An Addon for everything!

I gave everything a bit of a shuffle a couple weeks ago, mostly because I needed more help watching my Focus (Lich King) target’s cast bar (Defile) and who is being targeted (Me, or someone else in the raid). I switched to Shadowed Unit Frames. But changing my unit frames led me into making other changes.

Because I don’t PVP much these days and very rarely heal so VuhDo isn’t nearly as prominent in this layout as it has been in the past. I’ve also switched back to the default Combat Text because I just like the positioning of the text over the targets so much for AoE.

I thought it might be worth consolidating everything into a single post.

The Interface – Out of Combat

Out of combat, in raid

Out of combat, in raid, with add ons marked

The Interface – In Combat

In combat, in raid

In combat, in raid, with add ons marked

Add ons

Bloody Font | Combat Text
This tiny little mod will replace the default font for combat text with any TTF font file you want to use. I’m using Dafxter at the moment because the characters in the set are smaller than your average character font set and even double size critical hit numbers render quite well. Most fonts, including the default one, look jagged and pixelated on my screen.

Decursive | Raid/Unit Frames
Click to Dispel Magic and Cure Disease on any raid or party member. VuhDo can do this just as well, but I like this function to be separated out. My post about Decursive is here.

Dominos | Action Bars
Every spell bar or button, including my inventory and bags, are positioned and modified using Dominos. I like to leave a couple big button spaces free so I can move in fight specific spells eg Pyschic Scream for Lady Deathwhisper. My Shadowfiend pet bar appears in the gap right in the middle. My post about Dominos is here.

Deus Vox Encounters | Raid Boss Mod
A lot of people use Deadly Boss Mods for raid encounter timers and announcements. I switched to Deus Vox and stuck with it because it uses so many audio cues for the warnings. You can customize every single boss encounter and turn on only the warnings and bars that you need to know about. Deus Vox also comes with its own Proximity/Range finder (see above my mini map) and its own boss health bar (right of the mini map).

Elkano’s Buff Bars | Buff and Debuffs
I have a 4 column buff/debuff bar layout (you can see three of the four columns in these screen captures). From left to right:

1. Special buffs (not displayed) – includes things like Heroism, Power Infusion and Storm Power (if you remember Hodir), basically anything that will change how I cast temporarily goes here. These are scaled up significantly and coloured green.
2. Debuffs – in the screen capture you can see Chill of the Throne. I make sure my debuffs are very prominent and show both the icon and the name in text. They are coloured by the type of debuff (poison is green). They also work as timers which is really handy for watching important debuff countdowns like Blood Queen’s Essence of the Blood Queen and Sindragosa’s Instability stacks. I don’t know how I’d play with the default debuff icons! This is one of the most important parts of my interface.
3. Self Buffs – the tiny little line of self buffs is my readycheck checklist. Should contain at any given time Shadowform, Inner Fire, Vampiric Embrace, Flask of the Frost Wrym and Well Fed. I rarely look at this list once I enter combat but any trinket or gear procs show up here.
4. Buffs from others – occasionally I will scan this list to make sure I’m in range of a totem but otherwise I ignore it during combat.

Lathere’s post about Elkano’s Buff Bars is here.

ForteXorcist | DoT Monitor/Spell Timer
Another game changing mod. ForteXorcist tracks every single one of my active DoTs, across all mobs, during combat. Makes multi-dotting much easier and lets me track what mob has Devouring Plague even when I’m targeting something else. Unfortunately it doesn’t track DoTs on your Focus target. Or at least I can’t figure how to get ForteXorcist to track that. My post about ForteXorcist is here.

gChat | Chat Pane
A little add on that neatens up the Chat window considerably. All the buttons are hidden as is the input bar until you type “/” or hit Enter.

Omen | Threat Meter
The standard Threat Meter. Mine only shows up when I’m in combat.

Quartz | Cast Bar
Measures latency and displays it as part of the cast bar. An essential for any caster. My post about Quartz is here.

Recount | Damage Meter
The standard Damage Meter. I try not to look at it during combat.

SexyMap | Mini Map
Makes my mini map look good, hides all the buttons and things like the calendar and time until you hover your cursor over the map.

Shadow Green Light | Shadow Priest Mod
A mod that calculates whether it’s worth recasting Shadow Word: Pain based on how many debuffs are on your target and how many debuffs are available with your raid composition.

Shadowed Unit Frames | Raid/Unit Frames
Replaces the player, target and focus frames in my user interface. You can use Shadowed Unit Frames to draw frames for party members and raid members too, but I use VuhDo to do that. Sometimes it will display a boss frame, but not consistently for all bosses. I’m thinking about turning this feature off.

