The Naked Fear

I'd like to start a thread with a list of mods and improvements that have had great impact on raiding in WoW. I'll try as best as possible to list these in the order in which I feel they should be practiced. Some further down the list might require something else to be done first. This is by no means a requirement. It's just things that have helped me, that I'd like to pass on to those willing to listen.

Someone might say "I shouldn't need all of this stuff just to do well in a raid". Keep in mind that Blizzard has empowered the modding community to create, and in some cases has even encorporated some mod concepts into the default interface. Also, the raiding game has increased in difficulty and complexity tremendously since the days of Ragnaros or Nightbane, undoubtedly at least in part due to advances in raid mods.

If you have not read up on the bosses abilities in the colliseum, suffice it to say that they are very intricate encounters, where knowing and reacting the status of people in the raid will be extremely important.

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The first list is for everyone in the raid:

1) Install Deadly Boss mods (or Big Wigs). I do version checks periodically in raids, and believe it or not, there are still people in them that don't have a boss mod installed.

2) Disable quest/leveling (Carbonite), map enhancement (Cartographer), and any other graphically taxing mods during raids. This is especially important if you are on an older PC.

3) Use raid assistance mods like Loggerhead and Recount only if they do not bog down your system. For example, before I seriously upgraded my computer, these two mods would make WoW explode in 25-man raids due to the constant disk writes.

4) Install some sort of raid frames where you can see everyone's health (and mana!). It might seem busy at first, especially if you are DPS, but it's crucial to know, for example, if everyone in the raid is at half health before you lifetap. Suggested mods: Grid, Xperl

5) Install a buff/debuff frame that allows you to place your own debuffs in a highly visible and prominent position on the screen. This allows you to react quickly to threats like Light and Gravity Bomb. Suggested mod: Satrina Buff Frames

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The second list is for Healers especially (extra credit for tanks). It requires Grid/Healbot/Xperl raid frames.

1) Install lib_QuickHealth. Also install the QuickHealth interface into your raid frame. This is the best healthbar update library currently available. Quicker health updates let you respond more dynamically to threats, prevent quick deaths, and achieve less overhealing.

2) Add all incoming-damage-altering player buffs as a visible icon in a certain location on your raid frames. Example buffs are: Icebound Fortitude, Shield Wall, Evasion, Pain Suppression, Hand of Sacrifice. There are probably 20 others as well. Being able to see what players have these buffs on them will allow you to make smarter decisions about who (and how much) to heal. I have these as right side icon in Grid.

3) Add all spell short-duration auras and HoT's as a visible icon in a (different) certain location on your raid frames. Example buffs are: Power Word: Shield, Riptide, Renew, Regrowth, Frenzied Regeneration. This will let you know if you don't need to heal someone who is not in danger of death and can be topped off by existing HoT's. This is especially important for Druids, who can keep multiple HoTs on 3 tanks and heal the raid at the same time. I have these as left side icon in Grid.

4) Add all of your self/other combat buffs as a visible icon in another location on your raid frames. Example buffs are: Earth Shield, Water Shield, Inner Fire, Omen of Clarity. This will help you keep their uptime maximized. I have these as center icon in Grid.

5) Add an aggro indicator to your raid frames. it'll keep people from dying to certain mechanics if you pre-emptively heal them. I have this as top left and top right indicator (red) in Grid.

6) Add all incoming-healing-reducing player buffs/debuffs as a visible icon in another location on your raid frames. Example auras are: Mortal Strike, Shadow Crash. This will let you know who needs extra heals relative to their damage taken. I have this as top icon in Grid.

This might again seem like information overload, but you'll get used to it, and it'll end up being an indispensable tool later on. Here is an important conclusion: Doing all of these things will take some time, probably a few hours for the healers. Getting used to all of the extra information could take weeks. These are big steps forward and will reap great rewards for the improving raider. Thanks for reading.


Coming soon: Links to mods, lists of buffs/debuffs, Grid config files.

Just fyi, Healbot already has lib_quickhealth built in, and will display hp bars as white instead of green if anyone in the raid doesnt have a buff you can put on them.




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Grid Sucks

if anyone....AN-Y-ONE.... has a question about ANY of the addons or mods Ghouldan posted about above or want to know about ANYTHING that can help raiding performance via UI enhancement...extenz LOL...please let me know


burgercity/poobot at your service

Is there any good timer mod for warriors? I.E. tracking shout rebuffs and managing rend / WW / Bloodthirst and or MS cooldowns?

Edit: StrongArms (Arms timers I.E. rend, overpower, and execute procs)
Bloodsurge (fury timers I.E. insta-slam proc)

Both addons also monitor buffs.

{deleted post} Avish wrote:

Grid Sucks

It's been a while since I've even considered using healbot, but this is all from the perspective of someone that clicks to target, not to cast.

Maybe I'll give it a look and see how it's improved since some of you are pretty fanatical about it.

grid is fine.

{deleted post} Chutzpah wrote:

Is there any good timer mod for warriors? I.E. tracking shout rebuffs and managing rend / WW / Bloodthirst and or MS cooldowns?

Edit: StrongArms (Arms timers I.E. rend, overpower, and execute procs)
Bloodsurge (fury timers I.E. insta-slam proc)

Both addons also monitor buffs.

The latest version of DoT Timer not only monitors all your buffs, party buffs, auras, dots, hots, etc but its very easy to configure

dot timer can also be used to track your Cool downs. this is done by opening dot timer and clicking enable =P as destro i turned off my dot timer and used CD timer to keep track of Conflag and chaosbolt.

also for any locks out there i suggest getting necrosis its a nifty lil addon that takes very lil memory but it can keep track of your shards make it so anyones made outside of ur soulbag when its full gets deleted, and also alerts you to proc chancees like Nightfall or Backlash and when ur soul stone goes down.

oh and i turned the main part of necrosis into a GIANT soul shatter button kekeke.

Ok, I had to uninstall Grid, just in case that was why i got stuck dead in VoA w/o being able to move/leave/rez?? (Just updated video card finally, everything was going great, then 10m VoA weirdness.)

Plus, I have Healbot, and it shows me everyone's status.

However, I may need to get on vent soon here and have someone help me make sure i have everything else configured correctly.

Not sure I know what i'm doing w/em yet, but so far i like it--i'm seeing aggro warnings and everyone's status clearer. Plus, the 3d images are just cool.

And I'm not getting on Vent quite yet--just woke up, need coffee, yada yada.

But thank you very much for the info, Joe. Keep it coming, please--anything that will help me out-heal Malf is appreciated...LOL