Hekili - Yet Another DPS Shaman Priority AddOn

[Hekili]

Aloha all,

Note: As of r22, Hekili supports Elemental Shamans as well. It's in early testing, feedback appreciated.

After playing with several of the popular rotation helper addons, I decided to draw upon the strengths of several of them and develop my own from the ground up. The features I appreciated and drew inspiration from are as follows:

From EnhaPrio, I liked the 'queue' and being able to see the next several abilities rather than just one or two. It helps with decision-making if I know I don't want to use the highest priority ability for some reason.
From clcEnh, I liked that its second recommended ability was based off of using the first, applying/consuming buffs and debuffs if appropriate, but it seemed limited to just two abilities.
From Nemo, I liked that it tracked some combat events that are useful for making decisions about what abilities to use, like application of Flame Shocks.

With those features in mind, I built Hekili (Hawaiian for Thunder, and, conveniently, my Shaman's name).

One Recommended Layout

Hekili on Curse

Key Features

• Two priority queues, one for single-target and one for multiple targets. You can configure the number of abilities shown for each queue, from 1-5. The primary buttons are independently resizable and the queue buttons are sized and spaced according to your settings. You can adjust the direction of each queue (left-to-right or right-to-left). Each queue is independently skinnable with Masque/LBF, so you can make them visually distinct if needed.
• The addon's recommendations are affected by things like buffs, debuffs, and number of active targets. Targets are counted by looking at who you have damaged in the past X seconds (see 'Grace Period') that is still alive. If you have multiple active targets, your AE rotation may be highlighted.
• At this time, each queue is closely based on available theorycrafting information. The Enhancement profile is very closely based on SimulationCraft. The Elemental profile follows Icy-Veins and TotemSpot. Some slight adjustments are made (refreshing your totem if there's nothing else to do, for instance). Because of this, it also adjusts quite well to talent and glyph changes if they impact your priority list.
• The addon can project the next 5 abilities it will recommend, barring some things like random procs. Each ability is recommended based on what the game state will look like after using its predecessor. Additionally, each prediction is made with the player's buffs, debuffs, and target debuffs in mind. If the addon is predicting what to use in 3 seconds, and Flame Shock wears off in 2 seconds, this will be factored into its recommendation.
• Showing hardcasts (Lightning Bolt without 5 Maelstrom Weapon stacks / no Ancestral Swiftness) can be toggled in the options or with a keybind (Hi, Thok!). Cooldowns can be toggled as well, and can be filtered out based on a number of criteria, including racials, professions, cooldown duration, etc. This is useful if you're holding CDs for another phase of a fight.
• Memory usage is stable (no leaking!) and CPU usage is moderate, comparable to addons like TellMeWhen.
• OmniCC compatible if you want to see cooldown timers on each icon. Additionally, the greentext in the upper right shows its own "time to use" which may be different from the ability's actual cooldown. The text at the bottom is intended to give some indication why an ability is recommended. These will be hide-able in a future version.
• Tracker icons are available, to show buffs/debuffs/cooldowns/totems. They are customizable and each module has recommended settings for your specialization.

Key Faults (why not?)

• Unpredictable events remain unpredictable. Maelstrom Weapon stacks are not projected (though I intend to experiment with this). Tier 16 4pc can cause Lava Lash resets which can't be predicted, but can only be responded to. These unpredictable events are not missed by the addon, but they will cause those abilities to 'jump' to their position in the queue. All recommendations are re-evaluated 10x/second.
• Cannot edit the priority queues from in-game.
• No alternative rotations/modules are available at this time.
• No 'help the healers' mode to recommend popping Healing Stream/etc. when no other abilities are available at this time.
  
• No localization efforts have been made at this time. Will need a few translators available before that effort begins. (Contact me if interested!)

Help, It's Broken!

• "I logged in and it doesn't show anything!" Make sure you have a module selected on the Basic Settings tab in the addon's options. Your choices are between "Enhancement Shaman SimC 5.4.1" and "(none)". If you are not an Enhancement Shaman, you will not be able to select anything but "(none)". If you downloaded r6 or earlier, the default priority list was "(none)". For r7 and later, the Enhancement Shaman SimC 5.4.1 is loaded by default, but will unload if you are the wrong class or specialization.
• "I logged in but the addon doesn't look like the picture!" I use Masque to change the look of the frames; I recommend it. Next, I change the multi-target queue direction to be right-to-left and place the multi-target queue next to the single target queue. I only show two of the multi-target icons but you can show as many as you want. I also make the multi-target priority icon size '45' and the queued icons '40'. I believe I left both at 50 by default.

If you use a priority helper, you may want to check this one out and see if you find it helpful. I have been using the addon in normal and heroic raiding (up to and including Heroic Malkorok) for the past couple of weeks without issue. I only have a few testers at this point, so there are likely bugs to be discovered. No warranty if it breaks while you're soloing Heroic Garrosh. Please drink responsibly. If you find a bug, please report it via the CurseForge ticket interface! Or make a recommendation/feature request there. Whatever works!

