WoW: QuestHelper and Carbonite

[QuantumLo0p]

The kids want me to install QuestHelper or Carbonite. After checking on them I decided to hold off because there seems to be some debate whether or not they contain key loggers or other malware.

Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about either of these add ons?

Any other recommendations for quest assistance?

[SilentPanda]

Neither can log your keys. Well aside from what you type in game of course (post character selection screen). The only trojans sometimes come in the form of executables that come with the .zip files. However you'd have to be on a Windows box and also run them in order for them to do anything.

You'll be fine.

[Bimmi]

Carbonite is over-featured and baffling. It may well be useful but I don't care to read through pages of microscopic text just to get the thing configured properly.

QuestHelper is fairly straightforward with few options, and will speed up your questing time by a ridiculous amount. I use it in tandem with QuestGuru, which has an incredibly handy quest history tab that tracks completed and abandoned quests.

I also use an addon called LightHeaded that displays in-game quest tips for those times when I'm beating my head against a wall trying to finish something. It's pretty much cheating, but it has also saved me a fair amount of frustration.

[mobilehaathi]

QuestHelper is fairly straightforward with few options, and will speed up your questing time by a ridiculous amount. I use it in tandem with QuestGuru, which has an incredibly handy quest history tab that tracks completed and abandoned quests.

I also use an addon called LightHeaded that displays in-game quest tips for those times when I'm beating my head against a wall trying to finish something. It's pretty much cheating, but it has also saved me a fair amount of frustration.

This is exactly what I do.

[Plutonius]

The kids want me to install QuestHelper or Carbonite. After checking on them I decided to hold off because there seems to be some debate whether or not they contain key loggers or other malware.

Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about either of these add ons?

Any other recommendations for quest assistance?

I use Carbonite and have never had any issues with it.

Always manually install your addons in the interface addon folder. Who knows what the automatic installers are loading on your computer.

[Plutonius]

Carbonite is over-featured and baffling. It may well be useful but I don't care to read through pages of microscopic text just to get the thing configured properly.

What's there to setup ? Just move your windows to where you want them. How can you lose by having all the quest givers in a zone show up on the main map.

- Shows you the map details even if you haven't explored a zone
- Shows you all the resource spawn locations (ore, herbs, etc) in a zone
- Shows all the mailboxes, flight masters, etc in a zone
- Shows the location of all the quest givers in a zone.
- If your friends are running Carbonite, it shows you their location and what quest they are on
- Warns when an enemy is near
- Directs you on the map where to go on a quest and shows distance and time.
- Many other features and now it's even free (used to be subscription based)

[Bimmi]

Showing the questgivers does sound like an awesome feature, but I disliked the way Carbonite takes over the interface and litters the screen with data. It was also kind of buggy and ill-behaved for me.

I like to keep things simple wherever possible, so QuestHelper's the one for me. Maybe I'll give Carbonite another shot someday, but I doubt it'll be anytime soon.

[Plutonius]

Showing the questgivers does sound like an awesome feature, but I disliked the way Carbonite takes over the interface and litters the screen with data. It was also kind of buggy and ill-behaved for me.

I like to keep things simple wherever possible, so QuestHelper's the one for me. Maybe I'll give Carbonite another shot someday, but I doubt it'll be anytime soon.

Use what works best for you but everyone I know who was using Questhelper has switched to Carbonite :).

[QuantumLo0p]

...Always manually install your addons in the interface addon folder. Who knows what the automatic installers are loading on your computer.

Great idea! I will also be sure to scan the downloads and use a checksum if they supply it.

[RedTomato]

Seems like it changes WOW to some sort of on-the-rails linear follow-the-dots game.

What's there to setup ? Just move your windows to where you want them. How can you lose by having all the quest givers in a zone show up on the main map.

- Shows you the map details even if you haven't explored a zone
- Shows you all the resource spawn locations (ore, herbs, etc) in a zone
- Shows all the mailboxes, flight masters, etc in a zone
- Shows the location of all the quest givers in a zone.
- If your friends are running Carbonite, it shows you their location and what quest they are on
- Warns when an enemy is near
- Directs you on the map where to go on a quest and shows distance and time.
- Many other features and now it's even free (used to be subscription based)

[QuantumLo0p]

What's there to setup ? Just move your windows to where you want them. How can you lose by having all the quest givers in a zone show up on the main map.

