---
title: 'WoW How to Setup UI Tutorial | BEST WoW UI'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=GeUI-4MFQWs'
video_id: 'GeUI-4MFQWs'
date: 2026-06-19
duration_sec: 0
---

# WoW How to Setup UI Tutorial | BEST WoW UI

> Source: [WoW How to Setup UI Tutorial | BEST WoW UI](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GeUI-4MFQWs)

## Summary

This tutorial guides new World of Warcraft players through customizing their UI for a streamlined, efficient gameplay experience. The host demonstrates the game's built-in Edit Mode to reposition elements like action bars, portraits, and the minimap, and also highlights useful features like the cooldown manager, damage meter, and Assistered Highlights.

### Key Points

- **Introduction & Goal** [0:00] — The video aims to help new players transform the default WoW UI into a cleaner, more functional layout.
- **Opening Edit Mode** [0:36] — Press Escape or click the question mark to open the game menu, then select 'Edit Mode' to start customizing.
- **Hiding Bar Art** [1:41] — In Edit Mode, click the artwork to access the option 'Hide Bar Art' – this removes the griffin decorations at the bottom of the screen.
- **Activating Additional Action Bars** [2:06] — Use the options menu (Escape -> Options -> Action Bars) to enable bars 3, 4, and 5 for more ability slots.
- **Repositioning Talking Head & Cast Bar** [2:52] — Move the Talking Head (quest pop‑up) to a less intrusive spot near your feet; place the Cast Bar just above the main action bars.
- **Consolidating Side Action Bars** [3:56] — Change side bars from vertical to horizontal, reduce rows to 2, and scale them to 70% to keep consumables and Hearthstone compact and out of the way.
- **Hiding Bars Out of Combat** [5:19] — For bars 4 and 5, set visibility to 'Out of Combat' so they disappear during fights, reducing screen clutter.
- **Moving Player/Target Portraits** [6:01] — Bring portraits closer to the center of the screen to keep an eye on buffs/debuffs without shifting focus away from combat puddles.
- **Enlarging Debuffs and Minimap** [8:25] — Increase the size of debuffs (so they're hard to miss) and make the minimap bigger for better situational awareness.
- **Advanced Options – Cooldown Manager** [11:08] — Enable the built‑in Cooldown Manager in Options (requires level 10). It tracks abilities, buffs, and utility cooldowns; can be made larger for clarity.
- **Damage Meter (Built‑in)** [13:42] — Open Options and search 'Damage Meter' to enable a built‑in damage/healing meter. Position it above the chat; multiple windows can be created for interrupts or healing.
- **Assistered Highlights for Rotation** [17:36] — In Options -> Gameplay Enhancements, enable 'Assistered Highlights' – it suggests the best ability to press based on your class/spec, helping new players maximize DPS.
- **Sexy Maps Add‑on** [18:22] — The optional add‑on 'Sexy Maps' replaces the default minimap with customizable skins. Access it via Options -> Add‑ons -> Sexy Maps.
- **Testing the UI in Combat** [20:02] — The host demonstrates the final layout on a target dummy, noting that most elements can be toggled to show only during combat for minimal screen clutter.

### Conclusion

By leveraging WoW's built‑in Edit Mode and a few key options like the Cooldown Manager and Assistered Highlights, players can create a sleek, functional UI that reduces clutter and improves combat performance. The video provides an import string in the description for those who want to replicate the exact layout.

