User Interface Guide (UI guide)
(8 votes)
Hello and welcome to my User Interface guide.
Remember this guide is made from MY opinion, and suggestions from all you out there is very welcome.
This guide will explain what you can do to edit your UI, by using various addons.
It will explain and show some of the ''mainstream'' addons from various groups of addons.
Don't expect this guide as being perfect as soon as its out, one of the main purposes is to add YOUR opinions and addon suggestions to the guide.
I will also add a little section with Death Knight specific addons.
List of websites, providing addon downloads:
Why do we want to change the UI?
The UI is how the whole window you play in looks and interact. Its crucial to feel confetable with it if y ou are leveling, or if you are raiding end game content.
If you are raiding/leveling without any addons, you can be almost sure that you can improve your speed, DPS, tanking skills etc. with addons
NOTE: Installing addons can cause a high drop in FPS (Frames Per Second), and cause lag. That means that its not wise to install all the mods you come across, unless you have a nice computer.
Action Bar Addons
Your action bar is where most of your actions in combat takes place, therefore it's also a very important part of your UI.
Some people feel great with the standard action bars, some people hate it.
Here is a list with some of the most used Action Bar addons:
Bartender4
From wow.curse.com you will also be able to download different ''skins'' for the addon, which also works for Dominos (don't know about Trinity Bars).
Bartender4 is a classic action bar which provides extra bars, the ability to move the bars, and the ability to change size and number of rows for the various bars.
Dominos
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Dominos can in many ways the same as Bartender4. Dominos is like Bartender4 very customizable in size and look, which makes it able to fit in in almost all UI setups.
Buff Management Addons
Buffs is spells cast on you by yourself, or by other players. Under this category i will also include debuffs
Buff Management Addons is often displayed as a move able ''bar''. Some prefer dragging it to the top right corner, where the standard buffs where displayed, and some prefer having them above their unit frames
Elkano's Buffbars
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Elkano's Buffbars allows you to display you buffs both vertically and horizontally in a drag able frame.
Buff timers is a very important part of almost every Buff Bar Addon, and of course Elkano's Buffbars includes them.
Elkano's Buffbars also provides us with different options to make it minimalistic or you can put the buffs in a colorful frame.
ClassTimer
ClassTimer is an addon made for tracking your own buffs and debuffs. You can setup to display only your own debuffs on your target, or also the rest of your raid/group.
ClassTimer has a cooldown tracking like Elkano's Buffbars, and you can practically move it everywhere.
ClassTimer is my prefered Buff Bar Addon, simply because it made it easier to track my diseases.
Power Auras Classic
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Power Auras Classic is an addon of an quite uncommon sort. When using it, you can configure different coloured pictures like swords, a skull or a shield, to show you whenever a proc/buff is active or needs to be refreshed. This can be very useful compared to be looking at your ''normal'' buff frame.
Map and MiniMap Addons
This is the category for addons which changes the way you use your maps. There is both World Map addons, Mini Map addons and last dungeon Map addons.
Cartographer
Cartographer is a world map addon which provides several features:
- Remove the Fog of War (The ''dusty'' areas on your map)
- Access maps for every dungeon, battleground and raid directly from your world map page.
- Download different adds to Cartographer
One of the adds provides the feature to add a note when you complete a quest, and another tracks when you find different herbs, and veins.
Atlas and Atlasloot
Wow.Curse Download: Atlas
Wow.Curse Download: Atlasloot
Atlas is a mapping addon, which provides maps for every dungean and raid in the game. Its highly recommend to install Atlasloot aswell, which provides the feature of viewing of all possible drops in the dungeon.
Atlasloot can also be installed alone if you don't want Atlas.
Sexymap
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Sexymap is a minimap addon providing a lot features:
- Move your minimap wherever you want
- Change the zone text for each zone
- If you have some sort of gathering addon, you can view the nodes on the map
- Very easy to customize with different build in skins
Simple Minimap
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Simple Minimap is like the name says a mini map addon, which is simple and easy to use and configure.
You can change the mini map into different shapes. If you don't like the normal circle form, why not make it a square?
