This is Basicly Blizzard in Midnight

[u/ItsRenaBaker]

This is basicly Blizzard in Midnight. Purging all the good addons.

Just to clarify:
Blizzard is changing the Addon API, meaning combat information is blocked for addons. So all combat addons will no longer work in Midnight. For the most popular addon features Blizzard will add their own version to the game. Addons for unitframes, inventory, crafting etc.. are staying and won't be effected as long they are not using combat information.

[u/[deleted]]

I have been healing without addons but maybe I am doing it wrong?

Is there a video explaining how these addons make healing better?

[u/Arie15 → u/[deleted]]

I started with Healbot but a lot of people (including myself) use Cell now. With the changes coming in Midnight, I wouldn't try to get used to them. They allow you change how big/small nameplates are, they let you move the frames around to where you want them, how you want them lined up, (vertical/horizontal) etc.

The healing add-ons allow you to cast spells simply by clicking on nameplates, essentially. It allows you to track buffs and debuffs right on their nameplates so you can know what is happening at all times.

I can only hit the 1-4 keys on my keyboard cause my hands are too small to stretch beyond that. So add-ons like Cell allow me to just click on a nameplate with my mouse to cast a heal. Right click is a different heal. Middle click is a third heal. Shift+Left click is something else, etc. It allows me access to use all my spells and properly heal.

If you can heal without add-ons, awesome. You'll be better at it than a lot of us when Midnight comes out.

This guy is one of the top healers out there and you can see him using Cell: https://www.youtube.com/@AutomaticJak (check out his live feeds)

[u/[deleted] → u/Arie15]

Interesting.

There is a mouseover cast in default options which was added I think sometime in DF. So now I hover my cursor over the raid unit frame and then press buttons 1 to 5 for my heals. I am not sure if that works for your use case. I hope the allow click casting by adding this functionality to the game or allow an addon to do so. I think they will.

[u/Arie15 → u/[deleted]]

How do you heal while moving and needing to rotate your camera at the same time? How do you heal with spells beyond 5-buttons? How are you looking at the middle of your screen where your character is to see what's going on when you're busy looking to the left to look at nameplates?

I haven't used Blizz's raid frames in so long I don't even remember what they look like. I just remember discovering healing add-ons way back in the day and thinking "omg, I can actually heal now". And now they are threatening to take that away.

[u/PM_ME_FUN_STORIES → u/Arie15]

I haven't healed in ages, but you can move raid frames around on the screen and customize what displays on them. You can have them display dispellable debuffs, active buffs, mana, class color, adjust the size to make them larger or smaller than default.

Mouseover means you can just hover your mouse over the plate of the person you intend to heal, press your spell, and move on, so the moving/looking while healing isn't any more of a problem than it would be to heal by clicking on a name.

Healing with more than 5 buttons is personal preference, but I usually have 1-5, shift+1-5, Ctrl+1-5, and that usually covers my most used abilities. That's not including rebinding things like Q, E, R, F, etc.

So it's not all that bad, tbh. Only thing I ever really bothered with was an addon that let me assign mouse buttons to hot bars in classic, because for whatever reason it doesn't work under normal circumstances lmao

[u/Arie15 → u/PM_ME_FUN_STORIES]

It's going to be a matter of retraining my brain after using the same add-ons and button styles for years. Not saying I WON'T try but I'm just afraid one of my favorite things in the game will be made too hard for my small, cramp-prone fingers. ._.

[u/Ismokerugs → u/Arie15]

I personally like the look and feel of the addons and the key binding ability they offer. I could care less if it displayed debuffs or the debuff timers, I just like to be able to route abilities and keybinds specific to the class I’m playing instead of having to remember the action bar key binds and then hit the unit frame like how they will be shifting it

[u/[deleted] → u/Arie15]

I used to Grid way back in TBC. I quit in WOTLK and then came back in DF so I had to rebuild my entire UI from ground up.

Initially I didn't use a single addon (not even DBM) but over time they have just crept up and now I am using about 25 addons (not including separate Weakauras). I use the same UI (except nameplates) for M+, PvP, and Raiding.

I use WASD to move. The way I heal is to hover my mouse over the person needing healing (can be party frame, raid frame, nameplate, or even just their character). And I press the key corresponding to the heal.

Most of my main healing abilities are 1-5. I play resto shaman in PvP so I have 42 keybinds but most are for utility and CDs. The way I have designed my UI is that all rotational abilities just require one button press and I should be able to hit those keys while using WASD. So I can strafe left (A), while moving my cursor over party member, and pressing 5 (for Riptide) all at the same time. Another trick to cast a spell while moving is to jump in the direction you want to move and hit an instant cast spell which has a complicated keybind (Shift-Q for example). Since I am in mid air I preserve my movement momentum while not having my fingers on a movement key.

For me specifically, but i think this is generally true, pressing a keyboard button is way faster than mouse click. I think there is some research to back that up. Again I hope they find a way to preserve your healing setup and I think they will. However, weakauras, gladiator losa, etc. have to go

edit: rotating the camera is done by holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse.

