ash2ash

I noticed there were several Mage add-on/UI questions that were covered in various mage forum threads so I decided to make a threat to consolidate information regarding add-ons, UIs, etc.

THE RULES (IN ADDITION TO STANDARD FORUM RULES):

• Post a screenshot of your Mage's UI. If you're not a mage, go post in another forum or post in this thread
• List of add-ons you use. Short descriptions of niche addons are okay.
• Any comments about how you make your UI work for you. This doesn't mean to talk about how your UI has perfect feng shui. Any comments should be on the functionality of your UI. Please state your points succinctly.
• If you have any individual questions about a players UI, use PMs.
• If you need help with your UI, please keep it to PMs or post in this thread
• If you are looking for a particular mod that you don't know the name of, please post in this thread.
• Addon discussion is welcome so long as it follows standard forum rules.

COMMONLY USED/USEFUL ADDONS:

These are the most commonly used addons that I have seen used by mages. It is by no means an all-inclusive list. I will try to keep it updated as this thread grows in size or as addons go out of date. PM me if you think another add-on deserves to be added.

Function	Name	Description
Buff Tracking	Scorchio2	Tracks several mage specific debuffs/CC/power gains
Buff Tracking	Classtimer	Tracks debuffs/buffs. Non-class specific.
Buff Tracking	Power Auras Classic	Provides visual cues to track buffs/debuffs. Highly configurable. Here is a link explaining some of the basic functionality of this mod(albeit for a hunter)
Castbar	Quartz	An extremely popular castbar add-on.
Decursing	Decursive	A popular addon to track and cleanse debuffs on friendly targets.
Stats	Ratings Buster	Converts combat ratings into more useful percentage values.
Stats	Hit Assist for Casters	Tells you your chance to miss a mob/how much hit rating you need or can afford to lose.
Stats	Livedamage	Tells you your current spellpower.
Combat	MiksScrollingBattleText	Can display several different types of combat information in several different ways.
Combat	Omen Threat Meter	A popular tool for monitoring threat on your current target.
Raid Frames	Grid	Highly configurable, modular raid frame add-on. Can be set to do just about anything you want it to do. There is a separate discussion specifically regarding this add-on.
Cooldowns	Ghost:Pulse	Cooldown which pops up icons on your screen whenever it is up.
Combat	Mage Alert	Notifies you when you proc hot streak/missile barrage/brain freeze via sound and fullscreen flash effect.
Buff Tracking	NeedToKnow	Tracks specific buffs/debuffs in a clean bar that is displayed on the screen in a consistent place/color.
Combat	Mage Fever	Another mod to track proc-buffs and mage debuffs.
Combat	Parrot	Similar to MSBT, another combat information addon.
Combat	MyThreat	A lightweight threat tracker. Only shows your threat relative to a target unlike omen which tracks multiple players.
Combat	OPie	Upon pressing a keybind, shows a nifty circle from which you could choose which spells to cast (Think Secret of Mana). It has some presets for mage portals/mage armors.
Stats	WoWEquip	Pretty neat mod that lets you see how stats add up by swapping in and out different gear.
Unit Frames	Pitbull4	Not a mage specific mod, but an extremely popular unit frame mod. This mod has its own thread in the UI/Addon forums.
Combat	Mage Nuggets	A mod which does performs several functions automatically, including mirror image timers, proc monitoring, and SP/crit display, etc.
Combat	ForteXorcist	A mod suite which performs a host of useful tasks such as cooldown tracking, debuff monitoring/filtering/etc.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

1. What is the best mod to track Hot Streak Procs/4pT8?

   4pT8 does not give you any aura gain when it procs - rather it prevents the current aura from cancelling upon use, so if you have any mod that tracks hot streak, it should work with 4pT8. Power Auras is my personal favorite choice for tracking Hot Streak, but there is no "best" mod. Mage Alert, Mage Fever, Scorchio2 also have the ability to track Hot Streak procs. You should try them out and see what works for you.

