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Addon Spotlight: Raiding essentials for healers
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. As we get Raid Finder clarifications and new details, the excitement ramps up for this brand new feature coming in patch 4.3. Raiders and non-raiders alike are clamoring for new ways to experience the high-end, endgame content. Since we also now know the role makeup for the Raid Finder, healers will be in demand as each Raid Finder group will be made up of six healers. Healing is one of the most stressful jobs in World of Warcraft right now. The logistics for healing have changed dramatically since the Wrath of the Lich King days with a new emphasis on smart healing versus throughput. What that means is you have limited resources and need to make sure you're using them correctly. Healing is probably the most complicated role out there right now, if only because healers have a lot of responsibility. In the Raid Finder, encounter difficulties will be easier than we've seen before, but the fact is that players will still need their health bars above zero in order to beat a fight. Healer addons can be a divisive topic, so I'm going to stick with the basics for healers in raids. Your own mileage may vary, and you're going to want to try out different setups in order to see what works for you. On the whole, people agree that having some addons to help with healing makes the job that much smoother.
Reader UI of the Week: Figuring out what is wrong
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. From time to time on Reader UI of the Week, I like to take readers' user interfaces and give them a bit of a face-lift and help everyone learn from the experience of looking at their UIs with a little bit more clarity and substance. This week's fixer-upper comes to us from Essmanna, a poor, distraught mage, who just cannot figure out what to do to make her UI look the way she wants it to. Maybe we can help put this mage on the path to interface enlightenment. Things are not hopeless for you, Essmanna. We are here to help. As a DPS class (and a mage, to boot), your UI needs are not going to be as extensive as, say, a healing priest. One of the best things you can do for yourself when first starting out changing your user interface for the better and spending the time learning the ins and outs of the whole ordeal is to start with a relatively simple and less demanding class. That's not an insult, I promise. Mages work well because they are very straightforward.
Addon Spotlight: Raiding essentials for tanks
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. With the Raid Finder tool hitting the PTR in the very near future (potentially even right now, depending on what happens between the days betweeen this publishes), new players will be ushered into a new era of raiding. With the new, more forgiving raid difficulty setting, players who might have never been part of the raiding game will get their chance to see endgame content first hand. We want you all to be prepared here at the Addon Spotlight. Today's installment of the column is all about getting tanks in tip-top interface shape for their new adventures in patch 4.3. Addons essential for tanking, like the other two roles, have greatly lowered in number over the years, as Blizzard has made the entire WoW experience more streamlined and user-friendly. Old paradigms like threat and mitigation have substantially changed over the course of the game's life and now are much more straightforward affairs for the average player. Addons can still help increase the user-friendly nature of the game and give you an extra edge in making your raiding experience an enjoyable one.
Reader UI of the Week: Another beautiful submission from Vhei
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. When I first made Vhei's UI a selected reader submission for the column way back in December 2010, I had no idea how much clamor there would be for the design and artwork. Vhei's stuff is amazing, as you can see from the previous entry. When Vhei's name graced my inbox yet again, I was filled with all sorts of amazement and wonderment. What could possibly be in store for me this time? Vhei's trademark is streamlined, simple custom art, and the potential that seeped out of every one of the email's pores was like a fog. Lo and behold, it's another beautiful UI from Vhei. Things are a little bit bigger this time around, especially in the target and player frames, but the entirety of the setup is just flat-out pretty. Everything fits nicely on top of the custom art panels; the player/target frames have some awesome-looking bars; and seeing this beauty on a beautiful monitor would even make the die-hard anti-UI player wish for something a little special, like what we've got here.
Addon Spotlight: Transmogrification made easy with MogIt
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Patch 4.3 might be coming sooner than we think, with this past week's torrent of information about the upcoming content, Dragon Soul. With it comes transmogrification, a new in-game system designed to let players have some flexibility and customization options when it comes to what armor they are wearing. Your stats will stay the same, but the look of your items can be changed over and over again. I'm a big fan of transmogrification and enjoy throwing together new armor sets and outfits in anticipation of this new feature. Is there a way to make cataloging, wish-listing, and creating outfits even easier? Oh, you bet there is, through the wonderful world of addons. This week's workhorse is MogIt, your one-stop shop for creating outfits and checking out what gear looks like, creating a wishlist of gear to collect, and more. If you're nuts for transmogrification, then MogIt needs to be in your addon arsenal.
