Viper Reminder Addon, Don’t Leave Home without It
February 24th, 2010 | 
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Okay, I admit to all of you that I have a lousy memory. I have to give myself reminders constantly or I will forget important to-do items at work, at home, and during raiding. How many of you hunters have been guilty of forgetting to get out of Aspect of the Viper after your mana is completely replenished? I use to have a nice little addon for that called ViperWatch, but the mod writer stopped updating it. So, I tried to just remember on my own. Well, that has been a joke. The only thing that will cut down your DPS more would probably be dying early on in the raid. I don’t know how many times I would look at the dps meters and wonder why my dps was in the pits and then look up to see myself having perfectly full mana. It was a little embarrassing.
Consequently, I had to show my friend Dave that Aspect of the Viper is not the default aspect even if it’s nice because you never run out of mana. We had that discussion awhile ago. Turns out he did a lot of leveling that way. I can’t remember if I covered that in a Dave’s Hunter Guide or not.
Anyway, I always knew when to switch to viper because I couldn’t do anything but use autoshot, mana is completely gone. It’s just way too easy to keep on Viper too long… way too long. Really, you want to get back to Aspect of a Dragonhawk as fast as humanly (or dwarvenly) possible.
So, here you have it. This is the Aspect of the Viper reminder addon that I’ve found that works for Patch 3.3. It works beautifully. It’s called ViperNotify and it very simple. When your mana is back up it give an annoying “ding” sound over and over and over again until you switch it off. The last viper addon was too easy to miss, but you won’t miss this one. You’ll spend less time in Viper and more time DPSing the h3ll out of those bosses.
I’m sure many of you already have this figured out, but for those of you who don’t I hope this helps out.
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Personally, I just use Power Auras. I have it set up so there’s a blue indicator at the bottom of my character if my mana is low, a blue indicator at the top of my character if I’m at full mana (and in combat), and a blue aura around my character if I’m in viper. This way it’s fully customizable to my tastes, and I don’t have to install an additional addon just for one small feature!
@brajana that sounds good. I might have to check it out. The thing I like about ViperNotify is that I don’t have to adjust any settings at all. Its for the more simple minded like myself
I see a lot of hunters following Brajana’s setup there. The one thing I will point out about Power Auras though is that it does drain some resources, so if you’re already pushing your limits you may want to go with something simpler like what Aoirselvar suggests here.
I don’t use any addons for this myself, but with all of my high level toons being either casters or paladins, I’m used to keeping a close eye on my mana and my regen abilities so that I can maintain a balance. For instance, my Mage doesn’t need to waste time using Evocation if he only needed 50% of the 60% available, my Paladin doesn’t need to use Judgement of Wisdom when his mana is above 80%, and my Warlock doesn’t need to Life Tap when she’s nearly full.
I also use the Parrot addon for my scrolling combat text and have it set to show me Mana restoration as well. So if I see that I’m gaining mana (text flying by on the left side), then I know that I’m using it, where if there’s no text on that side then I’m obviously not. That’s another option you may want to consider if you don’t have the extra resources for something heavier like Power Auras.
For a hunter I prefer to not allow Viper to get me to max mana in the first place. That might not be optimum, but my hunter’s not raid level yet so my experiences are limited. I would rather spend just enough time to get back to a decent amount of mana and then switch right back to my DPS aspect so that my DPS is maximized rather than my mana.
@psynister I’ve actually noticed that vipernotify start dinging when I’m around 70% full mana, not full, which I do appreciate. I’m sure that other hunters out there are just better at keeping an eye on it, but I am not. Too many things for me to keep track of I guess.
Sweet! There is nothing more annoying to me than finishing a boss fight and realizing I did the whole thing in Viper. I have been fairly good about using it while running around and on trash fights only but sometimes I forget and leave it on. I have been wanting to get something that will call attention to it if I forget.
Like all of you (well… some of you) I neglect dropping into viper in fear of leaving it there. Hmmm, seems like a long fight for this level mob. Of course, I got the opposite last night… all my attacks are gray!
I’ve noticed that I often forget about having Aspect of the Viper on and I feel bad when noticing that I’ve been in combat with it on for longer than I needed. Hopefully this will help.
BTW, I don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but you can adjust the time that it tells you to switch – if you access the game menu, then click interface – on the addons tab, you should see Viper Notify, and can play with the sliders until you have it as you please.
I’ve been using it for the last day and it’s been SO nice to have!