There were a few elements that really mattered:
1) Better placement of main "rotation" abilities and CDs, for tanking, DPSing, and healing.
2) Flexibility, the ability to use mostly, if not always, the same UI for multiple characters across all three roles.
3) Not a resource hog, as my comp can overheat, and framerate drops to about nothing on resource intensive LFR fights such as Ultraxion (cast all the shinies NAO!).
4) Compact, or able to be made fairly compact, as I don't have a very large screen.
The results?
Jere finishes off LFR-Ultraxion, Holy-spec:
While soloing, on Val, Shadowpriest (as she dings 83):
While tanking a dungeon on my brand-new Prot Warrior, Rahnuqaar:
So, the basic elements.
I've been using HealBot for a few months as a raid frame--it shows me things I can dispel, lets me click to dispel, and also lets me click to Righteous Defense/Raise Ally/Rez/Assist. I don't have extensive click-casting (that whole no-actual-mouse thing, what with this being a laptop), but I like the adaptability of it, and the fact that it's so small and conveys only the information I really need--who's got aggro on anything at all, who's debuffed that I can do something about, how much health people have, who's dead, who's being rezzed. Plus it doesn't bug out like the default raid frame. Major plus, that.
Recount, Omen, and DBM I've had for a long time, and I knew I was keeping them. Rearranging DBM placement of things was probably the most time-consuming part of this project.
SexyMap enabled me to move the minimap and objectives from the right side of the screen (easier to look at, and so an ideal spot for raid frames and other really important stuff) to the left, a good spot for things I don't need nearly so often. TipTac also enabled me to move my tooltips over there, since I rarely need to look at those. Prat has added some functionality to the chat window, and I'm not sure how I lived without it. WIM handles PMs, holding them until after combat and keeping 29753894920852348 whispers from clogging up guild-chat.
Bartender was a standard in a lot of the UIs I've seen, and after playing with it a bit, it's rather obvious why. The ability to move my bars to a place where I can see them better is marvellous, and I'd strongly recommend this addon to anyone. Jere's screenshot was taken while I was still doing the initial arrangement of his skills, but by the time of Val's I'd come up with a scheme: main rotation on the bottom bar, CDs on the bar just above it, and heals (for Val) or buffs (for everyone else) on the top bar. For Val, top and bottom bar switch if she pops out of Shadowform, enabling me to heal without doing a bunch of annoying clicking. The bar on the side is full of professions, rarely-used abilities, and "static" buffs that don't wear off. I can turn that one off if I need to, and usually do in raid.
Healbot's great for a raid frame, but it doesn't show me myself, nor hostile units, so for that I went to Shadowed Unit Frames. I like the ability to show total, remaining, and percent-remaining HP all at once, which the stock unit frame can't do. Particularly important for Val, with SW:D, but useful for anyone. Also the fact that it shows boss and my target, makes it much easier when healing to figure out how to structure the next bit of the fight (can I make it through this last 10% with the mana I've got, or do I need to pop a CD? whereas before I was guessing about how much of the fight was actually left).
Aura Frames is my buff/debuff wrangler. Once I moved the minimap, my buffs had somewhat of a Lost In Space feel, so that just moved them over. And then the debuffs ended up underneath HealBot, so those had to move. Very useful.
OmniCC and Quartz aren't visible, but are probably my two favourite addons of the whole set. Quartz replaces the default castbar, showing custom latency timer to let me time my next cast just right. It also includes swingtimers for both me and the boss, very useful when tanking. I think it also contains the DoT timer that mysteriously appeared on my screen, and which increased Ges' DPS by 20% and her threat generation by a similar amount (boo to the loss of her T12 2-piece). The fact that it shows boss casts even when I don't have the boss targetted (hi, Ultraxion, this is the healer who used to mis-time Fading Light, and screw you) just catapults this to beyond awesome. Put that addon on the list of things that I will swear by for the rest of my life. OmniCC is a very simple, plain, unobtrusive addon--it shows the CD of things digitally, rather than analog--real, actual numbers! But dear sweet gods, such a useful thing!
Also invisible is Addon Control Panel, which makes it possible to disable and enable addons with only a /reload ui. How did I live without it?
You can't see LuckyCharms either, because I only have it enabled as a high-level tank--doesn't matter at all for Rah's 20-something dungeons. I've lacked enough keys to bind target-marking macros to for a while, and despaired. LuckyCharms shows the marks in that little spot under where Jere's Omen is, to the right of the actionbars and beneath the rep bar. Target the mob, click the appropriate marker, done. Also makes it really easy to announce what the order of things is. Bonus: I can announce Purple-Yellow-Red to LFR much more easily. Shouldn't we have figured this out by now?
Postal manages my mail. Auctionator handles auctions. MRP does RP things, as does GryphonHeart Items (blue bag in the lower right corner). Altoholic tells me what my alts can do, and combined with ArkInventory, tells me what they have. PlayerScore/GearScore reminds me that I forgot to enchant my damn cloak (again). AckisRecipeList, Advanced Tradeskill Window, and LilSparkysWorkshop help with professions, what recipes I have, and what's the most valuable to make with the mats I've got and the mats that are the easiest to farm. Archy and ArchaeologyHelper interact with GatherMate2 to track digsite spawns just like ore/herb node spawns are tracked. BlizzMove enables me to drag Blizzard's windows around, which is invaluable. AtlasLoot tells me where I find the transmog drops that MogIt showed me looked awesome together. BloodShieldTracker is Ges' tanking addon that tells me how much Death Strike will heal and shield me for at any given moment, and how much absorption I've got left. HearKitty tracks Jere and Ulth's Holy Power and Val's Shadow Orbs, the former of which shows up very small on SUF; this addon turns it into a sound for each stack, and a sound for when you lose your stacks either through spending or timeout. SellJunk sells junk, and IgnoreMore lets me ignore more people. RandomMount is the gryphon in the lower right corner, and it gives me a random zone-appropriate mount.
Screenshots brought to you by MultiShot!
So, I'm still playing around with some elements of this, trying to find the ideal positions for things. I don't think this is the sort of project one ever finishes, really. There's always something that could be just a little bit better, somehow, and you go off in search of the fix, and you find it and it leads you off to something wholly wonderful that you don't know how you ever lived without.
All addons available at Curse. Vranx's site was also invaluable in this project.
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