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Old 10/31/09, 2:59 PM   #1
 Zurm
The Ultimate in /facepalm Technology
 
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Worgen Rogue
 
Bonechewer
Retribution UI: The key to successful facerolling

Allow me to start off with a quote from the Rogue UI thread; I’m sure a mod will update this anyway:

Originally Posted by Latito View Post
(MODERATOR NOTE)I'm just going to be very clear to start with: if you make a post in this thread copying the OP's format and listing the mods you use in place of what Latito listed, you will get an infraction.

This thread will live as long as it contains useful discussion of the kinds of things that are important in a rogue UI, or of how to design rogue UI's such that important elements are placed optimally, or other topics of similar nature. (Basically, the kind of posts that have mostly occurred so far.) If it becomes an endless jerk-off session with each idiot showing off his unique snowflake UI and posting a stream of consciousness explanation of every last thought behind it...you know where it will go.(END MODERATOR NOTE)
Please do NOT make posts for the following, but rather send a PM to the appropriate individual:
*Ask people to upload their UI/mod
*Ask people about some mod in a screenshot of theirs that they aren’t talking about
*Updates to this main post that are mistakes or outdated (not new mods that we may want to discuss first)

Table of Contents

I. Purpose

II. Resources

III. Add-ons: Core Paladin/Raiding Elements
  • a. Boss Mod
  • b. Raid Frame
  • c. Buff Frame/Bar
  • d. Blessing Management
  • e. Scrolling Combat Text
  • f. Unit Frames
  • g. Action Bars
  • h. Hotkey Compensation
IV. Add-ons: Retribution-Specific Elements
  • a. Threat Meter
  • b. Rotation Helper
  • c. Cool-down Count
  • d. Cast Bar/Swing Timer
  • e. Internal Trinket Cool-down Watcher
  • f. Short Buff/Debuff Tracker
V. Add-ons: Non-essentials
  • a. Damage Meter
  • b. OPie
  • c. PowerAuras
  • d. Utility Management
  • e. Nameplate Replacement
  • f. Macro Management
  • g. Chat Management
VI. Hotkeys: How to Avoid Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

VII. Macros: Your "I Win" Buttons

VIII. Putting It All Together
  • a. General Rules
  • b. My UI

I. Purpose

With the above in mind, this is NOT a replication of the generic UI thread. The specific purpose of this thread is to identify elements to improve retribution performance with a PvE focus in mind. Add-ons that are considered necessary or very helpful, as well as potential replacements, will be discussed here. There have been many questions in the various retribution threads, so hopefully this thread will redirect the questions and alleviate the same questions being repeated incessantly. Please keep in mind that my UI is not necessarily the only "right" way to do things; it is a work in progress just like anyone else’s. No one here is necessarily wrong or right. This thread is also not about me showing off my UI, but identifying elements that all of us need. Expect this thread to evolve significantly over the coming weeks. I will update this first post with the latest information we have gathered further down the thread, but you are still responsible for reading the ENTIRE thread before entering discussions.

Before we delve into any kind of details, there are a few things to note. We are going to cover many different add-ons below, but it may not be ideal for YOU to use them. I personally have a very powerful machine, and can run any number of add-ons smoothly. Obviously, some of you will not be able to run many of these, and that’s up to you if the extra utility is worth the decreased frame rate. Some add-ons even have the capability of destabilizing an otherwise stable connection due to excessive network traffic. I will do my best to mention these types of mods, but since I don’t have a fair an accurate way to assess these mods you will really have to experiment for yourself.

In addition, your guild may have preferences to some add-ons, especially when it comes to things like damage meters and boss mods. I’m going to list my personal preferences for each type of mod, as well as a few other options (if I’m aware of them… feel free to PM me any you think deserve to be added). Acronyms and shorthand will be used where possible, but I will be sure to be as clear as possible when assigning these. I will not list mods such as action bars or unit frames; while they certainly add functionality, they are primarily a visual change and don’t belong in a discussion of practical add-ons that forward raiding effectiveness.

Finally, while the paladin class shares some common "required" features, we will be focusing ONLY on retribution UIs. The protection and holy paladins are more than welcome to use what I have started as a baseline for their own threads (though I would appreciate credit for my work), though I strongly suggest they PM a moderator for permission and guidance before they go ahead and blindly create their own UI threads.

Note: For those who have inquired about my UI specifically from my more recent videos, I will try to have a copy uploaded onto WoWInterface within a week or so and will put a link in this thread. Please do not spam me with PMs.

II. Resources
I will not provide direct links to add-ons for a given site. It’s up to YOU to find the add-on in question on the above sites. Use these sites also to discover new elements that we may want to incorporate; the search features have greatly evolved and you can find some pretty neat mods just by digging around. Also, looking around in the UI thread on EJ here can be helpful as well.

To keep myself and others sane, here’s a list of acronyms that I may use. These won’t be for the mods themselves, as I have those next to each listed mod.

AW – Avenging Wrath
CD – Cooldown
DP – Divine Plea
DPS – Damage Per Second
RW – Raid Warning
SoC – Seal of Command
SoV – Seal of Vengeance

III. Add-ons: Core Paladin/Raiding Elements

Here we will discuss mods that every paladin raider should have. If you don’t have these types of mods, for whatever reason, you probably aren’t performing at your peak as an effective paladin raider. Some of these even extend to other classes.

IIIa. Boss Mod

Preference: BigWigs (BW)
Alternatives: Deadly Boss Mods (DBM), Deus Vox Encounters (DVE)
Why: To put it simply, they keep track of things that would be extremely difficult to keep track of on your own. This is actually one of, if not the single biggest DPS improving tools you have at your disposal. Being able to time CDs and abilities in conjunction with certain boss abilities/events is priceless. These will allow you to think ahead with accuracy, and avoid those embarrassing deaths. Every single raider, regardless of class, should absolutely have one of these.

