Fabfilter for single-band compression, EQ, harmonic excitation and individual-track limiting. ValhallaDSP for reverbs. Tritik tkDelay for most delay needs, Timeless2 for the fancy stuff. iZotope Ozone for mastering. Meldaproduction for dynamic EQ and transient design. 
 
I have plenty of alternatives to all of these, and lots of special-case processors, but the above comprise the first-string team. I ceased being a collector maybe three years ago, when I realized I already had everything I need. Actually, three or five of everything I need.
 

I do like the multi band stuff in the melda collection-like a delay on only the mid to upper frequencies. Ditto on chorus and the likes.

EQ:FabFilter Pro Q2 and sometimes the Waves Pultecs for flavor. I don't think I've had another EQ open in a year now that I think of it.

Compression: FabFilter Pro C2, Waves RVox, Waves Fairchild, Cakewalk CA2A(!), Waves Kramer Pie, Native Instruments Solid Series bus comp (SSL type). I experiment with those a lot more.

Reverb: ValhallaDSP, Waves IR1, recently FabFilter Pro R. Sometimes something like RVerb or the reverb from the BlueTubes bundle when I need something lo fi sounding.

Delay: I guess I'm pretty basic with delays, I really like Waves H Delay and sometimes SuperTap. Was interested to hear about Tritik tkdelay, I'll check that out. Have used and liked Sound toys Echoboy, but I can't bring myself to get into the iLok thing. I used Sonitus a lot before H Delay and it did great for me, just really annoying to automate because you can't do left and right simultaneously (link is ignored when automating).

Modulation: I'll usually try lots because they can sound so different on different material. The BlueTubes chorus can be quite nice, I also try all pedals from my amp sims. Waves Enigma and MetaFlanger are cool.

Distortion/Saturation: Klanghelm SDRR often hits the spot, I recommend it. I love FabFilter Saturn. Recently got Trash 2 in a bundle and managed to find a use for it straight away. Waves Kramer Master Tape sometimes. And Waves NLS. I honestly don't really use it religiously like a console where I insert it on every track and bus, but it can give a nice interesting flavor on individual tracks and some of the variations between the modeled channel strips are actually quite big, it's worth stepping through them. I haven't had it for very long but I've found it much more useful than the Cake included console sims so far.

Multiband: FabFilter Pro MB takes care of most stuff. I guess Saturn counts as multiband. Sometimes Waves Vitamin if a source is really lacking something. Often I find I have to dial it back after I've set it though.

Guitar: SGear 2 mostly. I have a bunch of others but I guess the point of the thread is "where do you usually find yourself" and I often start and end up there.

Bass: Waves CLA Bass. I can't figure out what it does all the time but it often does exactly what I didn't know I needed. I'm not a fan of "black box" plugins but I'll admit I often struggle with bass so it really helps. Waves Bass Rider is a staple too.

Mastering: Ozone and Waves L2 for quick.

Special: Waves S1, Vocal Rider, Melodyne

If anything this thread shows that you can get decent results almost regardless of the tools.
But it might also end up as a shopping list :)

Honestly I don't look at it as wasted money, having way more plugins than I use most of the time. For me, I learn a lot for instance about the sound and functionality of "compressor A" because I also have "B through Z" to compare to. It makes me a lot surer that I picked the right one, and it helps me decide the next time which one might work well for a given source. And sometimes something you almost never use turns out to be the solution to a specific thing.

I tend to use the BReverb that came with Cakewalk.
Other than that, my go-to's are the T-Racks Classic Series and Waves' Eddie Kramer effects.  And for vocals, Waves' Vocal Rider gets used every time.  

Soon to be on every song I produce, but not necessarily a plug-in per se, is Mixbus 32c V4. I call this my "console".
 
But, before that, I'd say my recording/production go-to plugs are:
Fabfilter Q2, L and C.
Sonitus Compressor
UAD (top tier is Helios, SSL)
BOZ Manic Compressor
Slate VMR
Slate's VerbSuite
ReLab's LX-480
Kontakt
 
Mastering:
Ozone 7 Advanced (for the pop oriented stuff)
IK's Lurrsen Mastering Console (for the hard rock stuff)
Slate's FG-X (for the metal stuff)
 
Like you Maurice I have a boat load of stuff that I use from time to time but the above list is generally on most every project somewhere.

