Gaming How-To

EverQuest Legends: How to Set Up a Cleaner, More Modern UI

Reshape the 1999-style interface into something closer to World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV with a few key settings.

Reshape the 1999-style interface into something closer to World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV with a few key settings.

The default interface in EverQuest Legends plays like the game it is built on, which means grey boxes, flat bars, and windows scattered wherever the client feels like putting them. The good news is that almost every piece of it can be moved, resized, restyled, and locked. With a short setup pass you can pull the whole thing into a compact, modern layout before you start grinding levels.

Quick answer: Load the default_modern UI skin first (press Alt + O, choose Load UI Skin), then drag each window into a bottom band, resize your hotbar and spell bar, and lock windows you do not want to move. Right-click any window to reach its display, size, and transparency options.


Load the modern skin before you touch anything else

Three UI themes ship with the game: default, default_light, and default_modern. The modern theme swaps the marble window borders for a flat matte-black look that is easier on the eyes, and it is the most popular starting point for a clean layout. Load it first, because switching skins later can undo positioning work you have already done.

Press Alt + O to open the Options window and click the Interface tab. This is the same window you reach through the multi-menu in the bottom-right corner.
Click Load UI Skin, select default_modern from the skin list, then click Load Skin. The window borders reload into the matte-black style, and every window inherits the new look.
A configured EverQuest Legends interface layout
A clean, compact layout keeps the important windows together. (Image via Daybreak Game Company)

Tame the chat window with a spam filter tab

Chat opens with two tabs, one for social and one for combat. The single biggest quality-of-life change is a dedicated spam tab that soaks up noisy messages so your main tabs stay readable. Right-clicking a chat window controls font size, filters, new tabs, and window locking.

Right-click a chat window, choose Chat Size, and pick 4, 5, or 6 for a comfortable, readable font. Repeat this for each tab you use.
Right-click again and select New Tab, then right-click that tab, choose Rename Window, and name it something like “Spam” or “Ability Spam.”
Right-click the new tab, open Filter, and route the noisy categories into it, such as spell emotes, bard songs, and damage shields. Those messages now land here instead of flooding your main chat.
If you want combat data on its own, click the Combat tab, right-click it, and choose Detach Tab. Then right-click it, go to Window and then Alpha, and set the Faded Level to 0 so the window disappears until you hover over it.

To reposition any chat window, hover over a corner until a circular icon appears, then left-click and drag it where you want. A useful final touch is to right-click each window, mouse over Window, and choose Lock so you do not knock it out of place mid-fight. Most UI windows support locking.


Place your health, target, and extended target windows

Your player and target windows carry the information you check constantly, so put them somewhere your eyes already rest. On a large screen, many players keep them near the center or clustered in one corner, similar to a Final Fantasy XIV or World of Warcraft setup.

Drag the player and target windows by their borders to a spot you will look at often. Both windows show health, and the target window also shows the target’s target instead of your experience bars.
Right-click your player window, open Display Types, and pick Resizable – Buffs on Bottom (or Buffs on Top if you prefer). This keeps buffs tidy along one edge and gives the window a clean shape.
Open the extended target window from the EQ Legends button in the bottom-right, then Actions and Extended Target. Park it on the far left or right edge and set its Faded alpha to 0 so it only appears on hover.
Do the same with the Group window. Push it somewhere out of the way and fade it out, since the group window automatically becomes the raid window when you join a raid.

Tip: The separate target-of-target window can be toggled with Ctrl + U, but that information is already built into the target window, so you can usually leave it off.


Rebuild the hotbars and spell bar to feel like a modern MMO

Spells and abilities live in two different places. Abilities, macros, items, and socials go on hotbars, while memorized spells sit on the spell bar. You cannot drag spells onto a hotbar, but the spell bar has its own default hotkeys, Alt + Number, which you can rebind if they clash with anything.

Click and drag your spell bar so it sits horizontally, giving it the feel of a normal hotbar. Do the same with your main hotbar so both run left to right.
Right-click the hotbar, choose Button Size, and set it around 150 to 155 so the ability names stay easy to read. If you prefer a two-row block, split it into 1 through 6 and 7 through =.
EverQuest Legends hotbar and combat interface
Keeping combat windows grouped makes it easy to track everything at once. (Image via Daybreak Game Company)
Position the bar somewhere obvious, such as bottom-center or the opposite side from your chat window. Then right-click it, choose Open New Bar, and place the extra bar beside or beneath the first for additional macros.
Clear out clutter by clicking and holding buttons you will never press, such as Taunt, Kick, Range Attack, and Find. You can always pull them back later from the Actions window, reachable from the top-left icon in the bottom-right menu.

Some players add extra hotbars and shrink them to make room. Opening Hotkeys 2, 3, and 4 from the main menu and setting each one to a smaller button size, then lining them up in a row above the main bar, keeps every macro in reach without eating the screen.


Game options that prevent costly mistakes

A handful of settings in the Options window make everyday play smoother and stop old EverQuest habits from getting you killed. The most important one is turning off Attack on Right Click, which stops you from swinging at a merchant when you meant to open their store.

Option (under Options)Setting
General → Target Click Shows HelpTurn Off
General → Attack on Right ClickTurn Off
General → Click Through Self & PetsTurn On
General → Persistent AutoattackTurn On
General → Feign Death ToggleTurn On
Nameplates → Show Pet NamesTurn Off
System → Far Clip PlaneMax Out
System → Near ClipFarthest
System → Sky TypeComplex

Maxing the Far Clip Plane increases how far you can see, which matters for spotting mobs and navigation. If you plan to raid, open System and then Particle Display Settings and strip out excess spell animations so you can actually see what is happening during a busy fight. You can also set autorun/walk to the middle mouse button under Controls and then Movement if that feels comfortable.


Add a location macro and auto-used abilities

Two small additions save real time as you level. A location macro reports your exact coordinates on demand, which is handy for tracking down NPCs or specific spots, and Autoskill lets the game fire certain abilities for you in combat.

Press L to open your macros, find a free slot, and right-click it to create a macro. Name it something like “Location.”
On the first empty command line, type /loc and accept. Drag the macro onto a hotbar, and pressing it will print your current coordinates.
Open the Actions tab and scroll through your Abilities. Some skills can be flagged as Autoskill so the game uses them automatically during combat. Which ones are available depends on your class, so pick the ones you want fired for you.

You will know the layout took hold when your windows stay put across logins and the modern skin persists after a relog. If a window keeps drifting, it is not locked, so right-click it and lock it. From here the interface is yours to fine-tune, and leaving a few empty hotbar slots is worth it for the macros you will inevitably want later.