WeakAuras is… okay yes it’s a lot. I would argue it’s possibly the most powerful and versatile addon in the game. But it is definitely intimidating and a lot to handle if you don’t have anyone to show you how to make it work. It is possible however to only use it to the depth that you need it and it will otherwise leave you alone. If you just grab a MM Hunter WA profile from online and otherwise don’t touch the addon than it’ll be fairly lightweight.
If you don’t want to touch it though, I’d advise seeing what you can do to move some UI elements around so that your eyes don’t have to travel as much during combat. Generally during combat your eyes should rest directly below your character’s feet. So all your important cooldown and resource information (and probably your health + the boss’ cast bar) should be in that general area as well. As you move out from that position radially, you find less and less important information with truly irrelevant stuff being on the sides of your screen or not displayed at all. There’s two rules that can supersede this conventional wisdom and those are that things moving or flashing like animations or something will generally steal your focus from it’s natural rhythm. So I usually use flashes for important buffs or debuffs. The second rule is that sound trumps literally everything. If a notification makes a sound it WILL be your focus as soon as it is generated. This has diminishing returns though so use it sparingly. Audio notifications are the single most powerful tool in your UI arsenal so only use them for the most important always top-priority things - like deadly boss mechanics. In fact I think most popular boss mods overuse audio notifications out of the box and I turn most of them off.
You must have larger hands than I do.
If you’re like me OP with stubby sausage fingers then that’s also something to factor in to your keybinds. I use 2-5 for DPS abilities and otherwise I’m using keys like E, R, and V for abilities so I don’t have to reach very far. 1 is actually kind of awkward for me to press so I use that for utility abilities. (Usually defensives.)
But yeah, Terranox has good advice on how to approach it. I agree with everything he’s saying.
I dont think I use any of those. I use recount to check for my own performance and look at the numbers I could be doing.
I usually go with damage done for myself. But raiding use of logs would be better, but you’d have to factor in the rest of the group comp.
Usually everyone has strength. Play your spec to your strengths. The weaknesses are there but the rest of your team can balance that out. Some specs lack burst, some specs are better at sustain. Some are better at aoe or cleave.
I do the same thing for the most part. My damage abilities are 1-5. My main damage CDs are Shift 1 and Shift 2. Covenant stuff are F and Shift F. Interrupt is Shift + Mouse Wheel Down, and my “reactionary defensive” is Shift Mouse Wheel Up (for my hunter that’s FD). Utility abilities are V, Shift V, C, Shift C, B, Shift B.
I’ve never been one of those guys who could bind their movement keys. I just need those, sorry lol. I don’t backpeddle all the time, but sometimes I do.
The thing with weakauras is that I’m tired of people telling me “get this WA!” and “get that WA!” and then I get sensory overload from all the information I am fed at once.
The issue I’ve found with the premade WAs are that they’re tailored to the player who made them, not to me. And then I end up destroying them when I try to fix it on my own.
logs more often than not by people who dont know how to use it just look at the pharses. But log honestly is the best way to actually figure out what you’re doing wrong and where to improve on
I struggle with creating my own logs, but the one time I did in an LFR I had no idea how to read them. Warcraftlogs is a confusing site. Then when I tried to post a link in the class discord I basically just got told off. I haven’t tried again since.
I hear that. Something I tell my raiders is that focus is a resource just as real as your mana bar. Everything on your screen that tries to give you information spends some of that resource.
Raids are already getting half their difficulty by bombarding you with information. The job of a good UI is not to keep you informed of everything at all times, but rather to direct your focus. Deemphasizing (or simply not displaying at all) what isn’t important is just as vital as displaying what is. A lot of people I think overuse WeakAuras. I don’t use half as many WAs as some other people do so I definitely respect that.
Yeah that is the tricky part. It’s extremely customizable so if you know how to make it dance then it’s the most powerful addon we have. It’s difficult to learn though so I can understand being wary of it. If that’s the case I would instead look into addons that allow you greater freedom to move the existing default UI elements and lay them out in a more logical manner since Blizzard’s default UI is kind of whack the way they hide cooldowns at the bottom of the screen, buffs/debuffs in the top right, and vitals in the top left. My eyes get tired just thinking about it.
What about the little thing with the health/mana/resource that pops up over your character during combat, that’s part of the Blizz UI? Works well enough for me.
It is. Truth be told I’d forgotten that was there since I turned it off a while ago. (My own UI already tells me all that information so I didn’t need it twice.)
I’d probably still move things like the boss’ cast bar and some important cooldowns you’d like to track though.
That’s fair. I don’t think I’m ever going to get close to mastering “the art of the UI”, and that’s why I’ve stopped sharing it with people. What I have now works okay for me though. It’s probably not the most optimal setup but I don’t think someone like me would even be able to use an optimal setup to its maximum potential.
I just wish I had a fulfilling game I could play on my own so my terrible self can stay out of everyone’s way. Then I could keep paying my sub and funding your content.
tbh the main use I have w/ weakaura is just for boss mods. Though I have bigwigs installed. Sometimes having an icon flashing infront of you is always better when things are getting hairy. And I believe that’s what alot of players use it for as well. Sure you can customize your UI w/ it but you dont really need to if you dont want to.
did you upload them to warcraftlogs after you’ve done them?
did you post your logs? I wish I can teach you how to read it but I can’t do justice on telling you how to use it on here.
I did, then I posted the link to my class discord at the time asking for help interpreting them. Basically just got told “lol lrn2play” and “read the stickies”.
Actually now that I think of it, have you heard of a site called wowanalyzer? Basically you give it a link to your log page and it’ll present the information in a much easier to read format and give you suggestions like “You’re not casting Trueshot Aura enough. You’re doing such and such wrong with your resources.” Stuff like that.
I tend to take it’s recommendations with a grain of salt but for lower level stuff it does a fine job.
it is. But there’s certain things weakaura can do that dbm/bigwigs can’t
I find it’s best to sometimes send a dm to mods/theory crafter and ask them if they can spare some time to help you out. Sadly asking on the class discord you will find alot of trolls in there. Also only post your logs after they say yes. Best question I would ask them
“Hey so I’m trying to get better at the game but I dont know what I’m doing wrong. Mind looking at my logs and see if you have a spare time? I really dont know how to read it.”
While I do appreciate the advice you guys are giving me, and the civility of this discussion so far, you guys are seeing how all of this might be overwhelming to some people, right? Got this big laundry list of stuff I would have to focus on, which is all kind of moot since I don’t even have a guild or friends to run anything with anyway.
just focus on 1 thing at a time. You dont get better overnight. You get better by consistently trying to improve 1 thing at a time. Babysteps really. Believe it or not we’re all noobs once. Some just made a steps to get better
It doesn’t take a day. Many of this stuff was developed over time lol. Readjusting your keybinds will take time to get used to. I can only help from experience.
Once you feel comfortable with your dps rotation, you can focus on it less and focus more on the mechanics you need to do. And work on the utility your classes have. But if you are still struggling to maintain your rotation, you won’t be as focused as you need to be for the other stuff.
This is playing to a more hardcore mentality. Getting and knowing mechanics down and how stuff works is a hardcore concept that is present in many games. Even pokemon has hardcore fans that focus on the game mechanics to be successful in competitive pvp and the changing formats!