When Aurdon first asked me to contribute to his blog, I had some reservations. I figured it would be difficult to give you guys any kind of new content, considering that the majority of the readers here outlevel me by 25 or 30 levels. I read blogs looking for news and tips, and I don’t really feel myself qualified to give them.
Aurdon assured me this was alright–encouraged even. So here I am, with the first of what will probably be many advice seeking posts. I’ve gotten to the point with Rhii where I just can’t manage all my spells anymore. I’m constantly juggling disorganized action bars, spells that are hiding when I need them, missing potions, and general UI problems.
I’m Arcane specced, pure Arcane, at the moment, although I’m toying with the idea of rebuilding my talents from the ground up sometime soon. Arcane has a lot of short-notice or instant cast spells (clearcasting, presence of mind, counterspell, etc.), and it can sometimes be kind of a time crunch getting to them quickly enough. And then there are in-between things like my teleport spells that I don’t need immediate access to, but I don’t really want to bury six pages back in my spellbook where it takes me fifteen minutes just to remember where I left them. I guess I just need access to more spells than I can easily reach with my current setup, and am looking for any UI addons or organizational tips that have proved useful for more experienced mages. What macros should I set up to save space? What spells should I have front and center on my bars? How do you organize your action bars to make things easy to reach?
Right now I have most of my “combat” related spells on the bottom bars, (the commonly used ones on the main bottom left bar, less frequent ones above) and most of my noncombat/protective type spells and consumables on my two right bars… it’s not working out that well.
So how do you guys do it? How do you reach what you need when you need it, where do you hide the things you rarely use, and what about those in-betweens? I’m all ears…
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
I found using ElkBuffBars and PowerAuras set up to show when clearcasting/arcane barrage and all those other temporary buffs is up helps a lot.
Best way I've ever found: keybindings and the bartender 4 addon.
I set up my keybindings for my primary nukes on the main action bar, and the secondary ones on other bars. I cast secondary spells (ones that don't get used as often or didn't warrant room on the main bar) with a modifier key. So for example Ctrl+7 = polymorph for me. Also, binding frost nova and arcane exlosion to the mouse wheel is a godsend. Scroll up to nova, scroll down to AE – makes spamming that sucker so much easier in AoE pulls, and keeps your nova right at hand for emergencies.
I love AutoBar. It keeps a lot of things organized into nice, neat buttons, such as portal spells, food/water, potions, buffs, professions, etc. Many of the things you use often enough, but don't want to keep on your action bars.
I use Dominos and Cryolysis 3. You need nothing else =). I'm frost so my top bar is all of my frequently used frost spells. I have bindings to Q, E, Z, X, C, V, F, and R. My second row is a mixture of instant or fast cast fire spells along with Arcane. Most of which are bound to my various mouse keys (I have a Logitech G5 Laser). Now Cryolysis 3 is the BEST thing for mages I've found. No need to put any of your non-combat spells on a bar, they are all sitting right there in a little menu that you can operate extremely quickly once you've used it for a few days.
Cryolysis will take care of almost all your needs.
Food & water, buffs, portals, mana gems, mounts, reagent/ health/ mana status and some customizable buttons all in one. Saves a lot of space for those must have but seldom used spells.
Cryolysis saved my life lol, once you ave cryolysis and a good bar mod (bongos or dominoes) your all set. I like having all my spells where i can see them just incase i ever need them, so i have my main spell bars in 3 short bars one above the other, 1 bar for each element. I also like things like profession buttons on bars that stay invisible until you roll over them, i find it really makes things look neater. I havent played with keybinding, but i have a really bog standard keyboard atm, and i really like a lot of the keybinding already set (M for map, P for spellbook etc) and id prolly end up accidentally unsetting them and confusing myself XD
For portals/teleports, I found this addon at curse.wow.com, it puts all my portals and teleports in one drop down, its called PORTALFU. The cool thing about it is that the button stays at the right top corner by the mini map. This is very useful, just FYI.
here's my 2 copper on what mods everyone's suggested…
ElkBuffBars – Great mod…really slims down your buff/debuff UI if you config it right.
