The Return of Revolver, and Other News

So a decision has been made.  I have withdrawn my app to Coalition, who looked pretty full on priests at the moment anyways, and have decided that I will create my own new guild with Reyk.  Though we haven’t really set anything in stone, we’ve begun the leg work, contacting a few people, seeing if some real life friends might jump ship from their current guild.  It’s very exciting times.  We’ve also definitely decided that it will be a 10 man hard mode guild.  We all feel that you don’t need to see 25 man to see everything.  Having excellent gear is always fun, but in the end, I don’t think it outweighs the fun of playing with a bunch of friends.

So we’ve decided that our original social guild, <revolver> shall be born anew!  This was way back when we originally started playing and included a couple of our other friends.  In fact, my alt on my original server is currently the guild master of the original reincarnation, seeing as he’s the only character with an active account who is still in it.  Either way, it’s going to be great to have my own guild and to be able to not worry about whether we can get 25 on the next raid night.  Getting 10 will be a lot easier and a lot more fun I think.  I’ve even managed to draw Tart and her unaware husband into the fold, making us complete for a healer and tank team.

Oh, and the final part?  Scrat has decided to come back for this little venture thanks to the upcoming changes to the shaman class.  So once more I’ll get to play with my asshole friend in a raiding environment.  I also now have enough cash to buy the epic flying ability finally, but I must wait till 3.2 comes out in order to get the huge discount that’s gonna be handed out then.  Ah well, patience is a virtue after all.  Couple that with everything else going on and my buddy Scrat coming back and oh yes, things are definitely looking up for Dueg.

Plus, after hours and hours of moving this and tweaking that, I’ve finally finished constructing my new UI.  Though I’m thinking that I might still change a few tiny things.  For the most part though, I’m all set, though I can’t get the grid mana bars to work which is annoying me more than a little bit.  So without further ado, I give you Dueg’s brand new, super happy UI of fun and happiness:

I dunno...

I’m still not sur about it though, I think it might be taking up too much space on the bottom, but that might be because I have it set to be black instead of see through.  I’m also considering pulling that Pit Bull portrait up near the map, which is my current mouse over and the small bar above it, which is my target’s target, down to site closer to the other target frame.  Once I have a ten man raid filled up, you’ll see 9 other squares in the middle that I can use Clique on.  I still haven’t tested it in an actual raid, so that may come a little later tonight.  I’ve also decided to give Decursive a try since as a priest, I have quite a few heals already loaded onto clique.

So it’s definitely interesting and the funny thing is that lately I’m feeling a resurgence in wanting to play more often.  Looking for things to do so I can keep playing and I’m definitely enjoying the game again.  Hell, just running around the fire festival was fun even though it was just running around.  Speaking of which, expect a review on that tomorrow.  So interesting times for Dueg coming up.  Don’t worry though, I’ll keep you updated on things with <revolver> and we’ll see how it goes.  Hopefully before too long, I’ll be back in Ulduar, making attempts on Yogg, only with 15 less people.

-Dueg

Add Ons? More Like BAD Ons! BAM!

So I was noticing on my guild forums that a thread has recently been resurrected wherein guildies are posting their UIs for tips and in order to help others and such and such.  Now I’m a being of the interwebs and as such, I have a tendency to surf it.  Beyond just this particular thread on my guild forums, I’ve seen many many many posts on various blogs where people share their UIs and give tips on how you can improve your own.  So I’ve decided that the time has come for me to post my own.  Ready?  Then feast your eyes upon Dueg’s Super Fantastic Fun UI for Holy Priests and Awesome People:

Try not to be overwhelmed

Gasp!  The original UI?!  Oh, Dueg, how can you let everyone down like this?  How will people respect you now that your terrible little secret is out of the bag?  Well, I’ll tell you how.  See that healing meter there in the corner?  See the second name on there?  That’s right, Duegathalas.  This just serves to prove something that I’ve held as a fact since I began raiding: Your UI does not make you a better raider.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I don’t think that everyone who downloads a new UI add on is convinced that this one will help them to become the end all, beat all shit of raids.  For the most part, UIs are simply aesthetic for the people who download them, used to decorate their screens in a more pleasing manner so that their visual input is streamlined in order to increase efficiency.  Thanks to some pretty strict rules, you really can’t have add ons that do things for you, or else you’ve crossed over into the forbidden world of botting.  But what is it that makes a good add on?

