vuhdo addon od world of warcraft

Taking The Next Step Past Healbot To Advanced Raid Healing Coordination

Recently we did a review of the most popular healing addon – Healbot.  An alert reader (thank you Mr. Vilem) suggested an alternative.  After just a few minutes we were hooked on this fabulous addon.  We wanted to try it out in some of the more complex raid  healing situations and on every healing class before we did a review, and after two weeks the review is in – and Vuhdo rocks.

What Healbot does, Vuhdo does even better.  The only drawback we can see a relative newcomer having is the massive variety of configuration options available.  With that being said; however, the interface for making those adjustments is by far the best of any WoW addon we have ever used.  Frankly we’re not real sure how they did it.

Vuhdo (voodoo in case you were wondering how to say it) is a mouse-over spell execution addon much like Healbot.  And since it’s easier to configure, it has taken the place of Healbot on all of our toons.  As a matter of fact, it’s so good we are requiring Vuhdo for all of our guild healers – even if all they use it for is the clean way it provides vital information to all raid healers.

You see, for some time we have wanted an addon that could show us all of the HoTs on everyone in the raid in a clean and simple way that doesn’t take up the whole freakin’ screen.  Grid can show all that information for sure, but learning to make sense of all the goofy dots and blocks and bars is kinda silly.  If you get the grid panel big enough for it all to make sense you can’t really see where you’re going.

But with Vuhdo, you get miniature spell icons with countdown timers for not only your own HoTs, but also every other healer in the group or raid, regardless of whether they are using Vuhdo or not.  Did you catch that?  How slick can you get, eh?  No matter how many folks are in the PuG or BG, I can see every single HoT on every single target all the time, instantly, even if I’m the only one using Vuhdo.

This one feature has allowed our guild to coordinate healing better than ever before.  Our paladins can see the druid hots and priest bubbles before they reach over and spam heal someone who is in fine shape.  It has reduced over-healing in general by all classes by quite a bit, and paladin over-heals by a really big bit.

Plus, the bars and panels in Vuhdo can be almost infinitely customized, making nameplates far easier to read than with Healbot.  Beyond that, out of range indication is far easier to see at a glance, just because of the way you can configure the toon plates.  All in all, Vuhdo is absolutely the best combination of power (as opposed to Grid/Clique) and ease-of-use (as opposed to Healbot) you are likely to find.  We’ve never seen anything quite like it.

After using Vuhdo for two weeks, it takes everything Healbot can do and does it better.  It does everything Grid does and makes it easier to configure and see.  You can honestly sit back in your chair and power heal some the most difficult raid situations with one hand on the mouse – and yawn.  Not everyone will be able to do that, of course, but an accomplished healer will be amazed just how much more efficient they can be.

Putting your spells into Vuhdo is also easier.  You jut open your spell book and drag and drop.  It also allows for more options from the mouse clicks with more modifiers, as well as mouse-over heals for those of you who still want to push some buttons not on your mouse.  You can tell we like this one – a lot.

Vuhdo does pre-load several panels that we find unnecessary, but you might think you need them so we’ll leave it up to you.  If you decide you don’t like one of the panels or want more, they are easy to close and add from the options interface.  You’ll want to take some time to go through all of the option screens.

Another drawback is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to save a configuration to pre-load on other toons.  This means you’ll have to go through the setup process on every single toon, but in our book it’s worth it anyway.  Plus, not everyone plays on 4 different level 80’s either (not to mention the ally alts we’re leveling – sheesh).   Go grab Vuhdo HERE right away.  Learn it and share it with your guild mates.  You’ll be surprised at just how much easier and Dominating your healing can be.