Yes. I went and did it again. I changed my UI up drastically. Lately it is as though I love my UI for a while, and then suddenly one element ticks me off and it all changes. I’m starting to really miss the days when I only used one or two small mods to the default UI, but I’m after such a minimalistic approach that I just cannot go back to the default look anymore. Sad… isn’t it? And the best part, I’m wanting to change it again…

Anyway, I thought this might be a good time to give some screenshots of my UI’s evolution, so here we go in order of oldest to most recent starting with the first UI I put together that was not based on the stock UI (and a follow-up post will provide information on what I decide to do with my UI currently):

From July 2008

This layout served me quite well for a long time. My primary frustrations were with the haphazard placement of unit frames and the irritation from having buttons stretch all the way across the bottom of the window. This particular setup actually evolved some (while retaining the ugly factor), as shown here:

From September 2008

This one actually started to look better. Breaking myself from the long-time exposure to having the unit frames in the top left section of the screen started to really open my ideas on how to evolve my UI from this point.

From October 2008

From April 2009

And this is where I finally realized I needed to weed out a lot of the duplicated information I had taking up screen real estate. This is also where I started the drive to be even more minimalistic and actually be able to see the game’s graphics instead of just the information I needed to see per encounter.

From June and July 2009

The July revision is actually quite nice. Honestly, I could have left it alone and been fairly happy. I wanted to try to open up a little more screen space though, and decided to move a few things around. The result is the UI I am currently using (and am about to change):

Where will I take it from here? Absolutely no idea. I think I may play with state changes more to utilize fewer action bars, or perhaps just relocate the one to the right to not be obscured when I open my bags (for some reason I cannot use any bag addon, they simply irritate me and I have no idea why). Maybe I’ll completely revise it yet again and try to make the elements flow together better. Regardless, I’ll have another post coming in the next few weeks that shows the next iteration of my UI.

By now I’m sure the question of why my UI changes so much has crossed your minds. Well, it has a lot to do with the classes/roles I fill. I’ll end up with a UI setup I absolutely love for healing, but then it doesn’t work well for me tanking. Or I’ll love the minimalistic number of buttons I have on my Druid, only to find I’m short buttons on my Priest or Paladin. My goal is to have one UI setup that works across all of my characters, not to create individual interfaces per character. We’ll see if I get it right this time!

Just a quick link to the files and settings used to construct the UI featured in my previous UI Revisitation Results post.

The archive includes the version of each addon I am currently using and all of the associated settings. You’ll want to look at the folder structure and be certain to replace the names of the folders for account, server, and character with the appropriate information.

Files: WoW_Interface_Files.zip

It has been a while since I requested input regarding changing my interface yet again, and I have finally tweaked my UI to a point that both provides a good view of everything going on, is fairly minimalistic, and provides me with all of the pertinent information I need across any character I play. Read on for the details:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch! – Click to enlarge.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch! – Click to enlarge.

My goals were simple in reconstructing my UI: I like to see the game instead of having a screen full of information that blocks my view of what is happening, I wanted everything to mesh well together aesthetically, I wanted to be able to completely customize any aspect of the UI as time progresses, and I wanted to be able to use the exact same setup among any of my primary or alternate characters. In looking at various packages I found things that I liked, but then in practice I would find minor annoyances (such as blocking just a little too much of what I could see, or with one class or another having some unnecessary information), and eventually settled on taking individual addons and constructing an experience that met each of my goals.

The Addons

Bartender 4 – Anything I use regularly is bound to a key press, but I still like having the option of mousing over an ability or using a mouse click in the event I have some reason to do so. I’ve been using Bartender for a long time to achieve these goals, and the ability to customize visibility, bar changes based on any number of factors, and relocation of the bars however I see fit is ideal. (Note that I use ButtonFacade in order to customize the appearance of the buttons to ensure it meshes well with the UI.)

ag_Unitframes – I like minimal unit frame cluster on my desktop, and ad_Unitframes allows complete control over which frames are shown and when they are shown. Again, ideal for meeting my goals, and the look of the unit frames meshes well with the other UI elements present on screen.

DoTimer – It took a while to figure out how to customize DoTimer the way I wanted. I have one “anchor” for general buffs, one for debuffs, one for cooldowns, one for the targets of any spells or abilities, and one for specific self-buffs that I need to watch (like Savage Roar, Horn of Winter, Berserk, etc.). Not all of these are visible in the screenshots above, so I’ll try to remember to grab a screenshot while on my Druid that shows the way the target frame and associated timers behave.

