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How important is it to modify your unit frame?
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Post by
Hyperspacerebel
No, you gave several concrete examples of areas where
you
need improvement.
Are you suggesting then that the default UI is flawless in its design?
I'm suggesting that WoW is a game of simple mathematics, and if you understand how things work then you won't need any addons to do that for you.
So you can read information from several points on the screen simultaneously without losing focus on any one of those points?
Yes. You can't? Maybe you need to buy a smaller one.
You can also read your own dps breakdown and improve it without addons? Praytell, how?
Any theorycrafting I do is done outside of the game. Again, it's a matter of math. If you need addons to do that math for you, that's fine. I don't.
I NEED add-ons if I want to play
to my fullest potential.
Post by
124027
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
The human eye is only able to perceive a limited area of any surface without losing focus. Basic biology. If you want to claim you can focus on your entire screen and all the information on it, fine. I don't argue with delusional people.
Boss debuffs, my buffs, my debuffs, raid frames, chat log, and the actual area of the fight -- all packed into a nice 8"x8", all of which I can keep track of. I've been doing it for 3 years and I'll keep doing it. I don't need your belief or your permission.
I also do most of my theorycrafting by hand. Reliance on an addon can lead to mistakes. I however also collect my own data and information samples (preferring large sample sizes) rather than relying on data on the Internet which can be inaccurate.
That's your preference. I prefer the actual numbers Blizzard gives coupled with the formulas that have been derived, neither of which requires a single addon.
If you want to rely on other peoples data to improve yourself, that's fine. But you'll lose out on so many fine tuning opportunities that your abilities will suffer in game.
That's just silly. Mathematics isn't relative.
If you need addons to do that math for you, that's fine. I don't.
And I can make my point without passive aggression too. Go me.
wtf?
You claim that everyone (which by extension includes you) needs addons. I said (twice) that it's
perfectly fine
if you do in fact need them, but there are other people (myself included) who don't. How that is anything other than a completely fair statement is beyond me.
Post by
44284
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
You can't easily watch where your Prayer of Mending has jumped
Watching the actual fight is a central part of my healing. This includes things like PoM jumps, whether people are in range of totems, who's about to step in bad stuff, etc.
or how much time is left on that Rejuv
I've trained myself to keep track of timers, both HoT's and cool-downs.
Using Grid puts everyone in the raid in one spot on your screen so you can easily just mouse over, and heal.
I just drag the unit frames where I need them.
I'm not saying "all healers need grid" but I am saying that all healers will be vastly improved with some raid-frame UI addon and possibly worse without one. I would not say you *need* a certain addon (except Omen and DBM) but I would say you should use some, depending on what you play.
I've already got everything you mentioned covered, so as I keep saying, no, it wouldn't improve my healing.
Anyways, that's it for me, I can't stay.
Post by
Rubendesmet619
Forgive me for having an opinion.
it is some peoples opinnion the world is 6000 years old.
It isn't. They're just wrong.
Post by
124027
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Rubendesmet619
People who say they perform better without addons then with actualy say
"I perform better without addons because I'm used to that compared to with addons I'm not used too"
Get used to both and with addons you'll perform better if you set it up decently.
Post by
HoleofArt
You can't easily watch where your Prayer of Mending has jumped
Watching the actual fight is a central part of my healing. This includes things like PoM jumps, whether people are in range of totems, who's about to step in bad stuff, etc.
or how much time is left on that Rejuv
I've trained myself to keep track of timers, both HoT's and cool-downs.
Using Grid puts everyone in the raid in one spot on your screen so you can easily just mouse over, and heal.
I just drag the unit frames where I need them.
I'm not saying "all healers need grid" but I am saying that all healers will be vastly improved with some raid-frame UI addon and possibly worse without one. I would not say you *need* a certain addon (except Omen and DBM) but I would say you should use some, depending on what you play.
I've already got everything you mentioned covered, so as I keep saying, no, it wouldn't improve my healing.
