ActionBars
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The Creamy GUI Center: Action bar break down
Each week Matthew Porter contributes The Creamy GUI Center, a column aimed at helping you enhance your WoW experience by offering an in depth guide to addons, macros and other tools we use to play WoW, along with commentary on issues that affect how we all play.As my first column, I wanted to start out with a review of action bar addons. WoW's default UI (User Interface) is built around the action bar and for many is the cornerstone for their interactions within WoW. Comparatively speaking, Blizzard's default UI is elegant and user friendly when contrasted against many other MMOs on the market. In fact WoW's two newest competitors, Vanguard and Lord of the Rings Online, both mimic Blizzard's design to varying degrees. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all. Blizzard's UI doesn't overwhelm the user with information or complexity, which can be a barrier of entry to new players. Its information is displayed cleanly, however its faults lie in the fact it's rather inefficient, and nothing about it can be moved or resized. The action bars are a decent size and buttons are easy to click using your mouse, but it's rather sprawled out taking a lot of screen space including the unnecessary art. For those content with the default layout or who prefer using key bindings, Blizzard's action bars get the job done.For a lot of users, this isn't enough. There's always room for improvement. Blizzard being the smarties that they are, gave us the freedom to add usability that they never even thought of through the use of addons. (Sometimes to unwanted effects, hello decursive nerf.). You may crave a customized playing field, or a clean and efficient layout, or maybe you just want to express yourself by creating your own UI for that personal touch. To accomplish this let's take a look at three addons that offer different ways to do the same thing: create and manage action bars.
AddOn Spotlight: Bongos
I'm just not a fan of Blizzard's default action bars in the WoW Interface. I find them to consume far too much screen space, and I never could get used to scrolling between bars for different tasks. As a result, I've been trying different action bar replacements since I learned that the UI was customizable. After going through CT and Discord, I happened across Bongos.Bongos positions itself as a simple and quick action bar replacement, and in this mission it succeeds with flying colors. Upon installation, the entire default action bar area is replaced with a small stack of 10 action bars, a pet bar, a class bar, your bags, the main menu, and a few other bongo elements, depending on your choice of installed pieces.Looking for the latest version of Bongos? Check out our Patch 3.0.2 addon list for all your latest update! Patch 3.0.2 "Echoes of Doom" has landed and WoW Insider has you covered. From patch notes to talent guides for every class to fixing your addons to 5 easy achievements you can snag right now. Make sure to check out the latest news.
