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It is
often said that necessity is the mother of invention.
Few games have necessitated inventions the way WoW has. With its fast
paced
action, over saturation of information and numbers flying at you at
warp speed cite="mailto:Bender" datetime="2009-04-24T15:11">, it
is often helpful to have addons to help extrapolate the important
bits. 



When Blizzard introduced WoW at the end of 2004,
none of its
individual parts were truly innovative,
but rather they
were distilled from the best parts of other games and blended into an
easy to
play format that ran on damn near any computer out there. Many of its
critics
dismissed the game as too simplistic and "cartoony,"
but they
failed to see the subtle layers of the game that have made it among the
most
powerful and popular of all time.



Perhaps the most powerful of these features is the open ended UI that
allows
players to create their own modifications to enhance the gameplay. I
have met
many detractors of UI mods who attempt to show themselves in a superior
light
by insisting that these mods are a crutch of the weak and unskilled. I
am here
to tell you that these morons are the same folks who listen to nothing
but 30
year old music, bitch about how things aren’t as good as they
once were and are
generally miserable. To those of you who fall into this category let me
state
that I respect your right to your opinion, but while you continue to
bang the
rocks together for a spark I will go ahead and press the igniter
button.



UI modifications can be used for a number of reasons, from aesthetics
to
rotation management and everything in between. I prefer a cleaner look
than the
default UI 

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67163"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 565px; height: 335px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/67163">

To
achieve my look I used href="http://www.wowace.com/projects/bartender4/"
target="_blank">Bartender 4
for my bars. href="http://www.wowace.com/projects/xperl/" target="_blank">Xperl
for my unit frames (their raid frames are also top notch) I use a
combination
of Healbot and Grid for my raid/party frames (no links yet, I want to
talk
about those with you more in detail) I use href="http://www.wowace.com/projects/project-14986/"
target="_blank">EEPanels
for the letterbox look and href="http://www.titanpanel.org/" target="_blank">Titan
Panel for the top and bottom
bars on the screen. I like href="http://www.wowace.com/projects/recount/" target="_blank">Recount
for
my damage meters and href="http://www.wowace.com/projects/omen-threat-meter/"
target="_blank">Omen
for my threat meter. I have mixed opinions about
combat meters but to keep it simple and prevent the early onset of my
inevitable accute M.I. (heart attack in layman’s terms) I
will simply say that
they are a good tool for raid leaders to determine points of
improvement for
the raid as a whole.  href="http://www.wowace.com/projects/ora2/" target="_blank">ORA
2 rounds out the list of mods I
use, its a lightweight
alternative to CTRA, a raid assist mod that allows main tanks to be set
and
broadcast to the raid, checks for AFK's, performs ready checks and does
other
important tasks.





The only essentials here for those of you who will be raiding are Omen
and oRA2
. Having a reliable threat meter is a great tool for all archetypes.
Tanks will
want to be able to quickly ascertain their threat level and the level
of other
tanks on mobs that need to be swapped between them. DPS will want to
use this
tool to make sure they aren't about to pull aggro and healers will want
to
monitor threat for those spikes in anticipation of healing a wayward
DPS who
can't seem to find the off switch. oRA 2 allows you to have a separate
"focus" window for all tanks and is great for monitoring the health
of all tanks. 

 

Resto


As
a healer the resto druid has many functions in a raid. Main tank
healing is our forte but we are capable group healers and decursing
should
always be a top priority. To help with this I recommend a friendlier
version of
the default raid frames. There are many options out there. I use a
combo of
HealBot and href="http://www.wowace.com/projects/grid/" target="_blank">Grid.
Healbot is a frame mod that allows you to pre-set spells to be cast
when you
click on the players name. It’s easily configured and allows
for quick reaction
healing of a non prime target. I use it as my main raid frames and I
use it to
cast emergency heals when other healers become incapacitated or to
assist folks
with a difficult assignment. Grid is a similar addon and can be loaded
to show
you tons of different information. I use it to select raid members and
for
decursing. Since I primarily get assigned to a tank or multiple tanks
to heal,
I keep them targeted with oRA and use my hotkeys to keep them up.

style="">Balance
and Feral

Conspicuous
in their absence are they not? I tried to find a
few addons that I could

play around with and critique, but none really class="msoIns"> cite="mailto:Bender" datetime="2009-04-24T15:39">piqued
my
interest. This is where you come in. I need you to href="mailto:[email protected]"> send me
suggestions for spec specific mods.
I will take a look at them and in a few weeks add them to this article.
Don’t
send me general use mods folks. 
I want
addons that are relevant to these two builds. I tried a couple DOT
timers
for BOOMkin , but none really made me see a lot of benefit. I also
tried
Squakhard for rotation, but I found it wasn’t keeping up with
what I could do
on my own in terms of ability management and reacting to talent procs.So
help me out fellow druids “you’re my only
hope!”

 

 

UI
modifications have given WoW a unique feel. In a game
where we all look the same it is amazing how different the nuts and
bolts of
the game can look to us. I hope you have enjoyed a brief glimpse
through my
looking glass and I hope to hear from you soon about the mods you enjoy
the most.
Until next week, have fun in Azeroth and stay safe. style="">  style="">