IIIb. Raid Frame

Preference: Grid
Alternatives: ORa2, Xperl, ShadowedUF, Healbot, Vuhdo
Why: I can’t really think of any alternative that does quite everything that grid does. I truly believe that if you have a heal, defensive CD castable on others, or some kind of cleanse, you absolutely must have grid. It is extremely powerful, convenient, and surprisingly lightweight compared to other raid frame mods. The ability to track debuffs through manual addition is extremely convenient as well. When combined with a mouse-over macro, this is one potent tool.

IIIc. Buff Frame/Bar

Preference: Elk Buff Bars (EBB)
Alternatives: Satrina Buff Frames
Why: The importance of an easily and heavily customizable buff tracking mod cannot be underestimated, especially when it comes to short buffs and Debuffs both on you and your target. I am partial to EBB because of the ability to create custom groups and modify/filter them as you please.

IIId. Blessing Management

Preference: PallyPower
Alternatives: Grid, ZOMGBuffs
Why: There’s a reason PP has been around as long as it has. It is far and away the best mod I have encountered when it comes to managing blessings. Simply give one paladin the assist, and he can coordinate all the blessings for every paladin in the raid, even 10 minute ones. Make sure PP is NOT buried at the edge of the screen; as a Paladin it is your job to re-bless people who have been resurrected.

IIIe. Scrolling Combat Text

Preference: Mik’s Scrolling Battle Text (MSBT)
Alternatives: Scrolling Combat Text (SCT), Parrot, Cascade
Why: The main purpose of a combat text replacement mod is to prevent screen clutter. The default combat text puts damage numbers above the heads of mobs, instead of sequestering it off in a portion of your screen to maintain order and vision. Any mod that can organize this data will do the trick, but I prefer MSBT because it is highly customizable and performs quite well. Features such as spam filtering (to group DOT-type damage) and ability to make custom groups and events are a big plus here.

It's worth noting that Parrot apparently has some specific synergy with BigWigs, so if you really don't care which of the three you use, it might be your best option. Eavesdrop functions differently than the other mods; it's more of a combat log replacement with a visual focus but can certainly fill this roll if screen real estate is tight.

IIIf. Unit Frames

Preference: Pitbull4
Alternatives: X-perl, ShadowedUnitFrames
Why: Unit frames allow targeting information such as mob HP, percentage HP, buffs, debuffs, and a whole myriad of other stats to be more easily viewed than possible in the default UI. More importantly, they allow you to save space by doing away with gaudy graphics and oversized text that the Blizzard unit frames use. Virtually anyone who makes any changes to their UI makes this one of their first changes.

IIIg. Action Bars

Preference: Bartender4
Alternatives: Dominos
Why: Much like above, action bar mods are a great way to save space or make better use of existing space. In addition, they often prove extra functionality when it comes to stances/auras. They also tend to streamline hotkey use and allow you to do neat things with bars regarding shape, appearance, and visibility. Another key type of mod for virtually every player.

IIIg. Hotkey Compensation

Preference: Speedy Actions by Shadowed
Alternatives: SnowfallKeyPress (SKP)
Why: When you click on an ability via hotkeys, it apparently only activates on key release, not key press. This causes a very slight delay in every button you press. A mod like SKP will negate this affect, and make your game feel generally more responsive. After trying this out, I consider it absolutely required. It's lightweight, requires no configuration, and greatly improves your performance.

IV. Add-ons: Retribution-Specific Elements

Here we will discuss mods that are potentially retribution-specific, when compared to the paladin class. These are mods that assist in your ability to do damage or maximize your ret-specific utility. While you can raid without these add-ons, having them can’t hurt and tends to increase your DPS quite significantly.

IVa. Threat Meter

Preference: Skada
Alternatives: Omen
Why: Omen is the most popular threat meter out there, as far as I’m aware. The ability to set warnings (both sound and flashes) at certain agro thresholds makes these crucial. Keep this somewhere that you can see it easily; watching your threat is extremely important, because if you pull agro and die you aren’t helping anyone. I prefer Skada, however, because it covers both the threat AND damage meter in a uniform and lightweight package. Either works, though.

IVb. Rotation Helper

Preference: CLCRet
Alternatives: Serious Help In Timing (SHIT), Faceroller, EventHorizon
Why: CLCRet is essentially like SHIT 2.0, and is currently maintained by EJ’s very own burghy here . If someone had asked me if a mod like this was necessary a few months ago, I would have said "no, l2p". Since using SHIT and now CLCRet, I can say with enthusiasm that you are really hurting yourself if you aren’t using this mod, or at least one like it. Why? Because while it may help tighten up your rotation a little during heavy burns, that’s not its real strength. The real strength is that you can pull your eyes up from staring at action bars at the edge of your screen, and keep your focus in the middle, where your character is. This allows you to greatly increase survivability and DPS through increased awareness in positioning. Plus, it centralizes your CDs like DP and AW.

Even better, this mod has "profiles" (in a different sense than most mods, though I’m sure burghy will have that working in no time). You can macro these profiles into seals (along with librams, explained later) to shift priorities depending on seals; for example, Judgment first for SoV, but CS first for SoC.

Thethiala wrote up a very nice guide for setting this mod up here.

IVc. Cool-down Count

Preference: OmniCC
Alternatives: CooldownCount
Why: There isn’t much to this. Any mod that puts a number on your action bar buttons for the CD remaining will do the trick, I’ve used OmniCC for a long time and it’s always served me well, and never interacted poorly with other mods, including CLCRet/SHIT.

IVd. Cast Bar/Swing Timer

Preference: Quartz
Alternatives: AzCastBar
Why: Another type of mod that I really only have experience with one. Quartz is stable, uses a reasonably low amount of resources, and has a ton of extra features. The fact that it covers your cast bars AND swing timer makes it quite convenient. That being said the need for a swing timer has diminished in WOTLK, but it’s still something that’s nice to have, especially for burst purposes of any kind.

