Okay, here is the more polished result of my addon developing learning:



Single small addon, 53k memory, 0.00% cpu usage and not even optimized. Features marked with numbers on the image:
1. Important debuffs icons - major (sunders, expose armor), minor (cor, FF), bleeding (mangle, trauma). The icon dissapears when the debuff is applied
2. Player health, raw number
3. Combo points
4. Energy, smooth
5. Hunger for blood timer, the number in the icon shows the stacks (will be removed in 3.1 ofc). It provides sound "ticks" every second for 3 seconds before HfB drops, removing the need to actually watch the bar
6. Slice and Dice timer, scans the talents and glyphs on start to find the max time and shows the current value as percent of the max, i.e. 1CP slice won't fill your entire bar making you feel like having half an hour of slice uptime. It also provides sound "ticks" for 4 (yeah 4) seconds every second before SnD drops, sound is different from HfB one
7. Rupture timer. When rupture is down timer dissapears (like the other timers too), but if the target have bleeding effects:
"Lacerate",
"Pounce",
"Rake",
"Rip",
"Savage Rend",
"Garrote",
"Rupture",
"Deep Wounds",
"Rend"
Then a blue dot in front is shown, hurray for HfB :p
8. Deadly poison bars. Again, even if there is no DP on the target the blue dot in front will be shown if there are other poison effects:
"Anesthetic Poison II",
"Deadly Poison IX",
"Wound Poison VII",
"Serpent Sting"
9. Small timer for DP ticks - it starts filled on tick and goes to empty before the next tick. Timing envenoms ftw
10. Small timer for envenom buff. As with snd, it fills to the maximum envenom buff time, i.e. if you perform 1cp envenom it will start at 33%
11. Threat bar (invisible now, as the training dummy refuses to strike back) - 0-100%, at 100% you pull agro
12. Target info. Raid icon is also shown if available
13. Focus info (invisible again, forgot to set focus before taking screen) - just name, level, health
14. Weapons frame, does nothing but a mere display, helps me when I have to switch alot midcombat and sometimes forget to switch back :p
15. This one took some time. It analyses what weapon enchants you have, then the trinkets and uses EP values to calculate their proc value and total value of all if they proc at the same time, and also the additional haste you will receive if you pop [Potion of Speed] along with heroism. This bar you see there is how strong procs you have (and will have) active for the next 15 seconds - the duration of [Potion of Speed]. If you have it over 50% - this is the time to pop the potion and get the max effect. I have seen up to 80%, but it is rare.
There are 2 bars connected to that frame too - they show trinket's internal cooldown. (DST there is not correct, this is just what my test char have)
Supported weapon enchants:
Mongoose
Berserking

Supported Trinkets:
Mirror of Truth
Darkmoon Card: Greatness
Dragonspine Trophy (partially, for testing)
Grim Toll
Loatheb's Shadow

Things not shown in the picture:
- Evasion bar - it is below the envenom buff one
- Kidney Shot bar - below evasion one
- Tricks of the Trade display - simple (and colorful) message telling you who you just TotTed. Very nice with target's target macros when you can sometimes cast ToTT on the horny warlock that just pulled agro :p
- Supress target cast bar of some spells - ye, like in the good old Deaden time, I added because of General Vezax. Spells that are suppressed are:
Swift Brewfest Ram - !
Surge of Darkness - General Vezax
Sonic Screech - Auriaya

On a side note: I'm not going to release the addon on addon sites, it is for my use only, just sharing with ej community because of the many requests. I will probably not add new stuff to it unless I will use it or just like it. It is generally untested too, tho finally passed the Malygos test yesterday

Configuration: There is no GUI configuration! In order to lock/unlock the addon use the /rh lock or /roguehud lock commandline options. Use /rh to see all available options
All RogueHUD settings are documented in the very top of the RogueHUD.lua. Additionally, sample file - config.lua.sample have been provided. Either create config.lua or rename the existing and place any options you want changed there, they will overwrite the default values. This way no future updates will overwrite your settings
To remove some bars override the bar placement structure and just delete lines you don't want to be shown

Thanks to SliceCommander for the nice sounds, MutilatePoints for the graphics of CPs and DPs.

