Addon TroubleFollow

Grid can be very complex. Since you are new to it, it is highly recommended that you stick with the default utilities and learn to use them. Get use to it first before adding all the other additions available.

Once you become comfortable with it's default utility, that is when you start looking into it's added capabilities.

When you find yourself saying things like "I wish I knew who my PoM jumped to and how many jumps it has left", or "Hmm how long until PoM fades from whoever it's on". Then you might want to think about getting GridStatusMending.

If you find yourself saying things like "crap I have all my corner markers taken up, I wish I had one more marker to keep track of ZZZ condition" then you look into getting gridsideindicators, or gridsideicons, or something similar(there is one that puts 4 markers in the corner can't remember it's name).

Maybe you want to know who the druid healer has stacked his HoTs on so you don't waste time renewing or flash healing them, there is an add-on for that(you could do it manually, but it's time consuming).

Maybe you want to keep track of your raids mana, to get more use out of your Hymn of Hope, GridManaBars does that.

Basically, get use to the utility and how grid works in it's most basic form and then add things based on what you would like it to do and your needs. There are tons of grid additions out there, and if you just go to town loading them all up, you can easily get overwhelmed and overtaxed.

As far as an actual guide, I don't know. There is the FAQ, but that's more general.

Clique is capable of adding personal macros, there is a tab at the bottom when the set-up interface is open that allows you to do this. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but I believe it is the tab just to the right of the Frames tab(could be wrong, just check each tab).

Good advice so far. I'll add my 2 cents.

First off, don't worry about clique yet. Clique allows you to mouseclick to heal, versus selecting a target and pressing a key. It's a matter of style. Eventually you can see which you like. Personally, I use grid without clique. Many use grid with it, so grid will act more like healbot.

Understand the configuration sections

In configuring grid, the first thing to realize is that their are 3 main sections:

Status - Affects how a sensor functions. You can set priority, color, class, etc. For instance, I want renew to be indicated in the color green.

Layout - Affects the overall layout of the grid, like how many squares are in it, and whether pets are included.

Frame - This is where you say which sensor will show up on what part of the square, like a dot in the lower right for renew, or a center icon for a raid debuff. It also is where you specify global options that affect the look of an individual square.

Once you get the concept of the 3 configuration sections, finding what you want is much easier.

I'm now going to take you through some basic configuration changes. There is nothing necessarily wrong with the default options, but this will give you an idea of how to get around Grid. You can always go back to the default setup by selecting Profile, Reset Profile.

Get to the grid configuration by doing "/grid config", or clicking the icon on your minimap.

Pimp my Frames
When you start grid, the squares are pretty small and not really what you are used to for a unit frame. To change the look of a square... let's see, that would be the Frame options, eurika!! To show the power of these options, go to Frame, Advanced. Make Frame Height = 30 by sliding the bar, and Frme Width = 50. Now you see it is more of a rectangle, and it was easy.

To continue, let's make the text a little bigger and get a second line by setting Frame, Advanced, "Enable Center Text 2 Indicator", and Font Size = 12.

Now select the word Frame itself from your option sections, and set the Center text length to 5. Easy, and it is starting to look good.

Grid normally shows your health as dark, then brightens up as you get a deficit. Let's make it more like a normal unit frame. Select Frame and check "Invert Bar Color". Now lets go over to Status, Health, Unit Health, and change the way health is indicated. Click the color box and make it a nice bright green. Then uncheck "Use class Color". It may not take effect just yet, but if you log out or take damage, it will permanently change to green.

The bar is now a nice green, but the health goes down vertically. To make it horizontal, select Frame, Advanced, Orientation of Frame, Horizontal. Now when you take damage, your green health bar will go down from right to left, just like your normal unit frame.

If you take damage, you will notice that your name is replaced with a number indicating your health deficit. I really want to see everyone's name most of the time, so go to Frame, Center Text, and uncheck everything but Unit Name. If you select Center Text 2, you should see things like Ghost are checked and will show up on the second line of text.

