I'd like to revamp my UI, from stem to stern. Advice and/or suggestions (pictures?) would be most welcome.

Here's what I want to accomplish (broad goals)

1. Eliminate wasted space
2. Group related information into panels, e.g., my "casting panel", my "warnings/timers panel", and so forth.
3. Minimize clutter (and needless decoration), maximize function

Here are some of my current frustrations:

1. Too much space for chat panels. In addition to the standard chat panel (with two tabs, one for chat, one for combat), I have a panel for ochat + whispers. It's a lot of space dedicated to chat, and in spite of that, I still fail at keeping up with things in gchat (and ochat too, but don't tell Ague)
2. My health bars are invisible to me, or at least they might as well be invisible. During a boss fight, I'm usually focused on my cast bars. Every once in a while, I'll think to look over and see my mana, but I fail (epic fail) at reacting to incoming damage
3. I have the Blizzard action bars. The stupid gryphon/gargoyles are wasting a lot of space. Also, there are several UI functions I don't use (or at least not often), and don't need to see (e.g., Achievement, Help, etc).
4. Combat text and Bigwigs text is poorly placed, and easily lost.

I'm currently using xperl, quartz, scorchio2 (a DOT timer mod that's pretty good with mage-specific timers), decursive, omen, recount, raid-buff-stats and bigwigs. I've tried "heads up displays", and I'm not a fan of the concept. Trying to pack more information into the center of the screen generally seems to fail when encounters get intense.

I also make extensive use of key-bindings. I have q, w, r, t, a, g, z, x, c, v, b, Q, W, T, G, X, C, V, B, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, !, @ , # , $, % all bound to spells I'm likely to want to cast during combat (i.e., most of the keys reachable from a left hand in the "home position" along with their "shifted" variant). The only keys that don't have shifted variants for are either the remaining movement keys (s, d, f and e for me) and the "oh-crap" keys for counterspell, blink and ice block (a, r and z respectively -- and those are all bound to macros for "/stopcasting /cast oh-crap spell"). I really don't need to see the action bar buttons bound to any of these keys, since I never cast those spells with the mouse.

A couple of places I'd like to start:

• A new action bar mod with hierarchical action bars, i.e., for the standard Blizzard UI functions (help, open bags, open character panel, achivements, etc), I'd like to have one button that I click that opens up a menu of buttons/actions that I can select from. Same kind of idea with opening portals, conjuring food and other infrequently-used abilities.
• A concentrated "casting center" packed with three cast bars (mine, my target's and my focus), my health and mana, my target's health and mana). I do not want portraits here, just health bars
• An organized DOT/debuff panel that I can stack/locate on top of my caster center. The DOT/debuff panel should list timers for any DOT that I have placed on the target, selected self-buffs, or at least procs (e.g., Hot Streak, Missile Barrage, Clear Casting). Scorchio2 does a decent job on the self-buffs and a few debuffs, but does not show Flame Leviathan pyrite DOTs or similar encounter-specific DOTs. DOTIMER displays way too much stuff by default.
• Some way to change/move the minimap display. I'd really like to use the upper rows of the screen to display buffs and debuffs, e.g., my buffs/debuffs in the upper right, my targets in the upper/left. This would be for "occasional glances", any dynamic information would have to be displayed in my caster center.

What mods should I start playing with?

Thanks for reading!

Oh, here's some wishful thinking....

I wish I had a mod that would create an organized list of all creatures within 50 yards. The default behavior would be to sort the list by level (so that raid bosses would be on the top), then by class. I could then click on the name of the mob/creature/totem that I wanted to target.

Does such a mod exist? Does the current blizzard LUA interface allow that sort of mod to be written? I don't need the mod to select the target for me, just give me a list of potential targets, sorted and organized by class, level, etc.

I suck at targeting. e.g., Faction champs, I break off the kill target (e.g., to pick a new target to sheep), then have a hell of a time finding it again, "<tab>, nope, that's not it.. <tab> nope, <tab> ugh, not him again, <tab>, nope, <tab><tab><tab>, oh crap, missed him, <shift-tab>, dammit, where'd he go? <tab>..."

I either need a much better way of pulling out player/raid frames for /assist or some sort of targeting mod.

I completely agree on the targeting issues! If you find something, let me know!

I know there were a couple mods back in old-world that let you cluster casting groups under 1 button - for example there was a lock-specific one called Necrosis (I think) that clustered demon-summons under 1, stones under another, etc). However, now that I have everything organized with Bartender, I haven't gone back to see if they are still being made.

Here's what I've got going on.

Solo


Party


Raid



The base UI aspects are a combination of Spartan UI and Bartender 4. You can see the various utility bars there but slightly hidden. They pop up if I put my cursor over them.

Quartz (Which has been updated, and maintained from the old days) is dead center and handles my various uptimes on a per target basis. In addition, it does it's ages old trick whenever I use a cast bar, or the enemy does. I'm not sure which version, but somewhere along the line they did give it DoTimer capabilities. Worth giving a look back to.