You can choose to hide other addons mini map buttons, and another feature is to use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
Combat Addons
This is a category with many different addons in it.
Both damage meters and different combat texts are included here.
Also the cast bar addon Quartz is in this section.
Recount
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Recount is what we call a Damage Meter. I shows us who deals most damage, how much people are healing and much more.
Recount is shown in a nice drag able frame, which is very easy to customize.
You also have the possibility to make a real-time window, showing the total raid/party dps.
Quartz
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Quartz is a casting bar addon with many extra features:
- Display buffs and debuffs on your target
- Global Cooldown bar, helping you max out your damage without spamming your buttons
- Latency bar, showing when to cast your next spell
- Swing timer, showing when your next auto attack strikes
Gladius
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Gladius is an addon made for arena. It provides automatic created unitframes displaying your opponents heals, buffs and mana.
Its really a must have for any arena player.
Parrot
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Parrot is an addon which changes an adds extra information to the scrolling combat text. Another addon SCT (Scrolling Combat text) provides almost the same features, but I think Parrots text design is far better.
Unit Frames
Unit Frame addons is addons which totally rearrange your unit frames. you can make it minimalistic, or make it colourful and add a 3D portrait.
Unit Frame addons are for me a must because i hate the default so much.
X-Perl Unit Frames
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X-Perl Unit Frames is an unitframe addon with an insane amount of features. The frames are really nice but sometimes they can feel a little big, specially if you choose the ''3D portraits'' which places a moving picture on your frames.
You can change size of buffs and frames with a few clicks, and it's easy to navigate in the menu.
Pitbull
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Pitbull has got almost all the same features as X-Perl, including the 3D portraits.
The version of Pitbull that's out right now can be hard to configure, but if done correctly it can be really great!
Pitbull is the addon used for most minimalistic unitframe setups, which is also one of the easiest to set up.
Grid
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Grid is a very minimalistic raid/party addon, which means its often used in combination with Pitbull or X-Perlto clear some of the screen.
The idea of Grid is to use all space 100%, meaning that the whole frame for each unit, is one big health/mana bar with the option to display small debuff icons on it.
If you like your party/raid frames big you can easily adjust the size from the Grid Config Menu.
Grid also support the feature of ''one-click-casts''.
Example:
You can assign your right mouse button to cast Wild Growth if you right click on ,whoever you wanna heal's, frame.
Healbot Continued
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As the title may have indicated, Healbot Continued NOT a bot. Its mainly a unitframe addon with the same feature as Grid, but many thinks Healbot is easier to use, but also opposite of course.
Otherwise its much like a normal Unit Frame Addon
Bag Addons
Bag addons is addons which changes the look of your bank tabs/nags and your regular bags. Often a search feature is included too.
Bag addons can make it a ton easier to find items in your bags, and that is why you should install one.
ArkInventory
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ArkInventory is a bag addon which converts your bags into one bag with many sorting options.
You can sort your items in groups like food, potions, equipment and mats while its still in one frame, with some borders to separate them.
ArkInventory is absolutely a great bag addon, but, its not the best coded addon out there, which means it can cause a big drop in FPS*.
*= See nUI at the Addon Compilation Section further down for explanation.
Bagnon
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Another great bag addon is Bagnon. Its much similar to ArkInventory, while its alow more FPS friendly. Bagnon also have pre assigned border colors for your items and also a screen for your bank! Thats really nice instead of having seven extra bank bags open.
The only feature i missed in this addon is ArkInventorys sorting feature, but guess you cant have it all 
BankItems
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BankItems is an addon made purely for bank bag management. It sorts your bag bags right next to your main bank tab.
BankItems also provides a search feature for both your normal and your guild bank.
Questing Addons
In this section we find addons which makes questing alot easier. Also the well known Tour Guide, which i assume you know already, is also mentioned here.
Questhelper
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Of course its here. Probably the most used quest addon out there. Questhelper is an addon which creates different steps on your world map, you can follow to complete quest objectives, and when you join a group your party members quests are shown too. Questhelper can be great in many situations, but sadly there is also many missing objectives, so you often find yourself at strange places.
