Am I doing it wrong?
By sweep 29 Comments
I have racked up a pretty respectable amount of WoW hours over the past few years
but something that has always bothered me is the screen setup, especially towards the level cap, where there are a ridiculous amount of abilities to keep track of and skills that require ever-specific instances in which to use them. I actually stopped playing originally because I felt healing at endgame was too dependant on addons like Grid or Healbot. Having spent the majority of the game healing using simple button presses in 5-man instances, the big endgame raids simply overwhelmed my playing style to the extent that it was virtually redundant. I tried playing with Healbot but I always found myself lagging slightly behind the other healers. This may have been because they had better gear, or were better at the game (I am not so arrogant as to dismiss this possibility) but it often felt as though they were given some obscure advantage by whatever interface setup they had that was granting them faster response and cast times. I did some research and tried out a few combinations. After using Healbot, Grid felt pretty inadequate. Xperl was pretty but largely unhelpful as it did little to differentiate between buffs and debuffs. In the end I just became frustrated. I was spending most of my time staring at grids of healthbars instead of the action in which I was supposedly partaking. I ragequit both WoW and my Discipline Priest.I started playing again not long after.
Once an addict, always an addict.
Since then I have begun using a slightly weird setup, but one which I feel allows me adequate freedom and clarity to perform well at both tanking and PVP with my new warrior (Just dinged 70 ^_^). It looks a little bit like this:
Weird, right?
I installed Bartender to move my action bars up into the middle of the screen, where they sit just slightly to the right of my character. This means I can see the cooldowns of my abilities and trinkets at all times. 90% of my actions are done by mouse clicks. Yep, you read that right. I'm a clicker.
I have a few macros set up, sure - Usually just to conserve space - but nearly everything I do is done by mouse. I find this setup the most flexible because it let's me see the cooldowns of all my abilities at the same time, meaning I can click on whichever is going to become available first. No more button-mashing the number keys impatiently. It also means the edges of my screen are nice and clear, which I like. The blizzard toolbar artwork at the bottom has not aged well.
I have a few other simple addons like Omen (aggro counter for tanking) and a Damage Counter, but that's about it. Oh, and sexymap of course. Because everybody should have a sexy map.
I have told a few people about this weird setup I have and they all look at me like I'm some kind of crazy person.
but it seems to be working out fine for me so I see no reason to change. I have played through the majority of the game this way and I actually prefer it a lot to using a keyboard full of hotkeys. I very rarely have any problems in Instances (none that are related to my setup, anyway) and I am fucking destroying fools in Battlegrounds as a Prot Warrior. Proof:
I have become so comfortable with this interface that I actually found it weird trying to use key-presses last time I tried. I'm slightly worried that this will eventually come back to haunt me but until then i'm happy to keep on clickin'.
So what i'm really interested in is what setup you guys are using.
Do you have macros, addons, do you click or use keys? Do you have some weird 8-button mouse that lets you do everything, or do you pay some kid in china to play the game for you? Let me know, I'm intrigued!FOR THE RECORD
I am not looking for advice on how to play Priest or Healer. I can see you fuckers getting geared up already to call me a noob and tell me it's because I had the wrong addons or whatever - seriously, we have discussed this in a previous blog (which I can't be fucked to go find. It's in the pile, somewhere). That ship has sailed and I no longer give a fuck about playing a healing class.HOWEVER
I would like to hear about what setup you use if you yourself are a healer :DThanks For Reading
Love Sweep