Gearing for healing, I’m finding out, is a largely personal/individualistic in nature. If you don’t have enough spirit, get more spirit, but too much and you’re wasting it according to the content that you’re running. I don’t know what the gearing priorities are for holy either, but in general I am working with intellect upgrade is an upgrade as long as it has spirit, or sometimes a non-spirit item may be good enough for reforging (your mileage may vary).

So my list contains mostly spirit gear, with an option for a high-level non-spirit gear (if available), and haste/crit/mastery choices. I also added any BoEs or craftable items. I don’t include Valor-purchasable items, although any BoE pieces are available.

Head

Neck

Shoulder

Back

Chest

Wrist

Hands

Waist

Legs

Feet

Finger

Trinket

Two-hand

Main Hand

Off-hand

Ranged

Hope this helps! :) I’m nearly there, thanks to a couple of really lucky guild runs. Hopefully soon I’ll be well-clothed enough to try raiding again!

But yes, I’ve started playing again. :) As with most things, once you complain to The Internets things improve or change for the better ;) so I decided I’d give WoW another run. Instead of going straight for Eilonwyn though, I decided I’d go for levelling Tala, for a couple of reasons:

1. Arcane right now sucks for anything that needs DPS to be mobile and for multiple-target DPS, and I’d been feeling it as 84 in dungeons like Vortex Pinnacle. The mana required was also crazy. Maybe patch 4.0.6 will help with the latter for mana, but it seems the bigger problem is still there. My second option, frost, is bad for latency- and/or lag-challenged players, due to the number of instants you need to react to. I’ve never been able to get the hang of DoTting, which is why I’m not very keen on playing Fire, although it’s certainly the best if we’re talking about latency or lag spikes (your dots are still ticking even if you lag a bit).
2. I want to raid! I was watching kill videos last week, and I got caught up in the memories of raiding with my friends. Going with a healer does not only mean a better chance at a spot in a raid, but possibly faster gearing as well (shorter queue times).
3. This is very superficial, but I feel like I like “Starcaller Tala” more now because of her having a Filipino name, and a title that goes well with it ;)

So I decided, well, what the hell, I’ll see how Tala does. Right now I have a Shadow offspec (the Spirit to Hit conversion is fantastic!!) for questing, which is what I did when I started off. I was nervous about healing, because of the purported mana problems, of the difference in healing as discipline. It also meant I needed to change my bindings, which is HORRIBLE. As DPS, if you change your bindings, you do low DPS for a while until you get used to your bindings. As heals? I forget the binding for Penance and end up using the slow Greater Heal, someone will die.

Well, that’s what happened :( I fumbled along at Throne of the Tides (why!! why not in Blackrock Caverns where I know the fight better!!), wiped once, died another time a few seconds before the boss did.

I considered calling it for the night. It was too stressful. I had two spirit items ninjaed off me as well by the DPS, while I passed on the hit items (which were upgrades for my healing!), but I couldn’t be huffy because, well, I kind of sucked.

But, well, okay. I queued again and finished a couple quests while waiting, staying in my disc spec and just smiting. They take a while longer to die, but it wasn’t so bad. (I still remember the days of hitting frostbolt… waiting for the cast to finish, then hitting it again… then hitting it again… ah, the days when you didn’t know about spell queuing.)

Well, I finished two more dungeons that night (one was just the final boss) and I feel better about my healing now. There are still times when I think, omg what modifier is Penance again? but muscle memory is starting to kick in. In the last dungeon for that night, Blackrock Caverns, the tank and I actually finished Rom’ogg alone because the DPS did not move away from Rom’ogg after the chains, and they were all one-shot (they started listening to boss strat after that). Last night, dungeons also went well, no mishaps, although WoW inexplicably hung on me twice on trash packs–good thing the druid Tranquilitied <3

The leveling trek is crazy now, though :( I’m still rested, but two dungeons and I’m not yet at 50% to 83, with questing while queuing. Oh well, it’s plenty practice for more difficult dungeons…which I should be trying tomorrow :( (specifically, Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle).

Good luck to me!

