So, Jim took a look at some of my screenshots and asked a few questions about my user interface (UI) set-up. I think I have a pretty good set-up, and have been meaning to discuss it with people (not the actual spells, just how I set up the bars). However, it's hard to discuss in in-game chat, and I think Tony & Michael are the only ones who have been to my house, so I thought I would take some time to explain my UI and hotbar set-up.
To make this easiest to follow, I would suggest right-clicking on the appropriate picture and choosing "Open in New Window" (that's for Explorer, but Netscape has something similar. That way you can Alt-Tab back and forth between the description and the enlarged image to see what I'm talking about.
First up is my basic set-up for Laila, which I will use for most of the descriptions in this post:
I am going to start by talking about the set up of the bars themselves, as well as the hotkeys I use. Then I will talk about the skills that I put into each bar.
BAR SET UP
I use 5 bars, plus the "shape change" bar (I know it looks like more, but we'll get to that).
1) Action Bar:
The first bar is my normal action bar, in the very lowest left corner of my UI. We all have this, and, in fact, without a special UI modifier (like Cosmos), you can't get rid of this. I use the default key bindings here, which are 1 to = (that's 1 through 0, plus the "-" and "=" keys). I am sure all of you use it the same way. For this discussion, I will call this my "Main Bar."
Remember that there are 6 different bars that you can scroll through in this area, by clicking on the arrows to the right of the bar, mousewheel or by using the shortcut keys (default are shift+1 to shift+6, although I will suggest changing those in a second). However, for me, I rarely ever change this bar. The only time I do is to switch to bar 2, where I keep profession skills (smelting, smithing, cooking and first aid). I will also ocassionally stick a macro button that I rarely use on bar 2.
2) Bottom Left Action Bar
A misnomer if I ever heard one. What Blizzard calls the "Bottom Left ActionBar" is actually the "middle" bar on the left side - the bottom is the "ActionBar" the top (small icons) is the "Shape Shift Bar" and the middle is called (by Blizz) the "Bottom Left ActionBar." Why is this important? Because, if you go into Interface Options to turn this bar on, that's what they call it. For my UI, I use the standard WoW bar from interface Options. For purposes of this discussion, I will call this my "Second Bar."
I bind the slots of this bar to the keys Shift+1 to Shift+=
3) Shape Shift Bar
The top bar on the left is the "shape shift" bar. Of course, for warriors it is stances (not shapes), for pallys it's auras, etc. I think this is also where the the Pet bar appears for warlock and hunters.
4) Lower Right Bar
Blizzard offers an option to add a bar to the lower right. However, I prefer to use PopBar, because I add a second row. More on this in a minute. I bind this bar to Ctrl+Shift+1 to Ctrl+Shift+=
5) Side Bar
Blizzard offers an option for a side bar, as well (I think they call it Right Bar). In fact, Blizzard even allows you to put 2 rown on the right side, with 12 buttons each. However, I find both the 12 box rows and 2 bars on the right to be very distracting, as well as interfering with open bags. So, I prefer to use the SideBar Addon. It allows a row on the left (which I prefer) and more flexibility in terms of number of boxes, etc. (I use 6 on each side). I bind these to Alt+1 to Alt+6 on the left side and Alt+7 to Alt+= on the right.
6) Pop Bar Row 2 (Hidden)
I have one other bar that sits atop my lower left bar. It remains hidden, unless I mouse over it, the it appears (as seen in this picture). This is one of the features of PopBar - you can add up to 12 rows of bars with as many columns as you want (up to 12). I use only 2 rows of 12 buttons each.
I bind Shift+Alt+1 to Shift+Alt+= to this bar. I will refer to this as the "hidden bar."
7) Other Key Changes
As I said before, the default key bindings to change the Main Bar is Shift+1 to Shift+6. However, I prefer to use the Shift+ keys for my second bar. Therefore, I have bound Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+6 to change "pages" on the Main Bar. There are options (I forget if Blizz offers this or only the Add Ons) to allow you to have other bars change when the main bar changes. However, I find that I prefer my pages to stay static (and, as I said previously, I rarely change the main bar, anyway).
