What I really want is an option in the WoW Interface that lets me scale up the size of my DoTs on my target to about 200%. Unfortunately this option doesn’t exist. Hiding everything else except my own DoTs would also have been a nice option.

DoTs = Debuffs

A critical lesson. As a Shadow Priest your damage over time spells are considered debuffs on the target. During combat these spells all count as debuffs on your target:

• Shadow Word: Pain (applied by casting Shadow Word: Pain)
• Devouring Plague (applied by casting Devouring Plague)
• Vampiric Touch (applied by casting Vampiric Touch)
• Vampiric Embrace (applied by casting Vampiric Embrace)
  and
• Misery (passively applied when you cast other shadow spells)
• Mind Flay (applied during a channeled Mind Flay)
• Mind Trauma (passively applied when you cast talented Mind Blast)

The only spell that I cast regularly that doesn’t leave a debuff on my target is Mind Blast.

Of the list above, I only need to watch the progress of my Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Embrace. These are the DoTs that need to be reapplied immediately when they wear off.

Quartz Buff/Debuffs

I tried a couple of different options. Most Addons that monitor your DoTs (a) format them into bars that animate down as they wear off and (b) show all your debuffs, not just the ones you want.

I tried very hard to like the module in Quartz Cast Bar that shows debuffs. But I really disliked the horizontal progress bars, not to mention the self-sorting by duration default setting, and I was quite distracted by Mind Flay which popped up each time I cast it.

Quartz Buff and Debuff monitoring might work for mages, but I didn't like it for 20 second duration DoT monitoring (displayed as progress bars).

Introducing Debuff Filter

Debuff Filter lets you watch just the Debuffs/DoTs that you’re interested in. You are also given the option for each debuff to only show the debuff if you were the player to apply it (thank you! I’m not interested in anyone else’s Shadow Word: Pain).

Final Result

Debuff Filter positioned above Quartz cast bar

My Configuration

Debuff Filter Configuration Options

I added the first four debuffs listed above (SW:P, DP, VT, VE) to my “watch list” in Debuff Filter and for each spell ticked the Self Applied Only option. I removed all the boomkin stuff that was set up when I installed it too.

I placed the debuffs so that they appeared directly above my Quartz cast bar. I can look at my DoTs and then decide what to cast next while I watch my cast bar to decide when to cast. I love it.

I also chose to display timers on my debuffs (not shown in the capture above). This required me to download and install OmniCC. So I did, and it worked with no additional setup. Not sure I actually like the timers yet. I might turn them off.

What’s next?

View/read all the articles in this series.