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Addon Spotlight: LoseControl

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, take back control of your life with LoseControl.

Give me an A! Give me a -ddon! Give me a Spotlight! What's that spell? A half-assed attempt at an engaging introduction for this week's Addon Spotlight! Does that lame joke make you want to charge my office and do physical harm to me? Well, good, because this week's addon is a PvP-centric tool that can help you regain control of your character and potentially your sanity.

One of the worst feelings is losing control of your character. In fact, as a design decision, many MMOs including WoW limit the amount of player abilities that cause a player to lose control of their avatar. No one likes losing total control for a long time -- it just isn't fun! Balance reasons aside, there is a reason that most stuns, CC options, and other abilities are on short timers.



LoseControl

You've lost control. Your body is no longer your own. Panic sets in. Fingers begin to smash keys at random, each press harder than the last. "Where is my damn PvP trinket," your brain screams. The debuff ticks down and you wait with ungodly patience as you are freed from your invisible bonds. By now you're dead, seething with undying rage, or both.

LoseControl is a fantastic addon by Kouri that puts your mind at ease about how much time left you have until you regain control after being crowd-controlled by various abilities. Here's what the addon doe

s: After you are the victim of some horrid CC, the ability's icon pops up in the middle of your screen (with an OmniCC-type timer if you've got that particular addon installed), letting you know exactly when that stun or CC is going to expire. Pretty neat, huh?

Right now, most PvP skills are supported by LoseControl, including rogue Saps and stuns, mages' Ring of Frost, and even the glyphed version of a warlock's Shadowflame, Shadowsnare. While the addon is not made with PvE in mind, there are some supported PvE boss stuns and incapacitates that are recognized by the addon. Hopefully there will be more PvE content included with LoseControl at a later date. It almost feels like a Deadly Boss Mods for PvP, which I very much enjoy.

As most people know, I'm a huge fan of addons that present character information in new and better ways. LoseControl is an addon that takes the annoying guesswork out of losing control of your character and gives you pretty much the exact amount of time you will be out of commission to plan your next move. It's saved me enough moments of frustration that I find it valuable just for saving my sanity, much less my life.

Download LoseControl at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].

Other addons by Kouri

When I'm looking around for an addons for the Spotlight, one of the first things I do is check out what other addons the author of the potential Spotlight mod has worked on or is a part of. Kouri has a couple other cool little gadgets in their arsenal, so why don't we check out some of those as well? ... giving a talented addon author his due, and all that jazz.

SpellShock


Kouri threw together this little cosmetic addon for adding some flair to PvP videos, but I find it potentially useful in PvE as well. The addon is standalone and simple -- every time you interrupt a spell, your screen does a little shake. In PvP, you get the coolness factor when showing off your awesome interrupting skills. In PvE, you get another visual cue that your interrupt went off, in a raiding world where interrupting is absolutely key to encounter design. (I'm looking at you, Nefarian stage 2.) What was created for PvP coolness can be adapted into PvE awareness. The only limitation is that (I believe) the addon won't work if your nameplates are showing. So no nameplates means this addon should work fine. Screen-shakey fun.

Download SpellShock at [WoWInterface].

Addon mailbag? Sounds like a good idea to me.

There are two addon's I use that I find incredibly useful: CT_Mods and Carbonite. I use both full packages and they're both free, plus they're kept up to date very regularly. I am aware of Carbonite's past attempts to charge people, but by now they're fully free and act like any other addon developer.

I'd love to read what you think of those two packages. (I.E. all their parts/addons in one)

Thanks,
Jon

I used to be a huge CT_Mods fan back in the day, as well as being a Carbonite user when I was leveling up alts in Wrath of the Lich King. Carbonite was great for proximity questing, allowing me to get multiple quests done quickly by pointing me in the right direction to the closest quest objectives. I switched over to WoW-pro plus TomTom for my Cataclysm alts, however, because Carbonite was doing weird things to my quest window and I wanted more control and fewer compatibility errors. Since I haven't used it in a while, I'm not sure if they still exist.

As for CT_Mod, everyone was a fan back in the day, but these days I find there are better addons to be found individually than the entire CT package. You can't discount CT_mod's influence and historical triumphs to the WoW addon community, however.

Mat,

I'm a healer in a 10-man raiding guild and have been for quite a while now. I've been working on avoiding tunnel vision with some success but am now facing the following issue: When I take the time to glimpse at the raid environment during messy fights, all I have the time to see from friendly players are vague forms, usually hidden behind a boss or an add, a cyclone or a toxic cloud, which quite often results in me not knowing precisely who I'm looking at (I have 2 orc fury warriors for instance in my raid group which I can hardly identify).

Who am I blaming for that? Default UI's pale blue, not highlighted, unreadable player names. My question is: Is there any addon which allows player names to be displayed in a more friendly manner? For instance a class colored, slightly outlined display would be great.

Thanks,
Alex


Thanks for the email, Alex. You're probably not going to be able to find something that outlines the character models in their class colors, but there are plenty of name plate addons like TidyPlates that can fit the bill for quick player identification. Otherwise, as a healer, you're less worried about DPS positions on screen and more worried about your position relative to them. There's a reason a lot of healing is termed "bar watching." You're not going to be looking at raid members' positioning so much as their status on your preferred healing apparatus of choice.

For me, Grid gives me the requisite amount of information about what my raid is up to, and then mouseover macros work on top of the Grid information to heal who needs what. What you're looking for sounds a lot like TidyPlates or Aloft, both excellent choices that display better information over player's heads.

Hey Mat,

I was wondering if you knew of any addons that would let me change the font of Blizzard's floating combat text. I have SCT -- that's not what I'm looking for. Just an addon that will let me change the font of the text that comes off the thing your attacking.

Thanks,
Myramensgone


I prefer Fontain for all my UI font concerns, and I believe it will let you change the master font that WoW uses for its built-in UI elements. It is fairly out of date but still works wonderfully for me. Some addons are just hardy enough to stick around. Hopefully we get an updated version soon -- or if we've already gotten one, I would love to have a link.

See you all 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@wowinsider.com.