My World of Warcraft Setup
- March 08, 2005
- 3 comments
I’m sure most people who have played World of Warcraft for any length of time have tried in some way to tweak their interface to make it easier or more efficient to use.
Several weeks ago, I downloaded the most popular UI mod called Cosmos and tried it out. What it does is basically add a lot more toolbars and addons that aid gameplay. For example, you can have sidebars which allow you to keep your skills or poisons out of your main toolbar. It also enhances the standard UI in different ways like letting you see what skill level your quests are, adding notes to maps, sending pages to other players, quicklooting, etc. It was definitely better than the standard interface, so I used it for a couple weeks.
After using Cosmos for a while, it just seemed like it was too bloated. It had some nice features, but it also had a ton of crap I never used. Plus, I would regularly get string error messages in the middle of combat which was extremely annoying. So I switched to the similar, but less bloated, CT-Mod. It had most of the functionality that I used in Cosmos, but none of the bloat.
I was happy using CT-Mod for a few weeks, but the interface began getting too crowded. There were too many buttons and floating windows here and there and no matter how I arranged things, I just wasn’t happy with it. So I began looking around to see what others were using.
The character I am playing the most now is my Gnome Rogue on the Darkspear PVP server. I have a 45 Night Elf Hunter, an 18 Troll Shaman, a 21 Human Paladin and my 18 Gnome Rogue. I’ve had other characters too, but have killed them off since I didn’t like playing them. For my rogue, I wanted something clean and efficient for my interface. After checking out what other rogues used, I ended up going with GypsyMod. It is easily my favorite of the major UI mods. I haven’t tried FlexBar yet, mainly because it looks complicated to setup and I don’t want to devote that much time to setting up my UI.
I have also added other standalone addons to enhance the UI even further. I now have it to a point where I really like it. Here’s a list of the addons I now use:
1. GypsyMod: allows me to move just about anything around to where I want it. Toolbars are closer together and take up less space.
2. Telo’s BuffTimers: shows the remaining time on buffs right below the buff icon. The nicest bufftimer addon I’ve seen yet.
3. EquipCompare: it’s nice to compare items in the AH to what I have equipped at the moment. But it’s even nicer to be able to compare things ANYWHERE to what I have equipped. This addon lets me do just that.
4. bc_AutoMailSubject: this fills in the subject line of a mail message with the name of the attached item when you drag an item into the attachment box.
5. MonkeyQuest: sometimes I want to quickly see how far along I am in completing a quest without having to open up the main quest window and scroll around until I find it. MonkeyQuest has a nice little, configurable window that I can quickly check on the status of all my quests.
6. Bag Status Meters: let’s me quickly see which bags are full, how many slots are available in each one and how many are available overall.
7. GoodTip: greatly improves the standard tooltip.
8. QuickLoot: this moves the most relevant portion of the loot window under your cursor when it opens or you loot something. If you don’t use the shift-right click autoloot, but want to choose certain items to loot quickly, this comes in very handy.
9. Location: simply shows your current X,Y coordinates. This is handy when trying to find certain mobs using coordinates given by Thottbot.
10. myClock: instead of having a clock that uses its own window, myClock replaces the circular sun/moon on your minimap window.
11. BibDragBags: lets me move my bag windows where I want them. A must if you have customized your interface.
12. bc_ActionBarDrag: one thing I really hate is accidentally dragging an item out of your toolbar instead of clicking it, especially when you’re in combat. This lets me easily lock/unlock all toolbars items.
13. MiniGroup: replaces the standard party set with a smaller version. It shows everything you need to know and nothing else.
14. SellValue: shows me what every item in my bags is worth to a vendor without being at a vendor. This is handy when needing to dump some items if you’re inventory is full.
15. WeaponQuickSwap: like the name suggests, it lets me quickly swap weapon sets. Very handy with my rogue so I can still use BackStab and then quickly switch to a dual sword setup.
16. StanceSets: this builds on top of WeaponQuickSwap by giving me a window to easily create different weapon sets.
That’s it so far. It looks like a lot, but it’s not when compared to other people’s setups. If you have other addons you really like, share them. I’m always interested in some cool addon that adds to the game.
3/11: I’ve already significantly changed my interface. I’m no longer using GypsyMod, MiniGroup, WeaponQuickSwap or StanceSets. I’m now using FlexBar. Even though it’s by far the most difficult UI mod to setup, it’s worth the effort since I have a completely customized interface that is there when I need it and disappears when I don’t need it. I still need to polish up some things with it, but I am quite happy with it now.
I’ve taken a look at Insomniax, but it’s just too cluttered for me. I pretty much have my own compilation now. I’ve even customized a couple addons to better fit what I want. Last night, I finished adding an XP bar to the Nurfed Playerframe.
I check Cursed Gaming every day for new and interesting mods, so my compilation is always changing a bit, but I’ve got something now that I’m really happy with.
You need to try out insomniax mod, it’s great.