Update 1:
- fixed DP tick timer to work on your current target, not stuff you aoe
- fixed DP tick timer to start the moment poison is applied rather than the first tick
- threat rounded, no more 65.342346223111% threat :p
- increased the size of the trinkets frame, it was too small to fit some of the names

Update 2:
- created sorta config, read the configuration section above
- fixed target raid icon not showing
- added ability to put energy markers, as much as you want, with any color
- added ability to limit some bars, so for example you put a limit on slice and dice bar 10 seconds and it will stay full till the value drops below, so it will draw attention when needed
- added ability to easily rearrange bars and change the colors

Update 3:
- fixed slice and dice calculation (hopefully)
- fixed bars sometimes will not be created
- added the possibility to remove any bar you want

Update 4:
- fixed overlooked change in 3.1 API which went unnoticed due to me being the only rogue
- added support for Pyrite Infuser (45s internal cd assumed)

Update 5:
- fixed toc so it no longer states out of date
- added expose armor bar (for those that have customized the structure you have to add the line if you want it)
- rewrote trinket evaluating code, smaller and adding new trinkets is a matter of seconds
- added support for Mjolnir Runestone, Blood of the Old God and Wrathstone
- fixed minor armor debuff to properly dissapear when applied (that bad black rectangle is gone)
- changed config options a bit, now /rh lock locks/unlocks it for example, /rh only gives help
- added interrupt module that announces which spell you have interrupted or when you have used your ability but failed to interrupt anything. You can direct the output to say, yell, raid, raid_warning, guild, whisper, etc. And ye, it can be spammed
- done some other things but I can't remember

RogueHUD.zip Download File

I don't understand having party frames visible with raid frames. That's a lot of redundant visual input to process.

Following that, I don't understand the purpose of showing outgoing damage. What does this accomplish other then causing clutter?

I can understand incoming damage, so that you can see the source, but this thinking does not carry to outgoing, as I assume you know what type of damage you are doing already.

Personally I only have my MSBT showing when one of my attacks results in a dodge/parry

I'm sure that the default combat text shows those, so I see no sense to use an addon who reflects this kind of incoming/outgoing damage followed by icons/name and numbers.

Also, from what I saw in many screenshots here, most of players use addons for buffs who aren't necessary because the default ones provide everything you want to know about. Why buff bars? Space consumed if you ask me.

More over, why having player/target frame and same time a HuD? Both show same things so one can be neglected.

I revamped my rogue's interface but first of all I want to mention that I play this char in a casual way, not being my main thus in some cases I might be wrong, as you can see in this screenshot

I discovered last week that ForteXorcist supports Rogues as well not only Warlocks as initially was, being a very good mod for displaying statusbars with time left on rogue abilities. Also it has a special bar for tracking CD's same way as CoolBar does. But with Forte you have two in one. Each bar can be colored after taste, you can add/remove any abilities you want. Its "bad" part is that you have to work a little at beginning of use because there are some buffs who will show by default and you don't need to see them like Unleashed Rage, Horn of Winter etc.

As a player/target frame I chose Pitbull because it provides me anything I want to know about HP/Energy/Combo Points/Enemy Debuffs. Again I see no sense why some of players use separate addons for Energy/Combo Points. Waste of space and memory.

The one and only party/raid frame whom I consider using ever is Grid and nothing more. It take less space than any other addon who do the same.

Finally, if someone needs more action bars/buttons I consider it can be a good way to hide them, setting their visibility low, like I did with mine, kept only few. On mouse over they will show.

So, to draw a conclusion at the end of my post, a clean and "competitive" UI should have:
- Default Buffs squares provided by Blizzard, there is no need for a separate addon;
- Default combat floating text, same as above, no need for a separate addon;
- Player/target frames who show your/enemy HP, your energy, your combo points on enemy, also raid debuffs on enemy.
- Raid frames - use Grid, is small and good.
- Time status bars - use any you like who can provide main rogues abilities: Rupture, HfB, SnD, DP, WP, anything you want to know by preferences.
- Action Bars - hide some of them, don't show them all at a time.
- No Omen/other threat metter, no need to worry about pulling aggro on bosses.
- No Recount/other damage metter or keep it hidden. Use LoggerHead to automatically enable/disable combat log and at the end of raid load that log on a site like Wow Web Stats

Default combat text is unoptimal in an AoE situation, and that should be painfully obvious during your first visit to Naxxramas. An appropriate AddOn not only controls the area in which the actual numbers are shown, but can also compress the output, e.g. "FOK - 8 Hits(XYZ dmg)" (at least Parrot can do this), instead of spamming your screen full of numbers. This also serves as a quick feedback medium in said situations. For example, you realize FoK is only hitting a portion of possible targets, or your autoattacks aren't hitting anything. This is not always obvious just by looking at your character (who is very much concealed beneath the AoE spells of 15 other people).

I like the idea of compressed AoE scrolling text, like your "FoK - 8 Hits (XXX)", but I don't want to change from SCTD. Does anyone know mod that could be compatible with SCTD and eliminate the spam from FoK? I was thinking of modifying WindfuryTally to work with FoK, but I'm terrible at Lua.

