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Core Features

WeakAuras provides a comprehensive set of features designed to enhance your WotLK gaming experience while maintaining optimal performance.

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Intuitive Configuration Interface

The WeakAuras interface is designed to be both powerful and accessible:
  • Visual Editor: Drag-and-drop positioning with real-time preview
  • Organized Tabs: Trigger, Display, Load, Actions, Animations, and Conditions
  • Search & Filter: Quickly find auras in large collections
  • Group Management: Organize related displays together
  • Import/Export: Share auras with the community via encoded strings
Access the interface with /wa or click the minimap icon

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Display Types

WeakAuras supports multiple region types for different visualization needs:
Display circular or square icons with textures, cooldown swirls, and stacks.Perfect for:
  • Buff/debuff tracking
  • Cooldown monitoring
  • Proc notifications
Features:
  • Custom textures or spell icons
  • Cooldown sweep animations
  • Stack count display
  • Desaturation when inactive
Horizontal or vertical bars that fill based on duration or value.Perfect for:
  • Buff/debuff timers
  • Resource tracking (health, mana)
  • Cast bars
Features:
  • Custom bar textures via SharedMedia
  • Foreground/background colors
  • Text overlays (time remaining, name)
  • Spark indicator
Customizable text displays with dynamic content.Perfect for:
  • Numeric values (DPS, health)
  • Status messages
  • Timer countdowns
Features:
  • Custom fonts via SharedMedia
  • Color coding
  • Text formatting options
  • Shadow and outline effects
Display custom textures with rotation and animation.Perfect for:
  • Directional indicators
  • Custom shapes
  • Decorative elements
Features:
  • All Power Auras textures included
  • Blizzard spell alert textures
  • Rotation and scaling
  • Progress texture support
Textures that fill based on progress (circular or linear).Perfect for:
  • Circular cooldown indicators
  • Radial progress displays
Features:
  • Multiple fill directions
  • Custom textures
  • Smooth animations
3D model displays with animations.Perfect for:
  • Special effects
  • NPC/creature indicators
  • Unique visual alerts
Features:
  • Any WoW model file
  • Animation control
  • Model customization
Container for organizing multiple displays.Perfect for:
  • Multi-aura setups
  • Organized layouts
Features:
  • Horizontal/vertical/circular/grid layouts
  • Dynamic groups (child creation)
  • Sorting options
  • Spacing and alignment
Automatically creates child displays based on triggers.Perfect for:
  • Multi-target tracking
  • Party/raid frames
  • Dynamic buff tracking
Features:
  • Automatic child creation/removal
  • Sorting and filtering
  • Custom child triggers

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Trigger System

The heart of WeakAuras is its flexible trigger system:

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Built-in Trigger Types

Auras

Track buffs and debuffs on any unit with advanced filtering
  • Buff/Debuff type
  • Stacks, duration, caster
  • Spell name or ID
  • Enchants (weapon)

Status

Monitor unit health, power, and resources
  • Health/power values
  • Mana, rage, energy
  • Runes (Death Knight)
  • Soul Shards, Holy Power

Combat

React to combat events and spell casts
  • COMBAT_LOG events
  • Spell damage/healing
  • Deaths
  • Interrupts

Cooldowns

Track spell and item cooldowns
  • Spell cooldowns
  • Item cooldowns
  • GCD tracking

Items

Monitor inventory and equipment
  • Item count
  • Equipped items
  • Item usability

Totems

Track active totems (Shaman)
  • Totem presence
  • Duration
  • Totem type

Boss Mods

Integration with DBM and BigWigs
  • Boss ability timers
  • Raid warnings
  • Stage changes

Custom

Lua-based custom triggers
  • Full API access
  • Custom logic
  • Unlimited flexibility

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Advanced Trigger Features

1

Multiple Triggers

Combine up to 9 triggers with AND/OR/custom logic
2

Trigger Conditions

Add conditions to refine when triggers activate
3

Unit Selection

Choose from player, target, focus, party, raid, boss, and more
4

Clone Behavior

Create multiple displays for multiple units or auras

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Animation System

Bring your displays to life with powerful animations:

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Preset Animations

  • Main: Entrance animation when display appears
  • Finish: Exit animation when display disappears
  • Start: Animation at trigger activation

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Animation Types

  • Fade In/Out
  • Slide (any direction)
  • Zoom In/Out
  • Rotate

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Conditions System

Dynamically change display properties based on conditions: 
-- Example: Change color based on duration
if duration < 5 then
  return {1, 0, 0, 1} -- Red
else
  return {0, 1, 0, 1} -- Green
end
Customizable Properties:
  • Color
  • Size (width/height)
  • Position (x/y)
  • Alpha (transparency)
  • Text
  • Texture
  • And more…

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Load Conditions

Optimize performance by loading displays only when needed:
  • Class, spec, race
  • Talent tree
  • Level range
  • Equipment set
  • In combat
  • Instance type (raid, dungeon, arena)
  • Specific zone or boss
  • Difficulty
  • In party/raid
  • Group size
  • Group role
  • Mounted/unmounted
  • Stealthed
  • Vehicle
  • PvP flagged

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Actions & Side Effects

Trigger actions when displays show or hide:
  • Chat Messages: Announce procs or warnings
  • Sounds: Play custom sounds (with SharedMedia support)
  • Custom Code: Execute Lua on show/hide
  • Glow: Highlight action buttons or frames
  • Text-to-Speech: Spoken alerts (with Awesome WotLK)

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Grouping & Organization

Static Groups

Manually organize displays with fixed layouts
  • Position children together
  • Shared anchoring
  • Bulk configuration

Dynamic Groups

Automatically create children based on triggers
  • Multi-target tracking
  • Sorting options
  • Custom/ascending/descending

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Performance Optimizations

WeakAuras is built with performance in mind:
Conditional Loading: Only load displays when needed based on class, spec, zone, etc.
Modular Design: Efficient code organization minimizes overhead
Smart Event Registration: Only listen to events actually used by your displays
Prevention of Full Aura Scanning: Optimized buff/debuff checking
CPU Profiling: Built-in profiling to identify performance issues
-- WeakAuras internal version tracking
local internalVersion = 87

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Customization for Lua Users

Advanced users can leverage Lua for unlimited possibilities:

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Custom Triggers

-- Example: Custom health percentage trigger
function()
  local health = UnitHealth("player")
  local maxHealth = UnitHealthMax("player")
  local percent = (health / maxHealth) * 100
  
  if percent < 30 then
    return true, percent
  else
    return false
  end
end

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On Show/Hide Code

-- Example: Play sound and announce
PlaySoundFile("Sound\\Interface\\RaidWarning.wav")
SendChatMessage("Bloodlust active!", "RAID")

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Custom Animation Paths

-- Example: Circular motion
function(progress, start, delta)
  local angle = progress * 2 * math.pi
  local x = math.cos(angle) * 100
  local y = math.sin(angle) * 100
  return start + x, start + y
end

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Integration & Extensions

WeakAuras works seamlessly with popular addons:

SharedMedia

Access thousands of custom fonts, textures, and sounds

DBM / BigWigs

Boss mod integration for raid mechanics

Masque

Skinning support for action button glows

GTFO

Enhanced alerts for avoidable damage

CustomNames

Custom unit name support

AwesomeCVar

Enable advanced client features
See the Client Extensions page for information about Large Address Aware and Awesome WotLK patches that unlock additional functionality.

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Next Steps

Ready to experience these features firsthand?

Install WeakAuras

Get started with the installation guide

Create Your First Aura

Follow the quick start tutorial

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