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.

9 comments:

  1. Yay for you! Yay for this post, and yay for this blog.

    Power Auras is totally super awesome but needs a post like this to help people get it going. Well done I rikey!

    Now question time. Generally making power aura triggers work is as simple as looking at the name of the buff / debuff in question and typing its name into power auras.

    When playing my DK, however, I have found some of them won't show. Unholy strength from the rune of fallen crusader is the first one that springs to mind, but I seem to recall plenty of them not triggering for me.

    I'm not sure if they count as "weapon enchants" or not, and I simply left it as I was too busy to muck around with it any more at the time. (this was a few days ago now)

    I would really like to set it up for everything so I always know what's going on and how much longer it's going to be going on for!

    Any ideas?

    <3

    ps: welcome to my blogroll

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  2. I looooooooooooooove power auras! My screen is a bit of a mess with it, but it is very helpful for me!

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  3. @Zupa: thanks! I'm glad you found it helpful! as soon as wow is off maintenance, I'll go test out the Unholy Strength aura, but I'm pretty sure you need to have the "buff" option selected. Weapon enchants tracks things like the old Wizard Oils and Warlock's Spell and Firestones.

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  4. While I love these mods.. I am a complete idiot when it comes to defining them...

    Don't suppose you have a list of the common buffs/debuffs etc... for us Magely folk...

    Som sample settings would be awesome!

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  5. @gnome: I'll continue my post some time today, and make a list of the buff/debuffs I track and their settings, if that would be helpful :) I have a lot of them.

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  6. first of all i LOVE this addon but i just cant seen to get it to work on arcane for some reason like mage "slow" "Counterspell".. it use to work with my frost spec like frostbite frost nova, brain freeze, all tat but now it just not working. is there a way to post a screen shot or import ^^ maybe give some advices.. will be awsome if can email me "sky0401@hotmail.com". for exmaple: "slow" Spell Name "slow" "debuff" "show when is not active" ..for some reason power auras seen not find the skill "slow"..

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  7. can you post the import for mages ive looked everywhere for one and nothing im very bad with addons could you please post it :) thanks

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  8. very healpful, thanks m8 :)

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  9. Would you mind posting the import or a SS of the way you set it up for MB procs?

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