AddOn Spotlight: MazzleUI

This is a big one, and one I've been waiting for for quite some time (about six months, I'd say). I don't usually bother even looking into compilations of mods, since I've found I can always put together a more satisfying solution myself, but MazzleUI may well prove to be the exception. Here's how Mazzlefizz, the author, describes it:

• MazzleUI is a comprehensive, customized user interface for the World of Warcraft that attempts to be clean, symmetrical, provides lots of information, use minimal space and be highly efficient.

Sounds great, right? However, for most of MazzleUI's life, it's been in closed beta. MazzleUI 1.0 was just released today -- I saw the news when I woke up, and haven't done anything but install and play with it since. I'm just taking a break to tell you all about it, and then I'm sure I'll be diving right back in

Mazzlefizz appears to be something of a genius at attention to detail. For instance, when you install the package and start up WoW, a very solid installation assistant called the Mazzifier comes up to help you set up initial options and things. Once you get things initialized, it becomes clear that positioning and visibility is very well thought out, with most things hidden that can be, but also most things quickly openable. I particularly like the "context menu", a two-page 4x4 square of buttons that holds things like your hearthstone and pet training that you'll want from time to time, but which really don't need to be cluttering up your screen the rest of the time. All this and more contributes to what is really a very attractive UI, which has rather well achieved Mazzlefizz's stated goals of being clean, symmetrical, informative, minimal, and efficient.

I have needed to make a few changes and additions, which is only to be expected. Since I play in windowed mode, I had to bump the font size up a bit ("/cf2 scale 110" did it for me). I swapped out Mazzle's HUD for MetaHUD, and added TheoryCraft, TBag, and WoWEcon. I set FuBar to not auto-hide, since to me that seems to defeat the purpose. I'm still adjusting to this bottom-heavy new interface world, but I suspect I'm going to like it here. So if you're looking for a UI, or if like me you've had your eye on this for a very long time, go check it out. And thanks, Mazzlefizz, for all the hard work.

Download at WoWInterface

Edit: by request, larger screenshots, hosted at wow.com:
My hunter's setup
Mazzle's images: party, raid, combat