What makes a Priest UI?
 

This may seem a silly question... but I've been thinking: what specifically makes a Priest UI?

Of course, there may be different answers depending on whether one is a druid, shaman, or cleric, but I think this could a profitable and interesting discussion, and hopefully helpful for developers as they create new windows and UI's.


- In general, what things are absolutely necessary for a Priest UI?

- What things aren't necessary, or get in the way?

- Are there particular windows, arrangements, or features that are important to have in a Priest class UI?

- Are there things specific to Cleric, Druid, or Shaman UI's that maybe the others wouldn't have or need?

- What other comments do you have about UI's for Priest class characters?


I'm looking forward to the discussion!

timer..
 

maybe a timer for clerics casting complete heals in a raid...

My mouse loving cleric is only 51 so my answer is limited, grin...

Timer for buffs (cel heal too)
All target info in one box (pet line, group member, my m and hp, mob hp)
melee spam in one tiny spot
Spell gems next to info box
clickies on the group window would be neat too

/wave

When playing my 40-something cleric, I really like to have a big casting bar sitting right underneath a big target health bar so that I can judge whether my heal will be in time.

I like having target, mana, casting, and group health bars all right next to each other so that I can watch them all at once.

It's also nice to have the F2-F6 labels for group members.

Other clerics have told me that the tick timer in my UI is very handy for CH rotations because it counts out seconds. I could package that up for general use if people were interested in it.

My 2 cents. It really depends on the role of whoever I'm playing. As a healer, I like obvious (but not obnoxious) group bars, preferably with a good contrast between the "gone" hp and what's left. When I'm soloing, the only real info I need is my hp/mana, pet's hp and a few commands, and the enemy hp bar.
I prefer a clear window though...being a cleric/healer is boring, if I can stare at something not related to everyone's hp, I probably will. :) Also prefer one that I can stuff up at the top of the screen, as my chair sits high/my desk is low, to make it easier to keep up with what's going on. (And now I'm just so used to it.) Been using the Vertibrae skins for some time, it has everything I need and doesn't eat up too much screen space.

I think that one of the big things is:

Casting Bar below the Target (all in the same window)

I know when you are casting that CH, and trying to watch the casting bar with their life dropping at the same time, it can get a little close. Do you duck and cast a quick heal then start the CH agian?

I used to play a cleric as my main and this was the thing I would think that would really define a Priest UI.

Edit: I think that a small spell book and an open feeling is very important also. I see that while I was posting some others said the same about the casting bar. Good colors in the group window are a great idea also.

my 2 copper ......
I have a 51 clr. Her ui is open and nice to look at. I hav kelvise color change bars. This way i can see someone going down fast.
Next to them i have the fairy spell bar it compact and easyly used in a pinch. above that i hav a large target bar that easy to read. As for a spell book i have one of t kings undead one.
Everything is open and easy to read and nice to look at. That my 2 copper.
:D

The main thing I look for in a UI when playing my cleric is the group health bars. I find the new tkg2celtic fit the bill nicely, give you changing colors for health precentages, making it easier to see who is in most need of a heal.

First and foremost:
#1. The cleric's hit points HAVE to be in the same window as the groups hit points. To do otherwise can mean a dead cleric.
#2. A cleric should have 2 or more windows. The main window should show all the important chat, and the other 2 windows should filter out the spam you cant get rid of.
#3. The clerics interface should be as uncluttered and non-distracting as possible. Moving animations and large, sweeping images are nice, but can be distracting.


I use 2 MODs I D/Led from this site. The most important one takes my group window and adds my personal info (HP, Mana, STA, Pet, EXP, AA EXP). The other MOD takes my personal window and turns it into my target window. This accomplishes 2 things. It reduces the clutter on my screen, since I can get rid of the default target window. And it makes my target window border in red when my attack is on.

Notice that any window I am not actively using, that is in my actual view area, fades to 0:


My chat windows sort melee hits (both what I hit and when I get hit) to the little window on the far right. The center window sorts out channel chatter, guild chatter, ooc/auc/shout junk, and basically anything that is not group or raid chat.



For my hotkey box, I D/Led one from this site, then modified it to better suit my needs. I even added my large soiled bag so I could quickly and easily check on my peridot/coffin/whatever status, and also easily locate my Necronic Divining Device:

My cleric UI
 

I agree with everything in your post Dikmer, especially that a cleric's UI should be unobtrusive. I also put together mine with bits and pieces downloaded from this site.

