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aleyro · 08/10/07, 5:44 PM

So, in the original spirit of this post, I thought i might outline some key "raid leading" needs, and what i'm using (and considering...) for each one.

Real time monitoring As raid leader, I like to have a good idea of the overall "health" of the raid, as well as the status of a few key members. I use a variety of mods to do this:
- XRSprovides me with a high level, aggregate view of healer/tank/dps health/mana.
- Grid gives offers incredible information density; I can quickly see who has aggro, whos in trouble, who's getting healed, whos low on mana, whos debuffed, whos dead, etc.
- Pitbull allows me to really focus on specific players when required. specifically, when raiding, i have pitbull hide my party, but show my target, the main tanks, their targets, main healers, and my focus target. I then turn on "interaction lines", and I can very clearly see who's healing whom, who's targeting what, whats damaging which tanks, etc.
Event monitoring/notification
These tools include boss timers, proximity warnings, and event warning systems that assist in learning/downing complex encounters. The major players here are:
- CTRA is the oldest kid on the block, and the "standard" for many guilds. some of the raid leaders in my guild still use this, so I have it lying around (not enabled). Can't wait to drop it, though.
- Deadly boss mods is what I'm currently using, and I love it; however, I've recently been considering...
- ... Bigwigs, which is getting tons of good press, and which is based on ace, which makes me happy in the pants.
performance analysis
These tools allow you to track performance related stats for your raid, including obvious things like DPS and HPS, but also more subtle things like DoT uptime, interrupts, etc.
- recount is my current favorite mod; if your a data geek, this is the perfect mod for you. realtime histograms, comparison charts, cause of death analysis, the ability to seperate out the last 10 fights, and extensive per-ability breakdowns are just some of the awesome features of this mod... but they come at a price. recount gobbles memory, and is relatively new, so I'm not quite sure what the overall performance hit is.
- swstats is well regarded throughout the community as an excellent, lightweight, synchronized soluton to tracking many of your raid performance needs.
- recap is old, and less flashy than the other two, but it works, and it shouldn't kill your system. very, very intuitive, fluid UI, easy reporting, and comprehensive stats.
- Omen is an excellent threat meter, that supports multiple targets, and interoperates with other threat meters.
preperation tracking
these mods help you form your group, track consumables, track buffs, etc.
- CTRA is the granddaddy of all of these mods, and its still alive and kicking.
- oRA2 is a lightweight, ace2-based replacement for CTRA. i use it now, and i love it; it certainly feels feature complete, and i can't think of anything that i could do in ctra that i cant do in Ora.
- XRS tracks buffs, and i can have it notify the raid when buffs are missing.

i have two major decisions to make. first,

i'm considering dropping xrs, because i don't find myself actually using it that much. what are ya'll using to track buff coverage across your raid? is there something else that will let me view aggregate health/mana pools for pre-defined classes?

second, i'm thinking of replacing Deadly boss mods with BigWigs. have any of you made the switch, in either direction? care to share your experiences?

08/10/07, 5:44 PM	#28 (permalink)
aleyro Piston Honda aleyromillen Night Elf Rogue <Redundancy> Blackrock	So, in the original spirit of this post, I thought i might outline some key "raid leading" needs, and what i'm using (and considering...) for each one. Real time monitoring As raid leader, I like to have a good idea of the overall "health" of the raid, as well as the status of a few key members. I use a variety of mods to do this: XRSprovides me with a high level, aggregate view of healer/tank/dps health/mana. Grid gives offers incredible information density; I can quickly see who has aggro, whos in trouble, who's getting healed, whos low on mana, whos debuffed, whos dead, etc. Pitbull allows me to really focus on specific players when required. specifically, when raiding, i have pitbull hide my party, but show my target, the main tanks, their targets, main healers, and my focus target. I then turn on "interaction lines", and I can very clearly see who's healing whom, who's targeting what, whats damaging which tanks, etc. Event monitoring/notification These tools include boss timers, proximity warnings, and event warning systems that assist in learning/downing complex encounters. The major players here are: CTRA is the oldest kid on the block, and the "standard" for many guilds. some of the raid leaders in my guild still use this, so I have it lying around (not enabled). Can't wait to drop it, though. Deadly boss mods is what I'm currently using, and I love it; however, I've recently been considering... ... Bigwigs, which is getting tons of good press, and which is based on ace, which makes me happy in the pants. performance analysis These tools allow you to track performance related stats for your raid, including obvious things like DPS and HPS, but also more subtle things like DoT uptime, interrupts, etc. recount is my current favorite mod; if your a data geek, this is the perfect mod for you. realtime histograms, comparison charts, cause of death analysis, the ability to seperate out the last 10 fights, and extensive per-ability breakdowns are just some of the awesome features of this mod... but they come at a price. recount gobbles memory, and is relatively new, so I'm not quite sure what the overall performance hit is. swstats is well regarded throughout the community as an excellent, lightweight, synchronized soluton to tracking many of your raid performance needs. recap is old, and less flashy than the other two, but it works, and it shouldn't kill your system. very, very intuitive, fluid UI, easy reporting, and comprehensive stats. Omen is an excellent threat meter, that supports multiple targets, and interoperates with other threat meters. preperation tracking these mods help you form your group, track consumables, track buffs, etc. CTRA is the granddaddy of all of these mods, and its still alive and kicking. oRA2 is a lightweight, ace2-based replacement for CTRA. i use it now, and i love it; it certainly feels feature complete, and i can't think of anything that i could do in ctra that i cant do in Ora. XRS tracks buffs, and i can have it notify the raid when buffs are missing. i have two major decisions to make. first, i'm considering dropping xrs, because i don't find myself actually using it that much. what are ya'll using to track buff coverage across your raid? is there something else that will let me view aggregate health/mana pools for pre-defined classes? second, i'm thinking of replacing Deadly boss mods with BigWigs. have any of you made the switch, in either direction? care to share your experiences?