Hi guys,
I need some inspiration (or something to blatantly copy) for a new Ui - had some complaints about mine being a "Level 1 Ui" after posting some earlier screenies.
(http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac214/Leemadin/WoWScrnShot_050210_215032.jpg)
I've got a few problems with it that I need help with:
Buffs - In 25man raids, the normal 25man buffs take up an EPIC amount of screen space, is there anything that can be done about this?
Pallypower - Again, takes up a lot of space, is there anyway to make it smaller? Also, would other pallies recommend removing the blessings from my right action bars? In order to save space, and solely rely on PP?
Map - such a big map isn't really needed for Icc25 and so on, is there anything I can do to either shrink it or get rid of it completely?
Raid frames - I use Xperl for these, which I like, but again seems to take up a lot of space, any suggestions.
Also - other things like health pots and so on, can the use on pots be keybound?
Any help much appreciated:g:
(PS - please feel free to use this as an excuse to post your pro UIs :D)
Buy a bigger monitor.
buff bars = elkano's buff bars
map = look on curse or wow interface to find one you like, i use "clean mini map"
raid frames, either xpearl or grid
unit frames (the bit that shows you, your target +targets target etc) - many out there im using pitbull (i think)
Action bars - this is the easiest way to make a UI look a lot cleaner and give you more space - get bartender
or just grab urself a totally built UI from wowinterface graficial compliations area ( http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/cat104.html )
you will need to simply move everything to where you want it when you download one of them, unless you get one that includes a mod i think its called reflux, when you load the addon and simply type the command given by the maker of the ui compalation and it will put everything in the same place they had it then you canedit your self.
If you want talking through anything just give me a yell, ive been putting together my own UI's for a long time
this is a fairly simple on that looks like it is made for a pally
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info16392-CarbonUI.html
and it includes reflux so you dont even have to config it yourself
Thanks Sheep, helpful. I decided against Elkano on visual grounds, struck me as particularly FUGLY.
So opted for SabrinaBuffFrames instead, together with Sexymaps, which has resolved the space issues in the top-right. I've also got Tiptac now for a much better name + unit info plate, which no longer clashes horribly into my raid frames like the in-game tends to do.
In addition, Phillip introduced me to the in-game Ui scaling, so I've made it significantly smaller and less over-bearing. I've also upped my resolution to 1280x1024 - so it's immediately less claustrophobic and you can see much more now.
However, I'm still unsure how to get the best out of bartender and to frame whatever I do with my bars nicely. Here's what I've got so far anyway:
(http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac214/Leemadin/WoWScrnShot_051110_004003.jpg)
Quote from: Leemo;310007However, I'm still unsure how to get the best out of bartender and to frame whatever I do with my bars nicely.
To 'frame' anything, by which I presume you mean put a border around or have it sit on a black background, use eePanels. Total simple, create the frame and the colour of the background and size & position it where you want it
Bartender4 is pretty simple. You decide where you want buttons. You create a button bar with the number of buttons you wanted and in the shape (columns x rows) that you wanted. Nothing more to do other than turn off the standard Blizzard button UI via the addon config. Et voila.
Hi Lee,
I will try to give you some general and some tanking specific tips. I guess you pretty much know my UI from the videos I post so you have an idea of how mine looks (although, I dont have a recent hi-res screenshot with me in the office so I cant post it). While I realize that UI should serve to everyoneÃ,´s own taste and playing style, there are some general principles. And also I wont go to areas like "0MG BUY A W1D3SCR33N N00B"
I would begin with eAlign addon that only toggles a grid on your screen so taht you have all your edges aligned. The you should have addons that display information affecting your actions in central part of the screen and the rest close to edges. And also you should tend to only display what is important for you during fight - or what you can influence - so that your screen is not cluttered. Do you really need to see green heals popping up on your screen? Do you need to see friendly player nameplates? Do you need to see all those small target debuffs?
There have already been posted some good advices for addons.
Buffs:
SBF is good option along with OmniCC or ElkanoÃ...› BuffBars. They are all configurable so make sure to do it. While your buff bar should be as close to edge as possible (and maybe filtered to display beneficial buff only), your DEBUFF bar should be somewhere close to center, especially when you are a tank. ALso make sure to filter it - you dont want to see Chill of the thron debuff all the time (or even Exhaustion). Play with alpha channel a bit, too.
Map:
so you like the blueish art that SexyMap provides? If you think it just takes way too much space or is just fugly, or you just want to try SQUARE map, try Mappy.
Action Bars: Bartender, ChocolateBar, Domino... pick whichever. They all are pretty much the same. Bartender allows you to see up to 10 bars, scaleable, hideable in combat etc. YOu can also skin your buttons with ButtonFacade.
Nameplates:
Tidy Plates, seriously. You see who the mob is targetting (only the one you are targetting), If you have aggro it is red, if you dont it is yellow, nice and clean. You might consider to skin it with Tidy Plates: Threat plates that are perfect for tanks. You lost aggro? Bang, the nameplate goes BIG and FLASHING. You have aggro? It is small and red. YOu can set different colors for different threat levels. Also only target within your range have their nameplates displayed
Unit frames:
there are two addons that are currently considered as the best as configurability goes: Pitbul and ShadowedUF. You, target, targetÃ,´s target, targetÃ,´s targetÃ,´s target, pet, petÃ,´s target, focus, focusÃ,´target, party, raid, party pets.... everything incredibly configurable, filterable. I personally use Pitbul even as a raid frame that shows different layouts for 5 mans and raid (you dont need to see mana bars of raid members while it might handy in 5 mans. Also I would definitely put your and your targetÃ,´s frames to the center, right above the action bars
Raid Frames: I as both hunter and DK tank really dont need to have the raid frames in the middle because there is not much important for me to see in combat. Do you use raid frames often when in combat?
