What’s the point of Add-ons anyway?

I’ve played a Holy Paladin exclusively ever since I hit level 70.  I was a good healer back in BC, however, I had a strong mind-set against ever using any Add-ons or macros to heal for a few different reasons:

1. Blizzard built the game to be played a certain way.  If Blizzard wants me healing differently, they’ll build it into their own UI.
2. I figured I’m better than all those Add-on users since I can heal just fine even right after a new patch and even if an Add-on breaks or becomes unsupported.
3. I was worried about potential hacks, cheating bans, or otherwise breaking Blizzard’s rules.
4. I didn’t want to have to re-learn how to heal using an Add-on.

In addition to that, I had absolutely nothing keybound.  I was a straight clicker, which was actually fine considering all of my heals had a cast time and 1.5 seconds was plenty of time to move my mouse around the screen.  I only had trouble on a few fights like Maiden where I needed to use cleanse very quickly.  I didn’t think hotkeys were necessary.

Setting up your UI - it is important!

However, when Patch 3.0 came out, Blizzard completely revamped the Holy Paladin class.  Holy Shock became much more powerful, paladins gained a number of new tools and talents and healing became almost completely different.  I decided, since I needed to completely relearn healing anyway, I would do it the right way.  To that end, I spent a great deal of time after Patch 3.0 setting up my UI, my macros, my Add-ons, and my keybinds and I learned them all at the same time I was learning to use the new talents and abilities.

To my surprise, my healing ability increased tremendously.  It was amazing how much easier healing became.  I was able to run level 80 dungeons at 75 and heroics right when I hit 80.  Today, its very rare for anyone except for a couple very good druids to beat me on the healing meters on any fight, even in 25-mans (we’ll go over later whether healing meters even matter).  The most important factor affecting your healing ability is not your gear or your talents.  We can spend all day debating which talents and stats you should pick to squeak out some more healing but it means nothing compared to just improving your ability to heal the people who need it when they need it.  Setting up your UI plays a huge part in this.  It doesn’t matter how good your gear/spec is if you are a slow/bad healer.

There are three different aspects of your UI that you’ll need to look at and they all work with each other.  You can’t really do only one - its all or nothing.

Add-ons

Installing some good Add-ons is probably the biggest single contribution you can make to your ability to heal.  The biggest benefit is the ability to single-click heal on whoever needs healing or cleansing.  Add-ons that give you warnings about whats about to happy are also very important.

Macros

Getting some good macros set up can also make your healing a lot easier.  There are certain combinations of actions that can be made much quicker and easier using a macro, freeing you to focus on healing.

Keybinds

Which buttons you push to perform each action - on both your mouse and your keyboard - can have a huge effect on your ability to heal.  Setting everything up so that it is natural and within easy reach will do a lot to increase your healing ability.

Summary

Also remember, your ability as player and how helpful you are to your group isn’t just about your ability to heal.  Being able to place a well-timed HoP, HoJ, HoS, or Divine Shield can save lives and prevent wipes.  A solid UI will help out with this.

Many add-ons today, especially the ones I will recommend, are used by a huge number of people, are well-supported and are usually updated even before a patch is released.  Blizzard supports and encourages the growth of the Add-on community. The add-ons can be downloaded from very legimate, safe, and secure sites.

There’s no question that getting your UI setup will take time, both to setup and to learn.  However, its well worth the effort.  In future articles, I’ll go what my setup is in each of these areas.  I don’t claim to have the best setup or to know what’s best for you, but I can give you what has worked for me.  Feel free to take that and modify it to suit your needs.

Related Articles

• Holy Paladin Macros
• Holy Paladin Add-ons - Healbot
• Holy Paladin Add-ons (continued)
• Holy Paladin Hotkeys (coming soon)