Carbonite Quest
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Another addon with many users! Carbonite quest is in many ways much like Questhelper, but Carbonite Quest also has its own map. The included map can easily be zoomed in and out to see more objectives, by using your scrolling wheel.
Like Questhelper, Carbonite Quest includes a party quest feature.
Tour Guide
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Tour Guide is actually a leveling guide in addon format, and there is right now being writed our own wow-pro guides to fit in. Many of the guides are already included and has given amazing leveling speed results
Tour Guide together with TomTom and Lightheaded creates an in-game step by step guide which leads you through different zones.
Absolutely worth a try.
Monkey Quest
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Monkey Quest is basically a Quest Log addon. It provides a new and improved Quest Log with objectives shown without clicking quests.
It also shows recommended levels and zones where quests are completed.
Raiding Addons
Omen Threat Meter
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Omen Threat Meter is a threat handle addon, which makes it easy to understand as DPS when to hold back if you are ''maxing it all out''. Tanks can also see if a single member pulls aggro over and over again, which can be useful to stop wiping in raids and parties.
Deadly Boss Mods
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Deadly Boss Mod provides information and cast bars for every boss encounter in the game.
Its very handy to be able to see when Kel'Thuzad casts his next Frost Blast, and when Sapphiron is going to Air Phase.
A must have addon for everyone.
Bigwigs Bossmods
[url=]Wow.Curse Download[/url]
An addon similar to Deadly Boss Mods providing almost the same features.
The only real difference is that Bigwigs Bossmods also tracks distance between people, again a useful feature against Kel'Thuzad
Guild Addons
Group Calendar
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Group Calendar is an addon for guilds who are raiding/instancing. Group Calendar is indeed a nice addon, but most guilds uses a calendar on their website, or the ingame calendar.
Group Calendar also requires all players to have it installed, which isnt really good.
Its a nice addon, but not really recommended for any other than a newly formed guild.
Raid Roll
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Raid Roll is an addon for guilds who are not using the DKP* system. It can announce a new roll, which will automatic close and sort the rollers after a certain amount of time.
A very nice addon that prevent cheaters (also great for PUG's*2).
*= DKP (Dragon Kill Points, is a loot destribution system where players can ''buy'' raid drosp for x amount of DKP points. DKP points are obtained by raiding and downing different bosses.
*2= PUG's (pick up groups) is simply a name for a group in which many people who dont know each other will go raiding/instancing.
Guild Craft
Sorry for bad quality
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Guild Craft is a simple addon which provides the feature to see what items people in your guild can craft.
The only bad thing is, its another addon which needs everyone to have it installed.
Miscellaneous (addons that didnt fit in anywhere else)
Titan Panel
If i had included the Screenshot in here it would have blown the screen, also note that Titan Panel is the bar at the top of the screen.
Wow.Curse Download[/url
Titan Panel is an addon which creates one or two bars at the top/bottom, where different tools can be displayed. An example is the experience tool. It can display your exp per hour/level rate and much more.
Fu_Bar
[url=http://www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/09/4.jpg]Click here for picture
Abolutely NO clue why some of the tags are shown. I cant find any tags missing.
Can someone check it? Its shown like this without spaces
[ url=http://www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/09/4.jpg]Click here for picture[/url ]
If i had included the Screenshot in here it would blow the screen. Fu_Bar is the small bar with icons at the bottom!
Wow.Curse Download
[b]Fu_Bar is an addon similar to Titan Panel which creates bars in the top and bottom of the screen.
I found it easier to get plugins for Fu_Bar over Titan Panel, and thats why i recommend this one.
Some people may like Titan Panel more, but this one is really worth a try.
kgPanels
Again click here for picture An example of how you can make kgPanels look like
KgPanels is an addon that can change the look of your UI completely.
With this addon you can create different panels, in which you can place different addons.
Some websites also provides skin downloads you can put in the background of your panels, or you can make your own. It is also possible to do it without a background texture.
It can be very, very hard to get [b]kgPanels working if you havent tried it before.