Well, as I’m sure is pretty obvious by now, I’m a minimalist when it comes to my UIs and add ons.  I’ve done some research and made some considerations and for the most part i’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t NEED a lot of fancy UI add ons and that likes of which.  I’ve done a-ok with my three main ones and I feel like anything else would simply be window dressing for Dueg.  So let’s take a look and see what I’ve chosen and I’ll try to explain why it works for me.  First up is one that I think is one of the better raid view UIs, Grid

I prefer this particular one because I’m a click-then-cast type of healer.  With Grid, everything is tightly packed together, making it easier to move from person to person while healing.  However, this can be accomplished with other UIs.  The true beauty of Grid is it’s customization to display debuffs present or buffs missing from the people shown.  I have mine set up to display when magical debuffs show up which improves my dispelling timing.  I also love the way that it gives you a number to display how much health is missing from your target, letting you know in a flash which heal would be better suited for each particular situation.  My particular one is set to show a 40 man raid so that I can see past five groups in case we have to move people around for particular assignments.

Next up is what has quickly become one of my absolute favorites for add ons, power auras.  I use this one basically to let me know when certain spells are off cooldowns and when procs are up and ready to be used.  I’ll give you a quick run down for the picture you see to the right.  The cross and little droplet at the left is for PoM and CoH, when they’re on cooldown those will disappear, letting me know at a glance not to waste my time casting those.  The spark in the upper right corner is for when Surge of Light is ready for use, you can see a timer there under it to indicate how long I have left.  The bottom two icons are Guardian Spirit on the left and Divine Hymn on the right. Those pop up when those abilities are on cooldown, letting me know how long until they are available again.  

Finally, that circle around me is Serendipity, I actually have three distinct circle icons that change with each stack, letting me know when Serendipity is fully charged without having to check my buff section.  This also helps to serve as an indicator of where Dueg’s located when I’m fully zoomed out and lost in the crowd of raiders.  All of these help to show me what the current status of my character is when checking buffs and cooldowns by giving me a centralized location on my screen to find that information.

Finally, my third major add on (besides Recount, which I really don’t count), is Deadly Boss Mods.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, everyone who is serious about raiding should have DBM (or an equivalent boss timer mod).  Basically, DBM is an add on that will give you important in fight information about the boss that you are on.  It’ll let you know when an ability is about to be cast or when you’re standing in some bad shit.  It lets you know cooldown timers for boss abilities and gives you an idea when to prepare for spike damage and can literally save your digital life.  You can certainly go without it, but it certainly can’t hurt to have it.

So that’s it, those are my add ons and that’s my UI.  I find that all three of these have improved me a great deal and I wouldn’t be caught dead without them at any raids.  So now I turn to you, gentle jerkwads, what sort of UIs do you prefer?  Maybe you’re like me and the original is good enough for you with some slight modification to help improve reaction times during raids.  Or maybe you’re a UI fanatic, filling up your screen with numbers and windows and loving every graphical minute of it?  Either way, I’m open to suggestions or ideas for improvement, just don’t expect me to run right out and download it.

-Dueg

Update: One little tip I completely forgot to mention!  As you can see in the picture, I’ve taken to turning my name on.  I also turn off friendly player’s names, but keep my target’s name on still.  This helps when zoomed out as well as it gives you a visual cue of your location and that of your target.  In mobile fights where you may need to know at a glance exactly where your target is, but it’s more beneficial to take in the entire battlefield, this can prove pivotal for gauging range.