Healing: Addon Reviews

[Verttex]

Healing: POPULAR ADDONS!
A pro and con list of the most popular healing addons.
Notes for Use:
Multiple catagories start and end with a colored line. White is just a separator.

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Click Based Healing

HEY THERE! Its a me, a Verttex. Today I am here to talk about the topic of click-based healing. This is a big topic so lets dive right into it. So as we have many addons to pick from, I will go ahead and list them out with pros and cons.

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Healbot

Pros:

• Easy to understand and configure.
• Shows Debuffs, including Magic,Poison,Curse
• Click Casting with modifer keys.
• Widely popular with plugins to other UIs (like NUI)
• SmartDispel and SmartRes
• Most Downloads

Cons:

• Not as configurable as Vuhdo/Grid/Others
• Can freeze up and SmartDispel is sometimes broken.
• Not easy for authors to make a plugin FOR the addon.
• Has had problems in the past for layouts disappearing.

Verttex's Thoughts:
As it is the most used addon for click-casting, it is full featured and very easy to understand. After awhile of using it, you figure out you need something MORE featured

Final Rating:☻☻☻☺☺ or 3/5 faces.

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Vuhdo

Pros:

• VERY FEATURED!
• Shows Debuffs, including Magic,Poison,Curse
• Click Casting with modifer keys.
• Widely popular with plugins to other UIs (like NUI)
• SmartDispel and SmartRes
• Able to do many more things than Healbot

Cons:

• Hard to understand configuration menu.

Verttex's Thoughts:
I used this addon for a long time healing raids and dungeons and battlegrounds. With my time with it I came to love it with the auto-change layouts and more catagories than Healbot.

Final Rating:☻☻☻☻☺ or 4/5 faces.
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Grid (With Clique)

Pros:

• Simple and Basic, not as much as Healbot
• Shows Debuffs, including Magic,Poison,Curse
• Click Casting with modifer keys. WITH CLIQUE
  

  Originally Posted by Unkn Clique is not needed with Grid. You can easily make mouseover macros and you will never have to use Clique. That's how I've always done it, and it save you having to depend on yet another addon when patches hit.

• Widely popular with plugins to other UIs (like NUI)
• MANY MANY MANY Plugins to add to it.
• MACROS! (with Clique)

Cons:

• Really nothing. Just that Clique is needed and Clique has high memory usage.
  

  Originally Posted by Cladhaire I'm the author of Clique. I've been the author of Clique from the day it was released. I have never once, in the entirety of the time that Clique has existed, had a single complaint about the memory usage of Clique. As the author, I would be interested in a single report you have from a single user, so I can work to address any shortcomings that might exist in the addon.

Verttex's Thoughts:
I used Grid for a little while until I switched back to Vuhdo. I still give it a solid rating for functionality.

Final Rating:☻☻☻☻☺ or 4/5 faces.
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HealiumNEW!

Pros:

• Easy to understand and configure.
• Shows Debuffs, including Magic,Poison,Curse
• NO CLICK CASTING, NO MODIFIER KEYS! ONLY BUTTONS :D

Cons:

• Not as configurable as Vuhdo/Grid/Others
• EARLY ALPHA!

Verttex's Thoughts:
I found this on curse (sorry guys, its currently only on there :( ) and immediately fell in love with the idea. I am a lazy healer so being able to use one hand is amazing :D

Final Rating:☻☻☻☺☺ or 3/5 faces.
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Hot Timers

In this section we will be reviewing the HOT and DOT timers used for healing.
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HotCandy

Pros:

• Easy to understand and configure.
• Shows all spells
• Mostly made for druids but can be used for other classes.
• Light-weight
• Updated Often

Cons:

• No multiple timers.
• No way to filter.
  

Verttex's Thoughts:
Very well made addon. Currently use this in arenas for my healing priest.

Final Rating:☻☻☻☻☺ or 3/5 faces.
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Gnosis

Pros:

• Cast Bar AND Cooldowns
• Vertical
• Nicely Configurable
• Updated Often

Cons:

• LUA Errors often
• Can be hard to super configure it.
  

Verttex's Thoughts:
Don't use this one a lot.

Final Rating:☻☻☻☺☺ or 3/5 faces.
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General Addons

This topic is about the addons healers use that don't really compete with anyother addon.

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Decursive
NO IMAGE AVAILABLE BECAUSE DOLBY HATES ME :D

Pros:

• Easy to use dispels using just two keys unless configured differently.
• Updated Often
• Nicely Configurable
• Most healers use this is raids for easy dispels even if they aren't a needed thing for the fight.

Cons:

• I currently don't like how the config menu is layed out.
  

