healing-ui Archives - World of Matticus

Configuring the Healing UI: What’s on Your Wishlist?

September 21, 2012August 2, 2010 by Matticus

You can see elements of the default healing UI in place in a recent post. A number of you asked what the configuration window for it was like.

Don’t laugh.

Here it is.

Yeah, that’s it.

I should also add that it’s certainly possible to drag it the frames around. I can’t seem to find a way to lock it but maybe that’s a user error.

You’ll notice a c heck box that says Keep Groups Together.

Unchecked, it allows you to sort groups by role, group or name.

Now I don’t expect the default interface to outright replace addons like our beloved Vuhdo or Grid. But I do believe there are some aspects of it that could use additional improvement. It’s important to discern between must have and nice to have but can probably heal without it type changes.

I’ve already mentioned the need for clearer debuffs to appear on the frames
Resizeable bars would be excellent to have because not everyone plays on the same setup
Customizable energy bars. I don’t need to see rage, focus, or energy bars but I do need to see mana bars of other players (healers specifically)

What about you? What would you like to see added? What do you think is important to have on your healing UI? What can you get away without having?

Cataclysm: The updated healing UI

July 31, 2010 by Matticus

Spoiler warning (As if the title didn’t give it away)

Check out the updated default healing UI. Yes, this is the default UI. As in, the interface you get without any customization whatsoever. I queued randomly into Blackrock Caverns (took a while, but I managed to get in).

What you see right now is actually the raid frames, not the party frames. I didn’t switch to party frames yet (I prefer my raid UI for everything and this is as close as I can get to it). First thing you’ll see is that the top left of each player has a little role icon.

Never again will I ever see the question “Who are the tanks?”

At least, I hope.

And yes, the red frame highlight shows who currently has aggro.

Yellow frame shows who I currently have selected. You can also move the frames around. I haven’t found out how to lock it in place yet.

Now we’ve got some more action going on here. The healing combat text hasn’t changed much. My personal Renews appear on the bottom right. Haven’t shielded anyone yet.

If you look carefully at our tank, you can see a Frostbolt icon on the bottom left. I almost missed it. Things like debuffs that can be removed need to be made a lot more noticeable.

Green bar shows approximate incoming heal amount. I don’t know if that’s before or after any type of Mortal Strike debuffs or healing buffs.

That’s it for shots since I’m too busy trying to keep the group alive (Prayer of Healing was the next spell cast, believe me).

Then we wipe because I cast Guardian Spirit on the wrong Pally when some Ogres and stuff wander into us.

EDIT – Back in. Here’s more:

Something that needs to improve on is the dispelling interface. It’s really hard to notice. You have to mouse over it in order to see what type of debuff it is. In the shot below, you can see a little red skull icon on the top right denoting a disease. The actual disease icon is then on the bottom left where you can mouse over and see what it actually is.

I think a better solution would be to fill the entire player frame with the appropriate dispel color which states what type of debuff it is.

For example, if I get hit with a Frostbolt, my background color could fill with a gradient blue which overrides my normal class color of white. That would make it extremely obvious I have a debuff. The actual debuff icon could still be on the bottom left.

Definitely very cool though.

Thoughts? If this continues to get developed and streamlined further, I might not have to use custom raid frames anymore.

Yes, I Wrote for the WoW Magazine – Check out my Articles

September 14, 2012January 15, 2010 by Matticus

You might remember that several months ago, I sent out a plea for help and volunteers. I was working on a secret project but I couldn’t really disclose what it was. Some of you guys guessed that I was working on a raid UI or healing addon.

Sorry to burst your bubble. I’m not that good with coding.

But I do love writing.

During the week of BlizzCon 2009, I was contacted by the Editor in Chief of the WoW magazine. He read my blogs and asked if I could contribute two articles. One of them was on loot systems and the other was on healing UIs that are used by various players.

Naturally I said yes!

Here are the scans (PDF):

This first article is on loot systems. Loot council, DKP, SK, and need before greed.

The second article is on healing UIs. You might recognize some of the people I interviewed. The first one I interviewed was Lilitharien. Yes, the same Lilitharien from Divine Aegis! Another familiar face you may recognize is Zusterke, who frequents the Plus Heal forums (and has guest posted on World of Snarkcraft).

I am slightly depressed. Its actually quite silly and I don’t know why its affecting me so much. You’ll notice that my name doesn’t appear anywhere on the scans. In fact, it doesn’t appear anywhere in the magazine.

It was a great opportunity and I’m thrilled to have been a part of it, don’t get me wrong. But when I show it to my friends and say "Look! I wrote these! I got published! Ain’t that cool?", I’ll be met with skepticism. And I won’t have any way to prove that I did this.

Its disheartening for me since I’m considering diving into journalism or communications. I wrote for what looks to be one of the coolest magazines on the planet, and I can’t even add that to my resume.

The reasons? I don’t want to get into the details about it here. Suffice it to say, I believe its… ah, whats the word? Political?

Anyway, those two will most likely be the only articles I’ll ever write in print. I know for a fact that I won’t be given the opportunity to write for them again (Politics). I had a great time interviewing everyone. I apologize to those of you that I had spoken to where none of your material was included. Thanks to everyone who offered me 15 minutes (or hours) of their time when I was looking for volunteers. Obviously, I could not have done it without them.

Look, I grew up evangelizing Blizzard and playing their games since I was 8 or something. I learned keyboard commands in Warcraft II before learning how to touch-type. I invited friends over to my house to show off Starcraft. I was practically first in line for Warcraft 3 when it debuted.

Its just crushing when you find out that the gaming company who you’re most loyal and passionate about has heard of you and doesn’t really like you. Sorry, this is bothering me a lot more than I thought it would.

Anyway, if you haven’t already, you should go subscribe to the WoW Magazine (and no, I don’t get commission :P). Lots of useful stuff for players of all types and I guarantee you’ll find a few things in there that will be relevant (or at least amusing) to you.