Mid-September Update

Aloha all,

Thanks again for your continued support.  It has been a very busy time in terms of keeping the addon up to date, and your support and feedback is pretty much all that makes it possible.

In terms of workload, I have released 33 full versions of the addon since BfA launched and several beta/alpha revisions on top of that.  The short summary is that with so many hotfixes and changes since BfA hit, when Blizzard changes things, theorycrafters update, and I have to update the addon in response.

Thankfully, the efforts I made during the summer to future-proof the addon are working well.  I am able to import from a SimulationCraft profile with minimal additional editing.  And user feedback has helped to find adjustments that need to be made within the addon as well as adjustments that needed to be made in SimulationCraft as well.

What's Next

Right now, I'm roughly halfway through the process of re-implementing user preferences and trinkets.  The steps I've taken thus far are to separate ability options from trinket options.  While trinkets are handled as abilities within the addon, the options you'll be able to access are different and are simplified.

The plan for trinkets is that, when an action pack doesn't specifically invoke a particular trinket, that the generic "Use Items" action list will account for it instead.  You'll be able to set preferences for your trinkets under your Specialization settings, including details like whether cooldowns are toggled on or whether a particular number of enemies are present.  If your action pack already has an entry for a trinket, then Use Items will just let your action pack recommend it based on its own criteria.

User preferences were previously labeled "Class Settings," and are basically tiny tweaks that you could make via the Action Pack, but will be more accessible to you so you don't have to dig in that deep.  For example, a Feral Druid may want to specify that Regrowth should never be cast (for Bloodtalons) unless Regrowth is instant.  Now, that's not exactly optimal, but some folks get disoriented when they break out of Cat Form to hardcast Regrowth, so it's better to make that into an easily accessible option.

I also plan to clean up some of the language around importing/exporting/sharing, as I would like, in the grander scheme of things, to make it easier for people to share custom made Action Packs.  Right now, it's not exceptionally difficult, but the process isn't as clear as it could be.  The same applies for sharing display styles as well.

Another project right now is more fine-tuning with channeled abilities (and when to break those channels).  I got a bug report that Shadow Priests were seeing recommendations to refresh Shadow Word: Pain when it was still up for a while, and it turns out that this was related to channeling Mind Flay and determining when to break the channel.  I've almost got this bug squished when it's done, release 8.0.1-34 will be uploaded.

Multi-targeting will see some enhancements over the next several weeks.  Right now, targeting and target cycling is based on the number of applications of each buff/debuff rather than considering things like their duration.  This means that some multidotting specs will get very good recommendations for single-target, but will do a poor job of maintaining uptime on secondary targets.  That's especially problematic for things that stack up, like Agony, since if you let it drop, you have to let it stack up again over time.  Because of that, I plan to have the addon keep a full accounting of all applied buffs/debuffs at all times, and use the additional detail in making recommendations.

Outside of that, the volume of hotfixes will continue to keep me occupied.  Theorycrafters continue to find more effective ways to use Azerite Powers optimally, and as that results in newer SimulationCraft profiles, it will also result in updates to the addon.  If you ever find that the addon's action pack for your specialization is out of date, please contact me on Discord or via CurseForge / GitHub.  I'll get it sorted as quickly as possible.

Alright, that's where we are for now.  If you have other issues you'd like to see prioritized, please let me know.  (And yes, Arcane Mage is still on the agenda.)