissionManager

Because wasting time manually arranging the garrison missions of a dozen characters is stupid.

broke

GnomishVendorShrinker *

Compacts items on vendors frames. (stopped using this for now because it broke in 6.2)

broke

GoblinVendorFilter *

Compliments GnomishVendorShrinker. Lets you filter vendor items. (stopped using this for now because it broke in 6.2)

recommended

Gnosis

If you are playing a caster dps, custom Gnosis cast bars are very helpful.

mandatory

GTFO

Stand*HONK* in the fire*HONK* dps higher*HONK*.

mandatory

HandyNotes + DraenorTreasures module + Legion Rares&Treasures module

Slaps a bunch of crap all over your map to show you where all the phat lewts are. Note: Only install the legion module linked below. The other module on curse is made by a random person and it is not the official module.

DraenorTreasures module

LegionRares&Treasures module

recommended

HealthWarning *

Helps you to freak out faster when your health dips low. (I have since replaced this with a weakaura)

recommended

HideOrderHallBar

Gets that worthless bar off of your screen.

recommended

HideQuickJoin

Hides annoying junk related to the Quick Join feature.

Also: HideQuickJoinToast

recommended

HideTalkingHead

Removes those stupid talking head frames that just get in the way.

recommended

idTip

Adds item id #'s to item tooltips.

recommended

ItemLinkLevel

Adds item info like ilvl and sockets to loot chat messages.

recommended

kgPanels

Allows you to load custom background textures and borders to prettify your UI.

mandatory

KuiNameplates

It may not look as good as Tidyplates, but it is far more efficient.

mandatory

LargerMacroIconSelection

Makes the icon selection frame for macros, equipment sets, and gbank tabs much larger. Also allows you to search icons by spell or ability name.

recommended

LinkWrangler

Open all the item links!

mandatory

Loot Spec Switcher

Puts three little icons on your screen for quickly swapping loot spec.

mandatory

Macro Toolkit

Enhanced macro frame.

mandatory

Mapster

Makes the world map usable.

mandatory

Masque + Caith theme

Prettifies my action bars.

Caith theme

mandatory

MaxCam

Automatically sets your camera max distance to the max setting.

mandatory

MinimapButtonFrame

Wrassles up all those loose minimap buttons and puts them in a pen.

recommended

MogIt

Because armorkinis aren't going to collect themselves.

recommended

mOnArs WardrobeHelper

Tracks your collected wardrobe appearances, and tells you what you are missing from dungeons.

mandatory

MoveAnything

Mandatory for me because WoW hates my three monitor Eyefinity setup. Allows you to place any UI frame anywhere.

recommended

Nameplate Scrolling Combat Text

Adds floating combat text to enemy nameplates.

recommended

New Openables

Gives you a frame that contains all lootable/usable objects in your bags. Gear bags, AP items, etc. Items are blacklistable so they don't appear if you don't want them to.

recommended

NomiCakes

Helps you deal with that worthless panda when farming cooking recipes.

mandatory

Omen

Unless I'm grouped with a crappy tank, threat has largely become a thing of the past. I mostly use Omen to see which hunter can't turn off pet taunt.

mandatory

OmniCC

Adds cooldowns to your actionbar buttons.

mandatory

oRA3

Adds a plethora of raid tools. Like raid member latency, so you can see who is saying they're lagging in a pool of death yet still have 40ms latency. Cooldown monitor so you can see who fat fingered heroism. Automatic loot/raid difficulty settings once you create a raid. Enhanced ready check. Bunch of other things.

recommended

Outfitter

Kind of obsolete now, but still better than the default equipment manager.

recommended

Pawn

Quick gear upgrade rankings. Must be used with personal simulationcraft weights. Desperately needs support for specifying soft and hard caps. Until then, only use this for quick eyeballing of upgrades.

mandatory

Postal

Mandatory for controlling incoming/outgoing mails. Recipient name autocompletion based on guild members or alts, including alts on other servers. Lets you autopull all completed auctions while leaving other non-auction mail that you might be storing in the mail because of low bag space. etc.

mandatory

Prat

Greatly improves the chat box interface. Lets you copy/paste text and urls.

mandatory

Premade Filter *

Adds filters to the group finder tool. Great for narrowing down specific pugs and can prevent you from accidentally joining a brazilian pug *shudders*

recommended

QuestCompletist

Works similarly to Ackis recipe list, but for incomplete quests. Mandatory for doing Loremaster achieves where you just can't find any more quests.

mandatory

QuickTalents

Adds a UI to your screen that is a baby version of your talent trees. Lets you single click to switch any talent with no confirmation box. Also shows how many reagents you have on you.

recommended

RaidAchievement

Tracks when a raid achievement has been failed.

mandatory

Raven

Buff bar replacement. The only other one I've used after using Elkanos Buff Bars for over a decade.

recommended

RelicInspector

lets you see info about the relics socketed in an artifact weapon in its tooltip

mandatory

SavedInstances

Lets you track your lockouts on all characters on your account. Also shows you which dailies you've completed, such as Blingtron. Also shows how close you are to hitting the instance cap per hour, if you are farming or powerleveling.

mandatory

SexyMap

Makes the minimap neat and usable. I use a square map with coordinates and with Minimap Button Bag right beside it. Make sure you disable "let sexymap control buttons" options in it's settings if you are using it with MMBB.

mandatory

ShadowedUnitFrames

Fancy unit frames addon. Similar to Pitbull but more usable right out of the box.

recommended

Simulationcraft

Gives you a simc script you can paste right into simulation craft, without having to log out and load your character from the armory.

recommended

SimPermut

Similar to the simc addon, this can give you different outputs of gear in your inventory to sim

recommended

Skinner

Lets you change the default UI background textures.

recommended

Sound Pack

Adds additional sounds that I use in weakauras.

mandatory

StrataFix

Fixes UI strata bugs.

recommended

tekticles

Adds clearer fonts to everything.

recommended

TeleportCloak

Don't even try to tell me you haven't accidentally left one on at some point. Also works with the dalaran teleport ring.

recommended

TinyPad

In-game notepad. I keep notes on various things I need to remember, like which xmog pieces I still need to get or when my next raid cache should arrive.

mandatory

TipTac

Improved mouse tooltips. Nowhere near as good as Cowtip used to be (RIP), but still far better than stock.

recommended

TradeSkillMaster

Comprehensive auction tool. I should probably utilize this more than I do, but I tend to keep this enabled only on my auction bank alts.

recommended

TransmogShop

Lets you scan the AH for wardrobe appearances you are missing.

mandatory

TrinketMenu

Puts a frame on your UI that lets you equip/use/track your trinkets. Lets you queue a trinket to put on as soon as you leave combat.

recommended

VendorBait

When you go to turn in a quest, it will highlight which item will vendor for the most.

mandatory

VuhDo

IMHO any healer not using Vuhdo or a custom Clique+Grid setup, is a liability. Doesn't matter how good someone is at healing with the stock UI, they will always be better with addons. The New Yankee Workshop guy might be a great craftsman with basic hand tools, but a high precision CNC setup will blow his ass out of the water any day of the week.

mandatory

WeakAuras 2

Lets you configure custom alerts and indicators and graphics for whatever event you want to monitor.

recommended

XLoot + XLoot_Master

Spruces up the loot windows.