IVe. Internal Trinket Cool-down Watcher

Preference: InternalCooldowns Combined with CLCRet
Alternatives: Forte, Procodile, Proculas
Why: I actually use a custom mod for this, the author of which requested that I do not mention it. There are many things you can do here, but anything that will show you the time remaining on your Greatness or Death’s Choice/Verdict ICD will be extremely helpful in timing your CDs, as you get the most out of your CDs when you line them up with these procs.

IVf. Short Buff/Debuff Tracker

Preference: Combination of EBB/PowerAuras
Alternatives: NeedToKnow
Why: You don't necessarily NEED a seperate mod for this, as most buff frames have enough customizeability to handle this. In addition, PowerAuras has some useful functionality along these lines if you can afford the screen real estate around your character. However, I know of quite a few people who like NeedToKnow, so feel free to give it a try.

V. Add-ons: Non-essentials

These mods may not help you mid-combat, but I find them extremely useful for organization and data gathering. If you can afford to use them, I would suggest it!

Va. Damage Meter

Preference: Skada
Alternatives: Recount, Recap
Why: The beauty of a damage meter is that it allows you to see your exact damage breakdown, and those of other raid members, by target. You can see where your damage lags, and where you excel. If you know what your breakdown should be for a given fight in terms of relative ability damage, you can see where you need to improve, and adjust accordingly. Note that this mod is a massive memory and bandwidth whore; it sends and receives a great deal of information mid-combat, and will continue to save data until you clear it. Use it if you can afford to, but don’t push it; I’m sure at least one person in your raid is running a mod like this. Skada seems to be lighter in terms of memory/cpu usage, but Recount also seems to be more popular. Use whichever you like best, really.

Vb. OPie

OPie with ButtonFacade

Preference: OPie
Alternatives: Geist
Why: Notice how for every other mod I’ve used a generic description, because it isn’t unique in its functionality (even if I haven’t listed alternates, I know they exist). Well I couldn’t for this mod; it is so unique that if any mod were to be similar, it would basically be a complete rip-off. OPie organizes spells, items, and even macro’s into these neat rings of icons. By pushing a hotkey, you can view a ring. You can create rings within rings, and even assign special functionality to each ring. This mod is the single greatest way to save action bar space and keep your miscellaneous stuff organized. If there are abilities you think you could group up, use this. I posted a YouTube link instead of a screenshot, because a screenshot wouldn’t quite do it justice.

Vc. PowerAuras

Preference: PowerAuras
Alternatives: ?
Why: While I’m not sure if this mod is as unique as OPie, it’s certainly no less handy. While some might consider it redundant with a properly set up buff frame such as EBB, I find it extremely helpful to watch my trinket procs while keeping focused on the middle of the screen. You can do a lot of neat things with it, including showing obnoxious graphics when you don’t have an aura or seal activated.

Vd. Utility Management

Preference: Clique
Alternatives: Decursive
Why: A lot of people swear by this mod, especially healers. It's very powerful when used in conjunction with grid, and is a great way to increase the speed of your cleanse/utilty. I'm not big on it, and just use mouseover macros instead, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Ve. Nameplate Replacement

Preference: Tidy Plates: Threat Plates
Alternatives: Caelnameplates, Aloft
Why: While the default Blizzard UI offers nameplates, there are some things it doesn't offer which this provides. The first is the ability to see a percentage of mob HP, to better plan tab targetting for HoW. Also, it slims the nameplates (and allows them to have color, size, and shape changed) which should clear up your view some. There is also aggro alerts, with nameplates highlighted a certain color depending on your aggro levels (high aggro, current target, etc). Finally, it is also (apparently) capable of showing ALL cast bars of nearby targets, not just your current target like the blizzard nameplates.

Vf. Macro Management

Preference: BindPad
Alternatives: Macro Bank, Super Duper Macro
Why: These are convenient if you find yourself running out of macro space, or need to use macros that exceed the character limit. There's not much else to them, but a nice thing to have if you like to turn everything into a macro.

Vg. Chat Management

Preference: Chatter
Alternatives: Prat
Why: I personally love chatter. Aside from the integration with MSBT mentioned here, it's just a great way to customize your chat window and keep things organized. It also allows you to give nicknames to your channels, so when you record a video or take a screenshot, you don't have to worry about your secret channels (such as class channels) being discovered!

VI. Hotkeys: How to Avoid Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

I am not going to tell you how to assign your hotkeys. Ultimately it is up to you to determine what is most comfortable and works for you. A lot of it boils down to stuff as simple as hand size and reaction time. I can, however, give you some general pointers to follow to maximize use of your hotkeys.

Keep buttons you use the most the closest: Don’t put crusader strike on your "=" key unless you plan to keep your hand there. Since I use W,A,S,D to move, I keep my most often pressed buttons near there (F=CS, 5 = DS, R = Judgment, etc). Getting a mouse with extra buttons and a clickable wheel is also quite handy when you need easy to access buttons. Leave buttons like mounting, eating, chat reply, and holy light to the more annoying to reach buttons, like "=". This will increase your reaction time in battle and decrease fat-fingers (at least, in the long run).

Try to use modifiers to perform similar actions: Grouping functions so that SHIFT, ALT, or CTRL perform a similar task to the main buttons is helpful and allows your brain to react more quickly. For example, for JoL I use R, JoW I use SH-R, JoJ I use CTRL-R. You can do similar things with HoP, Bubble, and LoH.

Save hotkeys for abilities that really need them: Trust me, you don’t need your "1" button to summon Grunty, or your "3" button to mount. Don’t be that guy. Save macros for things you need to press quickly in combat. If you absolutely must use a hotkey for a non-combat task, try to group similar things into an OPie ring to save bar space.

VII. Macros: Your "I Win" Buttons

Again, I’m not going to post an exhaustive list of every macro you need to use. I have A LOT. You should too. If you really need a helping hand, Arena Junkies has a helpful starting point here.

