Addon Spotlight: PoMTracker
by Eliah Hecht 
Mar 8th 2009 at 6:00PM
Every weekend (well, almost every weekend), Addon Spotlight takes a look at the little bits of Lua and XML that make our interfaces special. From bar mods to unit frames and beyond, if it goes in your Addons folder, we'll cover it here.
Before I get started, this addon is useful to one class only: Priests. Not only that, it's only useful to healing priests, since all it does is make it easier for you to keep track of your Prayer of Mending (sorry mages, wrong PoM).
Still here? Good. I've tried many different mods to tell me who my PoM is on and how many charges it has left, since it is a lovely spell and I like to use it to its fullest, which means I need to know when the darn Spirit Wolves have snagged it again so I can recast it on somebody useful. I used MendWatch all throughout Burning Crusade, but it had some annoying bugs when Wrath hit and I started hunting around for something more stable and easier to read. I quickly found PoM Tracker, and it's worked like a dream for me ever since.
Where MendWatch shows you a new bar for each time PoM goes off, PoM Tracker just gives you one frame that shows you the current number of charges remaining, who the spell is on, and a bar depicting how long it's got until it expires. Additional features include:
- Tracks your own PoM only, and doesn't get confused if there are other healy priests in your raid tossing their frisbees around.
- Can account for the extra charge given by the two-piece tier 7 bonus ("/pom t7 on", "/pom t7 off")
- Optionally displays the total amount healed by your PoM
- Can play a sound when you no longer have an active PoM
- Can fade when you don't have an active PoM/are out of combat
Overall, it's nearly the ideal PoM mod. I would like it to be a little smaller, since I favor minimalist addon design; one of these days I might get around to hacking it up a bit. But for now it sits comfortably over my Grid frame, keeping me from going insane during Sapphiron. Now if only I could prevent PoM from bouncing to the tap-happy warlocks on Patchwerk.
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. Need a bar mod? Want to break down those combat ratings into percentages? I know you do, because people keep asking me "what is that mod?" It's RatingBuster. And if you have any ideas for mods we should take a look at, drop us a line. Filed under: Priest, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bandit Mar 8th 2009 6:09PM
Hmmm, healbot works just fine for tracking where my Prayer of Mending is at.
Vendrill Mar 8th 2009 10:27PM
This.
Issac Mar 9th 2009 10:15AM
agreed. HealBot already takes care of this. Priests that are so far into the game that have learned PoM should already have Healbot and know this already. I think grid+clique also tracks this as well, though I may be wrong.
Jane Gray Mar 13th 2009 10:22PM
Yeah as does grid. It shows other peoples POMs but it doesnt' matter, you cant pom someone with a pom up already anyhow, and you shouldnt' be waiting for it to bounce down before recasting.
elstor Mar 8th 2009 6:32PM
Crafty. Very crafty.
Jason Mar 8th 2009 6:35PM
I was all interested when I saw PoM... But never mind... :P
AyaJulia Mar 8th 2009 6:45PM
I prefer Grid. Right out of the box you can assign a corner indicator to show your PoM only, and there are extras you can get that will tell you how many stacks there are. Not so tough. :)
McRaider Mar 8th 2009 6:53PM
Very crafty indeed..
CTS Mar 8th 2009 7:31PM
I'm confused, why do you need to track POM?
themightysven Mar 8th 2009 7:55PM
when PoM uses a charge, it bounces to another player, but you can only have one active at a time, and if your focus is on the tank, it's good to know when you get it back
lbizzle Mar 8th 2009 8:32PM
Seeing as it's a randomly jumping and incredibly cheap spell, there is very little point in tracking it. You will know if the player who needs healing has it and should cast it if it isn't.
There is a multitude of information in pvp and pve that is far more valuable to track.
Docp Mar 9th 2009 4:09AM
I think, and I'm sure a priest will tell me if I'm wrong, the point is to make sure PoM isn't sitting on a useless target such as a ghost wolf from a shaman or perhaps just pets in general.
CTS Mar 9th 2009 5:13AM
What Ibizzle said, I know how POM works I just have no idea why people feel the need to track it. Use it every CD on whoever needs it.
Zinn Mar 9th 2009 8:10AM
No information is bad information in WoW. And healing isn't always about "just use it every cd". If I can tell that PoM is where I want it to be, I can save the gcd and the refreshing of it's cd by healing something else instead.
zappo Mar 9th 2009 12:22PM
Recasting it is cheap but puts you back inside the five second rule. You may regain a lot more mana by sitting for a few moments and not just spamming it whenever it's on cooldown.
Ode Mar 8th 2009 7:31PM
I wish I had this when I was running 10 man naxx. We were on sapp and I wasn't sure when my ProM was used up. I just threw it out there every CD even though I probably had a few charges left in the old one.
CTS Mar 8th 2009 7:46PM
Why would you not use it every cd on tank anyway? Tank takes a lot of damage there and it hits a few melee while you are waiting for it to come back up.
Zothan Mar 8th 2009 8:27PM
Well on Sapphy or any boss its the most efficient spell you can use, if you use all charges. If your tank is not under heavy fire and some useless pets arent there absorbing it, I like to use all charges tbh, this awesome mod helps me. The sound helps me a lot too if I'm tunnel visioning grid.
CTS Mar 9th 2009 5:13AM
POM is effiecient anyway, why you would not use it on the best target (the tank) every cd to eek out every HPM you can is beyond me.
nders Mar 8th 2009 8:37PM
Personally i find grid and healbot a bit too confusing as a new healer, are there better alternatives or guides that explain healbot.