I have been running with this UI for a while now but haven’t had time to update the details on here. That is done now!!

The full addon details can be found here: http://www.upyursh.com/user-interface

TRASH

Guards – Tank and Spank them
Invokers – Interrupts, Interrupts, Interrupts
Assaulters – Turned away from Raid
Commanders – Will buff adds around them so Traps/Cyclone CC on Pull

MINI BOSSES

Saviana Ragefire
Face boss from raid
10 yard /range
DPS never in front or you fail
Hunters be ready to Tranq Shot her enrage
Air phase she will cast Conflagrate on 5 raid members – make sure you move away from others

Baltharus
Mark Bal up with skull
Tanks pick up the doubles
Heal through Blast Wave
We’ll try burn down boss, ignoring the doubles

General Zarithrian
Spread Shamans for tremmor totem to help with Fear
Spawns adds that do an interruptable AoE. Will need a group with interrupts to jump off boss and onto adds quickly. (combo of melee with interupts and ranged for quick switching)

HALION

all onto stage for pull

Phase 1
He has a Cleave and Tail Swipe, face sideways to raid and healers be prepared for breath attack on tank.
Fireballs fall from the sky and do an aoe, leaving fire behind spreading like Lord Mar’s ice (in 4 directions).

Casts Mark of Combustion – when dispelled or drops off a patch will form and deals damage and knockback. Affected players must move to edge of stage for dispelling

Phase 2 @ 75%
Enters shadow realm and forms a portal which all must enter, Mark of Consumption (not Combustion) is cast and instead of knock back it sucks player in.
2 shadow orbs will be rotating stage, make sure you are not between the two, they will start a Death Beam linking the two and insta-killing those in the way

Phase 3 @ 50%
Halion now exists in both realmts, Raid splits into 2. Twilight realm should consist on mostly melee, vice-versa for physical realm.
Halian gets a buff called “Corporeality”, it is important that DPS is steady in both realms otherwise the Corp must be at 50% for both realms and he will start to heal etc.

Well with the patch this evening the Blizzard Real ID is online, I like the idea of it but I have concerns over security. The primary concern being sharing my email address (which as forced by Blizzard is now my user login) with people. I have a unique email address setup purely for wow, I dont use it for anything else so the list of “trusted” people will be pretty small.

I guess to all those who will use the service is to be careful who (and where) you share this information.

I’d like 2 things done differently;

1. Provide the means of requesting RealID connection by asking a toon. E.g. You ask Upy if we can be linked and if I approve you get a connection with me on any toon etc WITHOUT me giving u my login.

2. Extend the features to use a better chat client (that has hooked into wow and other games), more like steam. So you can actually communicate with people out of game.

Just my 2 cents worth

Upy

I believe I have talked about LitePanels in the past, I have just finished off my block to replace Innervator, an addon I used to warn me when to use my Innervate.

The issue I had with it was it was set based on a number and it doesnt scale as you gear up etc etc

Instead I would like to use a percent of mana to be warned. Also I would like it to prompt me when to pop mana pot when that’s available too

This block goes hand-in-hand with my Smartervate addon (soon to be updated with some cool new features). The key block data is here for your own use;

 -- mana management

 {

 name = "manamgnt", parent = "BoxL",

 anchor_to="TOP", anchor_from="RIGHT",

 y_off = 200,

 text={

 string=function()

 -- If toon is dead return nil

 if(UnitIsDeadOrGhost("player") == 1) then return nil end

 -- If Smartervate is being used

 if(IsAddOnLoaded("Smartervate")) then

 -- Get Mana Threshold from there

 threshold = Smartervate:GetManaThreshold()

 else

 -- If not 50%

 threshold = 0.5

 end

 -- Options

 gcd = 1.109 -- this may need to be decreased based on GCD changes

 pot = "Crazy Alchemist's Potion"

 sounddelay = 15

 ourUnitClass,  ourUnitEngClass = UnitClass("player");

 if (ourUnitEngClass == 'DRUID') then

 current_time = time{year=date("%Y"), month=date("%m"), day=date("%d"), hour=date("%H"), min=date("%M"), sec=date("%S")}

 if(SoundLocked ~= nil and current_time > SoundLocked) then

 SoundLocked = nil

 end

 if(SmartervateDelay ~= nil and current_time > SmartervateDelay) then

 SmartervateDelay = nil

 end

 -- Get our Max Mana Pool

 local maxmana = UnitManaMax("player")