Attack Macros: Don’t just drag abilities from your spell book onto your bar, especially not your retribution attack abilities. Macro each and every one of them into an attack macro, that follows this format:
#showtooltip Crusader Strike
/startattack
/cast Crusader Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Here’s why: if your next ability is on CD and you need to switch targets, just pushing the ability won’t do anything until it activates. And if it’s Exorcism or Consecrate, it won’t even start attacking even if they are off CD. Trying to right-click doesn’t work well either if you’re fighting multiple mobs in the same spot. Plus, the last command clears that annoying red text that says "You can’t do this yet" every time you press a button that’s on CD (because if you’re anything like me, you spam the hell out of your DPS abilities).

Mouse-over Macros: Having to deselect your current target to use a defensive ability is cumbersome and causes you to, at the very least, waste auto-attacks and seal procs. Something like this cleanse macro can work wonders for any defense ability:
#showtooltip Cleanse
/cast [target=mouseover, exists] [help] [target=player] Cleanse
Assist macros: Every raid should have that one DPS person who knows what the hell they are doing and calling targets. One of the best ways to make sure you’re hitting the right thing is making a simple macro to assist him:
/target Assistguy
/assist
Libram swap macros: Now these are quite handy in 3.2, and will likely serve you at least into 3.3. These handy macros perform 3 tasks, at their fullest extent: swap a seal, equip a libram, and shift your CLCRet priority. While burghy describes a more complete set of options here, I’ll give you a short and sweet example assuming you had a preset named "CSFirst":
#showtooltip Seal of Command
/cast Seal of Command
/equip Relentless Gladiator’s Libram of Fortitude
/clcretlp CSFirst
Noraj also wrote up slightly more robust macros for those with twitchy fingers to make sure the seal has been cast before you attempt the libram swap (to prevent you from wasting GCDs while swapping). Unfortunately, you can't fit the CLCRet functionality in it as well, but you can find his macros in the next post down.

3-in-1 Judgement macro: As I mentioned earlier with grouping hotkeys, you can save even more barspace with macro's which handle the modifiers themselves:
#showtooltip Judgement of Light
/cast [nomodifier] Judgement of Light; /cast [modifier:shift] Judgement of Wisdom; /cast [modifier:ctrl] Judgement of Justice;
VIII. Putting It All Together

With all these thoughts in mind, how do we put all this together to make anything more than a flashing mess of random information? Let’s find out!

VIIIa. General Rules

Well, there are a few rules to follow, some of them are painfully obvious but need to be said, because many people do whatever they can to make their UI pretty, instead of functional:

Make the important information more centered and easier to see: Combat text, CDs, rotation info, hp/mana, buffs/debuffs on both you and your target, and raid warnings all need to get prime real estate on your screen. Make them as obnoxious and obvious as you can, but not to the point that they detract from each other’s effectiveness.

Do *NOT* clutter your screen: While this may seem to counteract my previous suggestion, it really doesn’t. Obnoxious does NOT mean large necessarily, and you can accomplish many great things with animations and colors. It is absolutely essential that you can see around your character at all times, to make sure you don’t dive into a void zone, dance in a whirlwind, or bathe in the fire. Move stuff you don’t absolutely need during a fight to the edges; things like Fubar, loot, chat, and Recount.

Use what you need, and what *YOU* can handle: I’m not talking just about your computer here. If you put too much information on your screen, your brain will explode and you’ll miss important things while being distracted by the game of solitaire you have open at the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Also note that regardless of how good your machine is, a hefty UI will lower performance no matter what; whether or not that’s an acceptable thing depends on your personal threshold for FPS tolerance.

VIIIb. My UI

Well all these rules are all nice, but I’m sure some of you want to see an example. Keep in mind that even my UI doesn’t hold perfectly to these rules; it’s what works best for me, and that’s all that should matter to you when considering a UI. That doesn’t mean "I’ll just keep using what I have because I do OK for now"; always look to improve your UI, as there are always new mods being made which can do neat new things!

To show you my UI, I’m not going to post a screenshot. Why? Because a UI, at least a good one, is not a static image. It is a flowing set of data with subsets of information, streaming at you in an organized manner. So, here’s a video of my UI in action on Sindragosa 25H.

Now I’m not going to go at length describing every detail of my UI. I would ask that you take note of my field of vision, and the placement of mods that I mentioned were very important. While I have a good deal of mods, my screen isn’t overly cluttered, and every mod is partitioned in its own area with minimal overlap.

If you have any questions about my UI, feel free to PM me. I will not respond to questions asking how I set up mod X or what a certain mod is, you can figure that out for yourself. I HAVE DECIDED TO *NOT* UPLOAD MY UI, PLEASE STOP ASKING! If you believe your question might bring up useful discussion regarding Retribution UI’s than by all means post, but bear in mind if you post something stupid or something that has been repeated many times the moderators will likely slap you with an infraction.

Last edited by Zurm : 05/24/10 at 9:30 AM.

Formally Xyrm/Zurm, the Ret Pally. Now playing my rogue, Zyrm, more casually with RL friends.

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Old 10/31/09, 6:13 PM   #2
Noraj
Don Flamenco
 
Noraj's Avatar
 
Dwarf Paladin
 
Lightbringer
Another useful Libram Swap macro uses a bit of scripting to make sure that your seal was actually cast before swapping the libram to avoid any mischief:

Seal of Command:
#showtooltip
/cast Seal of Command
/run local f=RbA or CreateFrame("Frame","RbA") f:SetScript("OnEvent",function(s,e,u,p) if u=="player" and p=="Seal of Command" then EquipItemByName(42852) end end) f:RegisterEvent("UNIT_SPELLCAST_SUCCEEDED")
Seal of Righteousness:
#showtooltip
/cast Seal of Righteousness
/run local f=RbA or CreateFrame("Frame","RbA") f:SetScript("OnEvent",function(s,e,u,p) if u=="player" and p=="Seal of Righteousness" then EquipItemByName(42852) end end) f:RegisterEvent("UNIT_SPELLCAST_SUCCEEDED")
Seal of Vengeance:
#showtooltip
/cast Seal of Vengeance
/run local f=RbA or CreateFrame("Frame","RbA") f:SetScript("OnEvent",function(s,e,u,p) if u=="player" and p=="Seal of Vengeance" then EquipItemByName(47661) end end) f:RegisterEvent("UNIT_SPELLCAST_SUCCEEDED")
Seal of Corruption:
#showtooltip
/cast Seal of Corruption
/run local f=RbA or CreateFrame("Frame","RbA") f:SetScript("OnEvent",function(s,e,u,p) if u=="player" and p=="Seal of Corruption" then EquipItemByName(47661) end end) f:RegisterEvent("UNIT_SPELLCAST_SUCCEEDED")
The problem is that you can't fit the CLCRet profile swap onto the end of these due to the 255 character limit on macros.

