Unbearably HoT

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who took interest in my “State of the Raid Address”—I didn’t quite realize just how pertinent the topic of burnout-rate was right about now. The traffic that came through Unbearably HoT last night and this morning more than quadrupled the average and generated more discourse in more places than I could have hoped for.


Secondly, I don’t write for Girls Don’t Game anymore. After an apparent series of miscommunications, stylistic differences and being ninja removed from the community without any explanation, it was made more than clear that I was neither welcome nor appreciated there. Your support was, as always, fabulous, and my general gaming articles will have a new home soon.


Thirdly, I received a question in my inbox last week that I haven’t yet had the time to address asking what sort of add-ons I use and why—most notably, wondering what the name of the add-on was that set up my raid frames as a bar graph on the left hand side of my screen in the Brutallus video. Since I haven’t yet made the obligatory “What mods do I use, lol!!!” post, I’ll give it a shot before I delve back into raid mechanics and Hit v. Expertise.


To be honest, I’ve always been a little behind the wagon when it comes to installing add-ons: when Phaelia saw a screenshot of my UI, I think she almost died. I don’t want anything that’s going to turn into a resource hog, make things more difficult, clutter my UI even more than it already is, require me to hunt around excessively in order to update it or perform one stupid function and nothing else (like Oneway’s infamous Clam Opening mod). Regardless, I’m willing to concede that there are some add-ons out there that make my job a lot easier, and I have thus divided them into three categories for your viewing pleasure: SUCKS BUT I TOLERATE IT, PRETTY NEAT and BONERS.



SUCKS BUT I TOLERATE IT:

1. Big Wigs:one of the two major boss mods out there. I was actually a fan of Deadly Boss Mods until I decided to make sure all timers synched perfectly for Brutallus and, thus, picked up BW. The plus is that this mod can be downloaded from the WoW Ace Updater, but I find the timers and sounds a little bit more intrusive than DBM. I also miss the auto-tell reply that DBM had for boss encounters.
2. Cast Yeller: I am relatively ambivalent about this mod. I picked it up as a necessity more than anything else, because it more than clearly announces any time I’ve got a Growl Resist or I drop Challenging Roar. If you’re going to pick this up, I highly recommend making sure it’s not announcing things you don’t want it to. Updateable through WoW Ace.
3. oRA: I am constantly reevaluating whether this is still worth having. oRA is the lightweight alternative to the CTRAID bundle and does basic things like monitoring cooldowns and providing simple MT/MA boxes. It doesn’t use up a lot of space, but I’m wondering if I can get the same sort of functionality out of something else I use. Updateable through WoW Ace.
4. Pally Power: for a long time, this mod would periodically crash me every time I tried to use it. The latest versions from WoW Ace, however, have been much more stable and I use this whenever I play my paladin. It certainly helps streamline buffing, but it’s also easy for any retard with Raid Assist to clear it by accident and necessitate a hasty reassignment. I also think it’s relied upon too heavily and doesn’t allow for any differentiation within classes (HOW DOES I BUFF HYBRID?!).

PRETTY NEAT:

