All below package names are from the Arch repositories. Some packages are exclusive to the AUR only.
Windowmaker dockapps may require manual source code fixes.

Required packages

the bare minimum of this setup

xorg-server                 - I don't use Wayland and almost nothing on this list supports it.
windowmaker                 - The desktop. Self explanatory.
wmclock                     - The clock, you'd be a loser without one.
wmsystemtray                - Support for XDG tray icons, required for many applications.

Optional packages

stuff I like to use, part of xinitrc or basic utils
substitute/remove packages and edit configs as needed

ly                          - Minimal TUI-based session manager.
kitty                       - OpenGL 3.2 terminal emulator.
starship                    - Bourne shell prompt customizer.
ttf-mononoki-nerd           - Special glyphs for Kitty and Starship. Part of nerd-fonts.
picom                       - Compositor for drop shadows and hardware-accelerated rendering.
kmix                        - KDE's Qt frontend for ALSA.
xscreensaver                - Screensaver pack for X server by Jamie Zawinski.

Extra applications

things i rely on for my day-to-day but aren't part of the core setup

linux-zen                       - Fork of the Linux kernel with micro-optimizations geared towards video games.
xosview                         - Basic system resource monitor for various POSIX X11 systems.
informant                       - ARCH LINUX ONLY. Alerts you of archlinux.org news updates when you update your packages.
alien_package_converter	        - Converts between various packaging formats (slackware tarball, deb, rpm, etc).
debtap            	        - Converts Debian packages to Arch Linux packages.
firefox                         - Gecko-based web browser. Substitute with Librewolf if you're afraid of the glowies.
seamonkey                       - Fork of the old-school Netscape/Mozilla suite. Sucks for browsing but has a cool email client.
steam                           - Digital game storefront and gaming social media platform.
vesktop                         - Frontend for Discord's web client. Not amazing but works better than the official one.
psi-plus                        - Development branch of Psi, the cross-platform XMPP / Jabber client.
mumble                          - Free software Teamspeak alternative.
gimp                            - Free software bitmap graphics editor.
inkscape                        - Free software vector graphics editor.
clementine                      - Qt5 Music player w/ Last.fm integration. Can substitute with Amarok 2+ or 1.4 (Trinity).
mpv                             - Minimalist, no-bullshit free and open source video player.
youtube-viewer                  - Terminal frontend for Youtube powered by yt-dlp and mpv.
gpu-screen-recorder-gtk         - Screen capture tool designed with GPU vendor optimizations in mind, similar to NVIDIA Shadowplay.
obs-studio                      - GUI frontend for FFMPEG meant for production-quality livestreaming. I use this to screenshare over RTMP.
easyeffects                     - GNOME (yuck) app to add VST filters to sound I/O and mute certain programs in screen capture. REQUIRES PIPEWIRE!
virt-manager                    - Frontend for QEMU/KVM. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/QEMU for prerequisite setup.
ckb-next                        - Free software reimplementation of Corsair iCUE for select keyboards.
protonmail-bridge               - Local IMAP server for encrypted Proton.me accounts.
wireguard-tools                 - Terminal controls and daemon for ProtonVPN.
qbittorrent                     - Free Qt5 file sharing program for the Bittorrent protocol.
soulseekqt                      - Free Qt5 client for the Napster-like file sharing network.
gitahead                        - GUI frontend for Git version control.
howl                            - Vim-esqe GUI text editor.
code                            - Free software branch of Micro$oft's lightweight Electron IDE. (lots of yucky words there...)
intellij-idea-community-edition - Swing-based IDE for writing Java and Kotlin software.