The bare essentials

[Fuzzyboy]

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? :-)

[Naysayer]

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.

[Fuzzyboy]

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Naysayer]

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 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

[Fuzzyboy]

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

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.

[Naysayer]

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

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.

[shaeman]

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.

[Fizzler]

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

[Holmeser]

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

[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.