The Wrong Aspect
We all do it. Boss fights are chaotic affairs, and all the moving and kiting makes us forgetful. We switch, move, and don’t switch back. Our DPS suffers.
Yes, I’m talking about Aspect of the Viper.
I tried out an addon called ViperNotify to help me keep track of my current aspect. It helped, but I was too disctracted by watching the cooldowns on my action bars to notice much of anything. I found Power Auras shorty after (along with BRK’s howto video), and fell in love. I could now watch my cooldowns by looking at my character, not at the action bars!
One thing about Power Auras bugged me: BRK showed how to set up an aura for when Aspect of the Viper was up. This didn’t help me much since by the time my mana recovered I’d already gotten used to the aspect aura and ignored it. I needed something to only remind me when I was close to full mana, not just when Aspect of the Viper was up.
I searched around and found lots of examples of how to show when Aspect of the Viper was up along with another aura for full mana, but this was two auras to watch–one too many! (One post suggested overlaying the same auras–with low opacities–so that they would “pop” visible when both were up, but would be subtle when separate. Cool, but I found it a bit distracting.) There was nothing to show me how to combine the conditions into one aura, though. In fact, I found some forum posts and the like saying that what I wanted was simply not possible!
Luckily, this is no longer so! (Or, maybe was never so–not sure when this feature was added.) The “trick”, if you can call it that, is that Power Auras supports a simple form of combining auras. The confusing part is that it takes aura IDs, not their names. To get an aura’s ID, simply hover over it. The first item on the tooltip, in square brackets, is the aura’s ID. This ID is based on the aura’s position, so it will need to be updated if the aura is moved to a different tab, or something. The ID (or IDs, if you separate them with a “/”) are placed in the little text box next to “Exact Name”, right below the buff name.
Smart Aspect of the Viper
This is a two-part aura. First, I made a simple aura (in the first globals tab, so I could use it with other characters) to show me when my mana was above 96%. (Power Auras currently does percentages in steps of 2%, so I couldn’t use 95%.) I left it pretty much default, except for turning off the glow, and moving it way off the bottom of the screen.
Here’s my setup, including the export text.
gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu1; thresholdinvert:botrue; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; finish:nu1; icon:stInterface\icons\Spell_fire_meteorstorm; size:nu0.10000000149012; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; sound:nu0; optunitn:bofalse; off:bofalse; symetrie:nu0; begin:nu0; x:nu0; texmode:nu2; timer:bofalse; customname:st; target:bofalse; timerduration:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; y:nu-1000; randomcolor:bofalse; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu9; r:nu1; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; opt1:nu0; focus:bofalse; isenchant:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu1; anim2:nu0; buffname:st???; customtex:bofalse; stacks:nu0; threshold:nu96; exact:bofalse; alpha:nu0.10000000149012; aurastext:st; textaura:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; mine:bofalse; isinraid:bofalse; stance:nu10
I left things like “Only in Combat” unchecked, because I want this to be versatile. The auras that use this one can set the in/out of combat flag themselves.
Next, I made an Aspect of the Viper aura with the above one as the pre-condition. (In my case, the mana aura was “122″.) Pretty straight-forward stuff, and it works flawlessly.
gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:bofalse; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; g:nu0.35686274509804; thresholdinvert:botrue; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Hunter_AspectoftheViper; size:nu1.2200000286102; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; mine:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; x:nu0; inverse:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; customname:st; textaura:bofalse; target:bofalse; combat:nu1; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; exact:bofalse; threshold:nu96; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu0; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; focus:bofalse; isenchant:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu24; buffname:stAspect of the Viper; anim2:nu0; opt1:nu0; r:nu0.36862745098039; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu132; alpha:nu0.90000003576279; aurastext:st; timer:bofalse; texmode:nu2; symetrie:nu2; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1
So there you have it: a pair of auras that do the right thing. Now if I could only figure out how to do this for Kill Shot…
EDIT (2009/11/20): I figured out the Kill Shot problem I was experiencing. (Happened a long time ago, actually, but RL has been distracting.) Turns out that spells in macros that have conditions confuse Power Auras to no end. The problem that my Kill Shot aura was always active, because the macro it was used in was always ready. Live and learn. :)
