Wednesday, May 27, 2009

PAC, cont'd

In response to yesterday's Power Auras post, Gnomeaggedon asked me to make a list of my auras and settings that I use. For most of you, it will be more worthwhile to read my previous post before this one :)

My mage has the most configured auras of all of my characters, however most are for her alternate specs. Here are the Auras I use:
  • Fireball! (Frost), Hot Streak (Fire), Missile Barrage (Arcane)
These three auras all use the same settings, just switch the name of the buff in the Activation tab.
  • Living Bomb (Fire, FFB)
This Aura doesn't have a timer, since it is set to show only when Living Bomb is not active.
  • Icy Veins/Combustion/Arcane Power/Heroism/Trinket procs/etc.
These settings would work for any aura that you want triggered by a certain buff. These all show a timer.

I put these in separate from my Missile Barrage procs, etc., even though they use the same settings. For my trinkets and cooldowns, I generally use static auras - they don't bubble, pulse, move, or whatever. For my trinkets and Mana Surge (from my 2pcT7 bonus), I have the transparency on the aura set almost to zero - I'm only interested in the timer. Heroism does pulse, to make it look cooler ;)

  • Arcane Intellect, Armor, or Food Buff fade
I use these auras to show when these buffs are not active. I've shown the example of my food buff, since I've set the duration in the animation tab to 30 seconds, so that if it fades during a boss fight, or I don't feel like refreshing it, the aura will fade and it won't clutter my screen.

For my Arcane Intellect and armor Auras (the Arcane Int. tab settings are shown in yesterday's post), I have the "only if in raid" option unchecked. That way, these auras will show while solo-ing as well.

  • Low Health/Mana
Using the health or mana option gives you a percentage slider:

It's that simple! If you check the "Enemy Target" option, it will track your hostile target's health - useful for abilities that require the target to be below a certain percentage, or if you just want to know when to unload your awesome cooldowns.

And thus concludes another picspam post. Just keep in mind that the graphics used and the animations are entirely up to you - customize this awesome addon to your own needs! These settings can be adjusted to any class for any buff, debuff, whatever.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Power Auras Classic

I've been planning to do a post about Power Auras Classic, but WoWInsider beat me to it by featuring it in today's Addon Spotlight. I have a few screenshots lying around, and I figured I'd make a little tutorial.

I use this addon for
everything. Pretty much all of my characters have something programmed into PAC, and my mage most of all. Power Auras will make an aura (an on-screen graphic) appear whenever something specified happens. For example, if my mage procs Missile Barrage, this is what my screen shows:

There's a big purple, pulsating graphic that is impossible to miss, even in the busiest of fights. It even has a timer at the top, showing me how much longer I have left on my proc. I've used the same mechanic to track Fireball! procs on my Frost spec, and Hot Streak procs as Frostfire/Fire. Here's how it works:

STEP ONE: type "/powa" to bring up the main menu, which I have moved over to the left of the screen.
STEP TWO: click on the red "new" button at the bottom of the menu, to open the configuration menu, which I have moved over to the right of the screen.

STEP THREE: customize your graphic! Slide the texture bar across to see the different graphics available. Clicking the "WoW Textures" box gives you a second set of textures, and you can add your own textures if you click "Custom Textures", but I've never done this. The little box at the bottom left of the sample graphic allows you to change the colour. Resize and move the graphic using the X-axis, Y-axis, and size sliders.

In this example, I'm creating an aura to show when I do
not have Flask of the Frost Wyrm (my raiding flask) active, but only if I'm in a raid. Here's what my graphic looks like:

The first option I click is "show when not active" (the box in the first image above). If you leave this unchecked, the aura will show when the proc is active, like with my Missile Barrage example, above. By checking the box, it will only appear if the buff/debuff is not active. I use this option to show whether I have a food buff (again, only in raids), as well as all of the time to show when my Arcane Intellect and Armor have faded.

Next, you should fill in the information about the buff/debuff itself. In the "Activation" tab at the bottom, type in the name of the spell. From the drop-down menu, chose whether it is a buff, debuff, or any other number of conditions. If it has a specific stack number that you're looking for (for example, 5 stacks of Imp. Scorch, or Maelstrom Weapon), enter that number in the "Stacks" box, next to the menu.

