Addon Spotlight: PitBull
I've been putting off writing about this addon, mainly because it's one of the greatest addons out there, so it's hard to do it justice -- what doesn't PitBull do?
Well it won't win the game for you by itself, and its name doesn't really describe anything about it, but other than that it does pretty much anything and everything you could expect from a unit-frames replacement and then some. You can, of course, personalize your unit frames to your heart's content, more than any other unit frames mod I've seen, and that in itself is worth the download. On top of that, though, you get a ton of other features, all of which can be enabled for functionality or disabled for performance, whichever you like. Here are a few of my favorites:
An estimated healing overlay showing how much health your target will probably have after your healing spell goes off.
A built in Druid mana bar that displays when in feral forms.
Frame fading that lets you know about whether a target or group member is in range.
A moving "spark" that shows when your next energy tick will come, or when your mana will start regenerating after you cast a spell.
Extra "target of" frames so that you can see what your pet or other group members are targeting.
Configurable buffs and debuffs that you can place exactly where you want around each frame so that you can see what you want to see.
Variable portraits, 2D for some or 3D for others, as you like.
A raid layout that you can organize by class in one single column.
Health and mana bars that fade out the amount of damage that you take, in addition to changing color according to various conditions you can set.
"Banzai" aggro-sensitive coloring that changes health bar colors to red (by default) if that character is being attacked.
"Interact lines" that show damage in red or healing in green between different units as they interact with each other.
PitBull is based on the old and popular "ag_UnitFrames" mod, but it's far more advanced. I had used ag_UnitFrames for a while and was just starting to wonder if there was anything better out there, when two readers recommended PitBull. I tried it out, obviously, and made the switch, but you may prefer the original thing for simplicity. Also, be aware that PitBull can feel complex and intimidating at first and there isn't much documentation to help you figure things out. Still, using it is pretty self explanatory if you're willing to play around and experiment.
Like Aloft, it's one of those constantly updated Ace addons, which means you have a choice of sticking with the version up on Curse, or you can go to files.wowace.com and get the latest bleeding edge version. if you don't like it for some reason, you might also have a look at X-Perl Unit Frames (less customization but similar functionality) or its sister addon Perl Classic Unit Frames. Also, if you swear by a different unit frames addon that you think is superior, please feel free to give us a description and a link to it in the comments below.
