UI Mods

[--Pete]

Hi,

Well, Magi and I have finally gotten into WoW (but not with the 'new' computers which are still not assembled and becoming obsolete faster than functional:().

While we've got many questions about the game (which has changed quite a bit since the beta), we're enjoying the learning process. But I'm a bit bogged down on UI mods. I've found a fair number of sites with UI mods, but I haven't found much in the way of up-to-date discussion I trust. Right now, we're running QuickLoot and QuestLevels, and they seem OK. I'm trying the GFW_ReagentCost mod (along with its required Auctioneer package), but to get the necessary info from the AH takes about 3/4 of an hour and looks like that needs to be done each session -- not something I'm likely to live with.

So, what I'd like to know is what mods y'all are using, what the mods do, and how well you like them. Also, any advice on what to avoid and why would be nice.

--Pete

PS And a big 'Thank-you' to all the people who made us so welcome on Stormrage. Hopefully you'll still be there when we get big enough to join in high level quests and instances.

[Zarathustra]

A little mod I've come to love is called Gatherer. It marks any resource nodes you gather on your map and minimap. I'm sure this isn't the type of UI mod you were thinking of, but it's a HUGE help to anyone with a gathering profession. Helps you plan your route and not have to remember where every patch of weeds grows.

[--Pete]

Hi,

I'm sure this isn't the type of UI mod you were thinking of, . . .

On the contrary, that is exactly the type of info I'm looking for. Thanks.

--Pete

[mommie]

Also try one called recipe radar. It shows the recipe's in the area you are in and wither you or alts can use it.
I got it from curse-gaming.com

[LochnarITB]

The problem with your request, Pete, is that it is way too open ended. If you find something you want to do with the interface, somebody has probably written a mod. As you run into situations that you think could be handled better, ask us for a mod to do it and you will probably get several recommendations. Some people prefer to use few or no mods. Others couldn't play at all if they didn't have dozens and dozens of mods running. It becomes a very personalized environment that evolves with the things you want to do and the way you like to interface with the experience (now how wiz bang gobbledy gook did that sound? :lol:).

[--Pete]

Hi,

The problem with your request, Pete, is that it is way too open ended.

Why, yes, it is;)

However, if anyone has a mod or two that they like and can recommend, that can give me a clue of what is worth looking at and what isn't. And that can save me some mod testing time which I can put to much better use as WoW play time. Which makes both me and my pet (not to mention Magi) happy.

So if anyone's found a UI treasure, share the wealth -- I'm sure that even some of the level 60s would learn something new and useful.:)

--Pete

[LochnarITB]

So if anyone's found a UI treasure, share the wealth

OK, since you insist, a couple points from my interface. The base of my interface is the CTMod suite. I use most, but not all of their pieces. Other players will tell you just how wrong I am, in my choice, and recommend one or more of the many other mods out there that do what some of those pieces do, such as button bars or raid info. There is always demand for mods that try to simplify crafting and manage recipes/patterns/etc. My latest addition, in that vein, is Tradeskill Info. I like it for seeing what a particular material is used for in all the crafts in which it can be used.

[Kevin]

I've found that at higher levels one mod I simply can no longer live without is Item Rack Even at lower levels my hybrid classes (druids, shaman, paladins, preists [solo/DPS gear and healing gear]) get good use out of it for dealing with the different specialized gear.

WeaponQuickSwap is another one that I'm pretty addicted to. Though Item Rack should be able to do this same function that I use the macro's on this for but I've never bother to look, I just like the easy 1 button don't have to worry about where the gear is in the bag, swap for my weapons, I really have problems playing a warrior without it.

I use Gatherer pretty heavily too.

There isn't anything else that I can't deal without. These are just mods that I like a fair bit but that I can deal without having.