Grid – I have long been a proponent of using Grid because of its sheer customizability. Again, it will take a while to configure (especially if new to using the addon), but having such a wealth of information available at a glance, and in such a minimalistic fashion, is ideal for my use and preferences.

Parrot – The benefits of showing scrolling combat text shouldn’t be overlooked, but having all of that text on the screen constantly is extremely annoying. Parrot allows the customization of not only how long the text stays, but whether crits should be shown differently, what direction any aspect of the combat text should be displayed (such as the way I have it set up, where heals go to the right, damage to the left, and cooldowns/procs/etc. go up) and what size text should be used. Another huge win in the customization department, and it fits well with the overall look and feel of the interface.

Decursive and Clique – I try to reserve keybindings for things I use all the time, so the ability to customize keypresses plus mouse clicks allows me the flexibility to have quick access to those things that are needed at a moment’s notice, but not always used. In addition, adding Decursive to the mix means I do not have to use precious keybindings or key plus mouse combinations for cleansing.

There are, obviously, more addons in use. The above are the central addons that comprise my UI however, and the driving forces behind what is presented onscreen at any given time. By all means ask if there is an aspect of my UI you are interested in that I did not cover!

My user interface has seen so many revisions and tweaks it isn’t even remotely funny anymore. It has literally become a mini-game for me at this point. I want to redesign it again, but this time I want to get it to a point that I’m happy enough with to actually leave it alone.

This brings me to my post today. How do you deal with juggling UI’s among the different roles that can be filled, either via dual-specs or multiple characters? Do you use different sets of addons per character/spec, or do you find a set of addons that do what you need across the board?

When it comes to appearance do you try to find ways to blend all of your addons together? If so how do you accomplish an overall aesthetic that doesn’t have components that stick out like a lime-green, neon light in a darkroom?

What addons do you find you absolutely cannot live without?

Do you aim for minimalism in on-screen addons or do you not worry about being able to see the game graphics?

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These are my goals for this redesign of my UI (which I’ll post when I get it done):

• Minimalism – I like to have all of the information I need in a concise manner, and still be able to enjoy watching the game instead of seeing my screen cluttered with boxes.
• Aesthetically pleasing – one of my current complaints about my UI is how certain elements do not blend well with others.
• Cross-spec/character use – I want to have one UI layout that works for my druid and priest in all of the available roles. Even better if it fits perfectly with my rogue and death knight as well.
• Concise – I’ve grown to the point of using too many addons (in my opinion), and some of the information presented overlaps. It is time to clean that up significantly.

This is going to, most likely, be a massive undertaking. Wish me luck!

I never seem to leave my UI alone, though the overall look and feel has stayed relatively similar for a while now. This time I embarked upon a crusade to lower the number of addons I use, thus reducing the memory footprint required for everything to run smoothly. I also wanted to enhance the look of my UI in a slightly more unified and streamlined manner, with the goal of keeping all information I need easily accessible right up front and visible. This is my current iteration:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

The Visible Addons:

• Button Facade
• Buffalo
• Classtimers
• Decursive
• Dominos
• Gear Score
• Grid
• kg Panels
• Outfitter
• Parrot
• Pitbull
• Prat
• Sexymap
• TinyStats
• TipTac

The Not So Visible Addons:

• ActionBar Saver
• AlphaMap
• Atlas
• AtlasLoot Enhanced
• AuctionLite
• BankItems
• Bayi’s Extended Quest Log
• Clique
• Deadly Boss Mods
• Fast Disenchant
• Fishing Buddy
• MoneyWiz
• Omen
• RatingBuster
• Recount
• Talented
• Tradeskills HD

The UI In Action:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

The Major Components:

Dominos

I’ve used Bartender for a long time, and will actually probably go back to using it due to a couple of minor issues I’ve encountered with Dominos (namely the buggy appearance of the pet and vehicle action bars). Dominos caught my eye for its ease of configuration and the ability to modify the size and location of the “Roll” window easily. All in all, both offer the same basic functionality, with Dominos being easier to configure (though after spending so much time with Bartender it is tough to imagine it as difficult by any means).

Pitbull and Classtimers

Pitbull Death Knight Frame

In a lot of ways I prefer ag_UnitFrames still, but the key component of what caught my eye was the gorgeous way the Death Knight’s runes are displayed in Pitbull. Overall these two addons are practically identical, and both have the same general level of complexity in configuration. I’ll definitely stick with Pitbull since the effect is almost identical, but the runes appearance shown above is just so much nicer than the small, flat bars at the bottom of the unitframe in ag_UnitFrames.

