Putting Faces to Names & The UI World
One of the great things about the standard Blizzard UI is the portraits given to your toon. Back in TBC, what I liked to do was show my helm for one gear set, my cloak for another and neither for a third. It made it easy to tell what set of gear I was in and as a result, I never found myself accidentally running into an encounter unprepared.
These days though, I never show my helm.
Last post, I talked about consistency and the reasoning behind this decision is no different. When your fellow tanks see your face beside a mob, they let you keep it. When they see some unknown face, they taunt. It’s not a coincidence that when you pick up a new helm all of a sudden the other tanks are taunting off of you left and right.
They don’t recognize you.
A lot of tanks have really quick trigger fingers when it comes to taunting. It’s an instinct instilled in us very quickly as tanks when we learn time and time again just how fast the frailer folk in our parties die when they “tank” a mob.
No Portrait, No Problem?
A number of popular non-standard UIs and add-ons simply don’t show your face to save space, to make things look nicer and to allow you to put your targeting information in the middle of your screen. The trade-off here is that you never build a mental relationship with the portrait of your character. So, you won’t suddenly freak out when you or a tank teammate gets a new helmet, but at the same time, you don’t have anything to visually jump start your gut tanking instinct.
What’s in a UI?
There certainly is an advantage to the different types of information that custom UIs can offer. Being able to significantly reduce screen clutter as well as organize/customize elements in a manner that is easier for you personally to process is a big advantage too. But, the most important thing will always be familiarity more than anything else.
If you never give yourself a chance to become familiar with your UI, you can never take advantage of what your UI has to offer. Basically, stop mucking with it everyday. It’s not helping.
If you’ve never mucked though…
…it’s time to start. Long ago, I wrote “Once you’re comfortable, overwhelm yourself.” I’d like to think this same principle applies to UIs. After all, if you’ve never tweaked your UI then how can you know if you’re utilizing the best UI for you possible. Which is where you guys come in because I’ve never tweaked my UI. (not in any way significant anyway)
Tell me about your UI.
- What do you love about it?
- What do you hate about it?
- What do you wish you could do?
The Ultimate Goal
I want to have a rock solid Tank UI compilation ready for Cataclysm. (Which means you can expect a lot more UI posts here than usual as I embark on this journey)
During the leveling process for WotLK, I went from a hybrid player to someone who utilizes full keybindings. During the leveling process for Cataclysm, I want to be able to share with you my new, tried and tested UI specifically catered to tanking. My hope is that those of you that are using the boring, old Blizzard UI like me will give it a try.
Finally, for those of you wondering… where do I even find UI compilations? Tankspot has a great section of complete UIs from some of it’s best members.
March 9th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Think I subconsciously have been doing this for a while, but could never explain why showing portraits in my UI was so important.
I think you’ve nailed it down pretty well, at a glance I notice who the mob is targeting, etc.
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March 9th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I use pitbull, and my bars are class colored. I tank with a DK and a Pally, so if my target of target is brown, pink, or red, then I am fine. The only people who ever pull off of us are hunters and druids, so orange or green means taunt.
What I would really love though is a mod that would put the name of the target of whatever my mouse is hovering over right next to my mouse pointer. When AOE tanking with a group of us, it would be really nice to just sweep my mouse over and see if everything is targeting a tank, rather than having to tab or click through a bunch of targets that are already solidly on someone just to find the one that is beating on a cat.
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Veneretio reply on March 9, 2010 1:29 pm:
Very cool idea, I like it.
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Toto reply on March 9, 2010 2:08 pm:
You might want to take a look at the beta version of TidyPlates for functionality like that:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info15610-TidyPlatesBeta5.10.html
Hopefully ThreatPlates (see TankSpot thread) will be updated to work with this when it is out of beta.
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Cornfedhick reply on March 10, 2010 2:00 pm:
I always tank with nameplates on and Threatplates makes it easy to see who you are losing agro on simply by simply looking for which nameplate is growing. A quick SS and Dev and it shrinks back down (depending on how much growth size you set in the options.)
I think taking the time to sweep your mouse and read tooltips would take your eyes off the fight and may slow your reaction time imo.
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Kuju reply on March 9, 2010 2:16 pm:
It seems to me that Threat Plates could be configured to do this (maybe it already can?). I believe there is a common language/lib among mods to communicate main tanks. If Threat Plates could hook into that and use different indications for: “attacking me”, “attacking another tank”, else “mob on the loose” that could work.
