Rogue Power Auras

My little rogue-lady has a few Power Auras of her own. For those non-druids who like to sneak about and shred/smack/otherwise harm things, I will share my settings for her :)

• 5CP
• 55 Energy (Mutilate)
• Target is Bleeding (for HfB)
• Cloak of Shadows
• Evasion
• Hunger for Blood
• Simple Poison to Weapons Reminder
• Slice n Dice
• Tricks of the Trade

5 CP

This is the same alert I use for my feral druids: do I have 5 combo points? If so, this exclaimation pops up. The bars and buttons are not a part of Power Auras.

Import String:

Version:st3.0.0E; gcd:bofalse; b:nu0; anim1:nu4; g:nu0.73333333333333; optunitn:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; stacksLower:nu0; target:bofalse; icon:stInterface\icons\inv_sword_48; size:nu0.23999999463558; torsion:nu1; r:nu1; y:nu106; x:nu0; customname:st; groupany:bofalse; isAlive:botrue; timerduration:nu0; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu6; stacks:nu0; focus:bofalse; raid:bofalse; texture:nu27; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; symetrie:nu0; owntex:bofalse; isResting:bofalse; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; multiids:st; inVehicle:bofalse; speed:nu1; anim2:nu5; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; InactiveDueToState:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; spec2:botrue; wowtex:bofalse; groupOrSelf:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; id:nu172; inParty:nu0; HideRequest:bofalse; Active:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; buffname:st5; inRaid:nu0; tooltipCheck:st; customtex:bofalse; stance:nu10; isSecondary:bofalse; thresholdinvert:bofalse; spec1:botrue; Debug:bofalse; beginSpin:bofalse; Showing:bofalse; UseOldAnimations:bofalse; begin:nu1; off:bofalse; party:bofalse; texmode:nu1; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; sound:nu0; finish:nu2

55 Energy


This is a little yellow glow that I placed on my energy bar (those bars are my IceHUD) that signifies I'm at 55 energy: thus, I can cast mutilate. It helps with my pacing.

Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu0.14509803921569; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu1; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; multiids:st; icon:stInterface\icons\Spell_fire_meteorstorm; size:nu0.37999999523163; torsion:nu1; stance:nu10; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; combat:nu1; customname:st; timer:bofalse; mine:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; anim2:nu4; textaura:bofalse; party:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; target:bofalse; exact:bofalse; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu10; threshold:nu55; aurastextfont:nu1; stacks:nu0; isenchant:bofalse; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu22; buffname:st???; inverse:bofalse; opt1:nu0; r:nu0.94117647058824; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu-61; alpha:nu0.69999998807907; aurastext:st; x:nu90; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Bleed Effects on the Target


This is an alert that the target has a bleed effect on them, thus you can use Hunger for Blood while targeting them. As "Bleed" is not a debuff type recognized like poisons or curses are, I had to add the Bleed effects individually to the debuff list for this aura. The list is as comprehensive as I know of; if there are more bleeds to add, please let me know!

Rupture/Garrote/Rip/Rake/Deep Wounds/Blood Frenzy/Rend/Savage Rend/Lacerate/Pounce

Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu0; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu0.015686274509804; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Rogue_Rupture; size:nu0.45999997854233; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; mine:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; x:nu174; inverse:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; timer:bofalse; target:botrue; combat:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; exact:bofalse; threshold:nu50; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu2; party:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; stacks:nu0; isenchant:bofalse; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu9; buffname:stRupture/Garrote/Rip/Rake/Deep Wounds/Blood Frenzy/Rend/Savage Rend/Lacerate/Pounce; anim2:nu0; opt1:nu0; r:nu1; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu3; alpha:nu0.60000002384186; aurastext:st; customname:st; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Cloak of Shadows


Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu0; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Shadow_NetherCloak; size:nu2; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; mine:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; x:nu0; inverse:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; timer:botrue; target:bofalse; combat:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; exact:bofalse; threshold:nu50; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; party:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; stacks:nu0; isenchant:bofalse; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu4; buffname:stCloak of Shadows; anim2:nu5; opt1:nu0; r:nu0.49803921568627; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu0; alpha:nu0.90000003576279; aurastext:st; customname:st; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Evasion


Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu0.58823529411765; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Shadow_ShadowWard; size:nu2; torsion:nu1.3500000238419; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; mine:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; x:nu0; inverse:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; timer:botrue; target:bofalse; combat:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; exact:bofalse; threshold:nu50; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; party:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; stacks:nu0; isenchant:bofalse; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu6; buffname:stEvasion; anim2:nu2; opt1:nu0; r:nu0; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu-30; alpha:nu0.5; aurastext:st; customname:st; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Hunger for Blood


I use a similar layout as for my druids' mangle/trauma watch. This shows that HfB is active, and how long until it wears off.

Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu0.027450980392157; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; mine:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; multiids:st; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; anim2:nu0; size:nu0.81999999284744; torsion:nu1.3999999761581; realaura:nu1; stacksOperator:st=; r:nu1; opt1:nu0; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu-105; x:nu0; isdebuff:bofalse; textaura:bofalse; timer:botrue; target:bofalse; combat:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; customname:st; g:nu0; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; isenchant:bofalse; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu23; sound:nu0; thresholdinvert:bofalse; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; buffname:stHunger; inverse:bofalse; alpha:nu0.55000001192093; aurastext:st; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Rogue_HungerforBlood; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

No Poisons on Weapons!


This aura is a reminder for me that I need to put poisons on my weapons. It will go off if you have not applied poisons to your MH or OH weapons.

Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu0; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu1; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; icon:stInterface\Icons\INV_WEAPON_SHORTBLADE_71; size:nu0.45999997854233; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; mine:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; x:nu-203; inverse:botrue; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; customname:st; textaura:bofalse; target:bofalse; combat:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; exact:bofalse; threshold:nu50; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu5; stacks:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; focus:bofalse; isenchant:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu19; buffname:stPoison; anim2:nu0; opt1:nu0; r:nu0.27843137254902; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu0; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; timer:bofalse; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Slice n' Dice


I don't typically use Power Auras for this, preferring instead to use my IceHUD timer on my HUD (which has a moving bar counting down until it wears off, and shows what it will refresh to before I even hit SnD). But, I will throw it up here as a quick start for any who may need it :)

Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu0.28627450980392; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu0.77647058823529; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; multiids:st; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Rogue_SliceDice; size:nu0.74000000953674; torsion:nu1; stance:nu10; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; combat:nu0; customname:st; timer:botrue; mine:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; anim2:nu0; textaura:bofalse; party:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; target:bofalse; exact:bofalse; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; threshold:nu50; aurastextfont:nu1; stacks:nu0; isenchant:bofalse; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu16; buffname:stSlice and Dice; inverse:bofalse; opt1:nu0; r:nu1; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu34; alpha:nu0.69999998807907; aurastext:st; x:nu0; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Tricks of the Trade


A good way to know how long you have before Tricks wears off and your aggro is your own again, rather than going to your tank buddy (or that other guy you sneakily decided to use it on!).

Import String:

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu0.17254901960784; anim1:nu5; duration:nu0; g:nu1; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; finish:nu2; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Rogue_TricksOftheTrade; size:nu0.75999999046326; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; sound:nu0; optunitn:bofalse; off:bofalse; symetrie:nu0; begin:nu1; x:nu153; texmode:nu1; customname:st; textaura:bofalse; target:bofalse; timerduration:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; y:nu229; randomcolor:bofalse; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; r:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; stacks:nu0; opt1:nu0; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu34; anim2:nu2; buffname:stTricks; isenchant:bofalse; party:bofalse; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; timer:botrue; isdebuff:bofalse; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; mine:bofalse; isinraid:bofalse; stance:nu10

Raid Streams: Spy on my Raids!

