Nameplates v. Mouseover

Community General Discussion
1

Ok, so how big of a difference does it make?

I have never used mouseover macros and probably won’t, tbh. I understand that may serve as a bar to accessing the highest echelons of the game for me (not sure I would get there anyway).

I would like to hear from people that have made the switch.

I just click on nameplates from zperl and use the number key from the stock bar to heal or then mouseclick the spell.

I’m not sure it impacts my gameplay too much because I do have solid parses (for whatever that is worth) and am working on mythics 11-13s now.

Is it just a preference in gamestyle or does it really make a player that much better? I imagine the biggest selling point is in “activity time”?

Any constructive thoughts welcome here.

2

Once you try, you can never go back. It’s just convenience - instead of two actions, I now need to do one. It’s also borderline impossible to play “DPS” healers like holy Paladins, as you need to actively target enemies to generate resource.

One can probably practice to be quite proficient with clicking and pressing, the same way as the best sprinter can probably run faster than a bad cyclist, but on average it’s just slower.

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3

If it works for you, then don’t feel obligated to change. That said, it is more efficient. As a Drruid you are probably targeting most of the time anyway so it probably doesn’t matter too much, but thinking off trying to play that way as disc makes my brain hurt.

4

Imo, mouseovers completely change healing for the better. I don’t know how I ever played without it.

Edit - I’ll add it is probably player preference, but it’s hard to imagine click healing could be as efficient as mouseovers if we’re comparing equally skilled players. I do know healers who only click and can’t get used to mouseovers, and that works for them, though they don’t push real high content.

5

I use mouse over and nameplates

It helps when you can just hover over a nameplate to heal someone

It doesn’t seem like it, but the split second of clicking a nameplate (or Lord help you if you misclick the wrong one and heal) can save someone in tight situations

I also like target of target macros

For example, I can target the boss to dps, but my heals will heal whoever the boss is targeting. This is especially useful as Disc where I need to be dpsing but also tossing out off heals

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6

I like to use clique on my healers. It lets you assign mouse over macros to your mouse (and pretty much any button combo). That way all of my healing spells are assigned to my mouse buttons.

7

Have personally had a hard time getting on board with mouseovers with how easy it is to accidentally do the wrong thing with them. Cat jump in your lap while trying to counterspell the caster in that trash pack? Congrats you just counterspelled a melee mob a yard behind the caster and pulled a second pack.

1 Like
8

You could incorporate mouse overs into your current settings.

Try it and see what you think. Make so. E if your heals mouse overs. Put them on the same buttons they are now. You’ll be able to mouse over your zperl frames and heal.

You might find that you like not having the extra click being necessary

9

This!! Unless your doing bleeding edge content then clicking is just fine. But man, you are missing out on some convenience! I use nameplates to mouse-over (my wife uses the bodies in the world though idk how she does it. I’ve tried and it’s crazy hard to ‘hit’ the right character in a dungeon). I set up my nameplates as raid-style, make them a smidge bigger (typically to the middle of the slide bar), and move them under my toons feet displayed horizontally.

Also, this allows you to target a hostile mob and attack it if you feel so inclined.

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10

Mouseovers are much easier, faster, and convenient than nameplate clicking in every way. There are zero downsides, and only upsides from switching.

It really does make a player that much better, at no cost whatsoever. You don’t even have to change your keybinds unless you’re a clicker (in which case you should keybind).

3 Likes
11

Yes very much.

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12

I only use mouseover macros for a few of my shots. It makes aiming faster.

13

Mouse over macros by far.

14

I used to primarily heal through focus macros but those didn’t exist in classic so i moved to mouseover and ever since coming back to retail I can’t not mouseover heal large groups. Clicking through 15 raid frames to heal in a battleground just feels so sluggish and slow

I use target party 1/2/self macros as well so most of my macros are set to prioritize mouseover unless i have a friendly player targetted, and i still have my focus macros set to shift modifiers for like 5man healing and its mainly the tank taking damage

15

I dont use mouseovers except for very specific things. Like disc priest

While healing as Resto druid I click the names and press by buttons as you described.

Ill probably never be a top mythic raider, but I’ve healed some mythic raids up to a point.

Objectively its for sure less efficient, but once youre used to it, its not a big deal unless you are trying to push yourself to the be some of the best.

If youve ever felt like you were just barely late in saving someone, mouse over probably would have saved you those extra seconds you would normally waste on a click.

16

You are massively over-geared for the keys you are doing and the raid you are doing. Clicking in any form is terrible and should never be done. Your target should always be something that your dpsing and if you use mouse-over macros you can help a weekly vads without taking your main focus off of the boss while also healing your raid with mouse overs. It’s just so much better and faster that I would say it’s not even a preference it’s basically a must to be good.

17

When I first started healing way back in the day, I almost quit being a healer (I was terrible at it) until I tried mouseover macros. It changed my WoW life (I found out that I love healing). I find it way easier and that it requires less thought. If you’re doing fine, then you don’t have to change, but it was game-changing for me.

2 Likes
18

Mouseover macros are great.

For DoT classes, bind every dot to a mouseover macro and just hover your mouse over the boss frame or nameplate of the unit you wanna dot up. Reduces the inputs by like 30%

Learning curve for sure but well worth it

1 Like
19

I don’t know that it makes anyone “better”, but is so much easier and time efficient to be able to keep boss/mob targeted and mouse over a bar or player and heal. Once I made the switch, became unsure how I survived before. It’s definitely a qol thing for me. If you haven’t tried it, just make one and hit it a few times. That sold me, but ymmv.
For actually mouseclicking the spell, that seems like a harder path to take but if it works for you, that’s what matters. If I had to look for it on bars, I’d be dead :wink:

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20

I started out in BC (too long ago) with no idea that addons were a thing. During WOTLK, I found click-cast addons for healing, like Healbot and VuhDo. Those were game changing. I could keep my keyboard binds for dps and utility, and bind all of my heals to mouse buttons.

Now, with the emphasis on much more dps from healers, and movement, combined with some issues I was having with VuhDo, I’ve converted to a style of mouseover healing.

First, tried doing away with VuhDo and just using macros where if the mouseover was friendly, it would heal, but if there was no mouseover, then it would dps my target. I adapted ok-ish, but too many times when I wanted to dps, my mouse would drift over the player models and it would cast a heal, instead.

Found a perfect compromise, for me.

I use Grid for my player frames, and I am using Clique. However, when I used Clique in the past, I assigned the heals to mouse buttons. Now, I assign the Clique assignments to keyboard binds. Doing it this way, it only casts the heal if my mouse is over the Grid unit frame, not the player model, but, I am using keybinds from the keyboard, not clicking to cast the heal.

This gives me better control over when I cast a heal vs when I dps using the same keybinds for both and never having to click anything. I personally set all my movement to mouse buttons. This has helped my ability to cast while moving significantly.