Addon Spotlight: LoseControl
by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 24th 2011 at 4:00PM
Give me an A! Give me a -ddon! Give me a Spotlight! What's that spell? A half-assed attempt at an engaging introduction for this week's Addon Spotlight! Does that lame joke make you want to charge my office and do physical harm to me? Well, good, because this week's addon is a PvP-centric tool that can help you regain control of your character and potentially your sanity.
One of the worst feelings is losing control of your character. In fact, as a design decision, many MMOs including WoW limit the amount of player abilities that cause a player to lose control of their avatar. No one likes losing total control for a long time -- it just isn't fun! Balance reasons aside, there is a reason that most stuns, CC options, and other abilities are on short timers.
LoseControl
You've lost control. Your body is no longer your own. Panic sets in. Fingers begin to smash keys at random, each press harder than the last. "Where is my damn PvP trinket," your brain screams. The debuff ticks down and you wait with ungodly patience as you are freed from your invisible bonds. By now you're dead, seething with undying rage, or both.
LoseControl is a fantastic addon by Kouri that puts your mind at ease about how much time left you have until you regain control after being crowd-controlled by various abilities. Here's what the addon doe
s: After you are the victim of some horrid CC, the ability's icon pops up in the middle of your screen (with an OmniCC-type timer if you've got that particular addon installed), letting you know exactly when that stun or CC is going to expire. Pretty neat, huh?Right now, most PvP skills are supported by LoseControl, including rogue Saps and stuns, mages' Ring of Frost, and even the glyphed version of a warlock's Shadowflame, Shadowsnare. While the addon is not made with PvE in mind, there are some supported PvE boss stuns and incapacitates that are recognized by the addon. Hopefully there will be more PvE content included with LoseControl at a later date. It almost feels like a Deadly Boss Mods for PvP, which I very much enjoy.
As most people know, I'm a huge fan of addons that present character information in new and better ways. LoseControl is an addon that takes the annoying guesswork out of losing control of your character and gives you pretty much the exact amount of time you will be out of commission to plan your next move. It's saved me enough moments of frustration that I find it valuable just for saving my sanity, much less my life.
Download LoseControl at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
Other addons by Kouri
When I'm looking around for an addons for the Spotlight, one of the first things I do is check out what other addons the author of the potential Spotlight mod has worked on or is a part of. Kouri has a couple other cool little gadgets in their arsenal, so why don't we check out some of those as well? ... giving a talented addon author his due, and all that jazz.
SpellShock
Kouri threw together this little cosmetic addon for adding some flair to PvP videos, but I find it potentially useful in PvE as well. The addon is standalone and simple -- every time you interrupt a spell, your screen does a little shake. In PvP, you get the coolness factor when showing off your awesome interrupting skills. In PvE, you get another visual cue that your interrupt went off, in a raiding world where interrupting is absolutely key to encounter design. (I'm looking at you, Nefarian stage 2.) What was created for PvP coolness can be adapted into PvE awareness. The only limitation is that (I believe) the addon won't work if your nameplates are showing. So no nameplates means this addon should work fine. Screen-shakey fun.
Download SpellShock at [WoWInterface].
Addon mailbag? Sounds like a good idea to me.
I used to be a huge CT_Mods fan back in the day, as well as being a Carbonite user when I was leveling up alts in Wrath of the Lich King. Carbonite was great for proximity questing, allowing me to get multiple quests done quickly by pointing me in the right direction to the closest quest objectives. I switched over to WoW-pro plus TomTom for my Cataclysm alts, however, because Carbonite was doing weird things to my quest window and I wanted more control and fewer compatibility errors. Since I haven't used it in a while, I'm not sure if they still exist.There are two addon's I use that I find incredibly useful: CT_Mods and Carbonite. I use both full packages and they're both free, plus they're kept up to date very regularly. I am aware of Carbonite's past attempts to charge people, but by now they're fully free and act like any other addon developer.
I'd love to read what you think of those two packages. (I.E. all their parts/addons in one)
Thanks,
Jon
As for CT_Mod, everyone was a fan back in the day, but these days I find there are better addons to be found individually than the entire CT package. You can't discount CT_mod's influence and historical triumphs to the WoW addon community, however.
Mat,
I'm a healer in a 10-man raiding guild and have been for quite a while now. I've been working on avoiding tunnel vision with some success but am now facing the following issue: When I take the time to glimpse at the raid environment during messy fights, all I have the time to see from friendly players are vague forms, usually hidden behind a boss or an add, a cyclone or a toxic cloud, which quite often results in me not knowing precisely who I'm looking at (I have 2 orc fury warriors for instance in my raid group which I can hardly identify).
Who am I blaming for that? Default UI's pale blue, not highlighted, unreadable player names. My question is: Is there any addon which allows player names to be displayed in a more friendly manner? For instance a class colored, slightly outlined display would be great.
Thanks,
Alex
Thanks for the email, Alex. You're probably not going to be able to find something that outlines the character models in their class colors, but there are plenty of name plate addons like TidyPlates that can fit the bill for quick player identification. Otherwise, as a healer, you're less worried about DPS positions on screen and more worried about your position relative to them. There's a reason a lot of healing is termed "bar watching." You're not going to be looking at raid members' positioning so much as their status on your preferred healing apparatus of choice.
For me, Grid gives me the requisite amount of information about what my raid is up to, and then mouseover macros work on top of the Grid information to heal who needs what. What you're looking for sounds a lot like TidyPlates or Aloft, both excellent choices that display better information over player's heads.
Hey Mat,
I was wondering if you knew of any addons that would let me change the font of Blizzard's floating combat text. I have SCT -- that's not what I'm looking for. Just an addon that will let me change the font of the text that comes off the thing your attacking.
