Addons And You

In the early days of WoW, addons weren't very common.There were only simplistic things like CT Raid or Recount. You had your standard UI with the raid frames and mods like Decursive or Healbot. Nothing too fancy.

When I was approaching the realm of endgame I was quick to jump onto one of the few existing World of Warcraft addon site to get myself ready for raids. I pulled out things like Recount and CT Raid and installed them. Recount I didn't use until about a few months into my raid career.

This is one my earliest UIs, when I started experimenting with things like Bartender, Big Wigs, Titan Bar, Atlas Loot, Omen and PallyPower. All the mods the normal raider would need. This was a horribly designed layout, but it was the best I could do at the time. 

This was probably the first ever UI I ever worked with, modding it slightly with every new update.

After my first big burnout from World of Warcraft I returned three months later a bit refreshed and with a better head on my shoulders. I started experimenting with pre-made user interfaces, all I had to do was download a file and put the respective folders in their designated areas. It definitely freed up from screen real estate, which I sorely needed after months of raiding with only 20% of the screen visible to me. I used to play on a 1280x1024 screen.

  

Going into the third expansion UIs had begun to radically improve in design. It was rare to find a decently designed UI unless you had a good computer or a widescreen monitor. Only the most hardcore raiders would customize their UIs to the fullest. At this time they were trickling down to the rest. Low-memory solutions for those with weaker hardware.

Halfway through my second year of raiding I needed to redo my UI yet again. By this time, widescreen user interfaces were becoming increasingly common and the lack of solutions was really starting to get to me. I had to look even harder for something suitable. This would do well for now.

In February 2010 I finally went widescreen. Although I was only working with a resolution of 1366x768 I was still able to game effectively on my small screen. Not to mention the better graphics and faster hardware!

This UI, going into the third expansion, didn't last me very long. The patch that came and changed everything broke it. If only I knew how to code addons like this...

I spent the majority of the first few months using this UI until it was broken by a future patch too.

This was my UI from when I began raiding in Cataclysm. This lasted me a good couple months until this too was broken/out of date and wasn't continued.

This is the UI I have been using for the past year and a half. It's been constantly updated and looks radically different from the version shown here, but it's very functional and low memory. I haven't turned back since.