My UI
One of my readers posted about my UI, and I have actually been meaning to do a post on this for a while now. So sit back and enjoy as I give you a breakdown of what I've done. My UI is made of the finest hand picked elements. Here is a silly screenshot with some info highlighting the best parts :) Most of my mods now are almost exclusively Ace Mods. They all have a consistent look and feel, and are very computer friendly.
Clique
One of my key UI pieces is the one you'll never see in a screen shot. This is my click casting mod. It allows me to cast spells by clicking on any unit frame using any combination of mouse clicks and keys I could desire. This allows me to react far more quickly than I would with just button bars and keys alone. In fact my bars are almost only there for show :)
Bartender3
Speaking of Bars, I actually switch to using Bartender3 after wanting to reduce the space the bars took on my screen. This is the best bar mod I tried and I tried lots. It's incredibly fast to configure unlike most bar mods and you can arrange everything just how you like it.
Pitbull
Another key element in any good UI is the unit bars. I struggled hard to find good unit bars after my long time use Watchdog never made it to 2.0. I started off with ag_unitframes which I used while I was in beta and continued to use after. I disliked it greatly because I didn't like the way buffs displayed and a few other things. Then I switched to using Xperl which broke in 2.1. It had some neat things but it also had some annoying ones too. Then the author of Fubar saved us all, he created Pitbull. It is a fantastic unit bar, looks great has all the options, easy to configure while not in a group/raid with the configure mode. Recently he has added some really great Priestly features. First it has a predictive health bar so as your healing someone it guesses where they'll end up, and its pretty damn good at it. It also shows who has agro which allows me to preemptive on shielding a casting or knowing someone is about to get damage :)
FuBar
Speaking of FuBar it is a terrific display mod. It is the 2 bars you see on the top and bottom of my screen. There are many many mods for these of which I won't bother listing them all. Some of my favorites are MoneyFu, DurabilityFu, and FactionsFu. If you visit wowace you will find TONS of FuBar mods to meet any occasion.
Chronometer
If you look at my screenshots next to the Unit Bars on the left you will often notice little spell countdown timers, these come from Chronometer. It will count down all the spells you cast letting you see how long Pain or Renew might have left. I used to use TTSpell Timer but I liked how this one looked better and the only thing it didn't have was announcements which I wasn't using anymore anyways.
coolDown
Below the unit bars and above my chatbox you'll notice my cooldown timer. This mod has been a great visual way to quickly see what is on cooldown so I know whats available. This prevents me from having to look all over at bars and such its all in one place and nice looking. This shows items, trinkets, and spell cooldowns.
Prat
Speaking of the chatbox, you may not be able to tell but I'm using Prat. It really enhances the text that you see in your chat box. It colorizes classes, shows levels, and timestamps. It has way more abilities than I use but it's a great tool!
Cartographer
Another lifesaver has been Cartographer. This is a map replacement tool which includes instance maps, with boss locations and loot tables which is awesome. It also a plugin system with an ever growing library of plugins again you can find on wowace. Without listing them all, some of the nice ones I use are Quests and Quest Objectives, Mailboxes, and Vendors. What it does is every time you take a quest, complete an objective, open the mail or open a vendor it marks it on the map. There are of course a full set for the collecting professions as well. Not to mention the ability to markup your own map. It even tracks your fellow guild mates who have Cartographer installed.
Satrina Buff Frames 2
Unhappy with the size of my buffs, and where it puts the oils and such I looked for a buff replacement. I had one I was happy with for quite some time but wasn't updated with WoW 2. Satrina I found during beta and used it ever since. It has better timers, scaleable frames, and buff expire alerts. I mean who wouldn't want to hear a murloc gurgling at you when your Fortitude is fading!
FreeRefills
This mod is one I stumbled on by accident, and some times these turn out to be the best ones :) What it does is let you setup buy orders for items you keep on hand like reagents for Fort, or Teleports, or even fishing lures like me :) So when you click on a vendor that has something you have a buy order for it fills it. This is a time saver, and can save people who forget easily. Combine this with the previously mentioned DurabilityFu and you'll never go into an instance unprepared again!
BanzaiAlert
I found this mod when I was looking to replace the aggro alert features of CTRaid a while back. This mod is probably not for everyone but I like it. Essentially if I get aggro a nice lady voice conveniently says "Aggro" and then the edges of the screen blink transparent red. It does this once when get aggro, if you loose aggro and retake it again you will here it again. I prefer to have both audible and visual queues since I'm usually paying attention to so much data at least on my Priest.
MountUp
I'm sure everyone has this but I mention it out of courtesy and how wonderful it is. It basically swaps in all your riding gear when you jump on a mount. This was a bigger deal when we had 3 separate things but it takes care of putting on my Riding Crop. Recently renamed from MountMe to MountUp.