. This works for all classes so its really a must have.
PowerAuras – Never used this but I've heard about it. Right now I'm using something called MiksScrollingBattleText to play a sound and flash when I get a special "proc" like Hotstreak
Bartender 4 – Used Bartender 2 and a bit of 3 but haven't bothered with 4. I switched to Bongos which is now Dominos. Both do about the same thing.
AutoBar – This = <3. Every lazy player's dream mod. It has some advanced features you can set yourself but I just let it do its job and set things up…. automatically
Cryolysis 3 – I used Cryolysis waaaaaaaay back in the day when it first started, then quit and got picked up by another developer. Its a great mod that was based off of the Warlock Necrosis mod. Can't remember why I got rid of it…I guess its because Auto bar takes care of all those needs for me and Autobar works for any class.
Opie – While I don't use it a lot on my mage, I do use it on my shaman. I have a pie set up for each totem class. Its a "different" mod but I like it.
As far as where to put your spells, thats up to you. What bar they end up on is only important if your a "clicker" and not a "binder". I myself play a bit of both. I play with the default binds and put most offensive spells on the 1-5 keys of bar one. Other spells like would go on the 2nd bar and I use the shift key to swap bars quickly when needed. So I have Blink on bar 2 in slot 2, I press "SHIFT+2 and then 2" and I blink. Shift+1 back to bar one and start fighting again….perhaps not optimal but I only use it for a few spells and you get accustomed to it.
With my DK i've but all frequently used spells in the 1-5 slots on bars 1-3 of bongos. Then I use Shift as a modifier for bar 2 and Alt as bar 3. Control is defaulted to my pet bar. Its like my setup with Aurdon but I don't actually switch bars when I accesses something in bar 2 or 3. With this set up I have 15 actions accessible to my left hand with the use of shift and alt. anything beyond those 15 get a mouse click.
here's my 2 copper on what mods everyone's suggested…
ElkBuffBars – Great mod…really slims down your buff/debuff UI if you config it right.
. This works for all classes so its really a must have.
PowerAuras – Never used this but I've heard about it. Right now I'm using something called MiksScrollingBattleText to play a sound and flash when I get a special "proc" like Hotstreak
Bartender 4 – Used Bartender 2 and a bit of 3 but haven't bothered with 4. I switched to Bongos which is now Dominos. Both do about the same thing.
AutoBar – This = <3. Every lazy player's dream mod. It has some advanced features you can set yourself but I just let it do its job and set things up…. automatically
Cryolysis 3 – I used Cryolysis waaaaaaaay back in the day when it first started, then quit and got picked up by another developer. Its a great mod that was based off of the Warlock Necrosis mod. Can't remember why I got rid of it…I guess its because Auto bar takes care of all those needs for me and Autobar works for any class.
Opie – While I don't use it a lot on my mage, I do use it on my shaman. I have a pie set up for each totem class. Its a "different" mod but I like it.
As far as where to put your spells, thats up to you. What bar they end up on is only important if your a "clicker" and not a "binder". I myself play a bit of both. I play with the default binds and put most offensive spells on the 1-5 keys of bar one. Other spells like would go on the 2nd bar and I use the shift key to swap bars quickly when needed. So I have Blink on bar 2 in slot 2, I press "SHIFT+2 and then 2" and I blink. Shift+1 back to bar one and start fighting again….perhaps not optimal but I only use it for a few spells and you get accustomed to it.
With my DK i've but all frequently used spells in the 1-5 slots on bars 1-3 of bongos. Then I use Shift as a modifier for bar 2 and Alt as bar 3. Control is defaulted to my pet bar. Its like my setup with Aurdon but I don't actually switch bars when I accesses something in bar 2 or 3. With this set up I have 15 actions accessible to my left hand with the use of shift and alt. anything beyond those 15 get a mouse click.
