Addon Spotlight: Healbot Continued part 2

Starryknight, GM of the iHorde guild on Executus, has written a comprehensive guide to configuring Healbot Continued. The developer of Healbot Continued actually pointed me in her direction, so you can bet this is a decent write-up.

It also prevents me from having to re-invent the wheel, so kudos to Starryknight! Instead, I thought I would share some highlights of the guide, and my own tips and tricks to using Healbot Continued.

Many of you who read part one of the Healbot Continued saga have asked if this addon is suitable for PvP healing. As it turns out, Healbot Continued has a skin pre-loaded with battlegrounds in mind. Called the Alterac Valley skin, it will build a frame that is well suited to healing your battleground group, but wait, there's more! Healbot Continued has a built-in range finder, which will fade out individual players' bars if they are out of your healing range. This is a great way to avoid wasting heals, although it can't save you from losing a heal because someone leaves your maximum range while you're midway through a healing spell.

For those of you who have concerns about cluttering your User Interface, you can select the "Hide Party Frames" in the General tab of your options interface. You can also select "Include player and target" to remove the player and target frames. Although I don't choose to do this, if you're concentrating on healing only, it can be a great way to clean up what can quickly become a cluttered UI.

Also, in the General tab, you will need to select "Monitor Aggro" if you want Healbot Continued to show you who has aggro. In regards to the "Fluid bars" option, I would not recommend using this function, as it adds what I think is an unnecessary, cosmetic change.

The Spells tab holds an important option called Smartcasting. I recommend you use Smartcasting, as it is one of the stronger features of Healbot Continued. Basically, what this does is run down a list of spells to cast while out of combat. It will cast resurrection spells, buffs and cleansing spells when you are out of combat, making it an easy way to stay on top of your utility functions. Something to keep in mind is that, like a macro, Healbot Continued will cast the highest rank of a given spell unless you specify a rank. To do this, select your "Spells" tab, and input the spell name in whichever key/click combination you would like to use. For example, if you select the "Left" option and type into the "Click" text box, the following would happen:

Lesser Healing Wave - Would cast your highest ranked Lesser Healing Wave spell.
Lesser Healing Wave(Rank 2) – Would cast Rank 2 of your Lesser Healing Wave.

Healbot Continued requires that you tell it what cleansing spells and which buffs you want cast on whom. It's a simple interface made up of drop-down menus on the "Cure" and "Buffs" tabs. Simply select the buff(s) or your available curing spells then select who it should be cast on. It's important that you remember to configure this, else you'll miss out on two important functions of the addon.

For players new to this addon, I recommend making full use of Healbot Continued's tooltip. It will give you a summary of what spells will be cast on each key/click combination. For example, if you simply hover over a bar it will show you what spell will be cast if you click that bar. (Left, Middle, Right, etc.) If you were to hold down the CTRL key, it would tell you what spells would be cast if you combo-click that bar. (CTRL-Left Click, CTRL-Middle Click, CTRL-Right Click and so on.) If you select the "Show detailed spell information" option in the "Tips" tab, it will also display spell effects in the tooltip. Until you build a foundation of familiarity with the key/click combinations, it can be a great set of training wheels to carry you through the learning curve.

Some of you may be wondering how you can configure Healbot Continued to use your treasured macros. Believe it or not, this is simpler than one might think. To use a macro, simply type the name of the macro, instead of a spell name, in one of the text boxes on the "Spells" tab. A word of advice, don't use the exact name of a spell, as Healbot Continued will cast the spell instead of calling a macro if the names are the same. I use the following paladin macro with Healbot Continued, to save over-zealous DPS classes.

/cast Divine Favor
/cast [help] Holy Shock

Although I used to use this macro as part of my action bar, I now bind it to a SHIFT+Left Click. It functions very well as an instant, critical heal using Holy Shock. The developer has included some great, starter macros in the readme.html document, which is included in the addon's folder when you download it.

David, the developer, is currently working on an update that will allow Healbot Continued to synchronize heals with other healing addons. In addition to making the addon play well with other mods, the developer says he's made some improvements that will lighten the memory footprint. In my own experience, Healbot Continued has never bogged down my system, even in the heat of battle.

In the end, Healbot Continued is a great tool for any player wanting to streamline their healing efforts. With an active developer, who is working to make the addon play well with others, this addon appears to have a bright future. What features do you use and which do you not bother with? What features would you like to see in future versions? Finally, for those of you who opt to use other addons for healing, stay tuned to Addon Spotlight, I'll feature your favorites soon!