I’ve tried multiple timers for class abilities, and in the end I always seem to come back to Classtimers. I like DoTimer a lot, but two main things continue to irk me when using the addon: 1) the bars are not as easily noticeable, and I find myself ignoring them more often than not, and 2) I do not like the inability to separate the bars in DoTimer. I like having the target and focus bars adjacent to the target and focus frames, just like I prefer to have the player timers in the bottom/middle area of the screen. I do miss the separate cooldown timer in DoTimer though, so I may be combining the two to achieve exactly what I want.

Grid and Decursive

There is some redundancy in running both of these addons, since I have grid configured to show me poisons and curses as well, and I could configure Clique to achieve the exact same functionality as what Decursive offers, but I find that this works better for my playstyle. I use mouseover macros when healing, and it is much easier to not bind anything other than buffs with Clique, and just use Decursive for cleansing.

TipTac

I love this addon immensely. I can reposition the tooltips anywhere, and at a glance I can get all the information I need on hover. It also is not intrusive, and blends with my UI quite well. One of the nice features of TipTac is the complete ability to customize what is seen and what is not.

Closing Thoughts:

I’m in a constant state of tweaking my UI, so I have no doubt this will change yet again. In a lot of ways it has become a bit of a sub-game I suppose. I do not really have a reason to modify it nearly as often as I do, I simply decide it is time to change things up a little and go from there. Either way, this is my current UI… enjoy!

Now your UI is setup in a way that you are happy with, or at least it seems that way for now, and you’re ready to get to the real meat of this series. Good for you. I’m going to warn you, though, don’t be surprised if you end up changing your UI again after this post!

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Style One: The Clicker

The most basic way to heal is by clicking the spell you want to cast and then clicking on the intended target (or clicking on the target and then clicking the spell). Although this style works, my opinion is that this is the most inefficient method of healing available to any player. Some common side effects include:

• Feeling rushed to get heals on everyone.
• Feeling like a horrible healer because DPS is constantly dying as a result of not catching a heal quite fast enough.
• A sudden urge to drink. Heavily. And often.

The clicking style of healing is not necessarily a bad way to heal. Instead of giving up, or thinking there is no way one can possibly become a better healer, let’s look at one simple to make this playstyle work much more efficiently, and without trying to turn a clicker into another style player:

Use Clique (Curse Gaming Link). This addon really is a wonderful tool. I even use it for buffs so that I don’t have to keybind/macro Mark of the Wild, Gift of the Wild, or Thorns.

Clique allows the user to open the spellbook and, using any combination of buttons+clicks of the mouse, assign a spell to be cast when said combination is pressed. What’s that? Adding a button press changes the style of play and makes you uncomfortable? Yes, it does slightly. However, this is something that is very easy to grow accustomed to, and having one or two spells (Lifebloom and Rejuvenation would be my minimum recommendation) in a quickly and easily castable manner will make healing much, much easier.

Style Two: The Masochist

This is the person who never touches the mouse. The person who scoffs at the idea that there is any reason whatsoever to ever, ever move one’s hands away from the keyboard. These people can be very effective healers, although in my opinion they still are not the most efficient. Some common side effects of this style are:

• A need to drink. Seriously, learn to go have fun.
• Severe callouses on the fingertips.
• An inflated ego.

There really is not much to suggest for this playstyle. If you really just want to use the keyboard that much by all means do so. It makes things harder by requiring more keypresses to get the job done than needed, but you are should be a relatively efficient healer (although slower than my healing style, I guarantee it!)

Hopefully you are at least using macros to make your life a little easier, and if not here is an example to get you started:

/cast [modifier:ctrl] Rejuvenation; [modifier;shift] Regrowth; Lifebloom

This macro will cast Lifebloom when pressed, Regrowth when shift is held down and pressed, and Rejuvenation when control is held down and pressed. (Note that I’m not the best with macros, so if this is wrong let me know!)

Style Three: The Hybrid

The hybrid healer typically uses some combination of the keyboard and mouse, and covers many, many variations. There is no way I can truly cover them all, and so instead this section will focus on my style of healing.

