Spiritual Guidance: How to become a better priest, starting with your UI
by Dawn Moore 
May 30th 2011 at 4:00PM
When I first started raiding a few years ago, I was an obnoxiously overconfident priest determined to prove to the world that I was the best discipline priest who ever lived. Fast forward two years, and I'm still trying to get comfortable with the reality check that resulted from meeting amazing priests like Kinaesthesia or Kras. I realized I wasn't competitive enough, dedicated enough, and that my growing ability to self-critique every tiny aspect of my play was holding back me back more than it was pushing me forward. How I wish I could be that overconfident idiot again.
On the bright side, the whole thing has left me quite good at helping other priests identify what they need to do to get to the next stage of their development as players (without becoming overly paranoid from self-awareness). So when I recently met someone who was up against a massive wall in his development, I decided I ought to tap into that ability in a more formal way by writing an article about it.
Bob (we're going to call him Bob) wrote me and described various problems he was having as a healer, explaining that raid damage was unmanageable and that he couldn't keep up. I thought for a while he might have been going OOM, but as we talked more and more, I realized certain things he said just didn't making sense. Eventually, I asked him for a picture of his UI and was immediately horrified by what he sent me.
Thus today, we're going to talk about addons and setting up your first healing priest UI.
Escaping the default
Now, before I get started, I need to quickly note that what Bob sent me was not the default UI; it was something much, much worse. (I dare not describe it for fear that one of you might find parts of it and install it.) Today's discussion is going to be about getting away from the default UI, but I'm going to try and guide you guys in a direction instead of the wrong one that Bob took. I understand that there are some players out there who don't use addons because they can't (computer limitations) or won't (purist pride.) If that's you, I hope you'll hear me out anyway and try to find a compromise that works for you.
Escaping the default UI is one of the most important steps a healer can take toward becoming a stronger player. Though the default UI works, it's limited by the fact that it's designed for everyone. Try to think of your UI as a video game controller. If you've ever played a fighting game one a home console and then played it at an arcade, you'll probably find that the arcade offers much better controls to play the game. That's because the arcade cabinet is designed for that one game, while the controller on your home console is designed to work with several different games. See where I'm going?
All right, let's talk about specifics and how a healing priest in particular can use each one.
The absolutely most essential part of a healer UI is your party and raid frames (aka those little health bars you click on to change between friendly targets in your party). You really can't heal well without one, and the built-in one (yes, the new one just released in Cataclysm) can't compare to a third-party version.How information is arranged is what really sets each raid frame apart, and the default UI doesn't allow you to customize that information enough to make it comparable to a third-party frame. If you look at the picture to the right, you can see just how much information can potentially be crammed into a 1/3-inch box. This particular addon is Grid plus GridManabars.
You can see that what I've chosen as essential information is specific to my discipline spec. Making sure Inspiration is up on the tanks is one of my jobs, so I've used a border to indicate that. I don't have any debuffs on in this picture, but should I have one, the type of debuff I have (curse, poison, etc.) would be indicated by a colored box in the top right corner, and the icon of the debuff would display where Pain Suppression currently is.
Obviously, it does take some practice to get used to reading all this information in combat, but with practice, you'll be able to have a much better understanding of the status of your party or raid at every second.
Suggested addons: Grid, Healbot, VuhDo.
Though a bar addon isn't essential, it makes life a lot easier in a couple ways. First, it allows you to set your keybindings faster and easier than the default UI allows. This is important because yes, you really do need to use keybindings over clicking to cast your spells as a healer. Your job is to save lives, and if you use your cursor to select a target and the spell you want to cast, you are going to be late applying heals and defensive abilities like Guardian Spirit or Pain Suppression.
The second reason to use a bar addon is that it allows you to condense your abilities into a very small space, reducing visual clutter in general and also allowing you to see all your available abilities at once. (Some players may eventually opt to hide their bars and use a spell alert addon to notify them of when an ability is available for use, but if you're still a UI novice, I think this is the easiest first step.) This is particularly useful for healing priests, since we have two sets of healing spells we could use in combat instead of one. Our bars will always be more full than those of other healers.
