Ever wonder what really makes you better? Maybe you won’t become a pro just because you do it however taking the time to really make a UI that works for you will always make your job easier. I have personally spent hours and hours to perfect my UI and I finally found something that works for me (but still not perfect…). I tried several UI complications from various sites (such as WoWInterface and WoWUI) and everyone of them had something i liked. There were multiple UI compilations that I found that looked like mine but had just one minor problem or unneeded mod and it erked me. So I finally sat down and made my own from scratch.

This UI was made with the intention of maintaining an organized and clean appearance. It has a minimalist look to it and provides me with every function that i require. The UI was built with the emphasis on raid utility and there are several raid addons which are not shown. I will go over the majority of the addons I am using and why I feel they are necessary. Keep in mind that everyone heals and plays differently, but having a well built UI will improve your performance whether your a healer or not.

Performance

Depending on your system you may be able to increase the amount of addons you have without impacting your performance too much. However if you don’t have a great system that you will definitely need to cut down on the addons you use or find memory friendly substitutions. The UI I use normally runs on 40mbs of memory and has gone up to 75ish (due to Recount). This in no way slows my system down so I am perfectly fine, but if that’s not the case then look for other options. ACE addons are known for low memory requirements.

Layout

The first thing that you will notice is the layout of the UI. I personally tend to keep everything in the lower section of the screen in order to maximize the view of the game. Some UI’s use this concept however their player and target frames remain in the default placement. This doesn’t make sense since your UI should bring everything together to reduce the amount of mouse movement or eye movement. Having everything neatly cluttered makes mouse movement across the screen faster and easier, and allows you to focus more on your target frames and surroundings. I have also seen UI’s that move their frames a bit closer to the middle of the screen and it definitely has it’s pros and cons. One pro is that it allows you to view your closer surroundings better especially if you tend to get tunnel vision. However a con to that is having everything in the middle of the screen blocks the view of potential deaths (ie. shadow fissures & void zones).

• SunnArt View Port – SunnArt View Port is used to re-size the window view area and add a little spice to the look of the lower section of my screen. The simple way around would be to simply place everything in the lower section of my screen however by using SunnArt View Port I no longer loose any of the view area. This ensures that everything that is going on in the game window is viewable and not covered by multiple addons. There are other alternatives to view port but this addon came with designs instead of plain solid colors. If you want to create a UI with all your mods in one section then I highly recommend this addon to ensure you don’t loose any of your viewing area.
• Chinchilla – “Minimap addon of awesomeness.” There isn’t much else I can say about this except that it catered to my design and fitted perfectly in the lower right. I definitely wanted a square minimap and this addon has multiple features. However I kept it simple and clean.
• FuBar – Fubar is more of a supplementary addon that allows you to create bars that contain the settings for most of you addons along with plugins like clocks, performance, durability, factions, and more. By using fubar I am able to hide all of the minimap icons and keep the ‘clean’ look to my UI. I personally use one bar and have it set to autohide.

Unit Frames

• Grid - If your a healer and have never heard of Grid then its time you go and look it up. I have raided with several raid frame’s and after discovering Grid I have never gone back to any other raid addon. It provides a vast amount of customization that meets and surpasses the functionality of other alternatives. I’m not trying to bash on any other addon out there but grid is simple and effective. Being a very customizable addon it will require you to set it up properly to have it work for you and not against you. Check out BoB Turkey’s or Shadow Weaving’s guide for starters if your having trouble setting it up.
• Pitbull - Pitbull is another heavily customizable unit frame addon that can do it all. You can use Pitbull for your party frames, target, player, and even raid frames. In my UI I use it for just about everything except raid frames. I actually copied someone else’s design for the frames because to be honest Pitbull is awesome but not an addon for a novice. The main reason to using this type of addon is to give you a more aesthetically pleasing UI, and to top it off having the ability to rearrange your unit frames to a better placement on your screen.
• TipTac - Not a unit frame addon but it makes tooltips customizable allowing to view more information when you mouseover a raid, party, or target unit. Can be configured to show health, mana, talent, buffs, and more.

