Reader UI of the Week: How to build a preliminary monk UI
by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 14th 2012 at 1:00PM
An odd email was sent to me by a reader expressing his concern over some of the new additions to the user interface coming with Mists of Pandaria and, more specifically, with the monk class. This got me thinking -- we need to start getting ready for the next expansion, and we need to do it now. Klaxons are sounding and alarm bells are ringing! Monks and pandas are coming!
So how do we go about talking about designing a preliminary UI for the monk? First, we have to look at what is being added to the interface through the new class. Second, we have to use our current vocabulary to discuss what could potentially be applied to monk-specific UI elements.
The new basics
We know that the monk uses a brand new type of resource bar that feels much like the paladin's holy power meter or the death knight's rune display. It's a character-specific on-screen indication of your dark or light force, which is used and consumed in different ways by different attacks. This force system is obviously going to be front and center, considering players will be watching the meter closely to hit attacks because the monk has no auto-attack of his own in between button-pressed blows.
So we've got a new resource bar. What else? Monks also have a secondary resource bar called chi, which regenerates much like a rogue's energy. This bar limits the amount of force-generating abilities you can build up, forcing the player to understand and tinker with resource management rotations and cool tweaks to the best ways of play. We are also going to be watching this chi bar, which brings up even more questions when you factor in two resources.
So where do we put all this stuff?
We can learn a lot about how these systems will work by looking at the default configuration. German website gaming-insight.de posted an interview with Ghostcrawler during BlizzCon 2011 in which he admitted to wanting to experiment with moving resource bars closer to the center of the screen, much how they are positioned in many of the newer MMOs out there. People seem to want to gravitate down to the bottom of the screen now, as monitors are getting larger and the eye distance from the upper left corner to the middle is larger than ever.
I'm going to assume the majority of people will want these new bars front and center, much like Ghostcrawler has said about the new bars in Mists of Pandaria. This location gives you good view of the screen, character, resource bars, and your cooldowns. While you'll have to glance for your health and chi, this seems like the majority of setups for the playerbase. But I'm already skeptical of keeping chi in the top left corner.
Addons that I'd like to see
We are going to see many cool monk addons the second the open beta begins for Mists of Pandaria, and addon developers are already clamoring to get their hands on the coming architecture. The first addons that we will see will most likely combine the dark and life force bar with a chi bar indicator, much how some rogue addons put combo points and the energy bar in the same location in the center of the screen.
Monks are very global cooldown-based in terms of limitations in character playstyle. You'll always be pressing a button because with the monk, there is no such thing as missing a global cooldown. You hit it or you don't. There is no auto-attack here, mister.
What I'm assuming would be built into this new addon would be a more prominent global cooldown indicator, most helpful to tanks and DPS who rely on maximizing GCDs for maximum damage and defense. Plus, with a more prominent GCD timer, you could concentrate less on the actual action bars showing you a GCD and rely more on the little bar in front of you. I think it's a pretty good idea!
What Blizzard needs to do with resource bars
Blizzard needs to put players' resource bars and indicators front and center and allow players more configuration options out of the box. Layout and direction is a good start, and scale is already present. I think we need more control over the resource bars, especially as players move to a centered screen approach.
In fact, Blizzard could do an amazing job laying out a new action bar piece where the player aura/stance selector is and building a resource window into there. Slim it all down, and you have a cool new feature-rich bottom bar with attach capabilities and scaling. Hey, I like it.
Build your Mists UIs and send them in!
I want UIs that are getting ready for Mists of Pandaria. I want to see drawings, future potential UIs, prototypes, ideas, questions -- anything about building a UI for the future expansion. Let's get ahead of the game and start working on this now, people!
Also, you should submit your very own UI to Reader UI of the Week. How do you do that, pray tell? Well, you send me an email at readerui@wowinsider.com with some screenshots of your UI and a little writeup telling us all about your UI, the decisions you made, what you like about it, and what addons you like to use. Remember, that's readerui@wowinsider.com.
See you guys next week.
Interested in getting the most out of your user interface? Come back once a week for more examples of reader UIs. For more details on individual addons, check out Addon Spotlight, or visit Addons 101 for help getting started.
Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zachariahs Feb 14th 2012 1:19PM
I'm going to use energy watch for my chi and power auras classic for the forces. Its what I use on my rogue for energy/combo. I am assuming that both addons will have config options for them both. If not Idk what I'll do.
Saeadame Feb 14th 2012 1:21PM
I think that I'm going to be displaying my resource bar for my monk through power bars, much like how I display holy power through power auras right now. I like power auras because you can add sounds and effects to the flashing colours to draw your attention to certain things. Right now, I'm thinking low noises for the dark chi and high noises for the light chi, building up or down. I'm still not sure whether the chi will be like combo points, where it's best to use it at full power, or if other levels will be more important (eg, maybe your most important CDs are available at 2 or 3 chi, so I'd prefer the most prominent indicators to be then, rather than when I have more).
If someone makes an addon for chi that has a lot of these features, like sound effects (I think there's some rogue addons like this), then I'll probably use it, but at the beginning I'll cobble something together in power auras.
Saeadame Feb 14th 2012 1:33PM
Wait. Chi. Forces. The one that's the little balls. Whichever one that is. I'm watching it with power auras.
Terminology, why do I suck at you.
MikeLive Feb 14th 2012 1:44PM
I use almost entirely default Blizz UI (add Clique, Skada, and Adibags), but one of the first things I do on any character is move the player and target frames to the middle of the screen (I align so the top right/left corners, respectively, touch the bottom left/right corners of the escape menu), plus enable the player frame cast bar and enemy buffs on top. Hopefully Blizz will soon enable an option to move certain player buffs above the frame too, keeping long-term buffs up by the minimap. Combined with spell alerts, it puts almost all my needed information front and centre (buffs, as said, are the only exception). I imagine I will keep this setup into Mists with Monks.
jfofla Feb 14th 2012 1:53PM
I have used default UI for seven years. I do use Sexy Map, but mostly I find default UI just fine
bethontheharbor Feb 14th 2012 2:19PM
Honestly, we don't even know what the new finished UI will look like or entail. Seems like this whole idea is pure speculation based on no real evidence of the finished product, only a demo copy.
MikeLive Feb 14th 2012 6:45PM
This. Each expansion has come with some great UI updates that have served well to make more and more addons unnecessary (and rightly so, as it gives everyone the features those addons provided to some), and it's very possible that the default UI in Mists will make every suggestion here moot.
Tim West Feb 14th 2012 2:29PM
An addon i can see being usefull is one where you can save various talent configs for bosses and maybe even auto switch. Also include a reagent alert if switching talents requires one a la glyphs
jbrettg Feb 14th 2012 7:53PM
Although not specific to the Monk, Blizzard's new way of handling Specialization may create the need for new addons. Talents will no longer be linked to Specialization. Therefore, all characters of the same spec and class will have the exact same non-talent abilities. I'm not sure how this will affect Dual Specialization. Dual Spec will no longer remember your talents, it will just switch your action bars and glyphs. It will probably be helpful to have an Addon to remember where you placed your abilities on the action bar in case you want to run to your trainer and quickly change one of your two specs to the third (or fourth for druids) spec for a dungeon, raid, or battleground.
brain314 Feb 14th 2012 11:20PM
My UI addon will flash subliminal messages of all relevant data so I will subconsciously know everything I need to know during combat without taking my eyes off the action.
I would post the URL of my addon, but you already know it as this post has been flashing subliminal messages directing you to it. Just close your eyes, click on the URL bar, let your fingers type it out, and there you are.
But if you didn't get there, it is because you are a horrible touch typist.
Dragoniel Feb 15th 2012 6:28AM
Some of Blizzard decisions are less than perfect for my taste. I very sincerely hope that they will have an option to keep everything away from the middle of my screen, thank you very much. Nothing would annoy me more than having something in dead middle of my screen - spell proc warnings are bad as it is.
I simply wouldn't play the game with the UI they are planning for the next expansion. First, they manage to destroy chat frames and now this.. bah. Why do I have to use random addons to keep my UI clear...
And yes, I do PvP. Actually *ALL* I do is PvP and I can keep track on my cooldowns and resources being in their default position - in the upper left corner of the screen or on enemy portrait at top - thank you very much.