Speaking of vocals, gotta give love to Melodyne and/or Revoice Pro 3.3.

pwalpwal
what's the difference between hard rock and metal?

That's a subjective question I'll never answer for the obvious reason that I know what it means to me and that may not mean the same to you.

pwalpwal
it may seem like a setup but it was a genuine question
hereabouts, i'd say, say, led zep or sabbath are hard rock and metallica are metal? but that gives away my total lack of thing thereabouts, is it just an age thing?

Close enough for jazz (as the saying goes).

I use minimal plug-ins, usually. By far the most common one is Exponential Audio's Nimbus reverb. It's my goto verb, and is in virtually every project I do. Others that see moderate use: Valhalla's Shimmer, BlueTubes Tempo Delay (which I really like on cinematic pianos and similar), and some of Cakewalk's plugins (including the Sonitus stuff, which I still find useful even after so many years). Occasionally, I'll call up the T-Racks compressors, but not often. I do use the Waves Stereo Imager from time to time.
 

What's in your wallet?

 
Very little cash after all the VSTs I've purchased.

bapu
Very little cash after all the VSTs I've purchased.

I pretty much echo the Cakewalk plug ins.  Getting the mix right (to my silly ears anyway) first.  While I really believe most of what I go for are Platinum tools first, my extra plugin toolbox sets are...
 
Waves.   I started with one of the basic sets, then I just kept buying them individually when 1 - I wanted to try something different and 2 - had a few dollars to spend.   Started with the maximizers through L3-16 then went to bass enhancement,  then vocal enhancement, then verbs, then liner phase tools (before we had the two sweet LP tools).  The one tool I use the most is that C6 - it finds its way into spots where I can't seem to EQ well enough, which is about every time I work on trying to get bass and bass drum to fit in the mix..  I believe I have everything I want for now.  Little bit at a time, when I was ready and had time to learn.  Especially around the winter holiday season, they had some pretty nice deals.
 
Next up for purchase is Ozone 7 advanced.   I like the idea that I can use the effects on channels AND when mastering, I can 'hear' through codecs.  There's more in there, those kind of come to the top for me.   
 
An honorable mention goes to all the freeware out there.  MeldaProductions comes to mind formost.  Their audio visualization tools like Manalyzer, MLoudnessAnalyzer, MStereoScope find a spot on the Master buss almost every mix.  
 
Current wallet outgo is for a different kind of plugin - mics  (you gotta plug them in don't you??).    :o)    It wasn't until I tried a few really good mics that I found what I was trying to tweek for, but could never seem to achieve.
      
Come to think of it - I also find myself reaching for the MOTU hardware plugin stuff too.  Its actually quite good.  
 
Take care
 
LL

Anderton

ampfixer
The only thing I have added to both locations is Izotope Nectar 2. I use that because it very quickly gets me in the ball park to test ideas.

 
Can you elaborate? I know Nectar emphasizes the presets they include. By "getting you in the ball park to test ideas" does that mean the presets get you close and then you tweak them? Or that you use it to get you close, but then you use something else for the final version?
 
The reason why I'm asking should probably be a separate thread, so I'll start it.

The presets are very good. With my lack of experience I'm not afraid to let the pro's make suggestions as to what effects I might need for a given job or application. After I see what the preset suggests, then I can experiment and see how they affect the track. Sometimes a preset is great as is, but other times I may elect to shut off the built in effect and replace it with a stand alone that I'm more familiar with. For example, let's say the preset uses a saturation effect but I don't know it well. I'll shut off the internal saturation and add the Pro Channel tube saturator that I am more familiar with. 
 
If it wasn't for trying the preset I might have never thought to use saturation on the track. I educate myself by seeing what a third party thinks would be useful. Make sense?

Izotope Nectar 2.
Oh and Sonitus.
Westside Steve

pwalpwal
 
hereabouts, i'd say, say, led zep or sabbath are hard rock and metallica are metal? but that gives away my total lack of thing thereabouts, is it just an age thing?

that would be similar to how i see it, i have seen (heard) toni iommi say a number of times that he doesn't see black sabbath as heavy metal as such, but sees it more so as hard rock/heavy blues type of thing