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Kadomi reply on March 9, 2010 3:17 pm:
You can use a tooltip addon like TipTac and bind the position to your mouse arrow. TipTac includes what is currently targetted by this unit, and your threat on the target.
Probably a bit bulky, but possible.
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Kobeathris reply on March 9, 2010 6:48 pm:
Yeah, I use threat plates now, I tried Tidy plates for that specific function, but I didn’t like the look of it, and I am so used to using threat plates that changing just made me grumpy. I use cowtip now, but I have it set in the lower left of my screen, and I really don’t want it floating over my mouse for everything, just this one thing. Threat Plates hooking into the tank listing, and then coloring bars appropriately would be ideal for sure.
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Herbatka reply on March 15, 2010 10:12 am:
Take a look at MTLove 2. Colors the tooltip name by class color and only hovers target info over the mouse cursor
Drae reply on March 9, 2010 7:32 pm:
I use tiny tip for this; attaches the tool tip to my mouse, and it displays the current ToT’s name. It’s hella useful in conjunction with tidy plates - threat plates.
AFAIK it stopped being developed a while ago but it still works for me.
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Robrox reply on March 10, 2010 1:10 am:
I use Tiny Tip as well and its the best I’ve tried for this purpose. Old version but have always worked like a charm!
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Roarc reply on March 10, 2010 4:47 am:
CowTip, Tidy Plates and Threat Plates sorts this very well.
March 9th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Nice post.
Got me thinking, how do I recognise people/targets. I can’t honestly think how I was doing it!
I use mostly the standard blizz UI with some addons:
Grid (was slowly learning to read this info mid fight)
Icehud
Parrot
Satrina’s Buff Frames
Classtimers
Omen
DBM (incl cooldown timers)
Buffwarn
From the blizz ui:
Standard raid frames
Standard party frame
Focus frame (normal size)
Two chat windows (one set to “self” combat log only, and the other on standard (has a secondary tab which filters just player text))
I would say my UI is quite messy with a serious info overload for those not used to it. I have learnt to filter out most of the info and only paying attention to the specific parts at specific times.
It still doesn’t quite do all that I want, but it’s pretty close. I think I have too much info all the time, but to date I haven’t found the right add on(s) or taken the time to full customise each addon to how I want it.
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March 9th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
I formatted my computer recently and gave the standard Blizz Ui a run and have really found it to be great. I use Tidy Threat Plates and DXE only. With the threat plates if the mob(s) is not on me it makes it very obvious. For monitoring the OTs debuff’s I use the enlarged focus frame on the OT.
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March 9th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
I have tried a bunch of different options but I eneded up basing my UI off Ciderhelm’s.
http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.php?41095-Ciderhelm-UI-Information
As a warrior we have access so many button locations that you can’t see in the defualt UI e.g. each stance has a different set of buttons.
I use pitbull and Bartender4 setup I also hide buttons on the right that only show up on rollover e.g. HS, mounts, professions.
Love
- I love having the health bar of me and my target just under my charter because my eyes don’t need to move much.
- I like having my Oh crap buttons big and close to where my mouse would be.
- I like to use ‘Sexy map’ to hide all the junk around the map which only shows on roll over and you can right click to get to Add On menu
- I like to only show the Buff & Debuffs I need to worry about.
- I like to read text chat on a black background (’Chatter’ shortens long names like ‘g’ for guild chat and color of class)
- I like that I can make the screen height shorter so that I can fit my ui without covering up the action on screen (I use ’skinner’ for that, not CBH Viewport addon mentioned in Ciderhelm’s post)
Hate
- I dont like that I loose some of the cool dragon elements around the standard UI. Not really a fan of the futuristic look that you when you go for the clean look.
- Still looks messy with all the addons not having a consistent look and feel
Like to have
- I have mixed feeling about Scrolling combat text. I like to see where the damage is coming from on each target but I don’t like the messages showing over my character like it does in the standard UI.
I hope this helps
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March 9th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I use an old mod that’s not really updated called ActionButtonText which can put buff durations on action bar buttons. I’ve set it up to show demo/thunderclap durations right on the buttons. Similar with sunder count and sunder duration on my devastate button. On the shield slam button i’ve put seconds remaining on Sword and Board. I can watch all my debuffs and procs just from looking at my main ability buttons while simultaneously monitoring their cooldowns. I have these buttons smack in the middle of the screen just below my character and between my unit frames.
