No offense but this reply is a typical "many words, lack of substance" post. It would be so much better if you can compare the "functionality" between these two boss modes instead of "the code" that only a few elites would care.

I disagree. He compares the 2 addons on aspects that are important from his pov, tries to explain them abit to us and draws a conclusion.

Its not because you are not interested in his point of view that his posts lacks substance.

There was a few versions where flash 'broke' in the transition from one event to another, the latest version should have all this fixed, it also includes a patch from Saroz of a very basic warning for najentus to print if your raid members are over 8500HP, you will only see this warning if all members are past the threshold, no silly boxes or anything.

Width/height option for bars will be forwarded to BW3, the next 'real' request is optional descriptive waves warnings in Hyjal (on/off). That should be it for the major requests in this thread, thanks again.

I disagree, lots of users care about the code efficiency of an addon. One of the reasons is its code that you are running on a machine you paid for. If I paid a big bundle of cash on a new cpu/graphics card etc I would want it used efficiently (why use an addon that uses 50%cpu when you can use one that uses 25%? Bad example I know, but it gets the point across), not wasted away from badly written code.

*cough* I hate to be picky, but as it's a serious request I felt compelled to post.

I'm not sure if this is just me, but I actually really would love an option for screen shakes next to the glows, similar to DBM.

If you feel this is not needed, annoying to add, or don't want to implement it for any reason that's fine too. Just saying I'd personally would -love- to see it, since that would remove any doubt I'd have about switching.

ps: Great job! Not often I see such dedicated listening to community suggestions and such, well done.

Thanks for all your hard work Funky, you do a great job.

My guild kind of requires DBM, but I really just can't take the way it looks so I use BW.

Bad News: I don't think I will be adding a shake also, as theres no real 'clean' way to do this as far as I know, I think theres a blizz API somewhere but I will need to research it.

Good News: I tweaked the flash so its a LOT smoother and prettier, it will now flash twice also (I really think this should be enough to grab peoples attention).

To expand on where Saroz lacked a bit, its an addon at wowace that spoofs DBM version query.

Out of general curiosity (and I suppose this might be relevant to my guild (and to others that use those bossmods, I guess)), does anybody how my old RDX bossmods are doing? As in, are some rendered inaccurate and/or broken by patches? Or still bossmod of choice for RDX users?

Okay, that works too, awesome job! I think I'll download BigWigs for tonight. Oh sweet victory music, how I missed thee.

You're in luck, Ammo(another BW dev) decided he liked the shake feature and combined it with the flash. As of r54028 BigWigs has a fully functional "Flash'N'Shake" module. Off by default.

I noticed, it feels like christmas. Thanks a lot! Using BW atm. I really don't see a reason to use DBM over it anymore myself.

*Plays the Test bars over and over.* OMG BEAR

People with bigwigs will do a /s and get a skull on their head a few seconds before the orb launches (at healing range where I usually stand, its ~10 seconds before the orb lands). Just stay aware of your surroundings. Try picking a spot to run and making sure you have your camera set up so you can see the spot. If noone in there has had a skull on his head for the last 10 seconds, you'r safe.

Notice that due to the nature of arcane orbs, the person will not have the skull on his head when the orb is moving towards him, since by that time VR will have picked another target to orb (who gets the skull).

As a healer, I somewhat prefer the DBM warning that let's you know which members of the raid need healing in order to get over 8500 hp. This is something that could be handled by the healing ui but having a boss mod that draws extra attention to the people that are just a few points shy of the 8500 mark is helpful.

As far as I know, we don't have a way to hook into the Orbs and track them. Also, I seem to remember that coordinates don't exist inside instances for players, so you couldn't track the coordinates and perform a distance calculation. This is one reason why the Range Indicator mods people write have to depend on spell ranges rather than actual coordinates in instances.

Why can't you just look at your raid frames and assume that everyone who is not at full health could die? I mean if someone is 500hp short of 8500 your not going to hit them with a 500 point heal. So really what is the point of an addon showing everyone under 8500 health when a glance at your raid frames shows the same information?

It's theory of UI - is it better to show something when action is required, or when action is not required? I would argue the former (warning lights); in some circumstances, the latter is used (readouts). In reality, you can't just glance at raid frames - my grid config doesn't actually show total health, it shows health deficit, and this isn't uncommon for healers.

Both methods work, but some people are going to have a preference for the flag to be shown when you have to act, while some will prefer the flag to be shown when you don't. DBM chose a warning light, BW chose a green light.

I find the DBM display of who is under 8500 very helpful as a shadow priest for last minute shields of people who are just slightly under the mark when Tidal Shield goes up. A lot of the time these people are just missing a few hundred health and it may not be immediately obvious that they need a heal when healers are busy topping off those who are more obviously in need of heals. Most of the time when we've had people die on Naj'entus it was because they needed a little to be topped off, not because they were missing huge chunks of health, and that's why the DBM display is useful.

Maybe I'm just to blind to see it, but is there any Font options in BW ? I know this is a minimal request but I really like to have all of my addons with the same font

You may want to take a look at this Infraction for Rudie: General Idiocy and go edit your post before Kaubel sees it.

Nerd.

ps: Aint it often ironic how these long time readers manage to completely skip 'The banhammer' and the stickies?

I just made a change that I'm hoping will fix it, your feedback is appreciated.

All fixed Thanks!

I've used both these mods, and honestly, I don't think you can compare them. Sure, they are both "Boss Mods" that make raiding easier, but they have completely different philosophies as to what a "Boss Mod" should be. BW seems to take the view that a Boss Mod should provide timers and warning for the boss abilities, and maybe a range frame on the critical fights where standing near somebody wipes the raid. DBM seems to take the stance of trying to make raiding idiot proof. They seem to accomplish this with the timers, warnings, frames, whisper-blocking, aggro alerts, and whatever else it seems the BW supporters call bloat.

DBM takes the game and encapsulates end-game contents (and yes that includes PvP, many people play the game for that alone). BW takes raiding, and makes it easier.


And for me personally, I like DBM, just because it gives me the end-game package. And I don't have problems updating, fixing timers, or adding the new bosses to the mod. But then again, I am a programmer that has the DBM API bookmarked.