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Reader UI of the Week: Pondera

Sean Forsgren
Updated ·8 min read


World of Warcraft allows all of us an unprecedented ability to modify our user interface to meet our needs. Each week WoW Insider will bring you a fresh and detailed look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send it, along with your character name and server, to readerui@gmail.com.

Pondera of the Blackhand-US server sent in his UI, along with a short description of the major addons he's using. One of the major decisions in shaping this UI was to make it viable for each of his alts, something I strive towards with my own UI. Pondera is a 26 year-old Web Developer from Brazil, which shows in his UI. (Note the aesthetics and organization.)

As you can tell, his setup is similar to many UI's you'll find out there, with much of the game function happening at the bottom, and a compliment of information "gauges' at the top, courtesy of Fubar. I'm not sure what skin he's using for his "Fu-stuff", but I'm digging it myself. Note where Control Freak, his consumables and Decursive are. I like that he's found a home for those in the nooks and crannies of his UI, although I would imagine that Decursive could be problematic in that location when running Alterac Valley.

Check back after the break for his addons and description.
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Let's have Pondera take the helm!

I was a big fan of MazzleUI interface but since october/2007 I've been studying making my interface somewhat different, less bugged and well, with some good images to put everything together, not just thrown in my screen. This is what I did then. It took me 1 week to build and I've been testing it for more than a month: it even survived after patch 2.4 without problems, thanks for Ace developers. By the way I'm a huge fan of Ace addons so I'm using mostly Ace ones.

Well that's it. It's not just for a specific class (I'm an altaholic!) but it fits for the goods :)

Ace Addons

  • Ace - Some addons use Ace2 and some Ace3. I wish they could use only one.

  • Pitbull - Ultimatelly needed to make the unitframes. It's good for even healers/be healed because you can see aproximatelly how much you'll heal / be healed (with Visual Heal enabled).

  • Chatter - I used to use Prat for the chat window, but Chatter is lightweight and proven better.

  • Decursive - The little squares by buttons' side that warns when you can heal status effects like poison/magic/disease/etc.

  • Fubar and all "Fu-Stuff" - Can't live without it and its adds. Who doesn't know it? :)

  • eePanels / SharedMedia - All images you see (fubar background, behind the whole botton, etc) are put by these amazing panels, with the help of SharedMedia and my own made/modified graphics.

  • Chinchila - It was about time someone made a good addon for minimap configurations. Works like charm.

  • Autobar - Well the less I have to think about putting buttons on my actionbars the better. Thanks autobar!

  • ButtonFacade - Replaced CyCircled, to make my actionbuttons (and any button addon like autobar) looks better :P

  • Elk Buff Bars - My buffs and debuffs above the minimap. Can grow a lot in raids so I needed the space. Nothing on my unitframes so I can pay attention at more important things there.

  • Capping - Battlegrounds are not the same without it.

  • Cowtip - So I can setup my tooltip in an imense array of possibilities.

  • Baggins - It's about time Blizzard think about making the bag open as a whole. Baggins even have categories - my organization is precious.

  • Omen - Even just with the pet, why not have it? Threat matters.

  • EeavesDrop (by omen's side) - Combatlog with what matters and some other stuff that matters as well. I wish Blizzard could see it.

  • Aloft - Looks good, foe's HP is never too much information.

  • Quartz - To make sure my (cast) bars show my lag and well, make it prettier. The more you know the more you do!

  • Violation - Not only a dps meter, a pug matter.

  • nQuestLog / Lightheaded - Tracking quests and comments from wowhead. No alt-tabbing! - Lightheaded is not Ace thou.

  • ClearFont2 - Needed because my interface is set to the minimum UIScale (near 0.64) and so I can setup my own font and size in addons.

Non-Ace

  • Bongos 3 - Very good action button addon, very customizable.