2. How can I track torment the weak on mobs?

   Scorchio2 has a built-in TTW tracker, but you can track TTW manually by any mod that can be configured to track the associated slow affects such as frost fever, thunderclap, or infected wounds. Pally judgements are a bit harder to track. If you use pitbull, here is a link to a dogtag script that can be used to track all your damage-increasing debuffs on a mob including TTW (courtesy of pikapewpew).

3. How do I [this/that/the other] with Pitbull 4?

   Here is a link to Sovereignty's blog which has some excellent video tutorials of how to make pitbull4 work for you. For anything more specific I'd direct you to the Pitbull Unit Frames Thread.

 

Hinalover

Pitbull4
Bartender4
Omen
Rating Buster
Sexy Minimap
Ora2
Prat3
Recount
Decursive
MyThreat
MiksScrollingBattleText
Tipsy - to move the Tooltip placeholder
Quartz (only for the LiteStep design, but I'm thinking of putting the bars back in; getting a little tired of Pitbull's cast bar)
XLoot
Pally Power Info - See who to complain to about Pally buffs
Altoholic - For Profession info on my alts
Fubar general mods
Atlas Loot
Big Brother - To see who whirlwinds my sheeps

 

Insertgold

-Scorchio2
-Xperl
-Button Facade Trinity
-Bartender 3
-CCtimer
-MSBT
-Quartz

I set up Scorchio to play sounds through MSBT so I never miss a hot streak proc. I am also on a laptop and the screen is somewhat small, so I try to make due with what I have. I have recount show up underneath the Scorchio timers. I try and keep the center of the screen open, I have tried putting my and my targets health bars in the middle bottom, but I just can't get used to it.

 

◊ manly

I cannot imagine a UI without grid. I mean it.
Also almost everyone using grid uses clique for right-click on grid to decurse that player.

Log on with different model:
1- Create a character of the desired model. Log on/off.
2- At character selection screen, select your actual character; mouseover the new, desired model character, and hold down left click; hit enter and release left click at the same time.
bug Arcane Potency only applies to the first Arcane Missile bolt.

 

angayelle

Decursive have the advantage of being super easy to configure and, at least for mage, offer built in support for decurse and sheep without hassle. This said, a lot of people use grid as raid frames instead of Aguf, Pitbull or Xperl...

 

Northerner

Clique + Grid also has one-click support in that you can use it to sheep hostile targets for mind-control fights and decurse on friendlies. I personally needed some form of raid frames anyhow so the combination seemed an obvious choice and I've never regretted the switch. I think you would find that it is beyond simple to configure as well.

Otherwise, I think all the major add-ons have been listed already and grid/clique versus decursive is a fairly silly debate regardless.

 

Swindley

Just want to mention 2 very good lightweight mage addons that have been extremely helpful to my play.

Mage Alert :
Extremely simple mod, all it does it give you a very pleasant sound effect on all kinds of mage procs, like missile barrage, hot streak, fingers of frost etc. It's nice because sometimes you don't have time to watch your buffbars and an audioque is very helpfull.

NeedToKnow :
Also very lightweight and easy to set up. Tracks all kinds of buffs and debuffs on yourself or your target. I use this for tracking everything from trinket procs, LB, Scorch, Icy veins and other usefull stuff to keep track of. Doesn't clutter up your screen and is totally invisible when procs arent up. Note that a fan update have kept this alive so it works with 3.1.


One of the reasons I use theese 2 is that they are very easy and do exactly what I need them to do, nothing more or less. And my computer is old, meaning I prefer not to clutter up my WoW with too many heavy addons.

