You've gotta get some Glowies!

So, I'm playing with another addon. This one is called Power Auras. This addon kicks some ass!

So, what this addon does is put little blinky/flashy icons or emblems on your screen when you proc a buff... Or if your mana gets low... Or if you're missing a buff that you should have.

I play an Arcane Mage, so today I'm going to tell you how to set up Power Auras to show you when you have 3 stacks of the Arcane Blast debuff. When you see this indicator, then you'll know it's time to cast Arcane Missiles or Arcane Barrage (or, if you're dumping, you'll know your blasts are costing the maximum amount of mana)

I'll assume you can get the addon installed. If you can't do that, then see my other posts about how to install an addon (have I written one yet? I'll have to go check :P hahaha)

Now, log into game, and type /powa to bring up the config window.

Remind me to find a good image hosting site so i can actually stick pictures in here.

The effect we're going to create is relevant only to mages, so let's create this in the "Character effects" section. Click on "Page 1" , then click the red button labeled "New"

A new window pops up called Effects Editor.

The top half controls what the glowy/blinky/flashing effect will be. You can choose from a ton of differnet "textures", and each can be any color you choose(or randomize!). You can stretch the shape, and you can reposition the glowy anywhere on the screen. The slider knobs for position X and Y seem to only let you drag the glowy a little bit, but if you let go, the slider will snap back to center so you can drag the glowy further if you wish. Tooltips appear over every option so it's easy to explore and experiment.

The default options are fine for our first glowy, though I would change the color from white to something else (I picked yellow). There's a little white square below the test texture, and if you click it, you can change the color. Texture: 1 is fine to start with.

Now go down the the bottom half of the Effect Editor. There's 4 tabs. Click the first tab to control what effect actually causes the glowy to show up on screen.

Set the Drop-down box to "Debuff". Set Stacks to "=3" In the text field below the dropdown, type in "Arcane Blast". That's all we need to create a glowy for a debuff. You could create similar glowy's for debuffs like "Positive Charge" and "Negative Charge" on thaddius with giant arrows that point left or right (depending on how your raid does it :P )

Next, choose the Animation tab. This tab lets you make the glowy actually do more than just sit there, and this is what makes this addon so cool - the point of these glowies is to grab your attention, and this addon lets you make each glowy do different dances on the screen to get your attention. For now, set Begin Animation to "Zoom In", End Animation to "Zoom Out", Main Animation to "Static" and Secondary Animation to "Shrinking". You can leave the rest alone.

That's all we need for this glowy. Now, close the Effect Editor by clicking the [X] in the corner, or just hit your escape key to close everything. Your glowy is now ready for use. Go nuke something 3 times with Arcane Blast and you'll see the glowy!

These glowys can be so effective that they start to look like the game's built in graphics effects. It's important to remember that these effects will only appear on your screen - other players won't see them. I mention this because it's easy to create glowy's that look like the real thing - like creating a bubble glowy for a Paladin that reminds you that you have Hand of Protection on, even though it doesn't really look like a bubble anymore. (Silly Blizzard, now my paladin named Bubblewrap doesn't make as much sense :P)

There you go. Tune in next time when I tell you how to do something else cool with an addon.