Project Lore

Lots of things in WoW require you to wait a certain amount of time or keep track of different events that happen at some point in the future. For example, your spellcloth cooldown can only be done once per 20 hour period, so you might want a reminder about when you can next transmute.

Blizzard has helped out with a few of these things. The in game calendar allows you to create reminders and marks special events. The built in clock can be used to set alarms or used as a stopwatch. In patch 3.1, you can see when the battle for Wintergrasp will begin from anywhere in Northrend.

For players who want more automated tracking, there are a few different addons I'd like to spotlight.

1. EggTimer. This addon is named for the famous Mysterious Egg, which hatches into one of several great items, like the Green Proto-Drake mount or the Proto-Drake Whelp pet. You can only have one at a time and it takes 7 days to hatch, so to get the most phat loot, you need to go visit Geen every 7 days to get a new one. EggTimer plugs into FuBar and shows you how long you have until your Mysterious Egg hatches. It also tracks Digusting Jar if you decided to ally with the Frenzyheart instead of the Oracles. It can also automatically create calendar events to mark when you should get your new egg. It also tracks Ahn'kahar Watcher's Corpse for the Ahn'kahet timed event and Zorbin's Ultra Shrinker for a level 55 quest. It works across characters. The developer takes suggestions for items to watch and is working on making it a more robust addon.

2. WintergraspFu. This addon is also a FuBar addition. It tracks when the battle for Wintergrasp will begin. If you participated in a recent battle or have been in the Wintergrasp zone, or have talked with the Wintergrasp mages in Dalaran (or heard them yell to get to Wintergrasp), the addon will display the amount of time until the next battle (or estimate based on when past battles ended). Patch 3.1 allows you to see when Wintergrasp will start from anywhere in Northrend, but this addon still gives you a nice display of it and will work anywhere in WoW. It will probably get the time from the map in patch 3.1 whenever you are in Northrend and save it for if you happen to leave to go back to Orgrimmar or Ironforge.

3. CraftTimersFu. This is one of most practical ones. Any tradeskill you have with a cooldown, like Northrend Alchemy Research, Smelt Titansteel, or Spellcloth, can be tracked by this addon. It works across characters and can be configured to show the time to the next available cooldown or the number of cooldowns currently available. Its simple and makes managing multiple character's tradeskills a breeze.

4. FishingBuddy. You might find it weird that I put this on the list, but there is one facet of it that keeps it in my addon collection. The Stranglethorn Vale fishing tournament is every week at 2PM Sunday, and this addon will pop up on Sundays with a display telling you how much time til the tournament starts. Once the tournament starts, it lets you know that it is underway and tells you how many Speckled Tastyfish you've caught.

That's all for today. What timer-style addons do you use?