1. #1

    Nameplate problem with DoTs

    As the title suggests, I've been noticing that in multi-add fights or where there are a lot of health bars, my DoT timers will not accurately track properly sometimes, allowing a DoT like Agony to go from appearing at 20+ seconds left, and when I mouse over it or toggle my nameplates on and off, it will then update the DoT timer to be near falling off. It's as if I have to constantly mouse over every nameplate or toggle it on and off to keep my DoT timers accurate and updating properly. I have Tidyplates, and play Affliction, and only really noticing this being a problem in large AoE or multiple add situations. Does anyone have a reason for this, or a fix to get my DoT timers to behave normally and consistently? Having 3-4 dots up on 5/6+ targets can be difficult when I can't trust my nameplates or have to constantly toggle them.

  2. #2
    The problem you describe has been present for a long time and it has to do with the API. Addons can only get debuff information from a certain frames such as target, focus, or boss frames. Nameplates are not on that list. Addons such as tidyplates are actually seeing the duration from one of that list or a tooltip from mousing over a unit. The timers you see on the nameplates is the addon seeing the duration and just assuming the time left. Sometimes this just gets thrown off. The way to get the debuffs updated is to either target all the units or just mouseover everything. A quick pass over the plates with your mouse should be enough to update them all.

  3. #3
    Deleted
    I too get this problem and just assumed it was a bug in threat plates.

    More of a problem for me is dots showing up on a target that doesn't actually have them.

  4. #4
    I've found that Ellipsis does a very good job of tracking DoTs on multi target fights. But then again, you shouldn't be playing Affliction for any fight with more than 3 targets consistently up throughout the fight. For 3 or less targets though Ellipsis is great.

  5. #5
    Actually it's even worse than described above.

    The nameplate object does not give us ANY information about which unit it is for. Wanna know how all of these addons match the nameplate and unit? They base this off of the nameplates highlighting. When you have something targeted, its nameplate is forced to be at 0% transparency (unlike everything else) - addons do have access to this information and this is how we know that this nameplate is the target one. Mind you, I'm talking about the default nameplates, even if you have them hidden, so this is all completely transparent to you and no options in your UI affect this behavior (most likely). Now, whenever you mouseover a nameplate, it also highlights with some white glow - addons also do have access to this info, and hence we can figure out that a nameplate with this glow enabled is the unit we have in mouseover.

    ...and that's it.

    There's nothing else you can use to figure out which nameplate frame refers to which unit. The only other bit of info you do have is the name (not even intentionally there - it's just that you can access the string it displays on screen). But using this one for anything is unreliable because tons of units have the same names. There's only one exception where you CAN use it and that's for players, because we can also check whether a unit is a player or not, so bad names won't break it (e.g. naming your pet after yourself) - nameplate addons already do this, but it's obviously useless for PvE DPS.

    Also, it's not true that these addons are "guessing" anything. They all track a set of combat log events (everything relevant to auras) so if something gets dispelled or removed or whatever, the nameplate will be updated. We have a problem with identifying which nameplate refers to which unit, not with updating auras that are already being displayed! However, if you "throw" a unitframe off the screen, and then bring it back, it will then come back with no debuffs on it until you mouseover or target it to identify what it actually is. So yeah, in a way, stuff is literally getting "thrown off", but not the way you describe.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Oh and by the way, you CAN actually force it to simply name match everything. It will still work flawlessly for encounters where everything has a unique name. I used to manually modify the code in ElvUI to disable the player check, no idea how to do it with Tidy Plates though, sorry.

    Besides, I just eventually stopped doing it because when you understand exactly how it works, it's very easy to see the situations it will bug in. Then you can just remember to mouseover it, count it in your head, or not move the camera in a way you'll force the nameplate off screen. Just adapt, you know. The confusion of it was like, 90% of the problem for me.
    Last edited by razkah; 2015-02-16 at 11:57 AM.

  6. #6
    Is there any way at all to have DoTs on nameplates track without this problem? Perhaps another UI, another addon or something?

  7. #7
    No, this is a limitation of the interface system. The only thing we can do is complain and beg Blizzard to add SOMETHING to the nameplate object that will link it with units. Like, a guid.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by razkah View Post
    No, this is a limitation of the interface system. The only thing we can do is complain and beg Blizzard to add SOMETHING to the nameplate object that will link it with units. Like, a guid.
    Well thanks for your informative post; this issue is very frustrating to deal with.

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