n.b.: Replace the item number for the libram you want to swap in the EquipItemByName( ##### ) section of each macro. These are currently set to [Deadly Gladiator's Libram of Fortitude] for SoCom and SoR, and [Libram of Valiance] for SoV/SoCor.

Last edited by Noraj : 11/01/09 at 1:09 PM.

"The question is not how far we are going to take it... the question is, do you possess the constitution to go as far as needed?" - Il Duce

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Old 10/31/09, 7:17 PM   #3
Lesrek
Von Kaiser
 
Blood Elf Paladin
 
Cairne
I would like to see x-perl added to raid frames. The beauty of x-perl is that you can have it do as much or as little as you would like. I have mine set to be very small and tightly grouped. My roommate, who is a disc priest, has the frames massive and spread out, with tons of information under each frame. It may not be as lightweight as grid, but with some work, it is extremely functional and can provide invaluable information.

I should also add that I put all my buffs under my x-perl frame with the exception of short term buffs that I use ebb for. X-perl allows you to clear clutter from other addons which is my favorite part.

EDIT: Another addition, but by no means mandatory, would be any of the screen reduction addons. These give you the black bars either on top, bottom or both. These provide a great way to give you more viewing by taking all of the stuff that inevitably clutters the bottom of the screen and puts it in a black box, so it isn't covering anything you may otherwise miss.

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Old 10/31/09, 8:47 PM   #4
bv728
Piston Honda
 
Dwarf Paladin
 
Shandris
Sadly, I'm primarily holy, but I do have one mod to suggest -

For buffs, I reccomend ZOMGBuffs instead of PallyPower, mostly because it's got what I feel is a cleaner interface (popup on mouseover) and it's got configurable hotbuttons to hit some of your buffs. You can configure it to learn certain buffs and keep a simple timer onscreen for them along with a button to re-cast on the last target used before combat started (ui limits prevent it from updating buttons during combat). It's also PallyPower compliant, so it handles both receiving and sending buff setups to/from pallypower users. Most useful for SS as ret.

As well, One thing I've found useful for keeping my setup clean is compressing scrolling combat text to every 2-3 second reporting on outgoing everything. You really don't need to know how big that hit was, you have your Art of War procs watched, and Cons + melee + strikes can cause a decent amount of spam. You have a DPS meter, so what you need up to the second info on is incoming damage.

"I've often not been in the fire!"
"No, what you've been, is not in the fire."
-from Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Raiders.

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Old 10/31/09, 9:21 PM   #5
Eilith
Glass Joe
 
Draenei Paladin
 
Shadowsong (EU)
OPie has the same idea as an addon called Sprocket back in the vanilla days before they removed the ability to create action buttons in combat. I cried a lot when Sprocket stopped working because I had come to depend on it. I salute you for bringing up OPie, it'll sure be extremely helpful.

As for a rotation helper; I set up 5 "Action Usable" in Power Auras and inverted the logic so that shows up only when a skill is not available (aka. on cooldown). In essence, I can by the gaps in the line of those 5 abilities easily see which one I should use next. I use this in conjunction with ForteXorcist to line up AW with Greatness, judgement cooldowns, etc. It also works as a reminder for the seal dropping out of combat, since the judgement icon lights up.

I'm also curious why you listed BigWigs as preferred addon. Is there any specific reason to choose it above Deadly Boss Mods as a retribution paladin?

The threat addons nowadays use values provided straight by Blizz in the UI, so there's no "more accurate" threat meter.

There's a damage meter called Skada, which essentially provide the same feature set as Recount without the fancy pie charts and doesn't offer quite all of the drill-down paths, but the back-track log saves more individual fights (at least since last I used Recount) and you have the ability to manually start new segments. It also supports mode switching depending on combat status and has a built in threat meter. Not saying it's better, just bringing it to attention as a potential alternative.

Good initiative, although you do sound a little preachy at times. Going to be interesting to see what this brings.

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Old 10/31/09, 10:58 PM   #6
benny32
Glass Joe
 
Blood Elf Paladin
 
Icecrown
Skada

I respectfully submit Skada as an alternative to both Recount and Omen. I use it for both a damage meter and a threat meter and love it. I have used both of the previously mentioned addons and find it preferable.

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Old 10/31/09, 11:34 PM   #7
 Zurm
The Ultimate in /facepalm Technology
 
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Worgen Rogue
 
Bonechewer
Originally Posted by Eilith View Post
I'm also curious why you listed BigWigs as preferred addon. Is there any specific reason to choose it above Deadly Boss Mods as a retribution paladin?
Personal preference... I find BigWigs to be more customizable and easier to use, but really they are interchangeable.

As for the preachyness, if you'd like to point out the problem areas in a PM I'd be happy to fix them!

Thanks for the input so far, added Skada and Xperl. I'll give Skada a try, maybe I'll even prefer it.

Formally Xyrm/Zurm, the Ret Pally. Now playing my rogue, Zyrm, more casually with RL friends.

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Old 10/31/09, 11:47 PM   #8
flyingtoastr
Bald Bull
 
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Human Paladin
 
Draka
I think the basic 3-in-1 Judgement macro should be added, as it is fairly important.