Reader UI of the Week: Laptop healing with Vqsharix
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. For a good while now, laptops have been the new desktop. These days, people want laptops that do it all, gaming included. Whenever laptop UIs are submitted to Reader UI of the Week, I like to give them a bit of extra notice because the need for more laptop-based UIs is growing more and more each day. Send in those laptop UIs and your laptop-specific concerns, and we can have even more tips for our portable brethren. Vqsharix is looking for some insight into cleaning up a laptop UI, but I think that we can talk about some healing ideas and spatial movement of healing UI elements. It could be fun, especially if you like talking about the location if addon elements on your screen. I know I do!
Addon Spotlight: Raiding essentials for DPS
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Yesterday, we prematurely learned that the Raid Finder coming in patch 4.3 would feature a new difficulty level associated with randomly putting together a 25-man raid group and allowing players who normally would not be privy to raiding content to see these awesome locations and epic boss battles. A lot of new people will be flooding into the raiding game come patch 4.3, so why not take a few minutes early on and get ready for the day when you too might just be able to come face to face with the denizens of the Firelands, leaders of Deathwing's armies, and even the former earthwarder himself? Raiding is getting more accessible, but you're still going to need tools to do the job right. These raiding essential guides are meant to get players who might be new to the whole raiding game up and ready for the new difficulty of raiding coming in the next big update patch. We will discuss why certain addons are good to have, example fight mechanics, and basic tips to make sure you're running your addons smart.
Reader UI of the Week: I am Jack's multi-purpose
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Greetings, Reader UI of the Week fans. Everyone seems to have some sort of food poisoning or stomach problems this week, and I have no idea what is up with that. We have a national stomach epidemic here in the United States. Here's something that won't upset your delicate bodily balance; Jack's smooth and slick user interface setup, centered around grouping, dungeons, and questing. While I am a raider at heart, my recent obsession has been with players and nonraiding UIs. Not that I think that there is anything wrong with a raiding UI, but as someone who primarily lives in raiding content, it is interesting to look and see what 5-man-focused UIs are built around. With the coming of the Raid Finder in patch 4.3 as an introductory raiding system, more and more players are going to have to adapt their 5-man UI setups to a raiding environment if they want to succeed in taking down the big bosses of the raiding world. Jack's UI is a competent setup that can make the change and stands up on its own two legs.
Addon Spotlight: How to update GupPet and more
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. We have a couple of fun topics to talk about today on Addon Spotlight, mostly notably what to do with GupPet, my personal favorite mount addon that hasn't been updated in some time. It makes me very sad, you might imagine, that this robust beauty of an addon is sitting unmanned and not updated, requiring my own hand to make things right. In addition, we've got some questions about action bars and bags, both incredibly important topics. Let's get to it, shall we? Hi Mathew, Guppet hasn't been updated in some time and it doesn't recognize the Flameward Hippogryph. I was wondering if there is another add-on that does a similar function (i.e. randomizing mount selection). I have a ton of mounts across multiple characters and I like to just be surprised what pops out sometimes. Thanks a ton. Tiek GupPet is in a sad state of affairs. The addon is one of my favorites, period, for its robust pet and mount configuration. Not only can you set priorities and preferences for all of your mounts when you want to randomly call them, but auto-companion pet summoning is included, as well as a built-in collector's interface for finding all of the pets and mounts you are missing. One-button random summoning, 3-D model mount and pet preview, mage, druid, and shaman class support, and more is right there in the package. There's a problem: It hasn't been updated since January.
Reader UI of the Week: Adding to a UI compilation
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Welcome back to Reader UI of the Week, folks. I have just moved a few characters around server and faction-wise, so I've been knee-deep in moving interface folders around and setting up addons again with the incredibly annoying, yet functional, profile system. Suffice to say, I hope the profile system gets updated in the future with more options. This week's Reader UI submission comes from Zachi, long-time addon junkie and new reader to WoW Insider. Welcome, ma'am or sir; we are glad to have you here. Hang around, won't you? Zachi's UI is based around ElvUI, my personal favorite (and recommended) UI compilation that makes a great base for any user interface, be it tank, DPS, or healer. Adding to a compilation UI can be a tricky affair, so let's see what we can learn from how Zachi added addons to an already featured UI compilation.
