Your Restoration Setup

[GoblinShark 0]

Hey all. I was hoping to see some setups of how people run their Restoration Shaman. Preferably, screen shots of your interface during a raid or when preparing for one, and maybe what addons you use. I know everyone personalizes everything and I'm leveling a Shaman right now and would like to start getting ideas for how I'm going to set it up, in addition to reading the Restoration guide, of course. Thanks!

[kitsu 55]

I really dislike having to scramble when a ui mod is out of date, so I use minimal addons. The main one I use to heal is Vuhdo. I like it because it lets me see who everyone is targeting and if someone is out of range it draws an arrow pointing at them.



I'm ele there and it's from a long time ago, but my ui hasn't changed since.

[GoblinShark 0]

Oh, awesome I like that. Do people generally recommend Vuhdo here or Healbot? I've never tried Vuhdo but am enjoying Healbot because of its simplicity: bind and click! I'm mainly just trying to ensure I'm never missing anything, always hitting my cooldowns on time, and properly prioritizing who needs to be healed. I know that comes with experience, but a little help never hurt. Thanks for the response! 

[Drafty53 17]

Although my resto is not my main this tier, this was from last tier.  I still prefer mouse-overs with the blizzard ui raid frames + omen timers.  Allows me to see the time left on buffs from me and debuffs from boss mechanics.  I know most people will say Grid or Vuhdo or something is superior but honestly, with the ability to change the size and position of the blizz frames, I just prefer them.  They have never caused an issue for me.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Drafty53

[Stoove 347]

I have to say as an ex-Healbot user that I feel Vuh'do is far superior. Not only has it got more options in terms of customization, but it's fantastic in its flexibility. I also find that Vuh'do uses less system resources. The bindings work just like Healbot does, and it can do contextual spells, even point you in the direction of someone who's out of range (especially useful for resurrections).

 

I also use WeakAuras 2 to track cooldowns etc. Apart from the obvious (GTFO and DBM), the rest of my UI is pretty vanilla.

 

I do have a lot of funny keybinds for cooldowns, too. E.g. Shift+Space is Ascendance. I'll post a pic when I have time.

 

Edit: Also, I really hate having scrolling battle text for healing. It serves no purpose.

[Krazyito 521]

 I know most people will say Grid or Vuhdo or something is superior but honestly, with the ability to change the size and position of the blizz frames, I just prefer them.  They have never caused an issue for me.

Honestly this isn't a good reason why you wouldn't use Vuhdo or Grid or any other frames.  They all do the same exact thing you just mentioned.

 

It's not bad that you prefer them.  They do what they need to do, but at least for me I like being able to see a a lot of useful information on my frames (More so to see if people are using personal cooldowns, or raid cooldowns)

 

On-topic:

This is what I use across all my healers.  It doesn't change. (I just haven't played shaman in a very long time..)

[Stoove 347]

Quite an interesting thing; I don't like clutter on my bars, so I try to keep them big and reduce the number of buffs tracked. However, I tend to have a lot  more screen clutter instead. Interesting.

 

Also my cooldown trackers are much larger than other people's. Interesting. :)

[GoblinShark 0]

Looks good I like it. Definitely getting some fresh ideas! Thanks guys!

[Stoove 347]

 

So maybe my guild (<Harvest Moon>, we're recruiting) got a little carried away with taking the photo. You can see my cooldown and ability timers, my bars (I raid 10s so that set of bars doubles), and my admittedly crap DBM. :)

[GoblinShark 0]

Wow! Yours is super vanilla. I'm still a newb to healing and raiding. Are you using mouseovers or all "click" heals? Do you have a recommendation? Also, what mod gives you those big buttons, are they clickable or for notification purposes?

[Drafty53 17]

Honestly this isn't a good reason why you wouldn't use Vuhdo or Grid or any other frames.  They all do the same exact thing you just mentioned.