Parrot
This is a new mod I started using recently by the creator of Fubar and Pitbull. I'm not sure how long it has been around but it is great. It is a replacement for Scrolling Combat Text, superior to both SCT and the built in Blizzard UI one in every way. It has these awesome triggers so I can have my Surge of Lights show up with great fanfare like Cheering! It also makes Melee combat much more dramatic, I enjoy it on my Druid.
TinyTip
This is my replacement for the built in mouse over tips. It provides more information and looks better in general.
Wardrobe2
This is the mod I use to handle my transformation from Uberhealer to SuperHero! It is a very easy to use mod that lets you save equipment sets.
SpellBinder
This is another mod that might not be for everyone. I was looking to fill the need of being able to bind spells and macros so key combinations. More for my Druid than my Priest but I use it there as well. This basically lets you bind anything to anything and is very cool.
FishingAce
For anyone that fishes this is a must have. It does a few things for you that are great. When you equip your pole it automatically changes your sound setting for the easiest to hear a fish hitting. It also will apply a lure in your inventory if you have one before you fish. Lets you cast but just double right clicking anywhere, and will auto loot the fish when you click on the bobber. It then changes the settings back when you unequip your pole, fabulous mod.
DeuceLog
Are you on a PvP server? Are you the vengeful type? (I am) Then you need DeuceLog, it keeps track of kills for you and if you mouse over someone who has wronged you then you know you need to make it right! >:)
Prayer of Mending Tracker
Lastly I'll mention POM Tracker. This mod was more important to me before the 2.1 patch where POM has a visible que where it went. I still like to use it in case I didn't happen to see it, and I like to see how much I can heal for my very little mana cost POM cast :) Its only downside is that it sometimes doesn't track if you are too far away.
Violation
Recently Inian stumbled upon this new ace replacement for DamageMeter. It is pretty much the same thing with some slight changes to how information is presented. You can easily create multiple views of information as well. Most of all it fits in better with the general look of the UI and its ACE!
RatingBuster
This was another great mod Inian stumbled on that adds extra info on Item Stats. It shows you how much crit you get from a rating, how much mana and HP int and stam translates to and how much regen you'll get from spirit. It also gives you a summary at the bottom of the item to show you what you would gain/loose in comparison with the current item your wearing. It is a must have I think with the new ratings its often difficult to compare items some times.
Well that is the list of my major mods. I didn't list all my Fu Mods, and a few of my lesser ones but this makes up the majority of what you might see in my screenshots and what I use to make my job easier. I am sorry for the no particular order. I'll try to come back to this and make a more complete orderly post later!
Clique
One of my key UI pieces is the one you'll never see in a screen shot. This is my click casting mod. It allows me to cast spells by clicking on any unit frame using any combination of mouse clicks and keys I could desire. This allows me to react far more quickly than I would with just button bars and keys alone. In fact my bars are almost only there for show :)
Bartender3
Speaking of Bars, I actually switch to using Bartender3 after wanting to reduce the space the bars took on my screen. This is the best bar mod I tried and I tried lots. It's incredibly fast to configure unlike most bar mods and you can arrange everything just how you like it.
Pitbull
Another key element in any good UI is the unit bars. I struggled hard to find good unit bars after my long time use Watchdog never made it to 2.0. I started off with ag_unitframes which I used while I was in beta and continued to use after. I disliked it greatly because I didn't like the way buffs displayed and a few other things. Then I switched to using Xperl which broke in 2.1. It had some neat things but it also had some annoying ones too. Then the author of Fubar saved us all, he created Pitbull. It is a fantastic unit bar, looks great has all the options, easy to configure while not in a group/raid with the configure mode. Recently he has added some really great Priestly features. First it has a predictive health bar so as your healing someone it guesses where they'll end up, and its pretty damn good at it. It also shows who has agro which allows me to preemptive on shielding a casting or knowing someone is about to get damage :)
FuBar
Speaking of FuBar it is a terrific display mod. It is the 2 bars you see on the top and bottom of my screen. There are many many mods for these of which I won't bother listing them all. Some of my favorites are MoneyFu, DurabilityFu, and FactionsFu. If you visit wowace you will find TONS of FuBar mods to meet any occasion.
Chronometer
If you look at my screenshots next to the Unit Bars on the left you will often notice little spell countdown timers, these come from Chronometer. It will count down all the spells you cast letting you see how long Pain or Renew might have left. I used to use TTSpell Timer but I liked how this one looked better and the only thing it didn't have was announcements which I wasn't using anymore anyways.
coolDown
Below the unit bars and above my chatbox you'll notice my cooldown timer. This mod has been a great visual way to quickly see what is on cooldown so I know whats available. This prevents me from having to look all over at bars and such its all in one place and nice looking. This shows items, trinkets, and spell cooldowns.
