Healing: Grid vs VuhDo vs Default Raid Frames

[ComputerNerd]

I still haven't heard one single argument that supports the use of addons for the raid frames, so should I just stick with default blizz then?

The issue is some people don't want to see any argument against them.
Better control is why people use addons.
Catering a display to best suit the user, as some are better than others in interpreting it in certain forms.
That is why WeakAuras offers bars and icons, because some people can function better with one or the other.
Some players can function fine with the default, some cannot.
It does not make them wrong if they can't.

[kenn9530]

I much prefer default raid frames over Grid of VuhDo. They are much easier for me to work with.

default frames offer no customisation, grid2 on my disc lets me monitor who has DA, PW:Shield Uptimes, Clear timings and debuff Icons, Spirit Shell, weakened soul debuff and able to customise to clearly see every single debuff you will ever need, also able to monitor raid cooldown uptimes, etc.

While you can get away with the default UI its by no means ideal since you can't clearly track everything the way you want it by the default raid frames.

[Adinora]

default frames offer no customisation, grid2 on my disc lets me monitor who has DA, PW:Shield Uptimes, Clear timings and debuff Icons, Spirit Shell, weakened soul debuff and able to customise to clearly see every single debuff you will ever need, also able to monitor raid cooldown uptimes, etc.

While you can get away with the default UI its by no means ideal since you can't clearly track everything the way you want it by the default raid frames.

I don't currently use default but they track a lot more these days than they used to. But I agree, grid or vuhdo is more likely to cater to your individual needs (I'm a vuhdo fan personally)

[Soisoisoi]

Much more customisability in pretty much everything; Fonts and text sizes, the info on the frame or mouse-over, size of the bars, the position of individual frames (e.g. tank frame separated), order of players, buffs, debuffs (e.g. I have a specific spot on a player's frame where I see defensive cooldowns), being able to bind heals to it and not having to click to target > Heal (2 actions is slower than 1) / make a mouseover macro for EVERY spell. Personal favourite, the arrow pointing you in a player's direction, amazing for getting in range of someone specific in a crowd of people. Also lusters, how did I forget clusters!

It's kinda like the difference between Blizzard's default positions for player resources, player buffs, enemy debuffs and your cooldowns on your action bars - which where they are is basically like having them at the four corners of the Earth - but they are all there, and it's viable to use it as is. Addons like TellMeWhen or WeakAuras2 will do it all SO much better. Just to emphasise the difference in position, enjoy my screenshot edited with Paint! http://i.imgur.com/iYAS7Iq.jpg

The short version is, the default raid frames are fine and are of course viable - but VuhDo (the others don't come close) just offers so much more personal touches and in some cases efficiency.

[Adinora]

Agreed. Vuhdo is just better (IMO) and as I said, I never thought I would switch from Grid.

Remember folks, OP didn't ask for a comparison between default and Grid or Vuhdo, he asked for a comparison between Grid and Vuhdo!

[Soisoisoi]

Agreed. Vuhdo is just better (IMO) and as I said, I never thought I would switch from Grid.

Remember folks, OP didn't ask for a comparison between default and Grid or Vuhdo, he asked for a comparison between Grid and Vuhdo!

Title:

Healing: Grid vs VuhDo vs Default Raid Frames

He did?


Edit: Think I misunderstood your point (bold/underlined above). Blame the cold people, blame the cold!

[Adinora]

He mentioned it in a post later on

[taheen74]

I like vuhdo because it saves me bar space, plus I can lay things out exactly how I want them and bind my spells to my mouse clicks.

[Deleted]

Healbot is out of the question, I am not a clicker.

How do you handle target selection for large groups?

Being able to combine a single click for targeting and casting is a lot more efficient than needing to press two different buttons for target and cast IMO. if you're currently using separate buttons for targeting and casting, then you might find it worthwhile to learn how to heal by clicking instead. (That probably goes for any unit frames addon, not just healbot)

[Tellervo]

I have 4 max-level resto druids, and have used different raid frames for each. Here's my comment:

Grid2: Easy to configure, very flexible, compact display i.e. can show a lot of information in a small space. I love the fact that you can set it up to show multiple information in the same location and specify priority of display. I haven't been able to figure out how to show groups beyond 5 in 25-man (doesn't have "By Group 40" option under Raid 25 Layout) so I don't use it for larger raid groups. I recommend this for new healers and DPS

VuhDo: I found that configuration is not very intuitive - initial setup took ages. I use this on my main because despite configuration screen that's not always easy to follow, it does have everything I need. I'm yet to find out how to display tanks and pets as horizontal groups though ...

