The bare essentials

I'm currently working on shaving down my UI, mostly because I like to try and keep it simple. So my question is for those (I know Fursphere is amongst them) who use the vanilla UI - what add-ons (if any) do you consider the essential ones?

I've been experimenting a bit, and I think I can do with the default party frames. It annoys me a bit that the target frame is in the top right part of the screen, since my eyes are usually focused on the center of the screen while in combat, but I guess it's a matter of getting used to it.

Somthing I'm really missing however, is an add-on to give an overview of healing needed (something like heal-bot, vuhdo, grid, whatever) and party cast bars. Especially the party cast bars I find really useful. However, it's a problem in BG's where you're not necessarily grouped with your toons so I might have to learn to live without it I guess.

Jamba I think is essential for me also. Mostly for the purchase/sell, flight master, auto/deny and questing functionality.

Nice-to-have are OmniCC (or something with similar functionality). Moveanything is nice for hiding unneeded components and give a cleaner look.

Anyway, I'm rambling here, so back to my question:

1) What add-ons do you consider essential?

2) How do you live without party cast bars? :-)

A.
perlx
titan
bartender


2.
I don't know what you mean with "party castbars". Perlx shows me what everybody in my party is casting, and no I wouldn't want to be without being able to see that, if that is what you mean.

C.
People who use the default character bars are pretty much saying, "hey, i WANT be worse than my potential allows". It's like being able to choose when you are born whether or not you want to go through life with only 1 eye or 2, and then picking just 1.

Multiboxing.

Questhelper
Deadly Boss Mods
recount - want to see that dps

Solo.

All of the above plus
healbot - if healing
omen - threat meter for raids
Shieldsup on the shaman.

That's it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Naysayer

A.
2.
I don't know what you mean with "party castbars". Perlx shows me what everybody in my party is casting, and no I wouldn't want to be without being able to see that, if that is what you mean.

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I agree - it's very useful, which is why I'm looking for an add-on to do that. I've been using pitbull4 so far, which does the same, but i'd really like to keep the add-on clutter to a minimum. There's a big problem however - your party cast bars are only useful when you're grouped with your slaves. This isn't always the case when i BG, so we have one of two options:

1) Learn to live without partycastbars in BG - since PvP requires a lot more attention than non-raid PvE anyway, it should also be possible to live without it in PvE

2) Find an add-on which displays castbars of raidmembers you select. No add-on does that to my knowledge. Vuhdo will display a lot of usefull information in the "private tanks" panel, but unfortunately no castbars.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Naysayer

A.
C.
People who use the default character bars are pretty much saying, "hey, i WANT be worse than my potential allows". It's like being able to choose when you are born whether or not you want to go through life with only 1 eye or 2, and then picking just 1.

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Haha, that's the most warped analogy I've been exposed to in a long time. And it's erroneous, because it's based on the assumption that more information/options is better, which is not always the case. I agree that seeing the castbars of the characters you control is very important though, and for arena's, a party-add-on is fine, but I'm really missing something where I can keep an eye on my chars in raids/bg.

I leave the default Unit frames on my slaves but my healer and Tank use Pitbull4.

If you are using Moveanything you can reposition the default frames to where ever you like. I do not worry about mods going out of style, discontinued or blocked. I run a ton of mods to me it is part of the enjoyment of the game. Having that personal touch or just tweaking a UI.

For me must have mods are:

Jamba
Carbonite
Pitbull4
Deadly Boss Mod
Baggins
Omen

I use the default UI and Partycastbars, if you dont like the position of your target frame move it with something like Moveanything.
-

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fuzzyboy

Haha, that's the most warped analogy I've been exposed to in a long time. And it's erroneous, because it's based on the assumption that more information/options is better, which is not always the case. I agree that seeing the castbars of the characters you control is very important though, and for arena's, a party-add-on is fine, but I'm really missing something where I can keep an eye on my chars in raids/bg.

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I don't get it.

You can have the default, ooooooor you can have an addon to configure the default to whatever you want. You can even have less info and clutter by configuring the addon if you like, but being stuck with the default is somehow better? WTF are you smoking?

and with the amount of importance placed on character bars in a game like this, I consider it essential to improve the config or your bars to best suit you over the default. An extreme amount of information is connected to these bars.


you: less--------sense-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------more

make more plz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Naysayer

I don't get it.