- Shows you the map details even if you haven't explored a zone
- Shows you all the resource spawn locations (ore, herbs, etc) in a zone
- Shows all the mailboxes, flight masters, etc in a zone
- Shows the location of all the quest givers in a zone.
- If your friends are running Carbonite, it shows you their location and what quest they are on
- Warns when an enemy is near
- Directs you on the map where to go on a quest and shows distance and time.
- Many other features and now it's even free (used to be subscription based)

A few more questions:
Is www.carboniteaddon.com the site to download from? (I want to be careful to not download from a bad site.)
Whether I decide to use either Carbonite or QuestHelper, do they uninstall cleanly?
Will any quest add-ons get my account banned?

Thanks to all for the great advice!

[Plutonius]

A few more questions:
Is www.carboniteaddon.com the site to download from? (I want to be careful to not download from a bad site.)
Whether I decide to use either Carbonite or QuestHelper, do they uninstall cleanly?
Will any quest add-ons get my account banned?

Thanks to all for the great advice!

That's the site to download Carbonite from and it will not get your account banned. Like I mentioned earlier, manually install all add-ons by dragging them to your interface add-on folder.

To remove / delete Carbonite and most other add-ons, just drag the folder in question from the interface add-ons folder to the trash.

Some other add-ons you might think about are

- healbot or one of the other healing add-ons (if you have a healer)
- decursive
- deadly boss mods

[merc669]

A few more questions:

Will any quest add-ons get my account banned?

Thanks to all for the great advice!

Questhelp, Carbonite, TomTom, etc addons will not get your account banned...

Bill....:apple:

[BlackSnow]

I would go with questhelper. It's great and easy to use.

[Tsubame]

I'd go with Carbonite, now that it is free. It's a much more useful and powerful addon than QuestHelper, and more efficiently coded as well.

As far as taking over your UI, it doesn't unless you turn on the options for it to do so (it can replace your minimap if you choose to, but you can also have it a secondary window that you can turn off/on at well). It does replace your main map, but it's a vastly superior map anyway, so I don't see the problem with that.

It has numerous other features that are useful, mostly to do with map tagging. Tagging quest givers, resource nodes, flight masters, inns, etc on your map. All filterable of course. Notification when an enemy is nearby, or when an ally running Carbonite is as well (so if you see a friend doing the same quest as you, you can team up). The Warehouse is nice if you don't use inventory mods (it shows you items that all your characters collectively have).

As far as the quest help that it gives, it colours in areas on the map that the quest can be completed at (So if it's a mob that spawns, it shows the entire area that it can spawn within, highlighted).

Carbonite is a lot more than just a quest addon, but it can be as much or as little as you want, it's highly configurable. One of the best made addons I've come across (likely due to it being paid for a while).

[QuantumLo0p]

I plan to try QuestHelper but first I am giving Carbonite a test drive.

Am I correct in assuming if I broadcast my position to other Carbonite users that an enemy Carbonite user will see me in the Punk display?!

Not a big deal, just that it could be a tool for the Horde to use against the Alliance and me!.

[Plutonius]

I plan to try QuestHelper but first I am giving Carbonite a test drive.

Am I correct in assuming if I broadcast my position to other Carbonite users that an enemy Carbonite user will see me in the Punk display?!

Not a big deal, just that it could be a tool for the Horde to use against the Alliance and me!.

I don't believe so. You can also turn off the broadcasting if you want.

I haven't yet past near an enemy without the warning going off which leads me to believe that it triggers off of any enemy showing up within a certain range.

It's pretty humorous when you quest on the ground below Dalaran :).

[Randman]

Both are incredible memory hogs. Carbonite is the better of the two but it helps if you turn off a lot of the unneeded features.

That said, there's really no need for either these days. I used Carbonite in the first week of expansion when so many people were also leveling to 80. But now? Meh.

[Huntn]

I was a long time Quest Helper user, but when Carbonite went "free" I took a look. At first I did not like it but now I prefer it over QH for 2 reasons.

1. Maps can be set to display all known harvestable items. You don't go have to find them first for them to show up on the map.
2. When you click on an item, say in a recipe, the warehouse will show you all of those items, all your characters hold, and where they are- on them, in bank, in mail. This is most outstanding if you have 5 or 6 active toons and/or you are unorganized as I am and have stuff scattered all over among them.

[QuantumLo0p]

I was a long time Quest Helper user, but when Carbonite went "free" I took a look. At first I did not like it but now I prefer it over QH for 2 reasons.

1. Maps can be set to display all known harvestable items. You don't go have to find them first for them to show up on the map.
2. When you click on an item, say in a recipe, the warehouse will show you all of those items, all of your characters hold, and where they are- on them, in bank, in mail. This is most outstanding if you have 5 or 6 active toons and/or you are unorganized as I am and have stuff scattered all over among them.