MagicRunes there below that.

SCT+SCTDamage are configured so as to spray out any information away from the central 'focus' zone. Except for crits. Crits can interrupt me -- There's always time for crits.

OmniCC handles my cooldown labels, and looks snazzy with Bartender.

As you can see from the ones labelled "raid" and "party" various other aspects activate as things go. The Grid/Party area in the top left is visible but out of view. Nothing I need to know there anyway. Recount is in the top right, which again isn't something I particularily give a shit about on an in-fight basis -- but if needed for post attempt analysis I made it a permanent fixture.

Omen down there in the bottom left, somewhere I could look at it if needed.

BigWigs when active does a few other things, which I can't get a photo of at the moment. Proximity bar on the far left of the screen, upcoming events on the far right, and critical warnings in the center area.

My UI is great, I couldn't ask for a better setup:

(click to show 'Not Safe for Work' content)

mine is actually quite a bit like phoof's, except replace the two party groups in the upper left with a grid layout.

i tried spartanUI for a while and just never liked it that much - especially the clunkiness of where to put the chat panel and how much space it wastes overall. the standard blizz UI does pretty well for me.

you might check the EJ forums. for resto druids there is an entire thread just on UI setup, and i've seen some decent examples there. if i ever got the initiative (or got sick enough of the standard UI), i'd probably start there. i don't know if the mage forum has an equivalent, but you might check.

i've never heard of an addon that shows all mobs within target range (or if i have, i've since forgotten . i'd be interested if you find one.

Thanks guys!

I'm now in the market for a cooldown mod that works when the action bar for the spell is hidden. I really don't need to see the hot key for "ice block", (if I ever need to use it, I'd be dead before I could find it visually). But I really would like to know when that cooldown's up.

I'm pretty sure Dotimer will do that (it displays timer bars for each active cooldown). Is there anything simpler that does the same thing?

Vargos, your display is beautiful. I may end up with something similar, although not nearly as polished in appearance, I'm sure.

Here's mine in raid set up. In a full raid, the left raid bars only go for the first 5 groups.

(click to show spoiler)

Simi, what's that small chart between your minimap and the raidDPS chart? It says "Heroic Training Dummy" on the top, but is blank inside.

Also, Simi, what are you using for your main window panel (that displays your frame rate, etc)? I'm using titan panel (still), but I've always been frustrated trying to configure Titan to do what I want.

My "casting panel" is similar to yours. I have my player frame and my target frame positioned on the left and right side of my cast bars (as you do). I stacked three cast bars (self, target and focus) one above the other (same scale and size). I also added a spellpower mod directly underneath the cast bars (is overlapped with Quartz' GCD indicator). I've wanted one of these for a while (it just prints out my current spellpower) so I can get a sense of whether I'm in range of totems during combat.

My favorite find thus far has been Satrina Buff Frames. I can make as many buff frames as I want, and the buff frame is not tied graphically to the player/target frame. Right now, I've got the full list of target buffs and debuffs up in the upper right corner of the screen, out of the way. In addition, I have a filtered list of target buffs and debuffs just above my player frame (my health bars). Anything stealable and anything I cast (DOTs) are programmed to show in the list.

It's nice. If I'm clicking on a player to see if he/she is well fed, I can peek up at the upper right corner and scan all his/her buffs. But during combat, I don't have to move my eyes away from my "casting center" to see Jaraxxus' power up. In fact, I can put Jaraxxus' power buff right next to my own trinket buff (to monitor Dragon Soul charges), even though the respective health bars are in different parts of the screen.

I'm not real happy with my action bars, but that can wait. I've got bartender4 installed, so it's just a matter of deciding what I want -- bartender can definitely do it. My immediate next step is to work on building a "timer/cooldown" center. I want to start with the bigwigs timers, since they're the most critical (cooldowns are displayed on my action buttons, and while that's not optimal, it's at least adequate). If anyone feels they're competent (or better yet, an expert) at configuring bigwigs timers and/or cooldown timers, I could use some help. It's always seemed to me that bigwigs was suppressing the full timer and only popping up "urgent" timers when the event is within the next 10 seconds. I'd like to get the full timer on the screen too (and control where these timers are displayed).

That's Omen.

Bartender can certainly do what you want. That's what I'm using for mine. I have ButtonFacade with it for the circles.

As for BigWigs you should be able to configure full and immediate timers both. There are two bar settings and you'll need to show both. One is usually smaller and then they get big and red when it's about to go off. You can configure this to be just about however you want.

I use DoTimer for most of my cooldown (left of char frame), self buff/trinket/proc buffs (above my char frame) and then mob timers (top of target frame). I use pitbull for my frames still.

I use FuBar as my bottom bar with several addons for easy one click access. You can position the bar at the bottom, top or anywhere else on your screen.

Ok Simi, how do you play with 28 buttons only? I had to get addons because the 5 bars they gave me werent enough back at 60.