Theory Craft is one that I like a fair bit, just does the math for me basically to help me optimize gear for what I want

I use some of the CT suit, but I don't bother with the bar mods. I had very bad experiences with them a long time ago, and am so used to the Blizzard bars and hot keys that I have set for those that I just don't even install them. Some of the stuff for the party frames (health values displayed, the CT target of target instead of the default) I like. The mailmod is probably the most valuable thing to me in the package. I don't really even need CTRA for raids anymore as I like BigWigs better for the info and default unit frames are good enough.

MobInfo2 is another one that I like too for tracking info on the mobs.

I use TitanPanel and ItemSync (though if it doesn't get updated again soon I might end up back with Lootlink for my item DB).


I use a few more mods but those are mostly things that only one character or class benefits from and some of then are actually installed but disabled at this stage. :)

[Concillian]

Mods I use:
DiscordUnitFrames (for customized party frames, debuff size, buff size, etc...)
DiscordActionBars (for customized button size, location cluster row / height, etc...)
CT_MapMod (for gathering, mostly)
CT_MailMod (unpossible to live without)
Bagnon
Banknon (very useful "all bags in one" mods)
NaturEnemyCastbar
Recap (mostly for personal combat stats)
SW_Stats (for raid sync'ed stats that give some more useful raid combat stat info, but not quite all of what Recap does)
CT_RaidAssist
Elkano's Buffbar (awesome mod for compact graphical depiction of time remaining on buff / debuffs)
and, of course, ItemRack

About the only of those that I wouldn't have a difficult time living without is Recap and SW_Stats.

[mistique]

I use alot of mods, and have had a lot more that i've found to be too much trouble, see list below.

On auctioneer, if your only buying or selling some types of items, then it's much easier to only update the catagories your using, then the whole lot before you leave the game.

Mods i am using.

<span style="color:#FF0000">Auctioneer:
<span style="color:#FF0000">Autobuff: Good for classes with buffs you want to keep up, ie Shaman, priest, mage
<span style="color:#FF0000">Autoprofit: Adds a button to vendor window to sell all trash items in you inv
<span style="color:#FF0000">Character Veiwer: Lets you look at your other characters, good for remembering what items of bank items they have
<span style="color:#FF0000">CT_raid & Bossmods: If you want to Raid
<span style="color:#FF0000">Easypriest: makes self casting....easy
<span style="color:#FF0000">Equipcompare: Brings up a window containing your equiped item when you click on a linked item or loot
<span style="color:#FF0000">Fishing Buddy: Makes fishing easier
<span style="color:#FF0000">Gatherer: Marks your map and mini map with nods you've found
<span style="color:#FF0000">Item rack: For quick changing of item sets
<span style="color:#FF0000">Moveable bags: Drag your bags to where you want them when opened
<span style="color:#FF0000">Recipe book: Keeps a track on the patterns/ recipes you know, and color codes the AH items according to which character you have and weather they can learn it now, later or not at all
<span style="color:#FF0000">Scrolling Combat text: Good for keeping an eye on whats going on
<span style="color:#FF0000">Spell alert: Lets you know if Spell starts to be cast near you
<span style="color:#FF0000">Titan: Has various functions, i use
<span style="color:#FF6666">Crit line: keeps a track of you normal and crits on each type of attack
<span style="color:#FF6666"> Ammo: good for Hunters
<span style="color:#FF6666">Bag: opens all bags or closes
<span style="color:#FF6666">Clock: Good if you in another time zone to the server...like me
<span style="color:#FF6666">Co-ords: lets you find things by the Co-ords
<span style="color:#FF6666"> Money: tracks how much you've made/lost in the time your on line

<span style="color:#FF0000">Turnin: Great for the Thouium brotherhood faction turnins, auto turns in the stuff with only 1 click each time not 4

