One of the things I'm still adapting to on the PvP server is keeping my eyes peeled all the time for Alliance folks in the area. I've been lucky in that I haven't been camped yet, though I have gotten ganked a few times in my leveling. Usually it's just someone running by who sees a lowbie in the area. Depending on what I'm doing, I've even dropped one or two. I'm certainly not afraid to engage in PvP when it's 'fair' footing.
What I need though, is a replacement for Carbonite's "Punks" feature. For those that don't use Carbonite, it basically will detect when someone of the opposite faction is near you, and you can target them via the frame. It won't prevent someone from getting that Pom Pyroblast off on you, but you might have time for a defensive move. I think it it along the lines of a proximity alert in Star Trek.
That's actually the scene that plays in my head. I may, or may not, call for shields as if I was Kirk getting ready to face off against the Klingons. Especially if I see I Pyroblast incoming. Penance is my torpedoes, and I am pretty quick to get the DoTs off.
Unfortunately, playing a Priest (especially at this level), my survivability is a touch limited if I don't have a chance to get a PW:S up first. If the first shots land, I usually am playing catchup instead of dishing out my own offense. This is also true on the Pally, where I'm limited to melee attacks. I need to know that someone is in my immediate area.
Carbonite is heavy
Unfortunately Carbonite is extremely memory intensive in the addon department. While it's great for questing (especially when coupled with LightHeaded), the total package is weighing in around 20 or 30 MB of addon memory. That's just ridiculous. I know entire UI setups that don't push past 10, and on a bad day (when I forget to reset recount) my addon setup can push 100MB.
Obviously I need to do more than just replace Carbonite. This is a step though.
So - does anyone know of an addon that will replace the 'Punks' portion of Carbonite? If I can get that all alone, I should be able to drop Carbonite and LightHeaded all together. The in game quest helper has come a long ways, and now that I'm pretty much just leveling through dungeons, I don't need the additional help. That, and once you've put two or three toons up to 80, you pretty much know where all the quests are.
So - anyone have an addon that will handle that?
I currently use vanas kos. I has a movable frame that will list names in red for opposing faction players. Not sure how memory intensive it is anymore. I only use it when out in the world. You can also put in people on the kos (kill on site) list and when the come near you an alarm goes off. Hope this is helpful.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I need to find a good review of Carbonite to get the point. I play on a pretty limited machine, so there's good reason I've never dabbled with it. But I use a combination of addons that offer some of the same features. Altoholic lets me see everything in all my toons' banks/gbanks. Tekkub has some pretty decent map enhancement addons. I do use lightheaded too. So I guess I just don't know what I'm missng. :D
ReplyDeleteI've recently rolled on a pvp server. Definitely looking into that vanas kos addon now.
How much RAM do you have that Carbonite is an issue? I don't want to sound elitist, or try and say "I haz an awesome!!!111!!! computer" by any means, but I thought I'd throw the question out there.
ReplyDeleteAoladari - I have something insane, 4 Gigs or something (maybe 8?), but I've noticed that when I'm running Carbonite, with Lightheaded, and everything else, my FR drops from 60+ to sub 30 (when I'm raiding), so the more I can cut out entirely the better. As it stands I'm always logging out to disable stuff between raids.
ReplyDeleteDon't log out between fights, get something like Addon Control Panel and you can turn things on and off with just a /reload!
ReplyDeleteThe amount of RAM has less to do with frame rate drops than the quality of the RAM and the processor. Similarly, a larger page file doesn't mean anything unless your hard drive and processor can keep up. While WoW isn't necessarily a very heavy game (such as Crysis or Microsoft Flight Simulator X, which both stress a GPU more than actual memory) you're probably going to be storing a LOT of stuff in your RAM.
ReplyDeleteUnless you're set up to automatically wipe your RAM after it hits a certain point, you could *theoretically* fill up just from a handful of heroics, a raid, and a run through Dalaran. This combined with heavy addons can make for some serious pain when you wipe in a group. This is made even worse if you port to the instance without being in the zone it's located in. You're in Icecrown, but you end up in H. Nexus. You wipe (because the healer is a fresh 80, natch) and find yourself loading Coldarra. Now your computer has to find some free space to shove all that data into. After my third or fourth heroic, it's taking me around a minute and a half to release. By that time, most people are back to the instance and buffed. Clearly, I need to find some phat l00tz for my rig. I would also like to point out that this may just be a local issue, and my computer could (read: does) suck.
Anon is absolutely right about ACP. I can't live without it. Especially since I forget to turn off addons when I make a new alt. No level 1 warrior needs DBM or Recount, ever.
Sorry 'bout the long comment. I'm sure you've seen me ramble over at Kurn's place. ;)