I actually like the default combat text (for outgoing damage) in AoE situations: I find that having the numbers appear over the target's heads gives me a quick visual cue indicating whether or not I'm well centered for my FoK. I tried the condensed versions but I found that knowing if I'm hitting X things tells me nothing about what I'm missing, more specifically where the mobs I'm missing are.

Then again, I'm a clicker (I just prefer it), so knowing that I'm always autoattacking isn't an issue: a simple range finder on my specials tells me if I'm out of range of my target, and having the autoattack button on the action bar for quick switching when a target dies -- combined with the default positioning warnings ("you are facing the wrong way") and audio cues -- elides the need to actually see my character in such situations.

I switched to Mik's Scrolling Combat Text from SCTD, for exactly the reason given. I think it's a solid replacement, unless you made a lot of customisations to SCTD.

While I agree with several of your comments and reasonings, I disagree with the buff mods. Now, I can see in your screenshot that you have a mod for tracking SnD/Rupture/Poisons. I think everyone can agree that those are *required* (and HfB if you have it). I would go further to state that additional information about important buffs is quite handy - not required but definitely a good thing. Having properly filtered/grouped sets of buff bars allows you to, at a glance, determine information like "am I getting all the proper buffs", "do I have a lot of procs up (good time to use cooldowns)", etc. I'm not advising large blocks of bars (such as you have) since they obstruct your view too much. I prefer smaller, tighter, ideally medium-opacity bar groups that are well filtered and managed. Example: Screenshot

At a glance I can see my important buffs. I realize I tend to run information-heavy with lots of stuff on my UI, but it is well managed and the viewing area around my character is quite open.

Regarding outgoing damage, I'd agree with a few other posters here that seeing it is handy for a quick "am I in melee range" check. Shrink the font, move it out of the way (top of the screen for me) and it won't get in the way, but whenever you want to check it, its there. Default combat text is large, bulky, poorly animated and in the way.

I'd definitely agree about Party/Raid frames - Grid is amazing (you can see in my screenshot that I'm missing LotP, a quick check on grid shows that the feral is out of range). No need to show Party/Raid frames when you have grid.

I still feel as though Omen is important. Its not that useful on most bosses, but anything with an aggro wipe or new adds.. Omen is handy. Tanks will do more tps than you in the long-run, but if they miss the first attack and you're on a mob right away, that can be trouble. Tricks of the Trade helps mitigate this, but for a fight with adds (or trash...), that's not always available. Recount - personal preference. I can see a lot of reasons why it should stay closed, I just like it open.


Simply put, your UI should be supporting you. It should highlight important information and filter out the useless clutter. Designing a UI is about balancing what information you display (open areas display the raid environment.. void zones, fires, etc) and where. I think this thread is mostly about helping people think about their priorities when it comes to designing a UI (realizing the tradeoffs they are making), and then helping them use the tools (mods, macros, etc) available to implement the design.

RogueHUD Update 1:
- fixed DP tick timer to work on your current target, not stuff you aoe
- fixed DP tick timer to start the moment poison is applied rather than the first tick
- threat rounded, no more 65.342346223111% threat :p
- increased the size of the trinkets frame, it was too small to fit some of the names

You can get from original post: The Rogue UI: Your Silent Partner

First-time poster here and your statement pretty much sums up how I tried to design my UI.

Screenshot

Raid Frames: Pitbull. I like how customizable these frames are and I especially like the point bar directly under my target's name to tell at a glance how many CPs I currently have.
Action Bars: Bartender4. I prefer to keep the majority of my abilities keybinded and hidden and only have one bar to show my more important cooldowns.
Buffs: Elkano's Buff Bars. Very useful addon for clearing up a good deal of screen real estate.
Ability Timers: Needtoknow. Being able to see things like Reflection of Torment, HfB, and SnD as well as Rupture and DP next to the frames they pertain to is immensely helpful.
Cast Bars: Quartz. I keep the cast bars directly under the names. For instance, Sapph's cast timer would be between the combo points and the Rupture timer.

Basically, I prefer to keep most things centralized on my screen and for them to take up as little space as possible. My DBM timers are set to use the center area between myself, my target, and my target's target when they reach <10 seconds so it's rather hard to miss something important. Also, this keeps all the more pertinent information right around your character itself which makes monitoring these things while avoiding things like void zones during Sarth far easier.

Until visiting this thread I wasn't aware there were addons to monitor things like DP and Rupture ticks but now that I know I'll have to find a way to work that in here.