Addon Spotlight: 4.2 champions and troublemakers
by Mathew McCurley 
Jun 30th 2011 at 2:00PM
Patch day for 4.2, Rage of the Firelands, has come and gone. The world, surprisingly, did not end -- well, end again, I guess, since the cataclysm and all. Patch 4.2 went surprisingly well, with only a few issues with a couple addons, highlighting the fact that the changes made to the WoW interface did not catch most addon authors off guard and many addons didn't even need an update to stay solid.
So today, we're going to look at the champions and troublemakers from patch 4.2, Rage of the Firelands. Most addons stood the test of patch day, easily being integrated back into our UIs with the simple click of the "load out of date addons" button. We had a few troublemakers, but nothing that prevented the fall of raiding civilization like the patch 4.1 changes to scrolling combat text and damage parsers ... although there were a few snafus.
Champions of patch 4.2
It's time to give out some awards for addon this patch. First, the Totally didn't fail and actually let us raid award goes to the slew of boss mods out there that were updated and ready to go, even with beta updates, including BigWigs, DBM, and DXE. These boss mods worked out of the box, day of patch for most players and were ready to go with Firelands content. Some of the encounters in the Firelands raid were changed a bit from their PTR counterparts, but the timers and notifications were the same, and these addons delivered. I was very happy and surprised that DBM updated at least a few times yesterday, easing our raid night into less of an unmitigated disaster that it could have been.
Download the newest version of your favorite boss/raid warning mod so you won't be left out in the cool come the weekend for your big raid night:
Get Deadly Boss Mods at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
Get DXE at [Curse].
Get BigWigs at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
Taking inventory
The second award of the patch goes to an addon that I totally didn't think would break one time but did -- yet this time, it didn't. Inventory addons have been notoriously nasty on patch days, especially ArkInventory, whose complicated set of rules and guidelands can run afoul of patches easily. While extremely customizable, this setup can add one more hassle to the patch day process when the syntax on all of your created rules change. AdiBags had a few updates on patch day and worked solidly, even keeping my user-created categories for items and not screwing around with my settings.
It's been a while since I had used ArkInventory, my old inventory addon of choice, and I don't think I'll be going back any time soon as long as AdiBags does most of what I want. The inventory can be a fickle thing and since the keyring is gone, inventory addon authors had to have a keyring-less update ready for your consumption. Plus, I hope you enjoyed those new keys in your bag upon login.
Download AdiBags at [Curse].
Once again, scrolling combat text addons caused a lot of people framerate issues, especially during the new boss encounters. After updating to the beta and then the alpha versions of my favorite scrolling combat text addon, Mik's, I still had horrible jumpy problems when engaging Beth'tilac. I don't think it's the addon author's fault necessarily, but something keeps happening to scrolling combat text with each new patch. As of this writing, things should be working normally with an update to the addon
Some people were also complaining that seminal favorite Recount was screwing up some peoples' systems and, in fact, was causing some problems. A quick patch up and an alpha/beta upgrade, however, seemed to be enough. Addons were quick to update after 4.2's release, since many authors know their addons can be replaced by potential heirs to their category's throne. In the addon game of thrones, you Lua or you die.
All in all, patch 4.2 was not a devestating patch for addons. My own personal experience was extremely positive, only having to remember to click the "load out of date addons" button, and everything working seamlessly. In fact, most of patch 4.2 was a pretty smooth affair. Are we in a new age of patching for World of Warcraft, where the PTR accurately reflects the many UI changes happened, addon authors are ready to roll, and Blizzard's architecture just holds up solidly? Good times. Good times.
Addon mailbag time!
'ey mon,I've been putting off this question in the mailbag for some time, because I really wanted to find an answer but just couldn't hack it. I asked tons of rogues for suggestions on addons for pickpocketing, and none turned up a response for me. The advice they gave me was that most humanoids are able to be pickpocketed, and that Wowhead was the best resource for finding out what was in their pockets. With your help, maybe we can find poor Taggz here an addon that suits his purposes. What, if any, is a good rogue-helper addon that can be your one-stop-shop in game for pickpocketing information?
Ja da one doin' dat addon talk yeh? Dis rogue be wantin' to know, be der an addon dat let me know if a mob be pickpocketable? And if it 'aint pushin me luck, sometin' dat tells me what dey likely to 'ave on dem?
Big 'tanks
Taggz, Frostmourne (US)
Dear Mat,I think Mik's might actually be the addon you're looking for, but with all of the options currently turned on. One of the reasons I like MikScrollingBattleText so much is that it is amazingly customizable. You can turn off a bunch of events and numbers you don't want to see, resize the information feeds, change the size and font of the text, and more. By turning off a lot of the options and positioning the combat text displays to different areas of your screen, you might have the addon you're looking for right under your nose. I know I basically just said that Mik's and a handful of other scrolling combat text addons were a little broken come patch 4.2, but they usually bounce back pretty quickly through updates as soon as they can.