8) Shape Shift = Change
One other note, with warrior, druid, and probably some other classes, page 1 of the main bar changes when the character changes shapes. Only the main bar changes - the others are static. The idea behind this is to allow the player to put skills limited to one or a few shapes only on those pages/shapes that can use those skills. However, I find building different pages for different shapes confusing. What I do, instead, is put the same skill in the same slot for every shape page (for warrior there are 3 "shapes" - Battle stance, Defensive stance and Berserker stance). But, on those shapes/pages where a skill won't work, I bind either a macro or a shape change command to get me back to a shape that allows me to use the skill.
For example, in slot 6, I have a macro for my Intercept skill. Intercept only works in Berserker stance. The macro first checks whether I am in Berserker stance. If I am, it executes Intercept. If I'm not, it puts me in Berserker stance. In other words, If I am not in Berserker stance and want to intercept, I just push the button twice - first push puts me in Berserker Stance, second push executes the skill.
As a second example, in slot 5, I have the Execute skill. Execute only works in Battle or Berserker stance. However, rather than writing a macro for this, I have taken shortcut. In the Battle and Berserker stance bars, I have the execute skills. However, in the defensive stance bar, I have the power for change stance to Battle stance. This has the same effect as the macro - 2 pushes - 1 to change stance and the second to execute Execute (hehe), but it is accomplished without having to write a macro. The difference? With a macro, I get the same picture (I use the picture that matches the skill for my macros) in all 3 bars. Without a macro, I get a picture of the skill in the bars where the skill works and a picture of the shape change in the bars where the skill doesn't work. This is not a problem, provided you KNOW which skills are in which slot.
ASSIGNING THE SKILLS
Now that you know how I key my bars, I turn to how I organize my skills. The first section was about the technicalities of how the UI works, this section is about my preference for how I want things organized.
1) Primary Skills
I want my main skills to be (literally) at my finger tips. I don't want to have to look down to acces skills either (there is enough to look at on the screen without losing time looking at the keyboard). I play on both a desktop and laptop computer, and my keyboards are laid out slightly differently, but my set-ups are made with the same intention.
I normally keep the fingers of my left hand sitting on Q W E (incidentally, I have rebound my movement keys, so that Q and E are turn and A and D are "straff" - the blizz default is the other way around), if I need to move, or 2 3 4, if I am in battle and don't need to move.
I put my main battle initiation skill on the 1 key. This is the skill that gets me into battle, but which I don't push much once I am engaged. For most characters, this is probable the attack skill, and this is the skill Blizzard defults in slot 1. However, for the warrior, as you can see, I have put Charge in slot 1, since I enter 80% of battles with a Charge.
After the intiation skill, my primary skills go into slots 2, 3 and 4. In the case of the warrior, these are sunder armor, Mortal Strike and Overpower. With my fingers on 2 3 4, it becomes very easy to mash these repeatedly as needed, without ever having to look at the keys. My next most common move goes into 5 - an easy press from the 2 3 4 position. For warrior, I put Execute in 5, which is a battle ending move (it is only available when the mob have less than 20% health and does substantial damage).
2) Secondary Skills
My primary skills, on both of my characters, make up probably 75%+ of all button pushes. However, my secondary skills are very important (especially in groups) and must be readily accessible. I put these skills in a couple of places.
First, common secondaries go into Shift+1 to shift+5. These sit directly above my primaries on the screen, and I can easily reach a pinky (or my right hand) to hit shift and execute secondaries without looking at the keyboard. Less common secondaries go into the Alt+1 to Alt+3 slots, as needed. For instance, I like to put "uber" moves (the ones with 30-to-60 min cooldowns) into the Alt slots.