I suggest you to check out This tutorial which gave me all the information I needed.[/b]
Addon Compilations
Spartan UI (fan updated)
Click for picture
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Spartan UI is what we call a Graphical Addon Compilation. Its made in a way so that everything fits perfect to eachother.
Spartan UI has unitframes for both 5 man and 10 man groups which fits in perfect, but for 25man you need to use the default raid frames.
Youre better off exploring the rest of this addon yourself, rather than letting me explain all the thousands of options in it here.
nUI
Click here for picture with explanation of all features
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nUI is a compilation with a build in HUD*, unit frames, mini map, bars and more.
check the picture for explanation of all stuff in it
nUI is easy to install, and with all these features its really good.
Beware that it can cause a drop in FPS*2!
*= HUD (Heads Up Display) is some sort of simple ''unit frames'' displayed right around your character. Both health and mana/rage/energy/runic power is showed.
*2= FPS (Frames Per Second) counts how many Frames you can load per second. FPS can cause lagging even if your latency is below 50.
Roth UI
Click here for picture
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Roth UI is another Graphical Addon Compilation. This is the only compilation of those listed i haven tried so i cant tell you much.
It was the most downloaded on Wowinterface and that's why its here.
Go explore all the features of this cool compilation!
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Quote:If i had included the
Looks like you missed a close bracket on the Titan Panel wow.curse download. Easy fix. The error is bold and underlined on the second row for easy location.
Honored Member
Nice guide
Nice, guide! I found a couple typos, and I also wanted to throw out a couple of suggestions.
Typos
- Under Why do we want to change the UI? - confetable with it if y ou are leveling. Should be "comfortable" and "you"?
- Under "Miscellaneous" it looks like you're missing the closing bracket for the /url for Titan Panel. That's causing the issue with FuBar linking to Titan Panel.
- Also, it seems the closing tag for the FuBar pic is missing entirely.
- In the same section, it looks like you've got an open bold tag for kgPanel.
I'll PM you with the code I get when I "View Source" this page. When I try and link it in here it makes things go too wide. I hope it helps.Otherwise, a lot of great info! Now, for my suggestions
- Under "Buff Management", Natur's Enemy Cast Bar. Looks a lot like Buffbars, but it tracks the duration and cooldowns of spells you've cast, as well as those cast by people in your party or the mobs you are fighting. Take some configuring to make it friendly, but overall pretty nice. It also has a minor added feature of popping up a warning whenever the activities of a hostile rogue are detected nearby
- Under combat, "Control Freak". This puts a single button that you can put anywhere on your screen that will cast your CC spell at a specified target withouth having to select it. It also shows how long is left, and warns when it breaks and lets you know if the target is taking damage. Great for mages, but pretty much anyone with CC abilities could make use of it.
- Norganna's entire suite of addons. This includes Auctioneer, Gatherer, Enchantrix, and some others. Most people I know use this one.
- Under Guides, link to Jame's
. Best one I know of
I hope that helps. Shoot me a message if you want screenshots of any of them.DBM Range Checker
Can be easily enabled by typing /range.
The manual toggle is in the menu - /dbm menu
Looks like a real nice
Looks like a real nice guide, ran out of time to read through it all but it's sparked me off wanting to redo my UI again!
One little correction is in the Sexymap section
Sexymap is a minimap addon providing a lot features:
* Move your minimap wherever you want
* Change the zone text for each zone
* If you have some sort of gathering addon, you can view the nodes on the map
* Very easy to customize with different build in skins
The last line should say built and not build.
Thanks for the guide, ill be sure to use it when re doing mine!
Anti...
Trusted Member
Correction
Thanks for that little ccorrection! My english isnt that good yet, but still trying to improve it.
Member
Great!
Excellent guide, I really found it helpful (and this is from someone who spends half his time toying around and testing different mods). As someone who has written guild guides to UI modification you've done a great job covering the basic forms of mods and providing excellent examples.
A couple suggestions, though:
First, you may want to take a look at Baggins for your bag mods. I've switched around with and toyed with all the mods you've listed before and Baggins stands out from the rest in its fusion of simplicity and configurability.