For example, I’ve played (and learned) a number of tabletop/board games during the last lap of 2010. I’ve always liked board games, and always keen to give any sort of tabletop game a try; it’s just difficult to get folks together for it, especially in this age of computers and gaming consoles. My old favorite has always been Cluedo, and I’ve played a good deal of Settlers of Catan and Citadels while I was in the Philippines (along with the family staple Cashflow).

In addition, in 2010 I bought myself a Sony Playstation 3. Honestly, I actually wasn’t looking for a gaming console. I was looking for a DVD player. I was looking for cheapo DVD players, and reviews told me to get ones that can get close to HD, and then eventually I started thinking, well Blu-ray is backwards compatible, and wouldn’t it be cheaper in the long run to get a Bly-ray player? And then the PS3 Slim is among the top Blu-ray players (#2 according to CNET)…

(Cough.)

So I got myself a PS3 Slim. :p

All that doesn’t mean to say that WoW has not been a staple for me in 2010. 2010 has been an interesting year in WoW for me; I’ve fluctuated between being really into the game as a raider, before getting worn out and disillusioned, and then coming back on and “struggling” with not letting myself get too caught up again. I bought a gaming headset, and a Razer Naga. I followed theorycrafting, planned my loot. I raided regularly, gave up loot for guildies, maxed out everything, even tried raid leading (raid leading with guildies = stressful; raid leading with pugs = who the hell cares, they don’t know you so you can actually get shit done). I spent countless hours gearing up. I loved my guild, I became an officer in my guild, I got stressed with my guild. I got my Cataclysm Collector’s Edition.

What a long, strange trip 2010 has been.

This week is recap week! Stay tuned for piecemeal recaps of how 2010 went for me.

• Questing is sucky with 8 fps due to everyone in the same vicinity.
• Where can I hearth at Hyjal omg.
• Speed one toon to 85, or play both toons to maximize rested time?
• I hate swimming. Where is the entrance to the dungeon?!
• I hate swimming. But the cut scenes in Vashj’ir are amazing! :D
• Only biscuits in Landro’s Gift Box. :(
• Li’l Deathchin is adowable!
• First replacement of epics: Wand of Ruby Claret to Corla’s Baton.

I’m torn between feeling panic (that I am not ready) and impatience (why can’t it happen now?!). I’ve been carefully tempering my WoW playing time to allow for my other hobbies and activities to play catch-up, so I’ve never been able to get much headway with my bucket list; at the same time, raiding in-guild is erratic as most people are just waiting for Cataclysm to hit.

There’s also a certain degree of worry, though. I pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition (as I wanted Li’l Deathchin, who is adorable), and Amazon is telling me that arrival estimate is December 10-14. That means it’s possible my friends will have been playing a week (!!) before I even get it installed! D:

*starts plotting*

So right now, I have two 80s. I’m planning to divide my time somewhat evenly between them, so that they both get to 85 at roughly the same time. And then in the midst of getting all geared up for raiding, I’m going to be unoriginal and roll a Worgen druid. Honestly, the little thing is sadly confused. Am I a human? Wolf? Bear? Cat? Turkeyowlchicken? (I would add “tree” to the list, but no more. Sob.)

But for now, at the very least, I need to get as much justice points as I can before the raiding grind happens, for starter blues when I hit 85. Bye bye epics. It was good while it lasted.

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. 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. :)

Important note: the samples I have up here are based on Eilonwyn’s pre-patch auras, so yes, you will see Icy Veins as a cooldown for my Arcane setup. However, the POWA export file I’m sharing has been updated for patch 4.0.

An arcane mage setup

Eilonwyn was my first 80, and I’ve been raiding with her longer than with Talá; hence her POWA setup is much more “mature” than Talá’s. That was pretty much the reason why I’ve decided to end with Eilonwyn’s setup! You will see a lot of similarities between her setups and Talá’s, as when I had reworked Eilonwyn’s old setup, I also redid hers. I’ll just briefly pass through the similarities, and move on to the more advanced auras I have for Eil.

As a recap, here are her auras:

All systems go!

Now, don’t be scared. That’s what it looks like when everything is up, but in reality that doesn’t always happen. In the above screenshot, that’s how it looks like when I have four stacks of Arcane Blast, a Missile Barrage proc, all types of equipment procs (I track spellpower and haste procs together respectively, or else the screen would be very confusing), all my cooldowns are on, my Mirror Images are up (images not shown here), a nice druid has given me an Innervate, a nice disc priest has given me Power Infusion, a disc priest has also shielded me (or one of my wards is up!) and I have procced Incanter’s Absorption.

