HO HO HO

Coming up with clever post titles is a risky business. I realize it's not quite Frostfell season, but I think it's getting too late in the year for a HO-down, isn't it? Either way, I wanted to show you a new component that's just been published. It's an alternate layout for the DarqUI HO (Heroic Opportunity) window.

Heroic Opportunities have gotten some attention from the developers (and us) during the last expansion or so, and I'm sure you know of certain situations that specifically call for players to participate in them. I think it's a great mechanic, and I hope HOs will continue to be a factor in the game going forward.

This was a request from one of our Darq Side members who recalled using a horizontally-oriented HO mod years ago. The patron (who requested to remain anonymous) feels that the calm, rectangular "zen" of her UI layout is disrupted unnecessarily by the round HO wheel. And she also wants to have the DarqUI innovations handy.

If you're not familiar with the DarqUI Heroic Opportunity window, you should definitely check it out. Improvements to the original design are shown here, here and here. It's only available in the premium UI, and it makes dealing with HOs a snap. Essentially, you can assign up to three of your spells or combat arts to each of the six runes, and cast from those choices when prompted right there on the HO window -- no need to hunt for the correct rune or hotkey. You can set everything up quickly in the utility.

In this horizontal alternate you'll notice there are text "hints" at the top of the finishing wheel that accompany the casting order icon. Internally there's code for clockwise (left-to-right in this case), counter-clockwise (right-to-left), and no order at all.

It was years before I noticed that icon lurking in the middle of the default HO wheel. And I'll bet there are other players like me who didn't realize that HOs sometimes require a certain casting order to succeed. I'm kind of partial to the extra hints, but if they're not your thing then you can get rid of them. Load up eq2ui_mainhud_heroic.xml in Notepad and change CastingOrderHints from true to false. Easy!

The new horizontal HO window is available in all three sizes, accessible from the gear icon next to Heroic Opportunity when you check for updates. So download one of them and get your horizontal HOs on!