Power Auras Classic: a discipline priest setup

22nd October 2010

A couple weeks back, I wrote an introduction on the World of Warcraft addon Power Auras Classic, an addon that allows a lot of customization in the visual display of auras and effects centered on your character. Some might say that the inclusion of auras by Blizzard is sufficient for their needs, and for that, I salute you! But if the Blizzard auras are not exactly what you’re looking for, and want to take your auras a step further, then Power Auras Classic just might fit the bill.

I also wanted to talk about a “real world” example of the addon in use, and highlight some of its strengths and its flexibility in the process; hence, I am showing Talá’s setup and sharing the actual export as well. I will be showing Eilonwyn’s setup soon as well.

The purpose of these followup posts is not just to showcase what I’ve done with POWA, but also to try and give you an idea of how to work with POWA to set up your own UI–as well as for you to decide if you need more from your auras from what Blizzard gives you. My visual preferences might not be the same as yours, but that’s exactly the wonderfulness of using POWA: it’s your call. It’s your decision. Try a setting out in a raid, in BGs, anywhere–and tweak it as you go to make it better.

I will be sharing my export files, though, in case you’d like a starting point for your own POWA setup. :)

A discipline priest setup

Talá is a disc priest, and my second 80. I’d say her POWA setup is a lot less complicated than with Eil’s, for the sole reason that I don’t get to raid with her as much, and that she got into end-game later. Therefore, it’s easier to start with Talá’s setup, where I can cover the basics.

Please note–these settings are prior to Patch 4.0. Why am still showing it? Because it is still mostly useful, and for the purposes of a tutorial, they suit.

Quite simple, isn’t it? This one shows a couple of things:

Renewed Hope is up
Borrowed Time is up
I have Grace stacks on my friendly target–one stack shown here
Penance is off cooldown and available (you can actually see the Penance icon and Circle of Healing icon together, although obviously only one will be up at any one time)
Prayer of Mending is off cooldown and available
Inner Focus, Pain Suppression, and Power Infusion are also all off cooldown and available
That HUGE Inner Fire icon? That means I don’t have Inner Fire on myself, and that I had better put it on.

Ah, life is good.

Spell procs

Renewed Hope, Borrowed Time, and Grace are three things I’d like to keep track of. Disc priests have a lot more procs, but these three are the ones I decided I wanted to focus on: Renewed Hope needs to always be up, Borrowed Time so I know my casts are hasted, and Grace to make sure I have three stacks up on my tank when necessary (i.e., when not dancing through heroic dungeons).

On the left is the setup for the first ring: Renewed Hope, shown in white. (Click to enlarge.) The rest of the rings follow this style with a few alterations, but this is the meat of the aura.

Since I want this aura to show up when I have this buff, I’ve selected Buff as the Activation By value, and entered Renewed Hope in the text area for its name. I don’t care about stacks (there aren’t any!) so I leave it at =0.

I don’t want this aura showing up all the time: it’s only important when I’m in combat, so I ticked the In Combat checkbox. Just to be safe, I also removed the X mark on Resting; I want to be sure I see it if I’m in combat inside a city.

I chose these simple rings (texture #16) because it’s clean and uncluttered. As a healer, I am usually more focused on the tank/s and/or the raid, so I need to be able to see immediately if I’m standing on fire or have to otherwise move: the minimalist rings along the top (and no auras at my feet) make sure I see enough to be able to react in time.

Renewed Hope is also more transparent than the others (here at 50%; the others are at 75%). Since Renewed Hope should always be up, the aura needs to be as unobtrusive as possible but noticeable when gone.

I also added a timer for Renewed Hope, so that I can easily see when it’s starting to run out. Nothing fancy here, just the default settings in the Timer tab (with Show ticked off, of course) and a change of position (to position it between the rings), size, and opacity.

As mentioned, all the rest are similar. To duplicate these settings, go to the main settings window, and along the bottom you’ll see a Copy button. Select the aura you wish to copy in the list (make sure it is highlighted), click on the Copy button, and then click on the page you wish to copy it to in the list on the upper left. Just go ahead and select the current page, unless you’d like to put it at a separate page.

You can then open up the new aura–which is exactly identical to the old one, which should be sitting beside your new aura–and change it up. I changed the color and the size, as well as the Activation By setting.

There are two differences for the Grace ring. First, the buff isn’t on me, but on whoever I am targetting. The image on the left shows my activation settings for Grace–it is exactly the same as the others, except that I had ticked the Friendly Target checkbox. So if whoever I am targeting has the Grace buff and is a friendly target, I’ll see the aura (and number of stacks) around me.

The other difference is the stacks display, since Grace stacks up to three. The Stacks tab is very similar to the Timer tab–just click Show, change up the position, sizes, and color, and that’s that ;)

Missing buffs

While there are any number of buffs that I’d need to make sure are available, I decided to have Inner Fire show up as big as can be when it’s not there because I always seem to miss it, when it should always be there.

To the right is the effect editor pane for Inner Fire notification. I have checked Use own Texture so that the Inner Fire icon shows up as the aura itself, and also checked Invert, which means that if I do not have the buff, show me the aura!

Of course, it won’t do to have it right in the middle of the screen, so I have moved the aura off to the side, where it is big enough to be noticeable but not obscuring anything important (i.e., if the buff wears off in the middle of a fight).

Spells off of cooldown

I also wanted to know when spells are off cooldown, such as Penance and Prayer of Mending, and to a lesser degree, know if my clicky cooldowns are also available, such as Pain Suppression, Inner Focus and Power Infusion. The latter I always have to keep reminding myself to put on a DPS, so this is a good reminder for me to have.

Similar to the rings, each cooldown notification aura is similar to the others, varying only in the spell activated on, positioning, and the size.

The left image shows the aura settings for the Penance spell. Like the missing buff aura, I’m using the spell’s texture so that I immediately see what spell is available.

Its Activation By setting is on Action Usable, which means it will show up when Penance is off cooldown and usable.

This means, though, that for this aura to work, Penance (and whatever spell/item is shown this way) needs to be on an action bar somewhere. Don’t forget!

Talá’s POWA string

(To import this string, follow the instructions over at my introduction post!)

As promised, here is Talá’s POWA string! There are two files/strings, as I’ve organized them by proc and by cooldowns.

A warning, though: unless you play on a 13″ screen like me, likely the auras will be slightly off in placement! The auras are almost always relative to the center of the screen, so different screen sizes and makeups will mean different positions. It should not vary too greatly but you may need to go in and update them!

Additionally, due to the use of the Action Usable setting for my cooldowns, these spells (actual spells from your spellbook, not macros) need to be on your action bar somewhere: Penance, Prayer of Mending, Inner Focus, Pain Suppression, Power Infusion. If you only want the procs, though, then this wouldn’t be an issue for you. :)

Power Auras – Talá’s setup

Other interesting POWA setups

It’s always interesting to see what other setups healing toons have, and I’ve compiled a small list of places you can visit to read up more about POWA for heals! If you know of any other interesting healer setups out there, let us know!

Good luck and have fun! Let me know what you think in the comments.

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