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March 9th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I’m one of those players who keep fiddling with their UI all the time, but I’ve finally settled down somewhat.
My current UI keeps chat, minimap, actionbars, Grid and info-addons (FuBar mostly) at the bottom quarter of the screen, with unitframes higher up so they’re big and easy to see. In addition, I use MSBT for combat text, it’s extremely configurable and should work for everyone, no matter how much info you want.
Love:
- Lot’s of viewing space, easy to spot adds, fires etc.
- I have all the info I need readily available.
Hate:
- Actionbars take up a lot of space on the “bar” at the bottom of the screen.
(I’ve been a clicker up until recently, and thus needed to have almost every ability available and close on my action bars. Trying to convert to keybinds now, though).
Wish for:
- Not really anything, quite satisfied with the way it is now.
You do make a good point regarding getting used to ones UI. I’ve often changed around things a few times a week, and it gets confusing trying to remember what is being shown where.
Recommended add-ons:
- DXE (instead of DBM)
- MSBT (Mik Scrolling Battle Text)
- Pitbull
- Bartender
- Chinchilla minimap
- Prat
- Grid
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March 9th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I’ve been using the following addons:
* GearScore
* Auditor
* Simple Party Target Icons
* Grid
I use standard bars in-case I switch to another computer at a cafe or whatever. It just works.
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March 9th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I actually have a mod in my UI, right above my action bar, its a small square with a picture in it that changes based on what the mob is targeting, if it’s targeting a tank, its a shield, etc. So at a glance when I target the mob I can tell if it is targeting a tank, or a squishy.
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Veneretio reply on March 9, 2010 3:09 pm:
Very cool, what kind of setup is involved with the mod? Do you have to do it manually or does it use the person’s spec? (also, what’s it called?)
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Pachi reply on March 10, 2010 7:23 pm:
its called tank mastery, and it does it by there spec.
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March 9th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
My philosophy of modding:
It’s about info. The info you need, in a place where you can see it, presented in a way that you can process intuitively, and none of the info that you don’t need.
With that in mind, I’m against using pre-made UI compliations. That’s a set of mods and settings that works for someone else. It takes a bit of experimenting to figure out if you best process a number, or a %, or a bar, or even just a color, for the info you need. What works for someone else just isn’t likely to work *best* for you. In addition, you never learn to really configure any of the mods, and that’s where the real power in many of the best mods lies.
I won’t get into the details of mine, it’s heavily done, I’m passionate about it, it’d take pages, lol.
My recommendation is this: ask yourself what information you want to have. Then find the mod that does provides it. you can just about bet that there is one.
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March 9th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
I am a UI freak. My UI needs to be clean, relatively minimalistic looking and cover everything that I need it to do. I do not use a character portrait in my unit frames and instead keep an eye on the target of target frame.
As warrior, it is important to me to see when my debuffs run out. I use PowerAuras to notify me of Demo Shout, Thunderclap and Commanding Shout running out. I also use it to indicate when I have passed the 50 rage threshhold to start spamming HS/Cleave. I need a proc alert mod for S&B, I currently use Good News Everyone for this. I think currently one of the most important addons for any tank is Tidy Plates: Threat. I couldn’t imagine playing without MSBT for combat text.
Here’s one of my more recent UI screenshots from my 10-man raid.
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March 9th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
* What do you love about it?
I love that my UI is the simplicity. When I first got into mods towards the end of Vanilla, I just went ridiculously overboard. I simplified slightly in BC with the introduction of the mod that is now Dominoes (I cannot recommend this mod highly enough. Simplistic and powerful) and Xperl (I’ve tried pitbull and Bartender, and found them to be more complicated than Dominoes). I have 3D portraits turned on in Xperl, which makes any targets head look exactly like it would (movement and all) if I was looking at the player) which helps with the recognition aspect and also just makes everything prettier. I improved my play style further in Wrath by also keybinding nearly everything, and the setting up of a few bars. One of which I have dubbed the “OH SH*T” bar.
