Happy camper

Yes, that's me. Running WowMatrix yesterday showed new versions of SpartanUI and Bartender were available. I've been using Spartan since around the time 3.0.1 hit and I really liked it, but it had a couple of issues that were kind of annoying:

• When I'd log on, all the bars would be in the wrong place. I'd have to load a different profile, and reload the SpartanUI profile for everything to get back in place.
• When skills didn't have enough mana/rage/focus/etc. they'd get entirely blacked out instead of "blue".
• The Death Knight's runes were often partially hidden by the ghoul portrait.
• Death Knight rune power didn't update properly when not in battle.
• "Exit Vehicle" buttons on the action bar would never work.

All of these are now fixed. Makes the game much more fun to play when things actually work the way they were intended. =)

In the meantime, DK Alierah is more or less done with Dragonblight, had tanked a few more instances (relatively low level, though, so it's not surprising I didn't have any problems) and reached level 79. Just a little more until I reach 80. What do I do then?

The UI Post

I'm sorry, but I don't have anything "intelligent" to say today (I know, I still need to do "Why do I WoW" post - I'm working on it but it's not ready yet), so I'll take the easy way out and post my UI and addons. Please remember this UI is not for raiding, and while it's usable in BGs, I don't think it's particularly good for it. It's mostly designed for solo leveling, and to be fairly consistent between different characters (I don't want to start hunting around for my HS every time I log into a new alt).

So, without further ado, here is Enara's UI. I'll try to walk through it in some sort of order, so no one gets lost along the way.

So first, we can see FuBar on top. One bar is enough for me, and I found having the bottom bar annoying when trying to click stuff on the action bar (I'd move the mouse down too far, and click FuBar instead of whatever it was I was going to cast).

On it we have LocationFu (so I don't get lost) and MonkeyQuestHelper (works with QuestHelper and MonkeyQuest, which is nice) on the left side. On the right side, we have RestFu (keeps track of all my alts' rested XP), MoneyFu (keeps track of gold on all alts in that realm), and finally Baggins.

Under FuBar, you can see my combat log - I don't use that part of the screen for anything else, and I don't usually have to click there, so it's ideal. The chat log is still in the bottom left, in its default location.

Next, around the mini-map I have icons for WOWecon (that I talked about a little here), ACE preferences, ItemRack and Gatherer*. Just beneath it is QuestHelper - while it's very useful, it might be too useful and I'm still a little undecided on whether or not to use it**.

For my inventory, I use Baggins, and it's excellent. I had to disable all my addons temporarily a little while ago, and the default bag management was just horrible.

Finally, the 2 teleport spells on the left (and, if you can see, Arcane Intellect behind Baggins) are brought to you courtesy of ClassButtons. While it isn't perfect, and often misses a lot of spells I would have liked to see for some classes, is still very useful. Who knows, maybe I'll finally get around to adding the spells I want to it some day...

I also use Auctioneer for the AH, Cartographer and TomTom*** for my map addons, AckisRecipeList for trade skills, Linkerator for linking in chats, and Omen when I go instancing (or soloing with a pet).

Finally, the default Blizzard UI works for me, with the spells I use in combat on the main action bar, the more situational (and less used) spells in the bottom left (and bottom right, if there are too many of them) bar, and the food/drinks/HS/potions/trade skills on the right action bar.

Other than that, I have some class-specific addons - Hunter's Helper (for all your pet management needs) and Smarty Cat Mana Bar (to keep track of mana while shape-shifted on Druids).

And, of course, this post wouldn't be complete without mentioning WowMatrix, which allows me to easily keep all these addons updated and making patch days relatively pain-free.

UPDATE:

Stupid, stupid, stupid... Forgot one of the most important addons for us altaholics - SendSelf. A fairly simple addon, all it does is add the names of your alts to the auto-complete list when sending in-game mail. No more sending mail to random similar-named people and no need to add them all to the friends list. Must-have for anyone with more than 2 active chars on the same realm.


* I've heard Cartographer can do everything Gatherer can, and I tried, but it didn't really co-operate. If anyone has any suggestions on getting it to work, I'd be more than happy to use one less addon.

** Without QuestHelper, you actually have to read quests to know where you need to go. With it, I often find myself just running towards the arrow to get the quest done.

*** I generally find the arrow/pointer thingy too annoying. The minimap indicators, however, are pure gold.