Prat
Speaking of the chatbox, you may not be able to tell but I'm using Prat. It really enhances the text that you see in your chat box. It colorizes classes, shows levels, and timestamps. It has way more abilities than I use but it's a great tool!
Cartographer
Another lifesaver has been Cartographer. This is a map replacement tool which includes instance maps, with boss locations and loot tables which is awesome. It also a plugin system with an ever growing library of plugins again you can find on wowace. Without listing them all, some of the nice ones I use are Quests and Quest Objectives, Mailboxes, and Vendors. What it does is every time you take a quest, complete an objective, open the mail or open a vendor it marks it on the map. There are of course a full set for the collecting professions as well. Not to mention the ability to markup your own map. It even tracks your fellow guild mates who have Cartographer installed.
Satrina Buff Frames 2
Unhappy with the size of my buffs, and where it puts the oils and such I looked for a buff replacement. I had one I was happy with for quite some time but wasn't updated with WoW 2. Satrina I found during beta and used it ever since. It has better timers, scaleable frames, and buff expire alerts. I mean who wouldn't want to hear a murloc gurgling at you when your Fortitude is fading!
FreeRefills
This mod is one I stumbled on by accident, and some times these turn out to be the best ones :) What it does is let you setup buy orders for items you keep on hand like reagents for Fort, or Teleports, or even fishing lures like me :) So when you click on a vendor that has something you have a buy order for it fills it. This is a time saver, and can save people who forget easily. Combine this with the previously mentioned DurabilityFu and you'll never go into an instance unprepared again!
BanzaiAlert
I found this mod when I was looking to replace the aggro alert features of CTRaid a while back. This mod is probably not for everyone but I like it. Essentially if I get aggro a nice lady voice conveniently says "Aggro" and then the edges of the screen blink transparent red. It does this once when get aggro, if you loose aggro and retake it again you will here it again. I prefer to have both audible and visual queues since I'm usually paying attention to so much data at least on my Priest.
MountUp
I'm sure everyone has this but I mention it out of courtesy and how wonderful it is. It basically swaps in all your riding gear when you jump on a mount. This was a bigger deal when we had 3 separate things but it takes care of putting on my Riding Crop. Recently renamed from MountMe to MountUp.
Parrot
This is a new mod I started using recently by the creator of Fubar and Pitbull. I'm not sure how long it has been around but it is great. It is a replacement for Scrolling Combat Text, superior to both SCT and the built in Blizzard UI one in every way. It has these awesome triggers so I can have my Surge of Lights show up with great fanfare like Cheering! It also makes Melee combat much more dramatic, I enjoy it on my Druid.
TinyTip
This is my replacement for the built in mouse over tips. It provides more information and looks better in general.
Wardrobe2
This is the mod I use to handle my transformation from Uberhealer to SuperHero! It is a very easy to use mod that lets you save equipment sets.
SpellBinder
This is another mod that might not be for everyone. I was looking to fill the need of being able to bind spells and macros so key combinations. More for my Druid than my Priest but I use it there as well. This basically lets you bind anything to anything and is very cool.
FishingAce
For anyone that fishes this is a must have. It does a few things for you that are great. When you equip your pole it automatically changes your sound setting for the easiest to hear a fish hitting. It also will apply a lure in your inventory if you have one before you fish. Lets you cast but just double right clicking anywhere, and will auto loot the fish when you click on the bobber. It then changes the settings back when you unequip your pole, fabulous mod.
DeuceLog
Are you on a PvP server? Are you the vengeful type? (I am) Then you need DeuceLog, it keeps track of kills for you and if you mouse over someone who has wronged you then you know you need to make it right! >:)
Prayer of Mending Tracker
Lastly I'll mention POM Tracker. This mod was more important to me before the 2.1 patch where POM has a visible que where it went. I still like to use it in case I didn't happen to see it, and I like to see how much I can heal for my very little mana cost POM cast :) Its only downside is that it sometimes doesn't track if you are too far away.
Violation
Recently Inian stumbled upon this new ace replacement for DamageMeter. It is pretty much the same thing with some slight changes to how information is presented. You can easily create multiple views of information as well. Most of all it fits in better with the general look of the UI and its ACE!
RatingBuster
This was another great mod Inian stumbled on that adds extra info on Item Stats. It shows you how much crit you get from a rating, how much mana and HP int and stam translates to and how much regen you'll get from spirit. It also gives you a summary at the bottom of the item to show you what you would gain/loose in comparison with the current item your wearing. It is a must have I think with the new ratings its often difficult to compare items some times.
Well that is the list of my major mods. I didn't list all my Fu Mods, and a few of my lesser ones but this makes up the majority of what you might see in my screenshots and what I use to make my job easier. I am sorry for the no particular order. I'll try to come back to this and make a more complete orderly post later!
1 Comments:
Holy shit, lanner!
I didn't know you had readers!
Now log on ... now.
<3 rev
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