Show me more
Now lets show how we can really make things cool. Select Status, Low HP Warning, and make the color bright Red. Set the priority to 99, and the Low HP threshold to 60. Make sure that "Enable" is checked. Go to Frame, Advanced, and select "Enable Health Bar Color Indicator". Select Frame, Health Bar Color, and put a check in Low HP Warning to enable showing it on the Health Bar.

Now go get beat up and have your health go down to 60%. See the bar go red? That is very cool. If you heal yourself above that threashold, you will see the bar go back green.

That's nice, but what are all these indicators?
By now, you probably are starting to like grid, or just want to uninstall it. Since you are still reading, lets go on. Each of your corners can be a colored square (you can change the size), and you also have a nifty Center Icon, as well as a border.

Lets show who has aggro. That would be useful. Go to Status, Range, Aggro Alert, and make the color yellow. Set the priority at 75 (less than we set for Low Health Warning). Now go to Frame Border, and check only Aggro Alert and Low HP Warning. Uncheck everything else for the Border. Can you guess what will happen? That's right, anybody who gets aggro will get a yellow border, but once they take enough damage, the border will turn red. It's very useful to know who you need to focus on.

Other indicators include those corner squares. If you have a heal over time spell like renew, go to Frame, Bottom Right Corner, and check Buff: Renew. Now anyone who has a renew on them will have a small square in the lower right. You can change the color through Status, Auras, Buff: Renew.

If you have a shield, like PW: Shield, put that on another corner like the Upper Right. Now you can see when someone is shielded and has a renew on them.

What about bad stuff? Easy. Let's say you can dispel magic and disease. Go to Frame, Top Left Corner and put a check in Debuff Type: Disease AND Debuff Type: Magic. Make the colors different by going to Status, Debuff type: Disease and ensure the color is Brown. Debuff type Magic defaults to blue. So... if a blue square shows up on someone in the upper left, dispell their magic debuff. If it is brown, cure their disease. This is raid wide. If 10 people get hit with a magic debuff, you are going to know it (time for that mass dispell).

Remember that center icon under Frame, Center Icon? Go there and check Debuff Disease and Magic, and not only will you get the colored corner indicator, but an actual icon on the square, indicating which spell was used.

OK, lets wrap this up
Well, you should be pretty good at this by now, and you should be thinking about the things you want to sense for yourself. Once you have some practice, you can check out things that show other stuff.

Also be aware that you can define your own buff or debuff, if it is not listed by default. Do this by selecting Status, Auras, inputting the new buff in the entry box, and pressing enter. Then it will show up under Frame options, in order for you to select it.

A useful thing for some buffs is the option to "show if missing". Under Status, Auras, Buffname, I have my center icon come on any time my inner fire is missing. By checking show if missing and by imposing a class filter on the buff, I only show it on priests. That way I can keep inner fire up on myself all the time.

Here are other Grid addons I use. They add additional icons and indicators that I can sense.

GridAutoFrameSize - Automatically switch to 10 or 25 man grid when needed, and include those pets.
GridIndicatorCornerIcons - I like icons better than colored squares for some things.
GridIndicatorSideIcons - Did I mention that I like icons? I use these to show missing buffs (Prayer of Fortitude, Prayer of Spirit) on the raid members.
GridManaBars - Shows my mana on the grid, and I made it horizontal to match the health bar. All priests should have their mana showing on grid.
GridStatus HostileUnit - Mind controlled player
GridStatusHots
GridStatusMissingBuffs
GridStatusRaidDebuff

The default grid is great, but as you can see, when you are ready, there is even more goodness for you. I hope you find this small tutorial useful.

Edited, Apr 14th 2009 10:03am by dadanox

Wow.. just wow. Thank you for taking the time to help me out. I am quite sure you have helped many others out there, as well! This is the reason these kinds of websites exist. To help out people in need to make them better players.

I bow to all of you.