Reader UI of the Week: Nikkita
This week we feature the UI of Nikkita, level 70 Gnome Warrior from the guild <Vagrant> on the US PvP server, Dunemaul. I must confess -- while there are parts of Nikkita's UI I would never use, I was especially glad to get this one. I've always said if I was going to jump to the Alliance side, it was going to be to play a Gnome Warrior. Something about the idea of a wee bite-sized Gnome tanking a boss as ridiculously enormous as Rags just makes me giggle. Apparently the fellow at the helm of Nikkita agreed that it was a fun idea!
Nikkita sent two screen shots just chock-full of UI for us. The above shot is him on the flying mount, checking out bags, quest items and quests before touching down. (I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for forgetting shards in the bank after raiding the night before... gah!) The second screen shot of Nikkita in all his raiding glory can be found after the jump as well as a really great listing of all the mods involved in this week's Reader UI!
Nikkita sent in the slightly 'shopped screen below for his raiding UI -- or should I say "Raiding UI and then some" since he opened up many different windows he wouldn't normally have up just to show their locations. As he mentioned to me, trying to tank and deal with everything is tough enough. Apparently on this particular night he was also handling invites, and dealing with some guild raid stuff, so there's blurring in his WIM window to spare us the details.
He also let me know that the name was a nod to La Femme Nikita, and that the character had actually been re-rolled several times to get her just right --
I actually used to have her as a Human Rogue and a Druid (was going more for the stealthy thing) but then I decided to play a Warrior. I thought that Escape Artist would be really nice. Not to mention, when I am Nogginfoggered, I am a tiny ball-o-glow from my Mongoose enchant. It is really funny. I have some form of character model change [on] more than I see myself anymore. Nogginfogger, Savory Deviates, Transporter Malfunctions, & Orc illusions... It is a wonder I know what she looks like anymore!
Amusingly enough, if you look at the screen shots, you'll realize he's absolutely right. There is absolutely no Gnome present in these shots! :D But not to go too off-topic, here's the mod listing I got from Nikkita about his UI setup:
If you'd like to have your UI featured, just send along some pictures and all the information/breakdown of mods, etc. to me at readerui@gmail.com! But you can't be featured if you never send your UI images in! :)
Nikkita sent two screen shots just chock-full of UI for us. The above shot is him on the flying mount, checking out bags, quest items and quests before touching down. (I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for forgetting shards in the bank after raiding the night before... gah!) The second screen shot of Nikkita in all his raiding glory can be found after the jump as well as a really great listing of all the mods involved in this week's Reader UI!
Nikkita sent in the slightly 'shopped screen below for his raiding UI -- or should I say "Raiding UI and then some" since he opened up many different windows he wouldn't normally have up just to show their locations. As he mentioned to me, trying to tank and deal with everything is tough enough. Apparently on this particular night he was also handling invites, and dealing with some guild raid stuff, so there's blurring in his WIM window to spare us the details.
He also let me know that the name was a nod to La Femme Nikita, and that the character had actually been re-rolled several times to get her just right --
I actually used to have her as a Human Rogue and a Druid (was going more for the stealthy thing) but then I decided to play a Warrior. I thought that Escape Artist would be really nice. Not to mention, when I am Nogginfoggered, I am a tiny ball-o-glow from my Mongoose enchant. It is really funny. I have some form of character model change [on] more than I see myself anymore. Nogginfogger, Savory Deviates, Transporter Malfunctions, & Orc illusions... It is a wonder I know what she looks like anymore!
Amusingly enough, if you look at the screen shots, you'll realize he's absolutely right. There is absolutely no Gnome present in these shots! :D But not to go too off-topic, here's the mod listing I got from Nikkita about his UI setup:
- Advanced Tradeskill Window: This is a very simple UI that allows me to sort through my Engineering and Mining better (alphabetically, categorically, or by difficulty level)
- ArkInventory (Ace2): Over the course of my gaming, I have tried many bag mods (The One Series, VBagnon, all-in-one inventory, and others) only to use this one as it is my favorite by far. While this bag mod does not allow the user to sort as easily (in the way that I utilize it) ... it does allow me to put certain areas of the bag screen for different item sets. You can see in one of the pics that I have the left area for trash, trade skills next to that, buff items next to that, gear one slot over, and quest items to the far right.
