NeedToKnow is a light-weight addon to monitor specific buffs, debuffs, and totems of your choosing as timer bars that always appear in a consistent place on your screen in a consistent color. It's especially useful for monitoring frequently used short-duration buffs and debuffs. For example, a rogue could configure NeedToKnow to show timer bars for Slice and Dice, Rupture, and their own stack of Deadly Poison VII. A death knight could use it to track their own diseases on a mob. NeedToKnow also works with procs and on-use trinkets. The number, size, position, and appearance of timer bars are all customizable. Timer bars can be set to a fixed maximum duration so that all spells in that group which will expire at the same time line up vertically.
Please use the Ticket system on CurseForge for bugs and suggestions!
New in latest version (2.8)
- Overlay a cast time. For example, easily see when to refresh Vampiric Touch or when there's less Flame Shock than it takes to cast Lava Burst.
- Support for watching totems by name
- Support for temporary weapon enchants
- Added support for multiple spells per bar, enter your spells in deliminated by commas.
- Added support for dual-talent specialization. First time you run it, it will take your existing settings and apply it to both of your specs.
- Added support for SpellID, this will eliminate issues with duplicate buff names.
Instructions
General options are available in the Blizzard interface options menu. You can type "/needtoknow" or "/ntk" to lock/unlock the addon. To configure individual bars, right click them while unlocked. Bars work while locked. If you only see full bars that aren't changing in response to anything, they are unlocked! Just type /ntk to lock them and get them working for you.
You can enable more groups of bars by going into the Interface settings off the main menu and choosing the AddOns tab.
When entering your settings, be careful with your spelling and capitalization. Also remember that buffs and debuffs sometimes have different names than the items and abilities that apply them. The Death Knight ability Icy Touch, for example, applies a DoT called Frost Fever.
On each bar you can enter in multiple buffs/debuffs deliminated by commas. They are prioritized according to order.
i.e. "Rake, Lacerate" - If both are applied, will display Rake until it expires and then it will track Lacerate
i.e "Curse of Recklessness, Curse of Exhaustion, Curse of Shadows" - Good way to track single instance curses
If you wish to use SpellID, make sure you are using the correct one!
3.0.0
- Created a "Settings" submenu whose contents depends on the BuffOrDebuff variable. This should allow for more bar types without confusing the menu too much.
- Added new bar type: "internal cooldown" for proc cooldown timers
- Added new bar type: "spell cooldown" for tracking spell and item cooldown timers
- Fixed: Temporary weapon enchants now use a substring search. "Poison" will pick up all rogue poisons. This also fixed a lua error that could occur when watching weapon buffs
- Added: Can show an asterisk when the bar is tracking a spell cast by the player
- Improved: Added a blink enable besides just setting the alpha to 0. The alpha thing confused too many people
- Added more blink options: only in combat, only if boss, and a label for blinking bars
2.8.6
- Improved: Blinking bars try to be a little smarter about when to blink and when to just be hidden. Especially the case of debuff bars blinking when no target.
- Improved: Weapon imbue names now capture (I hope) the full name from the tooltip to compare against. The name to watch for (in the NTK config) is then regarded as a substring search. So you could configure NTK to watch for Poison to catch all poisons.
2.8.5
- Added: Option to show a spell icon to the left of active bars
- Added: Option to change the font used on NeedToKnow bars (in the interface options dialog)
2.8.4
- Added: Option to show certain bar elements: aura name, time remaining, and the "spark" (ticket 8)
- Added: Option to blink the bar when it would otherwise be missing (ticket 7)
- Fixed: Weapon imbue bars disappear on teleport (ticket 9)
- Fixed: Spark incorrectly visible on weapon imbues (ticket 6)
2.8.3
- Fixed some problems upgrading from older versions of NeedToKnow (ticket 5)
2.8.2
- Beta Support for temporary weapon enchants. Only tested with elemental and restoration shaman (not enhancement or rogues.)
2.8.1
- Fixed: Watching totem by spellid did not work
- Fixed: Logging in when the character was in the second spec would use the first spec's setting
2.8.0
- Added the ability to track increases in spell duration, especially useful for dps druids
- Marked as being a 3.3 addon
- Fixed: Took advantage of a new 3.3 API to get the spell id of active buffs and debuffs. Bars that check spellid should be much more reliable and, for example, be able to tell the difference between the two different Death's Verdict procs
- Fixed: Totem timing is much more accurate
- Fixed: Visual cast times now updates based on changes in haste and other casting-time-affecting abilities
- Refactored the internal structure a bit, which results in easier hooking by other addons
2.7.1
- Fixed: Accidentally removed the background color picker
2.7.0
- Added options for how the time text is formatted. The current style is the default, with mm:ss and ss.t as other options
- Added "visual cast time" overlay which can be used to tell when there's less than some critical amount of time left on an aura
- Hid the spark when the aura lasts longer than the bar (either an infinite duration, or using the Max duration feature.)
- Hid the time text when the aura has an infinite duration
2.6.0
- Added support for a new "Buff or Debuff" type: Totem. Type in the name of the totem to watch for (can be a partial string.)
- Fixed a parse error in the DE localization
- Slightly improved performance of "target of target"
- Added two new /ntk options: show and hide. They can be used to temporarily show and hide the ntk groups.