The OH SH*T bar consists of my Last Stand, Shield Wall, both my on use trinkets, my Indestructable pots and a macro that combines the use of a health pot and a health stone (With priority given to my healthstone is both are in my bags). What makes this bar special is that is is JUST above my stance/main action bar and it is also 3 times bigger than any other buttons. Extremely easy to access (Since I keybind everything else, my mouse usually hovers around this bar, and even if it’s not, the buttons are big enough to click when I’m in a huge hurry. (I have very quick and accurate mouse skills from playing First Person Shooter games - I highly recommend playing these games as they improve tanking and reaction times x50)
My other bar is on the side of my screen and is 100% transparent except when I mouse over it, so it clears up my screen when I don’t need it. This bar is small & just has my mounts, trade skills and hearth stone)
My sexymap reduces the clutter of the standard mini-map (buttons and what not), and they only show when I mouse over my map.
* What do you hate about it?
Probably that it’s just not as visually appealing as other peoples omgwtfbbqpwn UI’s. But simplicity for me is sexier than all the bells and whistles. I can get distracted easily, so essential things only please
* What do you wish you could do?
I’ve been meaning to get around to fixing my raid frames. I use xperl raid frames (customised to be smaller with a clear colour scheme set up). But I’ve been considering trying something like Grid.
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Coolade reply on March 9, 2010 3:36 pm:
Oh I forgot to add. With xperl, any debuffs that are yours on the current target (Sunder, Demo/TC) are 3 times bigger than any other debuff on the mob, and they also show the number of seconds until that debuff runs out within the debuff icon itself. Extremely easy to keep track of your stuns running out, Demo/TC/Sunder
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Drae reply on March 10, 2010 6:04 am:
Grid is amazing for compacting raid frames.
I find xperl to be very memory intensive, and moved away from it about 6 months ago. I much prefer pitbull / grid, even if it is a more complex set-up.
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Signu reply on March 12, 2010 8:47 am:
I have xperl a try when I got my widescreen monitor this week. I hate it. The default setup is horrid. The configuration window is not intuitive. I heard pitbull is hard to setup, but I’m going to give it a try anyway. If all else fails, I”ll go back to Shadowed Unit Frames (or ag_UnitFrames).
The only thing I like about xperl is the “your debuff” countdown timer.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I used to use portraits quite often to see not only if a nontank pulled, but what mobs were on me (particularly when the names were too long for my frames), but since I discovered color by class, I can live without portraits. Occasionally a dps warrior will take an extra hit or two while I cycle through targets if my frame lags slightly on displying a name.
I’ve had a couple different layouts, using X-Perl or Pitbull, Bartender, DBM and/or BigWiggs, Omen, Elkano’s Buff Mod, Titan, CTMod, Sexymap and probably a ton I’m forgetting (what can I say, I like addons), but its always felt cluttered and even claustrophobic.
About a month ago I switched to tukui with the map in the bottom right, Omen, Elkano, DBM, a vigilance tracker and Bartender (instead of the default frames) which works fairly well for me. My biggest issue that there isn’t a default focus target frame.
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March 9th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Here’s mine: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info11624-BodaUI.html
I have been working on it for roughly 3 years and have had it out for public download for quite some time. I do little tweaks here an there between releases, but overall it holds the same theme.
All the information is at the bottom leaving a wide open game field. Icehud allows me to remove the need for a player frame for myself and forces me to look up around my character.
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Grido reply on March 10, 2010 10:14 am:
Awesome setup. Looks really slick, makes all the addons look like they are part of the game and consistent.
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Bodasafa reply on March 10, 2010 2:26 pm:
Thank you.
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Drae reply on March 11, 2010 6:20 am:
Boda,
How do you skin recount / skada and omen like that Boda?
is that shared media library or whatever?
Thanks!
Bodasafa reply on March 11, 2010 8:52 am:
Its Omen and Recount.
Basically I set the bar options to use a class color and then checked the box to invert the bar and name. I then removed the title bars for each and the little icons for recount for the clean look. Finally I made the backgrounds of both frames transparent.
Dread reply on March 11, 2010 10:57 am:
That’s very clever.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
my UI came about over time as i identified needs. i leveled primarily with the blizz UI, then as i started raiding, i started saying - “i wish i could change this”, then i found something that did it.
PROBLEM: i wanted to see my health and the bosses health without looking in the corner.
PROBLEM: i wanted to have target of target be very, very easy to see.
PROBLEM: i wanted to be able to see at a glance who in the raid had agro on something.
