I’d like to build very minimalist UIs for my characters, and I only play casually. So I’m trying to reduce the amount of visible skill buttons on screen.
Which would you say are essential for the various specs?
For which classes? All of them - all classes all specs? That’s going to be a pretty long list.
You could start with Icy Veins’ Easy Mode pages. They have one for each spec, for example:
Though you should always also bind your Interrupt and any heals you have on your spec.
Another way to go is to use Gnome Sequencer Enhanced (GSE) addon, which pretty much means doing your rotation from one button. There used to be a site … yes, WoW Lazy Macros https://wowlazymacros.com/ … where people posted their one-button macros.
I tested GSE a VERY long time ago. Never felt quite right, but it did what it said it would, though I didn’t try it long enough to get used to it. You have to make sure you have the right talents to work with the macro. Here’s a sample of Ret https://wowlazymacros.com/t/highlord-vincintius-ret-macro-pve-pvp-9-0-5-high-burst-great-dps/20315
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I too make minimalistic UIs, so i think i get what you’re saying, however how far you wanna cut it down i am not sure based on your post.
Do you wanna cut it down to essentiel rotational abilites or all the way down to just cooldowns?
I finished setting up specs recently, so i’ll try and give the rundown of what abilities are rotational and CDs, but keep in mind i haven’t played all yet, so some i am not sure of.
I’ll format it like this
Spec - Cooldowns - Rotational abilities (with a CD, no fillers) - Abilities i would also track
Mage
Fire - Combustion, Time Warp - Fire Blast, Phoenix Flames - Rune of Power, Shifting Power, Ice Block
Frost - Icy Veins, Time Warp - Frozen Orb, Blizzard - Rune of Power, Shifting Power, Ice Block
Arcane - Arcane Power, Time Warp - Arcane Orb - Touch of the Magi, Presence of Mind, Rune of Power, Shifting Power, Evocation, Ice Block
DH
Vengeance - Metamorphosis, Elysian Decree - Immolation Aura, Demon Spikes - Fel Devastation, Fiery Brand
Havoc - Metamorphosis - Blade Dance, Immolation Aura, Fel Rush, Eye Beam - Blue, Darkness
Hunter
Marksmanship - Trueshot, Wild Spirits, Primal Rage - Aimed Shot, Rapid Fire, Explosive Shot - Double Tap, Volley, Aspect of the Turtle
Beast Mastery - Aspect of the Wild, Wild Spirits, Primal Rage - Kill Command, Barbed Shot - Bestial Wrath, Aspect of the Turtle
Survival - Coordinated Assault, Wild Spirits, Primal Rage - Kill Command, Carve, Shrapnel Bomb, Aspect of the Turtle
Druid
Balance - Celestial Alignment, Convoke the Spirits - Wrath, Starfire (just for tracking stacks) - Force of Nature, Barkskin, Innervate
Guardian - Incarnation, Convoke the Spirits, Survival Instincts - Trash, Mangle - Barkskin, Frenzied Regeneration, Renewal
Restoration - Tranquility, Convoke the Spirits - Wild Growth - Barkskin, Innervate, Ironbark
Feral - Berserk, Convoke the Spirits - nothing - Barkskin, Survival Instincts
Shaman
Elemental - Storm Elemental, Bloodlust, Stormkeeper - Lava Burst, Flame Shock - Astral Shift, Earth Elemental
Enhancement - Feral Spirit, Bloodlust, Ascendance - Stormstrike, Lava Lash, Sundering, Flame Shock, Crash Lightning - Astral Shift, Earth Elemental
Restoration - Ascendance, Bloodlust, Healing Tide Totem - Lava Burst, Healing Rain, Cloudburst Totem - Astral Shift, Earth Elemental, Spirit Link Totem
Warlock
Destruction - Summon Infernal, Dark Soul: Instability - Conflagrate, Cataclysm, Havoc - Soul Rot, Unending Resolve
Affliction - Summon Darkglare, Dark Soul: Misery - Haunt, Phantom Singularity - Soul Rot, Unending Resolve
Demonology - Summon Demonic Tyrant, Summon Felguard - Call Dreadstalkers - Soul Rot, Unending Resolve
Warrior
Fury - Recklessness, Bladestorm - Condemn, Bloodthirst, Raging Blow - Rallying Cry, Enraged Regeneration, Charge
Arms - Avatar, Bladestorm - Mortal Strike, Overpower, Sweeping Strikes - Warbreaker, Rallying Cry, Die by the Sword