Healbot: Takes up too much space - as a resto druid I have to track a lot of information. It's supposed to be usable out-of-box, but it did require initial configuration for rest druid. I only used it briefly so by no means an expert though.

Default raid frame: Admittedly I only used it during it early incarnation. I want my raid frame to be compact, and even the smallest setting was too big for me to use. I does show buffs, debuffs etc, but didn't give me much control over where they are displayed. I would only consider using this if both Vuhdo and Grid2 are broken after a major patch

[Soisoisoi]

VuhDo: I found that configuration is not very intuitive - initial setup took ages. I use this on my main because despite configuration screen that's not always easy to follow, it does have everything I need. I'm yet to find out how to display tanks and pets as horizontal groups though

You can click the panels individually, so if you have Panel 1 for the raid and Panel 2 purely for Tanks (Type-Special, Value-Main Tanks), you click the wording "Panel 2" above the frame and then make your changes. i.e. Alignment Horizontal, max rows 1 etc.

*Panel 1 = the whole raid. Panel 2 = The tanks (3 bigger health bars)
*The writing for "Panel 2" is under my Panel 1 group, you can click through the actual group in move mode though if you're in the same situation - or just move one to fix the other.

[Deleted]

I have a hard time believing a disc priest with that sort of gear and progression not only uses the default blizzard raid frames to heal, but also asks in priest forums whether Multistrike or Cleave trinket is better for a disc priest, but I guess benefit of the doubt and all.
Oh, and also the thread asking whether you should use Holy Fire if Mindbender is slotted.

Is there a reason you dodge the question what info the default frames are missing?

[Soisoisoi]

Is there a reason you dodge the question what info the default frames are missing?

See post #45, saves spamming the thread with bickering.

[Deleted]

Yes, you can move them freely.
Is seems people with a negative opinion about the default frames haven't used them since I don't know ages.

This - so much hate for a thing 95% of the people havent used since vanilla...

- - - Updated - - -

http://i.imgur.com/iYAS7Iq.jpg

This is terrible ugly compared to default frames imho

And yes you can make extra tank raidframes since back in cata iirc.

[taheen74]

default frames offer no customisation, grid2 on my disc lets me monitor who has DA, PW:Shield Uptimes, Clear timings and debuff Icons, Spirit Shell, weakened soul debuff and able to customise to clearly see every single debuff you will ever need, also able to monitor raid cooldown uptimes, etc.

While you can get away with the default UI its by no means ideal since you can't clearly track everything the way you want it by the default raid frames.

There was an addon a long time back that let you customize the look of the default UI raid frame bars. I think there was also one that let you assign spells to particular clicks (similar to what vuhdo has- it wasn't clique by the way). I know you've been able to move the raid frames around for a while now though (last time I used them was in Cata- briefly).

[Soisoisoi]

This is terrible ugly compared to default frames imho

Difference between mine and default is that mine is visually far more efficient and compact thanks to TellMeWhen; I have what I need in one place without having to look at the edges of the screen, increasing the chance you're going to be stood in shit. Each to their own for looks though, it can all be skinned to personal preference - even using default UI with TMW is better than just the default UI.

[st33l]

You can be a good healer with just the default frames, but however good you may be with default frames, you can be better with VuhDo. I'll leave Grid out of this discussion since I am not very familiar with it, but I believe a lot of the points I am going to illustrate also apply to Grid.

So to answer some questions brought up,

.) What can you see on VuhDo that you can't see on default frames?
Clusters. GL seeing how many people are next to person X when you're deciding who in the party to PoH or in the raid to Holy Radiance. This by itself, can increase your healing by quite a bit. I don't care HOW good you are at watching people, but knowing who is the best person to start an AoE heal on? The most efficient way to do this is ONLY programmatically, not visually.

.) When I can see all the information I want on raid frames, why would I use an addon?
First, you can't see all the information you'd want as a healer. Second, assuming that you really were SO amazing that cluster finder really brought you very little, here are a few things you can do with VuhDo that you can't with default frames.

HoTs: You can have bars ticking down for multiple hots on the frames, which can instantly show you the time left on a HoT visually, versus having to grok numbers (even other people's hots). This helps considerably on classes for whom HoT's make or break their healing game, like Monks (particularly on 10 man, when you have to triage very quickly who to hit ReM on near the end of a TfT. EVERYONE has ReM on them, you need to hit ReM on the person with the lowest duration left - try figuring that out instantly using default frames).

