21.7.11

Addons: Tracking Illuminated Healing

Ever since Patch 4.2 handed us a very lovely buff to our mastery, Illuminated Healing, it seems that Holy Paladin mastery fans are starting to crawl out of the woodwork like an infestation of termites. A strategy that is heavily reliant on gearing for Mastery is beginning to gain a measure of acceptance as a very specialized method of Paladin healing, and that makes it more important than ever to know what those little invisible shields that Recount insists are there are doing; because the default user interface does a horrible job in telling you who's got 'em and how big they are.

TRACKING ILLUMINATED HEALING

There are three things that a healer needs to know when it comes to keeping track of Illuminated Healing bubbles: Who has the shield, how long it's going to last and how much it's able to absorb. Technically, all of this information is presented in the default user interface, but it's poorly implemented and not available at a glance.

I am using three different Addons to get this functionality upfront and easily accessible: Grid, Power Auras Classic and the useful Ingela's Absorb Tracker.

Power Auras and Ingela's Absorb Tracker working
together to show me what I need to know.


POWER AURAS

I've set up Power Auras to display the Illuminated Healing icon above my target's cast bar when the shield is active, along with a timer showing me exactly how long it's going to last. I have it configured to only show my own shields, although it could be configured to show any Illuminated Healing bubble.

Here is the Power Auras configuration string. Feel free to modify it for your own usage.
Version:4.21; icon:Spell_Holy_Absolution; buffname:Illuminated Healing; x:354; alpha:0.5; owntex:true; mine:true; groupOrSelf:true; size:0.1; y:-144; targetfriend:true; timer.b:0; timer.g:0.6; timer.UpdatePing:true; timer.Texture:Crystal; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:CENTER; timer.UseOwnColor:true


INGELA'S ABSORB TRACKER

Immediately above my Power Aura is the latest addon to fill up my Interface folder: Ingela's Absorb Tracker. It's an exceptionally elegant little piece of programming, designed to track the amount of absorption of the different shields that are available; including Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, Illuminated Healing and Blood Shield, among others.

IAT is very easy to set up, only requiring a minute or two to position it where you want and choose which absorbs you want to track and on which targets.

I have mine set up to track only Illuminated Healing on my current target, same as the Power Aura. As I switch targets IAT and Power Auras seamlessly switch with me, letting me know the bubble status of that particular target at a glance.


GRID

What these two Addons can't show me is whether or not people in the Raid other than my target have Illuminated Healing shields, which is where Grid comes in. I have always been a big fan of the customizablility of Grid and how a tiny little box can be configured to show so much useful information. In fact, my own setup is incredibly simple compared to what Grid is capable of. To see an insanely cool and useful Grid setup, go here.

Grid showing Illuminated Healing shields on the Druid and Priest.
I have configured Grid, along with the extension GridSideIndicators, to show me a red dot on the Top Middle of each health bar to indicate the presence of an Illuminated Healing bubble. Simple, but effective in showing the status of my shields on the entire raid at a glance.
 
 

1 comment:

  1. Very cool! You'll get to test it out on Admiral McStompyPants tonight!

    ReplyDelete