What are plugins?
Minecraft is one of the most popular games in history. It has endless opportunities to do as you wish and you can express endless creativity, all this with building blocks. Mojang AB revolutionized gaming with Minecraft and its concept. However, there are still some shortcomings. Mojang has failed to implement some critical features. Some of these shortcomings are everything from a lack of an anti-cheat, queue system, to everything else you might have wished for. With such a huge demand for all kinds of features, there is only one solution, Plugins.
What exactly is a plugin? Plugins are extensions to your game, made by third-party creators. Compared to mods, plugins do not alter the game itself. In spite of that, they only need to be installed on the server’s side. No modifications are necessary for your own game files to get them working.
In this blog, I will cover my top 5 plugins. Picking a general top 5 plugin list is quite difficult, as there are plenty of plugins out there. These rankings are mostly based on what I find the most important for a server to function at an optimal level. I will briefly go through each plugin, and mention a few features it holds. Now onto the rankings!
5. Holographic Displays
Holographic displays let you display text in-game without using those boring and tiny signs. You project the text through holograms which you can place anywhere. Commonly it is used to display important information, like rules, commands, places etc. in the spawn and hub of a server. How you utilize plugins is entirely up to you.
You can download Holographic Displays here! You can learn how to install Holographic Displays onto your server here!
Holographic Displays Features
Fast and easy. Holographic Displays is super easy to use. You can easily set up holograms with commands, and it does not take you any more than two minutes to set them up.
Render images. You can even render images with a simple command. Using the command you can set up any image in-game as a hologram.
Display items. With the plugin, you can also display all kinds of Minecraft items in the holograms.
4. WorldGuard
TWorldGuard is one of the greatest plugins to protect your server's builds. This plugin has been around for a long time and is constantly being updated to keep up with Minecraft. This plugin does more than just provide protection; you can use flags to make particular variables true or false, such as PvP or player damage. This plugin includes everything you will need to safeguard the world, and it's simple to set up and operate.
WorldGuard Features
Game rules. Set game rules on specific areas. For example, if food regenerates, how does health regenerate, etc. You can also disable the likes of PvP and TNT across the claim and world.
Blacklist Items. You can blacklist certain items and blocks. This will make them unusable. For example sponges, end crystals, you name it.
Greif prevention. You can easily prevent grief with WorldGuard. For example, you can limit different interactions, fire spread, pistons and so forth. You can also limit these to certain players or ranks.
3. ClearLag
ClearLag is perfect for any server. ClearLag removes items and entities to reduce lag. It also has countless other features to prevent lag, for example stopping TNT chain reactions, real-time module controls and limiting AI processing attributes. Hence it achieves the number three spot!
ClearLag Features
TNT chain-reaction. You can stop and prevent TNT from lagging out your server if someone decides to blow up 500 TNT for their new base.
Limit mobs. You can easily limit mob spawns, hence decreasing the number of entities in your world
Decreasing RAM/CPU usage. Through its numerous features, ClearLag greatly decreases your RAM/CPU usage which is essential for a great multiplayer experience.
2. Vault
Vault is number two on my list! Vault is utilized for permissions, chat, and also an economy API! Vault is like glue for plugins, it makes different kinds of plugins compatible with each other. For example, it increases the compatibility of permissions, chat and economy plugins. You can download Vault here! You can learn how to install Vault onto your server here!
Vault Features
Glue plugins. Enables Minecraft server administrators to simply hook plugins into each other via the Vault API.
Economy. Widely used by a lot of other plugins for economy servers. Highly compatible with other plugins. This plugin is a must-have for any server having an economy.
Solves issues. Vault will solve compatibility issues by being intuitive and providing plugins with support for any system that they may use.
1. EssentialsX
Coming in at the number one stop is EssentialsX! EssentialsX is the continuation of the original essentials plugin, for any of you OGs. EssentialsX includes several performance enhancements and fixes on top of the original Essentials, as well as plenty of new useful features for servers. It has over 130 commands and countless features for both small and large servers. You can download EssentialsX here! You can learn how to install EssentialsX onto your server here!
EssentialsX Features
Server Warps. With server warps, you can easily teleport to places on your Minecraft server. The location of these warps is decided by you, the owner. In addition, you can customize teleport times, warp requirements, you name it!
Spawn Location. You can yourself decide where players spawn when they first connect. Using the spawn features lets you create a central hub for your players to gather which is easy to access.
Player Homes. Your players can set their home with commands. By setting a home you set up a point that you can easily teleport to. You can let your players have multiple homes, or just one.
Conclusion
Hopefully, some of these plugins intrigued you, and be sure to tell me if you agree with this list, or if you have a list of your own! Remember to always install these plugins from the official pages or creators. You can often determine if it is the official one based on the date published, amount of downloads and using reputable sites like Bukkit and Spigot.