Arena UIs and You

JulianMaiev · 08/25/07, 11:39 AM

This may be the wrong forum for this, but since there's been remarkably little discussion of what seems like an important arena topic it seems like we should get the ball rolling somewhere.

Arena has different needs for all classes than does raiding, so it makes sense that the UIs should do different things. I know that I'm discovering that my raiding UI is woefully inadequate for keeping track of everything that's going on even in a 3v3, and in a 5v5 I'm totally out of my depth.

What mods, or mod configurations, can people not live without in arenas?

Poloma · 08/25/07, 3:42 PM

The only mod I can think of that I use only for arena is Arena Master. Mouse over the targets and the name comes up in an easily readable box displaying their HP and Class. It is synced with other people in your group that have it which is also good.

http://www.wowace.com/wiki/ArenaMaster

syeren · 08/25/07, 4:32 PM

Arena Master is horribly out dated for the features you can get in Arena unit frames these days.

http://files.wowace.com/Proximo/Proximo-r47228.zip

Are by far the best Arena unit frames I have ever used, they have excellent support too :P

Only other thing I can suggest is some form of timer mod counting down the start, but your class doesn't have a lot of short limited buffs you can offer to people

Muatmessmoko · 08/25/07, 5:14 PM

hi, I'm not completely sure if this belongs in the "what is this mod thread" or if it is okay to post it here; but, is there any sort of "enhanced" arena master that shows cast bars for all 5 of the targets, along with the obvious targeting functions.

Thanks

syeren · 08/25/07, 5:22 PM

I don't mean to be rude, but how are you possibly going to be watching who you opponents are, what they are casting, and who they are casting it on while doing your job in the arena

? You would simply be being distracted by the stupid amount of excessive information, and this is why I don't think such features exist in these mods (and the probability of it creating a tainted frame.)

Himiko · 08/25/07, 5:29 PM

Originally Posted by syeren

Arena Master is horribly out dated for the features you can get in Arena unit frames these days.

http://files.wowace.com/Proximo/Proximo-r47228.zip

Are by far the best Arena unit frames I have ever used, they have excellent support too :P

Only other thing I can suggest is some form of timer mod counting down the start, but your class doesn't have a lot of short limited buffs you can offer to people

I would recommend Gladiator over Proximo. The reason being is that there are spaces in between the Proximo health bars which cause the main menu to pop up when you try to right click that person's frame (You can see this happening to Kollektiv in his recent 5v5 video). Other than that, the two mods are basically identical from my experience. If you're looking for a mod with a countdown, I use SSPVP. It has a plethora of other features as well.

I also think having good castbars is important, especially if your class relies on using focus target macros and your unit frames don't support target/focus casting bars. I would recommend eCasting Bar; Quartz is probably just as good.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Muatmessmoko

hi, I'm not completely sure if this belongs in the "what is this mod thread" or if it is okay to post it here; but, is there any sort of "enhanced" arena master that shows cast bars for all 5 of the targets, along with the obvious targeting functions.

Thanks

You can use NECB (Natur's Enemy Castbar) for this, although it's not always accurate or really useful at all in my experience. If you want to watch for certain casts (i.e. Mana Burn) a spell alert type mod such as Witchhunt would probably better suit you.

Peekaboo · 08/25/07, 5:47 PM

Does anybody know why Arenamaster and Proximo both stopped working for me after a while? They fail to work now with the latest version and NO other addon loaded!

As a healer I use grid and decursive, but most healers must have those. The red dot on who has aggro is amazing in and of itself, plus the renew timer.

The only other one I love is Antagonist, a nice clean enemy casting bar/cooldown mod.

syeren · 08/25/07, 7:47 PM

Originally Posted by Himiko

I would recommend Gladiator over Proximo. The reason being is that there are spaces in between the Proximo health bars which cause the main menu to pop up when you try to right click that person's frame (You can see this happening to Kollektiv in his recent 5v5 video).

1.2 - Cleaned up syncs to only update when data changes. Changed class passing to use a standard name instead of localized name. Non enUS clients must all be running 1.2 if anyone in the group is using 1.2. Added option to display class in text. Added left click options. Added Target and Macro as options for clicks. Fixed mind-control issue. Add usage text on test function. Made option menu not appear in combat or after arena starts. Fixed adjusting frame sizes. Cleaned up bindings framexml.log errors

Like a lot of the features in Proximo, I requested it myself after finding it highly annoying.

Azoth · 08/25/07, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by Muatmessmoko

hi, I'm not completely sure if this belongs in the "what is this mod thread" or if it is okay to post it here; but, is there any sort of "enhanced" arena master that shows cast bars for all 5 of the targets, along with the obvious targeting functions.

Thanks

Torrid's WoW AddOns

Macblade · 08/26/07, 1:16 AM

Originally Posted by Himiko

I would recommend Gladiator over Proximo.

does anyone have any more information on this mod? That is, where to download it. Googling gladiator is FTL.

Triza · 08/26/07, 1:30 AM

Originally Posted by Macblade

does anyone have any more information on this mod? That is, where to download it. Googling gladiator is FTL.

files.wowace.com

And yeah, Gladiator is really good. Though I mainly only use it for setting my focus etc. when they're hiding behind pillars.

crimsonsentinel · 08/26/07, 1:31 AM

Gladiator is an acemod, so look up wow-ace.com, and search under ace zips.

I personally would like a timer bar that shows CC diminishing return timers that are synced between party members.

caladein · 08/26/07, 1:41 AM

Originally Posted by crimsonsentinel

Gladiator is an acemod, so look up wow-ace.com, and search under ace zips.

http://files.wowace.com/Gladiator/Gladiator.zip will always be the latest version (also, there isn't a dash in the url :P).

JulianMaiev · 08/26/07, 1:56 AM

I'll download Proximo straight away, since from the wowace forum traffic it looks like it's being much better supported than Gladiator.

What unit frames do people find useful for arena?

I've been running PitBull and Grid with my PvE configs, and been reasonably happy with that-- except that, maybe I'm just an idiot, but I can't get Grid to display a mark for Hamstring so I can BoF the target.

Moon · 08/26/07, 2:41 AM

What I use in arena is kind of a combination of my general mods plus raid mods and then a single arena specific mod. I use Nature Enemy Cast Bar as it shows everything that you could possibly want to know about your target and its cooldowns, diminishing returns, cast times, etc. Deadly Boss Mods also has a built in arena/bg timer for things like the countdown to a match start or how long a node has left to capture, which I find helpful in timing short duration buffs at the start of an arena match. Finally I use a mod called Arena Live Frames which is basically just a targeting list of who you mouseover in an arena. Once you mouseover a target it shows up in the frame with the percentage health the target has. Also, the most important part of this mod I think is that it shows by class who is targeting someone in the frame. This works EXTREMELY well for main assisting as you can see 3-4 people targetting the same person, and each person targetting is color coded by class, as are the targets themselves.