 

It's not bad that you prefer them.  They do what they need to do, but at least for me I like being able to see a a lot of useful information on my frames (More so to see if people are using personal cooldowns, or raid cooldowns)

 

Well its not JUST the re-sizing and placement. Obviously they all do that. I know that just used to be a complaint of the blizz raid-frames awhile ago so I threw it in there. I really like the colors of the blizz frames a lot. I don't like the dark coloring of grid to be honest.  Anyways, like I said, there is nothing that the blizz raid frames has ever done that has prevented me from healing at a very effective rate  (And if you think there is something that they don't do I would love to know so I can look into it), so in the end, I prefer the colored cells by class the most and with Omen, I can see what buffs or debuffs are on with players with time left (by icons which is big for my personal taste, not by colored dots in corners like grid sometimes resorts to).

 

Ultimately, find something you like. Some people like to use a bunch df different add-ons and make their own ui, and some like using all in ones like ElvUI and some like to import respected players UI. I'm pretty sure krazy is using a variation of the Affinity UI from Blood Legion.  When you take a look at the UIs here and that of healers in world first guilds, they all look different. Its a taste thing really.  The ONLY two things I would say is that some sort of mouse-over mechanic should be used (Clique, mouse-over macro's, etc) 100% as well as some variation of a CD/Important Mechanic/buff tracker like WeakAuras or TellMeWhen.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Drafty53

[Krazyito 521]

As for what Vuhdo can do better than Blizz frames: I'm able to where I want my HoT icons to show around my bar (There are predetermined areas, but I can place which Icon goes where)  I can also put in custom debuffs for raid specific bosses (usually they are always shown by default) but I can also ignore specific debuffs that clutter my frames.  They also have built-in click to heal functions, which is irrelevant really if you use mouseover macros.  I use a combination with left/right/middle clicks and then mouseover macros.

 

As for the way they look, you can set Vuhdo to show the frames by class colors, thats not hard at all.  Hell, if I put the time into it I could probably make them look exactly like blizzard frames (probably not the same HoT/debuff spots though, but close)

 

And the reason you know that mine is a variation of Affiniti's UI is cause you yourself are using some of his elements =P.  Though, I've been using this same UI since dragon soul.  Hasn't changed much other than recount/VEM/BLCD

[Drafty53 17]

Haha yes, I do have a similar setup to Affiniti. I loved his UI when I first saw it but 1. I don't play a monk haha and 2. I prefer not to use ElvUI just because I don't like the all-in-one packages for the systematic risk of something not working, the causing the whole thing to be off.  But yes, I like the setup of the CD tracker under the raid-frames, which is really the main thing I liked about his setup. 

 

As I keep trying to elude to with my "blizz frames get the job done crap" is that it's honestly just personal taste.  I don't think what extra goodies Vuhdo or Grid or any other raid frames have prevented me from being an effective healer (Well I know they haven't but yea).  I would most likely put the buffs and debuffs in the same place of the frames as the blizz ones do, etc.  They are small enough so the frames don't clutter and I just like them.  So in my opinion, find what you like.  If you learn to play your class well and use some sort of mouse-over mechanic I don't think they type of raid frames you use will prevent any type of success.  I would suggest trying them all and then choosing.  I have tried most of them (Vuhdo, Grid + Clique, Healbot, Healium) and I eventually just liked the simple and effectiveness of the standard frames with mouse-over macro's.

[Krazyito 521]

I've considered switching to ElvUI frames, becasue my Vuhdo does give me problems when the groups move around in combat, or I D/C and come back mid fight (usually when stuff out of the ordinary happens in combat)

 

The biggest issue with me would be that im so use to using left/right/middle mouse clicks that it would take an enormous amount of willpower to change it.  Its doable, but I've been using right click as my Rejuvenation button and middle mouse click for Wild Growth since 2009. >.<.

 

I agree, its a preference thing, but that's the only argument over blizz frames since Vuhdo can do it just as well but better in most cases.  =P

[Brewmonksta 157]

 

The biggest issue with me would be that im so use to using left/right/middle mouse clicks that it would take an enormous amount of willpower to change it.

Clique - problem solved :)

 

You know i can be a bad clicker Krazy :P but clique will allow you to do the same thing as healbot/Vuhdo with the click to cast style as well as binding spells and macro's to mousover etc.

[Krazyito 521]

No. I've tried clique. It screws with my default mouse binds (namely zoom and auto-run). I'm pretty peticular when it comes to my mouse binds now..

