Allara was nice enough to code a beta addon for us that will eventually help us time our last viper so we end the fight with as little mana as possible.

The goal here is to maximize our overall DPS by spending as little time as possible in the last viper before we kill the boss we're working on. This addon might end up helping other classes too, but it's hunter specific enough that I am posting this thread here.

Since this is the first iteration of this software, I'd like to ask the community to test it out and give feedback on the algorithm. If we can think of any ways to make this better, it will only serve to make us better.

Testing tonight in naxx

I just posted a new build with a new feature: Reset after consecutive gains. Causes calculations to reset any time you gain mana two or more times consecutively. This will help reset the time if you've used an ability to gain mana during combat.

This will help resolve issues with Aspect of the Viper, as the time should reset and start counting down correctly when you go back to another aspect. The display may be slightly erratic during a long stretch of mana gain, but in general it'll try to hide the timer when it can't get a sensible calculation.

I may also add a configurable reset timer to ensure calculations are fresh during a very long encounter, but let's see how this does.

Feedback definitely welcome!

The description is a bit fuzzy - does it only calculate how long it will take before you go oom? What I am hoping it is doing is calculate a mana burn rate and when you switch into viper, it will remember this number and provide you with an increasing timer. So with a mod like TimeToDie - Addons - Curse you could simply viper until the two numbers match, then switch over to dragonhawk. With only TimeToDie - Addons - Curse I never really have any problems estimating if I will go oom or not and even if I am unsure, often I will only be oom for 2-3 seconds at most and in that case I doubt it's even worth going into viper.

If you could somehow incorporate both addons into this one somehow, that would be absolutely superb.

It takes your current average burn rate and displays how long it will be before you run out of mana at that rate. As your burn rate fluctuates, it averages it out. I'm trying to avoid making this add-on hunter-specific, and I don't want to get into aura detection and other business. The current algorithm (r7) will detect that you're gaining mana and will reset it's calculations when you do. This keeps the timer declining correctly even if you go into Viper for a while. But it doesn't do what you're asking for, which would be to remember what the average burn rate was and increase the timer as you gain mana. Let me think on how I could do that -- I'm sure it's possible.

As to combining TimeToDie and TimeToOom, I wasn't planning on doing that. They're both intentionally very simple add-ons that just display a number on your screen in a font/color of your choosing. I currently have both positioned over my minimap, and they pop in during combat.

If you can think of some good synergies between the two that would actually require the code to be merged, let's discuss that.

I believe that the biggest synergy (for hunters) would be if the addon could indicate when we have been in AotV long enough to finish the fight based on both our bosses HP burn rate and our mana burn rate. It would be even better if it took into account all the kill shot type abilities that increase the mana and boss HP burn rates, and any particularities of a boss that could be coded in (maybe with hooks into deadly boss mods?).

This information would allow us to switch out of viper more accurately than we currently can- I sometimes find myself overshooting my mana gain goals and ending the fight with over 10% mana left, or sometimes underestimating how much I'd need to finish the boss and having to finish the last little bit of boss HP without mana.

I assume you were using r5. Try r7. Although it doesn't show you anything useful yet while you're in AotV, once you switch back out (in my testing) the timer starts working perfectly again.

possibly, i had no idea what setting to put it on. Ill give it a shot, ty.

You could add a smaller number to TimeToDie, like a x^y ish thing that would indicate how much time you needed to spend in aotv to finish the boss fight with 0 mana in a red color.

1m 15s ^10s

Something along those lines. The same mechanic could be extended to other classes that have regen mechanics, like paladins or mages.

Wouldn't that require some sort of DPS calculator to figure out how long the boss will live for? That seems like something beyond the scope of this addon.

I only had a chance to test it in five-man heroics, but I liked how it performed. I imagine it'll be even more handy in full raids which I can test tonight.

The one shortcoming I found was that the number stops displaying when there hasn't been an attack for a short period of time. For example, when casting a steady shot shortly after auto shot fired. This is when I'd look to the timer, only to have it vanish before I could register the number.

I'm guessing this is because there isn't a constant feed of information so the number stops calculating when there is no mana usage for a short period, but the time between our shots is the easiest time to look at the number. Would it be possible to have the number persistently displayed while in combat or at least displayed longer before resetting? During those short periods it could simply display the last known value or some such.

edit: tpyos

Do it the other way around

Granted I know nothing about coding an addon, but couldn't it just take the average mana gain/loss over X amount of time, be it regen or spent and calculate the use/second and time to oom from there? It'd maybe take a couple seconds into a fight before you get a number, but any significant fight that won't make a huge difference.

I'm leveling my hunter again, hit Lvl 60 right now and got my Devilsaur.
Now my question is, wich use do we have from this? When we get OOM, we pop a pot/AotV...
Couldn't imagine wich useful informations this provides for us?

Also there will always be another time due to bloodlust, diffrent phases, kill shot availability, and so on!

You dont wait until you are oom to pop AoV. and theoreticly, you want to finish a bossfight with 0 mana.
This lets you get as close to finishing with 0 mana as possible.

This addon only tells how much time you got till you go OOM, so basically you have to judge yourself how long the boss is gonna last and switch to viper at the correct time, and then switch back to dragonhawk by self judgment again?

If that's how it works, I don't how this addon helps either.

I did take the time to take a look at the TimeToDie addon since it was mentioned here, and it appears to me it does not show how long till the boss will die, it just tracks "your deaths - how long you lived, how long it took you to go from full health to dead, how long you were in combat immediately before dying." If I am looking at the wrong addon, sorry.

Wrong addon, TimeToDie - Addons - Curse is what you want.

I tried out this Addon, and I believe it's a great addon for hunters who don't have the right raid comp, but every fight in Naxx, sarth with drakes and Malygos, I was about.. 35+ minutes to OOM, so it's a little bit pointless for hunters who are further in progression, but Still, a great addon. Well done =) Worked perfectly.

If you can not go oom as marksman, you are leaving something out of your shot rotation ... maybe chimera shot? With 3 shammies in my group, I can last a hell of a long time but nowhere near 35+ minutes. Your statement requires some more explaining :S 5/5 can't make you that damn mana efficient.

Our WWS's don't last for more than 15 days and the last couple of raids our WWs guy hasn't been on.

My shot rot is right off the bat, pop my macro that hits Rapid Fire and my AP Trinket, and clicks Readiness in 5 seconds, then I Serpent, Chimera and Steady Shot till Chimera's up again, blah blah blah. I manually weave arcane in on fights where I move, and multi shot as well.

I'll second Kithicor. I've been MM again since WOTLK raiding started and after gearing up in 25man instances I'm finding it almost impossible to run out of mana on boss fights. Combining JoW, BoW, and replenishment is enough to keep me from having to use viper in any fight except Sarthorian with 3 drakes -- and there only because our strat requires me to use Volley a great deal.

35 min seems a bit excessive but I also only have 3 points in efficiency.