#showtooltip
/cast [nomodifier] Judgement of Light; /cast [modifier:shift] Judgement of Wisdom; /cast [modifier:ctrl] Judgement of Justice;

Or whatever, its pretty customizable.

I also still find Clique to be incredibly useful as Ret. Binding various utility spells, especially the various Hand spells and Cleanse, not only allows you to free up action bar room (and possibly even macro space if you were use mouseovers), but also allows you to cast any of the spells without having to target that player, allowing you to continue nearly full DPS while throwing utility.

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Old 11/01/09, 1:02 AM   #9
 frmorrison
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Ashstorm
Human Paladin
 
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Originally Posted by Eilith View Post
I'm also curious why you listed BigWigs as preferred addon. Is there any specific reason to choose it above Deadly Boss Mods as a retribution paladin?

The threat addons nowadays use values provided straight by Blizz in the UI, so there's no "more accurate" threat meter.

There's a damage meter called Skada.
Bigwigs is usually updated more often. There is also DXE (Dues Vox Encounters) for a third choice.

Omen is the best because you can get a flash, shake, and alarm when you get high up on threat.

Skada is good, although the interface isn't as user friendly as Recount.


For other mods, I use classtimer to show spell durations, like for Repentance and Sacred Shield.

For internal cooldown tracker, InternalCooldowns - WoW AddOns - WowAce.com is an updated version instead of the Curse version. It works with Greatness and can be edited to work with Death's Choice.
However, you have to edit data.lua to delete the current two lines and instead add:

[67703] = {47303, 47115}, -- Paragon, 450 AGI
[67708] = {47303, 47115}, -- Paragon, 450 STR
[67772] = {47131, 47464}, -- Paragon, 510 AGI
[67773] = {47131, 47464}, -- Paragon, 510 STR

What this does is when you put your trinket on your toolbars, you can see the internal cooldown of the trinkets. Or just look at the doll's trinkets and the cooldown will be there as well.

Last edited by frmorrison : 11/01/09 at 12:19 PM.

Millions of words are written annually purporting to tell how to beat the races, whereas the best possible advice on the subject is found in the three monosyllables: 'Do not try.'

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Old 11/01/09, 4:17 AM   #10
Soher
Von Kaiser
 
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Blood Elf Paladin
 
Ragnaros (EU)
I'm tracking my own buffs/debuffs with Classtimers addon.
It's great to keep eye on the procs (Greatness/Berserking/Mirror for me), talents like Art of War, Sacred Shield. Basicly it's Xforte, but much much easier to configure. and not that messy.
Only downside I have found so far, is it only counts buffs/debuffs on you, your current target and focus. Also it can be a bit problematic, I get used to it tho, it tracks debuffs/buffs types on your target and doesn't count weather is it yours or not. So it can happen, that it counts 3-4 Seal of Vengeance stacks side by side at time.

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Old 11/01/09, 6:43 AM   #11
Brekkie
Glass Joe
 
Draenei Paladin
 
Windrunner
I'd like to submitt Watcher as my prefered alternative to CLCRet.
Watcher - Addons - Curse

Originally designed for hunters, which use a spell priority system not that dissimilar from our own, it is a highly customizable mod which features a cooldown timeline in the same manner as fortexorcist, but which stacks according to priorities you program in.
here is a screenshot featuring Watcher:
ui picture by leapfrog88 - Photobucket


Another addon of note that I have found particularly helpful is called Time To Die. TTD is a very lightweight addon that simply puts a digital time counter on your screen that constantly estimates the amount of time in minutes and seconds it will take for your current target to die based in the incoming DPS on it. TTD is extremely useful both personally in making decisions on the use of cooldowns, and as a raid leader, in judging enrage timers and allocating DPS and calling for heroism/lust.
TimeToDie - Addons - Curse
It is also featured in the screeshot above as the little counter towards the left.

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Old 11/01/09, 10:04 AM   #12
benny32
Glass Joe
 
Blood Elf Paladin
 
Icecrown
I use a very similar setup to Zurm, only differences are that my map sits in the middle of bar setup, Grid sit's next to that to keep it closer to the middle and skada (threat) rides the right side and skada damage rides the left side. Otherwise almost exactly the same.

I like it simply because you get a lot of information without (at least to me) cluttering up the middle of the screen.

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Old 11/01/09, 12:30 PM   #13
Noraj
Don Flamenco
 
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Dwarf Paladin
 
Lightbringer
Combat Text / Bossmod synergy:
If you do decide to use BigWigs as your bossmod instead of one of the other options, you should also look into Parrot as your scrolling combat text. The reasoning behind this is that the output from BigWigs can be routed through any of the scroll areas you have set up in Parrot rather than having its own separate notification area that may cause screen clutter or overlap other items of importance, especially on smaller screens. This setting is under Interface -> Addons -> Big Wigs -> Customize ... -> Output. If you are familiar with the "sticky" options many combat text mods have, this feature can be ticked on for the bossmod output as well. There is also the added benefit of the two addons sharing the ACE framework.
Originally Posted by bv728 View Post
As well, One thing I've found useful for keeping my setup clean is compressing scrolling combat text to every 2-3 second reporting on outgoing everything. You really don't need to know how big that hit was, you have your Art of War procs watched, and Cons + melee + strikes can cause a decent amount of spam. You have a DPS meter, so what you need up to the second info on is incoming damage.
Another option, at least in Parrot though I believe MSBT and SCT may also support it is "clumping" things instead of throttling the output speed. For instance, a Divine Storm that hit three targets and crit a third would read something like "DS 5000 (3hit, 1crit)" instead of showing four separate numbers. Basically, you can set a time period during which all of the attacks of the same name will be combined. I'm not sure if the throttling your talking about works in the same way or not, but you're right that combining multiple numbers definitely makes things easier to parse if you're trying to watch your flow of damage.

If you don't have the Blizzard damage numbers popping up over mobs heads, something like the "x damage (y hits, z crits)" format is especially useful for making sure you're positioned right for Seal of Command chaining.