One thing to remember with addons in general is to leave as much space on the screen as possible for your character and the immediate surroundings. Blizzard's "scale UI" feature can be a big help here, reducing the size of all your UI features so you can get the information you need but can still see fire on the ground.
Suggested addons: Bartender.
Next to a raid frame, an alert addon is the next best addition healers can make to our UIs, because we have so many abilities that we need to keep track of to do our jobs. Here are some examples of things a healer might need to keep track of.
- Defensive cooldowns Guardian Spirit, Power Word: Barrier
- Buffs Power Infusion, Fear Ward, Inner Focus
- Mana-regenerating abilities Hymn of Hope, Shadowfiend
- Short-duration healing spells Prayer of Mending, Circle of Healing, Desperate Prayer
- On-use trinkets Core of Ripeness, Jar of Ancient Remedies
Though not essential, an alert addon will let you take your eyes off your bars and leave you more time to keep an eye on your character's surroundings and raid frames. You save more lives simply by being able to pay more attention to other things.Suggeted addons: Power Auras, forteXorcist, EventAlert.
Extra addons for priests
There aren't many priest-specific addons these days, but I figured I'd list a few that some players might find handy.
Ingela's Rapture Every second that a holy priest is in combat, he passively regenerates an additional amount of mana through Holy Concentration; a disc priest, on the other hand, gains some of her additional mana through Rapture, which must be consciously acquired through Power Word: Shield. Ingela's Rapture is an addon that simplifies the process by tracking when Rapture procs.
DoTimer Though this addon is historically popular with shadow priests, a healing priest can use it to keep track of things like Weakened Soul and Renew on his current target. A discipline priest would want to track the former on his current target so he'll know when he can next cast Power Word: Shield (particularly if he's specced into Strength of Soul.) A holy priest would want to keep track of Renew on her if she is in Serenity stance of Chakra stance and needs to know when to refresh Renew on a tank or off tank.
Substance over style
I want to stress again that building a custom UI is about making a UI that will help you raid or do whatever it is you need to do. It's not about making something stylish or installing every useful addon you can think of. It's about identifying the information you need to do your job, and then building your UI around those needs. That's why this list is short; you really don't need much more than this.
If you have any questions about using or setting up these addons, need help with your Power Auras, want to make a suggestion, or just want to yell at me for writing such a basic article, get to the comments.
Spiritual Guidance has the inside line on pre-raid gear, valor point and raid gear, and healing strategies for bosses such as Atramedes and Chimaeron. Newcomer to the priest class? Look into Discipline Priest 101 and Holy Priest 101.
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Tom May 30th 2011 4:14PM
Couple of tips for a good UI -
Always try to uninstall your addons and see if you can live without them. 80% of the time more information is just more distraction, not more useful. If you can get away without an addon on your screen, that will let you focus on the more important ones.
Group your crucial addons in a way that encourages you to look at your character and the other players/mobs/bosses on the screen not just at health bars. For example, group them around your character so that your eyes are focused on your character, not up/down to the corners of the screen away from the action.
Use colors and bars - you can understand them more quickly than numbers.
Having an addon that shows Incoming heals is great. But what's better is talking to your healers in Vent/Mumble/Skype and communicating about what you are doing. It's far more valuable.
Scott Clark May 30th 2011 6:56PM
80% eh? That smacks of a made-up statistic to me.
Many add-ons, including (almost) all of the ones Dawn discussed, are about presenting the information the game always gives you in a more accessible way. In fact, that was her thesis statement: "How information is arranged is what really sets each raid frame apart, and the default UI doesn't allow you to customize that information enough". The game presents information in a generic way that is reasonably appropriate for all classes during solo and small-group play, but it is up to the individual to customize the flow of information to their role, playstyle and learning preferences.
