#wowui

[theartofwarcraft-blog]

Apologies for the bit of confusion...

I discovered that this blog was attached under my primary profile, unaware that it would not separately follow users or register likes. I've since established a new, primary blog for this project site; however, in doing so, I had to repost all my content to the new blog. The spamming of repeat posts should cease and desist as of now. Thanks!

[theartofwarcraft-blog]

Here's a video of my resto UI in action. I've set my grid frame to hold 25m, but 40m (like AV or IoC) will only cover the DPS meter to the right. I have my dps meter turned off for PvP, so this works out perfectly.  I've set up my grid to show, from left to right, my lifebloom (yellow rectangle), my regrowth HoT (green square), my rejuvenation HoT (purple square), if the target is swiftmendable (green rectangle below RG/RJ), a timer for my rejuvenation, and an icon for lifebloom showing stacks with a timer above.  The grid has a small power bar at the bottom of each player frame. Health is set up so that the grey dissipates to the left as health is lost, leaving a color-coded health deficit in its place: yellow for >50%, orange for 50-25%, and red for <25% health remaining. Incoming heals can be seen as a dark band for the estimated amount healed over the health deficit.  I rely heavily on power auras to track procs, target debuffs, and cooldowns. Almost all my auras are located in the panels between my character and target frames. Starting from the left, I have prowl (purple swirl) . When changing to cat form, I like to know when this ability is available and what it's cooldown is. To its right, I track faerie fire (purple faerie) with stacks on my current target. When going up against stealth or plate classes, faerie fire is definitely worth keeping up.  The center panel has most of my healing cooldowns tracked. From left to right, I've displayed cooldowns for tranquility (blue rune), tree form (green leaf), nature's swiftness (yellow arrow), wild growth (green vines), and swiftmend (pink ring).  In the right bin, I have barkskin (brown shield) tracked with cooldown. To its right, I have living seed (green seed) on top and harmony (white spark) on bottom with duration timers. Knowing when harmony procs can signal popping cooldowns or just general increased healing output. I'm not sure I'll continue tracking living seed above it, but so is the evolution of every UI.  In the space above the right bin, I've set up an energy/rage/combo point tracker. You can go to my feral dps post if you'd like to know more about how it works. That's my resto UI. Check out my post on my feral UI for a list of addons I've used to create it. If you have any comments or suggestions, you can message me, or you can follow the youtube link and add them there. Thanks!

[theartofwarcraft-blog]

Here's a video of my feral UI in action.  I have my grid frame set to hold 25 mans, but 40 mans (like the AV bg) will only cover up skada (DPS meter), which I have turned off for bgs anyway.  The spaces to the left and right of the unit frames are buff/debuff containers. They may look large, but raids get a lot of buffs and it's my personal pref to see what I have on me.  As you can see, I do like using power auras to track procs, DoTs, and cooldowns. the empty space between the player and target frames is dedicated for my power auras. I like seeing timers on my abilities so I can bank energy or burn it depending on what's coming up next. Here's a breakdown of what's what, starting from the left bin. I have savage defense (green shield) and berserk (red face) monitored in large icons. The feral charges are next. Activating cat or bear charge will put both charges on cooldown, but bear is on a 15sec cd and cat is on 30. If you use bear when cat is off cd, both have a 15sec cd. Tracking these gap-closers in PvP, and sometimes PvE, is a must. Cat (yellow arrow) is on top and bear (red arrow) is on bottom. Skull bash (blue skull) is to the top right, and below it is an indicator for thorns (I rarely use thorns and I should, so I tried this out and it helps remind me keep it up on a tank or healer in bgs).  In the center bin, I have prowl (purple swirl). The swirl will only show up if I am able use prowl (ie must be in cat form out of combat), but I have a timer tracking the actual cooldown of the spell so I know when I can shift into cat form or pop shadowmeld and use it. Next I track stampede (red icon). Because it's a free ravage from using feral charge, I like to have it on timer and use it at around 80% health on my target after I've burned through some of my energy; it's very important not to loose this burst potential, especially in PvP. To the right of this, I have timers for berserk and survival instincts. While I already have auras tracking their cooldowns, I find it very helpful to know how long each buff is active and plan energy usage or bear form accordingly.  I have my cd and buff duration for tiger's fury (green paw) to the top right of the bin. If possible, getting a rip off while the TF buff is active increases DPS, so tracking the duration of TF becomes necessary. Below the TF aura is a icon for faerie fire (purple faerie) with stacks. In the far right bin, I have my target debuffs tracked with timers. Working outward in, I have savage roar (bottom blue dot), rake (yellow), mangle (orange) and rip (red), all of which are tracked with timers to their left. The timers help me gauge my energy usage to keep all my debuffs/buffs up. It makes an otherwise rather complicated dps priority system very manageable. Above the far right bin is an power/combo point tracker. I have energy/rage displayed on my unit frame, but it's on the other side of my screen. Looking back and forth between it, my buff tracker, and my target frame makes for a lot of moving about. I decided to track energy/rage inside my combo points. The yellow dots are energy (red for rage) and the colored circles around them are combo points. When I reach 5 combo points, a green box surrounds the tracker and makes a ding noise. If I'm chasing something down trying to finish it off and stop paying close attention to the tracker, the ding will let me know I can throw in a finishing move. The tracker also shows lacerate applications and a wear-off timer so I don't loose the stacks. 

Finally, I have procs tracked around my character for clearcasting and predator's swiftness. It's nice to use the most energy intensive moves (like shred) when clearcasting procs, and it's always nice to throw an instant healing touch in PvP.  I've also made some space for misc things like pets, gearsets, tabards, and professions which aren't all that necessary but make my life a little easier. It's a preference point I suppose.  *Whew* so there you have it folks. Thanks for checking it out!  Notable Addons Used  Align: makes a grid on your screen for easy alignment of UI elements Aura Frames: a buff/debuff display Bartender4: customizable ability bars with fast key bindings and state config Chinchilla: minimap manipulator Grid2: party/raid frames kgPanels: framework for UI (dark panels) Mapster: moveable and resizable world map  Masque: custom look for BT4 MSBT: scrolling combat text MoveAnything: allows for the moving and resizing of all UI elements Party/Raid Hide: hides the default party/raid frames Power Auras: highly customizable notification system Prat 3.0: chat box manipulator Quartz: custom cast bars Shadowed Unit Frames: custom unit frames Skada: DPS meter SL Data Text: displays fps, latency, memory usage Tidy Plates: custom name plates with enemy health and debuffs Tip Tac: tooltip customizer