Mage UI and Add-ons (READ THE FIRST POST) - Page 5

Xinhuan · 05/25/09, 1:42 AM

Please consider adding my addon WoWEquip to the list. It is an addon designed to help theorycraft sets of gear and compare how different combinations of gear add up in total stats. This is useful for gear planning, comparing against other players, creating dream gear sets, and exchanging them with other players.

WoW AddOns - WoWEquip - WowAce.com
WoWEquip - Addons - Curse
WoWEquip : WoWInterface Downloads : Ace: Interface Enhancements

Cyntil · 05/25/09, 9:09 AM

So its like rawr without all the options and customization?

delaydackel · 05/25/09, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by Cyntil

So its like rawr without all the options and customization?

In very basic terms, yes. WoWEquip lacks all the talent and dps calculations tho. Nevertheless its VERY useful for equipment checks when running pickup raids.

Back on Topic:

Bartender4
BuffEnough
Cooldown Timers
DBM
FuBar
Grid
Recount
Omen 3
PowerAuras
Prat
Quartz
Scorchio 2
Tipsy
Xperl

I tried to get as may of them visible on the screen as possible, but i guess for a live-in-action-impression YouTube - Motoka vs. Patchwerk should do better.

Unleash · 05/25/09, 4:47 PM

This is my UI solo atm. I'll try get one up later in a 25man if people seem to care. Most of my UI doenst even appear till I join a raid so its pretty basic from first view.

Solo:

Raid:

Addons:

Zerstorung · 05/25/09, 4:52 PM

I'm noticing that most people here have their personal and target unit frames displayed at the bottom of the screen. Is there a particular benefit to that (other than freeing up some view space)? I tried it at one point but couldn't get used to it, I never really look down that low.

Unleash · 05/25/09, 5:12 PM

Originally Posted by Zerstorung

I'm noticing that most people here have their personal and target unit frames displayed at the bottom of the screen. Is there a particular benefit to that (other than freeing up some view space)? I tried it at one point but couldn't get used to it, I never really look down that low.

Its a lot more convenient to have everything centralized on your screen and takes less time to view so your reaction times are faster. Looking up, I feel is a bit slower, and in a lot of cases it doenst matter. PVP, and few times in raids you will notice it helps. Helped me a lot back in sunwell on conflags, and things like shadow crashes and marks on vezax and such where you need to have instant reaction times. I feel if your looking to be the best there is in this game that is something that will help you get there.

Originally Posted by Wyrmbergg

Hey guys and girls.

I am from twisting nether and a lot of mages have suggested Arcanum, do any of you use this and what does it do?? I tried to install it but it seems bugged?

Arcanum is an addon that centralizes a lot of things for mages. Like buffs, portals, mana gems, mount/dismount. I personally dont like the addon, and I think its quite out of date and buggy (i havent heard of it lately). It also takes up some space on your UI that gets in the way of things.

• ash2ash · 05/25/09, 5:52 PM

Originally Posted by Zerstorung

I'm noticing that most people here have their personal and target unit frames displayed at the bottom of the screen. Is there a particular benefit to that (other than freeing up some view space)? I tried it at one point but couldn't get used to it, I never really look down that low.

<disclaimer>PVE raiding perpective</disclaimer>:

To be perfectly honest I don't think unit frames are that useful to a mage other than to be able to see at a glance what the mob's health is. As long as your target/player frames are not miniscule in size you shouldn't have to shift your eyes to get a picture of the situation even if you have your frames close to the bottom of the screen (and most of the UIs I see have pretty big player/target frames.)

It helps to know your current health too just so you know when to pull off a clutch iceblock/fireward but in my experience I only need to do so when I fail at situational awareness. Your mana bar might be something you have to keep track of closely if you're arcane but it is less of an issue with fireball/frostfire specs.

I know personally, that I'm much more worried about a) checking my debuffs b) seeing if I'm standing in any fires or am about to be standing in a fire c) current threat % against target and d) maintaining my rotation - all which I have right in the center of my screen or close to it.

Zerstorung · 05/26/09, 1:09 AM

Since patch 3.1 with dual specs and the Blizz UI remembering bindings and such, I have gotten used to the stock Blizz bars once again. I'd like to try some of these UIs though. How do the bar mods handle dual spec and alternate key binding sets?

Watlok · 05/26/09, 1:23 AM

Originally Posted by Zerstorung

Since patch 3.1 with dual specs and the Blizz UI remembering bindings and such, I have gotten used to the stock Blizz bars once again. I'd like to try some of these UIs though. How do the bar mods handle dual spec and alternate key binding sets?

