I don’t usually do posts focused around a single mod, this today I decided to make an exception. Now I know this isn’t a “new” mod technically. It generated a lot of attention when it was displayed in the Rogue video when he tanked Illidan. The other day I was thinking that I needed a mod that would inform me when Lock and Load procced. And while there were a lot of simpler mods I could have used to do this, I opted to try Power Auras and decided that it pretty much rocks.
As a warning, Power Auras takes a bit more configuration to get working than some other mods but I definitely feel the ends justifies the means. So what does Power Auras do? It allows you to create in-game warnings, announcements, timers and other useful items for pretty much whatever you want. The warnings can be displayed with fun graphics, sound clips, or just the icons of spells if you so desire. So let’s take quick look at how I have Power Auras set-up and go from there.
Taking a look at that screenshot we can see just a couple things. You can see the Hunter’s Mark icon, what appears to be a Serpent Sting timer, and the icons for Multi-Shot and Explosive Shot. What are they actually doing?
- The Hunter’s Mark icon is tracking my target. The icon will display as long as Hunter’s Mark, cast by anyone, is on my target.
- The Serpent Sting timer checks to see if the mob is affected by Serpent Sting cast be me only.
- The Explosive Shot and Multi-Shot icons display there as long as I am in-combat and they are off cooldown.
What’s not displayed is the Lock and Load icon that appears slightly larger above my cast bar as long as I am under the Lock and Load effect. This way I get a simple indication of when it procs, what shots are ready that I want to weave into my rotation, as well as debuff timers. This way I can further focus my concentration on my surroundings without having to look at action bars for cooldown counts.
To show what else we can do with Power Auras, I am going to do a quick walk-through to show you how to set-up a Power Aura effect that tracks your focus target and tells you when they are affected by any of your trap effects. Once you have installed Power Aura, type /powa to pull up the configuration window.
You can create character specific events or global ones to be used across all characters. As you can see in the screenshot I have 6 different events already configured. Click the “New” button to pull up the New Event Configuration window.
In the next screenshot, I filled in all the options I would need to make this custom event work for any of my traps except for one. Frost Trap. The Frost Trap debuff is actually called Frost Trap Aura, so the one tweak I had to make is change the words “Trap Effect” to just “Trap.” One nice feature of Power Aura, as we are demonstrating here, is that we can use just partial spell names in case we wanted to cover more than one ability in our event.Since we have the event only tracking a debuff cast by me, we don’t have to worry about other people’s effects.
The other tabs, as you can imagine, allow you to set up animations for the icons or graphics you use for your events. You can display timers, just as I do with Serpent Sting. You can even play sound clips. The mod supports external sound and graphic files. So let your imagination run wild.
Another great feature is the import/export option which allows you to share your events with other people. That way if you create an awesome event for a boss, or some effect-tracking, you can share it with your friends, other Hunters, or the world! Huzzah.
As we demonstrated, it’s easy to see what kind of things we can do with Power Aura. It’s pretty robust and I am sure I will conjure up some other uses for it’s awesomeness in the near future. Hopefully you find this useful. If you come up with a great Power Aura event, let me know. Since it will probably break in the comments, send it to me in an e-mail along with a description of what it does.
If there is enough of them to warrant it, I will create just a generic text file that lists all of the custom events we can come up with, that way you can just view the text file and pick the ones you want to use.
I have started a thread on the QQ forums where people can share their Power Aura configurations. Check it out right here.
Any other thoughts, comments, etc. Post ‘em here!
I love PowerAuras. :) I picked it up originally so I could remember to throw a Hunter’s Mark on my target – I have it set to show a big red circle on top of Tchann if I’ve got an enemy targeted without a mark on it. It’s easier for me to try to clear my screen of the distractions than to heap up icons showing me what’s on the target.
