AddOn Spotlight: Buttons, more buttons!
by Elizabeth Harper 
Nov 21st 2006 at 3:30PM
For me, the first real push to use addons came when I discovered I had no place to put new skills on the default toolbar. Yes, you can add several additional rows of buttons in the default UI (via interface options) but their location and size are set. I didn't like the amount of space they took up, so I looked for more flexible options. As I imagine many are struck with the same difficulty at some point in the game, today I'll go over the most popular button mods -- and maybe you, too, can twink your interface to perfection!
Bongos
What it does: Bongos replaces your main action bar with 10 customizable button bars and splits the rest of the main action bar up into movable parts. It's not as customizable as other such addons, but it's designed to provide the features most users want from a button bar.
The benefits: Gives you more buttons than the default action bar and lets you move all of the key UI components around to your preference. The author also claims to have a version that's already "workingish" in the expansion.
The downsides: Can't customize this as much as FlexBar or Discord.
Download: From Curse Gaming.
Discord Action Bars
What it does: Gives you 10 action bars (120 buttons) and hides the default interface art for a clean look. Each bar can be moved, resized, rearranged, colored, collapsed, etc. They can also be customizable to appear only when certain conditions are met (i.e. in stealth, in combat, out of combat, when you have a hostile target, when you have a friendly target, etc).
The benefits: Highly customizable. Seems to be a bit more usable "out of the box" than FlexBar.
The downsides: Requires a bunch of customization to get everything just the way you like it.
For more info: Check the Discord home page.
Download: From Curse Gaming.
FlexBar
What it does: FlexBar provides you with 120 (yes, that's one-hundred and twenty!) buttons that can all be moved, scaled, shaded, and hidden completely independently of one another. And beyond that, FlexBar can be configured to show certain buttons only when certain circumstances are met -- like showing a warrior's Overpower button only after a dodge or a rogue's Riposte button only after a parry. So with some configuration time, you'll have this mod displaying every button you want exactly how, when, and where you want!
The benefits: Total customization. Your entire hotbar structure can be designed exactly the way you want it.
The downsides: Total customization. This isn't an "out of the box: solution and requires time and effort to set up.
For more info: Check out the FlexBar forums and the developer's home page.
Download: From Curse Gaming.
Group Buttons
What it does: This mod is a bit different than the others here in that it doesn't replace the default action bar, but instead provides highly customizable button bars for various targets (one for you, one for each party member, one for friendly targets, one for hostile targets, one for the party member with the lowest health). These button bars show, obviously, only when the target is available. Clicking a button on the action bar performs the specific action on the specific target.
The benefits: This type of click-casting mod is primarily aimed towards healers, as the ability to target and cast a spell at the same time is handiest for them. It's a different way of casting spells, but if you're a healing class trying to find a new UI, I'd recommend giving it a try, as it greatly simplifies targeting.
The downsides: A DPS class might not find this the most useful way to arrange their buttons and a healer may find that click casting is slower than using keyboard hotkeys (I've done it both ways, and currently do not use a click casting mod).
For more info: Group Buttons is made by the makers of the Discord mods, and more information can be found at the Discord home page.
Download: From Curse Gaming.
Filed under: Add-Ons, Tips, Tricks, Features, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sunny Nov 7th 2008 12:04AM
Fantastic article, thank you!
Was excited about group bars - looked like the Benecast of old - but the link you put to curse doesn't work and the Discord home page doesn't seem to be the right link either. Have they stopped doing mods or did I just click on the wrong day?
Sunny again Nov 7th 2008 12:07AM
I'm an idiot, this is from the olden days. Delete me please!
Sideshow Nov 21st 2006 3:38PM
I use Discord and I love it. Yes, it takes a few minutes to tweak it once you login the first time, but it's extremely helpful in placing everything you need on the screen and set a key to it.
kozom Jan 20th 2009 9:05PM
speaking of screen stuff, does xperl combine with mazzleUI? or should i just stick with xperl?
multikast Nov 21st 2006 3:42PM
I've tried lots of UI mods when i began playing wow, until I found NurfedUI. It is by far the best UI i've used.
Tigraine Nov 21st 2006 4:12PM
I love my bartender with the build-around ace2 UI.
I just simply hate Discord. It's such a mess to configure.
playing a rogue, warrior, priest, druid and warlock Discord is just too time-consuming to configure. Getting all those stealth bars right, the Stance Bars.. the pet bars.. everything..
And it's just a simple overkill. Somehow I manage to get all my Spells and stuff into bartender (Simply gives you the opportunty to pull around all blizzard action bars while removing art and stuff) .. They are also scaleable etc etc.
Yea .. and flexbar just gave me a headache when reading over the readme first time.
greetings Tig
Thingy Nov 21st 2006 4:16PM
I gave up on UI mods a long time ago.
It's the difference between spending 10 minutes updating mods after patch night and being ready in the instance on raid night, and spending 3 days, 100+ logins/outs, deleting wdb/wtf directories etc and hence resetting EVERY change you've made to your UI from scratch trying to fix broken mods after a patch that was the clincher for me.
The first raid night after a patch always pisses me off, and it's why I really dislike people who run mods such as the ones you've mentioned above.
