f13.net forums - Stupid UI questions.

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July 21, 2025, 03:26:15 PM

we're back, baby

So I just hit 40th, picked up my Mule o' Fire and am trying to brace myself for the march to 60. I decided now might be a good time to review my UI choices.

At the moment I'm running Cosmos/Khaos with Shardtracker, AllInOneInv, popbar, sidebar, the DPS meter and a few other details. As a 'lock all I think I really need is the extra buttons of popbar and sidebar and the utility of the Shardtracker, but is there anything else I should try to grab?

I keep hearing good things from other Warlocks about Necrosis, but I'm still not quite sure what it is / does. Is it a particular addon, or a umbrella program like Cosmos? Does it do something that I don't already have covered? As I look around it seems like no one really uses Cosmos anymore, so I have this sense that I'm slipping behind the times, so to speak...

I ditched Cosmos because it's too bloated, and their chat mods are buggy and annoying.

If all you really need from Cosmos are the extra bars, ditch it. They integrated sidebars and a second row of hotbars into the client a long time ago.

I use CTMod and BibMod as a base, and add in the few extras I need (Scrolling Combat Text, PvPLog, Alt-SelfCast, Cooldown Count). If I had to strip down to a barebones setup, I'd just pick BibMod. I love their customizeable, moveable toolbars. All 10 of them. CTMod I mostly use for the options on how to display character and group health/mana, buffs, things like that. And it has built in resource tracking for my herbs and mining.

I use CTMod (including CTRaid Assist), Monkey Mods, Decursive*, and Atlas (instance maps). I once ran Cosmos but agree it's too bloated. And no, I couldn't care any less if it's linkable to IGE.

* Even though CTRaid Assist includes a Decursing feature, Decursive lets me assign decurse targets by name. Some raid strategies benefit from that.

I use about 15 or so addons, every one hand picked. The only "package" mod I use is the Nurfed mod, and i pretty much only use it for its Party / Player frame replacement.

If you are looking for a good toolbars mod, there are really only a few ways to go:
- Nearly every mod has the generic "add a few bars to the side, bottom, wherever" feature.
- After that, I would look at Bib Mod. Bib is a "clean" interface toolbar mod that gives you 10 toolbars to place anywhere you want on screen, and allows you to arrange each toolbar into any shape of X by X grid you fancy. I would have to agree with Jobu here, if a flexable toolbar mod with low learning curve is your thing, this mod is the way to go.
- Lastly, if you want the ULTIMATE toolbar, grab Flexbar. I havent tried it, but it is the be-all and end all of toolbar mods. Supposedly has a fairly decent learning curve regarding what you can do with it when you dig into the fancier bits, but it can do practically anything to a button or toolbar.

Even if you dont use toolbars, i would reccomend grabbing Cooldown Count. Nice litle mod that displays your ability cooldowns in numeric format ontop of their respecitve buttons.

Other stuff I would reccomend:
Atlas
Castoptions (really good self cast/smart level select/special feature casting mod)
Scrolling Combat Text
Lootlink

As for necrosis, I seem to recall that it was a warlock "umbrella" mod that rolled the features of Shardtracker and one or two other good warlock mods into one slick interface. Not nearly as bloated as cosmos, just a collection of a few good warlock mods.

Autobuff is nice for classes with those annoying 5 min buffs.

BankItems is nice for viewing your bank contents while not at the bank. I think I've used this once ever so probably won't install it after the next patch.

EquipCompare is a nice tooltip addon that adds an additional tooltip window comparing whatever item you rollover with your currently equipped item.

MonkeyQuest is an improved quest window.

CTAMod is a hodgepodge of minor UI enhancements - neat little things like regen rates, draggable windows, self cast, alerts, buff displays, party display.

FishingBuddy is a nice add-on which tracks what fish you've caught in each location and allows auto casting (but not catching) and gear switching.

TitanBar used to be good but I can't seem to get it to work in single bar format anymore.