 -- Get our current mana

 local currentmana = UnitMana("player")

 -- Get our Percentage

 local manaperc = ( currentmana /  maxmana )

 -- Get our Mana Threshhold

 local manathreshhold = tonumber(threshold)

 if ( manaperc < manathreshhold) then

 if (SoundLocked == nil and UnitAffectingCombat("player") == 1) then

 PlaySound("GAMEHIGHLIGHTFRIENDLYUNIT")

 PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Spells\\PVPFlagTaken.wav")

 SoundLocked = current_time + tonumber(sounddelay) -- only play sound every 20 secs

 end

 -- Are we in combat?

 if (UnitAffectingCombat("player") == 1) then

 -- Yes! Check Our Innervate

 local start, duration = GetSpellCooldown("Innervate")

 if ( duration <= gcd ) then

 -- Innervate is available, notice to use it!

 return "|cffffd700Use Your Innervate|r"

 else

 -- OMG Innervate is used! Check Our Pot

 pot_startTime, pot_duration, pot_enable = GetItemCooldown(pot)

 if ( pot_startTime == 0 and pot_duration == 0 ) then

 -- Pot is available, Notice to use it!

 return "|cffffd700Use Your " .. pot .. "|r"

 else

 -- No pot either? Notice to trigger Smartervate!

 return "|cffffd700Use Smartervate!! /smv|r"

 end

 end

 else

 -- Out of combat and below threshhold? have a drink

 return "|cffffd700You're low on mana, have a drinky!|r"

 end

 else

 return nil

 end

 else

 return nil

 end

 end, update = 1,

 size=20, shadow=2, font = "Interface\\AddOns\\ArkInventory\\Fonts\\Emblem.ttf",

 }

 }

Basically the block will put a message and play a sound (when not on CD) and do apply the following logic;

• Are we Dead? If Yes Stop, If No Continue
• Is Smartervate Loaded? If Yes Threshold set to addons, if No use 50%
• Are we a Druid? If No Stop, If Yes Continue
• Is Mana less than Threshold? If No Stop, If Yes Play Sound (has internal cooldown) & Continue
• Are we in Combat? If No Message to Drink, If Yes Continue
• Is Innervate Available? If Yes Message to Use, If No Continue
• Is Pot Available? If Yes Message to Use, If No Message to use Smartervate

Hope this helps

Sindragosa is not a complex fight, and it is not a dps race (if you manage to hit enrage let your healers have a break and pat them on the back). It is however an unforgiving fight, you ideally want to go in with raiders who can move and follow instructions :S

The fight consists of 3 phases;

Phase 1

Phase 1 is a ground phase (please note that this starts as soon as you clear the last trash dragon), Sindy (as I lovingly call her) is a dragon so be aware of cleave and tail swipe. They both hurt and are a potential one shot for a clothie!

Melee should be stacking on the side nearest the stairs while range should be reasonably stacked half way between stairs and Sindy.

Key abilities in this phase include;

• Frost Breath – Tank should be taking this (frost resist gear is a bonus in this fight).
• Unchained Magic – stacking affect thats cast on random casters, after 8 secs it will cause 2k damage per stack. General rule is to let the stacks drop off at 8 although if you are shielded etc you could do to 12-13 (i dont recommend it though haha)
• Permeating Chill – same deal as Unchained Magic only for melee. Again manage your stacks and dont let them get too high
• Icy Grip – all raid members will be sucked into boss and the boss will then cast Blistering Cold (which will 1 shot everyone). You need to get out of range (25 yards). Couple of tips;
  • All raiders should have +speed to boots, this will reduce the number of people who get 1 shot.
  • You can use aspect of the daze (turn it off straight away)
  • If you are disoriented just run out whatever way you can, no need to turn and run back the way you came (although I have been turning while in the air)

Phase 2

Phase 2 is the air phase, first one happens at 85% and from then on every 1:50 minutes.

Sindy will launch into the air and everyone should stack just below the stairs, she will cast “Frost Beacon” on 5 raid members (2 in 10man). You then have 5 seconds to position those 5 people on the stairs so they are spaced out enough to not hurt each other. After 5 seconds Sindy will cast Ice Tomb encasing the people with beacon (and anyone too close)

Ideally you will have 2 tombs up the top and 3 down the button. We had real problems working out who should be standing where, even with assigning marks to positions we usually had at least 1 person run to the wrong spot, usually hurting/killing others. I developed a little addon that marks up the people who were beaconed and whispers (and raid warnings but turned that bit off) them a position, LEFT, MIDDLE, RIGHT, TOP LEFT, TOP RIGHT.

