Ask WoW Insider: What's up with bar AddOns?
by Barb Dybwad 
May 11th 2007 at 4:10PM
It's Friday, folks, which means it's time for our weekly edition of Ask WoW Insider. Last week we looked at the best way to power level alts, and this week we turn our attention to a question from Spyke about AddOns: Ok, my question is simple. I am a huge proponent of addons. When my friend first introduced me to them I gobbled them up, first trying out packages and then finally just searching around sites and downloading them individually. My question however is this, is there really a need for bar modification addons or is it pretty much player preference? I have tried using them a couple of times but didn't feel like spending the time required to configure them when I was happy with the default UI bars. Any answers would be appreciated.We've talked about Bongos, CyCircled, FlexBar and other bar mods before at WoW Insider, but Spyke gives us an excuse to ask you all: what bar mod(s) do you use, and why? Do you feel like it's game-breaking to live without one? If you've tried several, which is your favorite?
Send us your questions for next week to ask AT wowinsider DOT com. Get on it!
Filed under: Add-Ons, Ask WoW Insider
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dozan May 11th 2007 4:28PM
Bartender3 is my favorite bar addon. I just like the ability to create additional bars and move them wherever I like. I play a warlock so I have a bar for all of my DoTs, one for spells, one for pets, and one for trinkets / pots. With the default UI there is no way I personally would be able to do this efficiently.
Byron May 11th 2007 4:32PM
I'm a hotkeyer, not a clicker, so I don't really need bar mods. I use Spellbinder addon to bind all my commands to hotkeys, so I never have to hunt and click bar icons.
However, there are a few good packages out that rearrange the standard interface to something much more efficient that I'm looking into. They generally group all the icons in a block in the bottom-center of the screen, put the chat and combat logs on either side of it, and leave the minimap in place. I think that's a much cleaner, more quickly accessible interface than the Bliz's standard one.
Freehugz May 11th 2007 4:32PM
I used bar addons for a while but found absolutly no difference in using them over using the default bars.
Khelben May 11th 2007 4:38PM
I use bongos because it lets me customize how i want my buttons to lay out. I do not like bars on the left and right side of my screen. I like for them to be in one chunk.
SeiferTim May 11th 2007 4:43PM
I recently started using Bongos again... I tried it out a while ago, couldn't get used to them so I removed them... then I decided to give it another shot, and so far have been very pleased. Currently only my warlock and priest use it, my other alts are using the default bar until I can muster up enough patience to configure their bars.
Rich May 11th 2007 4:43PM
I tried once or twice, but I didn't find it worth the work and overhead.
SirCasey May 11th 2007 4:44PM
I love Bongos myself. I got it in the PiraMod package: http://ui.worldofwar.net/ui.php?id=2938 and haven't gone back.
Yes, it takes a while to get the initial setup right and looking the way you want. After that, you can save the setup profile. Next toon you log in with, everything looks like hell all over again, but you can load your last toon's profile and tweak it if need be.
Benefits:
1) Bars at any size, scale, anywhere you want in any configuration you want. After seeing a MazzleUI setup, I switched all my Bongos around to mimic that setup (because MazzleUI itself just wasn't doable for me). Puts the minimap in the middle of the screen below your toon and lots of icons to the left and right.
2) Super easy keybinding.
Caveats:
1) Druid bar swapping were screwy at level 20 because I didn't have Aquatic Form. I don't know if that's fixed or not in recent versions but it is fixable by substitution of cat and aquatic bars temporarily.
Love me Bongos :)
Addie May 11th 2007 4:52PM
I used discord action bars before the big patch blew it up beyond repair. Where the default UI has two rows of big buttons down the right side I put 4 rows of tiny buttons. But REALLY what I was using those buttons for was consumables and gear swapping... now I'm using the default buttons with ItemRack for gear and AutoBar for consumables. I'm pretty happy.
doobtray May 11th 2007 4:55PM
I use to use gypsy mod back in the day, the went to ctmod after that, and now I use bongos which is really nice.
marnok May 11th 2007 4:59PM
no bar mods. Something more effective if you really want to be a good player is to map your fuctions to as many keys as you can.
If you use your mouse to strafe, bind Q and E to common functions like heals or kidney shots or whatever could be useful.
My rogue for example is playable entirely with my left hand only, via key commands. I can blind, vanish, heck do anything i need to do with one hand. Bind bind bind for the win.
You can also bind shift+key for buffs, to give yourself even more key bindings. On both my rogue and my mage, hardly anything is shown on screen unless i have to see the cooldown for it or range for it. It is a very minimal look and faster when you are in the middle of the action.
Jason May 11th 2007 5:01PM
I'm another Bartender3 user. I don't use them for the extra bars; I use them for the extra space. I don't use any more bars than you can with the default UI, but I do it in less than half the space. It's really a matter of clutter.
