Helpful addons
Last modified: May 7, 2011

This page is really just to give you a few ideas for addons that can help you to heal. It won’t be an in-depth guide or review of different addons (we could be here a long time!), but rather a few pointers for what you should consider picking up, and a few options to try.

Raid frames

If you plan to raid, you should consider installing a raid frames mod. The default raiding UI has had a lot of improvements recently, but installing a raid frame addon will give you more flexibility and show you all of the things that you need to see, in a much more customisable way.

What your frames should show you (at the bare minimum):

  • Players and pets
  • Out of range indicator
  • HoT timers, including Lifebloom stacks
  • Debuffs that you are able to dispell
  • Raid debuffs that you need to take notice of (eg big damage debuffs that you will need to heal the target through)
  • Mana bars
  • Aggro indicator

Serious raiders will also add things such as Power Word: Shield and other players’ HoTs to their frames, so that they can see when a target is shielded or has HoTs already present. Knowing whether another druid’s Rejuvenation or Regrowth is on a target is also very helpful if you want to Swiftmend a target without applying your own HoTs.

The major raid frame mods are all very similar and have similar features; so it’s mostly a case of finding the one that you prefer to use.

Recommended raid frames:

  • Default frames – if you use the default frames, I highly recommend grabbing a mod called Blizzard Raid Frame – Indicators. This gives you HoT timers and debuffs, two very important things to show on your frames.
  • Grid – Grid is a powerful raid frame and for a long time was the best raid frame mod for druids to use. It is a modular addon, meaning that you start with the bare bones frames and can add the features that you want, rather than the mod coming with every possible feature for every possible class. If you grab Grid, you should also download the following mods for it:
  • VuhDo – VuhDo is a newer frame mod, but has exploded in popularity. It has a lot of fantastic features for healers, and many people find this mod easier to use because it is an all-in-on addon, meaning that you only have to download (and update) one file, rather than picking and choosing multiple modules. VuhDo also supports click-casting.
  • Healbot – Healbot has been popular for a long time, but has really improved in recent times, both in functionality and in form. It now has all of the core features listed above, although it doesn’t display HoTs in the same way as Grid and VuhDo and this may be a small black mark against it. One great feature is that it includes alert sounds, which is really handy. It also has built-in click-casting, which is favoured by a lot of people.
  • Pitbull – Pitbull is a frames mod (raid frames, player frames, target frames, pet frames, etc). You don’t have to use it for your target frames, of course – you can just use it for raid frames (and vice versa). Very customisable, but not as user-friendly for beginners.

Do you have a raid frames review, guide, or article? I’d love to add it here. Please use the Contact page to send me a link!

HoT timers

If you’re not a raider, or you are using a raid frame that doesn’t include HoT timers, then you can opt for a stand-alone HoT timer mod. Honestly, if you want to heal as a druid, you really need something more than just squinting at the icons on your party frames and trying to work out when they are about to run out. In the case of Lifebloom, refreshing too early means wasting mana, and refreshing too late means dropping your stacks and having to restack them. Clipping HoTs reduces your efficiency and wastes mana, so it’s important to have HoT timers that are easy to read and react to.

Recommended HoT timers:

Power Auras

Power Auras is the best thing since sliced bread. It adds visual auras/cues to your screen to indicate buffs, debuffs, spell cooldowns – you name it. The auras can be made to be small and simple, or large and obvious. They can be lines, swirls, shapes, text, or simply look like corresponding spell icons – whatever works best for you. You’re really only limited by your imagination.

Here are some suggestions for auras that you might use as a resto druid:

  • Innervate is ready/on cooldown
  • Rebirth is ready/on cooldown
  • Tree of Life is ready/on cooldown
  • Tree of Life is active and has X seconds remaining
  • Swiftmend / Nature’s Swiftness is ready/on cooldown
  • Low mana – time to Innervate!
  • Clearcasting proc and timer – you have X seconds to use it!
  • I’m missing an important buff
  • I’m missing my usual raiding flask/buff food
  • I forgot to take off my chef’s hat
  • I have Bloodlust / Heroism / Nature’s Grace / Haste pot up
  • I have a trinket / weapon proc up
  • Low health – time to heal / health stone / pot / Barkskin / get out of the fire
  • Nasty debuff warning – get out / run in / stop moving / start moving / etc

Power Auras can be exported and shared, which means you can simply take other people’s ideas, install them, and then tweak them to suit you. Here are some to inspire you:

Got some of your own to share? Send me a link!

Other helpful addons

Here are some addons that are not essential, but can make your life a lot easier.

  • Bar mods – bar mods can help to clean up your UI and create custom bar configurations. Not essential, but most raiders use bar mods to fully customise their UI layout. Recommended bar mods:
  • Click casting – some people prefer click-casting, which is the ability to click your mouse on someone’s frame and have a particular heal or ability associated with that click (left click, right click, shift click… and so on). Some frames addons will do this by default; if your addon doesn’t, Clique is a very popular choice as a companion mod.
  • Keybinding – binding your keys can be done through various bar mods; however, BindPad is a great addon that allows you to bind anything (abilities, gear, consumables) without using a bar mod. See the Keybindings page for more information.
  • Damage & healing meters – you can use healing meters to assess your performance, spread of your heals, overhealing, etc. Skada and Recount are two popular mods.
  • Boss mods – I didn’t include this above as it’s not really resto-specific. Your guild will either require you to use boss mods, or not (depending on whether you raid and how serious raiding is). Honestly, if you raid, you should have a boss mod addon. It’s not mandatory, it doesn’t make boss healing impossible – but it is very helpful. Good boss mods include:

 

Do you know of an addon that is really great for healing, or for Resto Druids in particular? Please let me know!