Optimising the Blizzard Default UI

Some people play World of Warcraft using user interface (UI) mods. These AddOns change how unitframes, actionbars, the chat frame, scrolling combat text and screen fonts are displayed on the screen, usually by making them more streamline and compact. They do away with the clunkiness of the ornamentation that is in the default UI.

However, these addons are usually highly intertwined with the WoW program code, and often stop working as intended when the game client is changed with a content patch. Players usually become very accustomed to playing the game using a narrow set of controls, and become very frustrated when they have to do without their UI mods, spoiling their virgin dungeon or raid experience.

Some other people would rather avoid such disappointment and leave their UI mostly unadulterated. Of course, others may find a joy or challenge in playing the game in the way Blizzard intended them to play it, with an elaborate and ornate UI complementing the vibe of the playing field. For whichever reason people play the game through the Blizzard default UI, there are still ways to make handling the character easier under it.

My user interface, where the unitframes, actionbars and fonts are Blizzard default. I am playing as a Holy Priest.

1. Actionbars
As a click-caster, all abilities used regularly should be grouped close together on the screen. This minimises the mouse movement required to reach the different abilities. The abilities used less often should be located further away, so they have a smaller chance of being used accidentally. These may include cooldowns, heals (for a damage dealer) and damaging spells (for healers). In my case, I have all my heals grouped in the lower left set of actionbars, while I have Shadowfiend and Mind Control (among others) further away.

To use the keyboard to cast abilities, the abilities need to be keybound to the respective keys. The easiest way to do this is to place them on actionbar 1 (at the extreme bottom left of the screen and framed in stone ornamentation). This actionbar automatically binds them to the row of number keys above the letters in a QWERTY keyboard. They should be ordered to resemble as close as possible a sweep back or forth along the row, so sudden back and forth movements are avoided as much as possible.

2. Raid unitframes
For a damage dealer, there is usually no reason to have all 10 or 25 frames of raid members' health and power bars in display for the entire time. However, individual players' or groups' unitframes can be dragged out on-demand from the Raid tab of the Social menu.

In the case of a healer, they need to have full view of each raid members' health (and mana, if they can artifically accelerate mana regeneration). Not only would they need to drag out all of the unitframes, they would also need to keep them there permanently. In doing so:

• The party unitframe should be hidden while in a raid. While this is sufficient in a party scenario, in a raid, many more unitframes need to be displayed on the screen and the party unitframe will hog a fair amount of the real estate. Since all health bars will be displayed anyway, this can comfortably be tossed away.
• Space the unitframes adequately. While no clearance is needed outside the top and bottom edges, the client will display debuffs off the right edge. Where unitframes are next to each other, enough space should be left between them for two debuff icons.
• Position the unitframes near the healing buttons (if click-casting). This cuts down on the screen distance travelled to switch between selecting a player and activating a heal. In my case, the raid unitframes are directly above the healing buttons.
• If the unitframes are below the target unitframe, leave screen area below the target unitframe clear. This area gets populated with the target's buffs and debuffs, which will obscure any health bars under it.
• To optimise the 10-man and 25-man experiences at the same time, the unitframes for Groups 1 and 2 should be positioned closest to the healing buttons.

3. The Focus frame
The /focus command can be very useful if close watch needs to be kept on a particular player or NPC. Because of this, the resulting Focus unitframe is an important part of the UI and thought should be given with its position. It should be placed where it is not too far away from the field of view, which usually means that it should be placed near the raid unitframes. In my case, I placed the Focus frame between the raid unitframes and the chat frame, near the path the mouse cursor usually takes between the raid unitframes and the healing buttons.

4. Doing away with extra code
The game runs faster when there are less AddOns running. With enough creativity, the Blizzard default UI can be used in such a way as to substitute for some AddOns. In my case, I have a counter for my reagent (Devout Candle) on the far right actionbar. I created it simply by dragging the Candle from my inventory onto an actionbar slot. This eliminates the need for me to run an AddOn that counts my reagents for me.

5. The view of the playing field
With all manner of objects on the UI, a clear view to the playing field should be established. This usually means clearing the centre of the screen, where the human field of view is the strongest, and placing the clutter around the outer edges (in the peripheral field of view). Of course, there are certain objects that are so important that they need to obstruct the field of view to gain enough attention (e.g. scrolling combat text and raid warnings). These should be set to flash on the centre of the screen.