Quote

Lastly, if you want the ULTIMATE toolbar, grab Flexbar

I've used this for a bit. It is extremely powerful. In additional to getting 120 buttons you can control all individually in terms of content and placement, you could make events for any number of things. Below 20% health? Expand the size of the button with your Major Health Pot in it. Below 20% and the Pot timer is still going, expand the Superior Health/Healthstone? Timers up? Whipper Root. Is the target aggressive? Hide buttons 12-24 (friendly buffs) and Show buttons 25-32 (unfriendly ones).

Just as a quick example, here's the sets I made for "In Peace Time" and "Combat": Peace and Not

Ultimately, stopped using it for a simple reason: I didn't want to become reliant on it. The thing is so powerful you could program it to make decisions for you (near-macroable combat). This feels like an out-of-touch experience to me. Fine for farming occasionally, but if ya like to switch things up between that, PvP, Raiding, and so on, no amount of events can cover it all. And since I never felt the need to gunk up my interface with 100 randomly spaced button (heck, I even tried to prettify my SB interface), Flexbar had way too much stuff I didn't use to keep using it.

Besides, I leave games when I feel the need to macro combat :)

EngInventory - easily my favorite container manager. Instead of multiple bags I get one window, items are organized by their type with lots of options to override as you see fit. On the downside my bags are unusable when I logon from a machine without the plug-in... ;)

how exactly can a plugin (which just arranges how your data is displayed) render your bags unuseable on another machine due to its lack?

I can see your bags being disorginized or something, but unuseable?

I still use cosmos and some other mods aswell for comfort. Some may think it bloated, personally I like it.

Also, since I speak daily to the man behind alot of the cosmos mods and espesially AllInOneInv.. Change to Onebag now, his suggestion, not mine.

I use Cosmos with about 3/4ths of the stuff disabled, along with the Gatherer and Auctioneer.

cosmos was the first suite of plugins that i ever used. then, once i got the hang of what i liked/didnt like, I opened my Addins directory and deleted everything i didnt want.

After that, i progressed bit by bit, adding and removing various plugins, swapping some out for others with similar functions, till i have what i have now: a hand picked collection of mods that i am content with.

Instead of Auctioneer, I use Wowecon and I highly recommend it.. Is there a reason I'm missing that everyone selects auctioneer over wowecon?

Quote from: cevik on November 23, 2005, 07:00:40 AM

Instead of Auctioneer, I use Wowecon and I highly recommend it.. Is there a reason I'm missing that everyone selects auctioneer over wowecon?

Um.. never heard of one, but have the other? What's WoWecon do above and beyond Auctioneer?

As a side commentary about the effects of either mod, the rampant spread of Auctioneer has made it a LOT tougher to play the AH game. I made 400 gold in abuot 2 weeks of once-a-day checking back in August, searching only for items underpried by 1-2g min. Now I'm having a hard time finding items underpriced by even 75s.. below that it's not worth the buying/ relist fee and time.

Quote from: Merusk on November 23, 2005, 07:08:56 AM

Um.. never heard of one, but have the other? What's WoWecon do above and beyond Auctioneer?

Here is a link http://www.wowecon.com/. The information that Wowecon collects is automatic (from your in game mails from the AH, and from your disenchants), and it shared amongst all wowecon users, so no scanning (you just have to spend about 10 seconds downloading the price file every day with the supplied utility), and you get a vendor value, an auction value, and a disenchant value for every item. It lets me quickly decide if I want to de an item and sell the mats, or if I want to put the item in the AH.

Dang, sounds good, I'll check it out. Thanks for the link.

Almost the same features as Auctioneer, but without the Scanning. Nice. Looks like it dosn't have the /broker and /bidbroker or /compete functions, which is probably why so many favor Auctioneer. These do the following: /broker tells you which auctions are X silver below the market price; /bidbroker tells you which bids at short/ to medium are x below market price; /compete tells you which auctions currently up are x below the prices you have for your own auctions currently up.

My only problems are the last version listed on that site was from back in September. Have they just not needed to update since then, or is this an unsupported mod? Also it looks like it uses an executable to run/ download the current prices, I'm wary of even big-name addons that use Exe files.