Tidy Plates | Name Plates
Replaces the default name plates with something a little prettier. You can download a few different skins if you don’t like the default design.

VuhDo | Raid/Unit Frames
The best healing raid frame add on out there. Even though I rarely heal VuhDo compacts all the important information about what’s going on around me in the raid – who is dead, who is being resurrected, who has DCed, who is a ghost, who has aggro etc – into a small space. It also shows who has been raid marked which is really handy when you’re running a boss mod like Deadly Boss Mods or Deus Vox Encounters so you can quickly identify the raid members with Spores in Festergut, Unchained Magic in Sindragosa, Mind Controlled in Lady Deathwhisper just to name a few. Lathere has written two posts about VuhDo: here and here.

Fine-tuning

My user interface is definitely a work in progress. I’ll always be tinkering.

Eventually I plan to bring my player, target and focus frames down underneath my cast bar. The other thing I’ve noticed is that the Deus Vox bars and warnings really get in the way – they tend to overlap my damage output numbers or get in the way of my target’s name plate.

ForteXorcist stops tracking DoTs on a target if I set that target to my be my Focus. I find it much harder to track DoTs when they’re listed in two different places and in two formats. I wish I could figure out a way to keep ForteXorcist tracking my Focus target.

And finally, I think I need to set up some kind of tool tip add on. My tool tips usually appear in the very bottom right corner of my screen and overlap my menu bars there. I’m not sure where I want my tooltips displayed, but I know that I need a special spot for them and an add on that can put them where they’re meant to go.

My UI during raid, out of combat

My UI, with mods labeled

Mods Visible on the Screen

Dominos is used to modify & move my spell action bars, XP bar and bags. To lessen the clutter on my screen I have Bars on both the left and the right at 10% opacity, so you only see the buttons when you hover over them.

Vuhdo is a raid frame replacement and click casting addon. As a healer this is the most prominent part of my interface.

Elkano BuffBars replaces the default icons representing the buffs applied to your character. I have mine listed vertically under my portrait.

SexyMap hides all your mini map buttons and makes your mini map look good! Also includes map/location coordinates, if you’d like them.

Decursive makes cleansing a simple matter of clicking the highlighted squares, with Lath I can left-click to remove curses and right-click to abolish poison.

Recount is an in-game damage meter that allows you to keep track of your DPS and healing output during boss fights.

Omen allows you to keep track of your threat in comparison to your tanks and other party/raid members.

eePanels2/Sunn Art Viewport The screenshot above was taken using eePanels2, however after overwhelming comments pointing me to Sunn Art Viewpoint, this is now installed and has been configured. My interface with Sunn Art Viewport looks similar, however, the video display ends just above the Vuhdo/Omen/Recount section leaving a solid black empty background behind all those mods.

What you Dont See, But I Do Use!

Quartz to replace the default cast bar.  As an Oceanic player this is a must! It shows you visually how much latency is affecting your spell cast time so you can compensate.

Mikes Scrolling Battle Text to replace the default combat text options and separate my incoming heals (from myself/other players – left side of my character) and my outgoing heals (right side of my character). I love this mod because it plays a sound and notifies me on screen when Wild Growth is off cool down.

Deadly Boss Mods to keep me aware of important boss encounter stuff – light bombs to enrages.

Additional Mods I use, and Recommend

Combuctor to combine all my bags into one.

Atlasloot lets me know what loot drops are available in each raid & dungeon boss.

RatingsBuster helps me compare item stats in a matter of seconds without leaving the game.

RandomMount because I don’t want any of my handsome mounts feeling missed out! This mod intelligently selects the most suitable mount type for me to fly/ride.

RandomPet because I have a number of pets under my care, this mod randomly brings one out so they all get the love and attention they deserve.

Where to Start

If reading this blog post has inspired you to start tinkering with your own UI then I suggest you have a read through some of the articles Cass wrote when she first started her journey.  Cass has done a series of mod guides which should help you feel comfortable customizing the mods to better blend into your UI design.  You can find these articles here.

Changing your raid frames is always a big step if your new to mods and add ons.  If you are keen to use Vuhdo and need some help setting it up, your in luck because the add on authors are very responsive.  The best place to start after downloading the mod, is the Vuhdo Wiki.