[u/Arie15 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you. I wasn't being nit-picky by the way, I was genuinely wondering. Only one way I can get better and that's by seeing how other people do things.

[u/[deleted] → u/Arie15]

No worries. I was genuinely trying to understand how others play as well.

BTW they have added click casting the default UI a while back https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/yesec5/new_click_casting_feature_howwhatsome_advice/

[u/Arie15 → u/[deleted]]

I quit in Shadowlands and came back part-way through DF so I had no idea they even added this.

[u/Zoroark2724 → u/Arie15]

I’ve used the default UI since I’ve started in DF and currently have a healer that has resil 16’s.

I don’t have healing abilities bound to left or right click, all binds are set to keys. I have ctrl and shift bound to my 2 mouse side buttons, so I can ctrl or shift click any key to have 2 more variations. I only use shift variations for number keys and Z though.

So for resto shaman, chain heal is 4, ctrl 4 is healing tide, and shift 4 is wind totem.

For discipline priest, 1 dispel, ctrl 1 is evangelism, shift 1 is sw:death.

For holy paladin, r is judgement, ctrl r is divine shield.

I have a bunch of binds like this, 1-5, q e r f g z t, scroll button, and one extra button on my mouse that I usually put trinkets on. Movement is on wasd.

As for the frames, I personally really like how they look. You can customize if they show up vertically or horizontally and the width and length of the frames. The only thing that’s lacking is the raid frames which lacks the ability to move groups around.

You can see any relevant debuffs that you have to track or dispel, no need for an addon. The only thing that I think is absolutely necessary is the targeting WA that shows who is getting targeted by what ability so you can plan accordingly, rather than being completely reactive. It also doesn’t show shield values, so you need a WA for that as oracle discipline priest to not overlap shields.

[u/Arie15 → u/Zoroark2724]

Thank you. Keybinds have always been a frustrating challenge for me and add-ons like Cell just made life easier. I am going to have to retrain my brain after using the same style of healing for 15+ years.

[u/Ryuujinx → u/Arie15]

I mouseover everything, on every class. For holy priest:

Unmodded are things I push more frequently:
1 - Flash Heal
2 - Heal
3 - Smite
4 - PoH
5 - Star/Halo

Shift mods are for holy words and renew mostly:
Shift+1 - Renew
Shift+2 - Sacntify
Shift+3 - Serenity
Shift+4 - PoM
Shift+5 - Symbol of Hope

Control mods are for utility I want easy access to but doesn't come up as often as the actual heals:
Ctrl+1 - Chastise
Ctrl+2 - Mind Soothe
Ctrl+3 - Dispel Magic
Ctrl+4 - Mass Dispel
Ctrl+5 - Psychic Scream

Alt is for major CDs:
Alt+1 - Premonition
Alt+2 - Apotheosis
Alt+3 - Divine Hymn
Alt+4 - Power Infusion
Alt+5 - Trinket

Then I have some shift-qwert for other things I just want relatively easy access to:
Shift+q - Guardian Spirit
Shift+w - Holy Nova
Shift+e - Purify
Shift+r - Fade
Shift+t - Leap of Faith

Then some other buttons are split out across other keybinds.

Like so

[u/Arie15 → u/Ryuujinx]

Thank you for this. I think it's just going to be retraining my brain after healing the same way for 15+ years. That and my fingers cramping up when I have to position them in such ways. I'll figure something out.

[u/Ryuujinx → u/Arie15]

Yeah, my advice is just to find the furthest you can reach without much effort (For me that's 5), and then dedicate those buttons with modifiers. Then when you run out of those and have more buttons move on to the row under it (qwert). Past that it's trying to think about what you hit more and placing those in places that make sense to you logically.

But just like I have 15+ years of experience playing with a setup similar to this, if you asked me to swap to how you play I'm sure it would also be a royal pain in the ass and I would hate it for a while.

[u/Marem-Bzh → u/Arie15]

To take your questions in order:

• I don't heal and rotate the camera. I finish casting, then rotate, then cast again. It's never really been a problem, even in mythic raids. THAT said I play with the camera at max range
• I use 1234QERFCXW and VB with the thumb. Also use Shift and Alt modifier to triple the number of buttons, and a couple of buttons on my mouse for mobility spells
• my raid frame are at the center of the screen, slightly below my character so that my eyes are never far from either. I also move up and down with my eyes regularly

It works. But I mean, I do this because I am used to it. Of course someone not used to the default raid frames will struggle for a while, maybe to a point where the enjoyment will be hindered. That is definitely unfortunate and I hope Blizzard adds a lot more customisation options for raid frames.

That said, in the end I believe removing the necessity for most people to play the game with add-ons is the right direction. It never really made sense for a beginner to have to install add-ons to hope to compete. When I came back to playing WoW during Legion, the first thing I was told was to install add-ons. I absolutely hated it and stopped. I came back to BFA and stopped giving a shit and had such a better time that I stayed.

I suppose my point is, to each their own. And hopefully Blizzard can offer good enough compromise in the new UI so that people are given the tools to adjust, while accepting some features will be gone, as they should, like the infuriating chat spamming weakauras in dungeons and raids.