My Raid UI, Showing Addons 2.0

As promised, here is what my UI with addons looks like while I raid.

Here you can see that I have Grid arranged horizontally and by group. This helps me fit the addon in the little corner of my screen. I use Grid to heal which means I spend a lot of time looking at that corner. I like to make sure it is not cluttered and that everything is crisp. You can also see Mik’s Scrolling Combat Text. Mik’s Scrolling Combat Text is a completely cosmetic mod for me. Not really a necessity but something I like. It shows me how much I am healing (on the right side) and how much damage I am taking or what I am being healed for (on the left side). The top tells me abilities I have gained (ie auras, buffs) and mana gained during combat. The bottom reports when my abilities are off cooldown. One addon that you cannot see here is Quartz. Quartz is a customizable casting bar. It will report any lag that you are having and shows you casting time clearly. I do not usually see it very often since most of my spells are instant.

In this next picture you will see a bit more of Pitbull, Deadly Boss Mods, and Mik’s Scrolling Combat Text. Pitbull here is when I have a target and it also shows the target’s target. Now I rarely have anyone targeted since I use mouseover macros to heal, but I wanted to show what my targeting looked like. I also placed it on the left side right above grid because during most of the time I am healing, I am just focused on grid and putting my target there is pretty logical for me. Deadly Boss Mods is a must for any raider. This mod tells you bosses abilities on timers. You can choose where the bars are and how you want information to be displayed.

 

Happy Healing!

New Druid Healing…First Thoughts.

First a quick apology for not being very “posty” these past few days. My husband and I are planning an unexpected move so my brain has been mush…wait…it may be mush because of the pregnancy, but I really cannot tell anymore! 🙂

I have done two 10 man runs in ICC over the past week and have had some time to sit and think over what I like and what I am not liking at the moment with the state of Resto Druids and some other WoW features.

Spells:

Mana – After the patch, my mana pool went to around 42K, which was way higher than before. I know costs can seem a bit skewed at the moment so I think the high mana pool is really not letting me see any of the mana issues that I will be having when I reach 85. I think this is a good and bad thing. Before the patch, I was already having little to no mana issues so I am used to cruising though fights. Not much has changed with the patch with that aspect. I am thinking there might be a harsh reality check when we hit 85 and are in raids.

Tree Form – I cannot count on both hands how many times I hit the number 5 on my number pad and went into Tree Form accidentally during these raids. It was happening to the other Resto Druid in the group too. This is something that is so automatic for me. For example, after we killed Rotface, I was just standing around when I saw a trap went off, I shifted to cat, dashed to the scene and….went Tree Form. Wasted that cooldown. In general, I already posted how I am unhappy with the cooldown, and I can say that playing with it has not made me happier. Most fights I would not even enter Tree Form and I feel awkward and clunky in caster form (weird seeing that I used to be a tree huh?).

Regrowth – I do enjoy the instant cast Regrowths in Tree Form, something that I will probably hate at 85 with the mana cost associated with it, I am not a fan of the 6 second HoT tick. I feel with the mana cost and the limitation on Lifebloom on only one target, then the tick should be for at least 10 seconds or more. This is something that will call for  a major adjustment and mostly will be used as a “Flash Heal” that will help for a few seconds later. In fact, I have currently taken this spell our of my rotation for now, and only using it when the “Oh crap” situations arise.

Lifebloom – I am someone who used Lifebloom ALL THE TIME back when it first came out and was way too overpowered. I loved rolling LB, especially on the tanks, and now I feel only being able to cast it on one target unless in Tree Form is very limiting. And I cannot even count how many times I forgot and started stacking it on the second tank therefore not even healing the main tank at all. At this moment, I feel the healing is there, but not quite. There are times when large spikes of damage are on the tank and my HoTs are seemingly doing nothing. The only way to counter act would be to let the LB bloom, which has always been counterproductive in the past (mostly due to mana cost).

Swiftmend – This has always been a spell that I used as my “oh crap” button. I would save it for just the right moment and use it on the dps that accidentally pulled aggro. Now, it is more advantageous to use it whenever it is off cooldown on the tank to help with healing (or where ever there are group members clumping up). The other druid in the raid was WAY better at remembering to do this than I was. This is another aspect that will take much practice to perfect.