I want to finish this with a final piece of advice for anyone who uses mods while playing WoW.  Download WoW Matrix and create a shortcut to the application on your Desktop.  Every time a patch comes out mods cause widespread chaos in a raid.  Having WoW Matrix lets you update any out of date mods to the latest version with minimal effort required.

Action Shot!

]]> http://www.hotsdots.com/2009/08/the-evolution-of-my-ui-final/feed/ 11 http://www.hotsdots.com/2009/08/the-evolution-of-my-ui/ http://www.hotsdots.com/2009/08/the-evolution-of-my-ui/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:48:21 +0000 Lathere http://www.hotsdots.com/?p=795 Over the years I have played WoW my UI has changed. From using the standard interface, to dabbling with mods, I have slowly “evolved” to what I feel is a more sophisticated and user friendly interface for my game play. My biggest challenge has been mod customisation. I need things to be pretty user friendly after install otherwise it is all too much and I give up on the mod all together. I went through my screenshot folder today and have picked out pictures of my many UI attempts some of which are quite embarrassing but I’m going to share anyway!

My 1st Raiding UI

My UI When I Was First Raiding Karazhan

Mods were still a new and exciting thing for me back in my early Karazhan days.  As you can see we are still using the ingame sound, vent was something that seemed silly – why install another program when you could just use the ingame version!  Back in this era, I was using:

• Titan Panel
• Decursive
• Omen – this was fairly new and exciting, most people were still using the very popular KLH Threat Meter
• Deadly Boss Mods

And yes, people are hovering in the air (hence why I originally took this screeny) there used to be a bug which sent people who died during the Chess encounter back into The Menagerie (Curator’s Room) and plonk them in the air.  It certainly made us laugh!

My Healbot Experimentation Phase

My Healbot Experimentation Phase

This was a fairly short period of my raiding life when I tried to use Healbot. While I have heard it is now greatly improved, back in the day when I was tinkering around with it Healbot hated Tree Form. Most of my other mod choices have remained.

This screeny was taken during a naked gnome race to Booty Bay. I’ve always wanted a gnome with pink hair…. one day perhaps!

Discovering Recount

You Mean… Decursive Can Move?

When I look at this picture, the first thing I think is “Thank God I Finally Managed To Move the Decursive Buttons!” Aside from my new found discovery of how to move Decursive squares off my mini map, my mod list has also grown and changed.  I’ve discovered Recount and have also installed Quest Helper which makes questing a breeze. Through this phase I used:

• Fubar
• Atlas
• Decursive
• Recount
• Omen
• Deadly Boss Mods
• Quest Helper

An Over Ambitious Disaster

2009 – The Year Of The UI Overhaul

Ok that screenshot above is a terrible mess…. urghhh. I decided to experiment with Grid, Healbot I had learnt was not for me and I was sure that with the right raid frames I could improve my healing… really take it up to the next level. Unfortunately I had found that Grid was taking me a while to get used to, so I played not only with Grid, but also the standard Raid Frames taking up a chunk of my screen so I could still feel in control.

Other mods of note in this screenshot is my newfound discovery of Elkano’s Buff Bars, which I am still using today. I have also installed Spartan UI, which at the time I thought was beautiful. I look at it now and just think, meh…. not worth the reduced MS and frame rates. Mods in this screenshot include:

• Spartan UI – The big grey bar at the bottom
• Chincilla – A mod that allows you to move your Minimap
• Prat – Chat mod that colours the name of the person talking to their class colour & adds a time stamp
• Fubar
• Omen
• Recount
• Decursive
• Elkano’s Buff Bars
• Grid

Vuhdo I Love You!

Taking Control of My UI

After my major overhaul attempts, I got exhausted with trying to make it all work. I went back to standard UI raid frames and layout for about a month before I was ready to dive back in. I wanted things to be simple this time. I still wanted a better raid frames system but I knew I was never trying either Healbot or Grid again. I was ready to start looking into XPerl when I saw a Plus Heal forum talking about a new mod called Vuhdo. I decided to take the plunge and give it a try and I simply love it.

During my UI attempt, I also tried Dominos based on Cass’s advice and by complete accident stumbled across a mod called Sexy Map… which is great because it hides all the mod buttons until you hover over the map. Mods used during this minimalist phase are:

• Dominos
• Vuhdo
• Recount
• Omen
• Decursive
• Deadly Boss Mods
• SexyMap

eePanels2

Tweaking & Nit Picking

I knew I was near the end of my UI journey.  I had finally found raid frames that I liked and I had a group of staple mods that I was now comfortable with.  I wanted to keep everything towards the bottom of my screen with the raid frames taking front and centre position so I could easily heal and view the events surrounding my character at the same time.