The second place for secondaries is on the "right side" of the keyboard. That is, the 0, - and = keys. I find these are easily accessed by either right or left hand with a quick glance at the keyboard - once my hand is there, it can stay there and quickly execute a number of skills without re-looking at the keyboard.
The third place for secondaries is in the "nearby keys." For instance, I previously explained that my "finishing move" Execute is in slot 5. However, it only works at close distance. Intercept is also a sort of finishing move, and is used when a mob moves away. So, I bind it in slot 6. If I reach for 5 and it fails for distance, it is easy to get to 6, without looking at the keyboard (anyone sensing a theme)?
3) Grouping
The next most important aspect of arranging my skills is "grouping" the skills. When I'm fighting, I want to know where everything is, so that I don't have to think about where skills are or what those little pictures mean. All characters have dozens of skills, and there are some we rarely use, so I use grouping to help me avoid having to think about what skills do.
For example, Taunt, Mocking Blow and Challenging Shot are all skills that cause mobs to stop attacking someone else and focus on me for a time (commonly called taunt moves). I have Taunt in slot 0, Mocking Blow in Shift+0 and Challenging Shout in Alt+0. As another example, Demoralizing Shout and Piercing Howl both affect groups of monsters. I have them bound in - and Shift+-. Also nearby is Battle Shout in slot =. Although Battle Shout affects our party instead of enemies, shouts are off-cycle moves, and I tend to throw 2 or 3 of them together in groups. So, again, easy, no looking at keys, not much thinking (well, I can limit thinking to what I want to do, not how I do it).
4) Other Skills
Other skills go where they must. I try to figure out a logical place to put them, but some of them just go into a slot that's not yet taken.
5) Buffs and Such
I tend to put my buffs, bandages, potions, sharpening stones and similar skills/items into my third bar on the right side and drifting into the middle.
6) Important Macros
On the left side of my third bar, I keep important macros. In the case of the warrior, I have 4 macros to switch weapons (from 1-hander to dual wield, from dual to 2-h, from 2-h to 1-hander + shield, etc.). For a warrior, well for me anyway, this is CRITICAL and time-sensitive. By the time I have to grab my shield, if I have to open a bag, look for the shield, or think about it in any way, I'm already dead. One key and I've got it. I use these a LOT.
7) Non-skills that I use a lot
There are certain non-skills that I use frequently. Most importantly, call mount, call kitten, and turn on scanning (mineral scan, etc.). I tend to bind these into "middle" Alt keys (in this example, Alt+4, Alt+5 and Alt+6). So, they're always handy, but not taking up the most critical slots.
8) Hidden Bar
To make this easiest to follow, I would suggest right-clicking on the appropriate picture and choosing "Open in New Window" (that's for Explorer, but Netscape has something similar. That way you can Alt-Tab back and forth between the description and the enlarged image to see what I'm talking about.
First up is my basic set-up for Laila, which I will use for most of the descriptions in this post:
I am going to start by talking about the set up of the bars themselves, as well as the hotkeys I use. Then I will talk about the skills that I put into each bar.
I use 5 bars, plus the "shape change" bar (I know it looks like more, but we'll get to that).
1) Action Bar:
The first bar is my normal action bar, in the very lowest left corner of my UI. We all have this, and, in fact, without a special UI modifier (like Cosmos), you can't get rid of this. I use the default key bindings here, which are 1 to = (that's 1 through 0, plus the "-" and "=" keys). I am sure all of you use it the same way. For this discussion, I will call this my "Main Bar."
Remember that there are 6 different bars that you can scroll through in this area, by clicking on the arrows to the right of the bar, mousewheel or by using the shortcut keys (default are shift+1 to shift+6, although I will suggest changing those in a second). However, for me, I rarely ever change this bar. The only time I do is to switch to bar 2, where I keep profession skills (smelting, smithing, cooking and first aid). I will also ocassionally stick a macro button that I rarely use on bar 2.
