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I've been raid-leadering and main-tanking a lot lately. Until a few months ago, I was always a healer, and Grid was always exactly what I wanted. Default Grid provided 90% of what I wanted, if not everything I wanted.
Now, however, I am paladin tanking and/or raid-leadering, and there's information I want that is not available. I have written mods in the past, and am considering writing these Statuses, but I'd rather do that for Grid2, and honestly, I'd rather not write them at all, as I often get bored and stop updating/maintaining, so I'm here to make my arguments for why they should be default Grid statuses.
The basic idea here is that not everyone needs the same information. Most healer classes are pretty well represented with Grid, but nobody else has really been considered. DPSers dps, tanks tank, raid leaders read wowwiki. None of them need Grid.
Now, I think DPSers still do not need Grid, except for decursing, which works fine.
But as a tank, there's a number of somewhat important threat-related and agro-related pieces of information I'd like, which I can't get with Grid.
First off, there's a distinction between "has agro" and "is targeted" -- lots of bosses to off-target stuff. Healers, in my mind, should want "is targeted" since it would give them a headsup about who will get hit soon. Tanks, on the other hand, couldn't care less if their well-tanked mob does an off-target attack, and if they waste a taunt on that, they will be sad. lowered overall threat due to wasted GCDs, and no taunt if it's needed soon.
Next, there's a distinction between "is currently targeted by a mob/has agro" and "is currently targeting a mob that is not targeting the tank." See, I use Clique. And honestly, even if I didn't, I have two ways to get agro off my healer. I can do an aoe taunt or righteously defend them (easy with clique/grid), or I can taunt the mob. In order to taunt the mob, I have to find it. What's the best way to find it? Well, Grid already sees it, so obviously someone in my raid is targeting it. How about a status for that, so I can clique-taunt that person's target, or at least click them then assist them to find the mob quickly.
Third is the "you're not tanking fast enough" indicator. This one might exist, honestly, but I don't think so? I can check the threat level of every raid member against my current target. I'd like a "high threat" light. Like "low mana," I'd set a threshold like 80% and if anyone is above 80% threat on my target. Then I know I need to either hand of salvation them, use my cooldown-threat-gen stuff, or stop watching tv (obviously, a last resort).
Along similar lines, I'd actually like a separate indicator stating "has above X% on THEIR target" -- since often times in pugs, some idiot is on the warrior when I assume everyone is on the priest, so they can easily out-threat my aoe threat with single-target damage. However, it's an important disinction that they are gaining threat on a target I am not on right now.
The next "tanking" specific idea I have is the concept of "is likely to have agro" -- I'd like a separate status I can assign/color which says "recently had agro from a mob you moused over but do not currently have access to so we can't be sure". "recently" could be a setting or whatever. You could expand this and make it much more intelligent. You could include "recently had agro from a mob someone in your group targeted" or any other sources of information we're willing to exploit. Even combat log parsing. "Was recently hit by a mob who has not died or hit someone else since, and who we do not have current target information about" -- so if someone other than the tank gets hit and the tank doesn't get hit by that same mob very quickly afterward, a light would be on that person, indicating that they might have agro. Clearly, this idea is more about what level of attention you should be paying to finding hostile mobs, rather than absolute information.
The last one I put in this category is another combat-log one. The idea for this status is "we probably pulled another group, or mobs were added to the fight." Sometimes you expect this and don't care, sometimes this is really important. Basically, "read combat logs. If a mob who WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE FIGHT BEFORE (by unique unitid) hits someone who IS NOT THE TANK, put a light on them until the tank gets them. Clearly, this would require knowing who the tank is, but in random dungeons that's easy, and in raids there's maintank settings, so this could be easily maintained.
Next up are the "raid leader" type statuses I think would be useful. Other than "has enough mana" or "said they were ready" which probably already exist, mine are more about "who is targeting what" -- which as a raid leader, I find very important. Knowing who is not doing their job is a hard thing to figure out, but I think Grid could do wonders to assist that.
So, the first ones are all the basic information about what someone is targeting (not all of it is really useful, but if you're doing these statuses, might as well be complete, in case someone really wants the information):
* Player's target is friendly/hostile/neutral/human/npc/in combat -- the basics. None particularly useful, but information some people might like.
* Player's target is my target/main assist's target/main tank's target/OTHER -- these statuses would let me get lights for 'dude is on the wrong target' pretty easily. Very useful as a raid leader, somewhat useful as a tank.
* Player's target is not in combat (with our group?) -- a lovely light that would show me who's about to add a second group! :)
* Player's target is/is not the <raid icon>.
* The only non-boolean status I have in my lists: Player's target's raid icon. So, I could see a little skull somewhere. This one would likely require a new indicator, since you wouldn't want a giant skull in the center icon indicator, probably want a side-icon-indicator or something. Maybe Grid2 already plans that sort of thing, I dunno. But I'd love to see 12 skulls and two red x's and know exactly who is doing this wrong. :)
So, I guess there's two main questions here.
First, what do people think? Do other people support/like these ideas? Do these ideas inspire other, better ideas that I didn't think of?
Second, do the Grid2 authors thing these are good enough/useful enough ideas to include as default Grid Statuses, or would someone else have to develop them (and if the latter, is anyone else interested in developing them, 'cause I am lazy and haven't modded in a long time :) )
Thanks!