1. Dr. Damage: this mod essentially provides in-game theorycrafting based on damage/healing averages taken from your gear and play. Average damage/healing for each spell can be viewed directly on your spell icon or a vast array of damage/healing breakdown can be viewed on the spell tooltip (damage over time, how long a spell can be cast before you go out of mana, highest crit, crit percentage of each spell, etc.). Lately, I’ve found it to be more situational than anything else and, as such, turned off the tooltip displays, but it’s handy for quick data gathering. Updateable through WoW Ace.
2. Omen: a relatively light weight threat meter, updated frequently. Awen started using Omen back when you absolutely had to update it before every single raid and it was still in beta—now, I’m pretty sure this is everyone’s threat meter of choice. I still find it a little finicky if you’ve got conflicting versions in raid, but it’s generally reliable and allows for viewing TPS spread out over multiple targets. Updateable through WoW Ace.
3. Proximo: a situational mod, but one I find handy whenever I deign to PvP in arenas. Proximo sits as a mini interface on the side of your screen during arena matches and allows you to instantly see who you’re up against, just by frantically mousing over the screen while waiting to get systematically fucked over (and hopefully picking up enemy players). Updateable through WoW Ace.
4. Quartz: is a cast bar, plain and simple. If you sit and start making—let’s say—bandages, it’ll give you the approximate time until your task is completed. If you’re a caster and you’re spamming—let’s say—Shadowbolt, it will allow for your relative latency and, based on the shader on the bar, let you know when you can start hitting your spell again. Supposedly, this boosts your DPS by eliminating any gaps in damage based on latency. I don’t find this very useful for tanking, but it’s cool for just about everything else I do. Updateable through WoW Ace.
5. Scrolling Combat Text (SCT): is essentially what it says—a versatile mod that displays your damage, damage taken, auras, cancelled auras, healing taken, healing down, rage generated, mana regen—I think you get the picture. You can seriously sit down and fine tune this mod for quite awhile to get it looking how you want, and depending on your particular class and role, there are features you’ll probably want to turn off. For example, when I’m tanking, I don’t want to see all the heals I’m receiving or all the rage I’m generating, etc. There was so much information on my screen when I first installed it that I literally couldn’t see mobs (specifically, Brutallus, lol). You can also configure the size of the text displayed, the font, whether it waterfalls around your toon or marches up and down the screen, the color, whether you want spell names displayed and then some. Highly customizable and provides instant data gratification. Updateable through WoW Ace.
6. X Perl: is a classy UI mod that also has a very functional set of raid frames and party frames and general frames and whatever. I prefer this add-on for healing over Pitbull and Grid, but that’s just me. It’s certainly not any less functional, although it might not look as pretty and compact. Also less of a pain to set up. Updateable now through WoW Ace.

BONERS:

1. Bartender: allows you to screw around with your action bars and make them do whatever you want. Usually. My OCD really enjoys this because I can set up all my spells and consumables and other requisite crap into tiny, organized bars on the bottom of my screen. It also auto switches to pet bar on bosses like Gorefiend or the Chess Event on Karazhan, and you can easily make your action bar switch to the appropriate stance. It’s super easy to move bars and buttons around, and you really only need to click the tooltip on your minimap to figure out how to use it.
2. Outfitter: allows you to be your own Barbie and create sets of outfits and accessories. You can configure this to autoswitch gear sets based on events (cat form, mounting, fishing) or allow it to optimize sets for you based on certain parameters (resistances etc.). As a druid who generally carries around 3+ sets of gear at all times, this add-on has been absolutely invaluable—if I had to pick only one mod to keep, ever, this would be it. Updateable through Curse-Gaming.
3. Perfect Raid: is a simple set of easy to customize raid frames that, as asked, looks like the bar graph on the side of my interface. You can customize it to do more than what I have it display, but while I’m tanking or DPSing, it provides me with an inobtrusive look at the absolute bare minimum of raid information necessary. Will display dispellable debuffs, etc. Not available on WoW Ace anymore but may be obtained and updated through Curse-Gaming.
4. Simple Minimap: is a total vanity mod that allows you to change the shape, position, scale and information displayed on your minimap. I found that turning mine into a square with minute little coordinates made me happy and cleaned up my UI. Updateable through WoW Ace.
5. Violation: is a totally lightweight damage and healing meter. It’s a small interface that provides quick and dirty information in a convenient and accurate package. Very easy to move between screens (Damage Taken, Damage Per Second, Healing Per Second, Overheal, etc.). Better than Recount, IMO, although I like Recount’s graphing functionality. Updateable through WoW Ace.

It’s also probably pertinent to note that I’ve disabled almost all of my mods that cater toward a healing perspective rather than a tanking one. I’m also open to any suggestions as to mods that’d streamline a process—but it sure helps if I only have to download it from WoW Ace.


WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE?!?!11