Now, Dawn does suggest that it will "take some practice to get used to reading all this information in combat" in reference to her grid setup; however, this is information that the game does give you already. The default UI makes you click through your party members to see a lot of this information, however, while third-party raid frames will show you the information in parallel. Given that it is all information the healer requires, I don't think you can reasonably argue that clicking through your raid frames between each heal to make decisions is "less distracting".
The only addon I see in this discussion that provides information not available in the default UI, is Ingela's Rapture; tracking the internal CD on Rapture will make most Disc Priests more effective. So are there four addons here we need to turn off to justify keeping it?
As for eschewing raid frames that show incoming heals in favour of discussion over voice chat, that's just crazy talk (literally!) If healing is so trivial that you have time to micromanage casts over Vent then you probably don't need to coordinate at all. Once you know how to read your raid frames properly, you can triage heal targets at a glance; I can't see what would be gained by requesting that information verbally.
The point here is to take all of the information that you need and arrange it for faster and easier assimilation. Suggesting that replace the information with guesswork and committe-based healing is counterproductive.
Tom May 30th 2011 6:21PM
I think you're taking my points to be more profound than they are:
1) The 80 was in a sense made up, but I'm basing it on the Pareto Principle which is a standard rule of thumb, and which has a strong corollary in User Interface Design. 80% of the tasks in a programme can typically be done with about 20% of the function. As such, you want to hide the majority of information because it distracts from the common things the user is trying to achieve.
2) I'm not dissuading people from using Addons, I use a ton and I've written a couple myself which are available on Curse etc. What I'm encouraging is for people to think about what the number 1 most important piece of information they need to know is. Once you know that, each time you try to add more information to you UI ask yourself if it's distracting from the primary things you need to know, or not. Just because information is useful, doesn't mean it's worth space on your screen.
3) Definitely not saying don't use raid frames, just talk. I'm saying don't use raid frames as an excuse not to talk. Good communication plays a key role in a raid heal team.
After reading your points, I think there is nothing much in your reply that I disagree with except your interpretation of what I said. I'd encourage you to read my first post again and maybe take me a little less seriously :)
Matrillik May 31st 2011 11:55AM
Tom is breaking out the old stats and ergonomics textbook
Luke May 31st 2011 12:10PM
@Tom
"Having an addon that shows Incoming heals is great. But what's better is talking to your healers in Vent/Mumble/Skype and communicating about what you are doing. It's far more valuable."
No quarrel with you sir, but I interpret this the same way Scott did. In fact given the way you worded this, the general sense can be implied but you very much worded this specifically in relation to incoming heals. And I would agree with Scott in that too much discussion on vent is just as counterproductive as having too much on screen information to process.
Besides if you're the kind of person I enjoy raiding with, Vent is for two things:
1. The raid leader(s) is communicating something that would take too long to type.
2. Shooting The Shattrath. (Including but not limited to, talking about the latest Daily Show, making fun of Ayn Rand fans, and planning the next guild cuddle puddle.)
Now maybe Scott shouldn't have jumped down your throat about it, but that doesn't mean he needs reread anything. :) You made some good points, Tom, but you could have been more clear...
Task May 30th 2011 4:16PM
@Dawn Moore
"just want to yell at me for writing such a basic article, get to the comments."
I would never yell at you... maybe raise my voice enough so I can be heard, but I don't want to be the hunter that never talks.. Though Frostheim might have something to say about that.
By the way, I have pie. Blueberry or chocolate creme with the Reese's mini peanut butter cups on top.
Harvoc May 30th 2011 4:57PM
Don't you mean Frostheim might not have something to say about that considering that he's the "hunter who never talks"? And while we're at it, why not debate what the other class writers are in the picture above? So the rogue, Chase Christian, hates Dawn; Christian Belt is rarely healed by Dawn; Fox Van Allen is cocky and wants Dawn's pie (or is it pi, the mathematical symbol; I'm assuming it's a typo and she meant pie); Tyler Caraway is always late; since Tyler is the warlock writer, that means that the only druid left is Allison Roberts, who's never healed by anyone; and lastly the two paladins. Either she likes Matt Walsh (crushing Frostheim's hopes) or she likes Alex Ziebart (also crushing Frostheim's hopes) and then that means either Matt Walsh has a terrible mic or Alex Ziebart does. Personally, I'm thinking that she likes Matt Walsh because of his perfect hair. And that's it for this week's WoW Insider Gossip Show. See you next week folks!