2.5.2
-Changed event parsing to try to be more robust (see autobot's errors)
2.5.1
-Trying a different strategy for identifying "only cast by me" spells
-When editing the watched auras, the edit field starts with the current value
-Configuring by SpellID is automatically detected and does not need a menu item checked
2.5
-Fixed ToT issue
-Added support for SpellID
2.4.3
-Added SharedMedia support, uses LibSharedMedia-3.0
-Greatly improved performance
2.4.2
-Fixed a bug with the multiple buffs per line
-Fixed a small bug with resize button showing
-Optimized performance slightly
2.4.1
-Fixed character restriction on buff names, no accepts up to 255 characters.
-Added Russian localization
2.4
-Brought up to 3.2 API standards
-Added multiple buffs/debuffs per bar
-Dual-Specialization support
Version 2.2
- Added option to show bars with a fixed maximum duration
- Fixed an issue with targetoftarget
- Added koKR localization. Thanks, metalchoir!
- Added deDE localization. Thanks, sp00n & Fxfighter!
Version 2.1
- Updated for WoW 3.1
- Can now track spells cast by player's pet or vehicle
- Can now track buffs/debuffs on player's vehicle
- Added options for background color, bar spacing, bar padding, bar opacity
- Fixed a problem with buff charges not showing as consumed
Version 2.0.1
- Updated for WoW 3.0
- Can now track (de)buffs applied by others
- Added option to only show buffs/debuffs if applied by self
Version 2.0
- Added support for monitoring debuffs
- Added support for variable numbers of bars
- Added support for separate groups of bars
- Added support for monitoring buffs/debuffs on target, focus, pet, or target of target
- Bars are now click-through while locked
- Reminder icons have been been greatly expanded in functionality and split off into their own addon: TellMeWhen
- Cleaner bar graphics
- Users of older versions will need to re-enter settings
Version 1.2
- Updated for WoW 2.4 API changes
Version 1.1.1
- Icons should now work properly with item cooldowns.
- Reset button should now work properly when you first use the AddOn.
Version 1.1
- Icons will now show when reactive abilities (Riposte, Execute, etc.) are available.
- Added options for bar color and texture.
- Added graphical user interface. Most slash commands gone.
- Added localization support. Translations would be much appreciated.
- Users of older version will need to re-enter settings.
Version 1.0
- Hello world!
Installation Guide
- Exit "World of Warcraft" completely
- Download the mod you want to install
- Make a folder on your desktop called "My Mods"
- Save the .zip/.rar files to this folder.
- If, when you try to download the file, it automatically "opens" it... you need to RIGHT click on the link and "save as..." or "Save Target As".
- Extract the file - commonly known as 'unzipping'
Do this ONE FILE AT A TIME!
- Windows
- Windows XP has a built in ZIP extractor. Double click on the file to open it, inside should be the file or folders needed. Copy these outside to the "My Mods" folder.
- WinRAR: Right click the file, select "Extract Here"
- WinZip: You MUST make sure the option to "Use Folder Names" is CHECKED or it will just extract the files and not make the proper folders how the Authors designed
- Mac Users
- StuffitExpander: Double click the archive to extract it to a folder in the current directory.
- Verify your WoW Installation Path
That is where you are running WoW from and THAT is where you need to install your mods.
- Move to the Addon folder
- Open your World of Warcraft folder. (default is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\)
- Go into the "Interface" folder.
- Go into the "AddOns" folder.
- In a new window, open the "My Mods" folder.
- The "My Mods" folder should have the "Addonname" folder in it.
- Move the "Addonname" folder into the "AddOns" folder
- Start World of Warcraft
- Make sure AddOns are installed
- Log in
- At the Character Select screen, look in lower left corner for the "addons" button.
- If button is there: make sure all the mods you installed are listed and make sure "load out of date addons" is checked.
- If the button is NOT there: means you did not install the addons properly. Look at the above screenshots. Try repeating the steps or getting someone who knows more about computers than you do to help.
Translations
When you download a mod, please be sure that the mod is compatible with your translation of wow. Some mods only work on the US versions, while some only work on some of the various European versions. These variations are called "Localizations".
TOC Numbers (Out of Date Mods)
When Blizzard patches WoW, they change the Interface number. This means that all mods will be "out of date" unless or until the author releases a new version for that interface. Some people go into the .toc files and update the numbers themselves, but this is STRONGLY advised against as it will cause problems locating possible incompatibilities addons. When you log into WoW after a patch, you DO NOT have to delete your interface directory. All you have to do is simply tell WoW to ignore the interface numbers and load all the mods anyway. All you have to do is, while at the "character select" screen, look in the lower left corner and click on the "addons" button. A window will pop up listing all your installed mods.
If you look in the upper left corner of that window there should be a box that says "Load Out of Date AddOns". You want to CHECK this box. Now simply go into WoW normally and all your mods should load. As of the 1.9 patch, you will have to do this after EVERY patch/update that Blizzard posts! If you encounter any problems with a mod after a patch, please be sure to let the author of the mod know so they can fix it.
See also: About "Out Of Date AddOns"
Mac Support
WoW addons are not platformed based. As such, they can be used on either Mac or PC. You can extract both .zip and .rar files on a Mac using StuffitExpander.
Directory Structure
World of Warcraft
|_ Interface
|_AddOns
|_*AddonName*
|_ *AddonName*.toc
|_ *AddonName*.xml
|_ *AddonName*.lua
|_ (possibly others as well)...
