Why:
As a tank, I'm always watching my cool-downs, my health bar, and my buffs/debuffs; now I don't have to look in 3 different places on the screen to find them. I'm also one of those people who likes to customize things just to be different. I have as much fun making my own UI as I do questing, but as a Prot Warrior that may not be the best comparison (alt Druid ftw).

How it works:
My UI is, as any UI should be, designed around my play style. I don't use the mouse at all in combat other than the occasional camera swing (zomg don't loot in combat). My bars are basically laid out in 3 groups of 9 (and one extra row on the end). Each group is bound to the keys on my num pad, with the / * - keys across the top of my num pad assigned to each Warrior stance (or Druid form). The group of keys on the left use the ctrl modifier and the num pad; these are attacks that can be used in every stance. It does not change regardless of the
stance I'm in. The middle group uses no modifier and consists of a combination of most used attacks and attacks only available in one specific stance; it changes based on the stance I'm in. The final group to the right uses the alt modifier and contains a mix of rarely used attacks and attacks that are only used in 2 of the 3 stances.

The extra row with smelting, prospecting, etc is just because I ran out of room in the section that contains my professions and consumables. Speaking of which, those consumables are all bound to the extra G keys
on my G15 keyboard. So, to make the long explanation short, I can execute any of my attacks or use a consumable without my fingers leaving the keyboard, and while walking backwards in a circle (in game of course).

Mods used:

• Discord Unit Frames - The ONLY unit frames mod as far as I'm concerned
• Discord Art - The spiffy background was created in Photoshop and imported with DART
• Bartender3 - A 'lite' replacement for Discord Action Bars
• Elk Buff Bars - For... the buff bars
• Omen - Threat meter
• CTRaid - Group frames
• oRA2 - Tank windows
• Squeenix - Square moveable minimap
• Discord Frame Modifier - Used for moving the mail and map icons
• FuBar - The bar at the bottom
• Tooltip Wrangler - Moves the tooltip to the top
• XP Bar None - XP bar

Unfortunately I don't have any experience with creating a packaged UI, so while I'll be as helpful as possible, I can't promise that I'll ever release any of this as a package.

So, hey, if any of you folks used to building UI packages are available and want to give AareDub a hand, I'm sure there are readers out there who would appreciate it. For those of you who want to be featured in our ReaderUI of the Week (now back with more WoWness) drop us a mail with pictures of your very own UI, mods you use, and info like AareDub did, and your UI could be one of the next ones we feature!

Tags: aaredub, bartender, ctraid, discord, elk-buff-bars, fubar, modding-ui, mods, omen, oRA2, reader-ui-of-the-week, squeenix, tooltip-wrangler, world-of-warcraft, wow, xp-bar-none

Filed under: Add-Ons, Features, Reader UI of the Week