[Stoove 347]

Wow! Yours is super vanilla. I'm still a newb to healing and raiding. Are you using mouseovers or all "click" heals? Do you have a recommendation? Also, what mod gives you those big buttons, are they clickable or for notification purposes?

 

Yeah I found it easier to maintain like that. I use Vuh'do, which behaves like Healbot for healing - I have click, and some modifiers as well like Shift. I would advise making as many heals and spells "click" bound so that you free up your action bars for other useful skills! I use Weak Auras 2 to make those "buttons", they're just there as visual aids - I have the spells themselves keybound (e.g. Ascendance is Shift+Space, Spirit Link Totem is Shift+F, etc...)

 

Clique - problem solved

 

You know i can be a bad clicker Krazy but clique will allow you to do the same thing as healbot/Vuhdo with the click to cast style as well as binding spells and macro's to mousover etc.

 

Problem with Clique (or when I last tried it, at least) was that it would bind it for _any_ frame, which I didn't want. Since LMB and RMB are really useful to bind heals to, it just screwed up the rest of the game.

 

 I eventually just liked the simple and effectiveness of the standard frames with mouse-over macro's.

 

Ehh, Mouseover macros take up space on action bars that could be used for so much more useful things. :)

 

 

I've considered switching to ElvUI frames, becasue my Vuhdo does give me problems when the groups move around in combat, or I D/C and come back mid fight (usually when stuff out of the ordinary happens in combat)

 

I actually find that Vuh'do is the best healing addon when it comes to that kind of thing. Had the problem all the time with Healbot, but I never have to worry about it with Vuh'do. :)

[Krazyito 521]

It may be because I have it set to arrange the tanks/healers a specific way on my framea

[kitsu 55]

have you tried keeping the vuhdo default Target/Focus frame and adding your tanks as private tanks in that panel?

 

in my screenshot up top i have one panel for the raid group as a whole and a seperate panel that shows my target, focus, and anyone i set as private tank. i have to set tanks at the start of each raid, but i can do it manually without having to rely on the raid lead to officially set the tanks.

[Krazyito 521]

Well, I already have a private tank thing for my target and focus, and I would much prefer to not have redundancy, which is why I have the tank on the bottom so they are always near the bottom right.

[Drafty53 17]

 

Ehh, Mouseover macros take up space on action bars that could be used for so much more useful things.

 

 

 

Yea but I have every spell/macro possible on my bars so this is a non-issue.  Bar mods like Bartender can go a long way 

[Stoove 347]

Yea but I have every spell/macro possible on my bars so this is a non-issue.  Bar mods like Bartender can go a long way 

 

OK, but that doesn't make it easy to play though. Just having lots of bar space means nothing if you can't get to the spell you need. By removing heals from the important buttons 1-5, you open up space for a lot of other important stuff that really needs a good keybind. For me, those are Ancestral Swiftness, Lightning Bolt, Frost Shock, and so on.

[Stoove 347]

Well, I already have a private tank thing for my target and focus, and I would much prefer to not have redundancy, which is why I have the tank on the bottom so they are always near the bottom right.

 

Oh this, yes in 25s I see your point. I always found when I was raiding 25s that it was best to have a separate "tanks" window to keep an eye on them, that way it didn't matter so much what order the main window was in. That helped on fights where group number mattered (case in point being Baleroc in Firelands).

[GoblinShark 0]

Awesome info guys thanks! I'm using the screenshots to set mine up, I should be ready to rock. Seems at those people are definitely deep with what they like playing with. I think I'll stick to the "click" style for now, I like the feel of it. I like the idea of having the non-heal spells bound to readily available hotkeys for quick usage while the mouse is exclusive for click-healing. 

[Drafty53 17]

OK, but that doesn't make it easy to play though. Just having lots of bar space means nothing if you can't get to the spell you need. By removing heals from the important buttons 1-5, you open up space for a lot of other important stuff that really needs a good keybind. For me, those are Ancestral Swiftness, Lightning Bolt, Frost Shock, and so on.

 My mouse has 9 buttons on it so between that and the closet keybinds around WASD, I have more then enough close keys where it's not a problem for me. My heals are `-5 and then quick reaction things such as dispel, interrupt, purge, healing surge, rain etc are bound to mouse buttons.