SOLUTION: pitbull
PROBLEM: i wanted to organize my buffs into categories and highlight certain ones to jump out at me
SOLUTION: elkbuffbars
PROBLEM: i wanted to see reorganize my cast bars, and put some abilities in a more noticeable position to easily see cooldowns
SOLUTION: bartender
PROBLEM: i wanted to easily see my debuffs on the boss as depleting bars
PROBLEM: i wanted a better boss casting bar
SOLUTION: quartz
etc, etc. you really need to know what problems you’re trying to solve in order to get the UI that best fits you.
for instance, there are many SCT mods out there, and most people use them. i find scrolling combat text to be largely irrelevant and annoying, so i choose to turn it all off.
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March 9th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
I’ve tinkered with my UI since levelling from 20 or so in Vanilla, and it has evolved dramatically since I’ve started. My current UI probably looks similar to what it 4 years ago, but at the same time probably looks completely different as well.
The one thing I’m proud of the most in my UI is my hotbars and keybindings. I basically laid out my keys to look similar to an onscreen keyboard, complete with a number pad as well. So, almost every key on my keyboard has a corresponding hotkey onscreen; they are also labelled because the nature of the mod (Bartender, though I’m sure every bar mod has binding labels). It stems from my experience playing RTS games, and it makes access to skills that much quicker. I tend to place skills that I use more often closer to my movement keys on the left, and less often used skills closer to the right. Buffs, food, and other random things get placed on the number pad.
The biggest advantage to this is the connection I get between what I see on screen and what I can physically press on my keyboard. It helps with feel and things, as I integrate skill cooldowns on my hotbars as well. I also don’t waste time with Shift + #, Alt + #, or Ctrl + # (Shift + # ends up being raid marks), so one keystroke activates one skill. The only thing I don’t have the ability to do yet however, is more aesthetics than anything else; I’d like for it to really look like an onscreen keyboard, where it shows the function and toggle keys, as well as possibly highlight buttons as I’m pressing them. Otherwise, I’ve had no problems with my keybinds. It’s my one beauty in my otherwise cluttered and ugly UI.
And that’s one thing I’d like, is a way to make everything look cleaner, but I don’t care to spend time tweaking form over function. I have a screenshot of it somewhere, and if I can edit this post I will, or I can just double post, or I’ll email it to you, Vene.
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March 9th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I am amazed by the power (pun!) of power auras. Without a doubt it is my favorite addon.
I recently used it to tell me when my focus target is affected by soul reaper so I can safeguard.
I use it for Shield slam (both snb procs and action usable), demo, tc, external cooldowns, my cooldowns (incl. duration remaining), and trinket procs (when dps’ing).
I like it so much because it means I don’t have to look at my buff bars, or my action bars. Everything is readily apparent and very clean with the proper selection of textures. (stacking textures are great).
I’m a UI nut, I’m constantly refining it (within the same basic set-up) to be cleaner and easier to read as well as less memory intensive.
The greatest part of my ui is the ability to see all critical info within my field of vision. Critical information is front and center without obscuring my view of the game world.
Oh and viewport mods are imba. I use sunn art. A horizontal viewport increases the rendered game area effectively allowing you to see more, greatly increasing your situational awareness.
I won’t list all my addons, because the list would be huge, but ones I feel particularly useful are:
Power Auras
Miks Scrolling battle text (with heavy customization)
Satrina’s buff frames
Grid (greatly decreases the space raid frames takes)
Bartender
Tidy Plates - Threat plates
I wish I could find a better hud then Ice-hud, it’s the best I’ve found, but it still takes up too much of my screen, even with only my info displayed. I do love being able to see my life and rage without resorting to glancing in the far corner (or bottom) of my screen.
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atcq reply on March 10, 2010 7:17 am:
Do you use unit frames?
I ask because I’m trying to transform the way I receive game input. For example, I’ve been using the standard Blizzard unit frames, which means my portrait and the target’s portrait (and target of target) in the upper left corner.
Should our health and the target’s health be in the upper left corner? Are the boss’s standard buffs and debuffs too small to capture up there? Is the default Blizzard UI lacking in the area of usability, intuitiveness, informativeness?
I’m liking this post.
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Drae reply on March 11, 2010 6:31 am:
I use a combination or ICEHud and pitbull frames.
My ICEhud set-up shows only my life and rage “hud bars” (the bars on the left and right of the hud, by default they show target and I think ToT bars too, I found that way too obstructive). Icehud has a target information window, but as Icehud normally shows the targets life and mana, I used a pitbull frame with no text for my targets life and mana, which I place behind the icehud information box. ICEhud does my target buffs and debuffs directly beside this target information box(and thus the pitbull frame) and scales the debuffs which are mine.
