Building Anna’s UI
Posted on October 21, 2008 - Filed Under Guides, Raiding
So now that I have the server cooperating! I posted my UI screenshot on Friday, but after getting a bunch of questions, I figured I’d break things down for you in a little more concrete way. I apologize for this being a little bit wall-of-text-y: the idea is for you to look at the screenshot, and see something you like, and then look up what it is (though if you really are into reading about addons, you can read from top to bottom!)
If you click on that, it’ll open in a new tab (hopefully), so you can tell what parts of this UI I’m talking about!
Anyway - on to the addons!
- Quartz - a modular casting bar. Right now I have it showing only MY casting bar, but it can show your target and focus casting bars, as well as buffs and debuffs on your targets.
- XPerl Unit Frames - an easy to configure UnitFrame that lets you move stuff around. VERY configurable, but also easy to just leave alone if you like the look.
- Dominos - a bar mod, Dominos replaces your default spell bars with a set of 10 movable bars that can be resized and changed in configuration. The top two bars are at 80%, the bottom three (in 3×4, 2×6, and 3×4) are at 60%, as is my pet bar. Along with Dominos, I’m also running RedRange (which turns the bars red when your target is out of range) and OmniCC, which displays the cooldown on abilities as a ticking timer instead of the little swirly refresh graphic.
- Grid - a totally customizable raid interface. Not for the faint of heart, Grid can be a little crazy the first time you set it up, but it is really nice for supplying a lot of information in a small space. If you’re not interested in crazy, use the Xperl raid frames, as they work nicely as well. I’m using Clique with Grid, an addon that lets you assign healing to mouseclick combinations - it’s really nice, and replaces click to cast macros.
- TipTop - a replacement for your tooltip that lets you change the size, what’s displayed, the border, and the location. This is location “bottomright” with a 100 y offset - meaning it’s up slightly off the bottom right corner.
- Fortress/lib-DataBroker/plugins - this is a really nifty mod. You install the library “Databroker”, and then the display mod Fortress - which, when you log in, does absolutely nothing. And then you go and find plugins that will display all kinds of neat information (coordinates, time, money, durability, ammo). Those plugins will show up as little “blocks” - I have them all linked as a bar at the top of my screen, but you can use any configuration you like. Note that you need Fortress, AND lib-DataBroker, AND whatever plugins you want. (Dominos comes with a default plugin for this, but most addons don’t).
- Squeenix - makes the minimap square, and makes it draggable/resizable. Also gets rid of unwanted minimap buttons.
- Atlas and AtlasLoot - a directory of instances and loot. Two really nice, tasty mods.
- Elkano’s BuffBars - a configurable buff bar that shows buffs (in blue), debuffs (in red), and weapon enchantments (in purple). You can make this any size you want, and drag it wherever you want.
- PallyPower - a configurable buffmod for Paladins that lets you assign blessings. Every paladin running PallyPower will show up, and it’ll keep track of how long the blessings will last (and if anyone is missing them)
- QuesterJester - a tiny little button (mine is set to scale .8) that automatically finds usable quest items and puts them on an expanding bar so you can use them without having to set aside bar space.
- Minimalist - a very simple little mod that does a lot of simple things, including letting your mousewheel scroll your chat window, moving the chat entry bar to the top, and removing clutter from your minimap. Also lets you auto-ignore duels.
- PetEmote - a necessity for any hunter, Pet Emote allows you to have customizable emotes for your pet, simply by typing /pet. It also comes with a list of randomized emotes that are wonderful, and fully customizable as well (just make sure you use a code editor like Notepad++ or Dreamweaver, and not Notepad or Wordpad to edit the files!)
- TotemTimers - not showing up on this character, since she’s not a shaman, TotemTimers is a configurable totem mod that keeps track of your shields, weapon imbues, and totems, all on a nifty bar.
- You can’t see it, but this is where Omen3 goes, my threat meter. Pulling aggro is BAD!
- This is where DoTimer will show up with my cooldowns (on the right) and my buffs/debuffs (in the center). DoTimer tracks your buffs on other people, your debuffs, and your cooldowns, and displays them nicely. I started using this mod when I was a shadowpriest, to make sure my debuffs stayed on my targets, and now it’s a necessity for everyone.
All the stuff you don’t see:
- !BugGrabber and BugSack - a mod that takes your errors and puts them in a sack, instead of all over your screen, so you can look at them and fix problems. (They’re packaged as one addon)
- Deadly Boss Mods (and DBM for Pre-BC) - an on-demand bossmod with timers for instances and battlegrounds. Very useful.
- QuestGuru - a double wide quest interface that comes with a built in quest tracker (and makes Peon “Work Complete!” noises when you finish a quest - if you want).
- ArkInventory - all your bags in one big lump. Fully customizable, but I’m not that good with this one yet (as it’s brand new to me). Also using Enhanced Tooltip and Informant, mods that let me know how much something vendors for and other useful info.
- Gamik Fizzwidget’s Linkerator - a loot link mod, Linkerator takes all the stuff you’ve seen and makes it so you can type it into chat. Start typing with a [bracket ... and it'll check and see if you've seen the [Woollies of the Prancing Minstrel] and let you link it easily.