  • Dettached Mini ButtonS (DMBS) - Dettaches all map mini buttons so I could put then where you see at my screenshots. It's the only addon I found that does it even for addons he never knew before (unlike this option at Chinchila). The only problem is with the profile thing: you need to reload a profile everytime you load a new character. After that you don't need to look at it anymore.

  • DoTimer - The only addon that puts all dots / hots / anything-over-time (even totems!) in a very very good way. You want to warn when people can hit after a long and boring Banish? Just click the banish icon and it'll tell /party how much time until Banish fades. Good for polymorph, hibernate, CoS, Searing Totem and many more.

  • CCFocus / ControlFreak - CCFocus does macros for CC - one for focus and the rest for the CC on focus (so you don't need to change targets). Works pretty well on all classes (polymorph, seduction, cyclone, so on). ControlFreak works almost the same. Select a mob, click the button once (it'll focus it) then you're good to CC it whenever you want (just click again). It'll warn on breaks (and who breaks!) and runs too. I am currently using both to test.

Other Addons "Unseen"

  • Sanity / Altaholic - All for my alts, i love them all. It'll mark how many items I have with what characters, I can search for items and so on. I'm using both right now but it seems Altaholic will replace Sanity in short.

  • Smartbuff - So no one needs to tell me when I should buff. It is not stupid safe but it's good enough.

  • WIM - Wow Instant Messenger: sometimes the chat pannel is not good enough - even mine with 4 tabs. WIM is awesome and you'll not ever loose a whisper. And looks awesome.

  • Mapster - Map addon. My Cartographer (in plan) replacement.

  • GatherMate - Nodes to gather on my map. My Cartographer (in plan) replacement. It's updated frequently. And it has a HUD! (GatherHUD)

  • Routes - Better routes for my gather nodes. Works with GatherMate/Mapster. It is just amazing. Another Cartographer (in plan) replacement.

  • QuestHelper - My quest informant - where to go and what to kill/collect. My Cartographer (in plan) replacement.

  • Cartographer - After all I said about replacing cartographer (it was using too much uneeded memory) I still use 3 modules of it: Waypoint (for QuestHelper), Guild Position and Zone Info.

  • Atlas / AtlasLoot / Atlas Quest - Maps for dungeons, its loots and its quests.

  • RecipeBook - It was used to know what my alts can do with their tradeskills but now I use to share it with my guild as well. Everyone who has it can know what everyone can do.

  • RecipeRadar - So I know where all recipes are where I am :)

  • Skillet - The regular interface for tradeskills is just too short - this is what is needed. Together is Ackis Recipe List so I don't miss needed recipes along the way :)

  • Big Wigs / Little Wigs / XXX Wigs - Important for Raid enconters and now with some info about lower level instances as well.

  • Auctioneer Full - For my mule mostly, but important to see the world economic.

  • BulkMail - With all my alts I need to have a good Mail interface for my attached stuff. BulkMail pretty much own it.

  • X-Loot - Better looks on loot and prints on my screen what I looted. Even show greed/need in parties and who won.

  • Talented - I have some lv70 so I need to make lots of talent profiles. I keep respecing uh?

Addons that should not be on "final"

  • Healbot - Good but pretty personal.

  • Character Info - Good but Sanity and Altaholic can replace it.

  • ShaderMod - Prints whenever you crit and makes sounds customizable. It's good and fun but pretty personal.

I know it seems impossible but there are more addons. There are some in the attached image that are not on anymore, I need to clean them up. I'm sorry if it's too much information. I had to list those above because I do think they're all valid and makes my wow experience better. Together they can get to 150MB of a whole interface. I have thou a lightweighter version of it with some addons listed OFF so my interface gets near 75-90MB final with the same look.

That's it folks, a whole lot of addon goodness. In your comments, please keep in mind that the author is a native Brazilian and that English is not his first language. Thanks to Pondera for sharing this with us, see you next week!

Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send it, along with your character name and server, to readerui@gmail.com.