## Transcript

What's up, gaming heroes, and welcome
back to another awesome World of
Warcraft video. Today, we are going to
be looking at the UI in World of
Warcraft. You've just created your
character, you've got into the game,
finally pay that subscription, and now
you're greeted by this absolute
travesty, which is a UI, and you want to
make it look cool. Well, today I'm going
to show you exactly how you can do that.
And if you're looking to make it that
much faster for yourself, I'm even going
to put the import export string in the
description below if you want to check
that out. So, let's dive in. Make sure
to help this video, you click that
subscribe button. It really, really
helps. To open up the edit mode for the
UI changes, you'll need to go ahead and
press escape or go down to the question
mark here and open up the game menu.
Then you can click on edit mode. From
here you get the option basically to
have the basic version like so or you
can press the advanced version like
that. I'm going to press advanced. Uh I
think actually I'm going to leave it
like that for now and then we'll do the
advanced version afterwards. Uh now you
get kind of like the option of modern
preset which is kind of the modern
version of World of Warcraft and you get
the classic which puts the portraits
above and everything like that. It
doesn't really matter what you choose
but I prefer you know modern. And then
what I like to do is press new layout.
We give this a name. Subscribe to my UI
video. Okay. And you get to select here
whether this is character specific
layout or if this is a general layout
you want to use across your whole
account. In this instance, I'm just
going to use it as a general layout
across the whole account. At this point,
we kind of get to decide, do we want to
have the things like this fancy artwork
that Blizzard has or not. So, we can
click on this to edit it. And you get
the option here straight away, hide bar
art. And that's how you can hide these
kind of like griffins here at the bottom
if you choose to. In that, in this
instance, I am actually going to hide
them because they are just going to get
in the way for what we're trying to
achieve. Okay. So, at this point, uh, we
can just quickly press save and then
activate additional action bars. This is
going to make it a lot easier for just
figuring everything out. So, I'm going
to go ahead and click on that X, then
press the options here, and then I'm
going to go down to where it says action
bars right there. I'm going to activate
three, four, five, because I typically
find that having five action bars is
usually the amount I need for my
characters. Then we go back to the edit
mode. And here we find we've got
additional action bars now that we can
organize and figure out how everything
works. I'm just going to go ahead and
move this over to the side here. Uh,
just so it's out the way and we can
really focus on what we're dealing with.
Now, the talking head. This is when you
get like a quest and it starts telling
you about the quest. That's basically
the talking head. And sometimes, you
know, you can have it up here. You can
have it wherever you want. You just
don't want it to conflict too much with
other buttons that you've got. So,
typically I like to have this towards my
feet section or above up here just there
because I kind of find it it quite
useful it being out the way. You want to
make sure it's out of the middle of the
screen because this is this is typically
where you're clicking on characters and
you aren't often going to see the
talking head bar. So, you don't need to
worry about that. Your cast bar is quite
an important one and I think this should
typically go towards lower than your
feet, just above your bars. So, I would
just typically move everything out the
way and just get the bars to exactly
what it is you want. So, if do you want
three bars? Do you want four bars? How
many do you want? I would put it
something like that and put the cast bar
on top like so. It just makes it nice
and uniform, makes it look good,
everything like that. Now, I'm going to
focus on working on these sidebars here
because these sidebars are typically
where I will keep like the half stone.
We'll keep consumables, things like
that. We don't want this giant vertical
bar. Instead, we'd much prefer it to be
a bit more consolidated. So, I'm going
to change it from vertical to horizontal
first of all. Then I'm going to change
the amount of rows to two rows. And then
because this is one of those things I
want to basically not be in the way too
much, I'm going to make it quite a bit
smaller. So I'm going to go ahead and
make it about 70%
of the typical size. And that's just
because I'm not using it for spells and
abilities. It's just to hold things
like, you know, my Hearthston or random
consumables I'm not going to use in
combat. I'm going to do the exact same
thing for the other one as well. So
change it from vertical to horizontal.
Give it two rows instead of one. Drag it
down. And then we're going to go ahead
and make it 70%. So it's the same
typical size. Then we'll put these two
together so that they look really nice
and they kind of like don't stand out
too much. If you want to move it and you
don't want it to snap like it is doing,
you can go ahead and untick snap to
elements and that will prevent that
happening in the future. So now we can,
you know, we can press that control
button whilst we're doing this and it
will allow us just to move it exactly
where we want it. We can press that
again and that won't snap back now
because we've already moved it which is
brilliant. Now what I typically like to
do for these action bars four and five
because they're on the side, they've got
all the consumables, half stones, and
everything like that. I like to make it