Of course, priesty bubbles can’t proc IA anymore. And Power Infusion does not work with Arcane Power up. So this sort of color menagerie won’t be happening together anytime soon. ;) (Blizz is getting in the way of my disc priest/arcane mage love relationship.)

Waiting for my cooldowns to come

I also use Power Auras to give me quick feedback on whether my cooldowns are available, and if needed, when they will be available. The different between Talá’s setup and this is that this shows up when my cooldowns are unavailable, and when they’ll be back up. The timers above them indicate the time left.

The similarities

You’ve seen the similar rings I’ve used before, although this time, I also have rings around my feet.

Along the top would be my clicky cooldowns, and along the bottom are equipment procs. Yellow rings are for haste, red rings for spellpower gains–this way, I can quickly gauge if I’m hitting harder or faster, or both. The pink ring is for Quad Core (4pc T10 proc), and the orange ring below is for Cultivated Power (the proc from Muradin’s Spyglass, which stacks up to 10–stack number is shown in the middle!).

All the rings are using similar textures (texture #16), but the bottom rings are flipped over:

Yay for texture reuse!

Arcane rotation procs and notifications

For Arcane mages, one of the most important things to look out for is the number of Arcane Blast debuff stacks you have built up, as you need to control your mana usage and your damage output.

I could have used the Stacks tab to just show me the number of stacks, but Arcane Blast stacks are like no other stack in-game, and I’m just not as good with boring numbers. A separate effect for each stack would be AWESOME! So: below is a series of images outlining my auras for my rotation: Arcane Blast debuff at one stack, at three stacks, at four stacks, Missile Barrage proc at four stacks, Missile Barrage proc at two stacks, Missile Barrage proc at no stacks.

The above effect is done by carefully overlaying each aura setting so that it “builds up” to a VERY EXCITING OMG PEW PEW time when all the SHINY LIGHTS are, er, lit. It also tells me that the more bright blue on my screen, the more I’m in danger of depleting my mana, since my spells are hitting harder but costlier. (And, yes, it’s more fun during burn phases when ALL THE SPARKLY LIGHTS ARE LIT!)

Click the image below to see the settings for all four Arcane Blast states (it’s huge!). This is where you can see the “magic” of the Stacks field in the Activation tab shines.

Cooldown availability

Cooldown availability is handled slightly different here, by the use of the My Spell Cooldown activation setting. When my clicky cooldowns are unavailable, these icons show up with a timer; otherwise, they’re hidden from view.

Optimum mana gem time

Lastly, I wanted to be sure that I clicked my mana gem as early as possible to have it available again in the fight later on–but it’s also important not to waste any extra mana gains by clicking too early! This is one example of where a “cascading aura rule” works really well.

First off: I want to hit my mana gem at 80% mana and below. Of course, I could just have a notification for 80% mana…but what if my mana gem isn’t available yet? I didn’t want it cluttering my screen then.

(Click to enlarge.)

The above is an example of how to go about doing something like this. In the POWA string and above, the 80% mana indicator is visible, but I actually have it way down (almost invisible) in practice. (I’ve yet to find out how to actually completely hide it.)

Above, you can see the “31″ in the text box just below the name of the action/item. The 80% mana aura needs to be activated before the mana gem action is also activated. In this way, you can have two very different activation rules for one aura.

Eilonwyn’s POWA string

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

As promised, here is Eilonwyn’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 mana gem, your Mana Sapphire needs to be on your action bar somewhere. I know that sounds like a no-brainer–of course your mana gem is on your action bar!–but I actually have a macro for my mana gem which doesn’t trigger this aura :)

Power Auras – Eilonwyn’s setup

Other interesting POWA setups

It’s always interesting to see what other setups mages have, and I’ve compiled a small list of places you can visit to read up more about POWA for pewpewing:

• Mage Power Aura Imports thread at MMO Champion
• A Power Aura tutorial and mage examples at Polymorph: Pwny
• An older arcane mage setup at Youtube

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

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!

