Posts with tag power-auras

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill does actually have 100some addon folder things in her Addon Control Panel profile. Laugh all you want; her UI is spacious and pretty to play on.

I've been asked several times from either new warlocks or old warlocks who came back to the game about what addons are out there to help a PvE warlock. Recently, it's been through Twitter, which isn't exactly the best place to explain how to get the most out of your UI.

Gear is one important preparation for raiding, and I've set you up with most of those considerations. Knowing your class and spec is another, and I promise, I'll get to that. But a good buff to your spellcasting techniques is a well-done user interface, so let's talk about that.

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.

It's a shame that it has taken me this long to talk about WeakAuras, a fantastic addon that was originally designed as a less resource-intensive alternative to PowerAuras but has become something much more. With an easier-to-use interface, in my opinion, WeakAuras is an excellent way to add information, customization, and flare to your alerts, cooldowns, buffs, and timers.

Everyone has heard of PowerAuras, right? Or have they? It's becoming quickly apparent that a lot of players are not being exposed to the grandaddy addons that we're so used to and that come up so fluidly when discussing our roles. But with Blizzard's own on-screen notification for important buffs as well as easy-to-use alternatives like NeedtoKnow and TellMeWhen, more complicated and tweakable addons are swept under the rug. Here's your chance to jump into something just a little more experienced and out of your comfort zone. I promise, it won't bite.

Gear, glyphs, and talents

First off, the easiest way to help your DPS on Ultraxion is to check your glyphs. Most elemental shaman nowadays run with Glyph of Unleashed Lightning as one of their prime glyphs. This makes sense for nearly every other fight in Dragon Soul, as they all require some amount of movement. Ultraxion, however, is a straight up stand-there-and-shoot-lightning-and-lava-until-your-fingers-fall-off-or-he-dies fight, and Glyph of Unleashed Lightning gives absolutely zero DPS if you're not moving. Switching this out for Glyph of Lightning Bolt will give you a slight boost in numbers. Your three glyph choices should be Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, and Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem; more on the FET glyph choice in a second.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen spawn camps poor, defenseless gnomes. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com, produces the Circle of Healing Podcast, and plays white knight to those loveable gnomes.

When I first started raiding a few years ago, I was an obnoxiously overconfident priest determined to prove to the world that I was the best discipline priest who ever lived. Fast forward two years, and I'm still trying to get comfortable with the reality check that resulted from meeting amazing priests like Kinaesthesia or Kras. I realized I wasn't competitive enough, dedicated enough, and that my growing ability to self-critique every tiny aspect of my play was holding back me back more than it was pushing me forward. How I wish I could be that overconfident idiot again.

On the bright side, the whole thing has left me quite good at helping other priests identify what they need to do to get to the next stage of their development as players (without becoming overly paranoid from self-awareness). So when I recently met someone who was up against a massive wall in his development, I decided I ought to tap into that ability in a more formal way by writing an article about it.

Bob (we're going to call him Bob) wrote me and described various problems he was having as a healer, explaining that raid damage was unmanageable and that he couldn't keep up. I thought for a while he might have been going OOM, but as we talked more and more, I realized certain things he said just didn't making sense. Eventually, I asked him for a picture of his UI and was immediately horrified by what he sent me.

Thus today, we're going to talk about addons and setting up your first healing priest UI.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. This week, we discuss one of my favorite addons.

Rogues hate unpredictability. Chance is what the others will try to stand on, and a well-prepared rogue will pull that pillar out from under them. Rogues perform at their peak efficiency when they're setting the tempo. While it may seem like chaos to the uninitiated, a veteran rogue is always in control. In order to properly manage our energy, combo points, and cooldowns, we need to stay several steps ahead of our opponents.

Our talent trees and rotations reflect our love of predictability. Aside from the occasional talent like Ruthlessness, we don't rely on chance for anything. In the past, chance has encroached on our playstyle in a few areas, but those have largely been eliminated. Cloak of Shadows and Sap are now guarantees, and we don't have to hope that we get lucky with Initiative or Vanish. Our rotation is in always our control.

Healers play a game of covering the mistakes of others. Tank didn't get to his panic button in time? DPSers not controlling their aggro? Cat jumped on the keyboard? Your friendly neighborhood healer is there to smooth over those hiccups and keep things running smoothly. In today's collection of links, the first one is for everyone and should be committed to memory should you want to live through most encounters. The rest are aimed at specific healing classes to help them up their game. Enjoy -- and don't forget to thank your healer.

