World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Last week we discussed how to Enhance your Shaman. This week we’ll be discussing some ways to Modify you Shaman. A less self assured person may think there is something wrong them. Don’t worry, it’s not you, it’s the game. Also feel free to use the phrase, “this has never happened to me before” mostly during wipes.

There are a litany of mods available for the World of Warcraft.  I’m going to "steer" clear of the mods that are designed for every class. For example Quest Helper, a tremendously powerful mod that really makes questing in WoW extremely simple. Great mod? Sure. Can Shamans use it? Absolutely. Will this specifically help my Shaman’s game play? No.

As such here are few Shaman specific mods, or SSMs. Ok, that term doesn’t exist yet. Feel free to coin, seem hip and cool to your guildies.

Totem Caddy
Without a doubt, Totems are the defining ability of Shamans. Worried about getting your Totems placed quickly? Hate when you set a Water Totem, just to accidentally replace it with another Water Totem? Well who doesn’t? FEAR NOT, Totem Caddy will remedy all those problems and many more.  Totem Caddy is a well laid out mod that not only monitors your Totem’s timers, it additionally monitors the timers of your shield and weapon imbuement. TC is very easy to use and fairly unobtrusive mod. The player can set one totem per element on the UI. There are also sections for set what shield and weapon imbuement of your choice. Once your totems are chosen, just hit the giant button in the middle of the UI. The mod will automatically switch to the next Totem in the rotation. Totem Caddy is useful for any Shaman spec. There are also built in timers to know when your Totems expire. A visual notification will notify the player when their shield and imbuement have expired. It’s a well thought out and planned mod, although players could set a variety of macros to obtain the same goal.  Totem Caddy will allow for a little more on the fly type of programming though..

Heal Bot
Here’s a little Restoration Build love, folks. While not exclusive to Shamans it is by far one of the most useful healing mods out there. Heal Bot lists the members of your raid on a separate grid. A variety of skins built into the mod will allow players to configure the screen as they see fit.  Don’t care about the scenery? Set it to max.  Need to move with a little more agility in order to make jumps or avoid flames? Choose another view.  Heal Bot allows a player to program three heals controlled by your mouse buttons. (right, left, and middle) By moving your cursor of the name in the Heal Bot grid, and click the appropriate mouse button. It really does make healing a bit easier.  There is a down side to this system.  clicking on a name in the Heal Bot grid does not “select” the character. It is for those mouse controlled heals only. So be wary with trying to cast another shield on a tank using this select feature. Although if you are savvy enough you can “perma-select” your tank or character of choice.  This allows you to keep them as your target while not having to worry about deselecting them to heal another raid member.  

Decursive
If you are familiar with WoW, then you have heard of Decursive. A Simple tool to target players and remove curses. The audible chime of this mod will notify you of your afflicted party members. Simply find the individual within the grid and click on them. There really isn’t much more to it than that. Although you may want to coordinate with your fellow raid members who you should be focusing on. It may help to break the raid into easier to manage decursing groups.  It’s pointless for too many people to focus on the same player while others may suffer.  This mod is usually geared for restoration Shamans with the talent Cleanse Spirit which allows a Shaman to dispel poison, disease, and curses.Enhancement and Elemental Shaman are usually focused on DPS so a good restoration Shaman can both heal and decurse at the same time.  

Shock and Awe
This Mod is mainly geared  to assist an enhancement Shaman.  Shock and Awe displays timer bars for all Shaman Shields, Feral Spirits, Shamanistic Rage, Shocks, Stormstrike, Windfury, Maelstrom Weapon, and Lava Lash. It will show you the number of orbs an earth, water, or lightning shield will have, stacks of MW, and advises of next shock in rotation. Using the new priority box will ensure you will always use the highest damage ability to maximize your DPS.  Shock and Awe will also warn you if you do not have a Shaman weapon enchant on your weapon (Windfury, Earthliving) and will announce when your shield runs out of orbs or expires.  This mod, in my opinion, is one of the most important mods for a DPS Shaman and a true must have.

Totem Timers
The Totem Timers mod displays timers for all four totem types and their cooldowns as well as all three types of shaman shields, the reincarnation cooldown, and weapon buffs like Windfury, Earthliving, and Flametongue. Each timer can be used to cast its associated spells, either by mouse or keybinds.  You can simple set it up to have left mouse button will cast Windfury Weapon, right mouse button will cast Earthliving Weapon and last but not least the middle mouse button will cast Flametongue Weapon.  The same setting idea can be for all three Shaman shields.  As a restoration Shaman I use Totem Timers in conjunction with Totem Caddy  where I mainly use Totem Timers for the weapon timer and Totem Caddy for the totem timers.

Shields Up
This is a simple but effective Mod for every type of Shaman.  You can monitor your Earth, Water, and Lightening Shield. A clear text will appear in the middle of your screen stating how many charges your shield has remaining and if a particular shield is overwritten by another.  Along with text, a sound alert will happen when your shield expires or is removed. Players can customize the sounds, colors, and icons based on their preference.The newest version of  Shields Up will support all talents, for example, Improved Earth Shield or Static Shock along with every type of glyph.
  
X-Perl Unitframes
I know this mod is not "specific" for the Shaman Class but I believe X-Perl is one of the most important Mods for a Shaman or any class for that matter.  Useful tools such as Range Finder which fades in and out based on if that raid member is out of range for incoming heals.  Debuff Highlighting is a nice addition because it will light up or color a raid members raid bar if they have a debuff.  Priority given to show debuffs that you can cure first.  HoT Monitor will highlight raid members clearly that have you own active heal over time spells. Regardless of how many other heal over time buffs are on the raid members, you can keep track of your own hots and when they expire. With X-Perl you can change the size, color, and text of your raid and party frames and  you can choose to show buffs and debuffs on party and raid members.  Grim Reaper, which is one of my favorite additions to X-Perl, gives you an indicator on how a raid members dies.  


I know there are some players out there that say mods "ruin the game" or "make WoW way too easy" but in my opinion a mod cannot play the game for you, only enhance your experience of the game.