• Aliena’s Power Aura’s Tutorial uses her healing (disc) priest as an example
• Power Auras healing (holy) priest configuration in SpotHeal
• Power Auras healing (holy) priest settings in Healer’s Haven
• Restoration shaman Power Auras setup in Planet of the Hats
• Restoration shaman Power Auras discussion in WoW Insider’s Totem Talk

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

(Honestly, how cool is an addon shortcut that cries, POWAH!! …? ;))

I don’t think nearly enough people are utilizing it though, so I thought I’d highlight it sometime with an introduction. I got so engrossed talking about it, that I’ve ended up making a mini-series of posts on it! The next two weeks will bring a series of actual usage settings for POWA.

As a quick teaser, here is my mage, Eilonwyn, with all auras enabled:

All systems go!

Let’s get on with the introduction!

Setting up for the first time

Once you have installed POWA and gone into the game, nothing will be different. There are no shiny bells and whistles, because the power of POWA (ahem) is in its uber-flexible configuration. Download POWA, unzip it, and put the PowerAuras directory in your World of Warcraft/Interfact/AddOns/ directory.

Once logged in, type in /powa and you should see a window similar to the one below, but with no settings/entries inside it:

From here, you can see Character effects and Global effects. The former are auras which show up specific to a single character, while the latter will be available for all your WoW characters. In general, I keep raid boss debuffs that I want to keep track of in the Global effects tabs, as well as more generic auras like low health or mana. If you habitually play multiple similar-class toons, you may want to put your auras in Global effects. Even so, you can import and export each set/page of auras in order to reuse it on other characters, or share your auras with other people.

(I will be sharing my toons’ auras soon!)

In the screenshot, I am highlighting the first aura I have, which is for Icy Veins. Each aura you create in a set will show up here. Clicking on a selected aura will display that aura on the screen, as a preview; right-clicking on the aura will bring up its settings window.

Creating one is easy. The New button will also bring you to the settings window for a new aura, placed in the next available slot in the current page you are on.

Click on the image on the left to see the aura settings window in its entirety (it’s quite big!). This is a typical setting for an aura. On the top portion, you have a preview of your aura, and you can cycle through a series of available textures and change the texture color. All auras are centered in the screen (and around your character), but you can change its position relative to the center by moving the X/Y position slider accordingly. Texture sizes and opacity are also changeable, as well as X/Y distortion/skewing for almost unlimited aura visual style possibilities.

The tabs on the lower half of the window will be the meat of your auras. The most important tab is, understandably, the Activation tab. You can ignore all other tabs except this one.

Activation Tab

The Activation By dropdown contains a number of possible activation triggers, including:

• Buff
• Debuff
• Action Usable
• Aggro
• Health, Mana, Combo Points, Rage/Energy/Power, Stance, etc.
• Equipment Slots
• My Spell Cooldown
• Stealable Spell
• Tracking

…and more besides. Just from that list, you can probably gauge just how flexible Power Auras is ;) The most basic, of course, would be tracking buffs and debuffs, which is the example at the top and below: that particular aura is activated by the presence of a buff named Icy Veins.

The Stacks field only comes into play if the buff/debuff stacks–otherwise you can keep it at zero. This is useful for limiting the visual indicator depending on how many stacks are available. (I use this for my Arcane Blast stacks.)

Use own Texture means that the aura will use the spell’s icon instead of the texture you set at the upper part of the screen. This may be useful in some cases, but not in others: you don’t really want a huge icon in the middle of your screen when you need to move out of the fire, but you’d want it shown right in your face if you’re in a raid or a party and you have Crusader Aura on.

The rest of the checkboxes are pretty self-explanatory: clicking on the boxes will toggle the selection between ignored, only when enabled, or only when disabled. In the above setting, a cross in the Resting, Mounted, and In Vehicle checkboxes means this aura won’t be enabled at any time while I am resting, on a mount, or in a vehicle. A check in the Alive checkbox means show this only when I’m alive. (Yes, yes, I know, “duh?!” but I’m sure there are things that some people will want to track when dead…)

On the lower left of the tab, a couple checkboxes say Enemy target, Focus, Partymember, and the like. This allows you to show auras depending on what readable auras are on your target, such as what debuffs are on him.