Well, Mr. Warlock who's been making some of my guild's kill videos has decided to stream our raids now :) Wanting to be cool, too, our prot warrior decided to join in the fun! So, if you want to watch our little 10-man guild chug its way through stuff (or wipe piteously on Algalon/Yogg+0), you can do so:

• here (warlock) and/or
  
• here (warrior).

We raid Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays from 7:30 to 11:30 pm EST. This Wednesday we will be hitting up ToC10 heroic, and maybe a Sarth3D zerg.

PuGs: Raid Role at a Glance

Patch 3.2

One thing that drives me NUTS when I'm sitting in a pug raid as it forms is those raid leaders who have no idea what they have in the raid. You know, those RLs that keep spamming "press 1 if ur heals," and they invite "healers" who are actually dps, or invite a dps and then forget that they're a dps and assume that they're healers just because of the color of their name? Quite often when a bunch of the healers have tabbed out or AFKed or just aren't paying attention because it's taking so long to start, and thus aren't even going to respond to the query on how many healers are in the raid?

I've pugged too much. It may drive me insane, some day, but I've met some cool people through it, too, so it's balanced out so far. But, I digress.

First of all, if you're going to lead a pug raid, please have raid frames for the raid on your screen. Trust me, it will make things easier. You can remove them later when the raid gets going, if you don't want them cluttering your screen (though it's very helpful as a raid leader to have them up at all times, so you can tell how many dead/debuffed you have). What the raid frames will give you is a targetable interface through which to take a look at people, nevermind will it prevent you from having to tab back and forth between the LFG tool and the raid social tab.

Second, if you have a bad memory on who in your group were healers... write down a list. Even if you don't do that, though, for laziness or lack of paper, you can still actually LOOK at the players in your raid and tell usually, at a targeted glance, whether they're a healer or not.

When you target someone, these things will normally come up:

• Health Pool
• Mana Pool
• Spec-specific auras

Health Pool:
Someone with over 30k health (unbuffed) is likely a tank. Someone with over 40k health is most certainly a tank. Generally, if they have much higher HP than the rest of the raid, they're in some kind of tank spec or tank gear. If this is someone you didn't expect to tank, question them; they may not have gone to their second (dps or healer) spec yet, or they might be confused, or they might just be a better-geared tank than your currently selected MT!

• A ret pally will have less health than a prot pally.
• A DPS warrior will have less health than a prot warrior.
• A feral kitty druid will have less health than a feral bear druid (and, often, a yellow energy bar rather than a near-or-empty rage bar). Yes, cat and bear require different specs to optimize.
  
• A DPS DK will have less health than a tanking DK.
• ...the rest of the casters all tend to be pretty squishy in health pools, though you can use health pools compared to members of their own class to compare their relative gear levels, stamina being a stat mostly unavoidable on all gear upgrades. Be sure to account for any buffs that individuals may have on them already when doing such a comparison: kings, fort, mark, and blood pact.
  

Mana Pool:
This is one of the easiest ways to tell apart druid and paladin healers from the crowd.

• Druids: if they are significantly low mana, or if there's a complete absence of a mana bar, they're feral (in most cases; even travel forms have mana bars, though sometimes a waiting caster-druid may be goofing off in cat or bear). Otherwise, they are either healers or moonkin. Move on to auras from here.
  
• Paladins: if they are significantly low on mana, they are either prot or ret. Look at their health to decide from there. The only pallies who have high mana pools are healers.
  

Auras:
This is your final at-a-glance indicator of talent spec. Many specs will have passive auras that are specific to their spec alone, and are an easy way to further delineate specs.

• Tree druids have a leaf-shaped "Tree of Life Form" aura; turkeys have a bird-faced "Moonkin Form" aura. If they are out of shapeshift form, you will have to whisper them or armory them. For the tree aura, make sure you are looking for the *form* aura, rather than the party buff aura.
  
• Shadow Priests have a dark "Shadow Form" aura, when shifted. They will often be in this form as the raid is forming, cuz it looks cool and they probably want to intentionally use it to announce "hey, I'm not a healer!!"
• Other classes have spec-specific auras as well, though all of their specs may be the same raid-role (dps), such as BM Hunters' Spirit Bond vs Marksman Hunters' Trueshot Aura.