You pretty much listed the reasons I can come up with for people to favor Auctioneer. The same group did an EQ econ that was mildly famous, so I'm not terribly worried about the executable, but at the same time I'm always nervous about .exe's that I run.. All in all my account hasn't been stolen yet, and I've made lots of money with the utility. I tend to use both, but I find wowecon much more convenient, and since the sample size of gathered prices is so much larger, it seems like it would be more accurate.

Here's what I use that I remember -- I'm too lazy to throw the http in there so just do a google search. Yes, I'm super UI man. I used to use cosmos, but dropped it like a hot potato when I saw nurfed. I want as little clutter on my screen as possible and nurfed gives it to me. I'll post a current screenshot when I get home. I tried to be minimalist but things keep cropping up that are useful!

NerfedUI -- I love this thing. It changes the frame graphics and makes everything movable. I use it for it's minimalist look for your character, target, and party frames. It adds autobar (which I turn off) and additional sidebars which you can move around and make horizontal and vertical. Also has in-icon cooldown counters for abilities, which I love. It also comes with scrolling combat text (see below) that I update with a current version, and with some tooltip thing which I use anchored on my mouse (when cursor moves over, information pops up as if you had clicked on it). Also adds gatherer and some other things which I turn off. It also adds Titan panel which I'll list below. Adds autorepair, which repairs current equipped *AND* your inventory gear automatically when you talk to a repair-able vendor.

Scrolling Combat Text -- The numbers that appear over your head when you take damage now appear over monsters head when you do damage to them. Also can be modified to add things like the name of the character who threw the healing spell on you next to the number (which is nice in raids to see which healers are slacking and which aren't) and things like combo point generation. This mod rocks.

Titan Panel -- A fully configurable status bar on the top of the screen. you can have it list things like a clock, my current position, current cash, estimated time to level, performance metrics (memory usage, latency, frame rate etc), bag space, and a really cool titan class addon which lists my current number of rogue reagents (flash powder, blinding powder). The class addon helps so I never run out of reagents in the middle of a raid, I always know if I have to stock up.

Autobuff (emerald) -- Easily one of my favorites as well. Easy to use interface basically automatically casts buffs and tracking on you when they run out or you die. Think mark of the wild, thorns, omen of clarity, arcane intelect, detect traps, ice armor, find minerals, find herbs, etc. I don't know how I live without it, I don't know how much money I used to lose simply becuase I'd die and forget to re-enable my detect herbs and minerals.

QuickMountEquip -- Becuase I'm a power gamer, when I get on my epic mount, I want to go as fast as humanly possible. This thing throws on my carrot on a stick, riding speed enchant gloves, and boots with mithril spurs, and then swaps my normal gear back out again when I dismount or am forcibly dismounted. It essentially gets me 115% speed increase instead of 100%.

ChatScroll -- Allows you to scroll back your chat windows with mousewheel.

DamageMeters -- For the power gamer in me. This has a configurable top 10 window of either healing, damage dealt, damage taken, healing done, healing taken, etc. You can also have it configured to join a channel and sync with other interested members (since you only see damage in a 20 yard radius around you, without the sync you have no idea how well the back row is doing). Almost a must for rogue trash-talking vs the other classes, especially hunters.

Wardrobe -- Another one I absoloutely love. I love it so much that I use it even though it requires several different addon libraries for cosmos. It throws a little icon uo on your map, when you hover over it, and it lists different outfits you've set up. Click on one, and it swaps all your gear. I have one for DPS, one for "moderate FR" (ragnaros, firemaw, etc.) and one "Full FR" with the volcanic set for Vael. You simply equip your gear, save it to an outfit, and never worry about fumbling in your bags to equip gear ever again. When I get high enough, I plan on using it for my pvp druid for Feral/Caster gear sets. There is a similar one called Itemrack, but I prefer the one click menu change.

BGInvite -- A handy utility for pickup battlegrounds. I can invite everyone in the zone with one click into my raid, no more fumbling around with invites. I got it last week and it's now on my must-have list.

Don'tRemeberNameSorry -- It's just a target-of-target mod, just a little one-line bubble with the name of the person who the moster I'm targeting is targeting. I watch for **YOU** in it so I know when I'm going to get a beating for pulling aggro.