You will notice there are two text boxes in the middle of the window. These can largely be ignored unless you are tinkering quite heavily with POWA now, but for completeness’ sake: the first text box is for other aura IDs that need to be checked for this particular aura–a cascading aura rule, somewhat (I will be showing an example of this in use later on!). The second text box is for also checking the tooltip text of the buff/etc in question (obviously not available in all Activation By types).

Animation Tab

In truth, I’ve never used this tab, because anything else moving on my screen will just serve as distraction. There is a default animation: a sort of glowy end animation, which you can remove if you like (I tend to leave it as it is).

You can also select animations to play when the aura comes on, as well as an animation that loops throughout the duration of the aura, such as pulsing, flashing, orbit, spinning, etc.

Sound Tab

Yet another tab I don’t use so much. I tend to keep to whatever sounds have been pre-configured for me in WoW and with boss mods, as I usually turn the in-game sound down a bit to make sure I hear vent clearly (but still hear raid warning sounds). You can select starting sounds and ending sounds from a list of various sound files and in-game sounds using this tab.

Timer Tab

For everyone who likes countdowns and numbers, this is the tab for them. For me, I usually just go by the “width” of the numbers–the thinner, the closer to the end it is. ;)

By default, though, the timers aren’t shown on the screen.

The timer, in addition to allowing you to position the timer and set a couple visual effects as well as placement on your screen, also allows you to invert the aura depending on a set time.

Stacks Tab

The stacks tab is very similar to the timer tab, allowing you to display a number on the screen on how many stacks of the buff/debuff is up. As with the timer, you can set various effects as well as its position.

Importing POWA settings

One of the good things about POWA is the ability to import and export POWA strings/settings. A number of people have shared their strings online, and you may want to use their settings, or at least use it as a springboard for your own personalized settings.

At the bottom of the settings window, you’ll see a collection of buttons. There are Import and Export, as well as Import Set and Export Set.

As you can probably guess, plain importing and exporting will import or export a single aura. A set is a whole page of auras, which might be a little easier.

To import, click on Import/Import Set, making sure that you are on the page you’d like to use for the new aura(s). A small window will come up, allowing you to copy+paste the aura string.

Exporting is pretty much the same way, only backwards ;)

A couple of gotchas

There are two things that come out to me whenever I’m working with POWA, and are likely to come up for you as well once you start.

The biggest one would probably be that the auras don’t show up when you expect them to. This may be due to any number of things, but for me the usual culprit is that I’m testing an aura while I’m in the cities, but the Resting checkbox is marked with an X. Or I have marked it with an In Combat marker, but I’m not in combat.

Also, if you’re using the spell’s own texture, initial creation won’t actually show the texture. Once you’re done with your activation settings, close the aura settings window, and then test the aura. Sometimes it will need an actual application of the buff/debuff before the aura shows up in tests.

Sometimes, though, the POWA settings do get choked up a bit, and when that happens the best thing to do is reload your UI (/reload ui). That usually fixes it for me (assuming all my settings are correct.

The second thing would be if you are working with the Action Usable activation type, the action/spell in question needs to be on an action bar somewhere. A macro with the spell won’t work; the spell or the item to use needs to be on an actual action bar. The way I do this is to dump whatever I need into an action bar, and then hide the offending action bar (I use Bartender).

This is so confusing!

Highly-customizable addons can tend to do that, sadly. However, in the next two weeks I will be going through my settings for my toons, which should hopefully help you visualize how to go about using POWA for your own toons.

Before you know it, you might have your very own smexy UI!

If you’re looking into some more examples, introductions, and tutorials on Power Auras, here are a couple articles you might want to check out:

• Power Auras Wiki (I wish this had been available/I knew about this when I was starting out :( lol)
• Aliena’s Power Auras Tutorial in Tankspot
• Addon Spotlight at WoW Insider
• Power Auras tutorial geared for PVP

But but but that’s a lot of work!

That’s true, setting up POWA can take some time, so if you’re of the “download a prepackaged UI” sort of person, there are only two things you can do:

1. Look for a POWA setup you like and import it – there are quite a number of people sharing their POWA strings online for importing, so you just might find a setup you like.
2. Don’t use POWA.

(Gigglefit.)