Shaman are the one class that I find I need to inspect in order to tell them apart from dps. If when you're looking at their model (standing next to you) and they're dual-wielding weapons (often maces or fist weapons), however, you've got an enhancement shaman: enhancement shammies may well have enough mana to confuse you into thinking they're a caster! Elemental and resto shaman wear shields, however, so as far as I've been able to tell, picking restos out from elementals requires either a talent inspection, the presence of Totem of Wrath (ele's), or a good old-fashioned whispered query :)

When you've figured out your healers and tanks, remember who they are. Stick them in a party together, if that helps you remember them: spreading out healers to each party is a thing of the past and is no longer "required" for raiding. That way, if they drop the raid before you start, you'll know what you're missing, and you'll save time and the raid's sanity by not having to re-count your healers every 30 seconds!

3.3 Items/Interface Commentary

A compilation of some of the non-druid-specific changes for 3.3 that may be of interest.

- Bags:
The new Portable Hole is awesomeness, as a D&D player. 3k gold, sold by Paris Hilton in Lower City Shattrath.

- Leather:
The market for Borean Leather plummeted when they changed up the mat requirements for the epic leg armor kits, and the market for arctic furs has been steadily rising past the level of sense as they're needed in bulk for any new leatherworking recipes in the 226-245 range, making it extremely difficult for leatherworkers in the 230-240 range to skill up... but, 3.3 is looking to make 10 heavy borean leather tradable for an arctic fur. While it won't be as easy to skill up as it did before they made the fur and orbs a requirement for the leg armor kits, it will be a bit easier than it is at present, given the relative rareness of arctic furs, and it will also give the heavy borean leather market a much-needed boost for skinners looking to make some gold from the pile of otherwise useless leather sitting in their banks from instances, which isn't even useful for skilling up leatherworking past around 230/235.

- New Leather Patterns:
Legs and Boots this time around, for both the spirited casters and the furry ferals (those scaley druids of the fang need not apply). Combined with the chest and wrists from the 245 crafted-level teir, these new ones nicely round out the craftables, and those boots may very well be a required crafting for 10-man raiders depending on the Icecrown loot tables. They'll require Primordial Saronite to craft, akin to the Runed Orbs of yester-months. Moonkin will have to go to tailors, likely, to get craftables more suited to them.

- Mini-Pets:
Between the Perky Pug dog from pugging in the x-realm lfg, 2 new pets from Breanni's store in Dalaran, and the Onyxian Whelpling WoW Anniversary pet, I'm wondering when they're going to release a 100-pets achievement?

- Gear Check:
"As part of the matchmaking system, some of the more difficult dungeons will have a minimum gear requirement." I think this will fix a lot of the problems currently seen among pugs, where many players seem to only see gear checks in extremes: either a person is in top-end cutting edge gear, or they are useless. Often this belief excludes themselves and their own characters, leading many pugs (from my own experience) to be lead by a person who doesn't even meet the gear requirements they set for their raid, while setting the requirements very high in hopes of achieving a group that is really only reasonable within a guild rather than a pug.

What it boils down to is this: yes, people in greens shouldn't be going into ToC/Icecrown Citadel, and Blizzard wants to offer a more controlled gear-checker to prevent people in greens from applying to these instances, while at the same time they're semi-circumventing people from setting the "gear score" and what-not requirements too high. I have good reason to beleive that Blizzard is actually trying to keep people from going overboard with gear-ranking like many have been; a blue quote that made my day: "We actually talked today about adding an item level 300 shirt that did absolutely nothing but mess with mods that attempt to boil down players to gear scores. " ...also, "there is, in my opinion, an unreasonable demand for player skill and gear requirements even for relatively easy content." I support and put my trust to Blizzard's gear-check in the pug LFG tool.

