Lethal Shots

There has been a little bit of a discussion going around the blogs lately about addons. Matt at World of Matticus and Vonya at The Egotistical Priest both wrote posts about how relying on addons essentially makes you a bad healer. Naturally this set off quite a reaction, and both Aurik at /hug and Lassirra at The Hunter’s Mark (who has a healer alt) both wrote a rebuttal. I suggest that you read all four articles, as they all present some very good points.

Now I don’t play a healer, so it is hard for me to really form an opinion on the topic. It did however get me to thinking about addons that I have come to rely on, both Hunter specific and general purpose addons.

• RatingsBuster – This is a great addon for helping select gear, especially when you are unsure of what stat does what for a class (a problem you run into when you mess with alts). I could probably live without it, but it would mean a lot more questioning of guild mates when trying to gear an alt.
• Auctioneer – Again, a great addon that has helped my financially in game. Many players who who claim greatness in the AH don’t like it, but I highly doubt I could do as well without it. I have come to consider it essential, but it wouldn’t be game-breaking if I had to go without it.
• Gatherer & Routes – These two fall into the same class as Auctioneer. I can gather materials without them, but using the two has greatly streamlined the process, allowing me to spend less time farming and more time having fun.
• Heatsink – Now this one I don’t know if I could go without. It’s terribly inefficient to look at my action bars to track cooldowns. I’m sure I could play without it, but there would be several abilities that would get used late.
• KHunterTimers – This is another one I would hate to see go. It puts so much information available at a glance in a single place that I think I would be lost without it.
• Quartz – I can get along with the default casting bar. It is all the other stuff that Quartz does that makes it invaluable. Target debuff tracker, casting bars for target and focus, swing timer. All great informatin to have. Would be tough to go without.
• Unit Frames (XPerl, Pitbull, ect.) – Lets just say that I find the default unit frames lacking. Target of target, pet target, focus target, and a large enough pet frame to read are all reasons why I use an addon for this.

Now these are really the only addons that I consider essential. I use a lot more, but they are more for convenience reasons. Could I play without these addons? Sure. I did it for the first 40 or so levels on Santyn before I knew about addons. Would I want to do it again? No.

I tend to agree with Lassirra and Aurik on the stance of addons. They are there to make your play time more efficient. Sure you can go without them, but you will need some time to adjust. Granted as a DPS player I would need less time for adjustment than a healer.

Using addons does not make you a worse player, it simply makes you a player in control of your experience.

As always, thoughts and comments below.

Not just any addon though. A specific one.

See what I have in mind is a wishlist type addon that then syncs with your guild mates, kind of like how GroupCalendar did. What this would do is give everyone a list of what gear you are wanting. Then you could use it to figure out what instance people need drops from. It could do this through polling AtlasLoot, or by just requiring a person to list the instance it comes from. I looked and looked and could not find anything that did this.

If you know of an addon that can be used to do this, please drop me a comment with a link to where I can download it.

When 3.o.2 went live, my UI went dead, which made it a great time to delete everything and start fresh. With over 100 addons installed, I had several redundant ones and even more that I didn’t need, which is the price for constantly trying new addons and never cleaning anything out.

I started off by backing up my Interface and WTF folders, and then deleting them. A quick start of WoW recreates these folders in their default state so that I could start putting new addons in them. And here is what I came up with:

New UI in 3.0.2

Here is the addons I am using currently:

• CooldownTimers3 – Nice addon that shows cooldowns in a decreasing bar format.
• Dominos – Replaces the default action bars.
• Elkano’s BuffBars – Replacement for the default buff frame.
• Fotress and Various Plugins- LibDataBroker viewer. First time to try this and I prefer it over Fubar or Titan.
• Kharthus’s Hunter Timers – Provides timers for various Hunter abilities.
• Minimap Button Frame – Removes most buttons from around your minimap and place them in a hidable frame.
• Omen Threat Meter – My threat meter of choice.
• Prat – Allows greater customization of the chat frame.
• Recount – In game damage meter mod.
• Squeenix – Simple minimap mod.
• X-Perl UnitFrames – Replacement for the default unit frames.

Other addons that are not visible:

• Atlas – Provides in-game dungeon maps.
• Auctioneer – Invaluable tool for Auction House pricing.
• Gatherer – Keeps track of type and location of all nodes and chests you gather.
• RatingBuster – Provides stat breakdown based on class in the item tooltip.
• TBag – My inventory addon of choice.
• WIM – Creates a instant messenger type window whenever you receive or send a whisper, keeping each conversation in its own window.

In the past I have also used Lightheaded, TomTom, Questhelper, and Cartographer. when I first tried them after the patch they did not work, and I haven’t taken the time to test them again.

Omen is a threat meter. Put simply, all a threat meter does is keep track of who the targeted mob hates the most. And as we all know, whoever the mob hates the most is who he is going to beat on. In a group situation, this should almost always be the tank. While Omen is pretty much a requirement for raiding, it is also an addon that every hunter should consider using for solo work. Why you ask? Because unlike all other classes (except warlocks in some situations), hunters have their own personal tank with them 24/7, affectionately referred to as our pet.

Now as any hunter knows, we are a ranged class. If a mob gets within melee distance of us, our DPS hits the dirt. So to be effective, we must keep the mob away from us. This is where the tank comes in. Before we start pumping the mob full of lead (or arrows), the tank has to be allowed to gain a sufficient amount of aggro so that when we start attacking, we don’t pull the mob onto us. This is where Omen comes in. Omen works by keeping track of what attacks and abilities have been used on the targeted mob and who did each attack or ability. You can then use this information to figure when it is ok to start attacking the target. But you should also remember to keep an eye on Omen during longer fights to make sure that you are not overtaking the tank on the threat list. If your threat amount reaches 130% of the tanks, then the mob will turn and attack you, which is bad. But anyway, that’s enough explanation on the usage of Omen, and back to explaining why Omen is essential to a hunter in solo play.

As I said a little earlier, as a hunter you have a pet, which serves as your own personal tank that you get to haul around with you everywhere. Now your pet loves you and will do anything for you, up to and even including sacrificing themselves so that you may get away alive. Now it’s up to you to let your pet do his job and keep mobs attacking him and not you. This is where Omen comes in. It will allow you to moniter your pet’s aggro so that you don’t pull the mob onto yourself. Some people keep their eyes glued to the Omen window, but i find this to be a bad habit. A player needs to divide their attention between their health, their pet’s health, shot rotation, cooldowns, possible adds, ect. So as you can see, focusing strictly on the threat meter can get you in trouble. Fortunately though, Omen has a handy feature that make it unnecessary to focus on it. When you have reached a pre-set level of aggro in relation to the mob’s current target, which is defaulted to 90%, a text warning will pop up at the top of your screen and an audible warning sounds. You can adjust the level they go off at, or turn them off completely if you like, though i recommend leaving at least the visual warning on.

Download Locations:

• WoW Ace
• Curse Gaming
• WoW Interface