The bare essentials

[Fuzzyboy]

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.

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).

[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.

[Fuzzyboy]

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.

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

[Bettysue]

This script:

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

{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:

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

This would unlock both the PlayerFrame and TargetFrame

To find other names use this script:

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

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

/console reloadui

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.

[Bettysue]

. 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? :-)

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

[Seldum]

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.

[Gadzooks]

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.

[suicidesspyder]

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.

[Fizzler]

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.

[daviddoran]

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.