• Tree Heals Go Whoosh covers the new AoE healing spells available to healers in a visual guide to things your healer wants you to stand in.
• Tales of a Priest lays out examples of when to use Leap of Faith.
• Falling Leaves and Twigs exports their Power Aura settings for druid resto (and balance) spells.
• Blessing of Kings blesses us with a list of tips for holy paladins in heroics.
• TotemForest explains the math and glyphing of the shaman mana regeneration spell Water Shield

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Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Please send screenshots as well as any comments to my email at gregg@wow.com.

In recent news, yet another Sanctuary talent bug has been hotfixed. I'm really starting to get annoyed at this wonderful talent that keeps us crit-immune. This time, the issue was that it would de-talent itself for players under level 30 when they logged off, zoned, changed continents, etc. This should now be fixed, for those of you who've been leveling new tauren paladins as protection.

As far as the column this week goes, we're talking about addons. From holy power tracking to gear swapping to buff reminders (like the one shown above), there are a lot of things that can make our day-to-day dungeon running a lot easier. These aren't the only addons for each solution (and I hope our commenters will point out any good ones I missed), but they're a few of the more popular, and each has its own features and limitations.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more.

Listening Music: Dead or Alive with "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)." Long live the '80s.

Today's column is about nifty arena addons. Changing up your PvP UI for the better is an awesome way to improve your awareness of what's going on. Having easy access to valuable information can often be the difference between a win and a loss. We'll be discussing the best addons to use for a variety of different aspects within the arena.

Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly source for news, guides, tips and opinions on the death knight class.

In the latest beta patch, Blizzard was so kind as to bump the level cap up to 85, in addition to opening Uldum and Twilight Highlands, the last two major leveling zones in the expansion. Unfortunately, neither zone is itemized, but more on that later. In my testing this past week, I've delved in the long-dead, dormant spec of two-handed frost. The spec was officially killed off (at least in the sense of having competitive DPS) in the latter part of Wrath, when Blizzard decided to make frost the official spec of dual wielding. However, with the advent of Cataclysm, that is changing. With blood becoming a dedicated tanking tree, it left unholy as the only two-handed weapon tree. Recognizing that some players might dislike the pet-tending aspect of unholy, Blizzard decided to support two-handed weaponry in the frost tree once again.

That said, deciding to support it and succeeding at it are two different things, and in addition, there seems to be a lot of people who are still confused as to whether or not Blizzard plans to support it. You can put your mind at ease now though. Very recently, Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) confirmed that, yes, Blizzard is supporting the two-handed weapon playstyle for the frost tree.

Each week, WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using and some background information, to readerui@wow.com.

Another week, another reader UI of said week. I hope that everyone in the United States had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We went to a birthday party for a dog. I know, right?

This week, we take a look at Tyrias' user interface. As a warrior, he has some unique needs coupled with a nice, simple layout and some awesome uses of Power Auras and opacity. We get to talk about opacity today! Yay! Why aren't you as excited as I am? Opacity is awesome. Click! Click!

Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. We'll look at everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your interface folder will never be the same! This week, I give in to demand and talk about Power Auras.

The time has come. The granddaddy of notification addons is again at the forefront of Addon Spotlight, and for good reason. Power Auras comes with an ingrained passionate user base of people who swear by the addon. But why? Today, we take a look at the fervor behind Power Auras and some wonderful use cases, and we declare the winners of the TCG loot card raffle for a Tiny! and Slashdance card for two lucky winners. Speaking of the contest, thank you all for responding so positively to the Power Auras submission contest. I received so many amazing emails that ran the gamut of suggestions and use cases for Power Auras that it was incredibly difficult to choose who to feature in this spotlight.

Each week, WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using and some background information, to readerui@wow.com.

Welcome to Reader UI of the Week. You might remember Crazyate's UI a few weeks back (April 6, 2010, to be exact). Crazyates had a problem -- too much stuff in too little of a space. SpartanUI was a large culprit, and his unit frames in general were unwieldy. Today, we revisit Crazyates' UI in a Reader UI of the Week success story and show you how user interface drab becomes user interface fab! My strength is returning! Read on, heroes!

Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. We'll look at everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your interface folder will never be the same! This week, we look at a different style of cooldown, debuff and buff tracker.

In a previous Addon Spotlight, I reviewed Sexycooldown, a timeline-style buff/debuff/cooldown timer that brings with it functionality and an awesome look and feel. This week, I wanted to showcase another of my new favorite addons that performs certain tasks similar Sexycooldown/ForteXorcist, but does so in a different style. A few emails that I have received have asked for a bar-style cooldown and debuff tracker. Well, here is your answer: NeedToKnow. I've tried my absolute best to avoid a dumb joke about "you're on a need-to-know basis," but you do need to know about NeedToKnow! NeedToKnow.

With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and helps with the puppet shows at the Argent Ren Faire up in Icecrown.