 

Dankz

Solo

Raid

Skada -Damge Meter

Button Facade -Button Skins

TimeToDie -Shows a death Clock

Acheron Death Reports -Shows a Combat log of the Last 10 Seconds before your Target Died

Aloft -Custom Nameplates

Baggins -Bag Mod

Bartender4 -Button Mod

BigBrother -CC Breaker Warning, Shows missing raid Buffs/Flask/Fodd

Buffalo -Buff Mod

BuffEnough -Tells you if you have all avilable buffs

Chatter -Chat mod

CowTip -Tooltip Mod

Clique -For decurseing, Sheeping MC's, and buffing with App/Dampen Magic

EavesDrop - Great Combat Log Mod

ElkBuffBars -Bar Style Buffs and Debuffs

Fortress - Display addon for LDB data feeds

Grid -Raid Frames and more

kgPanels - Panel Mod

MikScrollingBattleText Scrolling combat text

oRA2 -Mt Windews, Raid invites, and more

Outfitter - One click outgfit swaps

PitBull -Unti frames

Quartz -cast Bar

SexyMap -Map Skin

InlineAura -Bar Mod

XLoot- -Loot Mod

I guess I'm a bit of a Ui Junkie. I remember downloading and installing the Comos Package the week after I bought the game, before I hit Level 10. An effective UI is important for maximizing your potential. The Standard Blizzard not only lacks bells and whistles, but basic stuff that makes raiding so much easier.

I'll contribute to the helpfull Mod List.
Buffenough
Scans the raid and checks to see if you have all the available buffs. Very configurable, you can tell if if you prefer Kings over wisdom, or even Add Focus Magic. It even warns you when pallies forgot to take off Crusader Aura, or a hunter has Pack on. Also Checks the duration of your Flask, and Molten/Mage Armor.

 

Aastarius

These days I'd be lost without SatrinaBuffFrames. I have a frame that shows all the "special" buffs like Hotstreak, etc. In addition, I've started using StUF for my unit frames and even replaced Grid with the ones in StUF, though for no other reason than I wanted to cut down number of addons.

 

Thomarr

I have question about your raid frames. What mod is showing the raid on the right side of your screen?
And also what are you using for your target frames?

 

odyz

Manly if you don't mind, would you post a screen shot of your UI? Alot of those other screen shots seem far too cluttered for me.

I use just default UI with very few mods but I've never needed more.

Decursive - simply amazing
Omen - required
Cooldowncount - wasn't a fan of the big icon popping up on my screen
MSBT - to handle procs
Recount
Outfitter

I've just pvp'd too long to click. Everything is macro'd for focus targets and the like but I've been leveling my priest so I think getting a grid is going to be a necessity.

Is scorchio2 the preferred mod for scorch and living bomb timers?

 

Casandra

Pitbull4 i guess.

If you dont like the shiny stuff of PowerAuras, yes.

 

Hinalover

As cas said, yea both my raid and target/ToT are all Pitbull4 configured. I'm currently in the process of editing my raid frame a bit to separate groups better (I personally don't like the box look and like things lined up in a single file line).

 

Dahkeus

Well, I use grid for basic stuff such as knowing when people are in range for buffs, when people are dead, etc., but I use Decursive with the mini grid layout it has. The reason for this is that I find it convenient to have the raid layout to the far left of the screen and the decursive grid near the center of my screen so I can click to decurse faster.

If I didn't have a widescreen monitor and if the decursive setup wasn't transparent (when there is no one cursed), then I would go with grid and clique, but for my situation I find this to be a more efficient decursing setup.

 

MyrddinE

I use Grid and Decursive as well. While I do spend the time configuring Grid for many individual debuffs on my healer, I appreciate the no-alteration-necessary approach of Decursive. It just works, for all my 80s, and on my priest it frees up a corner of my frames for other purposes than debuffs, as well as freeing up click types. On a healer, convenient clicks for healing are much more important than convenient clicks for cleansing; as a priest, I already have a confusingly large list of clicks for all my various heals.

 

ash2ash

I used to use decursive in classic back when it was a one button wonder; but lately, I haven't encountered a boss which requires me to furiously mash my decurse key repeatedly or risk wiping (a la Lucifron.) The closest thing is maybe Noth/Sapphiron/Yogg, but those bosses only shoot out a couple of curses such that a healer or two who has a pulse could take care of them.

As a mage, the advantage I see to decursive over using a grid/clique (I don't clique but I prefer mouseover decurse macros - same thing) is that you can set up a priority decurse system if ever there were a fight where certain people need to be decursed over others. The only fight I can possibly see that happening is Yogg with people taking portals, and that is easily dealt with for us by sending in a feral druid. Another situation that comes to mind is those stupid Naxx spiders with the healing debuff and tanks, but that's yesterday's news.