so they disappear when I'm in combat and
reappear when I'm out of combat. So I
always click this and I press out of
combat. So, this bar will only become
visible when I'm out of combat. I'd like
to do the same for this one here. And
that way, when I'm in combat, I can
really just focus on what I'm actually
seeing and not the plethora of different
action bars that you can possibly have
in World of Warcraft. It quickly gets
too much to deal with. Great. So, that
is actually done for both of those
there. Now, what I would like to do is
bring these portraits a bit closer to
the middle of the screen because when
I'm doing combat, I want to be able to
look towards my feet so that I'm not
standing in any puddles that might get
me slain. So, I will always move my
portraits a bit closer towards the
center of the screen. I find this will
really, really help you for the most
part. Now, don't have them too low
because then you're going to not be able
to see the actual buffs or debuffs on
either yourself or the or anything
you're targeting. Okay, there we go.
We've got a nice setup there for the
portrait. It looks really cool. We've
got the encounter bar here as well. This
typically isn't going to be used a lot,
so you can really put that wherever it
is you so choose. It's entirely up to
you. It's not going to appear very
often. It'll be quite a rare time you'll
actually see that. So, I'm going
actually going to put that encounter
over here as it's just one of those
things I'm not going to see too often.
Extra abilities. These extra abilities
are things like when you're in a raid
and you've got to press an extra action
ability. This is what you will typically
press. I like to keep that here as it's
just something you don't typically see.
Sometimes some people like to keep it
here instead and that is entirely fine
as well. Well, I don't particularly like
it being there because I like to have
the focus frame there. So, I actually
prefer it right here. Then, I'll move
this focus frame across and I'll pull it
just next to this portrait here and I
find that will really really help. Some
people move this pet frames to the side
like so, but I prefer it underneath. H
it just works better for me personally.
Then the vehicle exit button. I
typically have that just below where the
we'll move that possess bar there. And
then the vehicle e exit button I'll
typically just have somewhere around
here so it's really clear, really
obvious where it it actually is sitting.
I think in this instance I'm just going
to pop it around about here as this is
kind of like an area I don't typically
often use in World of Warcraft.
Typically when I'm playing I never
really play with a stance bar. It's one
of those bars that's just kind of not
needed if you don't want to use it. And
it's entirely up to you if you do use
it. It's just one of those things I
don't typically use. Remember, when
you're doing this, sometimes it's a good
idea to exit out of edit mode and just
see how it's all looking for yourself.
So, let's try that right now. Okay, so
let's just select someone. That's how it
it feels. That's how it looks. It's
looking really simple, really easy. So
far, I quite like this. I do feel that
these could be lower and that would
definitely feel a lot nicer, though. I
could just zoom out a little bit more
and that would actually be perfect.
That's about usually where I play the
game. So, that's actually not too bad.
Let's jump back into edit mode. This is
where I like to basically make sure that
my debuffs are quite big. They're quite
important debuffs are. You really do
want to be able to see when you've got a
debuff and you want it to be quite
obvious. So, I typically like to make
this quite big just so that it really
screams at me, oh, hey, you have a
debuff. You need to be careful. Then on
top of that, I like to make this map
bigger because I mean, it's just useful
having a bigger map, isn't it? Let's be
honest. This boss frames on the side
here is only used typically in raid or
sometimes PvP, things like that. You
don't really need to worry about it too
much. It's quite perfect to have it
there. I like to move these arena frame.
I like to move these arena frames right
here. It works quite nicely. The tool
tips, HUD tool tips. Typically, people
just leave that down there because
that's just when you it pops up with
some useful information. Then your
equipment durability. This is a good one
just to pop over here. You aren't really
going to worry about, you know, your
arena frames covering it or anything
like that because more than likely you
aren't going to have damaged equipment
whilst you're in in an arena. You can
just put it like that and it will pop up
really obviously when you are damaged.
It is a good idea to make the spit
bigger as well, just so you really don't
miss it. So, we can go ahead and make
that 150% and it should be really,
really, really obvious. I'm actually
going to move the boss frames on there
as well. So, let's just move these arena
frames out the way. Put the durability
right here cuz this is where my quests
are going to go. So, I don't want that
space filled for any particular reason.
You're never going to have the arena
frames and the boss frames active at the
same time. So, you don't really need to
worry about those two conflicting. They
can be in the same location happily.
Let's go ahead and save that. Now, I
feel like we're at the point now where
we might need to start activating that
advanced option. One more thing for me
to change is the chat frame. I quite
like having a bigger chat than typically
other people might like just so I can
see more messages a bit easier, but some
people like having a really small chat
right out the way. It's entirely up to
you what you prefer. I really like a
chat box a bit like that. Pressing this
