Stuf Unit Frames

Ok, so that whole thing where I said I was going to post last week? I apparently lied. I was devoured by books instead. (I'm actually putting off crocheting an adorable penguin/owl for this post...) It doesn't help that by the time I get home from work, all I want to do is curl in a ball and sleep. I'd swear to update more often, but I think my track record doesn't leave much trust in that arena...

What is Stuf Unit Frames?

It's an addon. That replaces your unit frames. I know, that was hard to figure out. :D More specifically, it allows you to customise how you want bars, colors, fonts to look, and where the bars are then placed on your screen.

What makes it different from other unit frame addons such as X-Perl and Pitbull?

First off, X-Perl is an abomination unto mankind and should be burned. I hate it. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. I hate how it looks (incredibly bulky), I hate how much memory it uses (last time I checked, a good chunk), and I hate its limited customisation capabilities. Pitbull, which MUCH more customisable, used a fair amount of memory as well (at least in comparison to Stuf). 

That's the primary difference between Stuf and other unit frame addons. It doesn't use a lot of memory (if you've been reading my posts, you'll recognize that this is an ongoing theme for me). I think the only other unit frame I've found that uses less memory is oUF, which is certainly nice, but I find it's fairly cumbersome to configure since it's all done via the .lua file.

It has a few other features I really like, such as some text (like hp or mana) having the ability to only show on mouseover. Which, let's be fair - you don't ALWAYS need to know exactly how much health or mana you're at so long as you're not dead or OOM. I have those set to show on mouseover on my unit frame, and just the mana/resources text to show on mouseover on my target (hp is always showing for my target).

A nice little feature I like about it is that little question mark to the left of my target's health. When you are targeting another player, you can click that button to inspect them instead of the drop down menu. (I know I've accidentally invited someone before when trying to inspect...) If you're in a neutral city such as Dalaran or Shattrath(lol), you can use this to inspect the other faction too. Sure, it's not game breaking by any means, but it's still a nice lil' feature anyway. 

Additionally, with Pitbull if you wanted to move an icon of some kind (let's say the PvP icon), it was limited as to an edge, inside, outside, top, bottom, left, and right. That SEEMS like a lot of options, but when you compare it to Stuf where you can move it ANYWHERE on the X/Y axis, it begins to look increasingly shoddy. That applies to pretty much every aspect of the unit frame. Text, icons, portraits - all of it is movable anywhere you want, in relation to its default position, based on the X/Y axis. It's pretty sweet, IMO. :D

What are its drawbacks?

Truthfully, the first time I downloaded it, I thought it was a total pain to configure in comparison to Pitbull. I wasn't used to everything being movable, and I didn't understand that it was all based on relative positioning. It was pretty annoying at first. As long as you go into it with that in mind however, it should be easier for you at least. 

I REALLY wish I was able to drag particular things instead of using the slider or the text input. The slider can go too far, too easily, and doesn't go in regular increments (of say 5 at a time). If you use the slider, you need to get it approximately where you want it, and then adjust pixel by pixel. It can be really time consuming and incredibly annoying. 

When you download it, it comes with Stuf Raid Frames as well. I'm sure they're very nice, but if I thought configuring the unit frames was tough when I first downloaded it, trying to configure the raid frames is a freakin' NIGHTMARE. I tried to configure it a few months ago, having been very familiar with how to configure the unit frames, and I was just bashing my face against my desk. It didn't seem to make any sense to me at all. I'm sure if I tried to configure it again while in an actual raid it might be easier, but I'm fairly content using Grid for now. 

Should I download it?

Do you think X-Perl is the devil (and rightfully so)? Yes. Do you want a lower memory unit frame addon? It's a very good option. Do you know .lua code and have no problem manipulating it? You might want to go with oUF instead. Do you have ADD when it comes to tweaking your UI? Maybe not. 

Stuf is a VERY nice unit frame addon in my honest opinion and it very much the one I would suggest to just about anyone. You can manipulate it to resemble oUF (which I've done) if you want that look, but don't know lua code at all. You can make it simple, you can make it complex. It's really up to you how you want to use it. I whole heartedly suggest it to anyone looking for new unit frames. 


Oh right, and I'll review.. uhh.. Cellular next time I post. Whenever that is.