It also has a target of target window that is size and location adjustable that shows critical raid debuffs (like stacks for festergut or Prof. P.)
Pitbull is used only to hide the standard blizzard unit frames and provide my Portrait (I’m vain, I like to see my toons face), and Target life bar as mentioned above.
I have my Miks set-up to scroll damage taken over the ICEhud life bar, and damage done over my rage bar.
I use Satrina’s buff frames to place my debuffs to the left of my life bar, faded out to 70%.
This allows me, with a single glance to see:
my life
my approx dmg inc via miks
any debuffs I am suffering from
I took a screen shot last night specifically to post here, but my raid ran a bit later then normal.
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Drae reply on March 11, 2010 6:33 am:
Oh and I use cool-line (from forte xcorsist) just above the target window. Allowing me to quickly see when my skills are usable (outside of shield slam, I cover that with Power Auras)
March 10th, 2010 at 4:35 am
Hi all,
I’ve been known as a UI freak to my friends for a while, and I have to admit there are times when I do more UI stuff than actually playing the game.
It’s a little game in the game for me…
Anyways I would say it is possible to pull up a UI piece by piece if you’re leveling, but if you want to create a new overwhelming UI from scratch I would start with defining what the goals are:
1) What logical areas should be covered by the UI (action bars, unit frames, procs, cds…)
2) Where do you start from? (I know all my keybindings -> action bars can be hidden, I have a small monitor, everything has to fit in a tiny place and still should make sense and let me see something…)
3) How is my class played? Heavy relying on procs with a priority system (warrior) more the rotation style (paladin?)?
Just sit down for some moments and scribble everything down that comes to your mind.
Then try to figure out what addons are there for different categories (would be great if that was written down somewhere!) evaluate pro’s and con’s.
Try to find out how your UI should look like in the end and maybe draw it to paper (not detailed but a rough outline).
Now go on and sit down for some hours (beneath a training dummy / practice mob, maybe with a friend you can duel with) and setup the UI…
Not much time at the moment, but here are some great addons out of my mind:
- Power Auras classic (shows procs, debuffs, buffs and almost everything else)
- Sexycooldown (shows cooldown durations in one bar)
- IceHud (gread hud around the character)
- Satrina Buff Frames (sort buffs and even show proc durations)
- Dominos (actionbar mod, I prefer it over Bartender, much easier to configure)
- Grid (Raid frames with multiple options to show status of members like has thread, is feared etc.)
- MSBT or SCT (combat text, I do not use them at the moment, too much clutter for my tiny monitor)
- Pitbull, XPerl (unit frames I use Pitbull to show target frame, focus frame and targetoftarget frame in addition to my hud)
- xloot (to prevent roll frames from blocking your view)
- threadplates
- …
Great thread, keep it going and maybe we can structure it somewhat better (wiki or something?) to improve the results.
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March 10th, 2010 at 7:06 am
I use Bartender for bars, Pitbull and IceHud and Satrina’s Digits when it’s up to date for my info, Grid for everyone else’s info and I also use…um, another addon that I can’t remember the name of right now that allows me to see the target of the mob on mouse over, color coded by armor type. so if I mouse over and see red, I know it’s a clothy that has agro, if I mouse over and see orange, leather, yellow mail and green plate. this helps classify them quickly into tanks/not tank/possible tank and it doesn’t really take much to recognize the name of the other tank when they have agro.
plus, with pitbull, it shows the target of my target right below them, in between my target’s info and my info (because of how i have it set up). That way I know if my taunt went off, etc.
There are other mods I use for various info, but those are the main ones for knowing who has agro if they shouldn’t.
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March 10th, 2010 at 8:42 am
My UI is heavily customized. I use CBH Viewport to increase the viewable area of the screen as well as to add a black letterbox at the bottom to use as free space for UI elements. I have my recount, grid, pitbull, Omen, map, bartender and chat mods all in the bottom section. Up in the viewable area you have SBF and Fortexorcist as well as a few other bartender options. SBF is probably one of the best addons I’ve ever used. It’s incredibly customizable and I’ve run with as many as 7 or 8 separate frames. Another big one I like is SpellBinder. It allows you to bind spells, macros or items without having to first place them on an action bar. It’s a great space saver.
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Coolade reply on March 11, 2010 12:51 am:
I’ve just started using Sun Art View Port, and it’s so awesome. Pic of my UI - http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3020/uitweak.jpg
Friendly name plates on to highlight how awesome tidyplates are.