Keypress lag
If you're looking to try and reduce lag between button presses and skill activation, there's a new mod out called SnowfallFastAction which operates on the principle that by default, actions occur when a key/buttton is released, rather than when it is pressed. The addon changes this so that the assigned action fires on key-down instead of key-up. If you like to hold your buttons down and release at the end of the GCD, this probably isn't for you. Not having tried this out yet, I can't make any comment on its usefulness.

Cast Bar
There is an excellent replacement for Quartz as well: AzCastBar. It comes with all the standard functionality and customization of Quartz, and there are Paladin specific modules to track the following list of procs and durations:
  • Hammer of Justice
  • Infusion of Light
  • Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom and Judgement of Justice
  • Judgements of the Pure
  • Light's Beacon
  • Light's Grace
  • Repentance
  • Sacred Shield
  • The Art of War
  • Turn Evil
  • Flash Of Light Hot

If you're using both Quartz and a timer mod like ClassTimer, NeedToKnow, etc., this may help cut down on your memory usage. While ACB can also be used as a buff watcher, Elkano's Buff Bars or Satrina's Buff Frames are both better choices all around unless you really like to consolidate multiple functionalities with a single mod.

Rotation Helper
I think most of us will agree that CLCRet is the king in this category, but in addition to Watcher which was mentioned above, there is the option of Faceroller with the appropriate Retribution module. The appeal for this one might only exist if you also play the other classes / specs it provides modules for (Arms, Shadow, Destruction, Enhancement, all hunter specs).

Raid Frames
One feature I've found very important in any raid frames (I personally use the ones from ShadowedUF in combination with the ShadowedUF Grid plugin) is aggro highlighting. If you plan on giving out Hand of Protection ever, it's worth turning on. Right now it's especially useful for keeping healers and casters alive on Faction Champs. It's also useful as an additional visual indication for bosses than tend to turn to secondary or tertiary targets before using a special ability. Having a big (red in my case) light flash on suddenly is a great way to let myself know something's about to happen.

Last edited by Noraj : 11/01/09 at 1:47 PM.

"The question is not how far we are going to take it... the question is, do you possess the constitution to go as far as needed?" - Il Duce

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Old 11/01/09, 12:55 PM   #14
 frmorrison
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Ashstorm
Human Paladin
 
No WoW Account
Originally Posted by Noraj View Post
Keypress lag
If you're looking to try and reduce lag between button presses and skill activation, there's a new mod out called SnowfallFastAction which operates on the principle that by default, actions occur when a key/buttton is released, rather than when it is pressed. The addon changes this so that the assigned action fires on key-down instead of key-up. If you like to hold your buttons down and release
While this addon looks interesting, if you're using non-Blizzard action bar buttons, this addon isn't going to do anything for them. Maybe a future release will work with common action bar addons like Bartender and Dominoes.

Millions of words are written annually purporting to tell how to beat the races, whereas the best possible advice on the subject is found in the three monosyllables: 'Do not try.'

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Old 11/01/09, 1:08 PM   #15
Malleus
King Hippo
 
Human Paladin
 
Bronze Dragonflight (EU)
A suggestion for addition: RedRange or RangeColors.

For those not familiar with these addons, they turn your action buttons a very noticeable red when you're out of the relevant ability's range. They provide a very useful aid to good positioning, especially on fights like where the boss's hitbox is much larger or smaller than you'd think (e.g. stationary Jormungars on Beasts). RangeColors also turns abilities you're too low on juice to use blue, which is less important but occasionally helpful.

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Old 11/01/09, 2:33 PM   #16
Thalshara
Bald Bull
 
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Blood Elf Paladin
 
Mal'Ganis
Another suggestion on a rotation helper/timer: EventHorizon Continued : WoWInterface Downloads : Casting Bars and Cooldowns

I prefer EventHorizon over any other rotation timer. Visually, I like the way it is presented. Very compact, easy to see just how tight your rotations really are, and very easy to see what skill is coming up on cooldown. Let's you plan ahead, like playing a mini game of Tetris. I've found it perfect for a FCFS priority rotation.

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Old 11/01/09, 4:09 PM   #17
Lesrek
Von Kaiser
 
Blood Elf Paladin
 
Cairne
Originally Posted by Malleus View Post
A suggestion for addition: RedRange or RangeColors.

For those not familiar with these addons, they turn your action buttons a very noticeable red when you're out of the relevant ability's range. They provide a very useful aid to good positioning, especially on fights like where the boss's hitbox is much larger or smaller than you'd think (e.g. stationary Jormungars on Beasts). RangeColors also turns abilities you're too low on juice to use blue, which is less important but occasionally helpful.
Bartender has this built in as well. Not many people realize this. Also, if you are using clcret, it really is not needed.

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Old 11/02/09, 9:09 AM   #18
 Zurm
The Ultimate in /facepalm Technology
 
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Worgen Rogue
 
Bonechewer
Updating some of the previously mentioned mods. Good finds so far! If there are any UI tips you think I may have forgotten in other sections, feel free to discuss them!

Also, I gave Skada a try, and I definitely prefer it to recount/omen. It seems to be less memory intensive than either of them, and just as customizeable, with much better and less clunky UI controls.

Formally Xyrm/Zurm, the Ret Pally. Now playing my rogue, Zyrm, more casually with RL friends.

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Old 11/02/09, 9:21 AM   #19
Spah
Glass Joe
 
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Human Paladin
 
Bloodhoof (EU)
Originally Posted by frmorrison View Post
While this addon looks interesting, if you're using non-Blizzard action bar buttons, this addon isn't going to do anything for them. Maybe a future release will work with common action bar addons like Bartender and Dominoes.
It does seem to work with Dominoes. However, compatability with Bartender would be nice too. I'm intrigued to see just how much of a difference it would make.

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Old 11/02/09, 10:24 AM   #20
Exemplar
Bald Bull
 
Human Paladin
 
Scarlet Crusade
Successful raiding involves successful management of information. Information overload leads to decision lock (wasted time trying to decide what to do) or plain distraction (staring at the wrong thing, thus missing important info causing loss of DPS or death).