Protection - Avatar, Shield Wall, Last Stand, Ravager - Shield Slam, Thunder Clap, Shield Block - Demoralizing Shout
DK
Frost - Breath of Sindragosa, Pillar of Frost, Swarming Mist, Empower Rune Weapon, Frostwyrm’s Fury - Remorseless Winter - Anti-Magic Shell
Blood - Dancing Rune Weapon, Vampiric Blood, Bonestorm, Swarming Mist - Rune Tap, Blood Boil, Blooddrinker - Anti-Magic Shell
Unholy - Apocalypse, Dark Transformation, Army of the Dead, Swarming Mist - Soul Reaper, Death and Decay - Anti-Magic Shell
Priest
Discipline - Power Word: Barrier, Power Infusion, Shadowfiend - Mind Blast, Power Word: Radiance, Power Word: Solace, Schism, Penance - Pain Suppression, Rapture
Shadow - Power Infusion, Mindbender, Void Eruption - Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death - Dispersion, Vampiric Embrace
Holy - Divine Hymn, Apotheosis, Holy Word: Sanctify, Power Infusion - Circle of Healing, Holy Fire - Guardian Spirit
Monk
Windwalker - Storm earth and fire, Invoke Xuen, Weapons of Order - Fists of Fury, Fist of the White Tiger, Chi Burst, Rising Sun Kick, Expel Harm - Touch of Karma, Touch of Death
Brewmaster - Invoke Niuzao, Fortifying Brew, Weapons of Order, Celestial Brew - Blackout Kick, Breath of Fire, Keg Smash, Rushing Jade Wind, Purifying Brew - Touch of Death
Mistweaver - Invoke Chiji, Revival - Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, Renewing Mist, Essence Font - Life Cocoon
Rogue
Outlaw - Adrenaline Rush, Vanish - Roll the Bones, Blade Flurry, Between the Eyes, Blade Rush, Serrated Bone Spike - Cloak of Shadows
Assassination - Vendetta - Garrote - Cloak of Shadows
Sublety - Shadow Blades - Shadow Dance, Symbols of death - Cloak of Shadows
Paladin
Holy - Aura Mastery, Ashen Hallow, Avenging Wrath, Holy Avenger - Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, Judgment, Consecration - Divine Shield, Blessing of Sacrifice
Protection - Guardian of Ancient Kings, Ardent Defender, Avenging Wrath - Blessed Hammer, Avenger’s Shield, Consecration, judgment - Divine Shield, Blessing of Sacrifice
Retribution - Avenging Wrath, Final Reckoning - Crusader Strike, Consecration, Blade of Justice, Judgment - Wake of Ashes, Shield of Vengeance, Divine Shield, Blessing of Sacrifice
Those are not necessarily all the abilities i would put on my UI, but those are the ones i consider most essential on every spec.
Again this took a little while, so i might have missed some or put some in too many, so sorry for that, but i hope this helps you out.
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PI 
10nerds
Why not use an addon like Bartender and have all your slots fade completely, then have Weak Auras display the essentials?
There’s only a few specs that have an insane number of keybinds, but what really helped me was to organise similar abilities with a shift mod addon.
So things like DoT’s, spammable ST and AoE filler, dispels, CCs and so on.
No need to omit that many spells, when you have access to ~15 or 16 easy keybinds. And for rarely used blessings like stam buff, you could skip giving them a hotkey.
Say, I did it like this: Psychic Scream+Shackle, Dispel Magic+Cure Disease, PW:Shield+Renew. And it’s only 3 spells, but if you want to, I’ll upload pics about my action bars. 
Thanks for the tip. Would such an addon be “legal” though? I thought Blizzard didn’t let you automate your rotations.
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Big thanks for all the hard work you put into this list!
I’m trying to cut it down to about 12 buttons in total, numeric buttons 1-3, mouse buttons 1-3, and QERTFG.
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I do. 
But how would you use WeakAuras to show your abilities? Like, how would you know which to display and when? I know Blizzard’s buttons by default will glow when there’s a buff active for a bonus. Would you basically track those buffs yourself using WA and display abilities based on that?
