So, I have finally caved in and decided to give Grid one last run for its money. I have installed it, set it up, and have convinced myself to raid with it for two full weeks before making a decision on it. Thanks to Phae and Keeva, I was able to get my raid frames set up, with a minimum amount of cursing 😉
I have installed the following modules with Grid (note: this may be incomplete, but I will double check when I get home tonight!):
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Grid Status Lifebloom
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Grid Corner Text
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Grid Status HoTs
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Grid Mana Bars
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Grid Status Raid Debuffs
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Grid Status Res
I took the time to get it all configured and set up, and I’ve run two raids with it so far. One of the things that I like most about it is how it can display my HoTs right on each players frame. One of the things that I dis-like about it is how confusing it is to get set up, and I’m still not sure I’ve got it optimized in the best way =(
As a raid leader, it’s important for me to see EVERYTHING that is going on in the fight, I did however set my poison and curse priorities over the magic and disease priorities. I don’t know if this is the best way to monitor everything or not. Using Grid Status Raid Debuffs, I am able to see the debuff icon in the center of the affected frame. This is a HUGE improvement with Gridfor me, and one of the things that I didn’t like about the original GRID and kept me using a different raid frame.
I do, however, have a question for you Grid veterans! During the Yogg-Saron fight, it is not refreshing Mind Controls once they get dispelled, so I cannot determine who has had their MC cleansed, and who is still in need of a cleanse. Anyone have a suggestion on how to fix this? Additionally, I added “Sara’s Blessing” to debuffs for my center (where my raid debuffs show), but I am not seeing it show up in my frames, have I done it incorrectly?
Are there any nifty Grid Modules that I am missing that you think I should pick up? Any suggestions about settings that you might recommend?
Falling Leaves and Wings 
I have my full grid settings here, including all the side Grid modules I use: http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-grid-settings.html It’s a bit different than Keeva’s setup (more boxy, more graphic/color oriented, less text), so I wanted to link it as a comparison. One of my favorite parts is having Wild Growth show as a color-changing border color timer, so I can very easily see at a glance who has my Wild Growth and if it’s wearing off soon. Maybe you’ll find something in there that you find helpful!
I don’t use the Raid Debuffs module, though, so I haven’t had any issue with the Dominate Minds, since they never show up at all. I just set my poison/curse debuffs (and any specific debuffs I add manually) to show up in the “center icon,” a default Grid placement. I intentionally don’t have my grid show magic or disease debuffs, since I can’t do anything about them anyway 🙂
I’ll check my settings for Sara’s Blessing once I get home for lunch…
Status->Auras->Add New Debuff->Sara’s Blessing (then double checking it in the auras list to make sure the status has a checkmark next to “Enable”)
Frame->Center Icon->Debuff: Sara’s Blessing
I also have Sara’s Anger.
I know I added it, and I had thought that I put a check box next to it, but I will double check when I get home tonight!
I will also take a peek at your grid set up module and see if I can get any tidbits from it =) I really am going to give it a solid try, I want to like it…I really, really do!
I really like the raid status debuffs. As a raid leader, I have to know what is going on in the raid at any given time so that I can “cleanse so and so” in vent, etc!
So, after another evening with Yogg-Saron and Grid, I most definately have got to figure out a better way for it to display debuffs during phase 2. It is important for me to see all debuffs regardless of if I can cure them, but I need it to happen in such a fashion that it does not conflict with what I can cleanse.
I set up my frames so that the actually color of the bar goes green or purple for poisons or curses, which did help some. However, I think I need to prioritize poisons over the curse, as I have more time to cleanse that curse than I do the poison!
I will try to play with it more tonight and see what I can come up with, as well as try and dig for more information on the different bells and whistles that can be used to tweak it!
Be sure to get GridSideIndicators for extra locations to put critical information.
On my grid, I have 3 different locations dedicated for Poison/Curse/Disease/Magic debuffs.
Left side: Curse [Purple dot]
Bottom-left: Poison [Green dot]
Bottom side: Disease/Magic [Brown/Blue dots] — as a Resto Druid, I don’t need to cleanse these, so simply knowing if they’re present is usually enough info.
There may be a way to make the bottom indicator show a 3rd color if both disease and magic debuffs are present. If not, you can also just move one of the indicators to another slot.
I use color borders for encounter-specific debuffs such as Sara’s Fervor / Blessing, Dominate Mind, etc. Generally I try to use green borders for MC effects, red for severe damage effects, brown for lesser damage effects, and so forth. I haven’t had any trouble with Dominate Mind appearing correctly.
Thanks for the tips Jurik!
Through some additional research today, I think I am going to pick up Grid Status AFK; Grid Status Raid Icons; Grid Indicator Text 3; Grid Quick Health (is this still recommended?); and the Grid Side Icons.
I’m going to continue to tinker with it and see if I can get it configured to something that I can work with 🙂
There’s also Grid Dynamic Layout (I *think* that’s what it’s called) that lets you group up all your tanks in one row of grid, so you’re not mousing back and forth between them to heal them. It’s handy dandy =D
From above, there is a Grid Main Tanks module that allows you to see MTs within your grid frame. Otherwise, oRA2 is also useful. Since you are a raid leader, it would be more beneficial for you to run oRA2 to see MT targets & ToT. Unless you have that feature enabled in DBM (if you run that instead of BigWigs) or use a companion UI frame that already has those.
About the druid dispellables vs. other dispellables: wherever you can set those debuffs (status->auras->whatnot) put the priority for the debuffs you can dispel at 99, and the others at like 90. This should be accomplished with the slider bar that shows up underneath the “enable” box. 99 is typically the default. This will make your dispellable debuffs show up first and then the ones that you cannot dispel. Anything else you have showing on that centericon or sideicon, wherever your debuffs show up, set to a lower than 99 priority. This way, you’re only using one space for all debuffs. And you don’t have fifty million colors to remember, which might happen if you do it the way one person offered. (Not saying it’s wrong… I’m just too ADD for that =P)
Personally, centericon is the best as it can actually show a picture of the debuff and you can know what spell needs to be cast. Plus, you can set the size of the centericon so it can itty bitty or nearly the whole frame. It gives you a little play with what else you’re trying to see behind the icon. There is a SideIndicatorIcons module as well that do the same. These, too, can be used to see raid icons (StatusRaidIcon module) appearing on people throughout encounters. THAT is a godsend for some prehealing love ^.^
Good luck with configuring your Grid! It could be a game in and of itself XD
I can highly recommend setting up the refresh rate on the grid so it reacts faster – keep in mind though you want to have the power for it pc wise since it will consume a little more memory and so on.
i run with center icons disabled because some curses and so on are a waste of gcd to clean whereas others are absolutely imperative depending on where you raid. For those being needless to remove i quickly found it annoying that i couldn’t see all information because the center icons appeared on top of other grid information like centertext 1 and 2.
centertext1 -unitname
centertext2 -health deficiency/ hots and which ones
top left square – incoming heals
top right square – aggro alert
bottom left square – curse/poison/magic/
bottom right square – custom debuffs that are color coded
border indicates low mana
range filter is set to 40 yards only.
the reason everything is set up this way is because nothing ever overlaps my information and i can always see which and how many hots i have rolling and for how long.
Thanks Songwhistle! I will look into that, I have a pretty powerful gaming machiene, so it can probably handle tweaking the refresh rate. =)
@Lyth – Yea, I run oRA2 and still use X-Perl for my non-raid frames, so I kept X-Perl’s MT window. Thanks for all the tips!