Addon Spotlight: Errormonster and a mailbag
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Something peculiar is happening to my addon interface folder -- it is becoming more streamlined. Whether this is a product of Blizzard's own default UI's becoming more capable or addon developers' just fusing options together, it feels like fewer addons are doing more things, and I cautiously approve. My UI has remained relatively unchanged since the end of Wrath of the Lich King, so little tweaks and changes these days are big deals. My inbox was overflowing with questions again this week, so I figured we could answer some more of them and see what kinds of recommendations we can get out there to readers who need a little guidance and help. People do, however, still like an addon recommendation as well as questions, so you'll get a shorter recommendation this week, since there isn't much to say, and a lengthy mailbag. Sound good? Wonderful.
Reader UI of the Week: Building a better PVP UI
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Here at Reader UI of the Week, we try not to let calls for help go unanswered. After all, what's this great community without the drive to help one another in our ever-helpful, merry band? This week's call for help comes from a "wishes-to-be-unnamed" denizen of the Bloodhoof server who wants to know what makes a good PVP user interface better than the rest. Talking PVP isn't always my specialty, not from lack of participation but because my UI was never tailored specifically for rated Arena play. However, we're talking general PVP today, which I think I can handle with a little bit of help from you. Yes, you. A year ago -- seriously, I've been doing this for well over a year now -- I sat down with C. Christian Moore (of Blood Sport fame) and his PVP UI that he was using at the time. That UI was a super-solid template for how PVP players should expect to look at information as well as what PVP players should focus their expectations around. Before you read today's basics on the PVP UI, I'd say read over the article from last year to see a shining example, then continue on with today's topic. Are we good? Are you all ready to go? Excellent.
Addon Spotlight: Customizing PlayerPowerBarAlt
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. With the Raid Finder coming in patch 4.3, many new players will be storming their way through the halls of Blackwing Descent, the Bastion of Twilight, and the fiery plains of Ragnaros' domain. Cataclysm raid encounters have bestowed upon players a new mechanic that will show up during some of the encounters, most notably Atramedes' sound bar, Cho'gall's corruption bar, feathers on Alysrazor, Rhyolith's turning bar, and the concentration bar on the heroic Majordomo Staghelm fight. This new interface element can function in many different ways based on the fight it is being used, but all fall under the same category: PlayerPowerBarAlt. PlayerPowerBarAlt has been a thorn in many player's sides, especially since the default settings for this raid-centric UI element falls squarely in the wrong place -- usually underneath your action bars, unit frames, or whatever you've put right above the default action bar location. Players have been asking me since Cataclysm's launch how to move and manipulate that bar, so here's a dedicated column to just that topic.
Reader UI of the Week: Simple UIs for laptop gaming
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Laptops are becoming increasingly more popular for gaming ever since the ascension of the capable laptop video card and the desktop replacement. Coupled with the fact that most developers found the need to make their games laptop-compliant to succeed in the global marketplace, laptops are the big gaming PC for many, many people. World of Warcraft is notorious for being able to run on practically any machine, and I am sure there are some high school kids out there playing during Chemistry right now on their TI-85. That joke hurt because I realized how long it's been since I had a TI-85. Qiuxiang's laptop setup does laptop UIs right -- it's simple, boils the game down to very basic elements, and does not take up the precious screen real estate with too much stuff. Sure, during raiding you get bombarded with notifications and warnings, but everything is manageable with a little bit of legwork. Not everyone raids to the extent many people do, so it's nice to see a user interface setup that makes just playing the day-to-day game something gorgeous.
Addon Spotlight: Best. Addons. Ever. -- The Bestening
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. We haven't done this in a while, have we? Listen, students. There are two types of addons out there: addons that serve useful purposes and are functionally superior to the Blizzard user interface elements, and addons that provide information in new and exciting ways that make the minutiae of the game more palatable and accessible. OK, I lied. There are also the best. addons. EVER. Sometimes, addons don't have to be useful at all. In fact, some critical addons are the opposite of useful. Today, it's all about some fun addons that aren't going to make or break your raid game or drastically change the way you play in any meaningful way. Instead, these addons are about having fun.
Reader UI of the Week: Pathanos' clean and simple setup
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Last week, Reader UI of the Week profiled Lellee's UI and a call for help in fixing up a non-widescreen UI and just making the whole thing work a little bit better. One thing that I try to do during a call-for-help-type article is point people in the direction of an example of what I am trying to articulate. In this case, I wanted to profile a user interface that is simple enough to replicate on your own with a minimal amount of configuration addons, with an acceptable amount of time needed to create it. That's what today is about -- the philosophical process and a general outline to making your user interface look nice and tidy, just like our friend Pathanos has here. Pathanos' UI is built around a Razer Naga-plus-keyboard setup for his tanking paladin. In the screenshot, you will see his sparse raiding UI, a clutterless view space that allows for plenty of information gathering while not being an addon monstrosity. Hopefully we can get you up to speed as well as to what is needed to set up something like this, with a quick understanding of the concepts needed, where to start, and what you want to look for when building it.