They handle them just fine. I use bartender4 personally.

Obliza · 05/26/09, 2:48 AM

Originally Posted by Unleash

Its a lot more convenient to have everything centralized on your screen and takes less time to view so your reaction times are faster. Looking up, I feel is a bit slower, and in a lot of cases it doenst matter. PVP, and few times in raids you will notice it helps. Helped me a lot back in sunwell on conflags, and things like shadow crashes and marks on vezax and such where you need to have instant reaction times. I feel if your looking to be the best there is in this game that is something that will help you get there.

I disagree completely, Halo 3 had it right by having the health bar in the top middle of the screen. I have tested having my unit frames in all four corners , bottom middle and top middle over the years and I have found that top middle is the way to go.

It simply means your focus is on the dead center of the screen which seems to be a very good thing because of void zones, rune circles and the likes. The idea behind my UI is to have your focus on the middle of a clear screen where you only see your environment, this is where your attention should be. With your health, mana, raid(healing), damage meters active buffs and cooldowns surrounding you on the edges of the screen.

When having everything at the bottom I find your focus tends to be a lot lower down then your focus would be by having information split.
Also having information at only the top and bottom seems to be more ideal then having information on the sides, I am still experimenting to see which is superior.

The only thing that is on the actual screen it self is the things that are 'active'
Buffs like livingbomb/arcaneblast, damage (miks scrolling), deadly bossmods messages.
Which makes sense as they are meant to disturb you.
For example when Stormcaller Brundir casts Overload a message disturbs your otherwise peaceful screen.

UI to come.

Zerstorung · 05/26/09, 3:33 AM

That is similar to what happened with me, Obliza. I felt that having ALL of my information at the bottom was causing a little too much tunnel vision. Too much information in one place.

I like to have my UI set up similar to a cars dash board, where a simple glance at an area will tell you the information you need. Of course, when driving a car you have the benefit of feel and sound, so when playing a game you need a few extra dashboards here and there.

Lusty · 05/26/09, 9:16 AM

Since it wasn't mentioned so far, I'd like to show you, and tell you about Satrinas Buff Frames.

This is my UI while OOC in a raid setting. The big line of buffs to the left of my minimap is SBF. OOC SBF isn't all that impressive.

Grid for raid frame, Clique is also used in conjunction.
X-perl for Player and target frames, as well as focus and target of target
ORA2 for Tank List
Dominos for Bar/Buttons
Prat for Chat window
OmniCC for Cooldowns
Quartz for cast bar only.
Sexymap round out the visible ones.

Here is where Satrinas Buff Fames really shines.

You see I have Scorch and Living Bomb tracking on thier own buttons. Actually they are bars of 1 buff.
Scorch tracking does the buff on the target cast by anyone.
Living Bomb is only tracking my casts and is counting down that spell.
The red bar there is actually a Hot Streak Proc, that I track using a bar with an icon that counts down as the buff expires.
My WWS was always plagued with missed hot streak procs and slack LB uptime, until I got SBF. It's just awesome.
Just recently started tracking Dragonsoul and Broodmother stacks so I could keep those up while dodging clouds on Yogg.

There is a lot of hidden elements to my UI. Stuff I don't need to see, unless I mouse over the bars.
Here's what it looks like with everything unhidden. There's 4 full action bars in the bottom left corner of the screen, 2 more 4x3 button boxes under the minimap, a 2x6 button row that I unhide while doing dailies, as those have the quest clickables on them.

Weezifbaby · 05/26/09, 3:27 PM

I've always like Proculas for keeping track of my Procs (i.e. Hot Streak). Gives a customizable sound cue when something procs. I use it in conjunction with class timers so I know if the proc is still there due to 4p T8.

epoh · 05/26/09, 5:18 PM

Here's a slightly old SS (latest one I have on flickr):

Addons:

XPerl
Bartender
IceHUD
SBF (love this addon)
Aperture
Lunarsphere (handy for all the various buffs we have, ports, food, etc)
Decursive
Omen (minimized)
MSBT

And about 50 others, but those are the important ones. I've found you don't need Scorchio and all those other buff watch addons if you just setup SBF to watch everything.

I am very interested in setting up Grid. I don't like how much space the raid units take up, nor can I see ppl's mana right now.

Lokicat · 05/27/09, 12:07 AM

Had to post my girlie UI.

Here is a list of mods.

Oh and wanted to show my hotstreak procc.