UI improvement and specific mod questions

[allianceTrade]

Hello all,

I'm looking to start to improve my UI as next step towards becoming a better player and there's always been a few major hurdles to not wanting to improve it that have kept me from doing it. For one, the amount of time it takes to properly configure a good ui. Two, changing things I've been using for ~8 years. Three, mod bloat. I prefer mods that do very specific, very simple things to gigantic mods that have hundreds of configurable options I don't use/need.

For reference, I am an spriest / dot class and I'm familiar enough with lua to make basic tweaks and mods, if necessary.

I would love to use tidyplates for the ability to view dots on nameplates but I absolutely hate tps aesthetic. I use default ui nameplates and have for a very, very long time. tps sharp edged nameplates are just awful to me. I would love to be able to use the blizzard ui and show dots on enemy nameplates, is there a mod to do that? I'm guessing not since they're probably protected. Barring no mod to do that, does tp have a skin to keep the blizzard ui nameplates but allow me to use all the tp stuff like resizing, font variability, threat and dots? If it doesn't, does tp have any rounded edge nameplates? I couldn't find any when I tried it.

For scrolling combat text, Blizzards stock sct is fantastic EXCEPT that I can't change things about the display like font, size, scroll frequency. Is there a mod that will let me change that? I don't want to use a specific sct mod because as far as I know only blizzards sct has the ability to scroll damage over or from the mobs you're damaging. I find this absolutely critical as a dot class when I have damage on various things in my field of vision. I hate statically positioned sct, it's just awful. I do remember a while back (mid cata) I found some functions I could unhook to hide specific events that I ended up throwing in a mod to hide things like passive VE heal spam under a threshold and there were some functions that controlled the frequency of how often damage showed up on screen which I think was relevant for fast attacking classes or classes with pets that had a lot of events triggering at once (like 3 dots + sfiend pet hits)

I'm looking to take baby steps here, so any help would be appreciated. Please do not turn this into a default vs elv/tuk debate as its entirely preferential and I'm not interested in large package ui mods. Thanks in advance for everything and please let me know if I can provide any more detail or information.

[Aridn]

What you want sounds a lot like what I try to accomplish with my UI.


There is really no reason to use a ton of addons to "become a better player" that comes from awareness and knowledge of your class + binds.

My interface is mostly scripted by myself, the mods used are:

UnitFramesImproved - basically converts the blizzard unit frames into class colored thick bars, very light weight and retains the asthetic of stock unit frames, but easier to see

Mik's Scrolling Battle Text - almost everything is disabled, I was messing around with incoming heal spam when I took this SS, but generally I only use it for entering /leaving combat, showing the spells I interrupt as a confirmation, and my dispells on targets

Tell Me When - set up to show things like trinket procs, rain of fire timer, and demonic portal timer

Recount - kind of obvious

Tidy plates threat plates - like you I also hate this mod, and would like to use blizzard name plates. however I also like displaying my debuffs on nameplates but don't know how to accomplish this other wise.

I have also replaced the default fonts and textures.

feel free to ask any questions.

[allianceTrade]

Is there a guide somewhere on replacing default fonts? I assume its the same as replacing sounds by dropping it into the appropriate path with the right file name to override what's in the mpq? I just don't know the available fonts and which ones replace what stuff in the default ui.

I tried Miks a while back but it didn't scroll damage off the target. Your screenshot looks like it does. Has something changed to allow this now? I was under the impression it was protected but I could be mistaken. I run the same as you with blizzard sct and have everything except damage turned off because the rest is irrelevant.

Ill look at your other recommendations, thanks. Also, it's not so much that a better ui will make me a better player its just that there's room for improvement. I'm pretty confident I'm a good player but I'm finally at a level of play where tweaking my ui to have more real estate and be more minimal can help me with situational awareness and overall performance a tad. Thanks!!

[Aridn]

replacing fonts is as simple as dragging a folder into your interface folder

Miks generally does replace the blizzard scrolling text, however I have that portion turned off. There is actually a good amount of customization that can be done with Miks, however i only need it for a few very specific things.

[Speedtrax]

I've found a Tidy plates skin that replicates the default blizz nameplates. Maybe this was something along the lines of what you were looking for? Tidy Plates: ClassicPlates @ Curse
There is also PlateBuffs @ Wowinterface

-Speed

[Deleted]

What you want sounds a lot like what I try to accomplish with my UI.


There is really no reason to use a ton of addons to "become a better player" that comes from awareness and knowledge of your class + binds.