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Dread reply on March 11, 2010 10:13 am:
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e259/dreador1/WoWScrnShot_020810_233233.jpg
Latest photobucket shot of my UI, I’ve had a server xfer, name change and a few other tweaks. The SunArt is nice, does it come with other skins?
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Zellviren reply on March 12, 2010 4:17 am:
Hey, big D.
I don’t know if you’ve tried doing the same as SpellBinder with Dominoes. You can put the ability on a hotbar, bind it, then change the bar’s opacity to remove it from your play screen. I know you’re using Bartender, so I’m really asking if you’ve tried Dominoes because, personally, I’ve found it a lot better and it seems to have the same functionality that you’re using a seperate AddOn for.
Just curious.
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Dread reply on March 12, 2010 7:59 am:
You can hide Bartender as well. The point of using spellbinder is to skip that step, so that I essentially only have 1 action bar (although I have that one vertical on the right which could probably go away but is nice for utility and there’s also a hidden mount bar at the top of the screen, and one that I set up for my Naga so there’s a slight visual aid while I get used to it). I think what you’re asking is what I was trying to get away from. =P
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Zellviren reply on March 12, 2010 7:21 pm:
Haha, gotcha.
I have three bars that are invisible until I actually go over them, for the same things you’ve mentioned; mounts, pets, that type of thing (can’t beat the magical crawdad).
I’ll look up SpellBinder, though - might well be worth the effort if it actually saves time and effort.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Not much of oryginal UI has left in mine
http://picasaweb.google.com/ivp008/Fester#slideshow/5447041843529949042
I recently make a lot of us of Satrina’s Buff Frames
for many strange things
Shouts, TC/Demo/Sunder as well as Trinket Procs
Long bars for a duration of Shield Block, Shield Wall, Last Stand
Big icon for proc’s like Swords and Boards with 2 bars on both sides vanishing quickly
One of the best uses is a separate frame for debuffs on the target of my target, gives me good overview how many stacks of debuff are on the other tank without a need of changing the target off boss, those are filtered, so I see only the ones I want to see.
Tidy plates: Threat Plates is a nice addon, hope they add an ability to put OT on ignore, so a name plate goes big only when something has got aggro on dps/healer
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March 10th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Only a short post here, but I know you frequent Tankspot. Check out Boda’s UI compilation for a great gathering of tanking related addons that have one of the best layouts i’ve seen in 3 years of modding the hell out of the standard Blizzard UI
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March 10th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
What I would really love, is just something that tells you how many mobs are targeting you, mainly to fix the problem I have when tanking with DK’s and pallys.
Example:
I often find that when tanking with a Pally or Death Knight, they tend to keep taunting, AOEing etc all the mobs not targeting them, this causes me to often get rage starved because I only have one mob on me, I have talked to most the pallys and dk’s in my guild about this, but no matter how many times I try to remind them they just keep grabbing all the ads onto themselves, leaving me without enough rage to grab any back or to counter a threat like one of the skeletal giants awakening. Although all the people I normally tank with are aware of this, I find that DK’s and Pallys just don’t really think/understand how much/why this is a problem to us. I feel that they are slightly jaded because no matter what happens after their next global, all their buttons will be lit up and ready no matter what. (I find I don’t have this problem with druids as they work off rage too, and are empathetic to the problem)
Ideally I would like an addon that just put a tiny but distinct symbol over the head of each mob, maybe a gold shield if it was targeting me, a silver shield if it was targeting another tank and a red cross if it was targeting something that wasn’t a tank.
These shields could maybe start to fade, flash or grow/shrink when your aggro against that mob starts to falter, this way at a glance I could see how many mobs each tank had, which mobs I needed to target on my next rotation to keep aggro on, which mobs I could skip for a couple of rotations and which ones needed taunting as/before they wander off to butcher a dps.
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Drae reply on March 11, 2010 6:37 am:
Tidy plates - threat plates + tiny tip is the best I’ve found.
It requires mouse over to see who it’s targeting, but it shows if it’s targeting you and your threat levels on the mob pretty accurately.
Check it out, one of the best addons of the year!
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Dread reply on March 11, 2010 8:46 am:
…..just let them tank them, is it really a big deal? As long as the stuff gets tanked don’t stress about it.
