I love immersion and I love the world of WoW. How can I get my UI to a minimal state where I have as a little as possible cluttering my view?
I am not really thinking about Add Ons - I am more thinking about philosophy. What can you hide? What do you need to see? What do you need to see some of the time? What do you have to have key bound? What could be on a hidden bar?
My biggest issue is cool downs. I main a BM hunter. My rotation seems to be completely dependent on seeing several cool downs at all time - but I hate having them in the middle of my screen. I have Bestial Wrath, Kill Command, Barbed Shot, Heal Pet, and Aspect of the Wild in the center of my screen. I cannot think of a way to move them to the bottom or hide them - I do not know how to do my rotation without seeing those all the time.
Then there are long term cool downs, health, power, and resources, my target frame plus the nameplate - its cluttered but I do not know how to remove any of tit and still play.
I am very casual - entirely PvE and only occasionally do LFR or Mythic+.
Any general idea on what to hide? What I really need to see? What can be hidden on a OPie?
Thanks all - sorry if I am all over the place. I just want more immersion without getting steamrolled by lv 121+ mobs because I do not see my own rotation 
You have Cooldowns displayed in the center of the screen? That’s not default ui behavior and it sounds like that was accomplished with an add-on which means you should be able to use that addon to move them or switch to a different add-on to do what you want.
You can always hit Alt-z (it is it shift-z?) to hide everything. Then make a list of the things you really want to see, really don’t want to see ever, and see only under specific conditions.
We can then find some add-ons for that…
Also ability cooldowns are central to every spec’s rotation, not just a hunter-thing. Personally I use weak auras to show cd timers and other things like health and resource while in combat. And some I have sounds connected to them (like kill command makes a bite noise when it comes available).
Thank you! omg i never even thought of sounds with WA2. brilliant.
I know that you aren’t really thinking “Add-ons”…but,
Bartender4 can be a simple way to trim down your default UI. It lets you toggle on/off the visibility of…pretty much anything, other than the mini map & char/focus/tar/party/raid frames.
Anything remotely associated with an action bar, it lets you alter; size, position, look (to some extent), level of opacity,…all kinds of stuff.
Its a lot less intrusive than many of those full UI package Add-ons…
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As someone else mentioned weakauras are fantastic for what you are asking. For example, I have it set up that when I am out of combat my action bar, health bars and such are not displayed. Once I get into combat they show. I also has started messing around with when I need things to show. For example if I have a spell that has a two minute cool down then I really don’t need it to be visible for the majority of it’s cool down period. So usually I don’t have it show until the last 10 seconds of its remaining cool down.
Finally I might suggest going over to mmochamption website they have a show your ui thread that might give you some really good ideas.
Thanks guys - great ideas
Yes Bartender4 is an excellent addon for that “minimal” look. I have only one 12-button action bar on my screen and the rest are hidden. It is very user-friendly and also makes keybinding way easier.
I’m not sure why your cool downs appear in the middle of your screen, do you have your personal nameplate enabled? (where you have a healthbar/powerbar show up that is seperate from your player portrait healthbar) If so, I think there is an option to have cool downs be shown there.
Things I keep hidden: actionbars with spells that I wouldn’t use in combat, like mounts, pets, hearthstone, etc. Bags button, WoW error messages (don’t have a target,etc.) , the talking portrait frame.
Things you should always see: player and target frames, your buffs and debuffs, actionbar(s) that consist of your rotation/combat spells, minimap, chat frame.
Although it hasn’t been updated in years there’s a bog called “oops i hit alt+z lol” where a person posted about their thought process behind a minimalist UI. His (or her) aim is more about making the UI highly functional rather than immersive, but there’s a lot of neat stuff to read there.
I can’t create links here but look it up and you’ll probably find it.
Just wrap them in code tags </> in the editor.