Displaying items is huge. Yeah, some people don't like it but looking for items is not what the kids and, [ahem] I want to spend our time on. We like the groups, the fights and the battles.

Thanks for the rundown on the warehouse. I knew it displayed what I had in possession but wasn't aware of all the other details. I just glanced over the intro info so I know I missed a lot of good info. I will fully read it the next time I log in.

Next I need to find any old posts on professions. If I don't have any luck I may start another thread.

This is fun..:)

[Huntn]

Next I need to find any old posts on professions. If I don't have any luck I may start another thread.

This is fun..:)

Indeed! If you have not taken a gander, check out the Mac Rumor World of Warcraft Guide (http://guides.macrumors.com/World_of_Warcraft). Many profession links there among others.

[Huntn]

I forgot to mention, when you look at the map in Carbonite, it designates the location of all of your active quests so you can easily see what other quests you are close to and if you click on a quest objective in the quest tracker it shows you an arrow and distance to the objective in your main interface.

http://www.carboniteaddon.com/

[QuantumLo0p]

I can't seem to get Carbonite to display resources; ore, herbs, etc-

Any tips?

[Plutonius]

I can't seem to get Carbonite to display resources; ore, herbs, etc-

Any tips?

on all the maps, you have a ? button along with the + and - buttons. Click on the ? button and you will get a screen showing all the things that can show on the map. Click on the one you want then return to the map.

i.e. to show all the quest givers, click on the map ? button and click on quest on the following screen. To show all the ore, click on the map ? button, click on gatherer (or something like that) and then click on ore.

Note: You might have to initially load the carbonite gatherer database (one of the options)

[Bimmi]

Semi-off-topic: I hear a lot about certain add-ons being resource hogs, but how does this specifically effect game performance?

[QuantumLo0p]

Semi-off-topic: I hear a lot about certain add-ons being resource hogs, but how does this specifically effect game performance?

I haven't heard much about system lag, just memory hogging. Sounds like if we have multiple cores and plenty of ram it shouldn't be an issue.

I am running my trusty old dual G5 Power Mac with a 6800 card and the only problem I have, before and after Carbonite, seems to be some video lag when there are a ton of players nearby. I have not notice any difference after installing Carbonite.

[Huntn]

I haven't heard much about system lag, just memory hogging. Sounds like if we have multiple cores and plenty of ram it shouldn't be an issue.

I am running my trusty old dual G5 Power Mac with a 6800 card and the only problem I have, before and after Carbonite, seems to be some video lag when there are a ton of players nearby. I have not notice any difference after installing Carbonite.

My MBP handles WoW with Addons quite well. I'm also running it on my 1.8 G5 Power Mac with 2GB RAM. It does ok there, although in Northrend, especially in the city of Dalaran, you'd better be running the game in windowed mode unless you want a complete slide show. In fact most questing I do on the G5 in Northrend is in Windowed mode. Dalaran is such a performance hog, I'm also in Windowed mode on my MBP in that magical city.

[Plutonius]

My MBP handles WoW with Addons quite well. I'm also running it on my 1.8 G5 Power Mac with 2GB RAM. It does ok there, although in Northrend, especially in the city of Dalaran, you'd better be running the game in windowed mode unless you want a complete slide show. In fact most questing I do on the G5 in Northrend is in Windowed mode. Dalaran is such a performance hog, I'm also in Windowed mode on my MBP in that magical city.

2009 2.93g quad Power Mac FTW :).

You should give Wintergrasp PvP a try (you don't have to be 80 to join the battle). It's a fun event to do but it wins the award for the most lag in WoW..

[QuantumLo0p]

My MBP handles WoW with Addons quite well. I'm also running it on my 1.8 G5 Power Mac with 2GB RAM. It does ok there, although in Northrend, especially in the city of Dalaran, you'd better be running the game in windowed mode unless you want a complete slide show. In fact most questing I do on the G5 in Northrend is in Windowed mode. Dalaran is such a performance hog, I'm also in Windowed mode on my MBP in that magical city.

WoW says the Carbonite add-ons are using only 6-7 MB. Not sure why someone else said it is a resource hog.

I have been running in Windowed mode just so I can easily access my other apps while WoW is running. Visually I like full screen better, though.

[Huntn]

WoW says the Carbonite add-ons are using only 6-7 MB. Not sure why someone else said it is a resource hog.

I have been running in Windowed mode just so I can easily access my other apps while WoW is running. Visually I like full screen better, though.

Me too. You may know this but it is worth a mention you can toggle full screen/Windowed Mode with Apple M.