I have Quartz, though, so I haven’t needed to use it for any Serpent Sting timer. Interesting idea, though! I also use PowerAuras to remind me if I don’t have an aspect up. I have a tendency to forget that after I’ve died. ^.^;
PowerAuras is Freakin. Awesome. I actually intended to do a post about it but I guess you beat me to it. XD I really only use it to track when Mirror of Truth and Imp AotH procs, as well as LnL. It’s really good for tracking LnL actually.
Tora’s last blog post..Tanking gear to-do list
Great topic, been looking for a way to remind myself that LnL is up besides hitting my ES and going…”Oooooh, look! No CD!”
Nice post man,,
How do you use the Import function?
Copy the big chunk of text for the event you want to import. Click on the Import button in Power Aura, press Ctrl-V to paste it and click Accept.
Wow! How have I never seen this mod before?
Thanks, Dro! Can’t wait to putter around with this one! :D
After reading your post I downloaded this almost solely for the Sting timer. I’m sticking with MM and wanted it for Chimera shot. After screwing around with it for a bit I adapted your Explosive Shot marker for Arcane and Aimed and added ones for Rapid Fire and Readiness. I also tossed in the Hunter’s Mark timer. It’s making my life much, much easier, thank you!
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Figured it out. thank you so much. you do amazing work here. This is probably one of my favorite addond now.
dont like it, i am using what blizzard and god gave me…if u ven’t turned off your monitor its not hard to see that u got a proc, i am against all this mods here addons there to simplifiy a game which is as easy as it gets.
but i dont even like myself, so what do i care :*
Spent the afternoon getting this mod working just how I wanted it. Than a guildie asked for some dps for a H vh run, did on adv 500dps more than I was doing before. I have a bad habbit of forgeting to mark, and even with the stings glyph I would let it run out, not anymore.
Was able to pull 3500dps on the last boss in H vh no food or pots, priest healer, Mage, Rge, and War tank, so not alot of buffs. I’m only decently geared and normally I would have to struggle to get 3k dps on the last fight. This mod makes it so easy to stay informed on your shots, thanks for all the information – Fosters
Cool. I’ve been looking for a replacement to CoolDownTimers for awhile. I can’t seem to get CDT to work the way I want since Wrath came out.
This looks like it should do the trick. :) Thanks.
this addon seems to be great but i cant seem to get it to work at all is thee somewhere that helps?
okay i did get it to work with what you posted to download and paste in but where you get all that info lol
@mazel Just messed around with it till I figured it out. The way I learn most software-esque stuff
Help!!!! I want to sent this up but i cant get anything to work at all. How do u get the graphics that u are using to show up? How do u get things to save. I just cant get anything to work for me spent 4 hours now and still nothing…. Please help me
Downloaded it yesterday.. Still can’t get text to work, but the premade auras work fine.
I suppose Pharaildis’ Problem has been solved by now. For others reading this:
In the first window that shows up, you can always left click the icon and test it, so you see the effect you chose while configuring it.
What gave me something to think on was:
a) If you assign how many stacks etc. a debuff e.g. (like arcane blast) has got to have, the number requires an operator before. eg.: =2 or >3
b) Only worked for me if i used proper Capital and small letters, like “Arcane Blast”.
c) To test it (I did that on a target dummy), CLOSE all windows, or nothing will show at all.
d) The effect you selected got a “?” as an icon, till the addon first “sees” the proc, so no worry if you see a “?”.
Hope it helped, cost me some impatient half an hour yesterday to find out *shame!*
Just one thing to the guy that thinks he never needs it he can see his procs anyway… Single questing that is correct, but with a full package of raid buffs i either start leering or miss some.
What i love about the addon is that it’s so flexible. I tested it with Number of combopoints now, with Slice and Dice time left, with Missile barrage, fingers of frost, works perfect.
You can even read a “reflect” on a hostile target — saves me the emberrassing moment when i nuke myself because i didn’t notice it xD
where can i download this mod?
OMG thank you. I’ve been meaning to set up Power Auras for a few days and been putting it off cos the config screens look so confusing! :-)
Helloooooo prettiness!
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@hunternoob I downloaded it using WoW Matrix. But I believe it is also available from Curse.