 

ravenndude

Orange buttons with Scorch, FB, etc are 1-7
Blue circular buttons are Mouse 4 (+shift for blink), r and e
Purple circular buttons are Mouse3 (+shift for focus polly macro), x (decurse mouseover macro) and Mouse5
White buttons in the middle I click, as well as the square on the left. That square is different depending if I'm in, or out of combat. Out of combat is has buffs, flasks, buff food, readycheck macro, stuff I only use ooc.


Visible addons:
Bartender4
ButtonFacade (+ button skins)
CowTip 3.0
DBM
Elkano's BuffBars
Fubar (+ addons)
Grid
GridManaBars
kgPanels
Mik's Scorlling Battle Text
OmniCC
oRA2
Pitbull Unit Frames 4.0
Quartz
Recount
Scorchio2
SexyMap
ZOMGBuffs

 

SaladFork

Will edit this post with an updated screenshot once I get back to my PC, but here's a quick summary of addons I find myself having trouble living without (mage specific).

• NeedToKnow
• Parrot (big sticky HOT STREAK! text with a sound) and Power Auras (double tear drop red fireball on top of my character) - Track Hot Streak procs. I use the latter as a way to track a few other things as well: mana < 75% (mana gem), mana < 40% (evocation), missile barrage, and any boss-related debuffs of important (giant + or - on Thaddius, skull on my character for Mark of the Faceless on General).
• Geist - Easy access to uncommonly used spells. All my teleports and portals are in here, as well as profession links and the like.
• X-Perl - With mouse hover macros for decursing.
• Bartender4 - Other than Frostfire Bolt (for range checks), all keybound spells are hidden to maximize screen estate.
• CooldownTimers2 - Set to only track important cooldowns (Icy Veins, Fire Blast, Berserking, Mana Gem, [Scale of Fates], etc.)
• Addon Control Panel - Easily switch between my "General" set of addons and my streamlined "Raiding" set of addons with a ReloadUI
• MyThreat - Instead of Omen

 

Rotor

Scorchio2 seems to bug out on me on fights like Hodir and Thorim where I'm switching targets a lot, it misses HS procs and LBs. For LBs and cooldowns I use DoTimer. For procs I use Elk'sBuffbars or SatrniaBuffFrame, depending on how I want my buffs to look. I've relied on EBB for multiple things and classes since pre-sunwell, it's reliable and stable. I've never had a single problem with it. Satrina is new for me and takes more time to configure, but it's more flexible than EBB so until it gives me a reason to switch back I'm using it. The only problem with DoTimer is that it'll only watch scorch if you're the first person to put it up, but since my guild's raids are full of Mages, and our Locks don't mind spec'ing for Imp.SB, it's not really an issue.

I've been using Decursive since pre-BC. I like to set it up so it's 100% transparent unless there's something to decurse. Recently though, in an effort to tighten up my UI, I've tried to move away from it to Grid+Clique. I'm having trouble recognizing when there's something to decurse. I guess I'm just too used to having that Audio and Opacity queue. Is there any way, or any modules for Grid that can change it's normal opacity, or give it a sound when a unit is afflicted with something? I'm no stranger to Grid's config menu, and am pretty sure that it'd take some lua to get what I'm looking for. But if I've missed something, or if there's a Grid-mod that's out there and does what I need then I figure it's worth asking.

Not sure if that question fits into this thread's Rules or if it should go to the "UI Help Center" thread, but I'm putting it here.

I'll take a SS of my UI and add it here after the raid tomorrow night. It's nothing flashy, just functional, looks like 98% of all the other UI's people post.

As for a list of the more prominent parts of my UI:

-EBB or Satrina for buffbars and procs
-DoTimer for DoTs , CDs, and sometimes a buffbar
-Grid for the raid frame
-Stuf for unit frames
-Opie for random buttons like mounts, mage table, AI, AB, slowfall, hearthstone, portals, shields, etc... bound to various mouse buttons. It is essentially a customizable "Crysis menu" for wow.
-Omen for threat
-Dominos for actionbars

 

Swindley

My little thought on addons.