One thing I'd like to stress is placement. Many of the mods listed allow you to organize items on your screen to your desires. Even if you do not choose to use many mods, something like Move Anything can grant phenomenal improvement in your gameplay.

In the Vanilla UI your health and your target's health are in the top left of your screen. Debuffs on your target just below their health. Your buttons (with the default grey swirl cooldown) are at the bottom. Your toon is in the middle of the screen. So in order to raid effectively you're looking back and forth from the top left, the middle, to the bottom. You suffer incredible time loss. Staring at a target's health, then looking down at your cooldowns you could entirely miss the fire in which you are hibernating. Staring at the toon you may not notice that you're under 20% and want to use Hammer, or that Judgement is now off cooldown. Or miss the proc that appears in the top right of your screen.

I once heard (and may misremember) that when driving a vehicle at 60 MPH in the time it takes to glance down at your Speedometer you've traveled something like 100-200 feet. Those are 100-200 feet you didn't see, or caught out of the corner of your eye. Raiding is similar - the further you have to move your eyes, the less you can effectively see.

The mods listed by Zurm help manage information, and as such are phenomenal. Which to use and how to use is the personal element. Do not simply copy other UIs you see on screenshots or Youtube. What works for them does not necessarily work for you. Experiment with placement. I like things centralized around my toon in the middle (around - so I can still see fires under or near me), others like things at the edges of the screen to give a wide field of view. Whatever works for you is the "right" answer.

As Zurm said, having that mount button bound to 1 is counterproductive - so is having the icon to mount three inches high in the middle of your screen.

TLDR: Where things are placed can be as (or more) important than what mods you use.

Rock: "We're sub-standard DPS. Nerf Paper, Scissors are fine."
Paper: "OMG, WTF, Scissors!"
Scissors: "Rock is OP and Paper are QQers. We need PvP buffs."

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Old 11/02/09, 11:59 AM   #21
Noraj
Don Flamenco
 
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Dwarf Paladin
 
Lightbringer
Originally Posted by Zurm View Post
Also, I gave Skada a try, and I definitely prefer it to recount/omen. It seems to be less memory intensive than either of them, and just as customizeable, with much better and less clunky UI controls.
It was probably apparent to you, but others might not take it into account: Since Skada is designed so that each of its meters is a separate addon that plugs into the core, you can just turn off the ones you don't actually want or need. Unless you're a raid leader or assistant on a regular basis, you probably don't need to check absorbed damage, CC, dispels, the "failbot" checker, Power, or the enemies section with any regularity if ever. I'd assume that each one left on takes up more memory since that particular subset of combat information is being recorded.

"The question is not how far we are going to take it... the question is, do you possess the constitution to go as far as needed?" - Il Duce

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Old 11/02/09, 5:44 PM   #22
Kagtuuk
Glass Joe
 
Draenei Paladin
 
Arathor
Utilizing Mouse Buttons

I have been able to get a lot of mileage out of my mouse (Logitech MX518) by taking advantage of the 8 buttons on it, which I label M1-M8 in my head. I have it set up as follows:

M3: CS
M4: JoW / (Ctrl:JoL)
M5: Exorcism
M6: Divine Storm
M7: Pyro-Rockets (eng)

Then, using Grid+Clique:
M3: Cleanse
M4: HoF
M5: HoP
Ctrl+M4: HoSalv
Ctrl+M5: HoSac

I also map CTRL to CAPS which makes it very easy to hit, since I use ESDF to move.

I originally did this to help with PvP but it turns out to be incredibly useful for PvE as well, considering how much movement is in a lot of the fights. Once I got the hang of it, it doesn't bother me when standing still either.

With this set up I never feel like I can't hit a key and move at the same time.

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Old 11/03/09, 7:12 AM   #23
TimWischmeier
Piston Honda
 
Blood Elf Paladin
 
Kult der Verdammten (EU)
Originally Posted by Kagtuuk View Post
I have been able to get a lot of mileage out of my mouse (Logitech MX518) by taking advantage of the 8 buttons on it, which I label M1-M8 in my head. I have it set up as follows:
On a side note:

You should not assign actions to your mouse buttons which you intend to use often or even spam. This is because your arm is already strained to keep the mouse in the desired position. If additionally you repetedly mash buttons, you significantly increase the chance of getting yourself a RSI syndrom. The most common position is that your wrist lays either on your table or on a rest, so your arm partly rests on your sinews. If you now use your fingers of your mouse hand to repeatedly press buttons, you add to the strain quite a bit.

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Old 11/03/09, 3:56 PM   #24
Lansa
Glass Joe
 
Human Paladin
 
Tichondrius
Snowfallfastaction seems to work only with dominos when those bars coincide with the default wow bars. ie, bar 1, but not bar 2, because bar two is one of the default scrollable bars. because of how most bar mods (or at least dominos) simply re-shuffle the buttons available to the default ui, i would guess that only bar 1, and 6-10 will work with snowfall.

Personally, ive found that i love the mod in pvp, and love it on fights like faction champs, or burrow phases of anub, but have had to re-time myself for any static stand and faceroll. i find myself pressing my next ability just before global cd comes up, so i get caught inside the global and the ability does not fire. However im sure that a little muscle memory training on a dummy will fix that over time and solve that.

Its been said before, but i also wanted to reinforce that a trinket cooldown tracker such as InternalCooldowns is required. drag your Greatness and deaths choice out and know ahead of time when to pop AW, to gain the full time of both trinkets inside AW.

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Old 11/03/09, 4:26 PM   #25
Phayne2355
Von Kaiser
 
Blood Elf Paladin
 
Destromath
I would like to add a mention about view port changes.

Addons like Skinner allow you to adjust your view port to keeping the clutter off the viewable area. This change by itself made the biggest impact on increasing viewable screen space for me.

Seeing the fire is half the battle.

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