After a couple of poorly timed crashes and a better understanding of how much lag reduces my DPS, I took some some time to purge my UI and add-on folder with fire and sword. As much as I'd love to delete the whole folder, I've been using more and more add-ons since I began raiding. There are now some features that I can't get on without that Blizzard will not provide.

So, I need to decide what I really, really need as I pare down the collection. My current UI is a version of All Deuce UI (from over a year ago) and is still undergoing some changes. Almost all of these are available from WoWInterface. I also rearranged on-screen elements so I could focus my attention a bit while combat is going on.



Things Warpy must have:

• Coordinates - This started the whole mess (SimpleMiniMap)
• Threat - (Omen)
• Single Bag/Bank - (ArkInventory, probably going to be replaced with something smaller)
• Movable/Hideable Frames - Built in to many add-ons (Bartender3, XLoot & AgUnitFrames)
• Raid Warnings - (oRA2, BigWigs)
• Timers - (DoTimers includes seduce, Cooldowns, Quartz)
• Info - (_AmmoFu, _DurabilityFu, _MoneyFu, ScrollingCombatText if only for immunity warnings)
• Gear Switcher - (ClosetGnome)
• Diagnostics - (!BugGrabber, BugSack, _PerfomanceFu)

Optional:

• More Info - (_ClockFu, Dr. Damage, Mendeleev, Rating Buster, _XPFu, _HonorFu if it weren't buggy, InFlight)
• Convenience - (Sell Junk)

Believe it or not, Warpy got to level 45 or so without the use of a single add-on. Coordinates were the breaking point. After my initial n00b phase, I was leveling with the help of Thottbott (there was no WoWwiki in those days) because looking for needles in haystacks is boring. My firsy experimental add-on package was CosmosUI, recommended by Thottbot (no link, it's had problems), but Cosmos broke badly when patch 1.10 went live and it wasn't helpful enough that I ever bothered to go back. When I joined my first raiding guild, they required CTRaid, so I installed that, and tried CTMod. CTMod changed my UI unhelpfully and was a pain to configure, so most of that went away. When KTM (KLH Threat Meter) came out, the guild recommended that too. We also went crazy with SWdamagemeters, a very bad idea as it turned out.

Around that time, I discovered Necrosis, which turned out to be a fantastically useful compilation: timers, soulstone-expiration warning, fear-immunity warning, shard count, and collapsible button menus. WoW 2.0 broke all add-ons, and created an opportunity to try new ones as they became ready. A guildie recommended the All-Deuce and enabled us to download it from his site as Curse and WoW-Interface were under siege. Too much stuff, like any compilation, but relatively easy to update (WoWAceUpdater automated software) and configure. New versions of All Deuce UI come out now and then, but the major add-ons are the same.

Bad experiences:

• Automaton - unpredictable, then deadly
• Autobar - so powerful, but buggy for long stretches
• Damage meters - distracting. Use WWS because you can't look at it in combat.
• 3-D model viewer - waste of screen! Use WoWModelviewer that works outside of the game
• Necrosis - It's tricky to update, and one version conflicted catastrophically with the intolerant SolarianAlarm, which was required by the guild at the time. By then, all of its functions were duplicated by other mods.
• Censusplus - It's a wonderful little toy, about which I will write in the future, but it doesn't play well with Ace mods, which make up much of my UI.

Future investigations

• Bongoes - Is it really better than Bartender?
• Onebag - hopefuly less memory than Arkinventory
• Something to let me move my debuff icons to the bottom of the screen that will be less work than Elkbuffbars
• Eepanels 2: I need a replacement for Skinner, which worked at the time of the screenshot, but has since perished.