Verttex's Thoughts:
I really didn't use this one until I got to a raid. During 5 mans unless it is NEEDED I wouldn't use it.

Final Rating:☻☻☻☻☺ or 3/5 faces.

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[Unkn]

Clique is not needed with Grid. You can easily make mouseover macros and you will never have to use Clique. That's how I've always done it, and it save you having to depend on yet another addon when patches hit.

[Verttex]

Originally Posted by Unkn Clique is not needed with Grid. You can easily make mouseover macros and you will never have to use Clique. That's how I've always done it, and it save you having to depend on yet another addon when patches hit.

I am bad with macros.

[litesung]

Great guide verttexx

[Unkn]

Originally Posted by Verttex I am bad with macros.

/cast [@mouseover]SPELLNAME



the end


Now you can cast the spells on all your frames, not just raid frames Heck even on name plates or characters in the game world


PS. I do like your write up

[Verttex]

Originally Posted by Unkn /cast [@mouseover]SPELLNAME the end Now you can cast the spells on all your frames, not just raid frames Heck even on name plates or characters in the game world PS. I do like your write up

Clique does that easier. :P

[Verttex]

Currently Looking for MORE healer addons to review.

[MidgetMage55]

Originally Posted by Unkn /cast [@mouseover]SPELLNAME the end Now you can cast the spells on all your frames, not just raid frames Heck even on name plates or characters in the game world PS. I do like your write up

Having used both methods extensively, I can say that each has its ups and downs.

Macros give flexibility. As stated you can use them nearly anywhere that responds to the mouseover conditional. The downside is you are placing the mouse over something then pressing a key. This can limit mobility if you do not do extensive rebinding of your keys .

The click casting method is somewhat the opposite. The mouse is already there so you can use its own buttons. Leaving your other hand free for movement/anything you might need not related to clicking. However as stated it is one more addon to keep up to date.

In the end it is preference. Personal play style is as always a factor.

One comment however on the overall write up. Overall the memory usage for an addon is not that critical. Unless someone is using bare bones amounts of ram (maxing it out) it won't make much difference. Mostly load times are effected. CPU cycles are far more important in overall performance.

Nice little review overall.

[Verttex]

Originally Posted by MidgetMage55 Having used both methods extensively, I can say that each has its ups and downs. Macros give flexibility. As stated you can use them nearly anywhere that responds to the mouseover conditional. The downside is you are placing the mouse over something then pressing a key. This can limit mobility if you do not do extensive rebinding of your keys . The click casting method is somewhat the opposite. The mouse is already there so you can use its own buttons. Leaving your other hand free for movement/anything you might need not related to clicking. However as stated it is one more addon to keep up to date. In the end it is preference. Personal play style is as always a factor. One comment however on the overall write up. Overall the memory usage for an addon is not that critical. Unless someone is using bare bones amounts of ram (maxing it out) it won't make much difference. Mostly load times are effected. CPU cycles are far more important in overall performance. Nice little review overall.

Via the options panel in Clique you can set up a blacklist which is amazing for ONLY healing using Grid.

Going to do a review on cooldown timers and hot timers for healing later.

[Cladhaire]

Originally Posted by Unkn Clique is not needed with Grid. You can easily make mouseover macros and you will never have to use Clique. That's how I've always done it, and it save you having to depend on yet another addon when patches hit.

By the same token Clique works amazingly with any unit frames, not just Grid. There's so much more to the world than this post indicates..

[Kolakhan]

Healium works like a champ! I threw all the rest out including Decursive which I didn't need anymore. Don't have to worry about any key combinations. You just watch the health and left click the spell you want. What could be easier? If they are out of range you see it right away. This alt, shift, ctrl key combo, remember which spell is which key, is BS! I can size everything for larger groups as needed. As far as early Alpha not sure what you are talking about I have been using it for several months flawlessly.

[red8981]

I used Healbot before grid before vuhdo.

I believe Healbot has another pro, share settings with another player in-game.(I am not sure if it still exist anymore, i switched to grid at the end of lich king)

Grid is a very flexible addon, since the layout is small and neat. There are too many plug-in/module, so it was hard for me to manage all that.

Vuhdo is the one I am currently using, and I like the direction arrow on the out of range players. Make me hunting them easier.

I used healium a few times in the past, but it really reduce my healing abilities in a hardcore raiding guild.
Clicking it on the side always slower than my key pressing =P

[def9]

When I was healing hardcore with my druid in lich king I used ForteXorcistl for HoT's. So you could add a review for it if you wanted. I use clique with ouf_freebgrid as the screen layout.

Great review post!