So maybe you’ve been playing your druid for while, and been overwhelmed like many by the amount of timers to keep track of. Perhaps you’ve even experimented with addons that help watch these for you. You might have heard of an addon called Feralbynight and maybe you’re wondering if being suggested moves is a good way to go. It could be that you’ve heard it’s pretty good, but you’re still unsure about relying on code to make decisions for you. And rightly so, as you may guess sometimes there are situations that an addon can’t predict. Not so fast! Just because it can’t tell you everything, doesn’t mean it won’t be useful for you. And after hearing what other people have to say about these types of addons, it got me to thinking about what FeralByNight does, and doesn’t do, for me. I had a genuine realization that, the best part isn’t even that the addon makes the DPS cycle simple. The truth is, I have less to distract me. I’ve heard people argue that, with practice, you can keep make decisions for yourself that will increase DPS depending on circumstances the add-on isn’t aware of. And I won’t argue that there are times I might use a move suggested to me, then realize I shouldn’t have. This happens rarely enough that I don’t really worry about the DPS difference, quite honestly the reminders to use Tiger’s Fury and Berserk help me more than I could be hindered, as does reminders to refresh Rake. I also react more quickly with the add-on to reapply everything than I otherwise would. I view it as an overall DPS increase. But even this isn’t the most important thing to me. What makes the biggest difference, in my personal experience, is the sheer time I’m not spending watching timers go off and the focus I’m not using on fancy timer addons. I can shift my focus away from an otherwise complicated DPS cycle, and back to the fight mechanics. Ever died in a void zone because you were looking somewhere else? That’s what I’m talking about here. My reaction time to circumstances in the raid that require my attention is so much greater for using FeralByNight. So long as the DPS is similar to what it would be if I were engrossed in my timers, I view it as an excellent tool for raids, most especially those with elaborate raid mechanics. When I’m the bomb, I move immediately. I have time, I daresay, to notice the healers are struggling and throw out an innervate, or to barkskin/pot/heal. I just plain notice more as I am DPSing, enabling me to react better to every circumstance.

I also notice what FeralByNight misses, though I see fight specific modules in the works and I can only approve. FBN, first of all, often suggests Tiger’s Fury and Berserk. I rarely follow the Berserk suggestions because timing is so important on most bosses. On XT I wait for the heart to lay into it. And even if FBN started heeding this, if your raid is weak on heals, it’s better to use Berserk before the first heart phase. FBN can’t decide everything for you. I can tell it certainly tries to! What it can decide for you is when to Ferocious Bite, when to refresh DoTs and SR. My own experiments have found these suggestions to be very reliable, and an increase in DPS even if you know the rotations pretty well. Incorrect suggestions are frustrating, granted. And sometimes, FBN fails to suggest anything for a few seconds, listing no move or current move even with enough energy for one, meaning players must be able to react and decide on their own what to use. It doesn’t remove the need for the player to use their own judgement on things, and that’s an important distinction. Making the cycle easier, in no way removes the need for every feral to understand what their cycle is.

FeralByNight also comes with many optional and often unnecessary displays. It has a far too large OoC proc display. I watch this proc with EventAlert, so I have this disabled. Luckily, if desired, the options allow you to remove and resize everything. A good thing too, because right now these extras are not all that attractively displayed. Nightcrowler seems to have the start of some good ideas with many of the displays, but lacking in appearance and intuitiveness. I had to read the options menu to discover what quite a few did, at all.

Despite a couple of down sides, I believe the net worth is there, and is enough for any feral to give this Addon a serious try.

~ by lily on July 10, 2009.

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