Things I find most helpful:

1. Group window that includes me in the list.
2. Access to bags and clickies without opening inventory.
3. I'm a mouse-user so having everything important clustered together in one spot is key.
4. Text labels for spell bar and buff list.
5. Everything as small as possible, and transparent if possible, to allow for maximum viewing area.




Eradikate Exorcista
Cleric of Povar

Well, while I am sure you are very used to your UI, for me, I see 2 critical flaws.

#1, your main chat and your group HP windows are too far apart. Like yours, my set up has my main chat and group windows are side by side. I can't begin to tell you how important that is to me, since I type by looking at the keyboard, and I can't be looking around my screen to read, and look at group bars, and look at my keyboard. They just have to be closer for me. But on yours, the chat is over on the left side of your chat window, which would me bad for me.

#2, for me, not using view port doesn't work. I either have trouble reading the chat windows, or I have to darken the chat windows to read them, which blocks my view.

All in all, the same basic principles I am trying to get across. ;)

Others have said some already, but for me:

The UI has to be monastic. No clutter at all, including no stats or resists or other information I could get from going to inventory. The only exception is current/max hp, xp and alt xp. Stuff like window selector, menu and other seldom-used windows are always off for me until I need them. Until the spell sets, my spell gem bar was always off too since all casts are done by hotkey.

The player gauge must be in the group window. This is probably the most important change for a priest UI.

While the popular buffs-with-their-name buff boxes are nice, having bard songs blinking to me are a distraction. I have just the icons in the shortbuffbox, shrunk to 16x16 and close to the gauges so I'm not looking elsewhere on the screen when I notice stuff blinking in the corner of my eye.

Four hotkeyed inventory slots: primary, secondary, top two general inventory slots. For swapping epic/proc hammer in primary and gvd/shield in secondary.

The hp gauges need to be high contrast and easy to gauge rate of damage taken over time. Part of this for me is making the target and group gauges the same size. I don't have %s or any cues for low life. I tried them and they were distracting. More often than not, I'd toss a small heal onto someone at 96% life during a lull and it was wasteful. I can understand it being a benefit for some, likely most.

Numerical mana % along with the gauge of course.

For a raiding cleric, a 10 min (+foci/aa) timer for Divine Intervention that you can get rid of when it's not needed. I spent an afternoon heavily modifying Arista's timer mod so that it fit unobtrusively into my UI and was just as unobtrusive for the majority of the time when it was off.

All gauges need to be in the same corner of the UI. When things get hairy, everything not in or immediately around the group window gets ignored.

Easy to manipulate chat windows are also nice for a raiding cleric. So you can create a new chat window for a ch rotation and get rid of it when it's not needed.

The loot window should have all 31 slots available without scrolling. This is the one I use. With it you can pluck your epic from your corpse instantly without scrolling through to find it.

High visibility is crucial to a cleric. Being able to see the whole fight and potential problems in the surrounding area. With the need for high contrast gauges, this usually means a viewport or opaque group window background. One thing that helps is to keep everything orderly and sized enough to fit along the screen bottom as much as possible--keeping to a monastic style--to give an unobstructed rectangular viewport.

I agree and disagree with some things said here.

I play as my main a 65 druid with well over 100 aaxps. I often times also play a 65 cleric both in raids and in groups. So what I say are simply my opinions playing in both groups and end game raiding with both of those classes.

Also let me say that Ive been using my own UI (a mod of drakah) for months now and find it perfect for my needs.
link here
http://www.eqgui.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6112

1st. Percentile marks next to any health and mana bar. Not overlaying like the default UI but next too. Its key to have a % next to mana. There are times when im power medding and need to fire off that last heal the second i get the mana to do so.

2nd. I disagree that my health bar needs to be INSIDE the group window. However, it should logically be close to the group window. Frankly, end game raiding as a healer often times you CANT heal yourself as a cleric, and as a druid you should be aware of your life.

3rd. I also disagree about making the UI unobstructive. Currently my UI takes up a good solid one third of my screen and id have NO problems making it larger if i felt it warented it. The action in the game for healers isn't what our 3d toons are doing, its in the pixel movement of life bars, and the rapid action of the chat box.
For this same reason I also put my chat boxes at the top of the screen, not the bottom. My eyes naturally rest near the top of the screen when im playing, so it only made sense to me to have the most important information there.

