Jezele

I've mostly been focused on PvE so far with this character, but I've decided to finally venture into the battlegrounds/arena for a change of pace (and the new gear doesn't exactly suck either). Unfortunately, my first few ventures into the BG's were a complete disaster based on the way my UI was set up.

I currently use a Nostromo n52 (all buttons are spell keybindings, thanks to the myriad totems I want easy access to) and do all of my movement with the mouse (except straffing, which I have bound to the n52's D-pad). I use OzRaid for my raid frames (which apparently loses its mind in BG's, so I'll have to find something different) and have lots of [target=mouseover] macros to make raid healing easier. Unfortunately, this setup works poorly in the battlegrounds since using the mouse for movement and then getting the cursor positioned over someone needing a heal can sometimes be tricky. I've since revised my macros to allow healing of the targetted player, but it still doesn't feel that effective.

My questions are pretty simple: What sort of raid frames seem to be useful for battlegrounds (I'm assuming OzRaid will work for arenas, I think it's the constant switching in and out of players that makes it go nuts), and what sort of macros/keybindings do you find effective?

I know that I have a lot to learn to use this character effectively in PvP, but I feel that I won't get far if I don't have a workable setup. Your advice would be very much appreciated.

(Moderators: I was unsure whether to place this here or the UI forum - I chose here since it's primarily for the setting of PvP, but please move it if you feel it should be in the other forum. Thanks!)

 

Ghostz

I don't really use any mods that completely alter the look/feel of the default UI, just small things here and there that make my life easier.

For BGs, I find grid to be the single most useful mod as a healer. Spend some time configuring it so that you can differentiate between who's in range and who isn't, makes healing a lot easier.

For arenas, a focus frame with a cast bar set to someone you want to keep an eye out on helps a ton. Its great for watching incoming mana burns, polymorphs and such or even being able to keep an eye out on your team's focus target while you're doing everything else at full potential.

 

Gulaja

I prefer GRID for Battlegrounds and as a "secondary frame set" for Arena. Reason being is it is much easier to keep track of 5+ health bars with GRID over most other UI set-ups. GRID just doesn't provide enough info for me in the arena to really use it. When I'm throwing a heal on my warrior, I like to see who he is targeting, what they are doing, and who they are targeting. I also like to see how much health he has left, in addition to how much health he is missing. I also really like to see all the debuffs present. If I see Crippling Poison on someone, I might just Purify to get it off, but what if he has Hamstring as well? Obviously I should have BoF'd.

I think for me the simplest way to set-up is have all your keys bound and all your instants/kiting keys bound to mouse-overs. HoJ, Holy Shock, Seal of Justice/Judgment of Justice, Cleanse, etc. Players are kept vanilla bound (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5). I keep Auto-Run on at most times and use it to move and steer with my mouse/wasd depending on what spell or function I am doing at the time.

Perhaps for me, having a variety of ways to input actions allows better flexibility for me. I am never slowed down because of technical or twitch reaction from missing a key or physically being unable to do two things with my hand at once.

 

Aphyrax

I mainly arena so this might not be fully applicable, but I built my own HUD that has all the buttons in the middle of the screen, semi-transparent, to the left and right of my character. Combine with hotkey bar swapping I have instant access to all the rarely-used abilities that I don't have hotkeyed but still need once per arena game. I also put my target, ToT, ToToT, focus target and ToFT in the middle of the screen. That combined with clique means I can heal and CC without ever having to move the mouse more than 4 inches.

For arena I use arena unit frames (also in the middle of the screen ). For BGs the regular raid frames are good enough. I don't think raid frames are that useful in BGs as most people will be out of range most of the time anyway. So you are better off turning on friendly health bars on and using those to determine who to heal. And as DPS you don't really need friendly raid frames anyway.

As a sidetrack, is there a good mod for friendly and enemy health (and other) bars that appear above the player?

 

CasT

BG healing is really cool when you feel the control. One thing I think you MUST have is Clique

A second option is wheather you want to se debuffs you cannot handle. I for one am torn between the knowladge of everything that is going on and keeping it small and simple and just do my thing.

At the moment I am playing show all, just to try to time the MS debuff, but I must say that (since i cant cleanse UA) it's recomended in BG no to show all since there will always be alot of debuffs/ buffs

Do not matter how much you play, you will never get the carrot.

