ADDON UPDATE - v1.3.0

The WoW-Pro addon has been updated! You can download it here.

Target Button

One of the coolest new features in the addon is the addition of a target button. If the guide author includes the new |T| target tag and the name of a mob or NPC, a button will appear next to the step. If you click the button, the game will attempt to target the mob, and if found, will place a skull above their head. This will be great for hard to find quest mobs, especially those who can spawn in one of several places.

Scrolling

Scrolling is now possible in the main guide window! This is awesome for guide authors in particular, since it allows you to see all steps in a guide much more easily. Our typical user will probably never use this feature (indeed I would recommend you not to!) but for authors who need to move around in the guide and see completed steps, it's great!

Step Ranking

This is probably going to be one of the most important features in the addon, but it will need to be coded into guides before it will do anything. The idea is that you now have a sliding scale from 1-5 where you can choose the level of "completeness" you want - 5 being the most complete, 1 being the least. People with tons of heirlooms, recruit a friend bonus, rested XP, or who like to run dungeons can choose a lower rating, since they tend to level faster. People who don't have any bonuses or who are going for questing achievements can choose 5. Guide authors will rank steps based on how important they are and how easy they are to do. Quests with great rewards (XP and/or gear), which aren't too difficult, and which aren't out of the way, will be ranked 1 (most important). Quests which aren't too far out of the way but which only have mediocre awards will be ranked around 3. Quests with little reward and which take you out of your way will be ranked 5 (least important). Any inranked steps will be considered a 1.

As you can see, this will revolutionize our guide and make it much more useful to a wider variety of people. Unfortunately, we won't really be able to see the full awesomeness of this feature until it is implemented throughout a guide. Our goal is to have all of these features fully implemented in our Cataclysm guides, so you should be able to see all of them in action when the expansion is released.

Change Log

Here is a full list of the changes in this version.

New Features

• Several new tags added to help make our guides even more clear! See the "guide writers" section below for details
• Scrolling in the normal guide frame! You can now enable scrolling in the display options, which will also display ALL quests, including optional and skipped ones.
• Target button - if the guide coder provides the name of a target mob or NPC, the guide will now show a target button next to the step which will target that mob or NPC if they are in range and place a skull above their head, so you can easily locate patrolling or otherwise hard to find mobs.
• New step ranking system ranks the importance of steps! This allows you to choose how complete you would like your experience of a zone to be. If you just want to level and get out of there, and if you have heirloom gear or recruit a friend bonuses or run instances, you can set the addon to a lower level of completeness to skip unnecessary quests. NOTE: While this has been implemented in the addon, it has not yet been added to guides. This will happen gradually, but should be implemented in Cataclysm guides by the expansion's release.

Guide Writers

Several new tags and steps have been implemented:

• LVL - use this tag to denote a step that completes once the user reaches that level. There is also a new step type, L, to denote a step that completes once the user levels up.
• LEAD - use for lead in or breadcrumb type quests, followed by the QID for the quest it leads to. This step will be checked off if the user has already completed the quest it leads up to.
• T - target tag. Follow by the name of the mob or NPC you want the user to be able to target.
• r - Repair/restock step. Behaves exactly like a N step in that it must be checked off, but has a nice repair/restock icon.
• P - profession tag. Follow by the name of the profession, and optionally the level of the profession required for the step. The step will only be displayed if the character has that professions at that level.
• RANK - this tag should be used as much as possible from now on, and denotes how important a quest is. 1 is the most important and will NEVER be skipped. 5 is the least important. Vital quest chains with great XP and item rewards should be marked 1. Things that are neutral in rewards but which are convenient to do should be around a 3. Things that take you out of your way and aren't particularly rewarding should be marked a 5. Anything unmarked will be considered a 1. In general, a character with heirlooms and RAF should be able to get through the guide on a setting of 1, while a character with none of these bonuses and who doesn't do instances or have rested would need a setting of 5.

Bug Fixes:

• Conflict with BlizzBugsSuck resolved
• The |NC| noncombat tag will now only apply to C complete steps.
• Several bugs due to lack of a check to make sure the QID was provided
• Addon should now correctly count skipped quests toward guide completion in the progress count
• General restructuring and streamlining of quest skipping and display functions should improve performance and reduce bugs

Moving Time

I will be moving this weekend, so this is it for me until next week. I hope everyone enjoys the update, and I'll be back battling bugs and working on Cataclysm guides after the weekend!