Addons / UI
Hi! I recently started reading your blog. I love it. I play a prot pally. I am just getting to ZA, so I will probably never see some of the content you are currently blogging about. I was wondering what addons you use?
My UI is something that I continue to struggle with. I need something flexible enough to allow me to be an effective tank, a decent healer and a solid member of my PVP teams. I still feel like my UI is entirely too cluttered.
I'm not really going to do much with my UI until I reset it for Wrath. All the mods will break and I will need to replace them, plus I'll have the entire 70-80 leveling time to learn my new UI.
Despite being pretty computer savvy, I tend to get lost when it comes to Addons and Macros. I choose to not spend the time to customize them to any degree.
Let me briefly give an overview of the Mods/Addons/UI that I use, and why I chose each one.
My main UI is a combination of Xperl and Fubar.
Tankadin - This mod will flash your screen yellow if Righteous Fury is about to expire or gets purged. It has a handy Uncrushable calculator so you can see immediately if you are uncrushable. It displays all your important tanking stats on the main frame, and it allows you to quickly send your tanking stats to party, raid, or whisper. As a bonus, I can shrink it down to next to nothing when I'm PVPing as Ret or Healing.
Omen - This is my threat meter. I'm generally not satisfied with the numbers it shows me regardless of what they are. I'm always pushing myself to try to produce more threat.
ElkanosBuffBar - Turns your buff bar into a long vertical list. I have something a love/hate relationship with this mod. I wish it took up less screen real estate but I've gotten really familiar with using it. It breaks out your buffs from your debuffs. It is really handy for spotting debuffs.
PallyPower - I don't know where I'd be without this mod. It makes it quick and easy to assign who is buffing what to whom, and it allows you to coordinate between all the different Paladins in the raid.
SCT and SCTd - Scrolling Combat Text and Scrolling Combat Text Damage. Yes, there is scrolling combat text in the default Blizzard UI. What I like about SCT is the ability to separate out incoming damage, outgoing damage and incoming heals. I put incoming damage in the center of my screen, outgoing damage on my right and incoming heals on my left. This is one of the few mods I really customized to any degree.
Deadly Boss Mods - Timers and Alerts for all those nasty tricks the Bosses throw at you.
DurabilityFu - This puts a percentage in your FuBar to let you know how badly your equipment is damaged and when it's time to repair.
Decursive - I love this mod. It's made me a much faster dispeller on Teron Gorefiend. I find this mod to be extremely helpful.
CEnemyCastBar - This puts a series of bars in your UI that shows you the spells a Boss is casting and helps you track cooldowns. I consider it a must have for my UI.
Grid - I didn't like Xperl's Raid Frames. I thought they took up too much screen real estate so I replaced them with GRID. It's small and shows me the data I need.
Healbot - For those times when I need to throw a heal, Healbot is wonderful. It estimates incoming heals, shows when people are out of range and when they need a heal. I turn it off when tanking and turn it on when Healing.
ItemRack - This Mod is such a time saver. I think I have a dozen profiles saved. I click the profile and BAM I'm in the right gear. It allows me to customize a set of gear for each Boss if needed and pop into that set whenever I needed.
Ratings Buster/TekKompare - These are two separate mods, but together they form a powerful tool. Ratings Buster shows the actual conversions on the Item tool tips. You'll see how much Dodge% is gained from the 38 or whatever dodge rating is on the item. Then tekCompare shows you how much it's higher or lower than what you currently have equipped. Here is an example of it working:
I like very much.
MobInfo - This handy little mod shows you that you were at 1% when you finally wiped on the Boss.
OneBag/OneBank - When your bank and bags are as full as mine are, you really get tired of clicking to open each bag. OneBag shows you all your bags at once as it was one giant bag with 92 slots.
Prat - This is a Chat addon. It shows me the Class/Level of each person and I feel it makes Chat easier to read.
Auctioneer - I hate the Auction House. I love going up to the Auctioneer, clicking on Appraiser, waiting an moment for it to scan and then hitting Post Auctions. I never have to think about it. Saves me time and makes me money, that's a good combination.
PerformanceFu - Shows you your Framerate and Memory usage. It's great for diagnosing which Addons are eating up all your Memory (I'm looking at YOU, QuestHelper).
Recount - I only use this one when I'm Ret or on my Hunter to track how much damage I'm doing. It used to be really helpful for figuring out how I died but that functionality broke a couple of patches ago.
Proximo - Very helpful for identifying and targeting your Arena opponents.
Sqeenix - Makes your mini max square.
QuestHelper - For Alts only as it's a major memory hog. It helps you complete quests by showing waypoints and locations.
My UI is something that I continue to struggle with. I need something flexible enough to allow me to be an effective tank, a decent healer and a solid member of my PVP teams. I still feel like my UI is entirely too cluttered.