I just wanted to get the word out, so I hope this is an appropriate venue. I would appreciate any constructive impressions, thoughts, testing, and criticism y'all may have. Thanks for taking a look!

[Serival]

Downloaded, installed, enabled in the game menu (shows up in the addon menu on character login screen), yet there's no sign the addon exists when I'm logged into my shaman. Any ideas?

[Walterpayton]

I will download and give this a look tonight after work and update with feedback.

[Daagar]

Looks phenomenal. My shaman isn't 90 yet, but this is encouragement to get there ASAP. I've long played alts based on accessibility of nice weakaura/tellmewhen/whatever configs because switching between toons frequently always has some amount of 'relearning' curve for me. This combines all that and significantly more.

EDIT: One request right out of the gate - an option for Out of Combat alpha/fade settings please

[Hekili]

Serival: Please check to see if Hekili is shown in your options list (Game Menu -> Interface -> AddOns). If so, check to see that the 'Enhancement Shaman SimC 5.4.1' module is selected for your Primary or Secondary Specialization on the Basic Settings tab. If you logged in as Resto or Elemental, the AddOn may have unloaded its module and hidden itself. (Also, check that the AddOn is Enabled, and the Enable Single Target and Enable Multi-Target is checked.) If the AddOn still isn't showing up, please add my BattleTag and we can troubleshoot in game. My BattleTag is Kapulani#1847.

Walterpayton: Thanks! Please let me know if you have any problems or feedback.

Daagar: Should have a hide out of combat/no target/etc. option added today or tomorrow. I'm also pushing some tweaks/bugfixes out today.


I went ahead and pushed out a bunch of updates as beta r11. This includes:
* Show Always vs. Show with Target (hides the displays when not targeting a hostile mob).
* Renamed the SVN repository so the addon will install to "Hekili" rather than "hekili". Serival, this may be another potential fix for your 'not displaying' issue.
* Added Virmen's Bite back to the cooldown rotation.
* Fixed combat time check for Stormlash Totem, fixed hardcast flagging for many spells, fixed Frost Shock T14 check, removed Fire Elemental CD check from Earth Elemental Totem (may revert, can interfere with CDs), changed refresh timer for Searing Totem to < 15 seconds, fixed wait value for Fire Nova, fixed Elemental Blast check for MW stacks.
* Moved 'Show Interrupts' and 'Show Precombat' to Basic Settings.

[Daagar]

Show with Target works great, thanks for that! Another minor cosmetic request - a way to change the font independent of the rest of the interface. Rapidly becoming an old man, so my normal fonts are decently sized/non-pixel fonts. However, this means the cool text at the bottom for showing why a skill has priority is getting cut off. I'm finding that text really helpful from a learning standpoint - it is one thing to blindly follow a priority system, but quite another to learn more deeply "why" a skill popped.

I don't claim to have extensive experience with all the rotational helper addons out there, but of the ones I've tried this is by far the most intuitive, seemingly accurate, and feature rich (without adding complexity). Even just while leveling, this addon is working great and as I said with the 'why' text, I'm gaining better insight into the rotation. Love it!

[Hekili]

Thanks for the feedback, Daagar. I actually use the addon with Fontifier (another addon) which lets me scale my fonts. I'd recommend that, but will definitely consider allowing font sizes to be set by the user at a later date.

I've posted several updates since last night, including fixes for the potion problem, the failure to load, etc. Added more options for filtering abilities, both cooldowns and in the general rotations.

[Walterpayton]

So I dabbled with it some the last couple of days and so far it is pretty nice. One main thing I notice that would be nice is for it to toggle view just in and out of combat instead of the current version where it is always on or you have to have a target. It threw me off a bit when I had multiple mobs and was switching targets to have it disappear and reappear like that.

Other than that good work and thanks for sharing it. I will update again if I think of anything new or notice any bugs.

[Coldbeer]

Nice addon bro, i installed it today, a question, can you add a option or something to hide the addon in bg/arenas and support to ele like enhaprio?


thanks

[Hekili]

Walterpayton: That makes sense. I need to decide the full range of visibility options. I'll work on that in the next few days.

Coldbeer: r18 is in alpha and has the option to hide the addon in bg/arenas. Elemental support is planned but won't get implemented until all the basic functionality is complete for Enhancement, and after I build the Flame Shock/Maelstrom Weapon trackers how I want them. I'm hoping to get there w/in a couple of weeks.

[Coldbeer]

Why when reload ui or relog in the game appear tis second bar with the bloodlust icon?



I diabled the aoe option just want the 2 icons.

[Hekili]

Coldbeer: The 'Bloodlust'/Shaman icon is the default icon I use for testing; there's obviously an error in my 'show' logic that I need to address. I'm in the middle of a bigger revamp, but I'll take care of it soon. In the meantime, enabling and then disabling the second bar should get it to disappear. Crappy solution, but I won't get a fix out until tonight or tomorrow AM.

[Coldbeer]

Thanks @Kapulani, very nice addon.

[Kizy]

I like what I've seen with it so far! The amount of information it gives you w/ the default load is a bit much. Took me a few mins of looking at it to figure out what all information was being displayed in verbose mode..