- AtlasLoot: Of all the addons that I have, this is by far the most frivolous one. All this addon does is provide loot links of instance based gear
- Autobar: One of the more useful addons that I have which puts any number of customizable buttons onto the screen based upon items that I have in my inventory. As this updates itself (to an extent) I never have to worry about putting buff items onto my bars.
- BigWigs: A very useful raiding boss timer. I installed this as a guild requirement.
- Bongos: My bar mod of choice.
- Cartographer: Utilizing this Ace2 addon, I have some additional packets which track my mining and herbalism so that I have an easier time finding where some spawn points are. Another use that I have found with cartographer is that I can make points of interest on my map for when I am questing. This enables me to plan out the most effective route for myself to get XP.
- Chatscroll: Another simple UI. This removes the chat frame buttons and allows for me to use my mouse's scroll wheel to move the chat frame up and down.
- Chronometer: This is a timer addon for my abilities (sunder, thunder clap, shouts, etc.) that I very much prefer to Blizzard's counter under the target's portrait. If anyone knows how I can turn that off, please tell me.
- Comix: I originally found this mod while I was levelling (as Fury). I was looking for something to help me track my crits audibly so that I could hear when to hit Rampage. After I specced into prot, I decided to keep this mod because it just added to my game experience.
- CT_mailmod (with return): The ONLY CT modification that I like.
- diMapCoords: After I initially installed this, I found that it was broken. Currently, it only removes certain bits of information around my minimap ... which is useful, but it does not end up doing what I needed of it. I only keep it around to reduce clutter around the map.
- Equipcompare: Whenever I hover over a piece of armor, this UI shows me what I have equipped in that slot.
- Morganti's Buffbar: This is another point in time where I get to say how much I loathe Blizzard's UI. I got this to show me my buffs in a much more organized and informative nature. I will admit that this takes up a lot of my on-screen space while raiding (or grouped with Shamen) but I much prefer to have this than tiny little squares that I have to mouse over to find out what buff I have there.
- MobInfo2: A thirst for knowing the approximate health of a mob that I am fighting drew me to this UI.
- Monkey Buddy
- Monkey Clock
- Monkey Quest: The Monkey series was something that just started with quest, and grew to include the clock (check under the minimap). I prefer to have all of my quests available on-screen whenever I want them. This manages to deliver!
- Omen: I am an officer in my guild, and slowly managed to get my entire guild (sans a few people) to switch from KTM to Omen as the threat-meter of choice. This has more usefulness than I could ever imagine
- OmniCC: If you look at my buttons in the bottom left hand part of my screen, you should notice that there are numbers for the cooldowns on revenge, shield block, and shield slam. OmniCC is what puts those there.
- Outfitter: Managing my different sets of gear is tough, this just makes things easier.
- PerfectRaid: My raid-frame-of-choice. I have it setup to see who has blood pact, soul stone, fear ward, and commanding shout at the moment. I know that I should put more buffs in there, but I really cannot think of anything else that I would need to see.
- Prat: Prat is all about my chat box. This modification shortens all of the channel names, puts levels & class colors in the names of the people talking, timestamps, and many more chat features.
- Quartz: A casting bar modification which I prefer over ecasting bar
- Scrolling Combat Text: After a long time of working with this mod, I finally managed to get everything setup the way that I want it ... having all of the spells and abilities circling around my character while things are happening.
- TinyTip: After working with tooltip wrangler for a while, I found TinyTip. This mod was easier to use, simple to setup, and I cannot imagine this game without it.
- TwinTrinkets: This is another mod that I utilized while levelling fury, but have stopped using it since I am now prot. This is a trinket menu which allows me to click on dynamic buttons for my individual trinkets (look to the left of my character portrait). The only issue that I have found is that when a trinket comes off of cooldown after you start a battle ... thus I have the "+" and "-" buttons specifically designed to activate those trinket slots.
- Violation: I used to utilize SW_Stats for my damage meters, but after I realized how much of a system hog that was I found an ACE2 damage meter which was much simpler and easier to use. Since then I haven't looked back.
- WIM: I left WIM open while I was in battle just to show where it was. Normally I do not chat during a battle and would not have it open during a boss fight unless I was transmitting something important to someone else.
