Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

Are you ready to pull? The ready check says you've got the green light, people look ready, and your current raid boss stands in front of you, cruising for a bruising every moment you wait before initiating the fight. Stop. Is everyone flasked? Did everyone eat the feast? Who pre-potted on a progression encounter? Has someone dropped a repair bot that was not noticed? Are you sure that you're ready to pull?

There is little more annoying than raiders giving half their effort to the team effort, 10- or 25-man raiding. It's game time, people! Stop slacking! We've got bosses to kick in the loot bags and gear to grab. Maybe with a little help from RaidSlackCheck, you can whip your cadre of nerds into shape and get these fights down at a quicker pace.

RaidSlackCheck

RaidSlackCheck is one of those addons that most raid leaders want to have and don't yet know about or have been with guild and raid leaders for a long time and they don't know how to function without it. The premise is simple: The addon will check your raid group for potions used, flask buffs received, food buffs received, and when players have dropped or made available fish feasts, repair bots, cauldrons, and healthstones. Players are notoriously lazy, and just a few prompts could make your raid night run that much more smoothly.

Flask-check 5000

With the introduction of guild cauldrons, flasks have become a de facto, nigh mandatory raid buff that every player should have. Raiding guilds will put these cauldrons together, and you better make sure you've got your Flask of Battle uncorked and down the hatch. All the way, mister. You don't get to leave one drop. I don't care if it tastes like cough medicine, you will drink that stamina potion and you will like it. No, I will not let you chase it with ice cream. We're raiding here, not prancing around Ice Cream Fun Land. Unless the next expansion is called World of Warcraft: Ice Cream Fun Land, your raid leaders want to see you accountable for flasks being active and feasts being eaten.

The same dress

Same dress syndrome -- my female readers know what's up. The last thing you want to do is show up at the party wearing the same dress (for better or for worse) as someone else there. It's embarrassing. The same thing goes for dropping fish feasts. These lobster-pot delights can be expensive and time-consuming to make, and double-dropping feasts is like throwing your money down the toilet. Let's not let that happen again, shall we?

When a player drops a fish feast, Jeeves, repair bot, or cauldron, RaidSlackCheck will announce to the raid what has been dropped by who. Duplicate feasts and bots are a thing of the past! Avoid the awkwardness of double feasts and save your raid some cash money at the same time. Win-win.

What the heck is pre-potting?

It just occurred to me that there might be a subset of players who do not know what pre-potting is and why raid leaders would want to track this action. Pre-potting refers to the use of potions immediately before a boss pull so that the cooldown timer for the potion (usually a Potion of the Tol'vir or a Golemblood Potion) resets during the fight and the players can use another potion. Usually, you are only allowed one DPS increase potion per fight, but with pre-potting, you get two for extra DPS up front as well as during a burn phase.

Tanks and DPS in high-end raiding guilds like to pre-pot to squeeze every drop of DPS out of their raid for cutting-edge fights. If you're a guild/raid leader who requires pre-potting, RaidSlackCheck is a great way to make sure your raiders are complying, as opposed to having to go to World of Logs every night to parse out who is popping what pots and at what frequency.

Slackers, beware!

Raid slackers, your time is at an end. With an addon that lets you know when a feast is down, whether you're missing buffs, and when you're not rocking your flask, you have no excuse to be ready and raring to go when the ready check is called. Your raid leaders will love you for the moments you spend to get yourself ready before each pull, and RSC is an invaluable tool to facilitate quick and easy accountability. Raider leaders, trust me -- you'll be thanking me tomorrow.

Download RaidSlackCheck at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].

Did someone say Addon Mailbag? No? Well, too bad.

Mat,

I play a SPriest. For quite a while, I've been using the addon MFClip to watch my DoTs and help me refresh them with losing ticks, but I want to move on to something else. MFClip takes up a lot of screen real estate for something I think could be done in a much smaller space, and the cast bar portion isn't quite what I want it to be. I've been trying out some different addons, and I know what I want, I just don't know if it exists. I downloaded Raven after reading some of your columns, and I really like it; what I would like is to have a Raven-style DoT bar, and have the icons light up when it's time to refresh them. Is there an addon that would do that?

-- Jhaza, Scarlet Crusade

You might want to check out DoTimer (which hasn't been updated since 4.0.3a, so I would be hesitant) or Ellipsis. If I haven't recommended Ellipsis before, it is a shame, since it is such an awesome addon, especially when you are dealing with multiple targets.

If you're looking for something more compact, I would say go with ForteXorcist or Sexycooldown. It's a one-bar cooldown approach, and you can make spells flash and get real big-like as they near the end of their countdown. Plus, all of the DOT, cooldown, and trinket tracking is on the same bar, saving valuable space. You might want to check both of those types of cooldown/DoT tools to see what you like best.

As for clipping, I think the only DOT affected by clipping these days is Curse of Agony. I am not 100% sure on that one, though. Shadow priest DOTs, however, don't have issues with clipping these days. Commenters, let me know if I am wrong, please.

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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.

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Tags: add-on, add-on-configuration, add-on-guide, addon-configuration, addon-guide, addons, dot-timer, ellipsis, featured, forte, fortexorcist, guide, raidslackcheck, RSC, sexycooldown, timers, wow-add-on, wow-add-on-guide, wow-add-ons, wow-addon-guide, wow-addons, wow-guide

Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight