How to make sure you or another Druid in your raid is keeping Mangle up

So, here's how I keep tabs on whether or not my target has been Mangled. I'm one of several feral druids in my raid, and only one of us needs to apply Mangle at a time.

When I'm tanking, it's threat-efficient to Mangle(Bear) every time it's up, so Cats that are attacking my tanked target don't have to worry about Mangle at all - it's going to be up.

When I'm doing DPS as a cat (after my tank'd target dies, I shift to cat and DPS with the other 2 cats), one of us needs to make sure Mangle is up at all times.

The game now provides timing data to the UI, so you can tell how long a debuff you applied to your target has left to run. Debuffs that someone else applied don't show timing data. That's how you can tell the difference between your debuffs and someone elses (this information is very useful to classes like Warlocks(curses) and Paladins(blessings, judgements), and others.

The biggest problem is that in a raid fight, the target I'm attacking usually has a plethora of debuffs on it. What is really needed is a way to show only the debuffs I'm interested in seeing.

Enter: Addon "ElkBuffBars"

I love this addon. When you install it, it replaces the built-in blizzard buff and debuff icons with timer bars that show you visibly how long your buffs and debuffs will last. It separates Buffs, Debuffs, and "Tench" (temporary enchants) into 3 separate frames that you can position anywhere.

What makes this so powerful is that this addons is flexible enough to let you create more frames, each of which you can set filters on exactly what buffs or debuffs it shows. This means you can create a new frame that shows only debuffs on your target, filtered by a whitelist, so you can tell it specifically which debuffs to show on your target. Once created you can position that frame anywhere on the screen you want to see it.

The whitelist works like this - while you play, the addon keeps track of all debuffs you have seen while playing. When you edit the settings of the whitelist, you will see a list of all debuffs you've seen since logging in, plus any that it remembers from previous that you had already checked.

So, as a druid tank, you want to see debuffs like Mangle(Bear), Mangle(Cat) (*and the bugged "Mangle"), plus other debuffs like Lacerate, Rip, Demo roar, feral faerie fire, (and regular faerie fire), Charge, Bash, Challenging Roar, and any other feral debuff that you find useful.

Other debuffs you might want to whitelist are:

Warrior's Demo Shout - you need to see this because if a Warrior has done his shout, your Roar won't stick. If you see Demo shout up, don't bother to roar until it's down.

Any Rogue stun ability - it's nice to know when your target is stunned, so you don't waste a bash

Any silence ability - again so you know the target can't cast something

Rake - to make sure your teammates aren't using it :P

Raid Leaders might want to make yet another bar to track raid performance, and keep an eye on certain buffs to make sure the raid is keeping them up correctly.. Things like Mangle, Curse of Elements, Expose Armor, etc.

Another feature I use is that I created yet another frame for buffs on me, and I filter it so buffs that last LESS than one minute go to one frame, and buffs that last MORE than a minute go to the other. This way I can keep short-term buffs (procs, trinkets, etc) closer to the center of the screen, and raid buffs father away since they don't really need my attention.

That should do it. I highly recommend this addon. The best way to get it is to use the WowAceUpdater, and have the updater install it. that way you are certain to get the latest version, and keep updated each time you run the updater.

thanks for reading!