<span style="color:#FF0000">Weapon stance sets: good for warriors, change weapons baised on the stance your in
<span style="color:#FF0000">Decursive: might be for the lazy, but i like it, though soon to be blocked
<span style="color:#FF0000">Mob info2: keeps a track of HP and MP on a mob, and also gives you an idea on when their going to die
<span style="color:#FF0000">Atlas Enhanced: Instance maps with Boss loot drops, what more do you want
<span style="color:#FF0000">Serenity: great Priest mod.. try it out..customisable
<span style="color:#FF0000">Recipe box: saves info on you character professions and item they can make, searchable on any of you other characters
<span style="color:#FF0000">KTM threat meter: Another for Raiding, BWL must.
<span style="color:#FF0000">Natures Enemy Castbar: Great Mod
As you can see, i use alot, i allow 128k of memory and have had no problems with interaction.

Mistique

[Quark]

Other players will tell you just how wrong I am, in my choice, and recommend one or more of the many other mods out there that do what some of those pieces do, such as button bars or raid info.

Though my use of CT is minimal anymore, I won't say you're wrong:P

CTMod is a very good base -> it gets 80% of what you want right off the bat, in one mod. Eventually, you may want it done better or faster, but as a beginning its ease of use puts it at top.

To counter the flow, I'll actually recommend mods to not use:)
Discord * -> memory/cpu hoarding mods. These mods generally do everything in their designated area, but it comes at a steep price. Find a mod that does everything you want and use it instead. Note Nurfed is typically as extensible as Discord, but it comes from hand-editing .lua files instead of ingame options (thus, Nurfed is faster, but harder to use).

TitanPanel -> Very useful. Also very inefficient and always hard to tell who the latest author is. FuBar is a very clean alternative.

CritLine -> (Well, it becomes unrecommended in BWL+) Fun watching your numbers go up. Also completely pointless once MCing mobs with 300% damage bonus become common and thus all your "highest" numbers are from when you were attacking your allies.


... And on the same vein ...

Elkano's Buffbar (awesome mod for compact graphical depiction of time remaining on buff / debuffs)

I don't get this. At all. No, seriously, can someone explain this to me as I've been wondering the whole time? What's the point of this mod? It ends up taking more space than the default UI, and I never understood why people can't use the icon to figure out what buff it is instead of listing a long name.

[gothmog]

Look through this list and test out if you find something that sounds interesting: http://www.wowace.com/wiki/Category:Addons

Ace2/Ace is a framework that allows very efficient development of add-ons, and usually the design of these add-ons is very good too.

[Concillian]

I don't get this. At all. No, seriously, can someone explain this to me as I've been wondering the whole time? What's the point of this mod? It ends up taking more space than the default UI, and I never understood why people can't use the icon to figure out what buff it is instead of listing a long name.

The size / width is configurable.... And if you use CTMod's way of displaying buffs, it takes way less space. I prefer to use the top of my screen for less necessary things, like Recap and SW stats.

I agree that the default width is pretty wide.

And, yeah, with my machine, I don't have a tremendous concern for resource usage.

[Luminon]

Hi,

Well, Magi and I have finally gotten into WoW (but not with the 'new' computers which are still not assembled and becoming obsolete faster than functional:().

While we've got many questions about the game (which has changed quite a bit since the beta), we're enjoying the learning process. But I'm a bit bogged down on UI mods. I've found a fair number of sites with UI mods, but I haven't found much in the way of up-to-date discussion I trust. Right now, we're running QuickLoot and QuestLevels, and they seem OK. I'm trying the GFW_ReagentCost mod (along with its required Auctioneer package), but to get the necessary info from the AH takes about 3/4 of an hour and looks like that needs to be done each session -- not something I'm likely to live with.

So, what I'd like to know is what mods y'all are using, what the mods do, and how well you like them. Also, any advice on what to avoid and why would be nice.

--Pete

PS And a big 'Thank-you' to all the people who made us so welcome on Stormrage. Hopefully you'll still be there when we get big enough to join in high level quests and instances.

What classes are you playing? Most classes have their own must-have ui mods.

