It has been more than 15 years since World of Warcraft was released. Since then, WoW has redefined and revolutionized the massively multiplayer online role-playing game as a genre and rightfully tops our list of best MMOs.
For the millions of people who played – and continue to play to this day – it, WoW is more than a mere game, but an integral part of their lives. Many WoW players met lifelong friends during their virtual adventuring in Azeroth, some first encountered their significant other during a raid, and still more spent uncountable hours of fun in this vast world.
To all of them, WoW holds a special place in their hearts. So, naturally, they are constantly on the lookout for anything that will make their gameplay experience even more enjoyable.
ElvUI (short for Elv User Interface) is one such addition.
When it comes to modifications, those that alter the user interface in the game to be more user-friendly or to look more visually pleasing, have always been some of the most popular mods out there. For example, the well-known DarNified UI is still one of the best Oblivion mods ever made, and has – to date – been downloaded over half a million times.
The majority of modern game mods have been purposefully constructed to be easier to install and use than ever before. But just in case you are unfamiliar with modding, we’ve decided to write a handy little guide that will help you to install ElvUI without too much hassle.
ElvUI – What It Is & How It Works
ElvUI is a customizable and comprehensive UI replacement for World of Warcraft’s regular user interface. Developed with peak user-friendliness in mind, almost every part of WoW’s old interface has been reskinned in order to provide a design that is both cohesive and clear from an aesthetic and usability viewpoint.
Action bars, nameplates, unit frames, chat frames, raid frames, as well the majority of in-game menus – all of these had their frames reskinned and now provide more game information and increased functionality, since you can customize them according to your preferences and style of play.
Unlike other similar UI replacers, ElvUI comes in a complete package, so you won’t have to install other add-ons to get the full experience, nor will you have to worry about any potential incompatibilities that can occur when you have too many modifications working in tandem.
ElvUI Installation Guide
Step #1 – If WoW is currently running in the background, close it before proceeding.
Step #2 – Make a backup of your WTF folder and copy it somewhere safe. This folder stores all of the game and addon settings, so you will need it in case you want to go back to your old UI settings. It is located in your WOW program folder, under a folder that denotes what WoW game version you are playing: _classic_, _retail_, or _ptr_.
Step #3 – Next, go to https://www.tukui.org/download.php?ui=elvui, scroll down, and click on the Download ElvUI icon. If you are after the version for Classic WoW, go to this link https://www.tukui.org/classic-addons.php?id=2 and click on the Download Now icon.
Depending on which browser you are using and how it is set up, you may need to further click Save or Download for the ElvUI zip file to successfully commence downloading.
Step #4 – Go to the location where the zip file has been downloaded. By default, this is in the Downloads folder.
Step #5 – Double-click on the file to open it. You will see that inside the zip file, there are two folders: ElvUI and ElvUI_OptionsUI.
Step #6 – Without closing your downloaded ElvUI zip file, go to your World of Warcraft Addons Folder. The default location of this folder is C:\User\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\_retail_\Interface\AddOns.
Step #7 – Copy both your ElvUI and ElvUI_OptionsUI folders and paste them into this AddOns folder.
Step #8 – Run World of Warcraft and go to the character selection screen. Here, you will see the AddOns icon in the lower-left part of the screen.
Step #9 – Click on the AddOns icon and go into the AddOns menu. If you’ve done everything right, you should see ElvUI as an available option. Go ahead and enable it. This will take you into the install procedure itself when you start the game.
This quick install procedure is entirely optional, but it is recommended that you go through it – especially if you are a first time user.
Step #10 – While you can personally customize everything after the setup, this is just an initial process to get you up to speed and provide a general framework with broad option settings.
It is made up of several installation screens.
During the installation, it is our recommendation that you pick:
- Setup CVars (Console Variables)
- Setup Chat (this creates three new chat tabs: General and Combat Log tabs on the left, and a Loot/Trade tab on the right)
- Choose a theme you like the most (between Classic, Dark, and Class)
- Auto Scale (this scales the resolution of these elements to more appropriately fit your monitor’s set up resolution. This will ensure that they look awesome even on the biggest gaming monitors)
- According to what type of class you play in WoW, choose one of the following presets: Tank / Physical DPS, Healer, or Caster DPS. This will adjust how and where your action bars, unit frames, party frames, and raid frames are placed. Again, don’t worry if you don’t like how this is executed – you can reposition everything yourself.
- Auras: a choice between Aura Bars & Icons, or Icons Only.
- Click on the Finished icon, which will save your choices and reload the new UI based on what you picked.
And there you have it, that’s all there is to it!
If you want to experiment further, there are some other great WoW addons that you can use alongside ElvUI:
- AddonSkins: With this, you can reskin other addons and they will match ElvUI in appearance.
- ElvUI DataText Bars 2: This addon will allow you to create as many datatext panels in ElvUI as you want.
- ElvUI_ExtraDataTexts : Additional Data Text values.
- Shadow and Light: An external edit of ElvUI that provides additional functionalities and other design options.
- BenikUI: Another external edit.
- MerathilisUI – Yet another external ElvUI edit.
Of course, it goes without saying that you should always closely read and follow the provided installation guidelines for all of these addons.
Related: WoW Classic Best Class
Final Words
We hope that this guide on how to install ElvUI will help you enjoy World of Warcraft – whichever version of it you prefer – even more and make your questing and raiding in Azeroth that much more fun and efficient.