New to raiding

[Reitun]

I hit 90 a couple of days ago and started raiding, i only installed some addons like recount, omen and quartz but i haven't really changed the game interface. What addons do you guys recommend to start with? I play mainly ranged DPS and some healing.

[Dole4011]

Bartender4 to move around your buttons and for quicker binding.

OmniCC to put timers on your buttons so you can see when stuff is coming off of cooldown.

You may want to consider NeedToKnow for tracking dots on mobs.

If you go heals, I'd rec VuhDo, although it can be intimidating getting used to.

[Urtgard]

I realy like Shadowed Unit Frames, obviously for the unit frames

My favourite addon for healing is VuhDo.

Take a look at TellMeWhen or Power Auras. They help to watch important buffs, cooldowns, procs, etc.


Try to make a consistent design. I think, different textures and fonts are very distracting. And avoid an information excess, there is no need for 100 glowing buttons.
Take some time to look into the options, again and again I am surprised what an addon can do, if you change the settings.

[SlippyCheeze]

I hit 90 a couple of days ago and started raiding, i only installed some addons like recount, omen and quartz but i haven't really changed the game interface. What addons do you guys recommend to start with? I play mainly ranged DPS and some healing.

I strongly recommend you install nothing at all. Yet.

Why? Because installing a pile of addons that I like to solve problems that I have will help you zero. I use IceHUD, and an action bar scaled way down right in the middle of my screen, because that solves one of my problems with focus being away from the boss group spell auras that I need to be aware of as a tank/melee player. Do you have that problem? Likely no.

OTOH, I don't have any fancy cast-bar tracking or anything like that, because I have zero ... wait, one! cast time thing, and a billion instant casts. Nothing channeled. Nothing I care about, in fact, other than "is it off the GCD yet" for my core rotation.

Instead, wait until you figure out what problems you are having. Trouble binding keys, or want to move action bars around / have more of them? Install Bartender4 or Dominos to fix that.

Trouble tracking your multi-dot status? Get something to track that. Want to use proc => dot snapshot tricks to improve DPS? Get something to track that. Lots of channels that need cancelling mid-cast? Get something that shows channelling ticks in your castbar.

So, yeah: a much better strategy is "find a problem, then get an addon to solve it". That way you don't end up with a million useless addons that distract you from good gameplay.

[Deleted]

For healing, Vuhdo is a must.

Weakauras (Poweraura new version) is also very usesul to monitor everything: CD, debuff, combos etc.

[SlippyCheeze]

Weakauras (Poweraura new version) is also very usesul to monitor everything: CD, debuff, combos etc.

I would say that WeakAuras is an amazing way to write small addons without the overheads -- or to pick up addons that others have written the same way. For someone new to raiding, it probably isn't the most useful tool because it has so much power that it gives so little guidance.

(That said, because it gives so little guidance, it fits my "find a problem, solve it" strategy above and all

TellMeWhen is an alternative that is a bit more directed, at the cost of being a bit less flexible. If you do want to write your own tools, rather that pick up pre-make addons from curse, either of those is a fine choice. IMO, you probably don't want that when you just start out, because you don't know enough to build the *right* things into your monitoring.

OP: the one addon you really should have, because Blizzard assume you do, is either DBM or BigWigs to alert you to raid mechanics. Get one of them. DBM seems to be most frequently requested on my realm, but I can't assess if BigWigs is better, worse, or equal. Both should serve you well.

[Deleted]

Blizzard gives you everything you need with their standard UI, most addons are luxuries and not a necessity.

[magicaldandruff]

-I, too, recommend ShadowedUF. It has the most appealing raidframes to me out of all the UI setups. A good raider always knows what's going on with his allies.

-RSA is also a handy addon which announces the use of major CDs and lets you customize the message. I think it helps with coordinating raid CDs a bit and doesn't take up macro space with script text to accomplish the same thing.

-If you happen to be a shaman healer, I also recommend ShieldsUp. Like it sounds, it tracks if your lightning/water shield is active, how many stacks, your earthshield + last target used on, and which asshole shaman keeps overwriting it.

[SlippyCheeze]

Blizzard gives you everything you need with their standard UI, most addons are luxuries and not a necessity.

Actually, I am going to revise my earlier advice: Blizzard do give you everything you need with the standard UI, and addons are luxuries.

However, Blizzard also know that pretty much all raiders run either DBM or BigWigs, and design encounters with that in mind. Considering that, you probably should have one of the two installed. Since you said you are new, go with DBM which seems to be the most commonly requested by guilds.