Comments on: Maintaining a Tank / Healer UI

By: Khraden

Khraden — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:36:35 +0000

I never really thought about turning my PallyPower sideways. It may help with some of the space issues on the left side of my screen. It’ll just be another learning curve to get used to moving to a different area to set buffs mid-fight (battle-rez, SS, etc.).

I’ve been using Dominos for my Action Bars, ever since Bartender was broke when 3.2 came out, and have yet to go back. It too has a fading capability, and may be a good idea to try. Thanks for the suggestion.

By: Ndiayne

Ndiayne — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:41:04 +0000

I’ve been a paladin raid healer of sorts in 10-mans (paired with a Disc Priest–beacon a tank, heal the raid, save the world) and 25-mans (Sindragosa only has 1 tank at a time on the first phases, so whee raid healing)… Optimal at all times in all situations? No. Able to be done? Definitely, especially if you’re smart about how you’re using SS and the pretty little HoT on it. XD

I tried PA and didn’t really like it, so I have my macros for Bacon and SS tied into DXE, and have the frames for those set about mid-screen.

I don’t think I’ll ever get much more minimalist than what I’m at unless I switch to a pure DPS class (and I’m never planning on doing that again). I’ve seen people play with literally just self/target/raid frame, and have absolutely no idea how they do it.

By: Khraden

Khraden — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:17:21 +0000

I saw that and nearly messed myself. And in reply to her note (which I’ll probably comment on on her site), that wasn’t an April Fools joke, I seriously felt that way about Paladin Raid Healing, and thought about experimenting with it.

As for my UI. I do leave the Raid Warnings blaring in my face, it helps grab me away from my little corner of the screen. I also have some PowerAuras set up for Beacon and Sacred Shield, that I keep near my focus. Again to pull my eyes away from the grid. I’ve always tried to be situationally aware anyway though.

I have seen some UIs that are so minimalist that I can’t figure out how they do anything, but it looks so pretty.

By: Ndiayne

Ndiayne — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:13:30 +0000

Miss Med linked you today.

Yah, it took me a while to retrain myself (and I have some screenshots of my incredibly hideous UIs between default and current… *shudders*), but to me the natural flow up works better. Bars –> Bad Stuff –> Me –> Other People –> OMG RAID WARNINGS. Everything’s right in front of my face for the most part, and it keeps me from tunneling as bad.

But whatever works, right? I’ve seen some UIs that just made my jaw drop with how awful they were, but the players using them were excellent, so no point in fixing something that (for them) isn’t broken.

By: Khraden

Khraden — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:50:24 +0000

Actually no, but I definitely will give it a try. It is strange though once you’ve gotten your UI set a certain way that your hands automatically move to certain areas to do certain things. In fact I can’t seem to stop myself from going to the bottom right corner of my bars to mount up (ground on the left and flying always on the right). I even get stuck with my Grid position, and the size the way it is, I can’t get used to healing across the bottom or on the left side, it always seems to have to be on the bottom right. Maybe it’s a wierd OCD thing for me, but it works, and I don’t let people die, haha.

Like you, my GUI will never be finished, or perfected. I’m just that kind of person.

Also, like I do for all my first commenters, thanks for the comment, and it’s an honor to have another Blogger read my stuff

By: Ndiayne

Ndiayne — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:43:47 +0000

Have you considered trying oPie out for things like mounts/pets/buffs/professions/misc that you don’t normally need access to in-combat? It’s really useful for paring down clutter, and I really like how easy to use it is.

My UI is constantly changing. I’ll be happy with it… once day… maybe. I’m eternally tweaking and tinkering. Current incarnation is one small “main spell” bar (the stuff I have keybound and generally only like to look at because it’s reassuring) and two blocks of OH CRAP buttons with a giant grid box as my main focus near my feet.

By: mrfenris

mrfenris — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:17:22 +0000

Howdy.

I also have my UI set up for tanking and healing (and raid leading, but that’s more an add-on issue). It’s not pretty by any means, but it is fairly clean.

In addition to Opie (as already mentioned), Bartender4 has a great feature where you can fade out bars until you mouse over them.

On my rogue I faded them out gradually as I learned my key bindings and now they are 100% invisible. It gives my UI a really clean focused feel to it.

Pallypower. I kinda of wish that had a drop down menu feature so it wasn’t so big and ugly. I run my tank/healer in a viewport so I turned mine sideways and it looks 10x better to me.

I keep swearing I’m going to redo my UI, but every time I do, I find myself ripping it all down to my basic add-ons and putting everything right back where I had it.