Superstylin
Legend
Welcome to Just the Basics: Part 1
In my Just the Basics series I will be covering all basic aspects of gameplay that every player should know. Today, I will be starting off with a basic UI (user interface) setup that includes addons, keybindings, and how to maximize the information available to you.
Contents:
Addons
As most of you know, proper addons is the backbone to a good UI. With battlegrounds especially, the addons you have or do not have can make a big difference in your gameplay.
Here I have compiled a basic list of addons that every player should have.
Keybindings
Keybindings are absolutely a must for every player of WoW. While I must admit, I played the majority of my time spent on WoW clicking, as soon as I started to keybind, my play style improved vastly and I instantly became a better player.
In the lower levels of WoW, keybinding may seem less important to some, due to the low amount of buttons needing to be pressed. The fact is that keybinding is equally important at all levels because your reaction rate with buttons vs. clicking is tremendous. Whether it is spamming your ability, or quickly pressing your keybind to your blink, keybinding your abilities will land you more kills and save your life more than you would ever know.
Here is a popular image displaying a general guide on the location of your keybinds.
The blue keys are your movement keys (QWE are the best keys to move with imo), while the green keys are the optimal keys for you to keybind. What I like to do is place all my spells with a cast time on the buttons 1-4, and place my instant cast spells on R, F, or C so that I can continue to move while casting them.
The red keys are your modifier keys, which allows you to cast spells on yourself, cast spells on your focus target, etc with the press of a button. The pink keys are good keys to bind to your cool-downs or defenses.
While you may not need to use all of the bindings at 19s or 24s, the closer you get to 90 the more keys you will bind. Spending time configuring your keybinds to your liking may take some time, but after they are set up, it will all be worth it.
UI Layout
The UI Layout is mostly built on personal preference, but here is my personal UI to give a demonstration of what one should look like.
I structured my UI based on what I look at most. I keep my self portrait close to my spell bar to easily keep track of my health / mana, and I also keep my target close by to have quick access.
I keep my BG Targets positioned just to the right of my screen, big enough so I can easily see the enemy team and who is nearby. My focus target is also near the center of my screen, just so I can see if certain players are targeting me or to keep track of the enemies CC.
I personally play on a 13" laptop screen, so all my buttons are quite large so I can easily see everything with detail. If you are playing on a bigger screen, you will generally have more room to test the sizing and spacing of your addons.
The basis of a good UI is all about the accessibility of information. The more information you have access to, the more tools you have to make proper decisions. While my UI may not be perfect, it provides all the information that I need to make my decisions. As I said earlier, while everyone's UI is different, you just need to make sure that it displays everything that it needs to.
Conclusion
That concludes Part 1 of Just the Basics. I hope everyone took something away from that and hopefully you were able to make a few changes to your UI for the better.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this and I will get back to you asap. Your feedback is also welcome! Let me know what you would like to see more of and I will tailor my future articles towards that.
Thanks!
Superstylin
In my Just the Basics series I will be covering all basic aspects of gameplay that every player should know. Today, I will be starting off with a basic UI (user interface) setup that includes addons, keybindings, and how to maximize the information available to you.
Contents:
- Addons
- Keybindings
- UI Layout
Addons
As most of you know, proper addons is the backbone to a good UI. With battlegrounds especially, the addons you have or do not have can make a big difference in your gameplay.
Here I have compiled a basic list of addons that every player should have.
- Battleground TargetsBattleground Targets is key for enemy team awareness. It enables you to see the general health of the enemy team, who is dead, their health, comp setup, if they are in range of you or not, and so much more. Having this addon will make a huge difference in your gameplay.
- Capping Battleground TimersThis unique timer addon will let you know important times going on in your battleground. In WSG, it will let you know when the flag is going to be reset and it will also count down the last 3 minutes of the game. This is a small addition to your UI that will help you with timing when you are too busy to pay close attention. *This addon is particularly useful in AB, as it will let you know how much longer to expect in your game, which team will win, and how long till each base caps.
- QuartzQuartz is a basic casting bar addon that increases the size of your casting bar and displays the cast time. I find this really helpful as it provides information on my cast times as well as general casting information.
- SaySappedAs the title suggests, SaySapped types Sapped in /say to let your nearby allies know that you are sapped.
- Tidy PlatesTidy Plates is a great addon that improves the standard blizzard "floating health bars" aka. nameplates. This addon will track your dots over multiple enemies as it appears above their heads. If this addon is not for you, I would recommend using the standard nameplates along with PlateBuffs. Either combination should give you the information you need. Using these addons will enhance your field awareness of your pressure and let you know which targets you need to re-apply your dots onto.
- OmniCCOmniCC, an addon I cannot live without. It displays in nice, large numbers the time remaining on your CC. It helps a lot with timing your abilities with cool-downs and allows you to just glance at your defenses to know if they are ready or how soon they will be ready.
Keybindings
Keybindings are absolutely a must for every player of WoW. While I must admit, I played the majority of my time spent on WoW clicking, as soon as I started to keybind, my play style improved vastly and I instantly became a better player.
In the lower levels of WoW, keybinding may seem less important to some, due to the low amount of buttons needing to be pressed. The fact is that keybinding is equally important at all levels because your reaction rate with buttons vs. clicking is tremendous. Whether it is spamming your ability, or quickly pressing your keybind to your blink, keybinding your abilities will land you more kills and save your life more than you would ever know.
Here is a popular image displaying a general guide on the location of your keybinds.
The blue keys are your movement keys (QWE are the best keys to move with imo), while the green keys are the optimal keys for you to keybind. What I like to do is place all my spells with a cast time on the buttons 1-4, and place my instant cast spells on R, F, or C so that I can continue to move while casting them.
The red keys are your modifier keys, which allows you to cast spells on yourself, cast spells on your focus target, etc with the press of a button. The pink keys are good keys to bind to your cool-downs or defenses.
While you may not need to use all of the bindings at 19s or 24s, the closer you get to 90 the more keys you will bind. Spending time configuring your keybinds to your liking may take some time, but after they are set up, it will all be worth it.
UI Layout
The UI Layout is mostly built on personal preference, but here is my personal UI to give a demonstration of what one should look like.
I structured my UI based on what I look at most. I keep my self portrait close to my spell bar to easily keep track of my health / mana, and I also keep my target close by to have quick access.
I keep my BG Targets positioned just to the right of my screen, big enough so I can easily see the enemy team and who is nearby. My focus target is also near the center of my screen, just so I can see if certain players are targeting me or to keep track of the enemies CC.
I personally play on a 13" laptop screen, so all my buttons are quite large so I can easily see everything with detail. If you are playing on a bigger screen, you will generally have more room to test the sizing and spacing of your addons.
The basis of a good UI is all about the accessibility of information. The more information you have access to, the more tools you have to make proper decisions. While my UI may not be perfect, it provides all the information that I need to make my decisions. As I said earlier, while everyone's UI is different, you just need to make sure that it displays everything that it needs to.
Conclusion
That concludes Part 1 of Just the Basics. I hope everyone took something away from that and hopefully you were able to make a few changes to your UI for the better.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this and I will get back to you asap. Your feedback is also welcome! Let me know what you would like to see more of and I will tailor my future articles towards that.
Thanks!
Superstylin
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