Litchee May 30th 2011 8:14PM
Harvoc : she means Power Infusion, a buff that a disco priest can place or themselves or a friendly target that increases spell casting speed by 20% and reduces the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Pretty sweet, huh ?
Twill May 31st 2011 2:38AM
Your lack of knowledge on Power Infusion first agitated me, but your funny writing won me over in the end. Horah!
Tim May 30th 2011 4:42PM
Thanks for the article Dawn. I got a priest I'm leveling up mostly through dungeons. I used healbot already but am a clicker. Will be looking into possibly getting a action bar add on. I also have a gaming keyboard and a razer naga. Maybe I oughta get them there buttons set up instead of being a clicker eh?
mdspurrier May 30th 2011 5:03PM
keybinding with my naga increased my healing exponentially. Before I got that I was using Vuhdo and just wasn't getting the results I wanted. I got my naga and switched from using Vuhdo to mouseover macros. That was a huge difference in my healing output and I never did like the way that Vuhdo looked so I was able to get that ugly box off my screen.
Malkia May 30th 2011 6:35PM
Try healium?
I use it on my priest, shaman and druid, because I'm too much of a clicker for healium. (I primarily druid heal. My priest is still a baby.)
Kaille May 30th 2011 4:53PM
A lot of this looks like mine (: well I have more grid plugins, but still haven't changed the overall layout of it much.
I really wanted the cooldown bar of ForteXorcist to be useful, because it's so pretty, but it's clearer just to have bartender bar with my cooldown abilities on it.
And I use InlineAura; a UI is better for me the less I have to think about it, and cooldowns right on my action bars is the most intuitive to me (I was actually setting up PowerAuras with little bouncing arrows pointing at my action bars when I discovered it; InlineAuras did a better job of what I was aiming for, out of the box.)
Kuro May 30th 2011 4:57PM
Can you post those Power Aura stanzas? I've made some already but they're not nice and neatly lined up like yours.
Inputting and sharing pre-made stanzas makes life so much easier.
Dawn Moore May 31st 2011 3:36AM
I think this is all of them
Version:4.20; anim1:4; icon:Spell_Holy_PrayerOfMendingtga; buffname:Prayer of Mending; r:0.9843; x:291; bufftype:7; texture:119; alpha:0.7; owntex:true; speed:1.7; sound:50; combat:true; size:0.13; y:-103
Version:4.20; anim1:5; g:0.9294; icon:Ability_Druid_Starfall; buffname:Boosts; r:0.9961; x:407; bufftype:7; texture:122; alpha:0.65; symetrie:1; owntex:true; inVehicle:0; speed:0.05; combat:true; size:0.06; y:-95; ismounted:0; customsound:cello1.ogg
Version:4.20; anim1:5; icon:Spell_Holy_PowerInfusion; buffname:Power Infusion; x:375; bufftype:7; texture:122; alpha:0.71; symetrie:1; owntex:true; speed:0.05; exact:true; combat:true; size:0.06; y:-96; customsound:triangle.ogg
Version:4.20; b:0.9529; anim1:4; g:0.9412; icon:inv_throwingaxepvp330_08; buffname:Trinket0; r:0.9882; x:392; bufftype:23; texture:119; alpha:0.71; owntex:true; speed:1.38; combat:true; size:0.06; y:-111; customsound:triangle.ogg
Version:4.20; anim1:4; g:0.9333; icon:Spell_Holy_CircleOfRenewal; buffname:Circle of Healing; r:0.9176; x:338; bufftype:7; texture:119; alpha:0.85; owntex:true; speed:1.7; sound:23; combat:true; size:0.13; y:-103
Version:4.20; anim1:4; icon:Spell_Holy_Restoration; buffname:Desperate Prayer; r:0.9843; x:391; bufftype:7; texture:119; alpha:0.7; owntex:true; speed:1.7; sound:50; combat:true; size:0.06; y:-96