I am a “mouseover” healer. I use macros/keybindings for my spells, and I use the mouse to “select” the recipient of my spells. When combined with something like Grid (hence my strong recommendation that it should be a part of anyone’s UI in the first installment of this series) makes for very efficient and quick healing.

An example of a macro I use:

#showtooltip Lifebloom
/cast [help][target=mouseover,help,nodead][target=player] Lifebloom

This macro casts Lifebloom on the target I have selected (if friendly) with the highest priority. If I do not have a player selected it casts Lifebloom on the friendly target I am hovering over with the mouse, and finally on myself if neither of the prior requirements are met. I use this priority simply because I find I make more mistakes having the mouse accidentally over someone instead of accidentally having someone targeted.

#showtooltip Rejuvenation
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use 14
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast [help][target=mouseover,help,nodead][target=player] Rejuvenation

This macro takes things a step further. I rarely ever use my trinkets manually. Although not necessarily ideal, I find that this macro is the best approach for me personally. Basically, everytime my trinket is on coooldown and I cast a Rejuvenation my trinket is used also. The extra couple of lines simply keep the annoying “You cannot use that item yet” text from appearing when I cast a Rejuvenation while the trinket is still on cooldown.

Some common side effects of this style of healing seem to include:

• Praise from others.
• Time to go afk during fights (briefly of course… that Lifebloom stack still needs to stay up).
• Plenty of time to read boss strats or blog posts while in combat.
• Mobile healing (otherwise known as jumping around like a fool and healing anyway).

Obviously I’m biased toward the “Hybrid” style of healing. In all honesty any of these styles will work fine, they just require some different techniques. The “Clicker” will probably feel more comfortable using some combination of Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Healing Touch, Swiftmend (and maybe Nourish). The “Masochist” will… well… to be honest I have no idea what this person would do. I’m sure it would be a challenge to them to be able to do it all. Regardless, if you want to cause yourself more anxiety and stress than necessary feel free, I’ll stick to my hybrid ways!

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These are all very generalized overviews. I’m happy to go into more detail if someone would like, just let me know. Until then look forward to the third segment of this series: The Healing Rulebook

PREFACE

There is one discussion that inevitably comes up when any two healers, whether the same class or not, talk for a while: “so, how do you typically heal? What addons do you use? Is your screen as cluttered as mine?”

This series of posts is not intended to try to say that there is only one way to heal, or one set of addons that works. In the end it all comes down to what works for each person and what is comfortable. This is my approach, and I typically find it helpful to hear how others do things in order to see if there is something else one can learn or do better.

This is part one, in which I explore setting up a UI that works for you. Part two will focus on the various healing styles and techniques that I encounter most. Part three will explain my healing style, as well as provide tips and tricks on how I approach healing.

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ADDONS (Building a UI that works for you!)

Full UI Image for Reference:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

I like to have a very clean, neat UI in appearance, but that does come at the expense of running a number of addons in order to achieve the appearance I want. These are the ones I recommend looking into most, with an idea of why (and in some cases alternatives that could prove better suited depending on personal preference):

• ag_UnitFrames
  (Alternatives: X-Perl, PitBull)
  Some type of unit frame modifier is, by all means, not necessary. I do not like the look of the default Blizzard UI. For a long time I used X-Perl, but I really wanted something a little cleaner and more lightweight in memory usage. In addition, I wanted the ability to hide the party frame at all times instead of just in a raid setting. For me, ag_UnitFrames has the best overall look, and provides all of the functionality I wanted.
  
• Bartender4
  (Alternatives: Dominos, Macaroon)
  This is another area one could argue against having a need to change, especially now that Blizzard includes the ability to toggle additional action bars on-screen with the default UI. I like having a little more control over what changes when I shift into different forms, and I like being able to rearrange and shrink the buttons in order to open up more screen space. Bartender is easy to configure once you understand how the paging options work, and is highly customizable.
  
  Side note: I tried Dominos since it was extremely easy to configure, but I did not like the lack of an easily noticeable out of range indicator. Were it not for that I probably would have swapped to Dominos at that point.
• Buffalo2
  Another addon I use purely for the ability to customize size, location, and appearance. I really have not found a better alternative, though I know of a couple that are basically identical.
  
• DoTimer
  Remember when Grid’s ability to display the Lifebloom timer was broken? I hated having to guess whether I was going to time the end of the stack correctly with all of the lag we were experiencing, and Classtimer was giving me errors left and right. DoTimer was finally updated, and I like the minimalistic appearance it provides. (I only use it for cooldowns now that Grid is working properly again, but it is nice and clean enough to stay in my UI.)
  
