Curse

Welcome to another World of Warcraft add-on spotlight! In this issue we are covering a long time and very popular PvP addon: LoseControl, by Kouri. 

The Problem

Crowd control it's a critical feature to master. It can be quite important in PvE, specially in some raid boss fights, but it's vital in PvP. In that environment, not only the amount of crowd control is overwhelming, but managing it correctly can set the difference between victory or defeat.

As you most likely know, this issue is so important that Blizzard recently implemented into the default UI a new loss of control feature, which displays when your character is under crowd control. What you might not know is that this feature was originally an addon: LoseControl.

The Addon

So, if this feature was implemented in the default UI, why would you still want to use LoseControl? Well, because a lot of it is still not available by default.

As addons tend to be, LoseControl is much more customizable than the default implementation. You can start by placing the display anywhere you prefer. It also provides specific support for many unit frame addons, such as Perl, XPerl and LUI Unit Frames. But, most importantly, it does not provide a display just for your character. Keeping control of your enemies under check is as much important as yourself. For that purpose, LoseControl provides crowd control displays for your pet, target, focus, party, and arena enemy frames.

 (Image on right: crowd control displays over the unit frames)

Videos

As LoseControl is so popular and has been out for so long, there are many videos of the addon around the internet. Here's a few: 

Interview

We also had the opportunity to have a chat with the add-on's author, Kouri:

LoseControl already dates back to 2008, 5 years ago! I know it might be hard to remember, but when was that first moment which led you to start this project, back in the end of the Burning Crusade days?

 I was mostly into PvP back then, it was my favorite part of the game. And I was doing a battleground, I think it was Eye of the Storm, and I was in the middle of the map and badly outnumbered, and I remember getting hit with literally like 10 debuffs at once. And I looked at my UI and it was a total mess. I couldn't tell what was going on. I was mashing my keys but nothing was happening. I sat there watching my character blanketed with crowd control spells, for what felt like forever, until I finally died. So that's when I thought it would be nice if I had an addon that could just tell me exactly how long I was CC'd for, so I didn't have to keep slamming my keyboard like an idiot. :)

Approximately how long did it take to finish the first working version?

My memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe it only took about a day to get a working, albeit very simple version, which I used for myself for a while before releasing it.

How different was it from its current shape?

It was a lot different in terms of capability. The first version was less than 100 lines of code, only showed CC on your character, had absolutely no UI options, and only supported 42 CC abilities. Now it's over 1000 lines of code (more if you include all the multi-lingual support), can show CC on multiple unit frames, and tracks 235 various buffs and debuffs. There have been a few other features added over the years, but the base concept hasn't changed at all.

What was your reaction when you first heard Blizzard's intent to copy part of your concept into the default UI?

I was surprised at first because it seemed like kind of a narrow feature for them to add. It's understandable when they incorporate an addon with widespread appeal like Scrolling Combat Text or Atlas, but PvP-focused addons are generally more fringe. However, I can see why they did it, because PvP can be a little overwhelming sometimes, especially for new players, and they need ways to help people understand what's happening amid the chaos.

From all the features of LoseControl, which is the one you believe most lacks in the default UI?

I think Blizzard's Loss of Control UI would be better if it could at least show CCs on your target and focus frames, not just the player. It really helps you time your own CCs so they don't overlap and get wasted.

What stage of development process do you enjoy most?

That's a tough question. I like iterating on code to make it as fast and efficient as possible. I'm a minimalist. Bloated code makes me sad.

I feel your pain... Which addons do you use with LoseControl?

OmniCC and a couple of my other addons.

We come to the end of the interview. Any shout-outs?

Thank you so much. Shout-outs to the many people who have given me such good feedback on LoseControl, and my guild, estilo del perro!

And thank you for answering our questions and developing this add-on!