Sorting Through The Buff Clutter
In my ongoing efforts to redo my UI and maximize my monitor real estate, I’ve made some great strides, but I’m still not completely happy with how everything works in my UI.
My latest gripe is with how my buffs are displayed. Take a look at the screenie below.
I got Elkano’s Buffbars not too long ago and have been using that addon for my buffs. It’s much better than the standard UI, but here’s my problem: I have way too much information on my screen. The buffs in that screenshot are the blue bars on the right, and the debuffs are the red bars below them. It’s actually very difficult to make out the debuffs (which is another part of the problem), but they’re in the lower right corner, partially hidden by the Divine Storm tooltip box.
That’s a typical screenshot from combat. I’ve got far too many buffs showing to be able to see the ones that are important and that might need to be refreshed. Additionally, it often becomes nearly impossible to see any debuffs that I might have, which can be a very big deal at times (think Fungal Creep during Loatheb).
So Here’s What I Need
I need an addon designed to help me cut the buff/debuff clutter. I need to be able to focus on the urgent buffs, keep one eye on the less urgent but still important ones, and then completely disregard everything else.
Here’s what I’m thinking. I want to be able to sort all of my buffs (and potential buffs) into three groups that can be shown independently of each other:
Group One: In-combat, urgent buffs - This group is for combat-related buffs that are of the utmost importance; buffs that will wear off multiple times in combat and have to be refreshed immediately. On my Pally, this would be for the Seal that I currently have going. Other examples would be Battle Shout and the BC-version of Rampage for DPS Warriors, Hunger for Blood for Rogues, and things of the like.
Group Two: Not strictly combat related but still important - This group is for buffs that are important, and that I need to know I have, but that I do not need to see once I’m in combat. This includes things like Blessings, Auras, buffs from other classes (such as Fort and AI) and consumables. Ideally what I would like to see with this group is the ability to tell the addon what buffs to expect (for instance, if my raid has one Pally, a Priest, and a Druid, I would tell the addon to expect one Blessing, Fort, and GotW) and then the addon would let me know when I had all of those buffs. That’s all I really need to know here. I don’t need to see the individual buffs, I just need to know that I have all the buffs that I should have. Once I have all the expected buffs (or enter combat), then this window would disappear. It could reappear when one of the buffs starts getting low and needs to be refreshed.
Group Three: This last group is for buffs that I don’t ever need to see. This includes passive effects (Pally’s Vengeance and Replenishment), in-combat buffs from other classes (Shaman totems, auras from other classes) and anything else not included in Groups One or Two. These sorts of buffs are the very definition of buff clutter. I wouldn’t ever be able to act on knowing/not knowing that I have them (what kind of micro-managing raid leader is going to tell his Shaman when refresh their totems?) so I don’t need them taking up valuable screen real estate or mental capacity. This window obviously never appear, and neither do the buffs that are contained in it.
Group Four: Debuffs. Pretty self-explanatory. Knowing what debuffs you and your party members have can be important, and there should be a window that pops up when you have one.
Plea For Help
To reiterate, the most important thing is the ability to divide the buffs that I have (and that I could have) into their respective groups so I can focus on the important ones. Elkano’s Buffbars is great, but doesn’t have that functionality (or if it does, then I’ve completely missed it) and just lumps all of your buffs together in the same section.
So here’s where you come in.
Is there an addon out there that does what I’ve described here? If there is one, please let me know about it. I would love to start using it and will sing its praises from the rooftops. If there isn’t one yet, would any addon authors care to make one? I think it would be pretty popular. And I would love you forever.
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Have a look at Satrina Buff Frames http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info7876-SatrinaBuffFrames3.html
By what I have seen, you can filter and group differently buffs and debuffs.
Azande´s last blog post..TwentyFifthNovember irrelevant
ZOMG! SBF is awesome! I’ve been playing around with it since yesterday evening and it does just about everything that I want it to. Thanks, Azande, you rock!
Elkano’s Buff Bars does do what you want. If you /ebb config, you will get the configuration menu where you can create other buff bar groups. This will let you make as many groups as you want.
If you right click the anchor (title) of a group, you can get to the group menu. You first should set a title for the group. Then you can choose the focus of that group, such as self or target and others. This will let you chose the filter type such as buffs or debuffs. This will also give you a whitelist and blacklist that will let you decide ones you definitely want to show or ones you never want to show. If you leave the whitelist and blacklist blank, it will show them all when they are active.
How does this help you? Let’s say that you want to know when your seal and your blessing are going to run out. You want these separate from the rest so they are obvious. Then /ebb config and make new group. Make the title something you like, maybe Self Buffs. Then, under filter, choose filter type Buffs, Target Self. Then under Filter->Whitelist, choose your seals and blessings. These will be the only thing to show on that group. Next, make another new group called Buffs On Me. This group you will set the target and filter type to self and buffs just like the first group. Instead of the whitelist, use the blacklist to select your seals and blessings. Now, your seals and blessings will not show on this group and it will only show the other buffs you currently have. Blacklist any other buffs that you currently don’t want to track because they are taking too much space and you don’t need to know.
You can make as many of these as you want. Maybe one for debuffs on you. Maybe one for debuffs on your target so you can see when Heart of the Crusader is applied to it. Maybe one to show you what buffs your target has active. Each of these groups can be placed and scaled separately as you like them. If one loses importance, go into /ebb config and disable it from the groups list. It will no longer show but it is still remembered so you can simply readd it again later by enabling it. If you know you won’t want it again, you can delete it instead. I hope this helps because I really like this addon and I think it can do what you want. Good luck!