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Addon Spotlight: Despite its name, WeakAuras is anything but
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley 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. It's a shame that it has taken me this long to talk about WeakAuras, a fantastic addon that was originally designed as a less resource-intensive alternative to PowerAuras but has become something much more. With an easier-to-use interface, in my opinion, WeakAuras is an excellent way to add information, customization, and flare to your alerts, cooldowns, buffs, and timers. Everyone has heard of PowerAuras, right? Or have they? It's becoming quickly apparent that a lot of players are not being exposed to the grandaddy addons that we're so used to and that come up so fluidly when discussing our roles. But with Blizzard's own on-screen notification for important buffs as well as easy-to-use alternatives like NeedtoKnow and TellMeWhen, more complicated and tweakable addons are swept under the rug. Here's your chance to jump into something just a little more experienced and out of your comfort zone. I promise, it won't bite.
Totem Talk: How to use addons to perfect enhancement shaman priorities
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. On Saturdays, Josh Myers tackles the hard questions about enhancement. Can we tank? Can we DPS with a two-hander? How does one shoot web? The answer to the first two is "no," and I have no idea about the third. I love priority systems, and that's the naked truth. I identify as an altaholic, having had seven out of 10 classes level capped by the end of Wrath of the Lich King and the other three all at varying stages of Northrend progression. While leveling up these characters, I almost always have the intent of either tanking or healing (provided I'm on a hybrid). I tell myself that this class will be the "one," the hybrid class I get to level cap where I'll resist the lure of playing DPS and finally have a queue time shorter than twice my age. It never works out. I'm addicted to DPS. Just last week, I made the mistake of respeccing my blood death knight tank to unholy DPS. Within a day, he went from 83 to 85 ... and started queuing for heroics as DPS. I have an unhealthy fascination with putting the hurt on bosses, and a lot of my draw to playing any DPS spec is mastering its priority system. Priority systems are awesome. They're the basic building blocks of proper DPS; there is nothing more pivotal or simple for maximizing your DPS as learning to manage your priority correctly. Some classes, like the 3.3.6 marksman hunter, have such mind-numbing priority systems that you wonder how people can bear playing them. Others, like the Wrath of the Lich King feral druid, had such complicated priority systems that good feral druids were as rare as a holographic Charizard card. Enhancement is normally considered to fall under the "hard" section of priority systems. With one proc based attack, a DoT that needs to be buffed before casting, two melee strikes, a pyromaniac stick that hates attacking your target, and a single-target shock spell for use when everything else is on cooldown, we have a lot to monitor. Luckily for us, addons exist. If you're struggling with perfecting your priority, here are some of the mods you should look for.
Totem Talk: Power Auras for restoration
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast Last week's discussion of Dual Wield restoration was a good follow up to our discussion of the official shaman talent preview. Everyone had lots of great opinions on the topic and there was some good speculation on other things the community would like to see happen as Cataclysm comes closer to being released. This week I would like to revisit a topic we covered briefly in part 2 of the restoration addon discussion, Power Auras Classic. If you remember last month Matthew McCurley did a fantastic write up in Addon Spotlight on this mod and earlier this month Rich Maloy did a great write up on basic power auras for enhancement shaman. So this week I would like to expand a little bit more about the usefulness of this addon in the hands of a healing shaman.
Totem Talk: Basic Power Auras for enhancement
Rich Maloy developed a location-aware, augmented-reality GuinnessAura application for his DROID that would automatically guide him to the nearest bar with perfectly poured pints while simultaneous putting 10 yard radius red warning rings in virtual space around the attractive women in said bar. His girlfriend declared it a little too close to a "do everything and go everywhere this app tells you to" and subsequently broke it. Thankfully Rich has an innate sense for well poured pints--and only that, baby, I swear. In an ongoing effort to spend my extremely limited time doing things that aren't critically important, I undertook some UI tweaking. Granted, everyone that watches Big Crits is subject to my UI, so I do try to keep it clean enough for the show but functional enough to play and raid lead. I wanted to replace the memory-hog Shock and Awe with the lighter and more configurable Power Auras. Surprisingly it wasn't that difficult, and so after just over an hour I had auras set up for Maelstrom Weapon, Lightning Shield, and Water Shield. To get Shock and Awe setup to display MW counts, shield status, and other enhancement-specific items is very easy: open the options panel and enable the ones you want. I wrote about Shock and Awe a few months back, wherein my poor choice of font was quickly noted. The plus side of SaA is its ease of use and quick setup, the downside is the limited customization and massive amounts of memory. Besides, it's well established that using the SaA priority system is a net dps loss for experienced enhancement players. Once you learn your enhancement rotation the priority window is nothing but a distraction. I wasn't using the priority system in SaA. I was only using the bars for MW, wolves, and shields so I could replace it with something better. After the break we'll dive in to a basic enhancement shaman Power Auras setup as well as some good suggestions from the WoW Twitter crew for more information on shaman UIs and PA setups.
Reader UI of the Week: Tyrias' UI
Each week, WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using and some background information, to readerui@wow.com. Another week, another reader UI of said week. I hope that everyone in the United States had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We went to a birthday party for a dog. I know, right? This week, we take a look at Tyrias' user interface. As a warrior, he has some unique needs coupled with a nice, simple layout and some awesome uses of Power Auras and opacity. We get to talk about opacity today! Yay! Why aren't you as excited as I am? Opacity is awesome. Click! Click!
AddOn Spotlight: NeedToKnow
Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. We'll look at everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your interface folder will never be the same! This week, we look at a different style of cooldown, debuff and buff tracker. In a previous Addon Spotlight, I reviewed Sexycooldown, a timeline-style buff/debuff/cooldown timer that brings with it functionality and an awesome look and feel. This week, I wanted to showcase another of my new favorite addons that performs certain tasks similar Sexycooldown/ForteXorcist, but does so in a different style. A few emails that I have received have asked for a bar-style cooldown and debuff tracker. Well, here is your answer: NeedToKnow. I've tried my absolute best to avoid a dumb joke about "you're on a need-to-know basis," but you do need to know about NeedToKnow! NeedToKnow.
