And it’s time for another Fuzzy Addons! What? I’ve never done one before? Don’t take away my thunder.
I’m an addon addict. Tweaking the game gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. Every now and then, I find one that’s actually useful too!
Today’s Addon is Bad Kitty, a monitoring tool for Feral Druids. It’s fairly customizable, and I suggest you do so. The default amount of info it puts out is somewhat overkill. Here’s mine:
I got to take this baby for a spin last night running a few Wrath instances for the first time. It’s been mentioned to me a couple times that Critty Kitty DPS rotations are some of the most complicated and difficult in the game. Let me let you in on a secret. Kitties don’t have “rotations”. We are creatures of opportunity. We maintain four debuffs and one buff, pop two other buffs when they’re needed/available, and stay behind our target using Shred whenever the other affairs are in order. For that task, an addon like Bad Kitty is useful beyond belief.
Bad Kitty gives info two ways, one in bar form and one in “idiot light” form. You can choose how much, if any, either offers, and can move them where ever you’ll look at them. The order of information can be adjusted and there’s a variety of orientations for the indicators (I like one vertical line, myself).
What do mine up there say? I have 73 Energy and 2 of 5 Combo Points. My Savage Roar buff has a duration of zero (is not up), Tiger’s Fury is not on cooldown, and I do not have the instant cast buff from Predatory Strikes. The idiot lights say my target does not have Fairy Fire or Mangle cast. The Rake debuff will end in 3 seconds. Rip and Savage Roar are not up. Tiger’s Fury is off cooldown and ready for use. I just serviced Critty Kitty, so her Check Engine light is off.
The idiot icons typically disappear when their conditions are met, but I have it set to appear with a count down if the effect/cooldown has less than 6 seconds left. This is optional, but I like to have a heads up if I’m going to have to refresh something in the next couple of attacks.
Notice that while Savage Roar and Tiger’s Fury are both buffs, they’re tracked differently. SR is a buff you typically want to keep going always and forever, so it tracks the buff duration. TF is a short buff with a long cooldown, so it tracks the cooldown, since you’re typically more interested in when it becomes available to use again. I haven’t added Berserk yet, but it is also tracked via cooldown. Handy stuff.
Bad Kitty works for Bear too, though they have less to watch. It’s still handy for watching Lacerate and Mangle. My only complaint is BK only tracks Mangle as a debuff duration, but as Bear you’re going to occasionally be concerned both with its duration and cooldown. If the rage is pouring in and I’m single-target tanking, I like to spam Mangle, (along side Lacerate, and Maul) as fast as it become available. Such a minor thing, though.
Fortune Cookie:
Is it so wrong that I sing the Meow Mix theme as I’m laying waste to hordes of baddies?