I do think that POWA is worth it. I love it for its flexibility: I like UIs that can grow with me, according to my gameplay needs. This one just fits the bill perfectly.

Stay tuned next week, when I’ll be sharing Talá’s Power Auras setup!

Sized just right

I have relatively small hands (being a girl), and the Naga is about a centimeter smaller (shorter) than the Deathadder: it was definitely a better fit for my hands, but still weighty and solid enough for gameplay. The number of buttons as well as the need to use another addon to map them for WoW kind of turned me off initially, but the buttons grew on me, and I discovered I didn’t really need to use another addon.

And this is my setup.

Addons in use

Just one: Bartender. I’ve been using Bartender even before I had my Naga, so being able to use it for Naga programming is just nice. I should probably also say that I use Clique, but for the purposes of Naga programming, it’s not really relevant: Clique programs mouse buttons, but the additional 12 buttons on the Naga are numeric keys (either the numeric keypad, or the numbers on top of the keyboard).

Theoretically, you should be able to use any action bar mod, as well–or even none: you just need to be able to keybind your numeric keypad. Bartender is just really nice for me here.

I put my Naga bindings on a separate Bartender bar, and have it all lined up at the right side of my screen. This way, I can easily swap things around if and when I need: according to which skills/macros I find I’m using more, and which ones need to be more accessible.

Naga setup

I have the Naga’s numeric buttons set to use the numeric keypad (this is changeable using a switch at the bottom of the Naga), partly to make the learning curve smaller and also because more easily available buttons = win. And it’s difficult to spam buttons while moving the mouse–my thumb isn’t that good.

That means I have the number keypad within easy reach (in varying degrees) of my thumb. I have around six keys (inclusing the tilde key) easily accessible with my left, and 12 with my thumb.

In general terms:

Naga 12-button setup

Key 1 is my vent button. I’ve never found it easy to have the vent push-to-talk button on my keyboard, because I’d be busy spamming spells. Admittedly, that’s because my main is a DPS; my priest (who is a through-and-through healer) relies heavily on the mouse for healing (through Clique and mouseover macros, which I’ll get to in a sec). I usually need a lot more focus when I’m healing in a raid, though, with hardly any time for venting.

Keys 2-3 are my “oh sh*t” buttons. I sometimes swap them out when I have a special need for a particular encounter, like if I’m on Counterspell or sheeping duty.

Keys 4-6 as well as 8 are the most accessible keys for most ordinary uses. This may be due to the specific size/shape of my hand, though. For 8, it lies just below the joint on my thumb, so I can easily press it by putting pressure on the middle of my thumb instead of the tip.

The other keys usually end up being stuff like rocket packs, strudels, vanity pets, and the like.

The Naga Bar usage sample

As DPS, the most important thing for me is to deal damage. So my 4-6 keys are AOE spells, easily clicked if on the move or to quickly position a targeting circle where my mouse pointer is. Melee-range AOE is at Key 4 (Arcane Explosion) because it’s easier to move when my hold on the mouse is firmer/more stable.

For my priest, Keys 4-6 become cleansing/cooldown buttons–specifically, mouseover macros for these cleansing/cooldown buttons. This is great in conjunction with my Clique usage–it feels quite seamless, treating the numeric keypad buttons on the mouse just like any other mouse button.

(My baby Paladin is a tank, but I’ve yet to really come into using the Naga for her. I’m still confused with all the possible Hands the Paladin has, and I’ve not really looked into utilizing them. So, no tank sample for Naga!)

On the image on the left you can see the settings I have for Eilonwyn and Talá, who I both raid with. From bottom to top:

Talá (left): Fade, Psychic Scream, mouseover Dispel Magic, mouseover Abolish Disease, mouseover Pain Suppression, mouseover Fear Ward, Holy Nova (for quick damage-dealing+healing in CoS, for example), Levitate, mouseover Power Infusion, Shackle Undead, drinks, and my Flask of the North.

Eilonwyn (right): Ice Block macro, Invisibility macro, Arcane Explosion, Blizzard, Flamestrike, Core Hound Pup (lol), Mirror Image macro, blank, lock candy for swapping in case the lock has a lower healthstone, lootship rocket pack, Fish Feast, and focus Counterspell macro (for swapping).

