Addon Highlight: DXE

Also known as Deus Vox Encounter is the new Boss Mods on the street and I have to say I was bloody impressed with it so far.

It is an Ace addon so you will need to grab it from curse;
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/deus-vox-encounters.aspx

The following is how my raiding ui looks like with DXE enabled.

dxe_clean

As you can see DXE utilises timers/bars/alerts but it is really impressive the way they have been implemented. Some of the key features include;

  • Automated: Activation, starting, and stopping of encounters is automatic
  • Flexible alert system:
    • Customizable timer bars
      • Color
      • Texture
      • Font
      • Width
      • Spell icons
      • And more…!
    • Customizable full screen flashes
      • Duration
      • Transparency
      • Oscillations
      • Color
    • Customizable sounds: Packaged with 11 distinct ones
    • All alerts can be adjusted for all encounters
  • Raid Icons: Marking on important events with an icon of your choosing
  • 3D Arrow: Directional arrows tells you where to go on important events
    • Two types:
      • Away: Directs you to run from a player or a location
      • Toward: Directs you to run to a player or a location
    • Ability to play a sound when shown
    • Displays your distance, to a player or location, in game yards
  • Encounter Pane
    • Boss health tracking gives you more awareness of fights
    • Engage timer tells you how long you’ve been fighting
    • Shortcut buttons provides easier access to common commands
    • Conditions to show the pane only when you want to
  • Version Check: View addon and encounter versions of raid members
  • Distribution System: Allows you to send encounters to the raid or individual players
  • Profile System: Switch settings between your characters
  • Modular Design: Encounters are loaded in appropriate zones

I pretty much used DXE out of the box, moved a couple of bars around and was ready to go BUT if you wanted to take the time you could configure not only the general settings like how your bars look etc but also for each encounter which notices/warning/timers are important to you. This could be especially useful if you have a specific ability/task for a fight (interupts on General for example).

dxe

A: Encounter Panel

The encounter panel provides enounter/boss timers as well as providing health of mobs. It even worked properly in Beasts (unlike DBM for me). This is also where you can quickly ‘unlock’ various anchors to move your windows around.

B: Long Timers

These are your ‘long’ timers (for lack of a better word), things that are upcoming but you dont need to know immediately.

C: Short Timers

These are your ‘short’ timers, providing information about things that you need to know about in the next few seconds.

D: Movement Arrow

I love this feature, as an example, somebody next to you has gravity bomb it will tell you the direction you should be moving away/to! Definately has a lot of potential to prevent tard moments (which we all have).

What You Cant See

Proximity Pane

which is the equivilent to /range and shows you people who are within a set distance in game yards can be seen below.

dxe_prox
Only thing I dont like about this is that the range is set at the profile level rather than the encounter level. I will be posting a comment on the wowace forum about that :)

Sounds

The sounds take a little bit of getting used to but I personally found them to be more informative (not the same sound for EVERY boss ability etc.

Other Options

DXE also provides a means of blocking other boss mod warnings and also raid warnings etc etc which is a nice thing to have.

Community/Support/Development

The developer is a hardcore raider (his own words) but he seems to be very active in getting encounters sorted as well as is very open to ideas and suggestions from the community.

Summary

In summary I am impressed with the thought and effort put into this and will be sticking with this one until I am given a descent reason to not. I will also be encouraging other raiders to try it too, especially those who consistantly run the wrong direction haha

Categories: mods, raiding, user interface Tags:
  1. November 10th, 2009 at 05:06 | #1

    what re you useing for the faded orange area around you unit frames. i would love if you posted that, or how you accomplished that.

  1. November 7th, 2009 at 14:04 | #1
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