Bear add-ons?

[Neotokyo]

I am new to bear tanking and would like some advice on an add-on. I am looking for one that will announce to the raid / instance when I use a defensive cool down or taunt a target. also something that makes marking easier would be great.

[traen]

I am new to bear tanking and would like some advice on an add-on. I am looking for one that will announce to the raid / instance when I use a defensive cool down or taunt a target. also something that makes marking easier would be great.

Tidy plates. You need good nameplates to know if mobs in the pack are attacking you and which of them is going to lose aggro soon.
Announcements are easy - replace your binds with macro like this:
/cast Barkskin
/rw I'm stupid bear who likes to spam useless info into raid chat.

Unless your raid leader and your healers asked you to announce your defensive cds you don't need anything like that.
If you raid it's always more effective to announce your CDs in ventrilo like "Used shieldwall, give me PS in 5 seconds...3..2..1..now!" or "Taunted the boss, heal me".

If you are in random party announcements from tank are really annoying. Do you really think that people care if you lost agro on mob and had to taunt it?
When I play healer I just ignore such tank and continue the run in silence.

What else... raidframes obviously. Proper raid frames where you can see who is dead, who is on low HP, who got agro. Just choose one of them, they are all pretty much the same.
DBM. It's hard to imagine raiding nowdays without dbm. You should know when to taunt stuff and when to use your CDs.
Something to keep track of your cooldowns. But it's quite optional.

I wouldn't recommend using too many addons or complex macro for a beginner. Focus on what's going on around you, not on your interface.

[Christan]

as for marking things you can keybind marks,

i use 0-9 on the numpad, granted only 3-4 are ever needed i like having more control
i mean actual keybinding works for it, there are also mouseover macro's but heh...save those macro spots to putting marks on the ground(pillars of color'd light)

as for bear addons...i don't play bear anymore <3 monk, more utility, same leather wearing avoidance class...a tad more spikey and much more reliant on gear...but whoo...
when you do get geared(my monk is Hakujaden-Darkspear@US) they are so amazing and do so much damage...
i remember my bear in cata...so much damage for a tank, loved it love love love...i switched to monk for the mobility, raid cd, more anti magic skills..

wish i could help with the bear addons but hope you like knowing about being able to keybind raid icons

[Arielle]

Pretty sure Droodfocus does that iirc.

I also wrote something when I re-did my UI a few months back: http://theincbear.com/constructing-a-guardian-ui

[Deleted]

Sounds more like you need some general raiding add-ons.

To announce CD's there's Raeli's Spell Announcer, it can also announce taunts, CR's dispels, Stampeding Roar and basically everything else.

There's several world marker add-ons out there, just go to Curse and browse around.

But Imo the most important add-on you need to get, is Weak Auras. Makes it so much easier to keep track of everything.

[Sonnillon]

Droodfocus is easier to handle imho, then twm. I am using both (drood for my drood and tmw for the rest of my chars).

As for the world marker addons, I would just suggest in making macros and binding them to keys. Just cause most of the marker add-ons are out of date and/or give you errors which either forces you to reload UI or doesn't load at all.

/wm1

/wm2

etc

And as for announcing, pls no.... If you raid in a guild group, it is easy to call out a taunt or defensive CD on voice chat. If you go pugging, well, no one really cares. As many people (no offense intended) have no idea how to configure their effin announcing add-ons.... And those just spam the chat... annoying.

[Deleted]

Droodfocus is easier to handle imho, then twm. I am using both (drood for my drood and tmw for the rest of my chars).

As for the world marker addons, I would just suggest in making macros and binding them to keys. Just cause most of the marker add-ons are out of date and/or give you errors which either forces you to reload UI or doesn't load at all.

/wm1

/wm2

etc

And as for announcing, pls no.... If you raid in a guild group, it is easy to call out a taunt or defensive CD on voice chat. If you go pugging, well, no one really cares. As many people (no offense intended) have no idea how to configure their effin announcing add-ons.... And those just spam the chat... annoying.

I have to disagree about the announcement of important CD's. Ofc you need to have a working brain and not have the add-on spam every single thing you do. But in a hectic moment where you're already calling out something else, I just cbf wasting time calling out my major CD's as well.

On top of that, my healers are used to the add-on, letting them know exactly when a CD is being used and when it's over, so they can line up externals perfectly.

I also use a raid CD add-on tracker called Hermes. It shows me what CD's are available in my raid group and when the CD of them. Again, me calling for a Barrier, just to realize Barrier is on CD, can cause a wipe. Me being able to see, that Barrier is on CD but Spirit Link Totem is ready, can make all the difference and it avoids confusion.

For casual content, 5 mans and LFR, sure you don't need any of this. But if you intend to raid somewhat serious, proper add-ons are important.

[Neotokyo]

Thanks for the replies guys, decided to go with rsa and weak auras. They seem to do everything I want them to.

[Bearshield]

I've use Simple Taunt Announce before and liked it. You can set it up to work differently in different environments, like setting it to announce your taunt in raids, but not in LFR. You can also set it to whisper you (and only you) when someone else taunts which can come in handy at times.

I think as to announcing cd's, that's on a case by case basis as some guilds will ask you to do it while others will be annoyed by the spam. I personally feel it's too much to spam when healers are already taxed as much as they are with all the crap they get thrown at them in these encounters and if there's something I really need them to know, it's not too hard to push my PTT button and say it over mumble.

[Blencathra]

The only cooldown I announce (in /raid) is Survival Instincts. I only use it to anticipate/respond to damage so it won't be constant chat spam, and 50% reduced incoming damage is our only cooldown that alters incoming damage enough to change healer behaviour (or so they tell me - your raid might be different).

I also announce Incarnation as well (in /say), for the benefit of the other tank, so that he knows that if he taunts while it's up I'm just gonna get aggro right back as soon as his taunt ends because I'm spamming Mangle (and usually Maul too) and doing way more threat then him. I've learnt to do this through experience.

TauntAware is a good addon for announcing taunts. It doesn't announce as such, but it monitors the raid for anyone using threat-increasing abilities and reports them to me privately. All our tanks use it and it's very helpful.

As for marks, you can simply keybind them in the options.