button at the bottom right of the chat
frame allows you just to edit it without
you needing to mess about with the width
or height or anything like that. It's
entirely up to you how you choose to do
it. So now we're going to press the
advanced options mode and you'll see
there are some additional things here
which will really really help you such
as the cooldown manager. I'm going to go
ahead and show you exactly how that
works. So we're going to press save.
We're going to press exit. And then
we're going to go to our menu and press
options. In the options, we're just
going to type in cooldown
manager. And this will allow you to
basically enable it. If you don't enable
it here, you won't see it when it's
actually in game. So, I'm going to go
ahead and enable that right now. So, it
will only enable once you hit level 10.
So, do just keep that in mind. For the
purpose of this video, I'm going to swap
to one of my higher level characters so
you can see what it does. Okay, here I
am in my secret banking location and I'm
going to go ahead and press that edit
mode. Switch to the subscribe to my UI
video
mode. And now we're going to edit it
from here. Again, cool down manager
isn't activated. So, we do need to go
ahead and activate that right now. So,
I'll go ahead and just type in cooldown
manager. Press activate. And now you can
see you've actually got like a weak or a
builtin game without any add-ons needed.
This is really cool. So here you can now
see this is no longer grayed out. You
press cool down manager and you can drag
that up to actually see what it is
you've got. You got tracked de you got
tracked buffs. Then you've got your
utility cooldowns. These are really
useful just to see and it's a good idea
to make these bigger. There you go.
They're nice and big now so that when
we're in combat, we can actually see
what is happening without too much work
or hassle at all. This is going to be
useful just to enable you to do more
damage in general. Your personal re
resource display. This is something I
don't typically worry about because I
can see that for myself on my party
frames and my player frames really
easily. So, I personally don't use
personal resource display very often.
Boss warnings, however, is a very, very
useful thing to have in game. This will
prevent you from dying in game quite a
lot. So, always make sure you have that
enabled, especially if you plan to do
raiding. This uh boss timeline on the
side here will tell you when important
abilities are coming. And this will give
you a pre-warning to move out the way or
to do something that your character
needs to do to react to that mechanics
to survive or help dis like defeat the
boss. So, make sure that is activated.
Brilliant. Now, we're going to go ahead
and activate the damage meter. Again,
open up options and type in damage
meter. There we go. This will now show
you the default damage done. So, we can
go to edit mode again and we can move
that down to where it is. where we might
want it. For me personally, I actually
want it right above the chat so I could
easily see it and it's never in the way
of the party frames. The party frames
are pretty much always going to be up on
the left side of the screen. So, I want
to make sure that they are always there.
Brilliant. That's actually completely
done. Now, now if you want to make
multiple windows so that you can record,
for example, the damage done and then
you want to record the healing done, you
can just press that cog button above the
damage done and it will allow you to
press create new window. You create new
window and then you can select whether
you want it to record healing or if you
want it to record any other things like
interrupts. Having this in Mythic Plus
is really useful. having like a dungeon,
uh, having a damage done, a healing
done, and an interrupts is really,
really useful. So, now we're going to
press edit mode, and we can edit these
pretty easily. For the frame width, I
like to kind of go for the lowest frame
width possible. And then for the height,
I like to go for the minimum, but make
sure it has at least five people in
there. For padding, you don't really
need a lot of padding, to be honest. It
gives you a lot more padding than you
actually need for it. So, it's entirely
up to you what you go for, but I
typically like to go for like the
minimum on that. It doesn't look as
good, unfortunately. So, I'm going to
probably go for more of a bore there on
that one. Now, if you don't like the way
it looks, you can just mess about with
the default. You can have it default
like that. You can have it bordered. You
can have it thin like so. It's entirely
up to you what you go for. So, we can
press save there. And then we can move
these in. Now, we can press escape and
get out of the edit mode. And we can
actually edit this healing bar to be
pretty similar to that one. Like so. And
then that way it's nice and simple. So
that's typically how you could play the
game with your both healing and damage
done and everything like that. I'm going
to go ahead and remove these just
because I don't need them on this
particular character, but if you did,
it's pretty easy to edit them and to
change them off this import if you do
choose to import this. So let's press
edit mode. And then we can just untick
the damage meter. Boom. That's unticked.
So now if I go to options and I press
damage meter, we get rid of the damage
meter. It's gone. It's disappeared. We
don't need to look at that. I think in
in this instance, I'm actually going to
move the stance bar to the left of the
top bar and then actually move the pet
bar down more and then the cast bar even
further down. I think this will just
make it look better in general. I might
move these up slightly just so that
they're not interfering with each other.