2) Bottom Left Action Bar
A misnomer if I ever heard one. What Blizzard calls the "Bottom Left ActionBar" is actually the "middle" bar on the left side - the bottom is the "ActionBar" the top (small icons) is the "Shape Shift Bar" and the middle is called (by Blizz) the "Bottom Left ActionBar." Why is this important? Because, if you go into Interface Options to turn this bar on, that's what they call it. For my UI, I use the standard WoW bar from interface Options. For purposes of this discussion, I will call this my "Second Bar."
I bind the slots of this bar to the keys Shift+1 to Shift+=
3) Shape Shift Bar
The top bar on the left is the "shape shift" bar. Of course, for warriors it is stances (not shapes), for pallys it's auras, etc. I think this is also where the the Pet bar appears for warlock and hunters.
4) Lower Right Bar
Blizzard offers an option to add a bar to the lower right. However, I prefer to use PopBar, because I add a second row. More on this in a minute. I bind this bar to Ctrl+Shift+1 to Ctrl+Shift+=
5) Side Bar
Blizzard offers an option for a side bar, as well (I think they call it Right Bar). In fact, Blizzard even allows you to put 2 rown on the right side, with 12 buttons each. However, I find both the 12 box rows and 2 bars on the right to be very distracting, as well as interfering with open bags. So, I prefer to use the SideBar Addon. It allows a row on the left (which I prefer) and more flexibility in terms of number of boxes, etc. (I use 6 on each side). I bind these to Alt+1 to Alt+6 on the left side and Alt+7 to Alt+= on the right.
6) Pop Bar Row 2 (Hidden)
I have one other bar that sits atop my lower left bar. It remains hidden, unless I mouse over it, the it appears (as seen in this picture). This is one of the features of PopBar - you can add up to 12 rows of bars with as many columns as you want (up to 12). I use only 2 rows of 12 buttons each.
I bind Shift+Alt+1 to Shift+Alt+= to this bar. I will refer to this as the "hidden bar."
7) Other Key Changes
As I said before, the default key bindings to change the Main Bar is Shift+1 to Shift+6. However, I prefer to use the Shift+ keys for my second bar. Therefore, I have bound Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+6 to change "pages" on the Main Bar. There are options (I forget if Blizz offers this or only the Add Ons) to allow you to have other bars change when the main bar changes. However, I find that I prefer my pages to stay static (and, as I said previously, I rarely change the main bar, anyway).
8) Shape Shift = Change
One other note, with warrior, druid, and probably some other classes, page 1 of the main bar changes when the character changes shapes. Only the main bar changes - the others are static. The idea behind this is to allow the player to put skills limited to one or a few shapes only on those pages/shapes that can use those skills. However, I find building different pages for different shapes confusing. What I do, instead, is put the same skill in the same slot for every shape page (for warrior there are 3 "shapes" - Battle stance, Defensive stance and Berserker stance). But, on those shapes/pages where a skill won't work, I bind either a macro or a shape change command to get me back to a shape that allows me to use the skill.
For example, in slot 6, I have a macro for my Intercept skill. Intercept only works in Berserker stance. The macro first checks whether I am in Berserker stance. If I am, it executes Intercept. If I'm not, it puts me in Berserker stance. In other words, If I am not in Berserker stance and want to intercept, I just push the button twice - first push puts me in Berserker Stance, second push executes the skill.
As a second example, in slot 5, I have the Execute skill. Execute only works in Battle or Berserker stance. However, rather than writing a macro for this, I have taken shortcut. In the Battle and Berserker stance bars, I have the execute skills. However, in the defensive stance bar, I have the power for change stance to Battle stance. This has the same effect as the macro - 2 pushes - 1 to change stance and the second to execute Execute (hehe), but it is accomplished without having to write a macro. The difference? With a macro, I get the same picture (I use the picture that matches the skill for my macros) in all 3 bars. Without a macro, I get a picture of the skill in the bars where the skill works and a picture of the shape change in the bars where the skill doesn't work. This is not a problem, provided you KNOW which skills are in which slot.