- Head and Shoulder Enchants:
These are being made into heirloom items that, like the book of flight riding skill, can be mailed to alts. This will make rep-grinding Hodir on miscellaneous alts a non-requirement, especially with these BoA items being permitted to be mailed across faction; they do not have a faction requirement to use, just to purchase. Regardless, they've sped up the rep gains for Hodir and the base helm-enchant factions by 30%, so even if you do grind it out on your alts, it won't be as hard as before.

- Level 1 characters
...no longer start with food or water in their inventory. I think all it was often good for was vendoring for some starting copper, since food tends to drop often enough off of lowbie mobs, though mana may be more of an issue :) Poor thirsty lowbies!

- Greed or DE?
Since both of these rolls are weighed the same, I would suggest that enchanters who are grouped with classes that may wish to use an item for their main kit but aren't permitted to roll need due to class restrictions (ie Moonkin needing cloth spellhit gear, Heal-Pallies needing mail healy gear in lack of an appropriate shaman, etc), that the enchanters roll "greed" rather than "Disenchant." This will allow you to still DE the item at your own leisure, as well as giving you the opportunity to gift/sell/trade the item to the group member who does technically "need" the item but just couldn't roll more than greed.

For those that aren't enchanters, I think we'll see a new system come of this, where each member greeds an item and then trades it to the enchanter to DE for them, eliminating the need to roll for crystals at the end of the instance.

- Pets immune to tail sweep knockbacks!
Given that the UI places these pets behind the target rather than to the sides where they would not get knocked back, I think this is fair.

- Limiting the "Meter Haxx":
"Area-of-Effect Damage Caps: We’ve redesigned the way area damage is capped when hitting many targets. Instead of a hard cap on total damage done, the game now caps the total damage done at a value equal to the damage the spell would do if it hit 10 targets. In other words, if a spell does 1000 damage to each target, it would hit up to 10 targets for 1000 each, but with more than 10 targets, each target would take 1000 damage divided by the number of targets. 20 targets would be hit for 500 damage each in that example."

If you haven't gotten MANY WHELPS, HANDLE IT! yet, I suggest you do so before this patch ;)

- New Totem Art (for orcs and trolls):
Yup. Still no new tree-druid or turkey art, but I'll now be able to tell the totems of my shaman guildies apart :)

- Emblems of Triumph
...will be the new Standard: prepare to see more Tier 9.0 on alts.

- Hippogryphs:
They can finally use their legs to walk/run like any normal mount, rather than hovering stubbornly a few inches off the ground flapping their wings. A very minor change, but one that has irked me mildly for a while now!

Mod: SexyCooldown

I wandered across the mod SexyCooldown earlier this week, and decided to try it out... and now I absolutely love it. It is a moving, consolidated cooldown timer, where you create a bar that is shared, visually, with any number of cooldowns and dot/hot timers that you would like, and the icons for those timers all move along the bar until they run out with a little splash.

I decided to create two bars for now:

The first is for my cooldowns.

I have my cooldowns running right next to my Grid frames, since they tend to be most important for when I'm healing. These are things like Swiftmend, WG, NS, and internal cooldowns for trinket procs. I set them to move from bottom to top.

It's a decent location for my feral play, too, as it's out of the way but still noticeable for things like trinket cooldowns and Tiger's Fury.







The second bar is for target debuffs.

I have specified that it will only show the timers for debuffs that *I* have applied to my target, myself: moonfire, rip, rake, mangle, etc. I set them to move from left to right, since the right hand side is where I traditionally stick my debuff timers (out of habit).

It is placed just below my IceHUD frames (near center-screen) where they're more visible when DPSing. I decided to limit this bar to cooldowns less than 40 seconds, so it doesn't show my faerie fire, but too much would be clutter, imo.





I've tested it out while healing, tanking, and kitty-scratch-furying, and have decided it's pretty awesome. :) The bars are all skinnable and scalable, so they can be tweaked to fit most UIs (visually); they can also be set to fade in opacity when out of combat. I shrunk the bars themselves quite a bit to take up less visual space, but by default, the background of the bar will be wide enough to encompass the debuff icons.