Might there be a way to "combine" the two bars in a different mode or something, so that: if FS = 1; single target, if FS = 2+; aoe rotation?
idk, I'm just not a fan of having to look in "2 different" locations.

[Hekili]

Kizy: I'm actually working on that right this moment. Well, I have it working. I have a couple of concerns.

First, there are a lot of good reasons to weave between single-target priority and AOE priority during a fight. I like having the information for myself, but I understand when people just want to see one set of data.

Second, sometimes the game lies to us or neglects to tell us something. This means that sometimes, we're not told that one of our Flame Shocks wore off, or that a cluster of enemies that 'despawned' (that we were counting as enemies) are gone now. So the addon could believe you're fighting multiple targets for a few seconds longer than you actually are. That's not gamebreaking, but if you are only using 1 display, then you won't see your single-target priority until the addon figures out that there's not another target out there. So I'm testing that a bit.

I think I'll end up putting the feature out there, and people will have to decide if they're willing to accept that compromise.

[Kizy]

Kizy: I'm actually working on that right this moment. Well, I have it working. I have a couple of concerns.

First, there are a lot of good reasons to weave between single-target priority and AOE priority during a fight. I like having the information for myself, but I understand when people just want to see one set of data.

Second, sometimes the game lies to us or neglects to tell us something. This means that sometimes, we're not told that one of our Flame Shocks wore off, or that a cluster of enemies that 'despawned' (that we were counting as enemies) are gone now. So the addon could believe you're fighting multiple targets for a few seconds longer than you actually are. That's not gamebreaking, but if you are only using 1 display, then you won't see your single-target priority until the addon figures out that there's not another target out there. So I'm testing that a bit.

I think I'll end up putting the feature out there, and people will have to decide if they're willing to accept that compromise.

The other "issue" with it is simply mechanics, such as needing to burn a boss quickly to progress phase regardless of aoe to pad meters.
another thing that could mess it up would be flame shock and range. I'll occasionally FS a ranged mob to fish for procs or w/e, or things will pat away. Obv in that situation I shouldn't be dropping fire nova or using CL.

Rotation addons are never going to be able to do a "Catch all". It's just nice to have some form of reference to fall back to

[Buddahpal]

I've been running into a small problem everytime i log now it seems to forget that i want it on so i have to go into the option of the addon and make it load the module again. Is there something im doing wrong or is this suppose to happen, i dont remember it doing this before just started noticing it now.

Edit: I dont know if it makes a difference but its the secondary specilization module thats doing it.

[Hekili]

Buddahpal: Did the addon tell you it was unloading the module? Or did it just vanish? I believe I found a typo that could have caused that. I'm going to be pushing out an update in a little bit that will tweak/update a lot of things; let me know if you still have the problem then.

[Buddahpal]

Buddahpal: Did the addon tell you it was unloading the module? Or did it just vanish? I believe I found a typo that could have caused that. I'm going to be pushing out an update in a little bit that will tweak/update a lot of things; let me know if you still have the problem then.

No, no notice it would be up when i logged and then when i log back in it would be gone and i would need to reload the module.

[Hekili]

r20 *cough* is up as an alpha version. I changed too much in one build on the backend of things, so this is genuinely alpha because there are probably all sorts of situations I haven't anticipated.

Here's what's actually useful:

+ Option for 'Multi Integration' which is a really obnoxious name. It lets you dump the AOE priority into your Single Target display if a certain number of targets are detected. I'm not 100% in favor of the feature, but it's too easy to implement and just see how it pans out. Let me know how it works for you, Kizy.

+ You can now decide how many updates per second you want from the addon. This will help some people w/ CPU issues. The default setting is 10 updates per second, which feels responsive. You can set it as low as 4 updates per second (once every 0.25 seconds), and there are some additional event handlers trying to give you extra updates if/when you're actually using abilities.

+ Improved CPU efficiency of several other parts of the addon. Visibility settings are pruned down and not using wasteful string parsing for no good reason. Name Filters now add/remove flags instead of using repetitive string parsing. I'm hoping this addresses concerns about frame rate dips, etc.


Bugfixes:

- Removed button:Show() when initializing UI so that people who disable one of the priority lists aren't forced to look at Bloodlust icons. (Thanks, Coldbeer!)

- Properly support Spiritwalker's Grace, although I don't see why it belongs in the single target list at all (unless you have Elemental Blast talented). Maybe I should take it up with Purge?

- Fixed an error in 'Show Cooldowns' checkbox logic.

- Added 3 second cooldown to Chain Lightning.

- Flame Shock placed on spell GCD (not melee GCD).

- Moved RegisterEvent() into OnEnable() so that events get picked up after a disable and enable. (I.e., multi-target detection still works if you turn the addon off and back on again.)

- Verbose is now off by default.

- May (?) have fixed an issue with the module unloading itself for no good reason. Update to r20 and let me know, Buddahpal.


I really appreciate the feedback thus far. This build will probably have to sit in alpha for a day or two while I collect feedback about any bugs that creep in. I'm going to do some testing of my own in flex.