I discovered eePanels2 which allows you to put colored panels on your screen to better break up your layout.  In the screenshot above I have 1 Panel which is a stark black in which the majority of my “workshop” is based. Mods used in this screenshot are exactly the same as those listed above, I’ve just added eePanels2 & Elkano Buff Bars.

My final UI is similar but more simplistic again.  I am still happy with the layout shown in this screeny but I found when doing Flame Leviathan – Orbituary (4 Towers) the black panel covered up too much of my screen and blocked part of my vehicle.  As I generally am the gunner for a demolisher and need to constantly scout the ground for Pyrite, this wasn’t good enough.

Stay tuned for a separate post covering my final UI (once I get it all working again with the new patch!) and each mod used & how I got it to work together!

*Update* Evolution of my UI: Final has been posted.

For the last couple of years I have been playing World of Warcraft on a laptop computer with wireless internet connection. Turning off Recount improved the performance of my laptop during raids so I learned to make do with the default interface. Playing using the default interface isn’t a bad thing. It means that on patch day you don’t feel completely disoriented and you don’t suffer through days or weeks of “what addon is throwing these errors?!”.

But now I have a brand new computer that can handle addons and I want to stop drooling over the beautifully uncluttered interfaces I have seen in user videos and create my own.

My history with interface addons

MetaHuD moves your health/mana bar information to the center of your screen

Back when I first started raiding I was playing a rogue and spent my time looking from the middle of my screen and flicking back to the very top left of my screen to monitor combo points.

At the time I experimented with MetaHud. HuD stands for Heads Up Display and it helped me keep my eyes focused in the center of the screen.

I played for quite some time with MetaHud simply added to my default raiding interface. It didn’t remove any of the existing elements, just displayed a duplicate of my health bar, my energy bar, my combo points as well as my target’s health bar neatly around my character.

I loved it. I felt like I was more aware and more in control of what was going on.

The holy grail

But I’m a designer at heart. Even while I grew dependent on MetaHud a part of me was frustrated that it was duplicating information. I didn’t like turning off the default portraits because I couldn’t do simple things like leaving a party or self-targeting with MetaHud.

So this time around I’m going to build an interface that feeds me the information I want to know and simplifies my interface at the same time. I want maximum space to see the action please!

Design goals

The only way I know how to approach something like this is to try and get specific about what I want my interface/s to do, what information I want to be prominent and then try and make it happen using what’s available.

First off I know that I will be building slightly different interfaces because I have different requirements when I am DPSing on Cassandri than when I am healing on Xata.

Cassandri’s Interface (Shadow Priest)

I’d really like to be reminded when some abilities come off cooldown (notably Mind Blast) and make my own DoTs/debuffs on the target very large and visible. Seeing my own health and mana is important and I’d like to be able to see how many of my raid members are alive and how much mana they have too (for Hymn of Hope situations) although this is much less important. The center of the screen must be the focus because I need to see what’s happening under my feet in order to react quickly.

Very Important

• Visual emphasis or highlight when Mind Blast (or other abilities) come off cooldown
• My DoTs on the target
• My own health and mana bars
• Focus on center of screen/what’s happening under my feet

Important

• Being able to click and target myself or fellow raid members (mostly to apply Fortitude after a battle res etc)
• Who in the raid is dead/alive and how much mana they have
• Text instead of icons for buffs (I’m always hovering over the icons in order to read what buffs are what)
• Seeing healing done via Vampiric Embrace (mostly this is so I know when VE is up and working)

Not Important

• Chat (my guild uses Vent almost exclusively during raids)
• Mini map

Additional Considerations

• Sometimes I will need to switch talent specialisations and heal for a few fights. Whatever healing system that I put in place for Xata must be available to Cassandri without logging in and out.

Xata’s Interface (Restoration Shaman)

For Xata I need something that clearly shows what totems I have down. Blizzard intends to modify how totems work somewhat in the next Patch, so I won’t spend too much time working on this part of the interface until I see more.

Most importantly I need a really efficient raid frame/healing system. Up til now I’ve been a big fan of Healbot and I still think this is a great healing addon for Shadow Priests (who only need to heal occasionally and have most of their keys taken up with damage spells). I’m willing to try other addons for Xata – getting the healing right is the most important thing.

To sum up Xata’s requirements:

• What totems are down, and how long they will last
• Water Shield (on me) and Earth Shield (on my target) charges
• Efficient healing raid frames system

What’s next?

View/read all the articles in this series.