Addon Spotlight: CursorCastbar

Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, make your castbar round?! Whaaaaat?

Addon Spotlight fans, rejoice! The first installment of your favorite column for 2011 is here, and we're going to start off with a good one. Take a seat, grab a hot cup of tea, and settle in for some addon goodness.

In the middle of writing Addon Spotlight for this week (which will become next week's), a friend of mine shot a link across the interwebs to me via instant message. "Here's an addon I think you would like," he said. Well, "like" is an understatement. I love CursorCastbar not only for the functionality that it brings but the aesthetics of a radial castbar. This is exciting.

Redefining castbars

The cast bar is one of those interface staples that has been fairly perfected by Quartz and Castbars, keeping the simplistic approach while being flexible and configurable. Cast bars have been fairly linear for a long time, be they their own element or incorporated into unit frames, nameplates, or another user interface element. CursorCastbar transforms your cast bar into a radial system that follows your cursor around, always in view.

Mouseovers and you

There is an art to the mouseover macro -- healers, DPS, and tanks alike all find excellent uses for abilities that go off on your mouseover target. As a warrior tank, the skill Intervene is on a mouseover macro so while my cursor is flying all over the screen, I can point at an ally or enemy in my view, pop Intervene, and never have to worry about click targeting. Many healers I know use mouseover macros for a good number of heal spells and buffs.

Putting the cast bar on the cursor opens up a lot of possibilities for a much more cursor-oriented user interface. CursorCastbar gives you the option of adding in a focus cast bar, great for boss encounters and mouseover interrupt macros. Healers can make use of the addon's overheal bars for current targets, making sure that they are being economical in these tough healing times.

The sky is the limit

One of the refreshing things about an addon like CursorCastbars is that we get to be astonished at how incredibly malleable the World of Warcraft user interface is. Cast bars and their associated addons always consisted of a very specific set of criteria that I needed or wanted. Now, I get to expand my thinking and expectations from my cast bar addon of choice because radial cast bars are now an appealing option.

Duugu is one of my favorite addon developers, if only for Automatic Goblin Therapist, and it's awesome to see this kind of take on the stuffy ol' cast bar. More concentration on the cursor is a pretty cool thing, in my opinion, because you would never have to take your hand off of the mouse if everything were bound in such a way. I like the way CursorCastbar works, looks, and feels and hope the project grows even more as time goes on. Awesome work.

Hey, look, a YouTube

Here's an awesome little YouTube clip of CursorCastbar in action. I like that the example skill is fishing, as it is really one of those skills I wish had a built-in castbar on the lure so I didn't have to give myself a headache darting my eyes back and forth from the castbar to the fishing bobber.

Just one bug

If you're a Mac user, there is currently an issue with CursorCastbar in which you might crash using the high-res textures associated with the addon. It has to do with textures over 512 x 512 (I believe the same problem exists with kgPanels on the Mac, too), so just stick to textures 1, 2, or 3 and you should be fine.

Download CursorCastbar at [WoWInterface].

Mailbaaaaaaaag ...

I have a potential winner for you called ProfessionsVault. This is an addon that stores your alts' professions and known recipes, allowing you to see what all of your characters are capable of. It even includes LDB support for both Titan Panel and Fubar, as well as your broker bar of choice. I think this one is even good enough to do a full spotlight on in the next few weeks ...

I'd like to open this question up to the reader base at large. To be honest, I haven't used a DKP system or similar loot system in over two years. My 10-man raiding group just uses /roll for everything, with the fun caveat of "don't be greedy," and it works fine. I can see how that type of system doesn't work in a larger environment or even for a group of people not so tight-knit. So, commenters, what types of DKP addons/systems are out there that you like?

To be honest, back in the day, I used to use a small notebook and write down values or alt-tab to an Excel spreadsheet made specifically for this type of scenario. I was on the EPGP system for a while in one guild, and it was just an overly complicated mess -- I didn't like it at all, and it made raiding feel more like accounting.

See you guys next week!

Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wow.com.