-x
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Now, however, I am paladin tanking and/or raid-leadering, and there's information I want that is not available. I have written mods in the past, and am considering writing these Statuses, but I'd rather do that for Grid2, and honestly, I'd rather not write them at all, as I often get bored and stop updating/maintaining, so I'm here to make my arguments for why they should be default Grid statuses.
The basic idea here is that not everyone needs the same information. Most healer classes are pretty well represented with Grid, but nobody else has really been considered. DPSers dps, tanks tank, raid leaders read wowwiki. None of them need Grid.
Now, I think DPSers still do not need Grid, except for decursing, which works fine.
But as a tank, there's a number of somewhat important threat-related and agro-related pieces of information I'd like, which I can't get with Grid.
First off, there's a distinction between "has agro" and "is targeted" -- lots of bosses to off-target stuff. Healers, in my mind, should want "is targeted" since it would give them a headsup about who will get hit soon. Tanks, on the other hand, couldn't care less if their well-tanked mob does an off-target attack, and if they waste a taunt on that, they will be sad. lowered overall threat due to wasted GCDs, and no taunt if it's needed soon.
Next, there's a distinction between "is currently targeted by a mob/has agro" and "is currently targeting a mob that is not targeting the tank." See, I use Clique. And honestly, even if I didn't, I have two ways to get agro off my healer. I can do an aoe taunt or righteously defend them (easy with clique/grid), or I can taunt the mob. In order to taunt the mob, I have to find it. What's the best way to find it? Well, Grid already sees it, so obviously someone in my raid is targeting it. How about a status for that, so I can clique-taunt that person's target, or at least click them then assist them to find the mob quickly.
Third is the "you're not tanking fast enough" indicator. This one might exist, honestly, but I don't think so? I can check the threat level of every raid member against my current target. I'd like a "high threat" light. Like "low mana," I'd set a threshold like 80% and if anyone is above 80% threat on my target. Then I know I need to either hand of salvation them, use my cooldown-threat-gen stuff, or stop watching tv (obviously, a last resort).
Along similar lines, I'd actually like a separate indicator stating "has above X% on THEIR target" -- since often times in pugs, some idiot is on the warrior when I assume everyone is on the priest, so they can easily out-threat my aoe threat with single-target damage. However, it's an important disinction that they are gaining threat on a target I am not on right now.
The next "tanking" specific idea I have is the concept of "is likely to have agro" -- I'd like a separate status I can assign/color which says "recently had agro from a mob you moused over but do not currently have access to so we can't be sure". "recently" could be a setting or whatever. You could expand this and make it much more intelligent. You could include "recently had agro from a mob someone in your group targeted" or any other sources of information we're willing to exploit. Even combat log parsing. "Was recently hit by a mob who has not died or hit someone else since, and who we do not have current target information about" -- so if someone other than the tank gets hit and the tank doesn't get hit by that same mob very quickly afterward, a light would be on that person, indicating that they might have agro. Clearly, this idea is more about what level of attention you should be paying to finding hostile mobs, rather than absolute information.
The last one I put in this category is another combat-log one. The idea for this status is "we probably pulled another group, or mobs were added to the fight." Sometimes you expect this and don't care, sometimes this is really important. Basically, "read combat logs. If a mob who WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE FIGHT BEFORE (by unique unitid) hits someone who IS NOT THE TANK, put a light on them until the tank gets them. Clearly, this would require knowing who the tank is, but in random dungeons that's easy, and in raids there's maintank settings, so this could be easily maintained.
Next up are the "raid leader" type statuses I think would be useful. Other than "has enough mana" or "said they were ready" which probably already exist, mine are more about "who is targeting what" -- which as a raid leader, I find very important. Knowing who is not doing their job is a hard thing to figure out, but I think Grid could do wonders to assist that.
So, the first ones are all the basic information about what someone is targeting (not all of it is really useful, but if you're doing these statuses, might as well be complete, in case someone really wants the information):
* Player's target is friendly/hostile/neutral/human/npc/in combat -- the basics. None particularly useful, but information some people might like.
* Player's target is my target/main assist's target/main tank's target/OTHER -- these statuses would let me get lights for 'dude is on the wrong target' pretty easily. Very useful as a raid leader, somewhat useful as a tank.
* Player's target is not in combat (with our group?) -- a lovely light that would show me who's about to add a second group! :)
* Player's target is/is not the <raid icon>.
* The only non-boolean status I have in my lists: Player's target's raid icon. So, I could see a little skull somewhere. This one would likely require a new indicator, since you wouldn't want a giant skull in the center icon indicator, probably want a side-icon-indicator or something. Maybe Grid2 already plans that sort of thing, I dunno. But I'd love to see 12 skulls and two red x's and know exactly who is doing this wrong. :)
So, I guess there's two main questions here.
First, what do people think? Do other people support/like these ideas? Do these ideas inspire other, better ideas that I didn't think of?
Second, do the Grid2 authors thing these are good enough/useful enough ideas to include as default Grid Statuses, or would someone else have to develop them (and if the latter, is anyone else interested in developing them, 'cause I am lazy and haven't modded in a long time :) )
Thanks!
-x