Do you happen to know an add-on with the functions of Mik'sScrollingBattleText just a bit more.."less-estative". Mik's add-on is great but is not quite compatible with my 19 inch screen and my UI setup.
Regards Naturalcho - Grim Batol
Barring that, Blizzard has an included scrolling combat text that has been in the default UI for some time now and is accessible through the interface option on the ESC menu. It also has a healthy bit of options, but nothing as customizable as Mik's.
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 3)
W01ph Jun 30th 2011 2:06PM
for the rogue in the mailbag... I don't know of any addons that specifically will tell if the mob is pickpocketable, but an addon that would probably tell you what you'll find on them is mobinfo. I don't know if it's even still around though, it's been a couple years since I felt I had any need for it.
Vitos Jun 30th 2011 2:12PM
Chatter also kinda broke. It wouldn't show anything from Bnet- so sent messages, replies and broadcasts weren't being displayed. The update fixed that though.
Jack Mynock Jun 30th 2011 5:07PM
I didn't know that any of antiarc's addons ever worked after 4.0.3. Did he come back or has someone else picked them up?
Cyno01 Jun 30th 2011 2:18PM
As far as the pickpocket question, as a long time (4+ years) rogue, theres no addon im aware of that does, but aside from junkboxes and rivets, which are afaik an equally random drop from humanoid mobs, theres not much that can be farmed via pickpocketing, your best bet is to just pickpocket away and see whatcha get.
That said, there are a few helpful macros i've made that make things a bit easier.
This is my opener, i happen to play as sub, but you can modify it to whatever opener you want in lieu of ambush. Plenty of people like the extra security of macroing sap and pickpocket together.
#showtooltip Ambush
/script SetCVar("AutoLootDefault", 1)
/use Pick Pocket
/in 1 /script SetCVar("AutoLootDefault", 0)
/stopcasting
/cast Ambush
I prefer not to have autoloot on, but for pickpocketing quickly, its a must, so this macro turns autoloot on and off instantly every time you pickpocket. One note though, the "/in 1" line, is a time delay and requires the Ace2 library (not Ace3!), it will not work without it, but Ace2 is no longer supported so youll have to load out of date addons AND you get one single LUA error the first time you pickpocket something, but other than that it works perfectly.
My actual pickpocket macro is as follows.
#showtooltip Pick Pocket
/console targetNearestDistance 5.000000
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/console targetNearestDistance 10.000000
/script SetCVar("AutoLootDefault", 1)
/use Pick Pocket
/in 1 /script SetCVar("AutoLootDefault", 0)
/cleartarget
This one is meant to be spamable and lets you run through a big pack (say the schnottz troopers you bomb on that one daily) and click your macro and pickpocket everything in range.
Never install an addon when just a macro will do.
Sahara Jun 30th 2011 3:08PM
Level 83-85 mobs will drop Rogue's Draughts (a rogue-only max level health potion) approximately 20% of the time (or less?). I don't even bother buying Mythical Health Potions anymore.
Also, Flame-Scarred Junkboxes have a super-rare chance to drop a MH epic dagger.
cyanea85 Jun 30th 2011 4:58PM
Another useful macro to have off to the side is one that's just "/use Junkbox". With Autoloot on, you can just spam that button as you ride somewhere or something.
riley Jun 30th 2011 2:27PM
Can someone explain the usefulness of MikScrollingBattleText to me, a Holy Paladin. Are there situations it could give useful information that I'm not getting elsewhere?
Lipstick Jun 30th 2011 2:39PM
The reasons mik's is useful to people (I believe) besides wanting to see big numbers, is that it alerts you when things proc, and when abilities are ready again -- this functionality is often rolled into other add ons -- so it can come down to personal preference. It might be possible it alerts you to you targets cool downs as well but I am not 100% sure if this is true.
I personally use a combination of Omni-CC, Power Auras and Forte-Xorcist in order to track my cool downs, and spell abilities in my UI. Sure some of it's redundant, but it allows me to track things out of my peripheral vision, and for me personally it makes my UI look cleaner than a million green numbers scrolling on my screen (which I find distracting)
Amanda A. Jun 30th 2011 2:48PM
MSBT is more flexible than the Blizz text; you can change the positioning, font, opacity, etcetera. Also, it shows the icon for what spell or effect is doing the damage or healing, not just the number; this might sound odd, but I really missed that touch when 4.1 broke it for a few days. It will also pop up a message when one of your abilities comes off cooldown, so you don't have to watch your keybind bar so closely. 'Holy Shock is ready now!'
kingoomieiii Jun 30th 2011 2:55PM
It's great for AOE with other things happening. With numbers covering your screen, it can be hard to see what you need to be stepping out of...
