Death Knight UI's

Sympa · 12/28/08, 11:21 PM

Preface:

As DK's we have more than a few cool downs to manage. The best way I've seen to deal with it is classtimer for buffs/debuffs and magicrunes for our actual rune system. Would be interested to see how everyone else is managing with addons and layout. What I am most interested in sparking discussion about here is the different layout of UI's we use as DK's. e.g. How best to organize the information. Please do not just post a link to your UI and a list of addons. Actually explain bit about why you've laid out the information as you have.

About the UI:

I organize my UI this way in order to give myself some semblance of sanity. Default wow UI has frames and information around all the edges of your screen. Couple this with raiding addons like Deadly Boss Mods or Omen and you have to look at 60-70% of your screen all the time, rather than focusing on what is happening situationally while you play. I've tried to keep my UI organized in a vertical column displaying as much information as I can in the mot organized fashion. This way the rest of my screen and attention can be focused on the actual goings on in game.

From my blog:

Originally Posted by Sympa-inspir.com

Spent some time adapting my UI for my death knight. Same basic principles of the regular UI with some twists. Abilities followed by pet bar and player bar. Omen is a bit shorter as I made room for MagicRunes. Magic Runes is a great Death Knight addon that shows your runes and rune cooldowns in a bar format. Completely customizable and skinnable.

Following the rune cooldowns are the target of target and target frames. Immediately below that is the addon ClassTimer. I absolutely love this addon even though I couldn't quite get it to do what I wanted. The original goal was to have the buffs I can cast on myself listed in a single column immediately followed by the debuffs I can cast. The idea being that the list would grow down. Since I couldn't get the addon to do this I split the buffs and debuffs into two columns. The reason being able to see this is so important is because your damage is heavily dependent on your buffs and debuffs as a death knight, especially as unholy.

Rest of my UI is the same but I've made this UI available for download here.

Trigonous · 12/29/08, 3:20 AM

Personally I like seeing my rune cooldowns in the original picture format instead of a bar, but the default UI leaves much to be desired (I don't use anything default UI). I go for DeathKnight.Info Runes. You can configure it with a nice sword backdrop (that also has bars for RP/HP), or a simple box or no box at all. And the graphics look pretty damn cool when a rune is on cooldown. Classtimers is, in my opinion, a no-brainer.

As for non-class specific UIs, I recently downloaded SpartanUI. Very helpful at keeping the screen clean since everything is now on the bottom (non-widescreen users beware). Unfortunately, it wasn't designed with raiding in mind so I also use ag_unitframes going down the right side of the screen so I can see the entire raid. I have the feeling I'll have to switch back to xperl before long, as it offers a few functionalities that I really liked (specifically party targets, de/buff timers and larger de/buff icons for your spells), but we'll see if I can't hack SpartanUI into doing that.

And in the category of miscellaneous addons, Omen and Recount are in left side of the screen so that the center is totally clear. I find that the more viewing area you have the easier it is to perform well in a raid.

For those really interested, here's a pic. Without my raid frames 'cause I wasn't in a raid at the time.

Aeronx · 12/29/08, 7:57 AM

Well, there's a lot ways to go with the DKs UIs or UIs in general, and you can change it as far as you want.

Here's my UI.

The full UI has been designed by me, with Photoshop and then using kgpanels to insert them to the UI. I use X-perl for frames, and Grid to see the hole raid. To move the buttons i've used bartender3 and simpleminimap to change the map config. I was using Cycircled to change the buttons border, but i didnt work fine. For buffs Simple buffs bars and titan for the upper bar.

It's quite clean as I like, I like seeing all since im tank! xD So, any questions, ill be glad to answer.

anyway, happy Xmas to everyone!

• Zurm · 12/29/08, 9:34 AM

My personal favorite for a DK mod is Runewatch. Convenient graphical display of disease timers, runes, and RP. I position it right under my character, and it has everything I need.

Draegan · 12/29/08, 11:33 AM

I use quartz to display the debuffs that I can cast on my target displayed above my character panel. The thing I need though is to configure my displays for IBF and other buffs to display separate from the other party/raid buffs.

Sympa · 12/29/08, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by Zurm

My personal favorite for a DK mod is Runewatch. Convenient graphical display of disease timers, runes, and RP. I position it right under my character, and it has everything I need.

The problem I have with runewatch is that it seems so compact in its display of information. Mainly, the actual circles displaying the cooldown of the rune are the problem for me. Thats why I opted for the magicrunes bar format.

Originally Posted by Draegan

I use quartz to display the debuffs that I can cast on my target displayed above my character panel. The thing I need though is to configure my displays for IBF and other buffs to display separate from the other party/raid buffs.

This is interesting. Could you post a SS of it in action?

Trigonous · 12/29/08, 1:01 PM

Originally Posted by Aeronx

I was using Cycircled to change the buttons border

Cycircled is broken, try using ButtonFacade, works with autobar and Bartender4 that I've used, and a ton of others I haven't (including the default UI). Unlike Cycircled you'll need to download all the button skin packs separately.

CumpsD · 12/29/08, 1:19 PM

A screenshot while I was leveling, not much changed except I moved Omen to the left to see it easier, and specced frost :p

I'm using NeedToKnow to monitor my diseases and Horn uptime

Also using TellMeWhen to inform me when horn is down, when runestrike is available (macroed in most abilities however now), when blood fury/trinket is ready, as frost I also have it tell me when Freezing Fog is on (free howling blast)

I'm in love with Runemaster for my rune management, simple bars that grow up to give an idea when the rune will be available

The rest is just bartender, pitbull etc...