Boss mod:
I dont know if I see it correctly but it seems that you have "close" cooldowns in one column with "distant" cooldowns. It is just a matter of taste but I prefer to have very close abilities separated from an ability that will come in, say, 30 seconds. I also have VERY filtered all the announcements, cooldown abilities, special warnings to only see what is really important for me during the fight. I dont really need to know how many stacks of Gastric Bloat do tanks have, I dont need to know when pungent Blight is goint to happen, who are targets of some abilites and so on. It makes my screen a lot let cluttered.
Tooltip:
Try TipTac, it is simply amazing. Also allows positioning of the tooltip. CowTip is also nice
Meters: Omen is a standard but have you tried Skada? It looks much better and has way more fuctions, you can build more windows, toggle to see threat when in combat and DPS out of combat, it is not as heavy as Recount (if you have memory or latency issues)
Procs:
PowarAuras. Simply amazing. You want to see what procs you have, how long will they last, remaining duration of your defensive cooldowns or trinket abilities? This is best you can get, just look at my videos that show procs of my trinkets so that I can stack them with my cooldowns or potions. You can also set it up to display an ability that just became available, to see particular buff/debuff on you/target/focus/pet/whatever
Debuffs/Dots:
NeedToKnow. It is very light yet configurable, allows you to see buff/debuff on you/target/focus/pet/whatever in a column display. I use it for my hunter to see if ANY Hunters Mark is present on target, if MY Serpent sting is on target, if Mend Pet is present on my pet (when soloing) and so on.
Cast bars:
Quartz. Displays not only higly configurable cast bars of you, target, focus and pet but also your buffs and debuffs on the unit (as columns) - i have this switched off because Need to know works better for me), also can display swing timer, GCD timer...
Cooldowns:
SexyCD. It is that green bar with icons on my videos. It can display remaining cooldown of pretty much anything (even debuffs on you target - again) but I have it only to see internal cooldowns of my trinkets for preemptive use of my cooldown abilities. It is not really light addon, I have it because it is nice looking - the same job would do for example NeedToKnow
General tip: Use ONE font for every addon
I hope this helps and sorry if I was mentoring too much :)
Agree with you Dfe regarding Power Auras - should be mandatory :D
I installed Tiptac last night, and it's a vast improvement on the in-game tooltip, I have to say.
The addons sound good, however, I'm worried that my old PC won't cope with so many addons in 25man raids while waiting for my quad core BEAST to be repaired.
PS - I was wondering if any of the addons mentioned are an improvement on Xperl's target box. To me, the shiny black box belongs in a space marine style FPS, not a role playing game such as this.
Quote from: Leemo;310047The addons sound good, however, I'm worried that my old PC won't cope with so many addons in 25man raids while waiting for my quad core BEAST to be repaired.
I cant tell if your PC is going to handle it but I can give you an example: my addons take up to 65MB of memory while the greatest deal belongs to Questhelper, over 25MB. I also have some other heavier addons that I didnt mention because they are not for raiding (like AH addons, altoholic - you need an addon to manage two alts, you know :), cartographer, RatingBuster, EnsidiaFails ). In my opinion these addons shouldnt be an issue for you.
Quote from: Leemo;310047PS - I was wondering if any of the addons mentioned are an improvement on Xperl's target box. To me, the shiny black box belongs in a space marine style FPS, not a role playing game such as this.
I didnt want to comment your choice of unit frames because it is rather matter of taste (well, the two I mentioned are a bit better functional-wise, too) but XPerxl seems ugly to mee. Pitbull is so large a improvement on Xperl that you will never want to use Xperl again. just take a look here (http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=pitbul%20addon&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi).
If you need some help with health or power strings for different units, I can help you with that (like you might want to see currentHP/maxHP | percentageHP on your target but it is an overkill for your focus or target's target )
I'm using Slater UI atm, working nicely for me at least. Took a bit of adjustment and confinging to get used to Vuhdo, but now I can't imagine healing without it.
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info16386-SlateraUI1.0HealingUI1366x768Widescreen.html
(http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww310/Deepfriedegg/WoWScrnShot_051210_003146.jpg)
Check it out... 5 man version
(http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijk/2010/05/11/1273609900-10.jpg) (http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijken/2635765.html)
(http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijk/2010/05/11/1273609900-111.jpg) (http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijken/2635766.html)
(http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijk/2010/05/11/1273609900-112.jpg) (http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijken/2635767.html)
my UI, when in a raid the frames go next to recount and I got my entire screen clean like baby's bum. got power aura's too but doesnt show in screens, and a sexy gnome female in the lower left corner.
EDIT: I know my UI already looks perfect but with dfe's help its now even better, removed the timers from other people's debuffs and got tityplates which gives me a nice unitframe above the mob.
Gnomes ftw!
Trickboxx
(http://i41.tinypic.com/es0okj.jpg)
Theres nothing wrong in having the original wow interface i still do, it easier when you swap between computers and dont hve to use 1-2 hours to get the right addons and to set up the ui,
Quote from: Drakelin;310126Theres nothing wrong in having the original wow interface i still do, it easier when you swap between computers and dont hve to use 1-2 hours to get the right addons and to set up the ui,
The thing is that the default UI is not effective and doesnt let you perform best possible (and I am not speaking about Boss mods here).
I reguralrly play on two computers - lap top in the morning and my "real" PC in the evening and have almost the same UI on both, I just copied Interface folders from one computer to another. The only "pain" in the a*s is that I have to download latest versions of addons on both computers
So how is it looking now, Lee?
UI while raiding:
(http://i42.tinypic.com/97tu7n.jpg)