STOA

STOA is a UI that changes shape with your game. Out of combat it is a black leather console along the bottom of the screen: chat, your medallion, health and mana, bags, experience, friends. The moment a fight starts, the console folds flat and the Halo rises around your character: health and mana arcs, your spec's signature, the next press outlined. When the fight ends, it folds back. You read one thing at a time, and nothing you don't need is on the screen.

It is built for WoW Forever from the start, with the new client's rules in mind, and it is made to keep you focused: no icon walls, no flashing, no sounds of its own. Every warning is a word or a shape as well as a colour.

Best on an ultrawide (21:9). STOA is designed on a 3440×1440 screen. It fits 16:9 and 16:10 too: on a narrower window the console drops a column and switches to a compact Edit Mode layout by itself.

Three sizes. Full is the leather console. Slim folds it to one plain line a quarter of the height, with Ready, Journey and Company opening on hover. Minimal has no console at all: faint health and mana arcs rest around your character, and the Halo rises in a fight. Pick one in the welcome wizard or switch any time.

In a fight

• The Halo. Health and mana arcs around your character, a cast bar, the combat bar in a ring. Long cooldowns fade; the next press is outlined. Your shield and your class's kept-up buff (Inner Fire, your seal, Battle Shout, Slice and Dice, Lightning Shield) sit under the numbers as small silver emblems that empty as they run.
• Your target. A plaque with a round portrait in a gold ring, a level badge, a rounded health bar, its power and its cast. Out of combat it docks on the console's gold rim, its target of target tucked in behind it.
• A signature for every class. Coins on the Halo for the few things your spec actually tracks, with timers that survive the client hiding them: Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague and Vampiric Embrace for Shadow; Penance and shields for Discipline; seals and judgements for Paladins; forms for Druids; your tree for Mages; sunders and stance for Warriors; combo points, Slice and Dice and Rupture for Rogues; Mark, Sting and NO ASPECT for Hunters; DoTs, SHARDS and TAP for Warlocks; Flame Shock, shield charges and TOTEMS for Shamans.
• Procs use the game's own art and sound by the Halo, never a grid of timers.
• Groups. Rounded party cards with click-casting, a tank watch plaque, and healer raid layouts for 10, 20 and 40. Not healing? The party becomes thin strips beside the Halo that only speak up when someone needs you.
• Pets. A pet plaque, a thin arc with its health, a pet row, and words when it is hungry, dead or missing.
• Will it die? With Does It Die installed, the target card and nameplates show how much of the mob's health your DoTs will still take, with a skull when they will finish it.
• Words, not colours. TAUNT, KICK, NOT LOGGING, PET DEAD, NO ASPECT. You see the cue before you read the colour.

Out of a fight

• The console. Black leather and brass, lines in your theme's accent. Ready (gear wear, bag room, repairs), Journey (experience with your rest and your pace, time to level) and Company (friends, Battle.net and guild, one click to whisper or invite).
• Buffs at hand. Out of combat, small icons left of the Halo for the long buffs you keep on yourself when one is missing or running out. Click to cast.
• At a glance. Up to eight numbers you choose beside the chat, with pins for town, dungeon and raid, and any LibDataBroker feed.
• Comforts. Fast loot, junk selling, auto repair, restock your reagents and ammo at any vendor, quest helpers, mail, Shift-drag any Blizzard window (the map too, while windowed) and it remembers, the quest list folds away in a fight, finished quests show as a gold stretch on the experience bar, a dot on a chat tab for a new whisper, a soft glow on the herb, ore or chest up close, auto-invite on a keyword, a characters ledger across your alts, gear sets per spec, hover keybinding, an away screen. Each one switches off on its own.

The rest of the game, in the same cloth

• A new character sheet. Your gear in two columns with each item's name and item level beside it, calmer stats, and your durability, titles and equipment sets at the foot.
• A spellbook you can read. Every spell on one list by school: rank, cost and cast time, with "Next at 26" or "Train now" beside it. Click to cast, drag to a bar. A To train word shows what your trainer has for you.
• Talents on cards. Each tree on its own card with a bar toward the next row, and a clear line while changes wait for Apply.
• Bags in sections. New, consumables, trade goods, quest, equipment, junk and empty slots, or one grid in bag order.
• Every window to match. Nameplates (hostile mobs in a clear red), tooltips (quest progress in its own box), the map, the quest tracker, buffs, meters, and Blizzard's windows from the bank, trade and professions to collections, macros and the adventure guide, inside too: dark wells instead of parchment, tabs as words. The game menu and settings panel are left alone on purpose.

Themes and colour vision

Bone, Tide, Graphite and one theme per class, or "Your class" to follow the character. A separate Colour vision setting (Red-green, Blue-yellow, No colour) swaps the state colours over any theme, so the warnings still read on eyes that don't split red from green.

Plays well with others

Run Bagnon, Details, Questie, RestedXP, Pawn, Leatrix Plus, DoesItDie or OneForAll and STOA notices, steps aside where they overlap, and offers them its look. Run a whole UI suite and it says so instead of fighting it.

What STOA leaves alone

Not a damage meter, not a boss mod, not a top bar, not an auction tool, not a replacement for Edit Mode. These are decisions, not gaps: STOA shows what the game shows you, and restyles the rest.

Getting started

A short welcome wizard sets your roles per spec, theme and combat behaviour, or copies a setup from one of your other characters. /stoa opens settings (every setting has a note), /stoa welcome runs the wizard again, /stoa unlock moves frames, /stoa safe turns every skin off at once, /stoa report shows anything that went wrong, including actions the game blocked.

STOA is new with Forever. Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue on GitHub and paste in what /stoa report shows in game (it lists your version, class, other addons and any errors). Signatures are the part that improves fastest with feedback, so say so if something looks off on your class.