Minipost: Keybind letters in your Weakauras, part 2


Since last week's post about keybind weakauras, I thought I'd follow up with a few more thoughts on the matter.

First off, someone asked how these auras were made, and what font I use. Both are simple answers! The font is Emblem, and the cooldown auras are quick and easy to set up.

First make a new weakaura, and choose Text. Name it whatever you want.


In the Display Text box, type in what you want the aura to say. In this case I'm using Blinding Light, which is bound to F2, so I'll put "F2" in the box. Hit Accept.

(I've moved the aura up and increased the size so it's visible.)


Go to the Triggers tab. Under Type, select Status. Then under Status, select Action Usable. Finally, under Spell, type in the name of the ability. (For this example, Blinding Light.)

This will display F2 on my screen whenever Blinding Light is usable.


Now for the second half - showing the cooldown timer when Blinding Light is not usable.

Create a second Text aura. For simplicity you probably want to name it similar to the first one, so they're next to each other in your auras list.

In the Display Text box, put %p.

Next, Triggers tab. Type is Status, then Status is Cooldown Progress (Spell). And once again, enter the name of the ability under Spell.


And that's it! Functionally, the auras are done. Now you can change the font color/size, move them around to wherever you want, anything you desire! I usually have the "Usable" auras larger and more colorful, and the cooldown timers smaller and plain white, since I really want to notice when something is ready to use.


* * * * *

Now, this is all well and good, the keybind auras are useful, everything's great. HOWEVER, after last week's post I was playing around with options and found something that makes learning a new spec/class even easier: Dynamic Groups.

The first step is to make Action Usable auras for your rotational abilities. Don't worry about the cooldown timer ones.

Next, make a new aura, but choose Dynamic Group. Name it whatever.

Now go to each ability in your rotation, click the little arrow icon that says "Put this display in a group", and then click your new Dynamic Group to place the ability in the group. Do this for your entire rotation.


Now expand your Dynamic Group (the red + sign), and use the little triangular up/down icons next to your abilities to place them in the proper order. (The sideways triangle removes an ability from the group.) Most important goes at the top!


What you now have is something that looks like this.


Big deal, right? Well, that WERSD is my rotation, in order of importance. And when I use the first ability in my rotation - Crusader Strike, which is Shift-W - the auras change to this:


And they will continue to update dynamically (thus the name) as I hit buttons. When I hit Shift-E, the auras will become RSD. And if Crusader Strike then comes off cooldown? The auras will update to WRSD.

I'm still pretty blown away at how smooth this is. Learning a new spec or class and don't know the abilities? Or just having difficulty remembering a rotation in the heat of combat? Just whip up some weakauras, stick them in a Dynamic Group, and you're set! Rotations really don't get easier than keep pressing the keybind on the left.

I'll be using Dynamic Groups for rotational help when Fabulor is tanking, but also on any alts I haven't played in a while. I think half my alts have undergone major class changes since the last time I've played them, but as long as I can program in their basic rotations from Icy Veins or Noxxic, I'll be set!

1 Response Subscribe to comments

  1. gravatar
    Anonymous

    I was the anonymous commenter who requested some more details on the first article.

    Thank you for posting the follow up article.

    I've used this set up on a couple of alts now and it works brilliantly to help learn new rotations.

    December 4, 2013 at 9:42 PM