Shift is my friend. I have 8 bars but only 3 show and 4 buttons are for raid function only.

Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not there!

Ui pics and explanation in Spoiler.
(click to show spoiler)In combat.This is my new UI out of combat with Power Auras up (Helping out I-Bang at the time.
As you can see i changed my Grid and Recount position's.
I use Dominoes for the action bar,
Pit for the UI which i have since changed and now use X-perl since it uses less memory They are in same location on both UI's I just covered it up by accident for the Power Auras thing.
I also use a mod called Geist, which allows me to bring up my table, Portals, Armor's, anything else i want at the mouse location by hitting any keybinding ( ] in my case)
I also use Power Aura's for procs.
Scorchio2 for stacks of AB and Living Bomb timer.
Prat 3.0 for chat.
Sexy map for the map.
Elkano's Buff Bars for my buff bar. (you can also make as many bars as you want where ever you want.
Quartz for the cast bar.
The Cooldown mod above my bars is called ForteXorcist which i love for tracking Trinket ICD, and just about anything else you can think of.
I also use Live Damage which is the numbers above my bag/bars.
As far as mods go it's somewhat lightweight runs about 14mbs, with Atlas Loot and Cartographer as well ( I turn those off during raids so it's under 10mb) which is small for me.
I don't run Fubar anymore like in the top UI shot, also I forgot to mention DBM

Here is my UI - a combo of X-Perl, Bartender, and SexyMap... I think it fits together nicely (look at all those beautiful buttons!!!).

The one thing i don't miss about my lock from BC... All the fuckin buttons... there is a reason my Warlock is still lvl 70 in T6.. haven't even touched it.

A recommendation:

I run regular blizzard UI with Grid, but it bothers me to have the party showing, taking up unnecessary room on top of Grid already being visible. I just found an AddOn called HideBlizzard that gives you the option to hide all KINDS of stuff, including the party UI (gives you the option to show yourself or not, depending on preference).

This is what I have installed, total:
PowerAuras (Use mostly for DPS alts and Enhance) - Thanks Implied
ShieldsUp (TERRIFIC Shaman Mod) - Thanks Implied's Wife!
BankItems (Let's me see banks of all toons anytime) - Thanks Mirakl
HideBlizzard
AtlasLoot
Ackis Recipe List (Shows all recipes for any tradeskills) - Thanks Simi
Rating Buster (Shows stats calculated... cause I suck at math)
BigWigs
Grid

I've messed with bartender and xperl, but I like big buttons since I switch stuff around ALL THE TIME.

P.S. Squid, what is SexyMap?

I-Bang

you can turn off party display when in raid from the standard blizz interface. it's one of the options. i did that long ago, because, like you, with grid up i don't need to see my party. i'm sure HideBlizzard gives much more flexibility, but if you just want that one thing (party not displayed when in raid), you can do it without the addon...

EDIT: Interface->Unit Frames->Hide Party Interface in Raid

SexyMap is an addon that allows you to control display of your mini-map. The key features are:

1. Ability to move the mini-map to some other position on the screen
2. Ability to control the mini-map icons and buttons (e.g., your "you have mail" icon). Not only can you control the position, you can control whether the buttons are shown. Auto-hide, is a nice feature where the buttons are only shown when the mouse is over the map.
3. Ability to change the shape of the map and to control the border. SexyMap has some fancy animated borders which are very attractive. Borders can also be turned off entirely.

P.S. I took several pictures last night of where I am now, but I want to annotate them before posting.

You can also change the design of the Map, they have like Snowflake and stuff like that. As well as add the borders, change the colors of said border, change rotation speed or have it not rotate at all. I made my sexymap square so it would fit better in my UI.

Here's what I ended up with:

Out of Comabat



Combat


The gap in the bottom left is for Raid Buff Stats (not shown, 'cause we're in combat). The chat window on the right is whispers and ochat, on the left is other channels.

The player frames are
Left side stack: Player, Target and Target-of-target
Right side: Focus

The cast bar stack (in the middle) is player, target and focus. As this shot was taken, neither my target nor my focus is casting.

Above and left of the cast-bar stack is Scorchio2, which tracks my Living Bomb DOTs, improved scorch, etc.

Buffs and debuffs are organized as follows. My buffs and debuffs are in the top left of the screen. My target's buffs and debuffs are in the top right of the screen. In addition, I have a stack of "hot buffs" from my target (any debuff I apply, plus anything I might be able to steal), just to the right of my cast bars. My focus' target buffs are displayed above the focus target.

Mods used:
Xperl
Quartz
Scorchio2
Bartender4
Sexymap
Chatter
Deadly Boss Mods
Recount
Omen
LiveDamage
Satrina Buff Frames

P.S. Why, yes, Roatch did pay me to post this screenshot. How'd you know?

P.P.S. Why do I have three copies of Arcane Blast on my action bar? One is a macro "target Darkbane, blow all cooldowns and cast". Another is "target lighbane, blow all cooldowns and cast". The third is just "cast"