And then that should actually look
better. I'm going to have to turn off
the snap to elements just so that I can
move it exactly where I want it to go.
And then we can move the cast bar up
like so. That's brilliant. We can press
save. And then look at that. That's
perfect, isn't it? I can see this is
slightly off. So, I'm just going to
press edit and then move this across
slightly just because I can really tell
this is going to have to be uh turned
off on the snap again and try it again
to make this look really good. Perfect.
We can press save and that should look
pretty good. Now, we're going to put
snap to element again as make sure this
cast bar is kind of centralized. There
you go. Lovely jobly. Press save and
press escape. Look at that. That's
excellent. So, that's if we're close.
That's if we're further away. And let's
just select someone. so we can actually
see what it looks like. There you go.
So, that's exactly what you'll be
operating with. And this is really,
really useful. Now, here's one final
little tip. It's not really a UI tip,
but it kind of is. It's going to help
you a lot in combat to do even more
damage. Press the options again and just
type in highlight. Go down to gameplay
enhancements and click on assisted
highlights. This is going to really help
you if you're newer to your character
and you don't quite know your character
yet. This is going to help you know
which button is probably best to click
on to do the most amount of damage based
off your class and your spec. This is
going to basically give you a general
highlight uh on your bars when you're
just playing the game. And that's going
to be really quite useful just in
general. I used it a raid last night and
out of 20 people I was the top DPS using
just the button highlights. It was very
very very useful indeed. If you are
looking to expand your UI and make it
look even cooler, I can recommend one
add-on which I really like. It's a
pretty cool add-on. It is called sexy
maps. Now, to edit sexy maps, you just
have to press escape, click options, go
to add-ons at the top, and then go down
to sexy maps like so. And this will have
a bunch of default presets that you can
choose from, which you might like. Look
at that. It's changing the map each
time. Let's just make it bigger so you
can actually see what's going on here.
There's loads of really cool different
ones that you might like. For this one
in particular, I don't really want the
outside to be rotating or anything like
that. I'm going to go ahead and actually
delete that one and only keep the inner
one as I really really like how that
looks just in general. Then I'm actually
going to go ahead and just make it
bigger as a whole. So, let's just make
it a little bit bigger and then move it
across to exactly where it is you want
it. Look at that. That's all done. We
can lock that in now. And that's
perfect. Look, that's Isn't that a
really nice setup? we've got right
there. I'm really happy with that. Let's
try it on one of my other characters as
well and just see what it looks like.
Okay, I'm on one of my other characters.
It's going to switch to the new UI. And
we've got too many action bars. So,
we've got to turn one of those action
bars off. There we go. And that's the
the kind of new UI right there. As you
can see, this whole stance bar, I don't
typically use it. What I could do on
this character is just pull it right at
the bottom like so. It's just out of the
way. Or I could even pop it under here,
which might even be a better place to
keep it in general. So, let's just press
save. And oh, that's much nicer, isn't
it? It's much cleaner, much simpler.
Then, if we go to combat. So, let's just
find a target dummy. And then we can go
ahead and we can show you it in action.
Now, I do just want to turn on the
cooldown manager. And then also, I want
to turn on assisted cooldowns. Now, if
there's any particular version of this
that you don't like to see, for example,
you don't like the top bit, but you do
like the bottom bit, you can just go
ahead and press edit mode. You can click
on what you don't like, and you can just
press hidden, and it will always hide
it. You'll never see it again. It's
quite cool like that. So, uh, say we go
into combat. Uh, we are now using the
assisted. So, we just go here and just
charge in. We use just the buttons it
tells us to use. Nice and easy. And
look, we're doing the damage. It's
perfect. is exactly how you need to be
playing it. And it's s super simple,
super easy, and it's pretty fun to do
like this as well, I think. Anyway,
super easy. Look at that. There's no
messing about at all. And we're just
pressing exactly what it tells us. It's
also got quite nice little like
highlights of here of exactly what
buttons and things we need to see. If we
want to press edit mode again and make
this show, uh we can have it only show
when we're in we're in combat as well,
which is quite useful. So, if we press
save here, uh, this should all disappear
now and only reappear when we get into
combat. So, if we charge back in, you
should see it activate. Boom. There you
go. You can only see everything now. And
it is going to tell you when you got
really important, you know, abilities
you need to be pressing and things like
that. That's going to be really useful
for you to, you know, keep track of
things and do the most damage or most
healing possible. I really hope this
video helped you. If it did, please hit
that subscribe button. Please hit that
like button. help other people get their
UI sorted today. If you want to import
mine, check it out in the description.
And if you want to help support this
channel in the best way possible, check
out gaminghero.io.
It's a website that helps you play World
of Warcraft at a higher level. Thanks
for watching. This is Arosium from
Gaming Hero