[--Pete]

Hi,

What classes are you playing? Most classes have their own must-have ui mods.

Magi has a priest and I've got a hunter that play together. In addition, I've got another hunter and a warrior. But I'll probably try most of the classes to some extent at one time or another. So any class specific info is greatly welcome, and labeling it as such would be nice to avoid confusion.

And to everyone who has responded, thank you for the info so far. It gives me a nice bunch of mods to read about and test over the next few days or weeks.

--Pete

[Quark]

The size / width is configurable....

Ugh, I wonder why every screenshot I've ever seen has it taking up like half the screen, then :/

[mommie]

For my hunter i like the Fizzwidget's mods. Fizzwidget hunter's help shows what skill the mob has before you tame it so there is no guess if the mob you just trained had a skill that you need. I lso use Fizzwidgets feed-o-matic, you set which foods you want fed to your pet and bind a key, when pet is hungry just hit the key, you can set it to not use foods that are needed in recipes.
Fizzwidget

He also has others but those are the 2 that i use.

[Luminon]

Hi,
Magi has a priest and I've got a hunter that play together. In addition, I've got another hunter and a warrior. But I'll probably try most of the classes to some extent at one time or another. So any class specific info is greatly welcome, and labeling it as such would be nice to avoid confusion.

And to everyone who has responded, thank you for the info so far. It gives me a nice bunch of mods to read about and test over the next few days or weeks.

--Pete

I play a hunter myself, and two addons I heavilly recommend are Rangeswitch (switches your main bar depending on range) and Sorren's hunter timers (shows timers for trap/sting and other effects).
Priests I'm less familliar with, but you'll probably want something that lets you cast beneficial spells on yourself while having an enemy targeted (like Easycast), CT_raidassist's built-in emergencymonitor is another very popular addon for healers, though it's usefullness is debatable.

[edit] And MonkeyQuest is great for levelling.

[Concillian]

When I was 5 manning with my priest I liked groupbuttons, though in hindsight after transitioning to raid healing, presented it's own "re-learning" barrier.

The only things special I have for my priest is the mob BUFF icons are extra large (assuming a detect magic is up) and the player DEBUFF icons are extra large. Mob debuff and player buff icons are extra small, because I can ignore these in combat. My warrior and rogue have just the opposite. As a warrior I need to check debuffs like demo shout, T-clap, sunder counts, etc... so mob debuffs are huge.

Rather than a selfcast mod, I just made a quick macro for a couple key spells (PW: Shield, renew, flash) that target me, cast and then TargetLastEnemy. I find you can sometimes get in trouble with self cast mods... like lastnight we had a warlock madly trying to soulstone a rezzer in an impending wipe. Rezzer was dead and he ended up casting on himself. Also, a common method of raid healing is to target the FF mob and heal by pressing the key / button, then clicking on the health bar to be healed. Self cast mods make this impossible.

[Kevin]

Also, a common method of raid healing is to target the FF mob and heal by pressing the key / button, then clicking on the health bar to be healed. Self cast mods make this impossible.

Well Telo's (which he discontinued) didn't. Since everything would cast as normal until I hit the modifier key (be that alt or whatever) then it would cast on myself. I like Telo's way better than anything else because it would work if I did mod-# press or if I did mod-mouseclick. The built in stuff didn't work with mouse click casts. But yeah I keep the mob targeted all the time than press my heal key then click the health bar to cast, but well I did a lot of my early healing on a paladin where I still wanted to keep swinging at the mob. And for things like curing with a paladin. The cure is instant cast it doesn't mess with your swing timeer at all so I could swing and cure someone at the same time, if I did a retarget then target the mob again the swing would be stopped on the retarget. Bleh.

So I'm still looking for a good self cast mod that will be updated when it breaks (I'm always in fear that Telo's will break. CT's doesn't work unless you have their bar mods installed and turned on and I don't like their bar mods, the built in stuff sucks and has all the issues Conc mentioned).