You can have the default, ooooooor you can have an addon to configure the default to whatever you want. You can even have less info and clutter by configuring the addon if you like, but being stuck with the default is somehow better? WTF are you smoking?

and with the amount of importance placed on character bars in a game like this, I consider it essential to improve the config or your bars to best suit you over the default. An extreme amount of information is connected to these bars.


you: less--------sense-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------more

make more plz

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Ok, since your attitude seems so mature, I'll try to explain it.

Pro's of default UI:
- Always works - even after major patches
- Doesn't require customization
- Fast
- Doesn't require updating
- Simple configuration
- Doesn't require you to download anything "extra"

Pro's of add-ons:
- Can be customized
- Added functionality

The defaul UI provides some obvious advantages, so the question you need to ask yourself when installing an add-ons is this: Does the advantage I gain from the added functionality and customization options surpass the advantage I get from the default UI?

So, for example, I'm asking myself - does the advantages of having an action bar add-on surpass the advantages associated with the default actionbars? For me, the answer is no. In fact, I never even look at my action bars, so to me, having action bars that don't need updating or extensive configuration is far more valuable than the functionality added by the add-on.

The next question is: Does the advantages of having a party castbars surpass the advantages associated with the default UI? For me, the answer is yes. The problem is simply that no add-on currently exists to show the castbars of my slaves when in a raid setting (BG for instance) where they may not be grouped.

Now, repeat that question for all your installed add-ons. The point of this post was to get an overview of what add-ons multiboxers consider essential and to get some inspiration from it.

Up to now the only cast bar I've been concerned about is the cast bar of the mob/player I'm targetting.

At the risk of appearing stupid I'd like to understand why seeing the cast bars of your slaves is so important. What information is it providing you? or rather In what way does that information benefit your potential.

At the moment I'm using visual cues. For example - i've hit flameshock, but only two have made it on to the target - at that point I'll have a quick look round my slaves to see why (it could be a miss or a toon out of range). A volley of lightning bolts goes off - but there doesn't seem to be enough of them, again it's a quick look round the slaves.

I used to be of the opinion that I woud run with as few mods as possible.... but I recently tried out healbot on a solo healing toon - and it improved my reactive healing just by having the icons right next to my char (rather than clicking over to the stock gui party and clicking that). So I'd really like to understand the importance of slave casting bars.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shaeman

Up to now the only cast bar I've been concerned about is the cast bar of the mob/player I'm targetting.

At the risk of appearing stupid I'd like to understand why seeing the cast bars of your slaves is so important. What information is it providing you? or rather In what way does that information benefit your potential.

At the moment I'm using visual cues. For example - i've hit flameshock, but only two have made it on to the target - at that point I'll have a quick look round my slaves to see why (it could be a miss or a toon out of range). A volley of lightning bolts goes off - but there doesn't seem to be enough of them, again it's a quick look round the slaves.

I used to be of the opinion that I woud run with as few mods as possible.... but I recently tried out healbot on a solo healing toon - and it improved my reactive healing just by having the icons right next to my char (rather than clicking over to the stock gui party and clicking that). So I'd really like to understand the importance of slave casting bars.

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It's probably an individual matter, but I like to see the casting bars to time casts and sequences better and to see if I pressed the correct button. For instance I typically keep an eye on when lava burst was cast in order to decide whether to refresh flame shock or not. It can also serve as a warning (i.e. if all characters are casting but one, it may indicate the the character doesn't have LoS because it was just feared or CC'ed - stuff like that).

I guess you get the same from the visual cues (i.e. the amount of lightning bolts), but I must admit that I'm not able to really tell how many are on the screen. Typically my slaves are clumped together, and the bolts look like just one bolt (at least as long as they're in sync).

I do agree that a healing add-on of sorts is a big help, it provides a good overview. I use Vuhdo at the moment which works well for me because of the private tank panel (nice in BG's).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fuzzyboy

Still, I'm very interested in why you find my pros and cons biased? Which in particular do you find biased and why?

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because there are no cons to using xpearl instead of the default ui other than visual preferences. It can do everything the default can, and far more. It's like a chef in a kitchen with only eggs, flour, water, or a chef in a kitchen with eggs, flour, water, and 400 more ingredients. Is that analogy to complicated for you as well?


the pro's for the addon should be

-can do anything and everything the default interface can do, but has a billion options to change things if you want to.

the only pro the default ui should have is

-if you've been using the default for 5 years you may need a couple days to figure out and get used to using an addon. Do you really want to lose a few days to get the real ui you've always wanted?