Effloresence – Speaking of Swiftmend, its counterpart Effloresence is cool, but like I said I forgot to Swiftmend all the time so there was very little healing done for with it. I will need to practice this rotation better.

Rejuvenation – Currently there is no real change to this spell for me. I was not having any mana issues so I could cast this freely. I know at 85 there will be some major differences because of the mana cost but for now I feel ok casting this on the raid and tanks for the healing it does. Plus it is always nice to make sure I have a HoT on someone so they can be Swiftmended as needed.

Nourish – Boy to I miss the fast casting time of Nourish. I really feel I am lagging when I cast this spell, although there was no lag at all. This was one of my favorite spells to cast on Tanks and raid members that needed a big heal before they would die. I found myself casting this in the same situation and they would either get healed by someone else or…they would die because of my slowness. I really am not a fan of using this spell now, I know it will be better when I am just tank healing, but for now I am really not in a situation where I am solely doing that job. I will need to practice on timing and try to use this spell, especially with the Mastery help you will get when it is used on someone with a HoT on.

Healing Touch – This is a spell that I will need to force myself to remember to use. Before, unless I was using it with Nature’s Swiftness, I never would use Healing Touch. Again, one of the many in my “oh crap” arsenal. I did use this spell when doing Dreamwalker, I actually got to go in the portals! I was having some great crits and generally high hits with it. With the same cast time of Nourish, in fights like Dreamwalker it was awesome. But, with the very high mana cost, I will need to closely pick and choose when I use it.

Wild Growth –  I have always loved Wild Growth, and since not much has changed for me yet (ie no big mana effect) I am still casting this spell with glee. I am not too worried about the longer cooldown. I remember when this was an instant cast and we druids were just insane, so I have been through cooldown changes before. I think a longer cooldown is good here. With the increased mana cost, we need to have the reigns pulled back a little bit so we are not draining ourselves dry.

Tranquility – I am hoping there are more good fights to use this spell in. So far I using it very sparingly, but it would be cool to see a fight where it is a needed spell to blow.

Talents:

Swift Rejuv – Right now I do not think this talent is working. I read you needed to have 2 points in it for it even to work at all. I placed two in it but have not seen the benefit yet. Hard to tell if there actually is a decrease in the global cooldown or not.

Addons:

While raiding, I was having the addon day from hell, mostly with Grid since I could not seem to get it to work right for me. As I have stated in the past, I use mouseover macros and Grid combo to heal with. Well, my old version of Grid would show me icons of the spells on the player they were on. For example, with Lifebloom I would see the icon and a little 3 when I hit 3 stacks. Without that addon, I was flying blind. I know, I should not need a crutch to heal, but they are always helpful. I ended up keeping the tank targeted at all times and counting them manually on him with Pitbull. Way more annoying. Plus I could not see all the correct debuffs with Grid either.

I hear Grid is being fixed, but if you have any idea as to how to get my icons back, please let me know!

I tried the new raid frames that Blizzard provided since I could not get Grid to work before my first raid. I was impressed with the amount of info you could see, but the inability to completely resize was annoying. They would only go to a certain size and they were way to big for my area I wanted them in. My OCD was making me insane with them looking too big for their spot! Plus the ugly bar/arrow thingy on the side of my screen was an eyesore.

I have yet to try out all of the new Blizzard features, I really have not had the time, but I would like to soon.

Gylphs: 

I am really happy with the new glyph system allowing you to only buy them once. I feel bad for inscriptionest though. Seems their money maker is gone. But really, were they rolling in the dough before? I never had one so I am not sure what changes they are making for them. But I will say, not having to glyph and reglyph is great!

Conclusion:

All in all, I am still on the fence about Resto healing. There are aspects I am really enjoying and there are some I still feel need some work. Reading other blogs and posts has got me thinking of trying new healing ways out and working on my rotation better. I will see what I think after a few more raids!

What do you think? Are you completely happy with your Druid?

Blog Azeroth: What My UI Needs!

