Have you missed us? We're sorry for the extended break, but as you now know, we've been slammed under helping to get Massively off the ground. (Speaking of which, if you haven't been over there, you do know we're giving away a Murloc suit, right?) But we're back now with lots of Reader UIs to show you -- so on we go with this week's featured UI, courtesy of AareDub from the guild <Sonic Death Monkey> on Eitrigg.
I have to give credit to Taeo for giving me the inspiration. I saw a very crisp UI and thought, "I can do that." I've always tried to re-arrange my UI to allow for the most viewing space possible, but Taeo's UI just made something click for me. It only took me a few days to complete, but it took a month or so for my server transfer cooldown to get me back in a raid for some screenshots.
Curious? Join me after the break for more from AareDub!
I have to give credit to Taeo for giving me the inspiration. I saw a very crisp UI and thought, "I can do that." I've always tried to re-arrange my UI to allow for the most viewing space possible, but Taeo's UI just made something click for me. It only took me a few days to complete, but it took a month or so for my server transfer cooldown to get me back in a raid for some screenshots.
Curious? Join me after the break for more from AareDub!
As a tank, I'm always watching my cool-downs, my health bar, and my buffs/debuffs; now I don't have to look in 3 different places on the screen to find them. I'm also one of those people who likes to customize things just to be different. I have as much fun making my own UI as I do questing, but as a Prot Warrior that may not be the best comparison (alt Druid ftw).
How it works:
My UI is, as any UI should be, designed around my play style. I don't use the mouse at all in combat other than the occasional camera swing (zomg don't loot in combat). My bars are basically laid out in 3 groups of 9 (and one extra row on the end). Each group is bound to the keys on my num pad, with the / * - keys across the top of my num pad assigned to each Warrior stance (or Druid form). The group of keys on the left use the ctrl modifier and the num pad; these are attacks that can be used in every stance. It does not change regardless of the
stance I'm in. The middle group uses no modifier and consists of a combination of most used attacks and attacks only available in one specific stance; it changes based on the stance I'm in. The final group to the right uses the alt modifier and contains a mix of rarely used attacks and attacks that are only used in 2 of the 3 stances.
The extra row with smelting, prospecting, etc is just because I ran out of room in the section that contains my professions and consumables. Speaking of which, those consumables are all bound to the extra G keys
on my G15 keyboard. So, to make the long explanation short, I can execute any of my attacks or use a consumable without my fingers leaving the keyboard, and while walking backwards in a circle (in game of course).
- Discord Unit Frames - The ONLY unit frames mod as far as I'm concerned
- Discord Art - The spiffy background was created in Photoshop and imported with DART
- Bartender3 - A 'lite' replacement for Discord Action Bars
- Elk Buff Bars - For... the buff bars
- Omen - Threat meter
- CTRaid - Group frames
- oRA2 - Tank windows
- Squeenix - Square moveable minimap
- Discord Frame Modifier - Used for moving the mail and map icons
- FuBar - The bar at the bottom
- Tooltip Wrangler - Moves the tooltip to the top
- XP Bar None - XP bar
So, hey, if any of you folks used to building UI packages are available and want to give AareDub a hand, I'm sure there are readers out there who would appreciate it. For those of you who want to be featured in our ReaderUI of the Week (now back with more WoWness) drop us a mail with pictures of your very own UI, mods you use, and info like AareDub did, and your UI could be one of the next ones we feature!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-05-2007 @ 4:29PM
Jason said...
Sonic Death Monkey? Seriously?
Your guild is named after a chocolate-scented shower gel?
Reply
11-05-2007 @ 4:34PM
Dotixi said...
@1 I know Sonic Death Monkey as Jack Black's band from the movie High Fidelity.
Reply
11-05-2007 @ 4:40PM
Jason said...
That's fair. This is what I was referring to, my wife uses it:
http://usa.lush.com/cgi-bin/lushdb/2394?expand=Bath
It's been out for several years, although I don't know if it's been out as long as High Fidelity, or the book it's based on, for that matter.
The name could be total coincidence, or direct tribute.
Reply
11-05-2007 @ 4:43PM
blitzkrieg999 said...
Looks great! Not quite as minimalist as I prefer, but very well done none the less
Reply
11-05-2007 @ 5:32PM
PeeWee said...
Looks really nice, indeed!
Personally, I'd have some form of discreet texture on the backgrounds, since the grey areas are a bit plain for my own taste.
What I would also do is kick out Discord Unit Frames, kill oRA2 and CTRaid, and replace them all with PitBull, which IMHO by far is the best unitframe-mod available atm. With it installed, you could also get rid of the Omen-display, since PitBull supports Threat-Lib, which is what Omen use, and can display threat on the unit frames. But since you are tanking, you shouldn't have to worry about other people's threat. You just smash in all the threat you can, and all the others adjust to what you can dish out. Yes it IS that simple. If you DPS, the only threat you're really interested in, is your own, compared to the tank's, which is what is displayed on the Threat-bar in pitbull. Pitbull can also display your mana, even if you're in feral forms.
But all in all, a very nice UI. I'm soft for the "Displays lots of information, but still without stealing your viewport"-kind of UI's.
Reply
11-05-2007 @ 8:33PM
AareDub said...
Hey everyone!
Thanks for the positive comments so far. I submitted this a while back and have actually quit playing WoW since. I only found out that I was featured because friends started emailing me about it.
I'll check the comments here, but I'm not sure how useful I'll be anymore.
BTW, Sonic Death Monkey FTW :)
Reply
11-05-2007 @ 9:07PM
Stooch said...
Very impressive. Great job man. I hope you do consider releasing this as an easy to install compilation. I know I'd definitely use it.
Reply
11-06-2007 @ 1:11AM
vlad said...
nice, i love how everyone is pushing massivly. i can see this site being phased out within the next few months and all of us having to sort through other mmo news for our daily dose of late wow news.
Reply
11-06-2007 @ 2:31AM
MartinC said...
"Discord Unit Frames - The ONLY unit frames mod as far as I'm concerned"
Pfft, learn2Pitbull
Reply
11-06-2007 @ 6:49AM
Kryptonls said...
Horrid UI - the chat windows allow for what, a handful of lines? What about in cities or those important warnings in raids?
Bah.
Reply
11-06-2007 @ 7:44AM
patriciavandijk said...
@5 "With it installed, you could also get rid of the Omen-display"
I have a warlock and can't do anything without the Omen-display. I really need to know where I stand on the threathlist so I can use soulshatter before I really get aggro.
Btw, not my cup of tea but it is a nice UI! ;)
Reply
11-06-2007 @ 9:21AM
plixer said...
woot eitrigg!
Reply
11-06-2007 @ 11:22AM
Sliker_Hawk said...
Definitely not as good as Teos' interface. The panel at the bottom just looks plain horrible.
Reply
11-11-2007 @ 10:42AM
PeeWee said...
@11
What I mean is you can drop the display of everyone else's Threat. You don't need to know where the mages are, or the rogues, or shamans, or anyone else but YOU.
PitBull displays your bar in your unitframe, and if it goes towards full, you are reaching the threat the one on top of the list has. Just like you'd see your own bar in a colorful, but unpractical, display in Omen. As a DPS:er, I need to know naught but two things - Who to smack, and how much to smack him. Everything else is unimportant. Whaddya mean, keep an eye on my health? You mean you take damage as DPS:er? If you take damage, you're doing something wrong. Keep an eye on my mana? You're a lock, for crying out loud, you should never run out of mana. If you do - guess what? You're doing something wrong. ^^
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