My own raiding time is wasting because of other people who need to (I hate to say it, please forgive me) learn to play rather than relying on all these complete UI revamp mods that play the game for them.
daggerspine native Nov 21st 2006 4:25PM
Take a look at Bongos Ui from wowinterface.com
10 hotbars adjustable in every aspect with very good easy menu to use.
Bags,keys,menu all moveable and adjustable from horizontal,vertical, to size.
I recommend Bongos UI to everyone...you can do anything you can imagine with the hotbar setup.
Ontop of the Perl Ui to adjust party, target, targets target and pet windows.
Freehugz Nov 21st 2006 4:58PM
I love these mods. I like to have everything organized. See the screenshot for bongos? I loath that about the default setup, where you don't really have a visual seperation beteen your heals,curses, consumables, etc. On my druid I currently have 7 different bars setup. I few of them only have 3 or 4 buttons but it still nice to keep them seperated on the screen.
Ngnsewa Nov 21st 2006 5:22PM
I have been using Discord Action Bar and Unit Frames for well over a year now. Yes the default one is ugly, Yes it takes some time to customize. But damn its handy.
I have separate UI's set up for my shaman, hunter, warrior, druid, rogue, mage...
With sneaky hidden and swapping bars, icons that turn on and off depending on what you do (or cant). ie a large fishing button that appears in the middle of my screen when I am wearing a fishing rod.
Illusive Nov 22nd 2006 4:00PM
I don't realy like addons that gives you extra buttons. Its just filling the screen, as its get more complicated im going insane. And that makes the result, delete WTF and Interfance folder. But thats my opinion, i do realy like standard bars and titan panel.
Daggerspine Native Nov 21st 2006 6:04PM
Freehugz,
I am at work or I would upload it. All I can say is the default is 10 bars stacked right up the middle of your screen...you gota set things up.
these 10 bars have hidden buttons , resizing, spacing, so yes you can get creative....i stacked them in two rows for my mage though buttons cover half my screen if hidden they do not visually or mouse interfere with my actual screen once hidden.
Surely an easy mod to use.../bongos pulls up the main menu to select paging options sticky bars and other neeto features.
I am sure you wont be disappointed...bongos screens and perl Ui can both be found at http://www.wowinterface.com
Tigraine Nov 21st 2006 7:47PM
One thing why I am not very mutch into those Interactive bars is that I really don't use them for anything else than cooldown-count and bindings keys to them.
Yea, I can't play if I don't see the bars, but I never ever klicked them for over a year now.
That's why I cant live with Discord and stuff.
When I play, I know when I am triggering what ability.. and usually, I just hammer that one button till the ability goes off .. so basically, if I'm gonna have bars changing depending on enemy range or other conditions, I simply would go mad.
I know what conditions must be met that I can do something, and I always know when one of those will be met so I keep hammering my hotkey already in advance. (now not counting in Overpower and Riposte stuff). You loose so damn mutch DPS to lag, I don't like wasting more on reaction. And clicking isn't an option if you're still trying to have some decent movement while performing.
Roseroyce04 Nov 21st 2006 9:09PM
I've spent a lot of time on flexbar at first for business, then for fun, then for serious business. ^.^
As a nonclicker, Flexbar became irrelevant when Blizzard added the other bars and buttons to the UI.
I can get the same buttons in the same places for less effort and have them bound to the same keyboard buttons. And 120 is the max amount of buttons, Blizzard already covered that so all Flexbar does is borrow from what you're already using.
Sad part is, I didn't realize how pointless it all was until I was forced to use some old-fashioned human ingenuity when Blizzard broke Flexbar on a test server several months ago.
Now I only use addons that add or change functionality. No more repeats. MoveAnything is(was?) awesome.
Coanunn Nov 22nd 2006 9:46AM
It's all based on playstyle. I personally use Bongos to move some things around so I can look for stuff in a different place than the bottom of the screen. I use ArcHud along with some smaller versions of the action bar in the center of the screen so I can see what is going on but so I know when my cool downs are up as well.
I NEVER click a button in game, everything is done via my Nostromo and the only thing I want to see added is that the buttons can be "opaqued" a bit and clicking on something behind them (as in a mob or pc or gathering node) was possible. I would in all likely hood completely remove my action bars if I could see my cool downs on screen in a better way.
Kahja Nov 22nd 2006 12:14PM
come TBC I'm just going to give the game a shot without addons...
Except my tracking mods... IE fishing buddy to tell me where I can catch the fish I require.
And some variation of gatherer to keep track of the 100s of nodes.
Misterking Dec 12th 2006 9:50AM
I agree with 13. Having recently returned to WoW, my screen seemed very cluttered, and that was nothing compared to some of the screenshots I see posted here which give me a headache. To top it off, I have a small monitor and the game is a lot more pleasant to look at without 100 extra buttons floating around.
So I removed ALL of the extra action bars and scaled the UI down to teeny-tiny. Using the shift key, the control key and the six extra buttons on my Logitech mouse I can access a whopping 72 functions a lot faster than by clicking buttons on the screen, and all I ever see is one little action bar. The hardest bit is using slots 6-12, but I expect I'll get used to it.