CT_RaidAssist -- If you don't know this mod or what it does, and you've been to MC, quit WoW now.

WoWreader -- To update my Allakhazam profile http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?547405

Damage meters are, IMO, one of the biggest problems with late-game WoW. Even if pickup groups weren't problematic before, they turn some people into frothing jackasses with no concern for aggro management or keeping the group alive over their own e-peen. I've seen more people pull bullshit because they were one or two slots behind someone else, or "OMG a so-and-so beat me.. I need to step it up." Of course they beat you, dumbass, they've also had to be rezzed four times. My favorite was a warlock who bitched me out for the rest of the raid, beacause I was more concerned about healing the second tank than their Hellfiring, OMGI"MBEHINDTHEMAGEINDAMAGE ass.

If I ever wind-up leading a raid, it's my full intent to ban that shit and boot anyone who asks about or spams the raid/say/guild channel with it.

Quote from: SurfD on November 21, 2005, 03:52:40 PM

I can see your bags being disorginized or something, but unuseable?

Hyperbole, hence the ellipsis and winky face... ;) Right, they are just disorganized.

Quote from: Merusk

Damage meters are, IMO, one of the biggest problems with late-game WoW.

I agree. It compels people to act in ways not conducive to the benefit of the Raid, like folks not wanting to decurse lest they lose their third place spot.

There's already enough ways to peen wave. However, Damage Meter is mildly useful for assessing DPS and crit chances in controlled environments.

And I've got to try wowecon. Thanks for posting it cevik! All playing of the market I do is manual, and while I'm doing alright, I'd rather be doing better.

actually, while damage meter DOES promote assmunchery in small groups, it is a very valueable tool in some raid encounters. Being able to tell if your mages / warlocks are out damageing the tanks on Broodlord or Firemaw, and therefore about to pull aggro and whipe the raid, can be an invalueable tool for staying alive.

If you are a fan of Wardrobe, I might suggest you check out a plugin called ItemRack. same gear sets customization as Wardrobe, plus, it allows you to add a hotbar to your window to fast swap any piece of gear in a slot (example head/ring/trinket) with any other piece of gear for the same slot in your inventory.

Quote from: SurfD on November 23, 2005, 03:34:51 PM

If you are a fan of Wardrobe, I might suggest you check out a plugin called ItemRack. same gear sets customization as Wardrobe, plus, it allows you to add a hotbar to your window to fast swap any piece of gear in a slot (example head/ring/trinket) with any other piece of gear for the same slot in your inventory.

Last sentence in there... I generally like the 'set' instead of specific items; I don't have a lot of pvp trinkets and generally just swap out for FR gear. If there was a dropdown menu, I'd use it. From what I've seen, the only thing you can do is bind it to a specific key.

Were you talking about Item Rack?

You can add your "sets" to the Item Rack context bar by Alt+Left Clicking on your character paperdoll in the Character info screen (default button C)

I currently have my hotbar set to show Trinkets, Rings, Weapons (handy for switching in my Finkles Skinner), and wands.

http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=2045 for the plugin and the instruction page.

All in all, i find it to be a decently superior plugin to Wardrobe. All the same functionality, with a few added bonuses.

Quote from: cevik on November 23, 2005, 07:19:21 AM

Quote from: Merusk on November 23, 2005, 07:08:56 AM

Um.. never heard of one, but have the other? What's WoWecon do above and beyond Auctioneer?

Thanks Cevik for the wowecon tip — DL'ed on my home machines, quick setup, works great…

Quote from: SurfD

Being able to tell if your mages / warlocks are out damageing the tanks on Broodlord or Firemaw, and therefore about to pull aggro and whipe the raid, can be an invalueable tool for staying alive.

This is a good point. I'm a bit spoiled by our setup, since everyone knows what they're about and when to back off (save when some folks get upgrades and start breaking up AOE spots like Core Hounds). But that's more of an intuition thing than people using DamageMeters. And I'm not the world's authority on raiding anyway, only really living in MC (been to ZG a few times).