Addons do the work for you?

[Larloch]

I keep seeing this catchphrase throughout the forums; "Oh, another healer wants an addon to do the work for them." Am I the only one who thinks it's odd to attach the word "work" to a video game?

[Hakufu]

I only want a more customizable healing interface T_T. If I have to wait for Trion to finish their API and integrate addons then so be it. I want a sexy and efficient UI.

[Aura]

Well I can understand when you have healed in WoW for years and you have Decursive + Healbot syndrome.

Having to make @mouseover macros for every spell is annoying. Having a raid frame that dance to a different part of your screen every time you log in and won't lock down is just as annoying.

Addons don't do YOUR work that just take make it EASIER and FASTER to setup and change options. Healing in Rift seems arcane, much like WoW in Vanilla which is something I hope they change. I would be happy with just a option check to @mouseover or self cast with a right click.

[Hakufu]

I used Vuhdo. I really don't care what it looks like really as long as I can see everything that's going on. I want to see on someone's portrait how much damage they just got hit for. I want a better way to view buffs/debuffs so I can decide who needs to be cleansed rather than just blindly cleanse. I want the option to see only my buffs on a friendly target etc.

These are just things I'd like to see.

I've never used healbot or decursive. I only want a more customizable UI.

Click on target healing isn't my cup of tea, but if someone needs that to handle their heals then it's not like that's a bad thing. I do more than fine without mouseover, there's no way someone WITH mouseover can accomplish more than me. We achieve the same level of speed as long as we hit the GCD!

[Soulcakeduck]

The user interface is supposed to be a tool that helps you do your job, usually by displaying the relevant information in an easy-to-access way. It is not supposed to be a competitive part of the game, that works against you, and that players are supposed to struggle to "overcome" or defeat. Otherwise, there would be no UI at all, and you'd just guess what to do.

Addons or customizable default UIs help the UI meet these intended goals for each player, by customizing the interface to display information in a way that individual players are more comfortable with. Addons have not "played the game" in any meaningful way in MMOs for a very long time, and those periods are usually short lived. Decursive and Healbot still exist in WoW, but they do not automate any decision or action for players, like they once used to be able to do; now, all they do is display information, like any UI. That's it.

Currently, Rift's UI has some elements that work against players, especially healers, almost universally. The party frames take up a huge amount of space, and in particular make it difficult to track dispellable debuffs because even if you're expecting one, your eyes have to cover half of your screen to watch each player for them. Further, if you encounter a new debuff, you cannot tell what it does (unless it is on you) because mousing over another player's debuffs will at most give you the debuff name, but no tooltip. So is this one worth the GCD to dispel, or will the tank die if I make that decision?

I personally find it much easier to heal with Rift's raid frames, and any party can use raid frames by having the group leader type /raid_create -- there is no penalty to experience, quest credit, dungeon grinding, or anything, for being in a raid instead of a "party."


Rift's UI gets a lot right, but like all default UIs, it will never be ideal for every player. It is reasonable to expect a very customizable UI or addon support to address this issue, and using those features isn't "cheating" or having mods play the game for you.