You can get it here: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info16635-SindyEasyMode.html

Once tombs are up the remaining raid members must run behind them, killing the top two tombs (and breaking out raid members) and watching because Sindy will be casting Frost Bomb. You can see where it will be landing, you must line of sight it with the tombs. DPS down the front 3 tombs so as the 4th bomb lands you can pop them out.

Sindy will land and phase 1 starts again.

This continues until 35% where phase 3 will start

Phase 3

Sindy is perminantly grounded now. She will continue to use abilities from Phase 1 and 2. At this stage we have all ranged stack up in line with Sindy hinde leg (we actually get a lock to drop a portal before P3 starts).

Key mechanic for this phase is a single person will get Frost Beacon, they must move away from the raid (first movement should be to the line up with front leg) where they will be frozen. The raid will then move to stand behind the tomb (as per P2), this is used to drop the new debuff called Mystic Buffet. Ranged, melee and tanks need to be clearing this debuff so 2 tanks is a requirement. When second Beacon is cast the target moves back to the original spot.

Healers must also be stepping in and out to get heals on tanks and melee as needed. A rotation may be needed but if you’re a druid as you move get full hots on tank while you move

Make sure you are dps’ing tomb (melee help when you are dropping debuff) so it is down as the next beacon is placed.

Once you get into the cycle this is easy, healers will be busy, feral druids keep an eye on healers mana and be nice with your innervates

That’s pretty much it Good Luck!

Smartervate is my 3rd addon and it’s probably the first that has a real function in a raid environment It’s an addon for healers who occasionally require assistance with Mana. This could be either you’re undergeared and going oom or you died in combat and took a brez. It is also likely to be useful in hard modes or when a healer is offline/dead etc and you need to cover more heals for the raid

http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info16602-Smartervate.html

The addon will on user triggering it, whisper a druid requesting their innervate in a logical way to automate the process. No need to manually whisper someone mid fight only to find out Innervate is on CD or you’re on their ignore list haha.

General Options

Use oRA3 – Listen for oRA3 Messages to know who has used their Innervate.

Whisper Options

Whisper Out of Combat – this should generally be disabled (unticked) so when you’re ooc you do not bug anyone

Whisper Lock Time – as you whisper a druid they are ‘locked’ for this period of time so you can whisper the next suitable druid. This means you dont just spam the same druid over and over even if they are ignoring u

Message – personalise the message to chosen druid

Additional Options

Mana Theshold Percentant – no message will be sent unless you are over that threshhold (50% is a good number I guess because this is generally when I’m hitting my Innervate with the reduced cooldown).

Druids – Enter the druids you wish to prioritise or use the button provided to populate them and then prioritise.
Load Group/Raid Druids – Get a list of druids from group and raid. Once done prioritise them (usually dps kitties > tanks > owls for example).

Create Macro – This is for druids, will create a macro to trigger smartervate and cast innervate (if its off CD).

USAGE
create a macro with /smv in it (I use my Innervate macro) and when you are low on mana hit it and it will;

1. Check your mana level against threshold (if your ok it will halt)
2. If you’re a druid check if your own innervate is available (if your innervate is available it will halt)
3. Go through druid list and find one who doesnt have innervate on CD or isnt in the Whisper lock list.
4. Send whisper based on message.

It’s pretty easy

Well as some of you know I like to tinker with addons, in the past it was tweaking other peoples addons to work the way I like, or things that required minimal lua (the programming language addons are written in) knowledge, but over the last month or so I have been playing with Ace3 and building my own addons.

You can see all my addons here: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/author-160029.html

The first I wrote about in my last blog entry but the new addon that I released this week is ProEmote

http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info16525-ProEmote.html

The basic concept of the addon is to allow you to build up your own emotes and slash commands to initiate them. Rather than type or putting these into macros you can now create your own emotes for things like /hi5

You can define two emotes per slash command, similar to default emotes, one for when you do not have a target and another for when you do.

You can also use placeholders for variable words like he/she & his/her. This was added because emotes are shared across toons

Really a module for nothing important but it was for me to learn more about lua development

Upy

One of the things I have noticed since becoming GM of Bizarro on Khaz’Goroth is I dont always have the time to talk to everyone. Between GM duties and leading raids/loot etc etc the chances are that after a raid I am either busy or am logging off because I’m tired and have to be at work the next moring.