4th. Notice on my UI theres a combonation box for player stats/pet window/clickies This was an ingenious idea, and actually the first one that drew me to drakah's work. I often don't need any of those 3 boxes, however its nice to have the stat window there as a reference, and clicking over to the other two boxes is simple and painless.

5th. you can't see my casting bar in my picture, but there are actually TWO gauges. One that appears below my target box, roughly where Ghesta Icepaw is floating. Another is simply a small pink line that runs through my mana bar whenever I cast.
OF the two, i prefer the pink line. It gives me a better guage of how much longer my spell will be casting because of the hash marks in the mana bar.
However, I disagree with others that the casting bar NEEDS to be big. I simply don't see it.

6th. Timers. Im sorry, I know a lot of people like timers, but I hate them. I dislike them for several reasons. most importantly, I feel that in most cases they are a crutch. A good cleric should know how long it will be till his heal lands. A shaman should know roughly when to reslow. etc etc etc. Another reason that I dislike timers is this. Every time Ive tried to use a timer, I find something new to time. Mez is X seconds, CH chain is Y seconds, Slow is Z seconds. Why, id need 45 different timers just to keep up. Finally, the other reason I don't like timers is the following. Especially later game, you need to be versitile, you need to adapt on the fly to conditions MUCH quicker than you did in earlier play. CH chain, someone dies, you need to adjust, and you have to adjust IMMEDIATLY or the raid dies. Mobs will dispell debuffs that you stack on them, or buffs on you. Timers, at end game, just don't work imho.

Well, thats about it i guess. hope my input helps, and im sorry if i offended anyone.
:)

As my main char is a 65 cleric, there were a lot of requirements when I was looking for a custom UI.

I have to concur that as a cleric the ability to see my group's HP values was critical as was my stats and mana. I liked what Drakah had done but I didn't need the frills around the windows. That's when I found Vert UIs. The problem always became that this UI was good in design but was a bit too frilly and this one that was clean didn't have the right configuration.

That's why I dove in and created my own based on Vert. My UI takes up approx 1/3 of the screen on the lower portion. The main feature is that the compass bar stretches across the entire screen dividing the viewable area from the information area. It contains the compass, my resists, my name and surname, my level and class and diety, all my stats as well as my exp and aa bars (and numeric percentages). From the left to right are various windows that combine some pieces. Hotbuttons are on the left, then 2 chat windows (one is guild/raid/tell, one is melee/crit spam) then a bit off center to the right is my group window with the LFG button and above the group bars (with numeric percentages noted as well) is my player info including HP, Mana, Stamina, AC, HP/max and ATK. All bars include their numeric percentage values. And to the right is my main chat window. Below the hotbuttons, 2 chat windows and group window is the "target" window which has been reconfigured for right clickables. 5 equipment spaces, primary, secondary, range, ammo then the 8 inventory spaces. Above the compass bar (centered) is the "player" window which has been reconfigured at the target window/casting bar window with a long space for the target name and the numeric percentage value. Below the HP bar is where the casting bar pops up.

The upper left (below the PL info) is the spell gem window with the spell names to the right of the gems. I have modified this window recently to include an extra gem sized spellbook button for the spell lists. Below that, vertically, is the option window buttons. The upper right with the buff icons against the right is the main buff window (buff description to the left) with the song buffs window below that.

It's clean, simple and easy to use. I don't rely on the inventory window for information. All the info is there on the main screen. I don't have to worry what each spell gem/icon means because it's there on the screen. Like I said, all bars also include the value so I don't have to guess what the value is.

The only drawback is that I made it 1280x1024 only. I needed that much to display the info I wanted.

That's what I think makes a Priest UI. BTW, though it's nice to have your char's perspective viewable on the entire screen in the background, it's a pain in the ass when you want to click thing are behind your windows. I found it much more efficient to keep the viewable area segregated from the information.

EDIT: On the subject of timers ... although they are a nice concept, the reality of timers on the interface is a pain. Much better to get a few (I have 3) digital timers in the kitchenware section of your local Walmart. I set them when I need them. For the most part, I don't worry about it since if the buff wears off on me, then I need to recast it.

this my own ui for my cleric.

i added casting bar to the target and chatwindow.
So whatever window i am looking at, i still can see the bar.