World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

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, 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 

To achieve my look I used Bartender 4 for my bars. 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 EEPanels for the letterbox look and Titan Panel for the top and bottom bars on the screen. I like Recount for my damage meters and 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. 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 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.

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 piqued my interest. This is where you come in. I need you to 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.