- X-Perl: I haven't found any portrait mod (in my humble opinion) that does all of the things that this one does.
If you'd like to have your UI featured, just send along some pictures and all the information/breakdown of mods, etc. to me at readerui@gmail.com! But you can't be featured if you never send your UI images in! :)
Filed under: Fan stuff, Add-Ons, Features, Reader UI of the Week








Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tumples Sep 11th 2007 6:53AM
Wow, lots going on there.
Gilius Sep 11th 2007 7:00AM
Terrible UI... cluttered, ugly and uninspiring. sorry to say.
mal Sep 11th 2007 7:02AM
Wow thats horrific looking, looks like someone downloaded a bunch of addons and randomly threw them onscreen 1/10
The Anonymous Sep 11th 2007 7:03AM
Oh wow no other submissions this week eh?
No flow or alignment, so much in-your-face information that could be better organized..
tool03 Sep 11th 2007 7:30AM
This makes me want to submit mine.
(mine)
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/7610/untitled1qu1.jpg
Justgiz Sep 11th 2007 7:29AM
...and i thought my old UI was cluttered...
Ghen Sep 11th 2007 7:43AM
why does a tank need damage meters or main tank targets.. And her buffs take up a good 10th of the screen, thats just insane.
I guess I give props for using xperl and arkinventory, but having xperl at default settings loses points ;)
Weeno Sep 11th 2007 8:38AM
Never thought I would see a guildy on here.
It really is a testament to nikkita's ability to play so well with all that crap on the screen.
PS - You still owe me 50g
Chesch Sep 11th 2007 7:56AM
@ghen
I don't usually have my Damage Meters up for when I am tanking. It is more to keep track of how the guild is doing overall (and to be able to speak in favor of keeping people in the raid or not over officer chat)
Danascus Sep 11th 2007 8:03AM
That is just ridiculous. There is absolutely no reason that someone needs ALL of that to tank properly. Its just cluttered, with too much information on the screen. Someone is either a very horrible tank or is just showing off to have their name on a WoWinsider.com.
I remember PRE-BC the only mods people used were CTRaidAssist, and maybe a threat meter for raiding.
This.... this is just ridiculous!
jay Sep 11th 2007 9:22AM
What UI addons are you using tool03?
Propimpsis Sep 11th 2007 8:44AM
Oh my.. I think you forgot to fill out that little empty space in the middle of your UI with something. Way too much clutter.
Sinnersaint Sep 11th 2007 8:55AM
It would take me days to read all that crap on the screen.
Erica Olson Sep 11th 2007 9:06AM
Good Lord, so much crap on the screen you can't even see what's going on.
Nyctanessa Sep 11th 2007 9:10AM
It's weird seeing the character name of someone you met IRL in someone else's screenshot.
Six Degrees of World of Warcraft FTL.
Mad Cow Sep 11th 2007 9:31AM
only an ally ... worst ui ever.
Aggr0 Sep 11th 2007 9:38AM
Wow...snobs. If he/She likes it and enjoys it then relax. Constructive Criticisms FTW! Nothing like stomping peoples Guts from the safety of your keyboard.
Anyway ….way do you keep everything so big? You have bad eyes? I understand the desire to see it all but I have everything really tiny and you can still see it at a glance. might want to try it.
Skrilla Sep 11th 2007 9:41AM
LOL so true 16 ^_^
awful
Addie Sep 11th 2007 9:50AM
You didn't read the article - she opened all that up so we could see it. That's not how she plays.
Dave Sep 11th 2007 9:58AM
IMO, good UI design places all the important information in one zone, like the bottom, that way you get less eye fatigue.
Less is more. Pack it all into one chunk of the screen. Don't just throw all the stuff you can on the screen, it's an overload for your brain even if you don't realize it. Simplify your UI.
I'm not sure what the deal is with the gaps in the bars, but you could consolidate that, shrink the size of the stuff you don't use nearly as often and save enough space to put something else down on the bottom and have less utter chaos going on.
I mean I applaud the effort to have the Fox News style gameplay going on I guess... but there's absolutely no way I want to have that much of my screen blocked by so many different colors and things, when tons of better addons exist that can simplify and consolidate that data into smaller regions that your eyes will enjoy a lot more.
Sometimes it's more about functionality than having too much info, isn't it?