- ItemRack - set up a set of armor and save it. Another must for RPers, Druids, Paladins, and anyone that has to have a set of Fire Resist armor for Ragnaros. Er. Ok you get the idea. Save an armor set, and switch between them easily. I’m also using EquipCompare, since the default comparison thingy makes me crosseyed.
- Skinner - changes the look of your default windows, making them sleek and shiny and less cluttered. Also comes with a viewport (which I used to use, but have opted not to in this UI incarnation).
- SCT/SCTD - a scrolling combat text addon that lets you configure where your outgoing damage, incoming damage, outgoing healing, incoming healing, and warning messages are displayed.
Things I’m still looking for:
- A Gatherer-type addon like Cartographer, that puts gathering nodes on the world map and minimap. I’m trying Gathermate, but it’s not cooperating, and the new Cartographer isn’t what I’m looking for.
If you’re starting from the Default UI - what should you get first?
- Omen3 and QuestGuru are great for everyone and require almost no setup. Minimalist and Squeenix are also easy to set up and give you some nice customization.
- PetEmote and ItemRack are great for RP. There are a number of other great RP addons as well, but I tend not to use them as much lately.
- If you’re a raider, I highly recommend starting with Xperl, Dominos, and Elkano’s Buffbars. If you want a little more info (or are a shadowpriest or warlock), snag DoTimer.
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16 Responses to “Building Anna’s UI”
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Great post. We share a lot of addons. One thing I’d like to add is that there’s an addon called Fubar2Broker which can turn any Fubar plugin into a DataBroker block. I recently discovered DataBroker myself, and that really pulled it through for me, as I love QuestFu, e.g.
Now, Gathermate, what’s not working out for you? It works perfectly fine for me. I use Mapster+Gathermate+Routes and it’s a dream-team for me.
Kadomis last blog post..Fiery pony FTW
@Kadomi:
I have gathermate installed and it’s not showing up at all - does it have a dependency on Mapster? (I’ve always used Routes as well, but can’t without a gatherer addon).
The buff bar addon … does it warn you when a castable buff is about to expire? The notes I found were not very clear on that.
I’ve been using ct_buffmod for this sort of thing because that warning does get your attention, but I’d like to shed two mods for one if I could.
grimmtooths last blog post..Some real numbers to work with
@grimmtooth:
Elkano’s BuffBars does not do that, however DoTimer does.
@Anna: Did you try to gather anything since installing Gathermate? If you don’t use Gathermate_Data, it comes unpopulated, so you’ll have to gather stuff to create map nodes.
Gathermate_Data is updated frequently, if you have that installed, you can just use the import function.
Kadomis last blog post..Fiery pony FTW
personally use gatherer @ gathereraddon.com this coms with others who use the addon so you can see where they find their nodes as well as your own. puts nodes on your minimap and even has a HUD that you can enable with a paint mark where you have been. HUD disappears when in combat
This is the add-on post I’ve been *dying* for. Thank you so much!
Bricus last blog post..3/400
I had been using squeenix but stopped because the minimap kept turning black…which is not much of a map. To clear it up, I would /reload. Do you have any problems with squeenix?
Garilos Durocs last blog post..No Time to Worry
I tried both cartographer and gathermate, but found both lacking, so I went back to Gatherer. When combined with Routes gathering goes to easy mode.
Santyns last blog post..Hallow’s End
Ohhh lots of new ideas…. I like it!
Dradis aka Ryukyus last blog post..Targeting Trouble
@Santyn: I used to be a big Gatherer fan, but their database was way out of date so I switched to Cartographer. Apparently there’s a Cartographer update for 3.0 (that’s not Cart.3), so I may try that.
@Garilos Duroc: Haven’t had any problems at all with squeenix - that may be a compatibility issue with another mod?
Ok I’d like to share two mods that I use.
Excuse the no links but I’m @ wrk.
Fubar Auditor plugin.
Tracks all of your incomming and outgoing gold to see where you money goes.
Now for the best mod ever:
Action Bar Saver
I use it when I change specs, like prot, dps, healing.
It saves profiles, so when I’m prot I /abs save Prot and all my buttons/spells and all are saved.
So when I switch from dps back to prot I just do a /abs restore Prot and everything is back to how it was before.
Great for hybrids.
@Shammy:
I’ve used Auditor in the past, and like it a lot. I’m looking for a replacement that won’t require me using FuBar2Broker to make it work with lib-DataBroker and Fortress, but I may end up just using it again.
I love UI articles.
I started with ArkInventory, then I wished that there was a bag mod like this except that someone customized it for me, and then I found TBag! I haven’t looked around since; it just works.
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7244-TBag-Shefki.html
GoWs last blog post..Choose Your Post-Major-MMO-Patch Chat Adventure
[...] Since the patch rolled around, I’ve been spending a lot of time tuning my UI, which I find almost as enjoyable as slamming my shield into the faces of big bosses. For 3.0, I deleted all addons that I had and rebuilt my UI from the ground, similar to what Anna from ToomanyAnnas has done. [...]