Hello fellow casters! This is a basic list of addons that I recommend for raiding. Don't get me wrong, blizzard's basic UI get's the job done. But don't kid yourself, it looks ugly! I will try to aim for functionality and custimization.
Unit Frames
Unit frames are a very important part of any player's UI. It shows your health and mana, your bosses health and mana, your focus targets, and raid. The key elements of what your Unit frames should have are: health and mana totals, percentages, and buff and debuff monitor for your target and raid frames. Here a list of addons I suggest:
oUF: oUf is great because it uses little memory, and there are plenty of designs to choose from on wowinterface. However, unless you know how to edit lua code, there is very little you can do on configuring the frames to your needs.
Pitbull: A little more on the memory usage, but it gets the job done. Has all of the frames you need, and a pletora of options to craft it to your needs and desires. I am not sure if it supports boss debuffs for the raid frames (could anyone confirm this for me?)
stUF: Stuff is the equivalent of Pitbull. However, the level of configuring that is needed to make unit frames that meet your needs is overwhelming. Unless you are willing to dedicate the time it takes to configure them, I would use another unit frame addon.
X-Perl: Very old, classic, and still functional unit frame addon. The drawbacks of this addon are the lack of configuring that can be done, the lack of debuffs for raid frames from bosses, and the fact they look ugly as hell.
Cast Bars
The cast bar is one of two most important things that a priest needs to consider in their UI. Here are some addons to choose from.
Gnosis: I love gnosis, it's simple to configure, shows the ticks on your mind flay and mind sear, supports all types of cast bars (e.g. focus, target, target of target cast bars), and it has plenty of options for configuring. The negative part about gnosis is the memory usage.
Quartz: Quartz used to be my favorite until I started using gnosis, but that doesn't mean it's a bad addon. It has plenty of options for configuring, and supports all types of cast bars. The drawbacks are the no support for latency bars for the ticks on your mind flay and mind sear, and that it uses a good amount of memory.
DoT Timer
The second most important is your DoT timer, so much of our DPS depends on our DoTs, so being perfect with timing our DoTs is the key to our success.
Please refer to my Multi-dotting 101 guide for a list of recommended addons.
UI packages
If you're lazy, like me, and want to use a UI package to get everything you need, here are some UI packages I recommend.
TukUI: Tuk provides an excellent UI for everything you need for low memory usage. The negative part about this is if you don't know how to edit lua, then you can't go too far with customizing the interface.
ElvUI: I haven't personally used ElvUI, but I've heard great things about it. I know that it's based off of TukUI so the same goes for Elv when it comes to the negative side of it.
Power Auras
Power Auras Classic: The reason why Power Auras has it's own category is because there are multiple uses for this addon. Power Auras is very powerful because it has the ability to show visual graphics when you have a certain buff or debuff. The only drawback is the settings needs for memory usage. Also, if you're using a lot of detailing and animation with your auras, you can have lag issues.
That's it for the guide. The important part customizing your UI is to customize it to your needs and that you are comfortable raiding with it. That's what makes any UI a great UI. (No matter how ugly it may look :))