…ok so maybe that was more like 20 copper
Here's mine from just before wrath hit
http://carnivore.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/96…
http://beefeater.mirror.waffleimages.com/files/f1…
The spells on my main bar are all hotkeyed, they're just there for range/cooldown checking. Other spells with no cooldown or targeted range (ae, blizzard, etc…) are hotkeyed but not displayed. The buttons in the lower left aren't hotkeyed at all. I have a /focus macro for polymorphs and use pitbull's focus frame to monitor them. That's what the portrait is. I also have some normally-empty buttons that I fill with stuff that I may need at the time (gems, macros for bosses, etc…)
Oh and a note about hotkeys and button placement. It matters. Keep important stuff near your fingers or near the middle of the screen. Create a good flow for your fingers in your hotkeys. I like using ctrl+shift modifiers in my less-used-but-important spells like combustion, trinkets, and poly. They're still very easily accessible, but just require an extra finger. For example, my trinket/iv macro is shift+q and combustion is shift+r, so I just do a quick arpeggio on shift, q and r to activate all of that. It's very easy and flows nicely.
All of this works nice for me, but your mileage may vary. Come up with a good layout that you like, get used to it, and you'll be efficient in no time.
glompix, what addons are those you're using? In particular, what do you have showing your connection speed there at the top of the screenshot… that's the only reason I keep the "micro bar" around, if I could find a nice unobtrusive way to get rid of it, I would.
i've been using the addon called "opie" (http://www.go-hero.net/opie/) – it takes some getting used to, but i'm finding a nice rhythm now. i hate to switch my system and re-learn it all now, but i'm also intrigued by my magey peers, who all seem to recommend Cryolsis…
by the looks of it I'd say its preformance_fu its a fubar plugin that will track your FPS, addon memory drain, and ping
Well i'm only a lvl 45 mage atm, and i dont usually use addons for my spells. i just hav my main attack spells(Fire ball, Frostbolt etc.) lined up on the main action bar, i hav my buffs grouped above them followd by shields(mana shield Frost barrier. etc.) then any quick ones like Counterspell and blink, then my conjure and teleport spells after that, and onto the two vertcal bars. and i dont know if it helps but i'm frost spec. Hope this helps u some^^
Aurdon is right about that fubar addon. Other addons, many of them mentioned already, follow:
Bartender4 – buttons
Pitbull – unit frames
Chincilla – minimap
Quartz – casting bars
ElkBuffBars – buffs
CowTip – tooltip
Minimalist – Lots of little convenience goodies
Fubar – information bars, there are lots of little addons for it and I think mine are ExperienceFu, MoneyFu, DurabilityFu, LocationFu, PerformanceFu, VolumeFu. I can't remember the names of the rest.
Omen – Threat meter
Recount – Damage meter
BigWigs – boss mods
oRA – Raid assist
Love the blog, by the way! I've been reading ever since Aurdon was on WoW radio a while back and it's great to see mages with a voice.
nice chat log.
all to typical =P
Just found the blog. Went through an intense revisit of my UI just before Wrath. Key thing has been keeping all “twitch” items within reach of my left hand, either by main action bar 1-5 or keybindings.
Your blink is Shift+2 and then 2 would never work for me — I use Blink too much as an escape, as a reaction to falling too far, and even while just walking along. I bound it to Shift+W (mental model: more forward than just W). Likewise, I bound escape keys like Iceblock to Shift+X (mental model: retreating), Frost Nova to shift+A, Mana Shield to shift+D, and Counterspell to shift+S. I save shift+Q, shift+E, shift+C, and shift+Z for whatever insta-spells I feel I need readily handy. Right now that’s decurse, pyroblast, dragon’s breath, and blast wave. I often replace decurse with spellsteal or ice lance depending on if I’m in PvP or against a particular boss. Then I keep my regular non-twitch attacks (fireball, scorch, fire blast, frostfire bolt, arcane nova) on 1-5.
One thing that I struggle with is where to put other saveme’s. I’m using bartender 4 and right now I have them all in enlarged buttons on the side of the screen — health pots, mana pots, healthstone, bandages… I also have a lot of deliberate-use triggers over there — mana gem, haste/dmg trinkets… I used to have those within “twitch” range but I found that I might too often waste one with an errant key push and be mad that I triggered it early, since most of them have a cooldown much longer than the 1.5 GCD. So I keep them all in one accessible mouse-reachable space… but I’m not convinced it’s the solution, since sometimes you really need to be able to down that healthpot right away!