Arcane Brilliance: Addons your mage should probably be using
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we'll be talking about ways we can make something that is already awesome (being a mage) even better. It's like when you take heaping bowl of Joss Whedon and add in a liberal sprinkling of Nathan Fillion. Yummy. I know, I know. We already get to fling massive, flaming boulders at warlock faces. Also, we wiggle our fingers and delicious cake spontaneously appears. Being a mage is already as close to nirvana as mortals can hope to aspire to. How can that experience be improved? The answer is simple: more warlock-killing. And more cake! Also? Addons. They come in all shapes and sizes, and your particular load-out may differ greatly from those of other mages you know. I'm not here to tell you you're wrong. I am here, though, to spotlight a few of those addons that have improved my experience the most of late. Join me, won't you? I promise both brevity and wit. Mostly brevity. Cake and warlocks are available in the foyer. Only one is edible, but both are cooked to perfection.
Addon Spotlight: A very mailbag episode
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Oh, hi. There have been so many mailbag questions lately that it might be a good idea to just, you know, get them all out of the way in one shot. You guys love sending me in questions! If you've got a question for Addon Spotlight, send it on over to mat@wowinsider.com and hopefully I can get to your question. There will be addon recommendations. There will be heartbreak and sadness. There will be reunions and jubilation. So many emotions are running through me right now. A mighty burden Hey Mat, I know you dislike Carbonite, and it took me a long time to understand why, but I get it now. It's huge and slows down my computer, and they don't make their code easy for other addon authors to use. I've decided to not use it anymore, but there are a few things I really, really miss about it! Top on the list is the infinite scroll and sizing of the map and its google earth type layer. I also really liked being able to right click the map to place a "go to" waypoint. Finally, I miss the "Punks" feature that alerts me when an enemy player is nearby and also puts a dot on the minimap with the player's approximate location and time last seen. Everything else it does that I like I've found replacement addons to use, and I like that I'm using less memory than with Carbonite. I'm also having a lot fewer conflicts with my other mods. Are there any addons out there that can give me back the three features outlined above? Thanks for any help you can give me! Ann Thanks for the email, Ann. Carbonite is one of those addons that has its heart in the right place but overstays its welcome very quickly, like relatives in your living room or that raider who holds down his push-to-talk button constantly. The bloat you feel with Carbonite is heavy, it's true. All of the features that you describe, like the map scaling and that Google Earth layer, are the ones causing you the bloat and slowness. That's the problem.
Reader UI of the Week: Working with non-widescreen monitors
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Another day, another call for help from a community member in need. What are we to do, ladies and gents? Not help out this poor soul? Stand idly by when one of our own is in need? No. That's not what we do. We are a loving and caring bunch, a proud and patient people, who take in those downtrodden and emerge with happiness and love in our hearts. Or whatever. Lellee is asking for help. With a non-widescreen monitor and certain UI principles set in stone, we have our work cut out for us. But using solid UI-building tactics and moving out of comfort zones, I think we have the ability to turn this UI into something more akin to the solid and suave-looking examples that this column has showcased before. It just takes time, patience, and a little bit of planning. At this point, it isn't even the addons -- it's all about what you do with them. Read on, champions!
Addon Spotlight: Adding on to the Blizzard Raid Frames
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. One of the great joys of writing Addon Spotlight is watching the evolution of addons and their relationship to World of Warcraft over time and how the effectiveness and usefulness of certain addons wanes and waxes like the phases of the moon. Blizzard's new raid frames have not replaced my own custom job, but they have been getting progressively closer to a complete package, as I discussed only a few weeks ago. But there are ways, friends, of adding on to even the Blizzard default raid frame setup to give them just a bit more substance. Today, I've got three little additions to the default Blizzard raid frames that can help you with targets, marks, and debuffs. If you like options, these addons will add a ton of them to the Blizzard standard setup, making the entire package look a little more like Grid. So sit back, relax, and check out these new additions to the Blizzard default raid frames.