Elkagorasa asked over at Blog Azeroth what we would change with our Cataclysm UI. Like Elkagorasa, I too run a ton of add ons and have written about them here in the past. Looking at these add ons, I see a few that I wish we could have integrated into the default UI.

See I like to customize and the default Blizzard UI, though getting better over the years, cannot fulfill my customizing addiction. I love being able to move, rotate and resize everything, but with add ons this can mean having many different add ons and hours of work! Below are 3 of my favorite add ons I feel Blizzard should integrate into their generic UI.

Grid – I know, I know I really need to try Vuhdo out, and I will soon I think. But I have had a love affair with Grid for years now. I love the fact that I can see a full raid in a tiny, compact box. Plus the ability to control what you see (ie – HoT timers, debuffs, aggro, or whatever your heart desires) is really great. I think if the default UI added in the ability to customize the raid frames and make them specific so that every character would be able to use them effectively, then Grid would no longer be needed (sad but true).

Bartender – I thinking being able to move your bars and buttons around is great! You can hide unneeded icons, you can make buttons different shapes, and make them as small as you want. I like the ability to not have my entire screen taken up by buttons and bars and Bartender lets me do this. If the default UI let the bars be completely customizable then poor Bartender might be left in the dust.

Pitbull – Does anyone else hate that on the default UI your character portrait/health/mana bars and the party frames are the same no matter what? I found it boring and it took up way more room than it should have. Plus having target’s target of target got to be way too much that I shut it off completely!  With Pitbull, I have spent a ton of time getting my frames the exact way that I want them. I think this would be another great feature for our default UI !

I know these are tall orders and there are restrictions as to what they can and will do with their time, but I think to have a fulling customizable default UI, would take the game to a great new level!

Rapid Share UI Configuration!

Here is a link to my Rapid Share download for my WTF Configuration file. I have received a few emails lately about how to get my curse UI pack to look like my UI I posted a while ago.  Let me know if you need more to get everything to work properly.

http://rapidshare.com/files/411114636/Config.wtf.html

Enjoy! Hope this works! 🙂

Curse.com UI Pack

My UI has been approved on a pack on curse.com!It is called Sarindre’s Raid Healing UI!

Link: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/packs/5760/default.aspx

I will be happy to answer any questions about the addons and how to set them up!

Enjoy!

My Raid UI, showing addons.

As promised, here is what my UI with addons looks like while I raid.

Here you can see that I have Grid arranged horizontally and Smart Debuff arranged Vertically. This helps me fit both addons in the little corner of my screen:

In the next two pictures, you can see Quartz, Tiptac (which should be hidden during combat! Opps!), Deadly Boss Mods, and Mik’s Scrolling Combat Text.

• Quartz is a customizable casting bar. It will report any lag that you are having (boo I have .9 seconds there!) and shows you casting time clearly.
• TipTac will show you everything about a target when you put the mouse over it. You can choose from many different things the addon can show you. Ranging from Gearscore to spec!
• Deadly Boss Mods is a must for any raider (unless you are running Big Wigs which is also a good one). This mod tells you bosses abilities on timers. You can choose where the bars are and how you want information to be displayed.
• Mik’s Scrolling Combat Text is a completely cosmetic mod for me. Not really a necessity but something I like. It shows me how much I am healing (on the right side) and how much damage I am taking or what I am being healed for (on the right side). The top tells me abilities I have gained (ie auras, buffs) and mana gained during combat. The bottom reports when my abilities are off cooldown.

In this last picture you will see a bit more of Pitbull, Omen, and Mik’s Scrolling Combat Text.

• Pitbull here is when I have a target and it also shows the target’s target. Now I rarely have anyone targeted since I use mouseover macros to heal, but I wanted to show what my targeting looked like. I also placed it on the left side right above grid because during most of the time I am healing, I am just focused on grid and putting my target there is pretty logical for me.
• Omen for me is not really useful. I am RARELY at a fear of pulling aggro. However, since I am a raid assistant to my group, it is nice to watch who has aggro so that I can warn them to slow down (or preemptively heal them =D )

I also am up for trying new addons and macros especially helpful healing ones. I am sure I will have more to report after I try a few new ones that I have heard about here.