Drotara’s last blog post..Post-Patch(werk) DPS
Drotara – can you please post a more detailed explanation of how to use this mod? I can not get anything to work like you have it either. Thanks.
Great post – ty. You can also find a post on power auras over at The Angry Butterfly hunter blog.
One question – how do I get the WOW spell icons into power auras – I can import yours and I can use the standard ones in their – but I need one for Chimera shot. Thanks a bunch. Tin.
Tinuviel’s last blog post..Beastmaster 3.0.8 – nerfed too hard? Well err, yes it was – see here.
@Tinuviel The way I got it to work was to check the “Use own texture” box and it should use the icon of whatever spell it is tracking.
Hey man. I use PA but how did you put skill images in it? Are they already there?
Could you please show me how to do it? Thanks
The first time the addon “sees” it proc, it asigns the icon. So configure best as you can, close all windows, hit a target dummy, open /powa again and voilá, there is the icon.
I love this mod. I basically took one of Drotara’s examples, imported it, and then edited it to notify me when my cooldowns are ready. I’ve got a total of 5 spell alerts now for raiding: Explosive Shot, Kill Shot, Kill Command, LnL, and the Orc racial ability. Having a visual reminder that KC is off cooldown is more helpful than I had expected.
Something to bear in mind, when you want to use the spell icon, check “Use own texture” like Drotara noted above, and then you’ll have to close the mod window and reopen it before it will load the graphic. Took me a few moments of head-scratching before I figured this out.
Yeah, C’mon Drotara … you wrote about it, now it’s YOUR responsibility, set up a training institute :-)
PA is fun and useful, what more can we ask for!?
Patience will be rewarded with useful information.
I added one to track traps and used the name “Traps”. works perfectly except even when it tracks frost trap I get the freezing trap Icon. Also, doesn’t seem to recognize Chimera Shot.
Ok Steve et al,
How did you set it up to tell you KC was off of CD?
I tried to set it up so that when KC/BW/CotW were all on CD it would throw up an aura, but it’s not working for me.
I had it set up as Action Usable. . . halp!
@Acronis The Frost Trap problem is because the actual debuff is called Frost Effect Aura (or something similar) but it doesn’t have the word “trap” in the effect. So Power Aura tried to find the next closest match.
@Zyrth As I mentioned to Tinuviel, just make sure you check the “Use own texture” box and close Power Aura. Re-open the menu and the icon should be displayed.
@Ardor Heh, sorry. Since we had to ditch IntenseDebate it’s harder to track comments on older posts now.
@Kiera I did the same thing for Multi-Shot, for example. Set the drop down box to “Action Usable”, check “Use own texture” (if you want to use it), and then check the box “Show when not active” so whatever you tell it to do (display the icon, some graphic, etc) it will show up when the defined spell is on cooldown.
for the love of god, can you please tell me how to get this mod to work with Kill Shot? When i try, it randomly just turns the aura on, with seemingly no reason why…
Dead easy, jsut check “activation usable” and type Kill Shot, works perfect, just checked
@Serra I will try setting up a Kill Shot aura a little bit later today. Once I do I will post it for you.
@Serra Send me an e-mail. I think I have a working Kill Shot power Aura for you. I would post it here but it really breaks the comment frame.
Drotara, can you put the working Kill Shot code in the text file you have above, please.
@Phinia Sorry I didn’t respond to your e-mail in time. I added my Kill Shot usable to the text file for Power Auras. Hope that helps.
I am trying to get Power aura working with Furious Howl when the pet cooldown is finish…I only managed to have a warning when the buff fade ,not when the ability reset.
The txt file seems to be broke.
Yeah, I moved the Power Aura configs to the forums so it was easier for me to update. I will update this post to link to it so it’s easy to find.
i have a sublety rogue and love power auras, only 1 problem tho, my debuffs such as rpture seem 2 not work. ive looked and looked, and done everything i possibly can. im lost, can someone pls help, ty
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