Like i said before, it's an essential addon because of how important the character bar is in this game and it allows you to configure it to your preferences.

The real question is why is this discussion in the what addons do YOU consider essential thread? We have this awesome private message ability built into the forum...no addon required.

I use the following addons for boxing:
Jamba -- makes life convenient
OmniCC -- numbers are easier to see on slaves
Equip Compare -- Though I don't really use it much it's nice for a quick look at improvements on the atlasloot windows.
OhNoes -- flashing red screens when follow breaks is quite handy
AtlasLoot -- because I can't be bothered to alt tab every boss

I move in game frames with a macro vs an addon...just seemed like less of a hassle that way.

Ya that's about it life is just fine. I got used to playing without addons because they were generally restricted at local PC rooms. The ones I do use are now more or less just to make things take a few less seconds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fuzzyboy

. So my question is for those (I know Fursphere is amongst them) who use the vanilla UI - what add-ons (if any) do you consider the essential ones?

1) What add-ons do you consider essential?

2) How do you live without party cast bars? :-)

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Right I'm sorry I read the OP's questions...please tell me where in that post it says tell me the pro's and con's of user interface modifications?
I see that my post answered the questions, and got the discussion back on track, thanks for your input though it really helped the discussion.

I forgot to mention in my previous post:
Atlas itself -- maps are fun really nothing gained

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bettysue

The real question is why is this discussion in the what addons do YOU consider essential thread? We have this awesome private message ability built into the forum...no addon required.

I use the following addons for boxing:
Jamba -- makes life convenient
OmniCC -- numbers are easier to see on slaves
Equip Compare -- Though I don't really use it much it's nice for a quick look at improvements on the atlasloot windows.
OhNoes -- flashing red screens when follow breaks is quite handy
AtlasLoot -- because I can't be bothered to alt tab every boss

I move in game frames with a macro vs an addon...just seemed like less of a hassle that way.

Ya that's about it life is just fine. I got used to playing without addons because they were generally restricted at local PC rooms. The ones I do use are now more or less just to make things take a few less seconds.

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Thanks for the writeup - what macro do you use to move in game frames? :)

This script:

Code:

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/run for _, f in pairs{FrameName} do f:SetMovable(true) f:SetScript("OnDragStart", f.StartMoving) f:SetScript("OnDragStop", f.StopMovingOrSizing) f:RegisterForDrag("LeftButton") end

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{FrameName} can be:
PlayerFrame
TargetFrame
Minimap
BuffButton1 (2,3,4, etc)

If you want to move multiple frames at once you can seperate them with commas for example:

Code:

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/run for _, f in pairs{PlayerFrame, TargetFrame} ...

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This would unlock both the PlayerFrame and TargetFrame

To find other names use this script:

Code:

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/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage( GetMouseFocus():GetName() );

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Use this script, I suggest a macro, while hovering a mouse over a specific element to get it's name.

PS: When entering vehicles the PlayerFrame will become distorted, I'm not sure if there's a way to correct this like having the vehicle frame in the exact same location but you'll need to /console reloadui and then use the script to unlock them again.

To lock the UnitFrames after you've positioned them just reload the ui with

Code:

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/console reloadui

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most of the above was stolen from somewhere honestly can't remember the posters name I want to say it was on the blizz forums.

I had a really cool UI inspired by a video a guy once posted here, with a total rewamped UI and everything. After a patch I had to redo most of it, and macaroon crashed on me, resulting in me loosing alot of my macros.

Therefore I use the basic UI on all my alts. My main have Pitbull installed... but Im not really using it (setting stuff up... I just like the looks of the standard bars).

For me the most essential mods are:

- Jamba - Management is made easy
- Jamba - Im lazy
- Jamba - I love the mod
and then:

- Quest helper - Or else im lost
- Vuhdo - Healing - I only use this mod for healing. Its awesome...freed up 5 buttons for other macros
- Cartegografer - Gonna get lost without a map. Also have some instance loot stuff
- Recount - Whatching my DPS. To see the difference between the toons.
- Omen - Don't use it much to be honest

Other non essential:

- Gatherer
- Auctioneere
- Some mod for item comparison.

On my main, I use Perl, Recount, Questhelper, Jamba, and Bagnon. I dropped bartender, it was getting annoying.