What I really want to be able to do is to engage with our raiders more personally and ensure that they know that we appreciates their efforts in a raid

Now for those who know me, also know that I can be a bit nerdy I write php web apps in my own time and have worked on a few addons over the last year or so. Primarily this was my oUF layout and configuration for LitePanels.

So I decided to start writing an addon that will help me to thank people after a raid

Upyursh Thanks
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info16389-UpyurshThanks.html

I know the name is unoriginal but meh

So the addon is pretty simple, when you are about to call the raid you open Upy Thanks and you can then customise 3 messages;

• Message to Raiders
• Message to Master Looter
• Message to Dead

You can either save your edits as defaults for the next time you run the mod or change the messages on the fly and then hit Thank!

In a nut shell the addon will get a list of all the people who are in raid and sent them out a message. There are 4 messages that could possibly go out;

Normal Raider will simply get the “Message to Raiders”
Dead Raiders will get a the “Message to Dead” + “Message to Raiders”
Master Looter till get “Message to Raiders” + “Message to Master looter”
Dead Master Looter will get a the “Message to Dead” + “Message to Raiders” + “Message to Master looter”

While it is automated it does stimulate some conversation and encourages people looking for feedback to ask.

What do you think of the idea?

Upy

Ok so I thought I’d throw my 2 cents worth onto the Interweb Understand that these are just my own opinions on each of the changes that affect us trees.

All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks. Haste will also benefit Energy generation while in cat form.

Well given we have all pushed ourself to hit soft haste cap this is a nice change, this means that the cost of casting (more frequent refreshes as haste increases) does not change, but our longer ticking hot’s now really become powerful health buffers. Imagine get to cap and having Regrowth, Rejuv, Wild Growth and Lifebloom all ticking every second (I’m assuming ticks will not be quicker than GCD cap), thats some serious heals ticking over on a tank with incoming Spike Damage or buffer for raid with incoming AoE.

Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.

Am I disappointed that I wont have another cool spell to hit while healing? A little. Do I understand where Bliz are coming from?

Yeah sure, we are possible the most versitile healing classes around.

Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent. All druids can still remove poisons with Cure Poison and remove curses with Remove Curse.

So we no longer have a hot dispell for Poison, meh. I have found little use for this type of dispel with the exception of fights where their is a stun and poisons floating around. I like that we will be getting an additional dispell type and it will apparantely be linked to a single spell (? i think I read that somewhere). Nice change overall.

Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth.

So after pushing us towards Nourish this whole expansion they are pushing us back to Regrowth, interesting idea, will be interesting to see more details about how this ability to work, what will my pretty flowers heal for? Will they be an AoE heal? I think it’s a cool concept but will await talent details (as we are getting a big overhaul) to see if it becomes a standard ability in a raid spec.

HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.

Sounds hot in my opinion, it has the potential to be wasted the majority of the time given the move away from spike damage in raids etc. Cool idea.

Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.

Ohhhhkay so this is the biggy and the change that’s caused such a stir… Let’s start with some facts and then work towards person opinion

Fact is this is actually a massive buff for us trees (oh shit can’t say that anymore ); our abilities and talents will be scaled to ensure we are at least on par with our abilities in tree form currently. We THEN get a lust type ability to pop tree and go nuts on healing, that does mean we will have a period of time that we are able to heal with significant buffs to what we currently do.

Ok onto personal opinion, I don’t give a rats arse about seeing my armour; I do think the model needs work though so that part of it sounds promising. I love the concept of changing form to heal, I love my form overall (even though I’d like to be able to customise it a bit) and I will be saddened to lose it.

In saying that GC has also said this:

We might (*might*) consider a minor glyph that kept the visual of the old tree form in some fashion even when not using the Tree of Life cool down.

My gut feeling is this is the best way to go, it solves both problems and would keep those like myself who like the tree form from raging on forums 

Overall I think that the changes will be interesting, I like the majority of it although really feel that the removal of the form is going to be a real shame to something that made us unique.

Upy

I thought I would post a quick update cause I know things have been ultra-slow on the blog lately. Basically between a whole stack of real life crap going on including (but not excluding); work being flat out and hectic, my sister being in ICU for a month or so, myself and the rest of the fam needing to look after her 3yo and her new born and managing the guild and trying to keep progression momentum rolling, I have had little to no time to even think of things to write about

I am planning on writing up the strats for the remaining Icecrown bosses and also a few posts about guild management etc.

Apologies
Upy