The honest opinion

I’d have to say the Naga was one of the best things I purchased for my gaming. That isn’t exactly saying much: the only equipment I have that is specifically a gaming device would be the Naga and my headset. But it’s certainly been worth its purchase price.

If there’s anything that I don’t like 100% about the Naga, it’s the position of buttons 4 and 5 on the mouse. They’re on the top of the mouse, near my pointer finger. That means that to press these buttons, my finger would need to move to the left. Which means my whole hand shifts/contracts in order to reach those buttons, which, in addition to being a bit far away from any finger, is on the edge/corner of the mouse. You over-estimate the finger move, and your finger slides right into empty space. You under-estimate, and you end up clicking both the button you were aiming for and the left mouse button.

Which means these buttons don’t get used anymore.

They’re a shame, really. I loved those two extra buttons on the Deathadder, but then one could argue that those two buttons were replaced by twelve, and so then there is no reason to complain. Of course, I also used buttons 4 and 5 for other things outside WoW, like shortcuts for various Mac OSX-related things like Spaces and Expose…but not anymore.

But is that any reason to dis the Naga? Nope. I’d still heartily recommend it to anyone–anyone who doesn’t have big hands, that is.

Silmarien after learning she got the job

Playing in a social capacity in World of Warcraft entails talking to people, managing people, and organizing people. Oh, you can play without ever talking to other people, but a good number of people also employ quite a number of interesting skills while in-game:

1. The ability to manage people’s expectations–and, well, people–in a raid group
2. The ability to analyze a fight to pick out what went wrong and how to improve on execution
3. The ability to successfully mediate between people regarding all kinds of issues
4. The ability to “sell” a guild’s reputation and “brand”

Those are only a few of the things that people pick up as they progress into the game. You have people developing and practicing everything from leadership skills, marketing and brand management, team buildup, analysis, financial acumen…you name it, somewhere in the world (…of Warcraft) a player will probably be enhancing his skills on a certain work-related (or work-enhancing) skill.

The ongoing stigma

In a lot of industries and communities, being a gamer has a lot of negative connotations: this is one of the reasons why there was strong resistance to Blizzard’s initial RealID designs that required you to reveal your real full name on forum posts.

WoW players are seen as losers and no-lifers; people who sit in front of the computer and eat chips scattered all over the keyboard; people who scream, swear and throw tantrums at every little thing (link NSFW due to language); people who stay up all night and show up half-asleep and zombied out at work. With a lot of people, it won’t matter if you look very dapper in a coat and tie, that you graduated top of your class: you just get crossed out because you’re a wildcard. “Ha ha, he plays WoW, must be a loser.” *toss*

And that’s a shame. Oh, there must be “losers” in WoW, there are plenty of those in my humble reckoning. But there are losers everywhere. Some guy might play tennis but he parties all night and subsequently always shows up half-asleep and zombied out. Some guy might be your average joe, but he sits on the couch five hours a night and fifteen hours on weekends and eat chips all day. You don’t scoop out the crud by ignoring WoW players: you just might be passing up on someone who applies himself really well to the job.

Not all hope is lost

I remember this one time (no, not at band camp) when a colleague and I had to interview a couple people for an opening at our company. We went through the short stack of resumes as we went along, and came across this one resume which boldly announced “World of Warcraft Guild Master” in his extra-curricular activities, along with guild size, responsibilities taken, and improvements done (like, “raised guild recruitment levels up 15%”, how cool is that?).

My friend and I both play WoW and, of course, mentioned it in the interview. Cue ten-minute animated discussion about his guild and how being a guild master was like (and possibly, uh, other things too).

You know what? We were able to shortlist only two from over a dozen resumes given to us. He was part of that short list. He was conversant, alert, he knew his languages, and his experience was solid. We could see he didn’t take himself too seriously, that he knew how to work hard and stick to his guns while not turning into a monster in the process.

So, would I?

I’ve already mentioned World of Warcraft in my resume, but honestly have not thought of expanding that to include actual activities within WoW: space is at a premium and I already have it relatively full. Maybe if I ever am foolish enough to start my own guild and stubborn enough to stick with it ;)

Its inclusion was a very deliberate action on my part, however: I don’t want to be in a company that would look down on me because I choose to kill Internet dragons with friends.