Are you the kind of player who loses track of time and ends up missing appointments or losing sleep because of it? Then we have good news for you. Among the UI changes included in Patch 2.4.3 are some Time Management features:

• Constant Time Display: You no longer have to pass your mouse over the sun or moon icon on your minimap to see the time. The server time is now automatically displayed at the bottom of the minimap.
  
• Alarm: An alarm can now be set, complete with a custom message.
  
• Computer Time Display: You now have the option of showing your local computer time rather than the server time on your minimap.
  
• Stopwatch: Accessed either in the new clock interface or by a keyboard command, there is now an in-game stopwatch for your timing needs.
  

The details on how to use these features are after the jump.

In order to access the new Clock UI, just click on the Sun or Moon icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen. There you have the option to display and set the stopwatch, set the alarm clock, enter your custom alarm message and determine which time to display on your minimap. Most of this is pretty straightforward, but here are a few tips.

Alarm Clock

• Pressing the "Alarm Disabled" button will enable the Alarm and vice versa.
  
• When the alarm clock goes off, your message is displayed and a sound is played to let you know that your time is up.
  
• Your time will blink until you click it.

Stopwatch

• The Stopwatch works exactly like a regular stopwatch. You can use it to countdown your time as well as time whatever you are doing.
• You press the play button to start, the pause button to pause (Captain Obvious to the rescue!) and the circle button to reset.
• You can only set the stopwatch for counting down by using keyboard commands: /stopwatch or /sw. For example, /sw 1:30:0 will countdown for an hour and thirty minutes.
• In order to have the stopwatch countdown, you need to press the playbutton after setting the time.
• When the stopwatch has counted down, it plays a ding sound.

Time Display

• If you pass your mouse over the minimap time display, it will show you both your local time and the realm time.

These features seem to replace addons such as WoW Timer and supplement the Parental Controls already included in Account Management. It also means you can no longer use the excuse that you lost track of time. Well you can, but your fellow WoW gamers won't be as likely to believe you. So go forth and game responsibly.

Tags: alarm-clock, patch-2.4.3, stopwatch, time-management

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, How-tos, Guides