Tesop May 11th 2007 5:02PM
I too use and enjoy Bongos. I used to enjoy Discord's incredible functionality, but Bongos is really easy to use.
On my paladin, I bind all the necessary spells/abilities to keystrokes on a speedpad and then hide all the bars. An interesting way to play, without seeing any buttons onscreen whatsoever. I use a cooldown addon that shows cooldowns in a timer bar.
On other toons, I use a variety of button configurations. Bongos allows really a great deal of customization with an easy interface.
Metaphyzxx May 11th 2007 5:06PM
Another Bartender user
I like being able to set up and arrange the bars I need where i need them, and the ones I don't need are turned off or shrunken
barb dybwad May 11th 2007 5:21PM
i'm a binder too so my bar needs tend to be fairly simple -- i use ctmod anyway so i make use of ct_barmod to give myself an extra movable bar on my rogue, and an extra two bars on my shaman (totems, totems everywhere!).
Eric May 11th 2007 5:24PM
The big benefit for bar mods for me is that I can use them to bind spells to hotkeys more effectively.
With bongos, I used to have 4 bars stacked on top of one-another. The top bar was 1 to =, 2nd bar was the same but with Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-=, 3rd bar was same but with Shift, and 4th bar was same but with Ctrl-Shift.
That way I could *see* how my keybindings were set up. That helped me learn them more quickly, make fewer mistakes, and have the option to click abilities I didn't use very often.
Now I used a N-52 and have my bars set up differently to better match the layout of the N-52, but the principle is the same. Bar mods and keybindings are not mutually exclusive, but can actually reinforce each other.
Ammon Lauritzen May 11th 2007 5:29PM
With respect to the "wah, wah, l3rn to push buttons, noob" sentiments...
How exactly would learning to play with only my left hand would make me a better player? Would playing with my left foot be even better than that?
Personally, I have two hands, and I appreciate it. One to push buttons, and one to click buttons. You can use _both_ at the same time ;) They're not mutually exclusive, you know.
Of course, I understand that rogues have all of 3 or 4 things to do during combat... but some classes can actually be substantially more effective if they use both hands to get things done.
A good bar mod (like Bongos or some of the others) means that you can remove clutter from your interface and put buttons in an arrangement that actually makes it possible to get things done with a single mouse click that would otherwise take the vulcan death grip to accomplish on a keyboard configuration where everything's bound to Ctrl+Shift+W+K+F3 or whatever.
And of course, should you choose to go that path, any good bar mod makes it easier to bind keyboard shortcuts to commands than with the stock UI alone.
Kyrra May 11th 2007 5:40PM
I use Trinity (but I think the author disappeared). I used the default bar UI for 2 years, then decided to switch 2 months ago and I'm really happy that I did.
As someone said above, it's about saving space overall on my screen. I can put the buttons closer together, plus I can get rid of a lot of the clutter the default UI bar (not just buttons) brings with it. I completely got rid of the bag buttons. and I'm able to shrink/hide the things I don't use.
The other things it allowed me to do was place 3 rows of action bars on top of one another (instead of 2 high with the default UI. Everything I regularly use is lined up nicely on the bottom-center of my screen.
Oyvey May 11th 2007 5:57PM
Trinity FTW... but *gasp* did the author really go AWOL? I didn't know that. Maybe I'll have to look at this Bongos thing when the new patch comes out... for the moment though, Trinity roxorz!
Also... to more directly answer the question asked, the value of bar mods is simple and undisputable... more buttons, less space and total control in placement, size, spacing, binding... the list goes on. Their value can't be underestimated or denied if having those options is important to you.
Christian Holton May 11th 2007 6:11PM
I use bongos to lay out my buttons in the most efficient way, that also makes sense if you are sleepy or drunk or whatever.
Depending on the class (rogues are rows of four, warriors (my main) rows of five, and casters are rows of six), you can lay out Bongos like this:
Top row: Q, R, T, F, G, X, etc (the "oh sh!t buttons")
then number rows: `, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (most used buttons)
Alt+number row: a`, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5(next most used buttons, and so on)
Shift+number row: s`, s1, s2, s3, s4, s5
Shift+Alt+number for trinket/item 'use' and REALLY lesser used spells.
As a warrior, I like to map F1, F2, and F3 to my stances, F4 to bloodrage, F5 to battle shout, the rest of the F keys to other shouts, and so on.
I don't know if this is just too damn much or whatever, but it works ok for me. I can post a screenshot if you want.
Lertes May 11th 2007 6:19PM
As a holy priest I have discovered that I very seldom use my mouse anymore to klick on bar buttons,since I use HealBot. I could probably cut down all bars and manage with just one 10 slot bar and have a clean UI. I might try that soon.