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EBGreen reply on March 11, 2010 1:38 pm:
If I understand the post, the issue is that them tanking it prevents the designated tank from doing his job if everything goes south. For a guild run this may or may not be an issue since you are all guildies and this has probably been discussed. In a PUG however as soon as that DK grabs the mobs and loses aggro on them to the healer then doesn’t get it back, the designated tank will usually get the blame for the wipe and not the DPS that was tanking.
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March 10th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
i still use the “show cape and helm in a different set” trick but i only use it for really wonky sets i don’t want to be using in normal circumstances… in fact, i think the only one i use it for is my well-below-def-cap set which mixes in a large amount of DPS gear for playing around in WG and so forth.
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March 11th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
I am an altoholic and I have a lowbie (42) pally tank. I find that playing alts in all the roles helps me perform better in the role I am playing at any given time. Regardless, my question is with regard to a mod called TauntMaster. I have been using it for a while and like it a lot. I didn’t see anyone mention it here. Is using it going to cause problems for me at some point? I do have my taunts on my bars and occasionally use them directly, so I don’t think I am dependent on TauntMaster. Do I just like it due to my tanky noobness?
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Signu reply on March 12, 2010 9:30 am:
If you can explain what it is/does, we might be able to pass judgement on it.
There used to be an addon called Taunt Buddy that would put up a raid warning (or just raid chat, I forget) whenever your taunt missed. It did some other stuff, too, but I don’t remember what else.
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March 11th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
I use a modified version of sethik’s ui: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk4kgvE2MqI
It’s hard to tell since that video doesn’t show the full suite of addons in a raid context but it works amazingly well for tanking and dpsing on my warrior and dk. Much less clutter than the blizzard default ui (and most other homebrews as well), primary information (player health and resources, target health and resources, dmg in/dmg out, etc.), is centralized, secondary information is tucked to the sides (buffs, omen, recount, etc.) and tertiary information (durability, money, chat, etc.) is just a rollover away.
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March 12th, 2010 at 4:14 am
Simplicity is genius.
My golden rule, generally, is:
“If you don’t need to get to it within a GCD, don’t have it on the screen”.
This can be extended across the board, really. All the UI’s I like the most, including my own, have the bare essentials on them and that’s it. So many people try to create a “pro” UI by looking at what others have, and using everything.
When you ask why the hunter didn’t feign and he tells you it’s because he couldn’t find the button in time, you’ll know what I mean.
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Zellviren reply on March 12, 2010 9:07 am:
Forgot to add the link.
http://s735.photobucket.com/albums/ww358/Zellviren/?action=view¤t=Picture4-9.png
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Dread reply on March 16, 2010 11:33 am:
Do you ever find yourself accidentally dragging omen or recount to a different part of the screen? Locking those frames help tremendously. Also, do you have a raid shot with your grid setup? It just looks kind of funky.
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March 12th, 2010 at 5:24 am
http://www.riseguild.info/01.jpg
Dont have portraits, however whenever I see someone else then my OT I taunt asap.
Problem is, my OT from 10 man is dps in 25 man so sometimes he dies because I’m used to play with him
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Dread reply on March 15, 2010 9:28 am:
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March 12th, 2010 at 7:45 am
This is my current UI, I’m constantly tweaking it so it changes slightly every so often. My next goal is to make my addons a lot less dependent on bulky libraries that are needed for only one or two mods.
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj250/NyteBlayde/tentrui.jpg
I labeled each addon. The numbered addons are:
1. Recount
2. Tiptac
3. Chatter
4. Macaroon!
5. Omen3
6. SLData Text
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March 12th, 2010 at 8:58 am
I don´t use custom UI. and I don´t use portraits I raid with friend.
I love to have no additional things to see or take care. since now is easier to tank that old days.
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March 12th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
I used to associate with tanks’ names, not their UI pictures(which I removed from my UI). It would drive me batty for a couple of raids every time I’d be tanking with a new tank recruit or brand-new alt with a new name.
I placed target of target dead center of my screen using IceHUD since I considered that the most important piece of information for most tanking.
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March 15th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I’ve found nothing gets me killed faster than eating a deviate delight or popping my Iron Boot Flask before a pull. I don’t show my helm, and my main healer knows what my portrait looks like. When he doesn’t see my typical smile orc mug there is a second or two of uncertainty before that heal goes out, which is never a good thing.
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Dread reply on March 15, 2010 12:46 pm:
Our healers use grid or healbot, there’s never a portrait.
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