A New Generation of Boss Mods?

Now every time someone mentions one of the big BossMods, a whole group of people will reel off something along the lines of “I don’t need no stinkin’ addons. L2P”. They may well be right. Perhaps they are able to pay attention to many things at once, and are able to monitor and react to such things perfectly as well as doing their maximum dps. Lucky them, and lucky for their raid group.

Not everyone is so lucky. You get the tunnel-vision healer who misses Dark Pact, despite the massive red line and the raid mark over their head. You get the hunter who forgets to pay attention to their proximity monitor, and stands too close to a healer.

The big name mods are Bigwigs, DeadlyBossMods and Deus Vox Encounters – there are some others out there, but this appears to be a first of it’s kind (much like Event Horizon and Power Auras).

The new kid on the block is AVR Encounters. I believe it is just hitting it’s first release candidate. Last night our Grand High Poobah (AKA GM, RL and MT) declared that we should all down load this new bossmod (and AVR, which it requires to run) and test it out.

Of course, most of us were running DBM/BW or DVE along side it – it doesn’t replaced the big three, it augments them.

A New Generation?

Well, every now and then a mod comes out that doesn’t so much trivialise encounters, as present them in a way that is easier to understand. I won’t deny that for the majority of boss fights, I don’t need a BossMod telling to get the fuck out of Death and Decay. FIRE IS VISIBLE.  Where new ‘paradigm’ mods excel is in presenting information to you in a better way. Remember the first time you used a threatmeter, or a range finder? Or the first time you configured a bag mod, or Auctioneer? Or a spelltimer? Or a latency embedded casting bar?

Or PowerAuras?

The best mods make things either simpler to understand, or present existing information in a more logical fashion. For me Event Horizon is a Paradigm mod, and I’m sure I’d be a little lost without, because it presents time information in a logical, compact format.

So what does AVR do?

‘AVR’ stands for ‘Augmented Virtual Reality’ – it allows mods and raid leaders to draw stuff on the 3D virtual world that our toons exist in. AVR Encounters is essentially utilising AVR to create circles and lines on the ground, replacing the need to frantically ping the mini-map, or create elaborate images before every raid. Where range is an issue the addon ‘paints’ a circle around you on the floor – a neat way to aid overall positioning as opposed to the traditional range finder.

So did it help?

I used it in conjunction with Deus Vox Encounters last night – for fights like Marrowgar and Deathwhisper it made little to no difference, but in my opinion visibility isn’t an issue for ranged DPS and healers on those fights.

Where the addon really shines is fights like Professor Putricide and Rotface (and Festergut to a certain extent). I don’t know about you, but figuring out where Malleable Goo is potentially going to land is DIFFICULT for me. I make it my number one priority and I have a hard time judging when I’m safe, to the point that I get over cautious and my DPS falls substantially. AVR Encounters puts a blue circle around everyone in the raid, and then puts a red one around the person targeted. To be sure of being safe, you get out of all the Blue Circles.

The number of people getting hit by Malleable Goo, compared to previous nights, dropped dramatically. Even people I know who are awesome at staying out of fires have difficulty with Malleable Goo. It is insidious stuff. I also reckon it is hell to get out in the wash.

Bloody Malleable Goo.

On Rotface, it was fantastic because it was less easy to be caught out by an oddly positioned hunter. There was no need to run AS far, you can dps more and spend more focus on avoiding the slime spray.

I must admit,  part of the value for me is that it will make things easier for guildies who tend to get a little tunnel visioned, or find raid chat too difficult to follow during a right. It’s a big, visual indicator and doesn’t require you to focus on a specific little box or timer.

I am really looking forward to using it for Sindragosa, because some of us have short memories and can’t remember which raid mark is supposed to stand where.

But I like my existing BossMod!

No problem – Deus Vox Encounter will work perfectly alongside AVR Encounters, so you don’t have to install RaidWatch 2, which is the only BossMod currently includes AVR integration. AVR Encounters doesn’t replace timers and proximity monitors that existing BossMods already supply, it merely gives additional visual aids.

But this makes the game too easy!

Well, this was a response from a couple of our raid members. If they think they can avoid the mechanics just fine without any bossmod, the more power to them. Personally I am glad that these sorts of tools are developed for raiders who have difficulty with more twitchy encounters. I can also see this tool being useful for anyone who lives with a disorder or a disability that limits their ability to process the information that the game presents them.

I’m interested to see where AVR will take future addon development, as raid leaders and members get more adept at drawing on the game world. AVR Encounters gives us some basics, but the real power in AVR is the ability to create custom shapes and share them with your raid members. Tales of a Priest blogged about how their guild created custom meshes for Sindragosa, and include an excellent video. I look forward to trying this new API out on future raids.

Like this? You might enjoy:

• Elemental Love Letter: Event Horizon
• AVR is Dead. Long Live the Bossmod

Tags: addons, bossmod, event horizon, interface, poobah, UI