[QuantumLo0p]

No, I did not and thanks for the tip!

I should check out the help section for a decent list of hot keys.

[Huntn]

With Carbonite, through the Warehouse, I just figured out that when one of your toons picks up a drop, somer gear that might be useful for one of your other toons, without logging out, you can pull up the warehouse window, select the toon you have in mind and immediately see what the other toon has equipped. An outstanding time saver.

[QuantumLo0p]

Definitely a nice feature. BTW one of my kids, who plays WoW, was against Carbonite at first because his buddies recommended Questhelper. After trying it out he likes it! I am not against Questhelper by any means but think of the choice as preference. Both seem to have great features.

Dawnbringer was down most of last evening, as well as many other servers. Sounds like Blizzard was scrambling to resolve hardware issues.

[Plutonius]

Definitely a nice feature. BTW one of my kids, who plays WoW, was against Carbonite at first because his buddies recommended Questhelper. After trying it out he likes it! I am not against Questhelper by any means but think of the choice as preference. Both seem to have great features.

Yep, use what works best for you.

[ichigorayne]

I added the Carbonite helper and had my account hacked twice then my husbands account got hacked and canceled i talked to blizzard and they said when you add those things people can get your accounts easy. So i would be very careful if you did do it.

[sinser]

I have tried Carbonite a few times, but really don't like it. Too much features, too complex, terrible interface. I like QuestHelper much, much more. The only addons I use are : Cartographer, QuestHelper and Auctioneer.

[Plutonius]

I added the Carbonite helper and had my account hacked twice then my husbands account got hacked and canceled i talked to blizzard and they said when you add those things people can get your accounts easy. So i would be very careful if you did do it.

Actually, do a google search and you will see many more complaints of being hacked after using questhelper.

I myself don't believe that either program is inherently dangerous but you have to be careful using any add-on.

- Do not load any ad-ons that contain .exe
- Do not use any sites that automatically update your add-ons.
- Always manually install your add-ons (i.e. download the add-on an manually put it in you interface add-on folder

Lastly, get the WoW authenticator

[Huntn]

I'l like to know more about WoW Addons and hacking accounts. How is this facilitated? Is it really linked to an addon? I'm playing WoW on two Macs and I manually install the addons I use.

[Milfin]

I'l like to know more about WoW Addons and hacking accounts. How is this facilitated? Is it really linked to an addon? I'm playing WoW on two Macs and I manually install the addons I use.


In our 10 man guild we have 4 guys using macs. We've been raiding together since Wow Classic and none of us have ever been key logged. The people that I know that have been key logged usually pointed to downloading warcraft movies.

The authenticator is a real good solution plus they have the app now for your Iphone so no more keyfobs.

If you hate the idea of an authenticator just make a .txt file with your username and pw.. copy and paste it at the log on screen of wow.

[Huntn]

If you hate the idea of an authenticator just make a .txt file with your username and pw.. copy and paste it at the log on screen of wow.

What are you saying?

[Plutonius]

What are you saying?

He is saying that if you paste the name and passwords into the login, you don't have to worry about a keylogger watching you type them in.

I would stick to the authenticator

[QuantumLo0p]

OP here...

Great idea if someone suspects logging.

Just a quick update, I have been using Carbonite since shortly after my original post. I am glad to report everything seems to be fine. I have not had the opportunity to try Questhelper yet but may swap out Carbonite for Questhelper just to give it a shot and do a real comparison.

I also use Auctioneer but I know I am not using it to its potential. A question for another thread perhaps...

BTW, I am now almost to mid 40's on my human warrior. Man, what a pain to level but plate armor at 40 helped a lot. Not to mention enhancements. I think I spent 100G on Chromite plate as soon as I hit 40. I can't remember but I think I have about 4500 in armor. Been using the mouse for moving around but now I have to relearn using the keyboard so I can do pvp battlegrounds! I can't believe how much there is to this game! It sure would have been helpful to have read some sort of "getting started" docs. Unfortunately I first installed the trial dvd which had no documentation and I did not read anything until I bought the Battle Chest which had a game manual and two strategy guides.

I am with my third guild; it's a mature, social, casual lvling guild that does some occasional raiding. The first two guilds had a lot of drama I didn't care to be a part of. Plus there were a couple of players into role playing which REALLY caught me off guard.;)

Having lots of fun,
:)

[QuantumLo0p]

The authenticator is a real good solution plus they have the app now for your Iphone so no more keyfobs.

The iPhone/Touch app can do authentication codes? I have it on my Touch but have not tried it yet.