You might think I'm weird, but I use no mods that screws with my bars, and I try to limit my number of addons.

Having played this game for a few years, and using ALOT of addons, I've decided to only use the ones i really need and scrap everything else. The reason being that every time I decide to take a break from WoW or a new patch arrives, I don't want to spend 2 hours setting up my bars and addons before I'm able to play.
Or getting dependant on an addon that the developer stops updating or is simply slow to update after a patch. (I don't want to get errors for 3 days untill an addon is fixed etc)

Another issue is being able to play at a friends house without any problems.


Even though I've hotkeyed everything important, I still use the standard blizzard UI for bars and most things.

Only mods I really couldn't live without would be Omen and NeedToKnow, but they are easy enough to install and usually work just as well after patch.

Lately I've been starting to use more addons again, but I still try to limit myself and for every addon I install I think "Would I become too dependant on this" and "would it screw over my play if I suddenly lost it?"

Of course some addons are simply nice to have, but are mostly to display information and doesnt change my playstyle or UI too much.

I just wanted to share this and maybe someones has some similar experiences and opinions. (maybe your favourite UI addon you relied on 100% suddenly stopped working one day etc)

 

Anobix

Addons:
Pitbull
Bartender4
MSBT
Cryolysis3 (the circle on the left, common mage spells, etc)
kgpanels + btex
bagnon (all in one bag)
grid
decursive (need to set up clique on my grid sometime...)
trinketmenu
omen
recount
fubar
scorchio2 (buff/debuff track)
buffalo2 (buffs/debuffs)
simpleminimap
viewport (moves my screen up off of the bottom part so I'm not missing anything down there)

 

Shorlin

One worth mentioning is iceHUD, having your hp and mana clearly visible can be very useful especially on fights like Hodir.

 

◊ Kyth

UnderHood can also be configured as a HUD (although I have it masquerading as normal unit frames) and is hands-down the most configurable set of unit frames out there. (if you're into that: it definitely takes fiddling, but I adore it.)

Officer of <Fusion>
http://www.stratfu.com/ - StratFu: Strategies, Guides, Movies, and Tips for Wrath Raiding

 

muttonboy

Neat thing about IceHud is you can configure extra bars for pretty much whatever you want. I was having a hard time noticing if Hot Streak had expired with Scorchio2 and Mlk(probably due to me not being able to adjust them properly, not the mods fault), so i created two small mirrored bars that circle my character, and only light up when Hot Streak has proc'd.

 

Muphrid

Addons:
Pitbull4
Dominos
ClosetGnome
Elkano's Buff Bars
InQuest (simple modified quest tracker)
Fubar and plugins
BigWigs
Parrot
Quartz
Omen3
TipTac
Opie
Dominos_BuffTimes

Let me say a couple things about the last two: Opie is the mod putting up that ring with Molten, Mage, and Ice Armors. It's a ring that shows on pressing a keybinding, and Opie has several of these preset rings to reduce some bar clutter, including a ring for ports, all quest items currently in your bags, armor spells, and professions (basically everything I feel you don't need to see all the time but need to access regularly).

Dominos_BuffTimes is a modification of the Dominos_Buff module (which highlights your buffs and debuffs with red and green borders on your action bar). The idea is to map an imaginary cooldown timer to relevant spells, like Living Bomb. Applying LB to a target with this mod would make the button appear to have a 12 second cooldown, the duration of the LB debuff. This I found very useful in my time playing FFB, and recently it has been modified to support Imp. Scorch as well. The mod is still somewhat hacked together (for example, it could theoretically map Missile Barrage to AM if you wanted, but it doesn't yet and my attempts to hack it have been unsuccessful), but I consider it a simple alternative to more sophisticated debuff trackers.

Another image showing a raid setup; you can see Dominos_BuffTimes imposing an imaginary CD on Fireball (meant to reflect the duration of the Fireball DoT).