Version:4.20; b:0.9529; anim1:4; g:0.9412; icon:inv_throwingaxepvp330_08; buffname:Trinket1; r:0.9882; x:408; bufftype:23; texture:119; alpha:0.71; owntex:true; speed:1.38; combat:true; size:0.06; y:-111; customsound:triangle.ogg
Version:4.20; b:0.9529; anim1:4; g:0.9412; icon:inv_throwingaxepvp330_08; buffname:Hands; r:0.9882; x:375; bufftype:23; texture:119; alpha:0.71; owntex:true; speed:1.38; combat:true; size:0.06; y:-111; customsound:triangle.ogg
Version:4.20; b:0.9529; anim1:4; g:0.9412; icon:inv_throwingaxepvp330_08; buffname:Waist; r:0.9882; x:408; bufftype:23; texture:119; alpha:0.71; owntex:true; speed:1.38; combat:true; size:0.06; y:-96; customsound:triangle.ogg
Version:4.20; g:0.9686; icon:Spell_Holy_Rapture; buffname:Rapture; r:0.9843; Extra:true; begin:3; x:339; bufftype:13; stacks:1; texture:16; alpha:0.7; owntex:true; duration:12; soundend:50; size:0.14; y:-104; timer.UpdatePing:true; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:TOP; timer.ShowActivation:true
Dawn Moore May 31st 2011 3:44AM
Sorry it's not one lump import, but I had a bunch of junk shadow power auras mixed in that I don't use currently and need an aesthetic upgrade. As a note, I do have some custom sounds, but that shouldn't hurt the functionality of the stanza. Just go into the sound panel and pick a new sound that you like. I also included my Rapture tracker Power Aura in there, since it sits in the spot where the COH one does.
For the item socket auras (trinkets and engi tinkers) just adjust the socket on paperdoll pop up to whatever item socket you want. =)
Let me know if you have any trouble.
dj.clayden May 30th 2011 5:06PM
I'd like to point out I'm always a healer, and I do use Grid, but I have *never* been thinking the word "Australian" mid-fight.
Dadruidess May 30th 2011 5:08PM
I totally agree with your example of grid image (well the "how healers think" part, I don't use grid), but I have to say; "Australian" on my screen would have a bunch of exclamation points to it and a heart or two.
Anyway, I kind of wished I could see a "this is how your UI should look like" picture and a "DON'T DO THIS" picture, just so I could compare the bad points and the good points to have (I can't imagine how a bad UI would look like?).
Good article!
Nick May 30th 2011 5:14PM
I use a n52te and a razer, I have bartender set up to mirror the layout of the keys, a 3x3 grid on the left with the n52 keybinds (I don't use the left most buttons) and a 3x4 grid on the right with my razer bindings. It's lovely.
I'll certainly take into account what you've said here - I know one of the devs of Power Aura's (he was my GL before he promoted me and server transfered) so should really give that a shot, and I'm tempted to use a decent raid frame. The problem I have with Healbot and Vuhdo is that they seem to incorporate clique functionality, I want my mouseover commands to be on the n52te, not the mouse.
Any suggestions?
Please note that I am closing in on 10 level 85s now, 1 of each class, and all those that can heal do so in offspec with exception to my druid, he's resto in both specs.
Revynn May 30th 2011 5:37PM
If I understand what you're asking, you want all the macro and spell functionality to be based in keybinds and programmed macros, not a function of your healing frames? So your healing frames would do nothing more than target a person?
I've never used Healbot, but VohDo and Grid both do exactly what you're asking for. VuhDo comes out of the box with click casting functionality but it can all be disabled through the options. Grid works backwards, and out of the box does nothing more than target.