• Grid
  Let me start by saying that there are alternatives. I’m not a fanatic who states Grid is the only way to go. I do, however, feel as though Grid is the best way to go. Not only does it provide you with all the relevant information one could ever want to see at a glance, but is is much more flexible than any other alternative I’ve tried.
  
• kg Panels
  I only use this one to create a nice, semi-solid background behind the chat frame. There are simply too many places where the textures make things very difficult to read at a glance, and this is a very simple way to ensure ease of readability.
• Parrot
  (Alternatives: SCT)
  I really don’t feel as though there is an alternative to Parrot, but a lot of people swear by SCT. To me Parrot is much better looking, and it is extremely easy to keep track of important things based upon the direction the text scrolls.
  
• Prat
  PRat is one of those addons that doesn’t seem useful at first, but then you start to grow accustomed to seeing what it provides and cannot fathom going back. Basically, if you do not use any type of chat addon then I would not recommend worrying about one. For me, the most useful portions are the automatic color coding or names in chat, and the display of friend notes when people sign on (sometimes I have a tough time keeping track of who is who).
• Quartz
  To be honest, I typically never look at a cast bar on me anyway. There are times when I like to watch it though, and Quartz is a very nice, simple solution for displaying the cast bar in a clean way that fits in with my UI.
  
• Sexymap
  (Alternatives: Squeenix)
  This one really is pure preference. Again, I like a nice, clean look. I also like the ability to hide all those addon buttons/default UI buttons that I would like to keep accessible. Sexymap does this without a problem, and if using Squeenix instead I would use MinimapButtonBag in conjunction.
  

Once your UI looks the way you want, even if you decide the stock Blizzard UI is how you want to go, it is time to decide what style of healing feels most natural. Stick around, I’ll have that article up soon(ish)!

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Coming in Part Two: Healing Styles (Point and Clique? Macros? Keybindings?)

I never seem to be happy with my UI. Every time I change it things get better, and then I find something else I despise about the way I have it set up. I definitely want to garner feedback on this one, with screenshots preferably, but these are my overall goals:

• Minimalisic – I like being able to see everything I possibly can.
• Pretty – I’m the type of player that will use certain gear because it looks better as well, so yes my UI has to look good.
• Light Resource Usage – This I need to clarify a little. I have 4GB of RAM on a Core 2 Duo machine. I’m not hurting on resources in the least, but if addon memory usage goes over 100 MB I’m not normally a happy person.
• Easily configurable/tweaked – I can overlook this one to a point, as long as it makes it worth my while (for example, I adore Grid and will go to great lengths to work with getting it setup how I want it).

My most recent setup looks like this most of the time:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

There are already two major things that I want to change with my current setup:

1. I need to setup Buffalo to start right above the mini menubar and grow upwards (I simply didn’t get that far last night).
2. I am still unhappy with the way the target/focus frames look when I have them up, which you can see in this screenshot:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

In my mind, X-Perl looks great for the player frame (and for the party frame if you want to show it), but the target frames just don’t look that great to me. I know it is the same look, and actually looks ok for the most part, but it doesn’t have the same clean look as the rest of my UI.

I’m open to a complete makeover in order to really achieve my goals. This is a list of what I currently use that affects appearance (I’ll add links as I get a chance):

• Grid (plus some Grid addons naturally)
• Bartender4
• Parrot
• Prat
• X-Perl
• Sexymap
• Buffalo2
• DoTimer
• CowTip
• Outfitter

I’ve looked into Pitbull and ag_Unitframes, and although I liked aspects of both I had one major issue: lack of integration with the Druid Mana Bar addon. X-Perl adds this bar in when I shapeshift into one of the feral forms, allowing me to have no “extra” floating bar cluttering my UI somewhere. This may have finally changed, but I haven’t looked in quite some time.

In the end, this setup works very well for my preferences. I would love to be completely happy with the UI, but honestly I think I’m enough of a perfectionist that I’ll never be completely happy with it. I am, however, looking for suggestions. If I could be happier with the target and focus frames I honestly don’t think I would have anything else to complain about… at least for a while.

Also, very special thanks to Kagrra of The Druid Team for pointing out that I am, most likely, the only fanatical member of the entire playerbase that actually wants to obliterate the annoyingly obnoxious party frame.

UPDATE: I decided to replace X-Perl with ag_UnitFrames again. The result does look better to me:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!