Anyways, that's it for me, I can't stay.
HSR all you've done is provide reasons why you yourself
think
you don't need add-ons. Add-ons would do everything you've said, only faster, better, and more efficient and allow you to keep track of other things rather than having to try and remember HoT timers and the like.
It
would
make you a better player.
I'll say it again; there's a reason any competent guild requests pictures of your UI and add-ons, and will deny you if it's bad, not configured, or the default UI. Most guilds ALSO request specific add-ons to be in place if you are to raid in that guild.
Go ahead, HSR. Tell an end-game guild your reasoning for not using add-ons. They'll just laugh at you, deny you, and call you a scrub.
It's the same as not having things enchanted/gemmed because the increase is marginal.
Post by
Toxiciity
For end-game content (raiding), and even Heroics, having a well set-up UI can be a key factor in how well you perform.
Don't make that think you need one though, I know a
gal
that has the default UI spare 2-4 addons that's is in ICC heroics, and has done up to Sunwell when it was end-game.
She is a girl that is why she still is in the guild...
Post by
sutasafaia
Wow, that is a LOT more responses than I expected to get o.o thanks for the advice.
Does anybody have any ideas for what Addons to get for different levels of play then? As of right now I play mostly solo/duo, but getting used to some basic addons that are useful in general sounds like it would be a good idea to do. Come Cataclysm this is going to be my basic char setup, no clue if it will help, but here it is
1: Paladin Tank
2: Undecided healer
3: Rest DPS
This way I can have the fun/practice of tanking and healing, while being able to fall back on blowing things up when I don't feel like doing real work.
Post by
127599
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
127599
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Koper
You don't need addons to play, but you don't really need a mouse either. Hell, you don't even need a chair, you can play standing.
Would you play without your mouse or chair? If not, then give addons a try: they will make the game more enjoyable. You can always go back. You have nothing to lose, really :)(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Koper##DELIM##
Post by
127599
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
pezz
Would you play without your mouse?
You obviously have never had a laptop with a broken mouse :P
Or a mouse that you didn't bother to change the batteries in for like three months after it started telling you it was running out of batteries.
@ Suta: Get Vuhdo or Grid+Clique or something for your healer and for your tank. A lot of prot's utility (and even one of the taunts) are casted on raid members. It's very nice to be able to just left click a name and taunt off a person, or right click a name and bubble them, or middle click a name and cleanse them, etc. Obviously all the same applies to healers, only much more so.
Post by
KittyKat77
I have used healbot and VuhDo for healing.
healbot is what I started out with, and it worked alright. Well enough that the group I was healing downed the Lich King and 6/12 heroic modes in ICC25, so pretty good. Well, healbot was one tool I used to help myself be my best.
I heard VuhDo might be better, and although I resisted for a long time, I finally decided to change things up. I saved my old interface folder, deleted all my add-ons and re-did my whole UI.
VuhDo is quite interesting, and once I got it customized to how I like it to work, it's been great. I like that it can track buffs, I can set it up for healing, or I can set it up for tanking. I can set it up so that when I am on my mage I can easily click to de-curse, or give out Focus Magic, etc.
I would suggest anyone who plans to heal get some form of healing interface add-on. Whether you use grid + clique, healbot, vuhdo, or you create a bunch of mouseover macros (which is the basic concept behind healer addons). I had a guy who only plays DPS toons tell me once that getting everything set up on keybinds was "the key" to major improvement in every area of the game. I just laughed at him, because there is NO WAY that selecting a player and pushing a keybind on the keyboard is faster than mousing over a heal-frame and instantly having any of my healing abilities at the ready by clicking one of my 5 mouse buttons (or shift-clicking, or ctrl-clicking... I have those set up too).
Some form of recount/meter is useful. Skada has damage/healing meters and threat meters all in one add-on. Or you can use Recount + Omen, both options work well.
