Heroics Work Here

Way back in July we first started talking about a groovy new way to do Heroic Opportunities, and the custom HO window designed by Clintsat has been well-received since it was published in November. (Here is more info and some pics of the HO window in case you missed it.) Since then, Darq Side members Drax and Exxy have made some very good suggestions that have made their way into the premium UI.

If you like the way the HO window is working now, you don't have to do anything -- all of the defaults are still in place. But there is a new page in the Window Manager with several new controls to fine-tune how this window works:

• Enable reaction buttons  If you ever have reason to turn off the custom ability casting feature but don't want to delete the window, now you can uncheck this checkbox which will temporarily disable the orange rings over active runes.
  
• Show window continuously during combat  By default the HO window only appears on screen after a Heroic Opportunity has been started, and disappears after the HO is completed/fails, even while combat is ongoing. Checking this box surfaces the HO window from the moment combat begins until it ends. This setting is especially useful if you want to...
  
• Show HO Starter icon  A clickable icon with your archetype's HO-starter will appear on the window, and combined with the above setting allows you to start and react to HO steps directly from the window as opposed to using a hotkey for the starter. Less mouse travel, more efficiency, more successful scripts, deader enemies.

Since the HO window is one of those components like the Casting window that only appears under certain conditions, a button has been added that toggles the window on and off so you can reposition it on screen without getting into combat. You can also use Window Settings to add a shaded background and frame if you are so inclined.

My advice in the Help file to minimize the number of abilities associated with each rune is not exactly intuitive, but if you've put two or three spells under the various runes then you may have been running into issues with excess spells in the queue, or with being unable to cast a reaction or the HO starter while another long spell is casting. We have two new options that can help with this:

Cancel spellcast and Clear all queued abilities can be added separately as modifiers before casting your reaction abilities, similar to how we do it with Group and Raid spell buttons. Depending on your playstyle, your class and your ability choices, these settings can seriously smooth out how the custom HO window works.

Thanks go to Drax, Exxy and Kammelle for ideas, testing and feedback while these refinements to Clintsat's original idea were being developed. And thanks to you for making The Darq Side the best little UI-house on Patreon!