One of my favorite things about World of Warcraft is the level of
customization players are afforded with their UI, and I love
experimenting with different add-ons. I've downloaded, tried, and in most cases, deleted a wide variety.
I was pretty pleased with
my set-up for Khree when she was Resto. Thanks to great articles at
Resto4Life and WoWInsider,
I had Grid and Clique working perfectly — Lifebloom stacks, Swiftmends, MotW, Thorns — no problem! I used ItemRack to switch
between PVP and PVE sets. I had Evocation2 for an automatic
high-spirit-weapon-swap when innervated.
But with the upheavel of both switching classes and Patch 3.0.2, I've
found myself less than satisfied with my current slew of add-ons, in
part because I've had neither the time nor the in-depth class knowledge
to really figure out my shadowpriest UI needs.
A DoT Timer: Currently, I'm using Quartz to
track my DoTs and debuffs. I'm not completely happy with it. I do
enjoy the challenge of maintaining all the right spells on my target
(ok ok, it's mostly Drek'thar as of late, but whatever), and even
without the full arsenal of SP spells yet (no Shadowfiend, no Shadow
Word: Death, no Mind Sear), I'm working to figure out the best casting
rotation. I need to find a better DoT Timer to help me, I think. I'm
looking at ForteXorcist based
on a discussion at shadowpriest.com.
A Cool-down Timer: CooldownTimer3 was more of a necessity, perhaps, on the druid, as I liked knowing when
Innervate and Nature's Swiftness were ready. In terms of SP abilities,
again, I'm not sure it's needed. In terms of item cooldowns, well
hell, we can only use one potion per fight, and that's not terribly
hard to track now, is it? This add-on might stay, or it might go; at the very least, I need to tweak it a bit.
Grid/Clique: I often debate whether I should re-enable these add-ons for
the shadowpriest. After spending so much time focused on curing curses
and poisons, I know I'm missing a lot of magic debuffs — on myself and
others — that I could dispel. (I also need to do a better job
dispelling beneficial buffs from my enemies.) What worries me about
having Grid active again is that I'll find myself curing/shielding
rather than facemelting.
As an article on WoWInsider noted the other day, with WotLK upon us, the emphasis will be less on
the raid add-ons (Deadly Boss Mods,
Omen,
etc) than on leveling ones (Cartographer and the like). I would, however, like to familiarize myself with the
mods I'll use for dungeons and raids so that I feel comfortable with
them and so that I can maximize my DPS.
Regarding DoT and CD timers, try getting the complete package in a single addon. I recently leveled my Discipline to 70 and switched her over to Shadow (can’t have two Discipline priests on a single server, can we?) and the very first thing I snagged was a DoT timer. I wish that I knew who recommended this addon to me, but DoTimer (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/do-timer.aspx) is amazing. I started out using it on my Shadow priest, added it to my Discipline priests (Power Word: Shield, buffs, Penance cooldown, and Grace on my healing assignment), and found it amazing even for my Protection warrior when tracking Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap.
It’s really good stuff!
And, bah! Your comments wouldn’t let me put in HTML tags, so I just threw the link to the addon in the comment. Sorry for the mess!
Thanks for that recommendation. I was hoping to play around with some different add-ons today, but haven’t had a chance to with today’s marathon “maintenance.”