Interface
A good user interface can provide you with a lot of important information mid-fight. The way to set this up depends entirely on the person, but you want to reduce unnecessary information to not get overloaded with information during pulls. Try to keep information relevant to the encounter you are in and to the spec you’re playing.
As a healer, I would recommend:
Raid Frames: I prefer to use addons to customize my raid frames. I’ve used base blizzard raid frames, ElvUI and currently I use Grid2. It has a ton of customization options while also being fairly user friendly and easy to get into.
Bigwigs/DBM: Seeing the boss timers in the encounter is very important to plan your healing. Knowing when the next mechanic is going out and what it’s called, you’ll learn how to prepare for each mechanic. This is important as both healing and your movement and positioning can depend on the mechanic and it will increase your overall awareness.
Nameplates: There’s several different options for nameplate addons, but the most used add-on is Plater. This add-on comes with limitless customisation but also the option to import other people’s profiles and use them for yourself.
Method Raid Tools: This addon allows you to see custom notes and other helpful stuff like everyone’s (healer) cooldowns. If your guild sets up healer notes for cd’s this is a way to import them and make them show on your UI.
Viewports: Something that I’ve personally been recommended is the addition of a viewport (example in the image below). This is a way to essentially squish your screen and see more in a concentrated area while freeing up the area around your character. It has helped me improve my awareness significantly.
Macros
Angelic Feather Macro
This macro will cast Angelic Feather at your feet without having to position your cursor, or at your mouse cursor if you press Alt and the keybind together. This eliminates the need to click with your cursor, and allows you to Feather either yourself or an ally easily. You can swap Alt with Shift or Ctrl if that is more comfortable to press.
#showtooltip Angelic Feather
/cast [@player, nomod] Angelic Feather; [@cursor, mod:alt] Angelic Feather
This is an example of a Mod Macro, you can change Angelic Feather to another ability.
Spell Mouseover Macro
Make sure you are using one of the variations of mouse overs and you’re not targeting a player each time you’re using an ability on them. This is extremely important as it saves you a lot of time between casting spells and you want to lose as little time as you can while playing.
There is a setting to do this in the base blizzard settings, but you can also opt to go with macros. For macros: you can use these macros and replace “spell/ability” with each spell or ability you’d like to mouseover:
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Spell/ability
This is a pretty basic version of a mouseover macro which will work for every spell in Holy’s kit. As a more detailed example, I’ve included a more customised Renew mouseover macro, which will first prioritise your mouseover, then your target (if friendly) if no mouseover, then yourself (if you’re not targeting any friendly unit).
#showtooltip/use [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] Renew
Cast at Cursor Macro
You can use a macro in order to cast an AoE-targeted ability directly at your cursor’s position without any extra steps. This could prove important in moments where there is little time to react. This would be good for Holy Word: Sanctify or Mass Dispel. Here is an example with Holy Word: Sanctify:
#showtooltip Holy Word: Sanctify
/cast [@cursor] Holy Word: Sanctify
Weakauras
Weakauras can really help optimize your UI. They allow you to track anything you’d ever want to see like your personal cd’s, generally important buffs, defensives and external cd’s. Weakauras are super customizable and can give you a ton of important information contributing to a clear and good UI.
There are a lot of options for packs and singular aura’s. I recommend getting packs that are specific to your class. The best place to find several collections is wago.io: https://wago.io/weakauras/classes/priest/holy
Some useful WeakAuras for Holy would be:
- Track your personals, as Holy is a pretty squishy class, this is important to manage well.
- A Divine Word (talent) duration tracker, with the associated buff regarding the Holy Word you used.
- An Answered Prayers tracker, if you’re playing with it, since it’ll allow you to know when you’ll proc a free Apotheosis.
Weakauras can also help you track the information in relation to specific encounters and can in combination with timers, give you a bit of extra info if required. There are a lot of dungeon and raid specific weakaura sets out there.
Preference is key when it comes to your ui. There are a lot of written and visual guides on how to optimize the space on your screen, but at the end of the day it has to work for you.