Taugrim's MMO Blog

The addons are listed below in sections, with my favorite addons listed first in each section.

If you have questions about using an addon, please read the addon’s page on war.curse.com before posting here, as your question may have been answered there already. I’ll try to answer questions posted, but keep in mind I’m not the developer of any of these addons.

Game-play Addons

This section lists addons that improve the effectiveness of one’s game-play. Or at least they’ve made me a better player

1. Warhammer Scrolling Combat Text (WSCT)

WSCT provides much more visibility to combat events (e.g. damage done/taken, healing done/taken, buffs, debuffs, etc) than the default UI.

The addon allows you to turn on skill names, so you can see which abilities caused which damage / heal / effect. I find it incredibly informative.

I recommend changing the Absorb messages from the default Frame 3 to Frame 2, so you can see the flow of damage you’re taking and what is absorbed by bubbles.

2. Aura

Aura enables you to define “auras” that you’d like to track on your character, friendly targets, and enemy targets. Auras can be almost anything, e.g. timers on effects, cooldown timers, whether you have a buff or debuff on you, etc.

The auras you define can provide a lot of visibility into what’s happening in combat. On my Swordmaster, I use Aura to track all my debuffs on targets (e.g. Quick Incision snare, Wrath of Hoeth spirit debuff, cooldown of Ether Dance or Crashing Wave, whether my target has the Unstoppable or Immovable buff on them, etc). When playing a healer, I define auras to show HoT durations on me and on my friendly targets, so I see how long existing HoTs have before expiring.

Aura has significantly improved my game-play, because I don’t have to read the Combat Log or stare at small icons on the character portraits.

This addon takes a lot of time to configure, test, and tweak to your liking. If you like driving automatic instead of manual, Aura is probably not for you.

3. ActionBarColor

This addon makes your ability buttons turn red when they your target is out-of-range. Simple but very helpful.

4. Tortall’s DPS Meter

I don’t use a DPS Meter for e-peen measurement, but rather for numerically testing different spec and gear setups. E.g. TDM has helped me figure out which Swordmaster DoT tactics are most effective.

When you install the addon, you get a little button in the upper-left of your UI for toggling whether to show the meter.

5. AutoDismount

If you are mounted and use an ability, this addon automatically dismounts you then fires the ability.

Convenience Addons

This section lists addons that provide value in terms of convenience.

1. AnywhereTrainer

This addon allows you to view trainable abilities, mastery trees, and renown trees for your class, no matter where you are.

2. Think Out Loud

TOL automates chat when abilities are used. E.g. I have a message that indicates when I’ve put Guard on another player, when I pop Shield Wall, etc. Much simpler than having to type every time.

Fun Addons

1. Killing Blow

This simple addon puts a very visible text message on your screen when you got the deathblow on a player.

As I said in the previous post, I recently rolled a Shaman named Taugrim on the Iron Rock server.

Here’s footage of him:

• at R6 in a Khaine’s Embrace scenario
• at R11 in ORVR in Nordland

I wasn’t planning on playing a Shaman, but I tried the class and loved it. Shaman excels at both soloing and group play, which is important to me. I was also inspired by watching some of Nazgum’s videos of his Shaman in Tier 4.

I’ve tried Archmage, Rune Priest, and Shaman, and I find Shaman to be the most entertaining of those 3. The class has strong mechanics for kiting, which is a playstyle I find fun and challenging.

On a funny note, a few people on Iron Rock have asked me if I was the “real” Taugrim. One player took some convincing

I’ve been playing Order on the role-play server Phoenix Throne (PT) exclusively since the game’s Head Start back last September.

Tier 4 RVR on PT has been pretty dead the past couple weeks. The Destruction faction on PT has taken hits in terms of numbers of players and morale. Many Destruction players on PT are frustrated with class imbalance and have quit the game; check out the discussion threads started by me and by Beccala asking PT players what they thought about the WAR’s current class balance in Patch 1.3.

It’s been really boring when I’m on my Swordmaster. Sometimes I have to go to multiple zones to find opponents to fight.

After reading the posts on the threads linked to above, I created a 2nd account on a trial basis and rolled a Black Orc (BO) on PT. I did this for multiple reasons:

• I wanted to continue to support the server
• I’d rather fight on the outnumbered side
• I wanted to see the class balance from the other side. I’d also prefer to play on the side with weaker classes, if I do find that Destruction classes are weaker as a whole
• I wanted, in a little way, to help out with the numbers imbalance on PT

Unfortunately, Tier 1 RVR on PT was very slow. Scenarios would take 15-30 minutes to pop, and I am unwilling to level a character via PVE, as I’ve had my fill of that from other games. So I made the hard decision to try Destruction on another server.

I looked around on the WarhammerAlliance.com server forums and ended up rolling on Iron Rock (IR). The Tier 1 activity on IR is awesome: scenarios pop quickly, the ORVR is active, and I heard that Destruction is outnumbered in Tier 4. It turns out that a lot of players from PT have also rolled characters on IR.

If you’re playing on IR, gimme a shout. My main Destruction character is a Shaman named Taugrim. Shaman videos are coming soon!