Mik's will combine AOE hits, too, so a multi-shot that hits 20 mobs, instead of being 20 individual numbers, will say "70,000 (20 hits, 8 crits", as a single message, with the multi-shot icon next to it.
Cataca Jun 30th 2011 4:51PM
For a Holy Paladin? Maybe a cleaner look and more detail about what just hit you but that is about it.
What I love it for is mainly on dps characters that can AoE. It totals your AoE damage into a single number (or ticks for channeled spells).
For example, you know your single target ability hits for 10k. If you think you can AoE a group and you see that your AoE is hitting for less than 10k, you know to stop AoE and to single target attack.
Pyromelter Jun 30th 2011 7:35PM
Well, for me, the big thing that MSBT would show me was if I missed a casted spell. This would generally only happen if I had switched out a trinket or had forgotten to take off my pvp gear and put my pve gear on.
Other than that, it gives you a general idea of how hard your spells and abilities land for. As a mage, BIG NUMBERS are why I play, so that's the huge thing with MSBT. Outside of that, it's useful for tracking whether my numbers are dropping low or if they are going really high, like if I have a damage buff.
For a holy paladin, for example, if, let's say, your Holy Light normally lands for 10k healed (normal, not crit), and then suddenly you see it landing for 5k non-crit, you can see that and be like... why is my healing 1/2 effective. Is there a debuff on me? Is there a debuff on the tank?
Speaking of tanking, it allows you to see incoming damage too, which is extremely useful in pvp. Let's say there is a mage, hunter, and warlock all at range, and you start getting blasted by one of them. Your scrolling text can show the icons of the spell abilities that are hitting you, so you can identify right away who is attacking you.
Finally, there is also a feel to it. You just get a feel for the damage/healing you are doing, and the damage/healing you are taking.
That being said, it's not a completely necessary addon, but for me, I just like seeing what my spells and abilities are hitting for, and the default "over the mob's head" thing is really crappy... especially in AOE situations, where MSBT can consolidate your damage. Instead of seeing 10 numbers pop up, MSBT can consolidate those numbers by saying 125,837 damage (6 hits, 4 crits).
It makes it much cleaner in my opinion.
bldavis59 Jun 30th 2011 7:59PM
MSBT is mostly for dps, i love it on my frost/Blood dk cause im not the best at switching pres when i switch specs so if see a bunch of lower numbers then i am used to, it reminds me to hit frost pres
i also like it in combination with the blizz power auras in that having both the PA and the text that says when something procs, or an ability is ready is a great thing
im just gad MSBT got fixed again, it was broke for some time after 4.1 and i had to switch to parrot (another great BT addon, but i prefer Mik)
as other ppl have said, its also for those of us that like big numbers...
when you get a crit, instead of just scrolling by, it pops up in a bigger font and stays there
there is nothing like seeing a 54602 hit pop up.....
unless its a 74981 execute crit (i love my arms warrior!)
rainbowblack Jun 30th 2011 2:57PM
Atlas loot worked fine out the box and caused havoc when switching toons. not sure what the issue is, but i hope it got fixed while i was at work today
Lipstick Jun 30th 2011 2:35PM
I didn't see it mentioned here but quite a lot of people are having issues with map mod's such as tom-tom or gatherer. They're getting a libdatamap something soemthing error. The current work around is either a) disable these mods or b) go to wowace.com download the file of libdatamap from april 28th and copy this folder into your add on folders into every addon/directory you have which uses it. This should amend the issue.
I personally am having issues with decursive, it works to decurse but it's been spamming lua errors which I can't seem to fix, I keep hoping for an update. Just gotta be patient I guess. =)
Tirrimas Jun 30th 2011 2:36PM
Carbonite also started throwing a lor of errors. Until the devs are able to post an update, there's a temp fix on WoWInterface: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info20023-Carbonite4.2Fix.html
It's been fine since I applied that little fix.
Saikoujin Jun 30th 2011 2:39PM
"Do you happen to know an add-on with the functions of Mik'sScrollingBattleText"
That would be Parrot. After MSBT was slow to update with 4.1, I switched to Parrot and haven't gone back. It provides the same functionality, and with an even easier UI, in my opinion. D/L and play around with it, it may suit your needs better than MSBT does.
Tebla Jun 30th 2011 3:49PM
I will second Parrot. I have been using it for a couple years now and I love it.
bldavis59 Jun 30th 2011 8:00PM
i as well switched to parrot after MSBT being broke in 4.1 but i prefer having the more straight line scrolling areas that come with Mik vs the curves of Parrot
they are both great addons, its just person preference
Scratch-N-Sniff Jul 1st 2011 7:36AM
I am a Parrothead, too. If configured properly, it can replace a bunch of other addons.
@bldavis My Parrot damage text scrolls vertically with crits firing off like a sprinkler. It has great flexibility.