Grid is a popular raid frames mod that has been around for a long time (pre-tbc). It is more than a raid windows mod though - it can do so much more than show everyone's windows.
If you're new here, I'm the resident Grid nerd and will always recommend Grid over any other frame mod. Grid is valuable not just for healers but for anyone in the raid, and I highly recommend people get it, if only to keep the smallest default frame setup, to show who is in range of you for heals and cleanses.
This is a bit of a wall of text but I highly recommend having a look through it as it will make healing in BT & Sunwell much easier. Grid is more difficult to set up than some other mods but it is absolutely worth the trouble, you will wonder how you lived without it. I am always happy to help people set it up.
The latest version of Grid can always be found at
http://files.wowace.com/Grid/Grid.zip .
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Contents
1. What Grid can show you
2. Ezmode debuffs
3. Setting up to display debuffs
4. Lifebloom - GridStatusLifebloom
5. Using mouseover macros
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What Grid can show you
You name it, Grid can display it for you. And if the basic addon can't, then you can guarantee someone has made a mod to do it for you. Here are some of the basic things that Grid can show you:
- Buffs
- Dispellable debuffs
- Undispellable debuffs (and timers)
- Low mana
- Low health
- Out of range
- Dead
- Feigned
- Aggro
- Health deficit
- Mind control
- AFK
- Incoming heals
- HoTs active
- and more, with extra addons.
Debuffs such as magic, poisons, curses and other can be displayed either as a colour (frame, border, corner dot), as text such as "Poison" or with an icon in the centre of the frame - whatever you find easiest to recognise. For example, I simply have the frame turn purple if cursed, green if poisoned. You may wish to have the border colour change, for the frame to say POISON, or for the poison's icon to pop up in the middle, depending on what works best for you. If you are having trouble setting this up, let me know.
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Ezmode debuffs
What makes Grid really shine in Hyjal, BT and Sunwell is its ability to show debuffs that cannot be dispelled and must be healed through or dealt with. These instances have a number of gimmicky debuffs that healers have to react to quickly or the raid will wipe. By showing them directly on the Grid frames, players don't have to keep an eye on boss mod timers - everything is displayed in the one spot. For example:
- Gurtogg's Fel Rage that must be healed through
- Illidan's Dark Barrage that must be healed through
- Brutallus' Burn that must be tracked carefully and healed through (while healing others)
- Illidan's Agonizing Flames which must be tracked and healed as it increases in damage
- Illidari Council's Deadly Poison, which is followed by large damage and may kill someone if not pre-healed
- Illidan's Shear, which may kill the MT if not spammed with large heals to keep him topped
- Winterchill's Icebolt, which will kill in only a few seconds if not healed
- Mother Shahraz's Fatal Attraction - useful for raid healers to target CoH and CH
- Kalecgos' Curse, which shouldn't be dispelled immediately
- Naj'entus' spine, which has to be removed immediately, but also healed until it is removed
- Felmyst's Encapsulate, which people need to react to in a split second and run away, and healers need to heal
By adding these items to your Grid and having them show up in some very obvious way (for example, turning the frame pink or red to get your attention) means that you WILL see these debuffs a good second or two before they register on boss mods or get announced over vent, meaning you can already be starting to heal that person. In the case of debuffs like Fel Rage where most people rely on a target/assist macro to start spamming the victim, Gurtogg will actually wait a second or two to target his FR victim - but Grid will show his intention immediately. So Grid will show you who is is going to FR, you can start healing, then a second or two later he will turn and target them. If you wait for the macro, you lose a couple of seconds.
Basically, having Grid show debuffs for you will mean you see them a good second or two before other people, meaning you can heal, run, cleanse, or whatever you have to do, faster than others.
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Setting up to display debuffs
The diagrams below show how to configure your Grid so that particular debuffs show up as a bright colour on the person's frame. For example, Fel Rage will immediately turn the person's frame bright red, so you can react to it quickly.
1. Add the debuff to the list of Auras
2. Set the debuff to display as the colour of the person's frame
3. Set the colour of the debuff to something bright and noticeable and make sure Enable is checked.
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GridStatusLifebloom
GridStatusLifebloom is the most fantastic little addon ever. You need Center Text 2 enabled for this. GSL will put a timer into your center text 2 field that counts down from 7 seconds to show you how much time someone's lifebloom has, but also colours that timer according to how many stacks of lifebloom they have - red for only 1 stack, yellow for 2, green for a full stack that you can keep rolling.
This means that at a glance you can see how many people have lifeblooms, how long they have left, and how many stacks, so that you can prioritise who to refresh in order to keep multiple people lifebloomed.
I guarantee your healing will improve dramatically compared to just using HoT timers or trying to guess when to refresh lifeblooms. I really can't recommend it enough.
The latest version can be found here:
http://files.wowace.com/GridStatusLifebloom/GridStatusLifebloom.zip
How to enable this mod:
I find it best to set it to my "Center Text 2"
Now make sure the stack colours are red for 1, yellow for 2, green for 3.
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Using mouseover macros
Using mouseover macros with Grid will speed up your healing dramatically. Rather than having to move your mouse to someone's frame and then click them, then click/press your heal, you can simply hover your mouse over their frame (or the target frame, or even their character running around on the screen) and cast a heal, buff, cleanse, etc. This is especially important for druids who need to refresh Lifebloom before it runs out - trying to maintain stacks on several people while you click your targets can be very clumsy.
And of course the other benefit to having mouseover macros is that you don't have to select a new target. You can keep the boss targeted, or you could keep the main tank always as your target so that you can heal him in a hurry, for example.
The other option is to use the mod Clique which allows you to bind heals and spells to mouse buttons - eg shift+right click might be Greater Heal. This is personal preference; Clique is a great mod, but personally I find mouseover macros with keybindings to be more flexible, and you don't have to put everything on your mouse buttons.
To set up a mouseover macro, open your macro interface (type /Macro). Create a new macro and choose a name and icon. In the text area, type:
