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One
of the many beauties of WoW is its interface.  It's completely
customizable with a language more or less dedicated to it that anyone
can play around with.  Boy, have people played around with it,
that's
for sure.  The result is a plethora of mods that auto-mouse
over,
scream at you in giant red text, and invalidate virtually every
surprise threat that a boss can throw at you.  Since some mods
have
more or less come to be 'required'  by guilds, it's time to
see what
makes them so necessary and really, why they don't matter in the big
picture.  The default WoW interface is perfectly fine in my
opinion. 
But what happens when you take a fish out of water and invite he or she
to play and raid on a computer with nothing?  Are they truly a
fish out of
water, or are they merely making their lives a little easier?

DPS style="text-decoration: underline;">: 
Done by a Fury/Arms Warrior who wished to remain nameless so everyone
doesn't Armory him. 

Uses - Deadly Boss Mods, Omen, Recount, 2 Timers, Cooldown Trackers

Target for Comparison - Kologarn 25

Raid Makeup Changes between testing?  - Frost DK replaced
Windfury, slight haste bonus to Mod-less stats.



The result  -  DPS fell from 6300 to 6000 without
mods other than recount.  Bloodsurge was
missed 9 times.  Very little change in skill usage beyond
that,
Bloodthirst and Whirlwind were about the same.  Heroic Strike
was
actually used more?  Calling this a result of the haste.



The player's opinion -  "I was fury for both of these, and I
can't keep
up with bloodsurge procs without reminders.  If the default
interface
had a more obvious warning for it, such as the button lighting up or
having a golden rotating border when a special option for the skill is
available, I could have made it work.  I also didn't notice my
recklessness was back up until bloodlust was used, so I might've been
able to sneak a 3rd one in, but I don't think the fight lasted long
enough.  Maybe on Freya, it could've meant a 3rd if used
early.  I
would have done far worse if I was Arms for this test, just FYI."



My analysis - Well, he's a lucky bastard for having a 4 button offense
for this (Whirlwind, Slam, Heroic Strike, Bloodthirst).  There
are many
situations where cooldown timers are nice, and classes like Rogues get
the most benefit out of it.  Hunger for Blood,
Rupture,  Deadly Poison,
Slice and Dice, we simply have a ton of stuff to keep active and
monitoring the durations vs. combo points vs. energy is a huge dynamic
that can be made a lot easier with mods.  I don't use any, but
I've
seen some rogues in videos/screenshots that have the equivalent of a
hospital staff tending to their rotation.  Sure it might help
you top
the meters ever so slightly, but if I miss slice and dice for a second,
I lost 3 auto attacks at the most.   I'll live.

style="font-weight: bold;">Tanking style="text-decoration: underline;">:
Druid Bear off-tank who also
wished to remain nameless.  Come on guys, I'm not posting your
name to get in-game mail spam.



Uses - He sent me a screenshot of his active mods and you had to scroll
down to see them all.  Besides the cosmetics, he used four
tanking
assistants, Deadly Boss Mods, Recount, Omen, and a master loot
assistant that he swears never works right but won't
uninstall.  User
error?  Also has some fancy frames and button arrangements.

Target for Comparison - Trash deaths that he could have prevented and
general panic factor in Ulduar 25, overall TPS

Raid Makeup Changes between testing? - Irrelevant



The Result - One mage died twice, a warlock died 3 times ("He threw out
a 12k incinerate with 2 seconds of the pull, that wasn't my fault"),
and a raid that was asking the rogues to put Tricks of the Trade on him
and go after side trash rather than the main target at first. 
TPS was
only slightly lower but it obviously wasn't there when it counted.



The player's opinion - "Screw you.  There is nothing wrong
with wanting
to see how close that cat druid is to pulling aggro to know how hard I
need to fight the target to remain in control.  We were given
a big
ball of Play-Doh with this interface and I'm free to fill my screen
with alerts, warnings, and meters.  This is the first time
they (my
guild) have doubted me, or asked if I was drunk and couldn't
target. 
Thanks."



My analysis - ...Such rage.  Such rage wasted when it could've
been
better spent holding hate, I suppose.  Tanking can be tough
when all
you have for warning is a picture turning yellow/red and the fact that
the monster turned away from you.  Druids seem to have a
pretty simple
rotation though, compared to warrior and DK tanks.  Why do the
hybrids
have it easy?  Anyway, from my tanking experience through
Ulduar, the
hardest part of the process is targeting and the initial
grab.  Which
honestly is a total joke in almost every pull in Ulduar, there are very
few encounters that pose a threat via number or size woes. 
With gear
going through the roof though, TPS is becoming more and more difficult
to stay ahead of those glass cannons.  I would put this stat
to being
accustomed to whatever it is that you use, or don't use, so long as you
are consistent it should not matter.  Also, I don't think this
guy will
respond to my calls for a few weeks.



style="font-weight: bold;">Healing: 
Holy Paladin I know who gave me the WRONG character name to
Armory.  Seriously, I hate you all.

Uses - Not much, but a complicated UI Raid Setup for easy clicking.

Target for Comparison - Overall Ulduar 25, spot healing, as well as
frustration on her face.  Total Healed is not a fair
comparison due to
the length of fights being different and other factors that may or may
not be outside of our control.

Raid Makeup Changes between testing?  - None that would make a
difference -- similar totems were in place both times.



The Result - A rough beginning but things smoothed out by the time they
got to Kologarn.

The player's opinion - "Blizzard, you've done everything right but
given healers a good set of raid frames.   It's
workable, it's
manageable, but that doesn't change the fact that it sucks. 
Or would
you call this 'working as intended'?"



My analysis - For once I sympathize.   I have trouble
keeping up with 5
people, let alone 25.    The situation has
gotten better over time, but
only slightly.  You might even be able to attribute some of
that change
to the lovely 25 man raid change of old.  Paladins also have
it easy
with Beacon of Light giving the tank the benefit of all spot heals, so
if she seemed like she was slacking, the tank was still getting love
and the DPS was still standing, so complaints were generally brief or
joking.  It may be worth nothing that she did not start using
mods
until Wrath of the Lich King, so these results may vary since she was
used to having bad options as well as good options for raid frames and
healing.  Regardless, she got the job done and with no deaths
I could
clearly attribute to her fault once they got to the Keepers.



It's entirely possible to raid without mods.  The reliance may
be
nothing more than an illusion of graphics and arrangement, and playing
without them may seem like you came home to find your room totally
rearranged.  The shock may be brutal at first, but as you grow
accustomed to it, you appreciate it a bit more.  The WoW
interface
follows the same theory.  People are so used to their mods
that they're
afraid to leave home without them, but those that have been without
them forever, or have good experience without them in the past, can
make it happen.  I won't be so pretentious as to say that true
skill
comes from not using mods, but I will say that true skill is knowing
how to play your class without bright red font telling you to cast Holy
Light or Rend again.   These people are a dying
breed, but with new
games around the corner not supporting much in the way of UI mods, it
might be time for some players to suck it up and take what they can get
for an interface and make it happen.  And as I've now seen,
some people
can make it happen, some people can almost cut it, and some people weep
softly without them.  Which category would you fall under?