Focus: Power Auras Classic

Update: You can see my elemental power auras for 4.0.x in this here post, complete with video!!

Power Auras Classic is a sort of a sandbox mod that doesn’t actually do anything when you first load it.  Instead, it gives you a tool to essentially create your own interface aid.

Example of Power Auras from the WoW Interface site.

What it does is allow you to put a graphic on screen, or play a sound, or display a timer – or all three at once – under given conditions.  You can adjust, recolour, animate or otherwise play around with these displays as well as using custom textures and sounds.

So how is this useful?  Well, you can set it up for specific boss fights.  On Vezax hard, I had it set up to display a MASSIVE icon in the centre of my screen if I got Mark of the Faceless, as well as displaying a thin red/green oval depending on whether I was in Shadow Crash or not.  On Hodir it tells me whether I’m in Starlight, have Storm Power or am standing near a Toasty Fire without me having to check my buffs list, as well as warning me about how many stacks of biting cold I have.  Just a really versatile and useful tool for certain fights that frees up your attention for maxx DPS or whatever.

Using Power Auras for healing

As well as fight specific cool stuff like that, I’ve found Power Auras remarkably useful for improving my resto playstyle.  I set it up to show the cooldowns for Riptide and Nature’s Swiftness, as well as an icon for Tidal Waves, right next to my grid display and above and below my ShieldsUp display.

Power auras displaying "action usable" icons for Riptide and NS while informing me I have two stacks of Tidal Waves. The icon is dimmer at one stack.

A timer below the Tidal Waves icon shows me how long until the buff expires.  Timers above the Riptide and NS icons tell me how long until they’re available to use.

In this shot, Riptide is on cooldown for another 4 seconds. I have it set to display hundredths as the cooldown is short.

The idea of this setup is to prevent Gridlock, or healer tunnel vision, whereby we stare so hard at our raid frames that we don’t notice anything else.  Hence all my pertinent healer information – health bars, certain buffs/debuffs (shown through Grid), cooldowns, water and earth shield, cast bar and also my scrolling combat text – is all just beside my avatar.  Basically it helps me make sure I’m not standing in fires, but I find it also frees me up to see a bit more of what’s actually going on in any given fight as my eyes don’t have far to travel to see the surroundings.

Here’s it all in action on Auriaya.  Click the picture to see the full screenshot.  No, my interface is not a paragon of neatness and beauty.  Yes, it works very well for me.  Another feature of my healing UI is that there are multiple sets of redundant displays so that if my eyes do have to go elsewhere, I can still see what’s going on.  And yes, I use two separate raid frames.  Grid is just for healing and shows me only information pertinent to being as efficient as possible in that role; sRF is for administering the raid and shows me totally different information.

In action on Ulduar's Auriaya. Click to see the full screenshot.

You can also easily export and import settings in the form of simple text strings that you copy/paste into the addon’s dialogue box.  Unfortunately these don’t seem to preserve the settings for timers (or maybe that’s just the version I’m using).  Note that if you choose to use a spell’s own icon, you won’t see the icon in the Power Auras setup box until you actually encounter the spell – that is, cast it or have it cast in combat log range.

Below are the settings I use for the display above.  To import them, open up Power Auras’ config by typing /powa.  Then click the Import button at the bottom of the window.

Note that Character effects only apply to the current character, whereas Global effects apply to all your characters that have Power Auras activated.

This brings up a little box into which you simply paste the string of text and click “accept”.

Riptide

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:botrue; b:nu1; anim1:nu4; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; optunitn:bofalse; multiids:st; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; finish:nu1; anim2:nu0; size:nu0.14000000059605; torsion:nu1; r:nu1; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; ignoremaj:botrue; y:nu26; x:nu78; symetrie:nu0; begin:nu1; off:bofalse; texmode:nu1; icon:stInterface\Icons\spell_nature_riptide; timer:botrue; target:bofalse; timerduration:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; inverse:bofalse; buffname:stRiptide; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu7; exact:botrue; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; threshold:nu50; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu1; thresholdinvert:bofalse; sound:nu0; isenchant:bofalse; stacks:nu1; g:nu1; customname:st; alpha:nu0.60000002384186; aurastext:st; textaura:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; opt1:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; stance:nu10

Timer: X: 65, Y: 50, Size: 0.85.  Show hundredth checked. (you have to set this manually, sorry)

Nature’s Swiftness

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:botrue; b:nu1; anim1:nu1; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; optunitn:bofalse; multiids:st; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; finish:nu1; anim2:nu0; size:nu0.14000000059605; torsion:nu1; r:nu1; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; ignoremaj:bofalse; y:nu26; x:nu120; symetrie:nu0; begin:nu1; off:bofalse; texmode:nu1; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Nature_RavenForm; timer:botrue; target:bofalse; timerduration:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; inverse:bofalse; buffname:stNature’s Swiftness; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu7; exact:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; threshold:nu50; focus:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu1; thresholdinvert:bofalse; sound:nu0; isenchant:bofalse; stacks:nu1; g:nu1; customname:st; alpha:nu0.60000002384186; aurastext:st; textaura:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; opt1:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; stance:nu10

Timer: X: 110, Y:50, Size: 0.85

Tidal Waves 2 stacks

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:botrue; b:nu1; anim1:nu4; duration:nu0; mine:botrue; optunitn:bofalse; multiids:st; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; anim2:nu0; size:nu0.14000000059605; torsion:nu1; realaura:nu1; stacksOperator:st=; r:nu1; opt1:nu0; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu-72; x:nu90; isdebuff:bofalse; timer:botrue; textaura:bofalse; target:bofalse; combat:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; customname:st; g:nu1; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; party:bofalse; aurastextfont:nu1; stacks:nu2; customtex:bofalse; focus:bofalse; isenchant:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu1; sound:nu0; thresholdinvert:bofalse; threshold:nu50; exact:botrue; buffname:stTidal Waves; inverse:bofalse; alpha:nu0.85000002384186; aurastext:st; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Shaman_TidalWaves; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Timer: X: 80, Y: -90, Size: 0.85, Opacity: 0.55

Tidal Waves 1 stack

gcd:bofalse; soundfile:st; owntex:botrue; b:nu1; anim1:nu5; duration:nu0; g:nu1; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; stance:nu10; icon:stInterface\Icons\Spell_Shaman_TidalWaves; size:nu0.14000000059605; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; mine:botrue; optunitn:bofalse; x:nu90; inverse:bofalse; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; customname:st; textaura:bofalse; target:bofalse; combat:nu0; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; timerduration:nu0; exact:botrue; threshold:nu50; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; stacks:nu1; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; customtex:bofalse; focus:bofalse; isenchant:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu1; buffname:stTidal Waves; anim2:nu0; opt1:nu0; r:nu1; randomcolor:bofalse; y:nu-72; alpha:nu0.5; aurastext:st; timer:botrue; texmode:nu1; symetrie:nu0; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; sound:nu0; isinraid:bofalse; finish:nu1

Timer: X: 80, Y: -90, Size: 0.85, Opacity: 0.45

Anyway, that’s Power Auras, a fantastic and very versatile addon that’s easy to set up and powerful to use.