Anyone who raids will do well to download deadly boss mods. It warns about upcoming phases, cooldowns on boss special abilities, and if you get a fire thrown at you it alerts you to MOVE.
So,
Healbot/VuhDo
Skada or Recount + Omen
Deadly Boss Mods
Those are the big 3 main ones that will really help you step up your performance.
Post by
freedfromthereal
The importance of modifying your unit frames corresponds directly to your knowledge of the game and the mechanics imo. HSR did make a lot of good points about how WoW is by all rights just a bunch of math equations, and if you can understand those, you're more than set without addons. Now granted, yes, there are times that addons can be helpful (such as some of the harder heroics in ICC), but thinking about it now I believe that the best show of skill, in any scenario, be it healing a 25 man or tanking a 5 man, would be your ability to not use addons and instead rely on the visual cues given to us in the game to react to healing, DPS'ing, or preparing for a particular event. A couple of examples:
- Acidmaw and Dreadscale. The debuffs that the two buggers spew out are very distinctive. Acidmaw turns the character green, and Dreadscale's Burning Bile looks like a mini globe of fire that deals damage in an AoE. As a good, well informed raider, you should know to get away from Mr. Burning Bile as he runs towards the green guys who he knows will be frozen soon if he doesn't get there quick enough.
- Incinerate Flesh on Jaraxxus. Even without DBM putting a skull over the person's head there's a bunch of deep red flames surrounding the person with the debuff. I don't quite know about you but that's a pretty recognizable "HEAL HE HALP" sign.
- Coldflame/Bone Spike Graveyard on Marrowgar. None of us need an addon that says "Coldflame hurts gtfo," we (should) know that they deal damage, and need to be healed/dps'd down.
- Deathbringer Saurfang. Two big, red lightning bolts (or four in 25 man) signaling that melee shouldn't AoE and that the ranged need to pick up their adds. Since you should be facing the boss in the first place (I can't think of any classes who do DPS facing the opposite way, camera and all), it's not hard to click, or even make a /tar Blood Beast macro to "assist" you in picking up the adds to burn them down.
The point is, there's no boss ability or skill that either doesn't have a cast time (which you can see in the regular unit frames) or an emote associated with it as well as some large visual cues. Yes, addons can help you accomplish these sorts of things, like preparing for adds on Lady Deathwhisper or Heroic LK, but in the end it's entirely up to the capacity of the raider to utilize the data they're given from those addons, or the lack thereof, and to respond accordingly and efficiently to said events to maximize their own effectiveness in the raid.
TL;dr: Addons are great, but visually speaking you probably don't need them as much as you thought. Blizzard designed all those nice graphics of the person burning alive, so what's the difference between seeing that and healing through it, and seeing "INCINERATE FLESH ON ABCDRUID" at the top of your screen?
Post by
Dwarstop
GS makes you better.
Fixed.
Post by
KittyKat77
Addons are great, but visually speaking you probably don't need them as much as you thought. Blizzard designed all those nice graphics of the person burning alive,
so what's the difference between seeing that and healing through it, and seeing "INCINERATE FLESH ON ABCDRUID" at the top of your screen?
Well, during that particular fight, it is necessary for the raid to spread out to avoid chaining certain of the boss's attacks.
Due to the intense graphical elements of the boss, the various adds, the debuffs, and the attacks of players and their pets, any given healer might not be standing in clear visual range of each and every possible target for the "person burning alive."
Getting an alert on their screen, with a corresponding visual "meter" of how much healing must be done to fully clear the debuff is more effective than hoping the person who gets the debuff will be somewhere you can see them, and having a visual aid as to how much healing is needed can allow the healers to focus just enough healing. Not under-healing so that the incinerate flesh damages more targets, not over-healing so that resources are wasted when they could have been better directed to other party members.
Yes, it's certainly very possible to heal through Jaraxxus with no add-ons. It's vastly more efficient and effective to use them.
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