Squished · 12/29/08, 2:34 PM

Most of these would be way too cluttered for me. I just use MoveIt - Addons - Curse to move and scale the blizzard default ui components to more logical places. I use it to drag the runes from under the player frame and out into a more central location, scale them to about 200%, and re-arrange them like so:

BFF
BUU

To be honest, once they've been moved, rearranged, and magnified, the blizzard default runes are better than any custom UI i've seen. The rotational spark becomes quite apparent and for whatever reason incur less mental overhead than horizontal cooldown bars etc.

Thiris · 12/29/08, 3:03 PM

I've taken Magic Runes and used a right to left icon only slide, then put a KGPanel below it to give the same effect of the old Rune Hero.

I stack the icons a bit over each other since if they are all on the end, I know all of my runes are up, but if they aren't on CD, then they usually aren't on top of each other.

I've taken to putting my self/target frames on the bottom 1/3 of my screen and put my Classtimers for my own buffs (Freezing Fog, Horn of Winter, Bone Shield) above my character frame, then my diseases above the target. It keeps them from stacking up too much, as well as giving me a quick refrence point to glance at. I keep my Rune CD between them as well.

I'll try to remember to take a screen cap when I get home this evening. It's a bit hard to explain in words.

Eucharion · 12/29/08, 3:23 PM

I've tried a few different rune mods, including MagicRunes, and am currently using Runica, although I can't seem to get omnicc to display the countdown text that I think it needs. Using NeedtoKnow for disease timers, defensive cooldowns, horn of winter/reflection of torment procs. Also using ForteCooldown.

Base UI taken from Tapestry v14, then modified to suit.

The main thing I wanted to ensure was that all of the core information was visible in one centralised area, while still giving me as much view of the playing field as possible. So far, it's working pretty well, although I may end up going back to Magic Runes, using the icon view option, and modifying the icon images.

Defac · 12/29/08, 5:45 PM

Originally Posted by CumpsD

What mod changes the mob hp bar (not the actual unit frame but the unit's hp bar in the middle of the screen)? Also what font are you using to display your unitframe hp?

Foxx2405 · 12/29/08, 6:00 PM

Mine is looking like this atm.

As for the 3 unit bars:
- The big one is the targets unit frame
- The smaller on the left is mine
- The smaller on the right is target of target.

I'm pretty happy with its current state, i used a premade UI and modified it until it suited my needs. The premade i used is: Blackfriday of Garona UI : WoWInterface Downloads : Graphical Compilations

There are a few things i still don't like about it and will change soonish.

1. Pitbull unitframes. I love how they look, but the mod maker for some stupid reason insists to filter all buffs and debuffs so I have to activate them manually. If a boss uses some kind of debuff or buff, I can not tell until I turn it on manually which annoys the hell out of me. Especially since I'm one of the raid leaders in the guild, if I can not get information about how the DoT stacking is going in phase 3 of Malygos for example it's frustrating

2. Autobar on the right side. I don't use it at the moment anymore because i have the potions etc in my action bars. The reason i got it was because i could bind a key to using quest items. But it still doesn't work with the WotLK quests.

l3luesummers · 12/29/08, 7:08 PM

I've tried and used a number of compilations, and most are hardly worth using over the blizzard default UI imo (which says a lot). I used photekUI since early BC; however, it continued to get tweaked further and further from its original design, and by wotlk release I think he just gave up. I'm way too lazy to make my own UI, and so I just like to use what is out there and maybe make some small tweaks but that's it.

I did not make this UI, so I probably shouldn't be the one to break it down and explain the design. All I can really say is that this has been the only UI that I have actually stuck with since I tried it out. I am using Magic Runes and NeedToKnow at the moment, but who knows how long that will last. The one thing anyone should probably notice is the keybindings (which were inspired by PhotekUI), which can be changed around, but I find that setup to be very efficient.

Sympa's UI is something else though. It's different from most I've seen and that alone catches my eye. I might have to try it out.

Get Alekk UI here: alekk ui : WoWInterface Downloads : Generic Compilations

Pyran · 12/29/08, 7:41 PM

Out of combat, I don't really have a system per se; I just put stuff where I can to maximize space. I really like the SpartanUI that was posted above, though, so I'm going to check that. The basic layout, though, can be described as this, from left to right:

- Chat window - say, yell, trade, general, system messages
- Minimap
- Action bars - 4 rows of 7 (and I'm not even using all of them, so I could probably cut that even further)
- Chat window - personal channels, party, whisper, raid, guild

Above the action bars, at the feet of my character (maybe an inch or two lower) is my unit frame. To the right of that is the mob, and to the right of that is the mob's target. I use xperl UnitFrames.

When I'm battle, the idea is generally to keep my focus on as small a point as possible -- the more I have to shift my gaze around the more likely I am to miss something. So I have MagicRunes at my feet to the left and omen at my feet to the right. I have cooldown timers but don't really use them much; I do keep an eye on my bars from time to time for cooldowns, even though that breaks my focus area. Obviously, my UI has room for improvement.

Oh, and for combat text I use Parrot. Parrot is awesome, especially once I realized that I could make a custom announcement with sound to tell me when I lost Horn of Winter. Highly, highly, highly recommended.