@Leno Nice! I do the mental model thing for some of my keybindings as well and I think it works nicely. My blink ended up as ctrl+e somehow, so I put my mount as shift+e and flying mount as alt+e. (until I get my macro fixed, anyway) My “outs” like iceblock and (if i have it at the time) ice barrier are in the back as well. Wand is ctrl+t, since it’s like an extended attack. Depending on spec, scorch and ice lance are either g or shift-g and dragon’s breath/coc are f/shift-f. Yours seems a lot more thought-out though, as mine just kind of landed wherever I had a handy key free.
@glompix Yup, you’ve got the idea — now you need to decide what you really need. I suspect getting on your mount is not worth a keybind (mine is on a visible bar stacked above the main bars via bartender4 — can also be accessed with shift+5, 1 or shift+5, 2). I still make use of standard keybindings like F for assist, I just tried to make user of all the keyboard movement keys I’m using anyways (when not steering with the mouse). People with extra buttons on their mouses often also bind some of those to instants, but I find myself clumsily hitting those buttons at odd times so I don’t go any further than the mouse wheel.
Two other recent interface additions I made that have made a big difference in my play — SmartBuffs and Parrot. With SmartBuffs, you can set up several mage buffs so that you are alerted when they are about to dissappear, and even so you can reactivate them with the push of the button or (as I do) the scroll of the mousewheel. So I set Arcane Intellect and Molten Armor up to alert me when they’ve less than 120 seconds left, and a mousewheel flip puts them back on. Better yet is Combustion — not frequent enough to put on a twitch, but annoying when I forget to put it on. Now if it’s never not up and I’m out of combat, poof it’s back on. Parrot is an alternative combat-text-floater, but what I was able to do was set up an alert for Hot Streak — big font and a sound played — because I would keep missing that it had proc’d. Very very helpful!
I know these are fire-mage-specific tips but I suspect there are equivalents for Frost and Arcane… –Leifo
See, now the mousewheel thing I could never do. I hit that thing by accident so much, like you do with your mouse4/5. Also, as much as I mount up, I would get annoyed very easily at having to click for it. I don’t really have a shortage of keys with my keyboard, (G15, I even have my buffs hotkeyed
) so pretty much everything except stuff on my far bottom left bar are hotkeyed.
I find mouse4 and mouse5 lend themselves very well to flamestrike and blizzard. You have to use your mouse to target a circle anyway, so it’s a very natural extension and feels very smooth. It would be inconsistent (to me, at least) to put something like fire blast there since all of my other offensive spells are on keys. On my boomkin, I have them set for the druid ranged aoe spell (name escapes me right now) and moonkin form. If I were feral, they would be for cat/bear form.
And I LOVE parrot. I haven’t used it since 3.0 since it broke for me and I just haven’t bothered, but my favorite feature in it over SCT or the built-in was that it rolled aoe damage into one number. Great idea.
Hi all, i’m a lev 80 frostfire raiding mage, he’s my stuff
Recount – You need to know your dps.
Omen – Over agro = death, this helps you keep an eye on your agro
Quartz – Replaces the cast bar and shows a ‘lag’ area, ie when you can actually cast again.
Smartbuff – Fantastic! One button can be clicked to do all your buffs, group and raid members too, reminds you when you or raid member havnt got intellect for example.
Cyrolisys – Just for the resheep warning really.
To be honest you can hide alot of stuff away, teleports, portals, making food etc i keep in action bar 2, out of sight, all the stuff thats not urgent.
Also use macro’s a key bindings. I have one button that uses both my trinkets then casts a forstfire bolt (use 13; use 14; cast frostfire bolt) Another that sets a sheep focus, another for counterspell, another to target my tanks target.
The only time actually go looking for buttons is when i need to eat/drink or use a gem/evocation.
Overall I have 8 keyboard buttons which cover all my combat moves, mouse wheel click is iceblock and the 3 icons above (food+drink/evo/gem) plus the icon from smartbuff for all my buffs. so thats it, 8 keyboard buttons, 4 on screen icons piece of cake