Now that you know how I key my bars, I turn to how I organize my skills. The first section was about the technicalities of how the UI works, this section is about my preference for how I want things organized.
1) Primary Skills
I want my main skills to be (literally) at my finger tips. I don't want to have to look down to acces skills either (there is enough to look at on the screen without losing time looking at the keyboard). I play on both a desktop and laptop computer, and my keyboards are laid out slightly differently, but my set-ups are made with the same intention.
I normally keep the fingers of my left hand sitting on Q W E (incidentally, I have rebound my movement keys, so that Q and E are turn and A and D are "straff" - the blizz default is the other way around), if I need to move, or 2 3 4, if I am in battle and don't need to move.
I put my main battle initiation skill on the 1 key. This is the skill that gets me into battle, but which I don't push much once I am engaged. For most characters, this is probable the attack skill, and this is the skill Blizzard defults in slot 1. However, for the warrior, as you can see, I have put Charge in slot 1, since I enter 80% of battles with a Charge.
After the intiation skill, my primary skills go into slots 2, 3 and 4. In the case of the warrior, these are sunder armor, Mortal Strike and Overpower. With my fingers on 2 3 4, it becomes very easy to mash these repeatedly as needed, without ever having to look at the keys. My next most common move goes into 5 - an easy press from the 2 3 4 position. For warrior, I put Execute in 5, which is a battle ending move (it is only available when the mob have less than 20% health and does substantial damage).
2) Secondary Skills
My primary skills, on both of my characters, make up probably 75%+ of all button pushes. However, my secondary skills are very important (especially in groups) and must be readily accessible. I put these skills in a couple of places.
First, common secondaries go into Shift+1 to shift+5. These sit directly above my primaries on the screen, and I can easily reach a pinky (or my right hand) to hit shift and execute secondaries without looking at the keyboard. Less common secondaries go into the Alt+1 to Alt+3 slots, as needed. For instance, I like to put "uber" moves (the ones with 30-to-60 min cooldowns) into the Alt slots.
The second place for secondaries is on the "right side" of the keyboard. That is, the 0, - and = keys. I find these are easily accessed by either right or left hand with a quick glance at the keyboard - once my hand is there, it can stay there and quickly execute a number of skills without re-looking at the keyboard.
The third place for secondaries is in the "nearby keys." For instance, I previously explained that my "finishing move" Execute is in slot 5. However, it only works at close distance. Intercept is also a sort of finishing move, and is used when a mob moves away. So, I bind it in slot 6. If I reach for 5 and it fails for distance, it is easy to get to 6, without looking at the keyboard (anyone sensing a theme)?
3) Grouping
The next most important aspect of arranging my skills is "grouping" the skills. When I'm fighting, I want to know where everything is, so that I don't have to think about where skills are or what those little pictures mean. All characters have dozens of skills, and there are some we rarely use, so I use grouping to help me avoid having to think about what skills do.
For example, Taunt, Mocking Blow and Challenging Shot are all skills that cause mobs to stop attacking someone else and focus on me for a time (commonly called taunt moves). I have Taunt in slot 0, Mocking Blow in Shift+0 and Challenging Shout in Alt+0. As another example, Demoralizing Shout and Piercing Howl both affect groups of monsters. I have them bound in - and Shift+-. Also nearby is Battle Shout in slot =. Although Battle Shout affects our party instead of enemies, shouts are off-cycle moves, and I tend to throw 2 or 3 of them together in groups. So, again, easy, no looking at keys, not much thinking (well, I can limit thinking to what I want to do, not how I do it).
4) Other Skills
Other skills go where they must. I try to figure out a logical place to put them, but some of them just go into a slot that's not yet taken.
5) Buffs and Such
I tend to put my buffs, bandages, potions, sharpening stones and similar skills/items into my third bar on the right side and drifting into the middle.
