Addon idea: Countdown clock?

[topgear]

Just an idea here for an addon, what about a simple countdown clock for your screen? Since you can set up a rotation on your slaves but its hard to track casting times and cooldowns, why not have say 10 programmable countdowns to help time keypresses? For instance if your slave is casting a spell with a 3sec cast time have a countdown on your master for 3sec so you know when to cast the next spell in rotation. Also it seems cleaner on your screen to have a basic 00:00:00 clock than a bunch of cooldown bars. I'd write it myself if I knew how.

[MiRai]

Just an idea here for an addon, what about a simple countdown clock for your screen? Since you can set up a rotation on your slaves but its hard to track casting times and cooldowns, why not have say 10 programmable countdowns to help time keypresses? For instance if your slave is casting a spell with a 3sec cast time have a countdown on your master for 3sec so you know when to cast the next spell in rotation. Also it seems cleaner on your screen to have a basic 00:00:00 clock than a bunch of cooldown bars. I'd write it myself if I knew how.

Why, hello there new person and welcome to the forum.

The first thought that comes to mind is that because of lag and latency that these timers would not be
accurate. Add-ons cannot communicate outside of the game so something like this is most likely bound to an
in-game channel like JAMBA uses. Multiboxers already have enough on their plate to deal with and 10 more
timers on the screen would probably be a giant distraction or they would never ever get looked at. People
would probably die standing in fire while they're busy staring at these timers to get the next keypress perfect.

Perhaps I'm visualizing your idea incorrectly, but it brings me to my next point...

Have you ever seen videos of any player, solo or multiboxing, that have scrolling combat text on their screen at
the default 100mph? People don't read that. That default speed has to be turned way down and even then it's
still ignored. I heavily raided from Ulduar to ICC and I had that scrolling combat text on my screen and I rarely
ever looked at those numbers because they were unimportant and out of sight. I eventually disabled them
because it was much easier to see the big yellow default numbers in my face. I am trying to bring this back
though on my boxing teams because it looks snazzy.

[topgear]

I agree that you'd have to compensate for lag and fps, but the basic idea is 1 clock that starts on target unitframe and counts down the presets 1 at a time. I've seen a clock that counts up but I have to memorize casting times. It would have to be simple because I dont look at SCT either.

[topgear]

Also the addon wouldnt need to communicate outside of the game, and wouldnt need data input from slave chars. It would simply be a 00:00:00 in a frame attached to target unitframe that begins a preset countdown with a defined keypress (such as Numpad 2 as I use Numpad 1 to send my /petattack macro to my warlocks). In my case the 2sec needed for my locks to Immolate, and the 3sec needed to shadowbolt. Simply to prevent me from missing my Corruption cast, for instance, because I pressed the key while still casting Immolate since I'm using my Shaman as my main.
1xElemental Draenei Shaman
1xBalance N.Elf Druid
3xDestruction Warlocks

[topgear]

Another idea would be something similar to CooldownCount where the actionbar buttons themselves have a countdown, but with custom user assigned countdowns to help track what the other chars are doing not just the main.

[MiRai]

Another idea would be something similar to CooldownCount where the actionbar buttons themselves have a countdown, but with custom user assigned countdowns to help track what the other chars are doing not just the main.

Using ISBoxer's Video FX you could view specific alts' abilities/spells/bars on either your main window or the
dxNothing window granted your character set is on the same computer.

[topgear]

I use HKN so I'm not familiar with ISB. I keep 1 screen open and minimize the other 4. I see the merit in your advice, but idk how that would work for me. Also seems to me there are alot of addons out there that show countdowns on bars but the screen clutter is too much for me, and I havent found one that shows my alts cooldowns.

I use ElvUI in healer mode as I like where it shows my party. I use Jamba as well. Is there a plugin for either of those?

[topgear]

Really I just want an addon with a timer in a frame 00:00:00 will countdown from whatever value I set and is triggered by a keypress that I assign to it.

I've seen keyboards that have macro keys with programmable pauses but I dont want to go that route.

[Khatovar]

I haven't had my coffee yet, but that sounds like you're trying to do things the hard way. Most people simply use various castsequence macros to create rotations of various standard spells.

You claim cooldown bars are too messy, but I'm not sure how having a slew of numbers is any easier to work with. Cooldown bars don't need to be paid attention to in the way that a clock would. It's very easy to see from the corner of your eye that a cooldown bar is shrinking and changing color, as opposed to a simple clock, which is not making any noticeable change other than number increments. And that only becomes more obvious as you start adding a dozen "clocks" for various spells across various toons.

Try Deadly Boss Mods with the Spell Timers mod and/or Group Cooldowns.

Better advice would be learn to use castsequences and toggles so you don't have to keep track of every single spell and cast time and cooldown. That attention is better spent watching enemies, procs, CC and healing. Trying to time things yourself will only lead to a loss in DPS running a mixed team as you get more spells or as things get chaotic. Especially, since as Fenril said, you have to account for lag and latency.

[topgear]

Let me explain my problem this way:
My Shaman(my main) casts Flame Shock(instant cast) and my Warlocks cast Immolate(3sec cast) all on the same keypress (Numpad 2)
So I press key Numpad 2 then try to approximate 3sec before I move to my next spell.
What I'd like is to stop approximating those 3sec and see it countdown that time above the target frame (which I do watch)
I wouldnt need a slew of numbers just 1 simple rectangle with a timer in it so I know my alts are done casting.
I'm not sure how castsequencing would fix my timing issue but I'm open to ideas.