Next, click the options below that apply to this buff. Do you want it to only show up during raids? Click that option. Is it a debuff on an enemy target? Click the red "Enemy Target" option, and it will track it for your current target. If there's going to be more than one of the same debuff on a boss (for example, three Fire mages all cast Living Bomb), click "Cast by me" to track only your debuff.


To set up a timer, click on the far-left customization tab. Move the timer to where you want it on-screen, and that's it! The first time the aura activates, the timer will calculate automatically. You can also set manual timers, if needed.

The last bit of customization that I use is the animations. I set most of my auras to Bubble and Pulse, since that makes them very noticeable. There are many options, all of which can be previewed.

Here is what the set-up for my Armor aura looks like:

I've added in all of the possible armors, separated with slashes. I did the same for Arcane Intellect, Brilliance, and the Dalaran variations of each.

Here are the options for my Living Bomb aura:


To set up an aura for low health/mana etc., click the option from the drop-down menu and move the slider to the desired percentage. For example, I have an aura pop up when I'm at 10% mana, and 20% health:


To conclude this picture-heavy post, here is what my screen looks like with all of my raiding procs up:

The red at the top is for Heroism (Bloodlust, for you Hordies), with a timer. The purple circle and timer are for Missile Barrage. The yellow and green timers are for my two spellpower trinket procs. The pink timer at the bottom is for Mana Surge, the spellpower proc from the 2pcT7 bonus. The blue graphic and timer at the very bottom are for Icy Veins.

THIS IS NOT JUST FOR MAGES! I know there's an addon called Scorchio that does most of what I just showed you, but I love how much I can customize and adapt PAC. I'm working on making an aura to show when Pallymar, greedy little healer he is, has my Focus Magic buff. My DK uses PAC to track her diseases and Horn of Winter/Strength of Earth Totem. My pallies have auras for when they're missing Seals and Blessings. Power Auras Classic is a very versatile addon, and definitely worth trying out.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Noob-ish Mistakes - as tagged by Averna

So, Averna at Nerf This Druid tagged me to write about my noobish mistakes.

First, as I mentioned back in the beginning, I played a lot of lowbie alts before I settled on a mage, and I made a variety of noobish mistakes on them all. I'll try to compile a list, but I've no guarantee it'll be amusing:

  • my first noobish mistake was rolling a freaking warlock, and an Undead one to boot! That fail character is still sitting at level 17, never to be touched again.
  • I used to be not-so-familiar with talent points, and just stuck them wherever, without reading what came further down the tree. I think when I was first speccing Luth, she had talent points spread across the first tier of all three trees until like level 30.
  • I have, on multiple occasions, forgotten to go "level up" when I dinged an even level. I did this at level 42 on Luth! I was a noob for a while with her.
  • On my shaman, I decided that totems were too much of a hastle, and stopped using them. I also tried to level as resto, and just melee'd until the CD on my Earth Shock was up.
  • I definitely specced into Improved Wands. Yep.
  • I didn't move my hearthstone for probably the first 30 or so levels. I just walked everywhere.
  • I have definitely beaten mobs to death with my staff.
  • I didn't spec either of my paladins into Seal of Command, which I later learned is an absolute must for leveling. Oops.
  • Just because I can wear it, doesn't mean I should. My shaman has Agilty gear, and she's caster.
  • I specced Frost for the very first time like a week ago. At the same time, I actually learned how to pvp. I've never won against a ganker; I just wait to die, and then move on.
I can't really think of anything overly... funny that I failed at. I never had to do the corpse run through Wetlands... not only was I leveling a mage, but I was being mentored by another mage, who just ported me everywhere.

Sorry Av, my post is fail :(

EDIT: Ooo, yeah, I forgot to tag people!
Gnomeaggedon at Armaggedon's Coming. Happy birthday! Now tell us your noobish fails!
Pallymar!
Xelaeno, my dear old guildie, at Holy Fire Spec.
Aaand I've run out of people to tag :( I was considering tagging Tal, but I don't think this is quite up his alley.

I'm also going to try to make a real post later, a lot of people have been debating over Mage Armor vs. Molten Armor for Arcane mages, and I'd like to look into it.