Up next….Mouseover Macros! A Healers Best Friend.

Useful Healing Addons

Throughout my healing career, I have used many methods to help me heal more effectively. When I began the game I used the dreaded WoW UI and just clicked on a target and then casted the heal by pressing the number key I had it associated with.

When I became a little more WoW savvy, I would then use my F keys to choose the target and then hit the number button for the heal. This made my healing way faster than before, but was only useful for 5 mans. I never played with my mouse, only using it to loot. This method worked for a long while with me, what was until I wanted to raid.

Obviously you do not have 40 F keys available to use and I did not even like using all 10 F keys for 10 Mans. I had to find a new method. I did my research and found out all about WoW addons. I was enchanted! I loved the idea of changing my screen to fit my needs.

I started by using the WoW raid frames to change my healing. I would pull them out onto my screen, click on the names and then heal. This worked, depending on fight I would have some lag with clicking but I was getting really fast at this.

Then about 2 years ago I found Grid, and even since then we have been having a sultry love affair. I love this raid UI, which I also use during 5 mans as well. This let me keep my raid frames small and still be able to click on them and then hit my heal number. I would still use my F keys to heal the party I was in (usually the tank group because of old Tree of Life Buff). I was just as fast as when I used WoW frames, but my screen was much less cluttered. Plus Grid would show my who had aggro, health, mana, and any debuffs the party had. It was like everything all in one!

Today I use Grid with mouseover Macros to make my healing even more effective but that is a different discussion.

Another useful addon to heal heal is SmartDeBuff. Debuffing can be a major part of healing, especially in certain fights. This addon has all party/raid members grouped by class (or by group number) and when they get any debuff that you can remove, it will mark the box with a “L” or “R.”  This means you must left or right click on the persons box. This will remove the debuff from the target without making you choose them and lose your target! This makes debuffing insanely easy.

SmartBuff is another big helper. Most healing classes have a few buffs to give out and how annoying is it for people to ask for buffs all the time? Very! With this addon, all it takes is a middle mouse wheel roll and you will buff everyone who needs it! Takes the guesswork out of buffing.

These are just a few addons that I feel help me heal. But of course I run with many more!

Pitbull – I love this addon. It makes your player interface very customizable. I can change my health and mana bars, my character portrait, and target information. You can also do party windows ad raid windows here too.

Bartender4 – This addon makes your bars look neat and clean! Completely customizable. Don’t like squared buttons? Have circle ones! Want to hide some bars so that they only appear when you put your mouse over it? You can do it too! I actually love this feature, it makes my bars less cluttered.

Sexy Map – This lets you move your mini map and make it look however you want it. Pretty neat!

Recount – Tells you what you healed during a fight and raid. Also reports DPS, Damage taken, total damage done and many other things! Will compile reports till reset.

Prat – Colors your chat frames by Guild, Party, Raid, ect. Also colors names of players by class. A fun addon!

BTex – Lets you create a background for your screen. You can download or create your own!

Monkey Clock – Customizable clock that you can move.

Monkey Quest – Clean quest log you can move and keep track of quests with. Color codes by level difficulty.

Buffalo3 – Move your buffs and debuffs to maximize room.

Fubar Addons (the addons will NOT pop up during combat, you can turn that feature on and off):

• FriendFu – Lists all your friends. Can see them without opening the menu!

• GuildFu – Easy way to see guild members. Same as FriendFu but for guildies!

• HeyFu – Tells you when you have a whisper. Great if you missed it!

• XPFu – Gives you a summary of days played, level, xp amount and xp needed. Great for leveling.

• DurabilityFu – Lets you know what your armor is at. Also tells you how must it will cost to repair for all rep levels.

• CurrencyFu – How much money you have. The menu that pops up when you hover over it will tell you how much you have throughout all your characters and how much you spent and lost.

• BagFu – How much free bag space you have.

I also run WIM which is a WoW instant message screen. It helps me keep track of everyone I am talking to on there own condensed screen.

After raid tonight, I will be posting a raid picture and highlighting Grid, SmartBuff, and SmartDebuff in their full effect! Stay Tuned.