I'm not really going to do much with my UI until I reset it for Wrath. All the mods will break and I will need to replace them, plus I'll have the entire 70-80 leveling time to learn my new UI.Despite being pretty computer savvy, I tend to get lost when it comes to Addons and Macros. I choose to not spend the time to customize them to any degree.
Let me briefly give an overview of the Mods/Addons/UI that I use, and why I chose each one.
My main UI is a combination of Xperl and Fubar.
Tankadin - This mod will flash your screen yellow if Righteous Fury is about to expire or gets purged. It has a handy Uncrushable calculator so you can see immediately if you are uncrushable. It displays all your important tanking stats on the main frame, and it allows you to quickly send your tanking stats to party, raid, or whisper. As a bonus, I can shrink it down to next to nothing when I'm PVPing as Ret or Healing.
Omen - This is my threat meter. I'm generally not satisfied with the numbers it shows me regardless of what they are. I'm always pushing myself to try to produce more threat.
ElkanosBuffBar - Turns your buff bar into a long vertical list. I have something a love/hate relationship with this mod. I wish it took up less screen real estate but I've gotten really familiar with using it. It breaks out your buffs from your debuffs. It is really handy for spotting debuffs.
PallyPower - I don't know where I'd be without this mod. It makes it quick and easy to assign who is buffing what to whom, and it allows you to coordinate between all the different Paladins in the raid.
SCT and SCTd - Scrolling Combat Text and Scrolling Combat Text Damage. Yes, there is scrolling combat text in the default Blizzard UI. What I like about SCT is the ability to separate out incoming damage, outgoing damage and incoming heals. I put incoming damage in the center of my screen, outgoing damage on my right and incoming heals on my left. This is one of the few mods I really customized to any degree.
Deadly Boss Mods - Timers and Alerts for all those nasty tricks the Bosses throw at you.
DurabilityFu - This puts a percentage in your FuBar to let you know how badly your equipment is damaged and when it's time to repair.
Decursive - I love this mod. It's made me a much faster dispeller on Teron Gorefiend. I find this mod to be extremely helpful.
CEnemyCastBar - This puts a series of bars in your UI that shows you the spells a Boss is casting and helps you track cooldowns. I consider it a must have for my UI.
Grid - I didn't like Xperl's Raid Frames. I thought they took up too much screen real estate so I replaced them with GRID. It's small and shows me the data I need.
Healbot - For those times when I need to throw a heal, Healbot is wonderful. It estimates incoming heals, shows when people are out of range and when they need a heal. I turn it off when tanking and turn it on when Healing.
ItemRack - This Mod is such a time saver. I think I have a dozen profiles saved. I click the profile and BAM I'm in the right gear. It allows me to customize a set of gear for each Boss if needed and pop into that set whenever I needed.
Ratings Buster/TekKompare - These are two separate mods, but together they form a powerful tool. Ratings Buster shows the actual conversions on the Item tool tips. You'll see how much Dodge% is gained from the 38 or whatever dodge rating is on the item. Then tekCompare shows you how much it's higher or lower than what you currently have equipped. Here is an example of it working:
I like very much. MobInfo - This handy little mod shows you that you were at 1% when you finally wiped on the Boss.
OneBag/OneBank - When your bank and bags are as full as mine are, you really get tired of clicking to open each bag. OneBag shows you all your bags at once as it was one giant bag with 92 slots.
Prat - This is a Chat addon. It shows me the Class/Level of each person and I feel it makes Chat easier to read.
Auctioneer - I hate the Auction House. I love going up to the Auctioneer, clicking on Appraiser, waiting an moment for it to scan and then hitting Post Auctions. I never have to think about it. Saves me time and makes me money, that's a good combination.
PerformanceFu - Shows you your Framerate and Memory usage. It's great for diagnosing which Addons are eating up all your Memory (I'm looking at YOU, QuestHelper).
Recount - I only use this one when I'm Ret or on my Hunter to track how much damage I'm doing. It used to be really helpful for figuring out how I died but that functionality broke a couple of patches ago.
Proximo - Very helpful for identifying and targeting your Arena opponents.
Sqeenix - Makes your mini max square.
QuestHelper - For Alts only as it's a major memory hog. It helps you complete quests by showing waypoints and locations.
Comments
I still don't know how you manage to see anything with all that going on! No real estate left! LOL
I think most raiders, including the guy that asked you the question, should at least have Omen, Deadly Boss Mods, and CTRaid or ORA. They're invaluable.
A handy one I'd like to mention is Vent Overlay. It puts up text on the side of your screen so that when someone speaks, their name lights up. Easier than trying to recognize their voice. I know that most of the time you know your guildies' voices, but sometimes you don't if you have quite a few. :) It runs in the background on your desktop so you can just always leave it on since you have to have it on before you start the game.
Good job :) Having all the info available is nice, but I am also looking forward to the WoTLK UI reset.
Adlib, could we get a link to that Vent Overlay mod/app you mentioned?