 

Jezele

Thanks for the replies!

Clique looks pretty useful, but I think I obtain similar functionality by using my [target=mouseover] macros and several buttons for the various spells. I currently have about 30 different keybindings (shaman totem bloat FTL), so this system works out pretty well for me. It still has the same weakness, however, that I need to get my cursor over the person to be healed.

I've looked into Grid previously, but I like the simplicity and visual style of OzRaid for raiding - if it worked for BG's, I'd still be using it (I like being able to self-select classes into separate frames based on role, and it fades out of range characters so that you can easily see who's around to be healed). I'll probably give Grid a shot, though, and see whether it works for me. It's certainly easier that looking for all those spastically-moving health bars over characters.

Focus frame is a good idea, although I've currently been using it as my Earth Shield target. I suppose it could remain that way and just activate the target of focus option (I use x-perl, though I don't like the raid frames) for more information.

Now if I can just figure out how to hit those F1-F5 keys for arena while my hand is physically on another keyboard, I'll be all set....

 

Ragnor

All you need is good raid frames that will fade/hide the people out of range. Perfect Raid, sRaidframes, Grid, RDX, Pitbull Raid Frames, AGUF Raid Frames all do it. I imagine OzRaid does too.

Click casting is win for whack a mole healing, personally I just pick a few well gear players that look like they know what they are doing and focus on them. The MS warrior with the best 2h is usually a good start.

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• Sirloin

Clique + Grid are the best for battleground healing, and I use x-perl party frames for the arena.

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Gulaja

I've gone back and forth with this for a while. I'm stuck on "Show All" right now. Mostly I like to see them all to time my heals with MS, and to time my heals with cyclone as well. Sometimes I might not be looking immediately at the person I'm healing and I might miss it or not think enough without seeing the debuff. More importantly, I like seeing how much incoming DPS on my target. A target with Deep Wounds, Curse of Agony/Elements is going to receive more DPS than one with CoT and no Deep Wounds. The same can go for other debuffs I can't cleanse.

 

Aranan

If you're using Grid, you can just set it up to show curable debuffs in addition to anything of importance (i.e. Mortal Strike). That's how I had mine set up when I was screwing around with PvP healing on my shaman.

 

Moghedian

When I heal on my druid i take a practical approach. I can dispel what rogues/hunters do, and I can decurse what Warlocks do. So unless I am fighting one of those 3, seeing all debuffs is a mesure of checking incoming damage. More dots, the more HoTs or will consider dropping a HT. Much like what Gulaja just said.

Non-druid healing is a bit different. However, I think shaman healing, although never having played one is more like druid healing than priest or paladin. Shaman / druid are the 2 healers that really dont remove many debuffs.

I like Clique, I didnt know about it till this thread. Its very very nice. I also use Xperl.

 

Ignayshus

You don't need to use show all. There's a debuff filter that lets you select your spells and then add anything else you'd like to see, but I'm not sure with which unit frames mods it works.

Grid also has this functionality, but I agree that it's not nearly as helpful for Arenas.

The last digit of Pi is delicious.

 

Ziny

Any chance you could provide us with a screenshot from that kind of UI setup? Sounds rather interesting.

 

Aphyrax

http://www.lazyguild.net/uploads/ui.jpg

I cut off the bottom with the chat logs etc. Important parts not visible are that with ALT all my bars switch. Left has downranked spells and some macros. Right has consumables and long CD abilities. Far right has buffs (some buttons are redundant with clique and I never use them - but I am lazy).

On top of the left button box is target, below ToT and ToToT. right is same for focus.

Just under my stance bar I have witchhunt (not visible here due to nothing happening), which brings the total addons used to 5 - ag unitframes, arena unitframes, bartender, clique and witchhunt. I have cyclone, roots, and my hots assigned to clique.

EDIT: The compression makes it hard to see, but all buttons are semi-transparent, which helps when a lot of prime screen real estate is taken up by the UI.

 

CasT

Interesting setup. But for me it would just get in the way of my mousover macros et al.

Check out Aloft for customized HP bars above peoples heads.

Do not matter how much you play, you will never get the carrot.

 

Aphyrax

I will check that out, thanks.

I do not use mouseover in arenas. For allies I use hotkeys. For opponents I click on the arena unit frame. My primary CC target is focused, so cycloning him is just a click in the middle of the screen.