6) Important Macros
On the left side of my third bar, I keep important macros. In the case of the warrior, I have 4 macros to switch weapons (from 1-hander to dual wield, from dual to 2-h, from 2-h to 1-hander + shield, etc.). For a warrior, well for me anyway, this is CRITICAL and time-sensitive. By the time I have to grab my shield, if I have to open a bag, look for the shield, or think about it in any way, I'm already dead. One key and I've got it. I use these a LOT.
7) Non-skills that I use a lot
There are certain non-skills that I use frequently. Most importantly, call mount, call kitten, and turn on scanning (mineral scan, etc.). I tend to bind these into "middle" Alt keys (in this example, Alt+4, Alt+5 and Alt+6). So, they're always handy, but not taking up the most critical slots.
8) Hidden Bar
In the hidden bar, I put other not-often used skills and non-skills. In the warrior example, I have 3 shape changes (these are critical, but I rarely shape shift without using a macro, so I have other keys I can rely on for this), call chicken with the "Thunderchicken Hooooooooo!" macro (so pressing Shift+Alt+5 shouts, and Alt+5 does not), and I bind my Hearthstone into Shift+Alt+=. These are a few other items that I bind here from time to time. These are the types of things that I don't want to have to open a bag for, but also don't need to have on the screen all the time. Because some of these change often, I sometimes access these by mousing over the bar, rather than using the shortcut keys.
As a quick comparison, I have also included a shot of my pally set-up (this is a couple weeks old, so some skills are missing).
The concept is the same - initiating move in slot 1, most common moves in 2 3 4 then 5, as well as Shift+1, Shift+2, Shift+3, etc. A couple of quick notes.
Grouping Part 2
The other thing I like to do is group move "sets." In this case, my most common seal move is Crusader, judge, Command. I have bound these, respectively, to 4 3 2. So, I head into battle, hit 4, hit 3, hit2, and I'm whooping ass. For healing, I have a sequence bound to Shift+2, Shift+1 and the `/~ key (which is just left of 1). So, again, I can hit these 3 keys in sequence.
"Obsolete" Ranks
Most skills become obsolete when they aren't the highest rank of the skill. However, healing is mana dependent, and sometimes you have enough mana for Rank 3, but not rank 5. So, I bound "obsolete" ranks of healing spells into the hidden bar. That way, if I don't have enough mana for the top rank heal, a simple mouseover shows me how much healing I can do (I have reconfigured how my spells are placed, but it's the same concept as you see here).
Okay, so now you know how I set up my bars. I want to talk for a second about a couple of other UI AddOns I like to use. (There are more visible on the screen than the two I want to discuss, so, if you have other questions, let me know).
1) Damage Trackers
I like to use a damage tracker. It lets me know what kind of damage I'm doing, and the same for other members of my party. In these pictures, I am using Damage Meter - the red box near the right side of my screen. Since these pictures, I have changed to recap, which is a more powerful program. However, both of them give you plenty of information.
2) Party Monitors
In both of the Laila pictures, I have a Party Monitor on in the middle of the screen. The monitor tells me the status of all party member's health and mana (as a percentage) as well as the health and mana of the mob I'm fighting. I don't use this often, but it can be helpful in tough dungeons or when I am playing a healer, since all party member info is right in the middle of the screen and easily readable.
One more thing, and then I'm done. Blizz offers an option (in Interface Options) to reduce the UI. I have included a picture of Kall's screen with the UI at about 75%. As you can see, it makes more of the world visible, but the buttons are less visible. If you know your button set-up well, this is an easy way to see more of the world around you.
Well, that's about it for now. As I mentioned briefly, there are many other AddOns that allow you to tweak you UI in many ways. For instance, I use an AddOn that shows empty bag slots (visible in these shots), one that allows me to move frames (the char frame, vendor frame, auction frame, etc) around on the screen, and AddOn that allows me to display the key number in every slot of every bar (these did not used to be visible in any bar other than Main Bar, and I think that is still true without an AddOn), etc. Maybe someone will do a post about favorite AddOns in the near future.
In the meantime, as always, if you have any questions about this post or my UI, just let me know.
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