I'm still testing it and trying to balance its use against Power Auras and Debuff Filter, while I grow accustomed to the moving cooldown timers, but all in all, I'm impressed with the mod!

Downsides:

Unfortunately, this mod is not very good as a generic mangle/trauma watcher, for feral druids. While you can have a bar show all of the debuffs on a target, it'd be just as cluttered a mess as any other "show all debuffs on the target" type mod/unit frame, and that defeats the purpose of having just mangle and trauma be showing. If you want a mod to monitor generic mangle/trauma on the target (ones not cast by yourself), I suggest using Power Auras or Debuff Filter.

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Completely aside, I'm mostly recovered from my flu, though I lost some weight (that I couldn't really afford to loose). I also found out that the Authenticator Tokens' batteries can die. As for the bad luck streak I've been having: let's just say things have gone from bad to worse, so my posting may be a bit sporadic as things are sorted out.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

I'm questioning what I did wrong. I'm dreading what is next.

Saturday. We had two friends come to spend a short vacation with us, including one who was to teach a self-defense class. Not halfway through the class, he broke his foot on the mat (audible snap)... and we spent the next 3 hours in the Emergency Room waiting it out to be x-rayed and wrapped. Fortunately, the rest of that day went by without mishap, though I did play Designated Driver for the Halloween party that lasted until 3am.

Sunday. I awake with a really bad case of the sniffles. I try 3-4 different kinds of medicine, antihistimines, etc to no avail. My nose was raw by the end of the day, and I have a nice gash across my chest where one of my cats--terrified still by the strangers in the house--freaked out and scratched me. Some good came of this day, however, as one of our guests made a fabulous dinner and Vortex managed to finally down Anub Heroic, after we altered our strategy and used bloodlust during P1.

Monday. I went to work, and ended the day with a mountain of tissues on my desk. My husband starts the sniffles, too. We went out for sushi with our guests, and that was good, and attended the martial art group's sparring practice to let our guests hang out with them some more--one cursing his broken foot that he couldn't participate--then went home to play Rockband. About 6 songs in, the TV mysteriously turns itself off and refuses to come back on, even though the other things (PS3, DVR, audio) on the socket are still working fine. We end the night with Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, though.

Tuesday. I awake around 5am and realize that if I don't force myself back to sleep immediately, I'm going to be revisiting the sushi. My husband is feeling the same way. Around 8am, I let my work know I need to have the day off, and fall back into a troubled sleep until around 1pm, when our guests need to get on the road and head home--a day early, but they have an interesting trip ahead given the driver has a broken foot and needs to see an orthopedic surgeon. We see them off, laughing about the ill fortune over their mini-vacation, standing in the drive way in our pajamas as they get the final load of their luggage into the car and drive off. My husband and I stumble back to the house to collapse back in bed... to find the door shut and locked. We were locked out of our house, sick, in pajamas, on a brisk November day. /sigh. 30 minutes and a locksmith bill later, and I'm curled up before my computer in a blanket, sipping tea, shivering off the chill, waiting to hear from the Geek Squad about the dead TV replacement, and wondering just what else could be heading our way?

Hopefully no one else is having quite the run of odd bad luck I seem to be! The only consolation I have is that the bad luck has--seemingly--remained here, rather than followed our friends down the road on their long drive home!

Mouse-Brush Sketches

I make an effort to take at least 5 minutes each day and just sketch... usually with my mouse in photoshop. Sometimes I forget, and sometimes it turns out so terrible that I don't save it, but I save most of them (even with small mistakes), sort of like a doodle diary. I change up my brush type, give it odd filters, or play straight with textures sometimes, too. It's a good way to practice both my mouse-drawing and using my preferred image-editing software, Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes I go straight to MS Paint, or use GIMP, or do it the old fashioned way: pencil and a sketchbook, or corner of my notebook.

These are a few doodles I made this week.








I do recommend that, if you like drawing at all, to take the time to sketch each day, even if only for 5 minutes in MS Paint. It's fun and a good break, and it doesn't have to be perfect (or so I keep having to tell myself)... because you're just drawing for yourself.

Try it :)