Friday, July 24, 2009

Mage UI: First Step - Nostromo Game Pad

I've been thinking about what I can do to free up space on my screen. I'm just not happy with the way everything is currently laid out, and I know I can do better. Will it increase my DPS by insane amounts? Will it make me out heal the uberest of uber-geared folks? Of course not, but it's really something I'd like to do.

So.... since I've had a Nostromo game pad since Christmas... of 2007, I figure that I should finally put it to use. Phaelia over at Resto4Life had posted about how she uses (or used as the case may be) the game pad here. For a mage, it's basically a starting point. At least for me it was. I can't really get all of my spells to fit in the 29 slots that she's suggesting. Nonetheless, it gave me some great idea for both my mage and my shaman (which I'll go over at a later date).

I know all of you mages are sitting on the edge of your sit wanting to know how I'm going to set up my keys, so here goes:

RowColumnNormalAlt
11InvisibilityEvocation
12Icy Veins / CombustionMirror Image
13Use Mana GemSpellsteal
14Dragon's BreathArcane Missiles
15BlizzardFlamestrike
21Fire BlastIce Lance
22CounterspellRemove Curse
23Polymorph
24Living BombScorch
25Frostfire BoltPyroblast
31Fire WardFrost Ward
32Arcane IntellectArcane Brilliance
33Dampen MagicAmplify Magic
34Mana ShieldArcane Explosion
35BlinkFrost Nova


This still means that I have a pool of spells I don't have bars for (Arcane Blast, Fireball, Frostbolt, Mage Armor (I'll let SmartBuff take care of that one, could probably remove Arcane Int/Brilliance as well), Ice Armor, and Cone of Cold). There's also set of spells that I'll have off on the side somewhere such as Professions, Portals, and other non-combat essential items. (I suppose Slow Fall is debatable on that list, but it's in there nonetheless.) I also have potions on that list. I know, I know... they would be combat "essential" but with everything being freed up for non-clicking, I figured those two items wouldn't be a big deal. So, I'm off to install Bartender to see if this setup will work for me.

3 comments:

Flowersz said...

good luck with that, I have to admit I failed to get used to my Nostromo on my Resto Shaman, but I *have* gotten very used to my Saitek with a leveling Warrior. I switched from the Nostromo simply because it didn't fit my hand.

Guest said...

You could try OPie for your professions as well, I use it for my profs, mounts, and gear swaps, very nice and you only see it when you use it!

Leiandra said...

Hmm... I'm gonna have to try out OPie.  I've been trying to reduce my add-ons, but I used to use Cryolysis (which has been broken for quite some time).  OPie seems to be even less intrusive though.  Seems to be a small learning curve, but also seem like it could be very nice.  Thanks for the tip.