Welcome to another World of Warcraft add-on spotlight! In this issue we are covering MonkTimers, by Xianghar.
The Addon
Having an hard time perfecting your monk's ability rotation? Looking for some way to improve your martial effectiveness in combat? Then MonkTimers might be just the gadget you were looking for!
MonkTimers is a cooldown and resources monitoring system designed specifically for monks. It provides a movable frame consisting of cooldown timers, a chi bar with energy or mana display, and a stagger bar for Brewmasters.
Only the abilities with cooldowns relevant to your specialization are displayed, grouped by cooldown duration. All abilities can be clicked for casting, and possess their own timer bar and cooldown count text. While it might not replace the entire cooldown system for all kinds of players, it is certainly a good addition to the arsenal, as spells are displayed in an organized manner for you. If you're now starting your monk, it can also help you to more easily learn the class.
MonkTimers comes packed with a lot of customization. Monitored abilities change as you switch specs, and you may even customize what abilities to track. As it supports monks that have yet to chose a specialization, it's also an option for new monks starting their career.
Additionally, MonkTimers supports Masque, allowing you to customize the entire look and feel of the add-on.
Interview
We also had the opportunity to have a chat with the add-on's author, Xianghar:
Why did you decide to create MonkTimers?
When Blizzard announced the Monk class I immediately decided to switch from Blood DK to Brewmaster. For a long time I had wanted to make an addon similar to TotemTimers for my Blood Death Knight, but somehow never did. So this time I did it right from the start, especially since I could reuse a lot of code and basically only had to adapt it to the Monk's spells and add a stagger and chi bar.
What do you think distinguishes your add-on from more general timer addons?
Probably the button form. Each timer also is a button that can be used to cast its spell and colors for out of range and missing mana/energy/chi. You could see it as a kind of action bar with more information on it.
For which specialization do you find it most useful?
It's probably best developed for Brewmasters since that is my main spec. It works just as good for Windwalkers but probably needs a bit more work on the Mistweaver part.
Which was the hardest problem you had to face during development?
Sometimes Blizzard functions behave very oddly. For example while transitioning into a CRZ the client suddenly gets signaled that your spells change but spell information is only available a bit later again. This led MonkTimers to believe that you don't have any spells and it disappeared.
What is your favorite part of the add-on itself?
Everything. The most important thing for me is that it behaves exactly like I want and need it to, and if I'm missing something I can add it myself.
We come to the end of the interview. Any shout-outs?
Thanks to all the people who have used and supported my addons over the years. I'm always amazed that so many people like what I do. And thanks to my cats for letting me cuddle them whenever I want and keeping me calm when I can't find that bug again.
Thank you to Xianghar for answering our questions and developing this add-on.
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