Thanks. I do use Bartender which has toggle using Shift. But I ended up not liking the fact that I had buttons hidden behind a mod key. The obsessive minimalist within me wants few abilities and all of them shown at once, or none of them at all. The dream would be to achieve a console-like setup with one iconic heal, dodge, run, attack ability etc mapped similarly across specs. But they differ so much in terms of what they offer. Heck, my Druid has like 5 speed and stealth abilities.
Have abilities with a CD set up in WA, and those without don’t need it.
Example;
I feel like an idiot, but what’s actually happening in the gif? From what I can tell, the same icons are just shifting states based on their cooldowns. Or are some of them replacing other abilities until used?
These addons make me really cringe, no offense for people using them but it’s literally auto pilot for WoW.
How is it auto pilot? Literally all of it is info visually available in the default UI just shifted to the center of screen with less overall screen clutter…
Are you putting a class based UI in the same category as a raid boss WA…??
It really isn’t auto pilot - it’s not telling you what to press, it’s telling you what’s available.
I do similar for characters I play “seriously”. My healers all get a couple of WA icon bars next to the raid frames, tracking short and long cooldowns so I don’t have to keep looking down to my action bars and back. DPS/tanks get a UI nearer the centre of the screen, usually a resource bar just under the character’s feet with major cooldowns around and under that.
As to whether DBM and Bigwigs are autopilots… yes and no. They sure do nudge you when to move, and occasionally even mark a target for you - but raids are now being designed with these addons in mind. One of the reason they can feel very overtuned to new players is that the raid devs are in a war with addon devs, the former trying to make a challenge and the latter trying to simplify it. I’d like to have seen anyone do Ra-Den mythic with nobody in the raid using addons.
For the OP: my advice is pick one character first. Learn how to make weakauras, use Icy Veins to isolate the important buttons that have a cooldown, and then set up a UI that makes sense for that one class+spec. This will probably take several hours for your first one, but you’ll learn a lot and the next one you do will be a lot quicker. After a while you can copy/paste to the next spec and start tweaking what you need.
I literally have no idea how you got that conclusion.
I haven’t played Shadow priest, but do abilities just shine and pop like that when you need to use them?
Because addon that just shines and tells you when to press something feels like auto pilot to me.
A lot of abilities highlight when there is some sort of bonus. This is part of the default UI. Enhancement shaman and paladin come to mind as specs where you “press anything that’s lit up”, but there are plenty of others.
I’m not sure there are any weakauras that are advanced enough to tell you what to press and be correct every time. Situation matters.
I don’t have much knowledge about addons since I’m not using many, just some essential ones.
I hate that for example there are PVP addons that player can literally can track cooldowns and it gives huge advantage to the person using it.
Same with TSM, it’s not even possible for a person to post auctions that many and check everything.
Anyway, I don’t wanna go more off topic, sorry OP.
I agree with you there. PvP is an information war. Track you opponent’s cooldowns. Does he have a defensive? If so, try to bait him into using it vs a minor CD of your own. If not, burn your biggest offensive.
It’s not fair that those who use addons get this advantage, and I wish Blizz would alter the addon API so it simply can’t read other players’ status in PvP.
But yeah, I don’t think there are any true autopilot addons. Although if you have a 2-button spec, then you can do as good as just by putting the buttons adjacent on your hotbar. Press whichever is available 
All a weakaura does is move the icons nearer your character so you can catch them in your peripheral vision better.
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Yes, it’s entirely within the Terms of Service. “One action, one keypress” is the basic rule, and GSE respects that. You are probably thinking of rotation-bots, where you press no keys at all beyong moving and targeting; those are bannable. GSE has over 3 million downloads on Curseforge, and Curseforge would remove any illegal addon. GSE used only WoW API calls, and if Blizzard wanted to break it, they would just tweak some API call to disable it. No, GSE is as legal as it gets.
Remembering only vaguely, but AFAIR I could get 80% of simulated max DPS using GSE, and a certain amount of that 20% of DPS loss loss was me getting my keystrokes out of sync because muscle memory. I’m sure if I’d stuck with it a few days I would hav got better.
There’s a thing about having multiple macros, like one for single target, and one for AoE, for which you might need two buttons, of the same button with a Shift or Control. Ofc, you can still also use your normal buttons, but you do run into the problem of messing up your sequence if you used an ability that is also in the squence, and hasn’t come back off CD by the time you got to that point in the sequence again.
Here’s a video for it for Ret Paladin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKRUik5DzdY