This is my setup, i3, polybar, terminator on Arch.
Why terminator? It's easier to use than anything else I've found.
Needs: i3-gaps (i3 group in Arch, really), feh, polybar from AUR (polybar-git for pulseaudio), pamixer, font-awesome (for both i3bar and polybar), pamixer, pulseaudio, compton, and adapta for gtk and QT (i use kvantum).
Font is using Noto Mono, set as monospace via fontconfig.
Optional: pcmanfm for file management (never got into the CLI stuff).