Action Bar

• Bartender - Having the ability to add extra bars to your screen will ensure that you have every vital spell out there ready to be used. If you’re a macro heavy user then multiple action bars is almost a must with so little space from the default action bar. Yes it is possible to add extra bars with the default UI but being able to re-size, fade, and create odd shape bars makes organizing and creating a neat UI possible. You will notice that in my UI I use 2 3×4 bars in order to fit everything in the bottom middle section of my screen. I have also played with fading bars and although I am not a big fan there can definitely be a use for them. To give you an idea I used a fading bar that would sit on the side of my screen and when mouse overed it would bring up all my consumables and potions. With the recent release of Bartender 4 I have not been able to change the layout of the bars, but I have learned to live without it. There are several other options out there for action bars however I personally haven’t used anything besides bartender.

Buffs

• Elk BuffBars – Knowing what buffs and debuffs you have will always be important in any situation. As far as which buff addon you use (if any) is really just a personal choice. There are buff mods that have more features then others, which is why i use Elk buffbars. With this mod i have the ability to size the buff bars to my needs and adjust the font sizes as well. You also get the ability to move the bars anywhere on your screen where you are most comfortable with.
• Smart Buff – This isn’t viewable in any of the screenshots however it makes buffing yourself, groups, and raids sooooooo much easier. It alerts you when someone is missing a buff or is about to loose it depending on the timer settings you choose. I highly recommend this to anyone who needs to keep an eye on buffs and ensure everyone has your class buffs for every encounter.

Chat & Scrolling Text

• Scrolling Combat Text – If you like to see the numbers as your healing / taking damage then SCT & SCTD will do the job for you. Personally I like to see how my heals are doing during combat and being able to see how much I am healing for. This is probably optional for most players but I’ve grown to them and i can’t get away from them. Aside from the typical healing and damage input/output you can also view buff & debuff gains/drops, periodic healing & mana gains, and more.
• Prat & Cellular -Both of these addons in no way help you get better but they definitely make your UI look nicer. Prat can be configured to add time stamps, color names by class, and more. Cellular keeps all whispers in their own separate window making whisper to whisper conversations easier to manage.
  

Damage/Healing Meters

• Recount - Knowing how you are performing in a raid is crucial at all times. Although damage/healing meters don’t say much about your abilities it’s still nice to know how well your doing compared to your team members. Recount however isn’t all about damage and healing meters, but it can be used to view other aspects of a raid. You can use recount to view someones death log, view other healers abilities being used, dispelling/cleansing, and more. The only drawback to Recount is the amount of memory it requires during raid times. However it can be configured to store less data hence reducing the amount of memory required. Recently from a friend I found out about Skada. If you are having memory issues with recount then give it a shot. I loaded them both up during a raid and Skada was by far consuming less memory to run.

Behind the Scenes

• Ark Inventory – bag mod for all your bag needs.
• BugGrabber - This will disable the UI errors from showing up in the middle of your screen.
• BugSack - The errors from BugGrabber get sent here for later viewing.
• Deadly Boss Mods – Raid timers & more
• EQCompare - Compare gear side by side.
• FuBar_DurabilityFu - Shows your durability percentage, cost to repair, and can auto repair.
• FuBar_FactionsFu - Keeps track of your reputation.
• FuBar_PerformanceFu - Shows memory usage of all your addons, fps, and latency.
• FuBar_WintergraspFu - Will give you an estimate of when the next wintergrasp will be up.
• Getting Things Healed - Healing assignment mod that can save presets for fights making healing assignments easier to handle.
• Headcount - Keeps track of raids.
• LoggerHead - Will enable combat logging when you enter a specified instance.
• Mapster - Map mod.
• Omen - Threat meter (never visible in my UI).
• OmniCC - Displays cooldown time remaining on your action bars.
• Outfitter - Allows to create gear sets for various encounters / specs.
• Pawn - In game gear stat calculator.
• Postal - Improved mailbox.
• Rating Buster - Stat summary in your equipment tooltips. Makes picking upgrades easier and seeing what stats will change.
• Talented - Never spend a talent point in the wrong ability. Also useful to play with specs.
  
• Thank God - Never miss a proc from Holy Concentration or Surge of Light. Flashes on your screen when you get a proc and plays a sound.
• oRA2 - Raiding utility mod. Able to display main tank frames, assist frames, ready checks, and more.