Second, when you speak about BigWigs and DeadlyBossMods you mention that DBM does not have the range finder feature that BigWigs does. It actually does have it, but it is not a default setting within the mod. It's been a while since I last used it, but it should be able to be turned on somewhere within its interface.
Last, you may want to cover some of the nicer additions to titan bar and FuBar. There are a lot of people who don't understand how useful those mods can be when applied appropriately.
Trusted Member
DBM range feaure?
Thanks for the feedback!
I might look closer at the configure menu for DBM...
Also youre right about Titan and Fu_Bar. Its really easy to get lost in the jungle of additions.
Ill check baggins too.
Member
Just realized
It could be that the feature was not added to the Kel'thuzad portion of DBM yet. I know DBM has the feature. They've used it in the mods before during Burning Crusade.
Honored Member
Indeed, especially at Gruul
Indeed, especially at Gruul
Revered Member
Great guide Dunno if
Great guide
Dunno if you're planning a section for class addons, but that'd be really good too, I think.
If you don't have a shammy, I'd be happy to recommend a few things
Also, yeah, a Table of Contents would be really useful, and make the guide much more useable, so good luck witt that =D]
Great work
Trusted Member
Class Section
A Class Section has also been in my head, but mainly i only use druid and deatk knight addons, so a little help from your side could be great
Honored Member
Faction Rep
Another mod I like is Factionizer (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/factionizer.aspx). Not sure where to put this in your guide, but I thought I'd point it out also.
James
Administrator
That's a very good guide
That's a very good guide Hurjo. Thumbs up!
Revered Member
Fantastic guide, brilliant
Fantastic guide, brilliant idea.
Couple of quick things; the Fubar link takes you to Titan Panel instead. (link in the guide is http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/titan-panel.aspx)
Also there are just a couple of points where you haven't quite got the code correct (things like missing out the end ] )
Fantastic first guide, keep it up
Cheers
Trusted Member
Missing tags
Thanks for the link correction!
Im known with the missing tags.
Somewhere it doesnt look like there is any mistakes, but ill read closer when i have the time.
Also a Table of Content is quite in need for this guide, so thats coming too
Revered Member
Nice one Cheers
Nice one
Cheers
Honored Member
Bags
I started with BankItems and switched to ArkInventory. What I like about them (having 10 characters) is the ability to mouse over an item, or click on an item in chat and the tooltip tells me how many total I have and which characters have them. It's MUCH easier than logging in and out of each character trying to find who has a needed item to craft something. Both also have the ability to see what gear each of your characters are wearing also. Not sure if Bagnon has that functionality or not.
Another Quest addon that I use is UberQuest (http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8471-UberQuestRebornAgain2.4FanUpdate.html). It says it's for 2.4, but it's actually 3.0.4 and will work in 3.0.8. I'm a little fearful of what will happen to a lot of mods when 3.1 drops. I also had tomQuest2 (http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info12619-tomQuest2.html) for a while (an LDB mod) but I couldn't get it to auto track quests the way that UberQuest does. Both of these have LightHeaded support. In conjunction with TomTom, this is sweet.
Gatherer is another mod that I really like. It does the same as the part of Cartographer that tracks herbs and ores (but doesn't track motes extracted with a Zapthrottle...At least not yet). What I like about it is if anyone in your guild finds an herb or ore and you're on, you find it too.
Great guide that showed me a couple of other mods that I didn't know about.
Thanks!!!
James
Trusted Member
Addons
Havent heard of your listed Quest addons but ill check em out.
About gatherer its indeed a really good addon. Im gonna include a profession section very very soon.
Honored Member
Screenshots
If you need screenshots of any mods I suggest, send me a PM and I'll help you out.
James
Honored Member
Pictures
If you don't want to list the pictures in your guide just go to your file attachments and uncheck the list box.
Trusted Member
Pictures
Thanks.
Again its my first guide and all tips and tricks are welcome.
Also, do you think the pictures is too big?
Some of them had smaller/bigger size and i used photoshop to resize. That means that some pictures are bad quality.
Honored Member
No personally
No personally i think pictures are perfect because if they were smaller then it would be harder to see everything in them.