My interface is mostly scripted by myself, the mods used are:

UnitFramesImproved - basically converts the blizzard unit frames into class colored thick bars, very light weight and retains the asthetic of stock unit frames, but easier to see

Mik's Scrolling Battle Text - almost everything is disabled, I was messing around with incoming heal spam when I took this SS, but generally I only use it for entering /leaving combat, showing the spells I interrupt as a confirmation, and my dispells on targets

Tell Me When - set up to show things like trinket procs, rain of fire timer, and demonic portal timer

Recount - kind of obvious

Tidy plates threat plates - like you I also hate this mod, and would like to use blizzard name plates. however I also like displaying my debuffs on nameplates but don't know how to accomplish this other wise.

I have also replaced the default fonts and textures.

feel free to ask any questions.

You're not raiding anything besides LFR right?

[allianceTrade]

I've found a Tidy plates skin that replicates the default blizz nameplates. Maybe this was something along the lines of what you were looking for? Tidy Plates: ClassicPlates @ Curse
There is also PlateBuffs @ Wowinterface

-Speed

Oooh, this looks great and was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, I'll play around with this, too.

Well, both seem to be horribly out of date. I'll see if they still work

[ComputerNerd]

Oooh, this looks great and was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, I'll play around with this, too.

Well, both seem to be horribly out of date. I'll see if they still work

That is the only version of PlateBuffs getting any updates.
If an addon still works, updating for the sake of a ToC bump is not something all authors do.

[Sunnydee]

You're not raiding anything besides LFR right?

fail bash went fail. i know multiple ppl with ra-den on farm that mainly got standard UI + WA /dbm, problem? just beacuse others can manage fine with lower amount dosnt mean you can bash them

[Aridn]

You're not raiding anything besides LFR right?

I raid LFR and normals. I would like to raid Heroics with the right guild, but Arena is my main thing. I never understood why people feel that you need a high tech command center for raiding. If UI customization is your thing that's awesome, and I have seen some amazing ones. I personally do not like all the bloat, and would rather spend hours writing scripts than fiddling with addons.

I have very high awareness, and sometimes I think even DBM is redundant. all you really need to do is watch/listen for boss emotes, pay attention to cast bars, look at your debuffs, and watch where your standing.

I feel that for me, using the mostly stock UI keeps me more aware than relying on addons neatly placed in front of me to tell me what to do

[allianceTrade]

I was trying to prevent this from devolving into an elitist UI thread because that's generally how most of them start and end. I agree with the two other posters that you do not need to completely overhaul your UI to play this game well. I've been raiding for 9 years and I'm confident I play the game better than a vast majority (insert random high made up percentage, 95%) of you. I've been using default Blizzard raid frames since they were implemented, they are really all you need for a ranged dps. I don't heal very often but I will agree that I really need more to effectively heal, but since I don't do it that often I'm not greatly interested in it. I've been using Blizzard default SCT since it was implemented. I used to use sct and sctd when Blizzards didn't exist and I liked them but once I got the ability to see damage in the world over the targets I never went back. I've been using default unit frames since vanilla and have never, ever had a need for more than what the default provided. The default providing the ability to "filter only your debuffs" was a great addition and when they added the ability to unlock frames and move them around your UI, I Tried to move it to a more centrally located position near my dot timers and "important" casts but I just found it to be too different to get used to and reset it back to the default position.

Anyway, long story short, I like my UI simple. I like my mods light. If I have to use mods, I like to use specifically tailored mods to do one or two things I specifically need them to and that I don't have to spend 8 years going through 10s of 100s of options and configuration pages and size/scale/position/color/font options. I don't generally like to change things, especially mid tier, especially especially because I don't want to be that guy that goes to press a button, or an ExtraActionButton, or that one thing that I forgot to add back to my UI that goes "Oh, fuck" mid fight that everyone rolls their eyes at. I am not saying that those of you who prefer to do things differently are wrong, but this is what i prefer. The reason I am exploring additional mods is because I really, really, really (no, really) need to clean up my bars and UI in general, it's just getting way too cluttered and I can absolutely reduce button bloat. I'm fairly certain I have duplicated spells on my bars and for this entire expansion I've been just throwing random macros and abilities into spots and hot swapping them in and out on a per fight basis, which I'm getting annoyed at. I also have to disable Blizzard SCT on Heroic Dark Animus and switch FortExorcist from scrolling dots up to scrolling dots down because the anchor is right below my feet. If I don't do those two things it makes it more difficult (not impossible) to see Anima Font on my feet that i need to move out of, so I disable sct and scroll down for that fight just to play better. That's the kind of thing that's making me want to clean up my UI.

tldr: I'm already an excellent player, this wasn't created with the idea that UI changes are going to somehow propel me to world first raider status. I'm looking to finally get around to reducing some clutter on my UI to give me more real estate to have slightly better situational awareness and more click real estate in my FoV, that's all. If you have some pertinent information about my specific questions or just some "Hey, check this out, you might like it", I'm all ears. If you are going to recommend Elv/Tuk UI or bloated addon packs or come in here and shit on me/others for preferring Blizzard default stuff or having simple UIs, then save your keystrokes please.