The long overdue review of Omen
I began my search for Omen the other day checking the usual spots and was surprised how difficult this add-on is to find considering all the buzz around it these days. Suffice to say you can get Omen here. Following the standard installation process for an add-on I promptly loaded up Omen ready to be shocked and amazed.
It loaded up and my first impression was… this is it? The interface looked basically like a prettier version of KTM Threat Meter. (the add-on this one is suppose to be replacing) Nonetheless, I was still pretty excited so I ran up to a couple mobs and started using it which soon after prompted the following dialogue on ventrilo…
Me: “Uh… how does this work?”
DPS 1: “It shows the threat of whatever you have targeted.”
Me: “Uh… I don’t think its working.”
DPS 1: “Are you fighting two of the same mob?”
DPS 2: “You can’t be fighting two of the same mob. That’s a bug with it.”
Me: “That’s lame.”
But I moved on because after really thinking it through, I can see where in a raid style setting that I won’t be fighting a bunch of mobs with the same name anyway. (As I write this, I’m reminded of the pulls before High King Mulgar and Gruul though and actually a lot of trash everywhere…) So I decided to head into Heroic Blood Furnace in hopes of getting [item]icon of unyielding courage[/item] and further testing Omen.
*Me mucking around with Omen.*
*Mob starts running towards healer.*
Healer 1: “Play around with that Add-on Thingy later!”
Me: “This thing is giving me seizures flicking away like crazy in the corner of my screen. How do I hide this thing?”
DPS 2: “Just click the icon.”
*Run finishes an hour later with my trinket not dropping.*
So after the run was over, I didn’t feel like Omen had really offered me anything and for a tank it doesn’t seem to really. However, I was informed that DPSers and Healers alike can pull out the names of the tanks and be able to tell exactly where they sit with each mob against the tank’s threat. This new knowledge caused me to take a stroll down memory lane and realize that everyone that was super excited about Omen were DPSers.
Which pretty much led me to the conclusion of…
Omen is not exciting for tanks, but it is very useful to everyone else. Get it.
Caution: While Omen will grab data from KTM, the information it grabs from KTM always appears to be high (especially in situations where there are multiple mobs involved) making it really, really bad for any DPSer to be using Omen when the Tank is using KTM.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
o.0
You serious? I like it…
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July 26th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Haha… I did recommend it. I just recommended getting it and hiding it lol.
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July 26th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
It’s not hidden. And I didn’t have problems configuring and learning it, either. >.
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August 1st, 2007 at 4:05 am
Just a couple of points.
First off, it’s impossible for any add on to usefully tell the difference between two mobs with the same name, which is why omen doesn’t. KTM of course doesn’t even bother detecting the difference between mobs with two different names, which really sucks in certain situations.
Secondly, omen really shouldn’t be “flickering”, but it does update far more often than KTM, which I personally view as a bonus, rather than a bad thing. I prefer knowing when I’m over the threat limit, rather than 5 seconds later =].
Thirdly, Omen, as far as I know, has more accurate statistics for any number of threat based things, especially ‘gimmicks’ in boss fights, such as aggro dumps. It’s just plain awesome.
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August 2nd, 2007 at 11:13 am
One additional tidbit/claim to omen is that it is supposed to be less of a memory hog. I don’t know if I have any measurable data on it, but I use it and love it. As a paladin healer I really ignore it most of the time. Only in threat sensitive fights do I watch it, and bitch out DPS when leading raids =)
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I do realize that this is an old thread but the threat library used by omen has had numerous changes and enhancements. We only use omen now - its realtime update is lag free and I know exactly where dps sets in relationship to me. The only issue it has is with multiple mobs with all the same name but even then it does a decent job. Our DPS loves it and lives by it and I always have it up when I’m tanking.
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March 9th, 2008 at 4:41 am
The biggest point of Omen is really not for the tanks, but instead for any DPSers or Healers that need to be watching their output to prevent themselves from overriding the tank’s aggro. In this respect, Omen is a HUGE step up from KTM in it’s real-time measurements and fluid number pushing.
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March 10th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I cannot wait for the changes in 2.4 that are supposed to make threat meters like Omen much more accurate on multiple mobs.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I love omen. I keep it open to find my TPS, this is priceless when im trying to find out why its 1200 or 200. I can warn DPS that on mob X my TPS is low because of stun/dis-arm/sleep ect. And with the right group (Windfury) I can tell DPS to go flat out because I have SEEN how much it raises my threat.
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