Shields: VuhDo can quickly show you, not only who has shields, but what percentage of the max possible shield, on them. You see PW:S on three people in your raid, they are all at half health, who do you heal up first? With VuhDo it's simple, the one with the lowest shield. Can you see this in an instant with normal raid frames?

Customization: During certain high healing fights during progression, if someone gets a debuff, or possibly a buff, looking through all their debuffs on their frame is not always a great idea. With VuhDo, you can color the ENTIRE frame to any color you want based on conditions. So for example on Elegon I wanted to see who had the debuff? You could setup your VuhDo to turn the person's frame blue, or red, or brown, or whatever. On Malkorok, you can have the entire raid frame colored according to the strength of the shield the person has. If you can't see value in this as a healer, well, you should reconsider healing.



There is absolutely no question that raiding with VuhDo (maybe Grid, again, I don't know too much about it) is better than using default frames. Now is it 'possible' to do heroic raiding with just default frames? Sure. Is it a good idea? Well if you are really stuck in the past and don't want to let go of the default UI for nothing short of Heidi Klum in your bedroom? Then maybe. Otherwise, no.

[Deleted]

How do you handle target selection for large groups?

Being able to combine a single click for targeting and casting is a lot more efficient than needing to press two different buttons for target and cast IMO. if you're currently using separate buttons for targeting and casting, then you might find it worthwhile to learn how to heal by clicking instead. (That probably goes for any unit frames addon, not just healbot)

For a small group such as an arena team I have targeting macros.

For a large group such as a raid I have mouseover macros and I might switch my targeting macros to target the 2 tanks.

[Splatter]

You can be a good healer with just the default frames, but however good you may be with default frames, you can be better with VuhDo. I'll leave Grid out of this discussion since I am not very familiar with it, but I believe a lot of the points I am going to illustrate also apply to Grid.

So to answer some questions brought up,

.) What can you see on VuhDo that you can't see on default frames?
Clusters. GL seeing how many people are next to person X when you're deciding who in the party to PoH or in the raid to Holy Radiance. This by itself, can increase your healing by quite a bit. I don't care HOW good you are at watching people, but knowing who is the best person to start an AoE heal on? The most efficient way to do this is ONLY programmatically, not visually.

.) When I can see all the information I want on raid frames, why would I use an addon?
First, you can't see all the information you'd want as a healer. Second, assuming that you really were SO amazing that cluster finder really brought you very little, here are a few things you can do with VuhDo that you can't with default frames.

HoTs: You can have bars ticking down for multiple hots on the frames, which can instantly show you the time left on a HoT visually, versus having to grok numbers (even other people's hots). This helps considerably on classes for whom HoT's make or break their healing game, like Monks (particularly on 10 man, when you have to triage very quickly who to hit ReM on near the end of a TfT. EVERYONE has ReM on them, you need to hit ReM on the person with the lowest duration left - try figuring that out instantly using default frames).

Shields: VuhDo can quickly show you, not only who has shields, but what percentage of the max possible shield, on them. You see PW:S on three people in your raid, they are all at half health, who do you heal up first? With VuhDo it's simple, the one with the lowest shield. Can you see this in an instant with normal raid frames?

Customization: During certain high healing fights during progression, if someone gets a debuff, or possibly a buff, looking through all their debuffs on their frame is not always a great idea. With VuhDo, you can color the ENTIRE frame to any color you want based on conditions. So for example on Elegon I wanted to see who had the debuff? You could setup your VuhDo to turn the person's frame blue, or red, or brown, or whatever. On Malkorok, you can have the entire raid frame colored according to the strength of the shield the person has. If you can't see value in this as a healer, well, you should reconsider healing.



There is absolutely no question that raiding with VuhDo (maybe Grid, again, I don't know too much about it) is better than using default frames. Now is it 'possible' to do heroic raiding with just default frames? Sure. Is it a good idea? Well if you are really stuck in the past and don't want to let go of the default UI for nothing short of Heidi Klum in your bedroom? Then maybe. Otherwise, no.

You haven't used the default frames for a while have you? The bolded parts are quite simple. I can see who has EF (holy pally hot) on them and a nice visual timer showing me how long it has left. You can set dispells and debuffs to show nice and big in the centre of the Health bar and with a coloured outline. Sheilds show up as a shaded stripey area different to incoming heals. You can set it to show other hots etc on them. Its all quite simple.

The only real advantage to using VuhDo is clusters.

[Jeremypwnz]

All this talk of group clusters makes me want to mention you can also use clusters with ElvUI using "[nearbyplayers:10]" Can use 8/10/30 but can easily change the number in Modules/unitframes/tags, practically at the bottom.



The number shows how many people are with X yards of that person.