WeakAuras - fast start

[Pandacho 286]

Originally I wrote this guide for my raiding guildies, when we decided that it would be nice to use unificated announcements for different bosses mechanics.

WeakAuras is complicated enough addon to start from scratch, and I’m not sure that everyone is interested in it. So I focused the guide on using of already available strings and explanation of the base rules, so you’ll be able to adjust everything to your needs and start immediately.

Sorry for using my disc priest and not shaman for the screenshots ^^

 

1. IMPORT

 

[1] Download and install WeakAuras 2 (TWO)
[2] We’ll start from importing already prepared strings.
WA string for import may look in this way:

or this:

You don’t have to understand what are all these codes, just copy (CTRL+C) it from here.

[3] Type /wa in game to open this window:

[4] Click on ‘Import’ button. This window will open:

[5] Paste (CTRL+V) here the stuff you copied before and you’ll get this picture:

You can see 2 windows here. In the bigger one we have a ‘row’ data, while in the small one you can read in ‘normal’ language and understand what exactly you’re going to import.
Do not press ‘Done’ button in the big window . To actually import the string, you have to press ‘Import’ button at the bottom of the small one.

[6] If you got something like this after pressing ‘Import’,

don’t worry, just type /reloadui, and then type /wa after reload - you’ll get this proper picture:

 

2. ADJUSTING

 

But look at this! In the moment you closed the WA configuration, you don’t see anything on your screen anymore. What happened? The answer is that the string owner did not want to see the Cooldowns line out of combat.

Out of Combat:

In Combat:

Let’s assume that we want to see the Cooldowns line always - it’ll be the part of our UI.

[1] Type /wa
[2] Click on ‘Priest CD Tracker’ line
[3] Click on ‘Load’ tab in the right side menu

Now you can see that ‘In Combat’ option is ticked.

Let’s talk about loading options now.

 

3. WHEN TO LOAD

 

I, personally, have a huge amount of different auras for all my toons. If I’ll try to load them together, they’ll occupy all the screen. So, one of the most important things in WA is knowing WHEN you want to track every one of your CDs.
As you can see on the previous screenshot, ‘Priest CD Tracker’ will appear only in combat and only when I’m playing on my priest toon.
The reason to tick ‘Player Class’, but untick ‘Talent specialization’ is the dynamic type of the class strings in WA. It contains all the priest CDs for all three specs, but load only relevant for your current spec.
Let’s change spec to shadow and untick ‘In combat’:

As you can see, my Cooldowns line changed according to my new spec and I can see it when not in combat too.

Please, pay attention that ‘In combat’ option has three possibilities, not two:

[1] Load only in combat

[2] Always loaded and on screen

[3] Load only out of combat (hide when in combat)

With the option ‘Never’ you can save the strings that are not in use currently, but you don’t want to delete them completely for some reason.

Another options that we have in the ‘Load’ tab:

• Load in Pet Battle
• Load for specific Player Name (for ex., you have 3 priests on your acc, but want to track CDs only for the one of them)
• Load for specific Class / Spec / Talent selected
• Load for Player Level with <, =, > operators (for ex., load for Shaman, spec Resto, level <70)
• Load for specific Zone
• Load in specific instance type - multiple choice (for ex., you can chose to load the Aura when in Arena+BG+Scenario, or Flex+10-man)
• Load for specific dungeon difficulty (Challenge / Heroic/ LFR / Normal / Mythic )
• Load for specific Dungeon Role (Tank / dd / Healer)

 

So, as you see, we can be very specific to prevent our screen from unneeded mess.
For example, I have a string for tracking Invis potion CD, that works only in combat, when I’m on priest in disc spec and doing CMs.
Useful

 

4. MOVING THE ICONS

 

When you import the string that somebody else wrote, it may happen that its positioning or size is not right for your UI.
I will show now how to move or resize the CDs icons and lines.

To start moving, you have to chose the group or specific CD from the left side menu. Just click on it and you’ll get a border around corresponding group or icon. Grab it with mouse and drag wherever you want.

If you want to resize one icon from the group, click on ‘+’ which is below the Group Name in the left side menu and then click on the icon name.
Grab the icon’s corner and resize. Here is your resized icon in the line:

If you have a single CD icon, you can reposition and resize it in the same time:

 

5. ICONS’ EDITING

 

Let’s imagine that you need a CD tracking for your Stone Bulwark Totem and can’t find it in any place. But you already have the Aura for your Healing String Totem and all that you actually need is to copy it and change the tracked spell.

On the upper part you can see the WA icon of my Healing Stream Totem, signalizing that the totem is not on CD and ready to use.
On the lower part you can see the totem icon on the left side, saying that it’s currently active and how many time remains before it’ll expire, and a timer on the right side, saying how many time remains until the Totem will be off CD for the next usage.

My Healing totem Aura is actually a Group of two auras - one that shows Totem icon when it’s not on CD and the other is a timer that shows the remaining CD time.

Let’s make the same Aura Group for the Stone Bulwark Totem.

 

[1] Type /wa
[2] Find the group you want to copy from
[3] Click on it to highlight
[4] Right mouse click on the line and choose ‘Export to string’ in the dropdown menu.

• Expand the group by clicking on the ‘+’ below the Group name.
• Rename every one of the auras like we did it for the Group
• Highlight the ‘Stone Totem Timer’ line
• Press ‘Display’ tab in the right side menu
• In the ‘Display Text’ section change ‘Stream’ to ‘Stone’, press ‘Accept’

 

Looks good. The only problem we got now is that our new Aura placed in exactly same spot as the old one (we copied it, right?). So, just drag all the Group to any other place as we learned in the previous section.

You’ll get this in configuration mode:

And this in game mode:

 

6. SINGLE AURA EDITING

 

This is easier
For example I want to add a tracking for the ‘Unleash Elements’ spell from my ‘Healing Rain’ Aura.
My HR Aura has a custom picture instead of a standard spell icon and its timer is shown as a fading color instead of numbers.

[1] Find ‘Healing Rain’ line in the left side menu, highlight it and press ‘Duplicate’

[2] Change the name of your copy and move it, if you don’t want it in the same place as Healing Rain icon
[3] Change the name in the ‘Spell’ section of ‘Trigger’ tab to ‘Unleash Elements’

[4] Go to ‘Display’ tab, press ‘Choose’ button in the ‘Foreground Texture’ section, choose the Icon section for the pictures and whatever picture you like there.

Our ‘Unleash Elements’ Aura is ready to use.

You can change Color, Opacity, etc. in the ‘Display’ tab. But it’s easy - no need to explain here.

 

7. ACTIONS TAB

 

This is the place to add Chat messages, Sounds, Button Glow to your auras. The tab is divided to 2 sections: ‘On Show’ and ‘On Hide’ with the same options.
Just play with the options if you want your Auras to shout and glow.

That’s all for now. A very basic guide that shows you how to adjust the WA strings to your needs.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Pandacho