On my slaves, just Jamba and Bagnon.

Honestly, I could probably get along on just Jamba on all of them, but I like the feedback from Perl and Recount.

I use barely nething and get around fine lol.

Jamba - cause of group and the big old ding hey you lost someone go back and get them.
Questhelper - on one toon and one toon only so i can get to quests faster.
Xperl - yes i love being able to watch on my main my toons casting instead of looking at their screen.
Recount - Go go dps
Dbm - Main only to know what boss is doing.

I think thats it i went back to regular UI works perfect for me no clutter not alot of memory usage.

I was a huge supporter of Quest Helper when it first hit the scene. I still like it but have gotten to love Carbonite.

I like the way it shares party information and tracking. It has quest waypoints (no ants) organizes minimap buttons into one button that expands as well as a cart3 google like type of map. Took a bit to figure out all the configurations to make it do what I wanted but now that it is set up it works like a champ.

It is bloated but my Master is set for Ultra Video (Shadows off) and toons at minimal I still get 60fps in Dalaran on my main with no hiccups.

I'm kinda addon crazy....

I use Jamba, healbot, xperl, decursive, recount, bagnon, auctioneer, deadlybossmods, zomgbuffs.

When i was leveling i used questhelper, but it was a huge performance drain on my system, I avoid it when I can. I started using zomgbuffs for reagent purchases on my multi class team, because it's a bit easier than Jamba's version. I use Jamba's reagent purchasing for my 5 shaman team because its easier to have them all buy the same thing. Bagnon is invaluable, I especially love the feature that shows your items and gold from all the other toons on the same account, and being able to search for items helps too.

I still have some toons using Macaroon, but I am trying to get off of t hat, as the mod is no longer being developed, and action bar mods are notorious for being the first things to break after every patch. Unit frame mods are also likely to break, but I like the look and feel of xperl so much, that I'm willing to deal with lua errors until they can get the addon updated.

I'm trying to use as few as possible, but unfortunately still use a lot.


Auction Toon Only:
-- Auctioneer
-- Postal

Raid Toon Only:
-- Atlas Loot
-- BigWigs (Raid tool, using some of this and some of DBM)
-- Diamond Threat Meter
-- oRA2
-- Recount

All Toons:
-- Cartographer
-- Deadly Boss Mods (Mostly PvP timers)
-- Dot Timer (Durations of buffs on toons, Spells on target, Cooldowns)
-- Fubar (Faction, Friend, Guild, Location)
-- Grid + Grid Custom Layouts + Clique (IS Boxer Click Healing)
-- Jamba
-- MoveAnything (UI customization, Hides some frames/artwork etc)
-- Pitbull (Cast bars, Slaves targets)
-- Prat (Chat windows)
-- Questhelper (Lead toon only)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fursphere

Look in your interface options - you can turn LUA error reporting OFF. :)

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/facepalm... i should have known

There used to be an addon that just showed party cast bars - not sure if it still works though

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...stingBars.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Whowantstoknow

There used to be an addon that just showed party cast bars - not sure if it still works though

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...stingBars.html

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It does - that's the one I'm using currently :-) Still looking for one that will let me see the castbars of select raid members though.

I'm an addon-a-holic and possibly OCD with my UI (I'm always tweaking it or trying new ones)..

Combuctor (Bagnon with the default UI look and some pluses).
I'm trying Lucidity (removes gryphons, rearranges the actionbars since I don't need the bag or menu bars). Default on my Slaves. My next choice would be Dominos.
JAMBA - too much already said.
MoveAnything (I'm going to try BettySue's macros :)).
PartyCastingBars.
NinjaPanel (data broker)
Dropthecheapestthing (great for junk).
Ampere (load and unload addons in game).
Tekplayer (adds a Who to the right click menu when you click on a name), you have to manually install it.
I have some data brokers that show current memory, FPS and latency.
PocketPlot for minimap.
TipTop (tooltip).
Skada (replacement for Recount and can do threat if you want).
SatrinaBuffFrames or femtoBuff (not as fancy as SBF, but it moves my buffs/debuffs).
LowMemoryChat (does what it says with little memory or cpu useage).

There are some I can't remember, but these are the core ones.

Question about X-Perl, I used it for years. Works out of the box, little setup, great profiles and it does a lot of things. It used to have high CPU useage (memory is trivial these days as it has been said).