Thanks,
Myramensgone
I prefer Fontain for all my UI font concerns, and I believe it will let you change the master font that WoW uses for its built-in UI elements. It is fairly out of date but still works wonderfully for me. Some addons are just hardy enough to stick around. Hopefully we get an updated version soon -- or if we've already gotten one, I would love to have a link.
See you all next week!
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wowinsider.com.Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
justicejuice Feb 24th 2011 4:30PM
"While the addon is not PvE-specific" should be pvp ?
Styvorama Feb 24th 2011 5:16PM
First is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the hairy chest (sorry Pam)
Styvorama Feb 24th 2011 6:11PM
Cool everyone sides with the jerk who points out the typos for the first comment eh?
Chokaa Feb 25th 2011 8:35AM
No, its not that you're pointing out typos. It's that you're seeing a typo that doesn't exist. The addon is indeed NOT pve specific. The quote you pulled from listed some of the pve abilities that LoseControl also has timers for, even though it is mainly a pvp addon.
So basically you got down-voted not because you were first, and not because you 'pointed out typo's', but simply because you lack reading comprehension skills.
Styvorama Feb 25th 2011 6:04PM
Yeah except I didn't point out the typo, but simply tried to razz the "lol first and you cant spell" attitude that Justicejuice had. 2 different posters here, I was just trying to make light of the plight of spell check and lolwut posters that stalk these forms. My bad if I was taken in the wrong way.
Baba Feb 24th 2011 4:43PM
Anyone know of an addon which tells you when you've got a DoT applied to you?
I ask because in arenas, bandages are incredibly useful nowadays, but if you're dotted and you don't notice, you waste a bandage and still apply the 1 minute debuff on you. I'd like to easily know if it's safe to use a bandage, thanks :)
Khirsah Feb 24th 2011 5:04PM
There is a rogue addon called vanisher or something like that. I have never used it, but it is supposed to tell you if you have a dot or not so you know whether it is safe to use vanish or if it would be wasted. It seems to me that it would probably work for bandages also, but like I said, I've never tried it so I'm totally guessing. It might be a place to start, though.
Saeadame Feb 24th 2011 5:06PM
You should just get a buff addon that lets you move your debuffs into a more noticeable place. It sounds like your problem is more that you aren't noticing the DoT, and that's probably because it isn't near your center of focus.
Camaris Feb 24th 2011 5:10PM
You can use any "buff bar" type mod to do this (as well as the default one, obviously).
I personally have SatrinaBuffFrame set up to show 4 short-duration debuffs right in the center of the screen as semi-transparent click-through icons. This makes it easy to spot PVE debufffs in hectic fights.
Pam Feb 24th 2011 4:49PM
What I need.....is something in the middle of my screen that shows me how much time is left before ToL expires.
I hate having to constantly look at the upper right corner of my screen to see how many more lifebooms I can shove out before I'm no longer broccoli...
Saeadame Feb 24th 2011 5:10PM
You could try getting a buff addon that lets you move your buffs and debuffs around. There are several out there, but they allow you to move your buffs to somewhere closer to your centre of focus. I think there are some options on some to make shorter buffs more visable than longer buffs, but I haven't played around with too many.
Devin Feb 24th 2011 5:11PM
Powerauras can do that, or any buff mod like elkano's/satrina's can be customized to show specific bar timers where you want them.
Camaris Feb 24th 2011 5:12PM
DoTimer, possibly. It's a bit large and somewhat confusing to set up.
But it is the best way I've found to answer any kind of "I need to see how long X lasts" problem. I use it to keep track of Holy Light cooldown, and a few specific self-buffs, most to see if certain stuff has procced.
Nero Feb 24th 2011 5:16PM
TellMeWhen -http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/tellmewhen.aspx
or
NeedToKnow- http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/need-to-know.aspx
NeedToKnow can be set up to show nearly anything on a bar anywhere on the screen. TellMeWhen is the same thing, but buttons instead of bars (where OmniCC can put a countdown on it.)
Either one needs to be configured to what you want it to do, but it's easier to set up than the other options out there (PowerAuras).
Kuro Feb 24th 2011 5:35PM
Power Auras:
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/06/power-auras-my-settings.html#pTree
Derrek Feb 24th 2011 5:16PM
I can't live without my nameplates.
Not knowing who's where, doing what, and at how much health makes me feel incredibly vulnerable.
To this day TidyPlates remains one of my top 10 must-haves. :)
Guy Feb 24th 2011 6:08PM
Is there an add-on that shows me when my Holy Power easily, sort of like how Arcane Missles procs, or my Avengers Shield. I am using one that shows 1,2, or 3 icons that I can move around the screen and change color depending on how many I have (I forget the name). What I am looking for is one that pops up near my character when I get 3. I would really like something like Arcane Missles to know when to use my holy power.
Darasen Feb 24th 2011 6:28PM
Power Auras will do that for you.
Sleutel Feb 24th 2011 6:48PM
"Who am I blaming for that? Default UI's pale blue, not highlighted, unreadable player names. My question is: Is there any addon which allows player names to be displayed in a more friendly manner? For instance a class colored, slightly outlined display would be great."
Sounds like this person isn't using nameplates. If you want to keep an eye on people via their characters rather than raid frames, there's no excuse for not having nameplates up. Even in the default UI, these can be color-coded by class. By default, V will bring up enemy nameplates; Shift+V will bring up friendly ones.
Pam Feb 24th 2011 6:55PM
PowerAuras doesn't have ToL....I messed around w/ it yesterday..I can't get the classic one to work now that PA is built into BigWigs......Kuro, that shows how long I have on CD...not how long I have left until I am no longer in tree form.
I will try the ones Nero suggested....and barring that, sink my teeth into DoTimer.
Thank you so much all!