Using Omen2 - A Newbies Guide

[Shadowwolf]

Using Omen

Many people have expressed frustration in the new version of Omen and I know there are some who had the old version and probably had no clue what it meant other than having multicolored bars on a part of the screen.

What is Omen?

Quite simply Omen is a threat meter to gauge the amount of threat on a particular boss or NPC/mob you and your group are fighting.

Each Boss or NPC/mob has a system of threat gauging that helps that NPC attain a level of “intelligence” in determining who in a party or raid is more of a threat to it. Each mob and boss handles threat differently than others, some have threat reduction abilities they use on players to reduce the threat they are to the NPC (Knockbacks, fears, banishes, etc), but for the most part each mob handles threat pretty much the same way.

Threat is a constant changing and monitored system for the mob. Everything you do as a player when in combat generates threat in some way unless the spell specifically says it doesn’t. Even drinking and regenerating manna will generate a level of threat and all these are factored in with the games Artificial Intelligence or “AI”.

What Omen does it try to put your threat and all your party/raid members’ threat levels into a visible graph so you can see where you compare to other players such as the tank and be aware of how close you are to becoming the main target of that boss/mob and a potential stain on the floor.

The person who is currently the main target of the Boss/Mob is considered to have “aggro” or aggression from that NPC. This is where the term “aggro” comes from and what it means to pull “aggro”. If you pull aggro, you are the main target of that NPC.

You can read more about aggro here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Aggro

What sets Omen apart from most other Threat Meters is its ability to be more accurate with the more people that use it in your groups and also its ability to track threat on different mobs independently. What this means is there is 4 mobs you are fighting, Omen can usually determine your threat level on all 4 at the same time as they won’t all be the same and it will display the threat whenever you target a different mob.

Configuring Omen2

The first step to configuring Omen2 is to make sure you always have the latest version. Because Blizzard doesn’t make mob/boss Threat known in any clear-cut way, Omen has to determine it based on spells, damage, abilities, talents, etc. Because of this, sometimes programming it can be tricky and mistakes are made. Usually every update comes with an improvement on accuracy on how Threat is monitored and displayed. You can always find the latest copy of Omen2 here:

http://www.twilightonalex.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&Itemid=&gid=87


Omen2 works a little differently than normal Omen did. The old Omen would display a list of bars for all the people in your group, the person with the most agro (usually the main tank) would be the top bar in red and everyone else had a bar colored to their play class in the list. Omen2 was changed a little bit for some reason at least at the time I write this (I truly do not know why) in that by default, meaning without you changing any settings, it displays the Main Tank or the person who currently has aggro as 0% or not at all in the bar list. To fix this and make this how most Threat Meters and old Omen worked, you can adjust the settings in Omen2 as follows:

1)   Go to your Omen2 Options by clicking the minimap icon or the little wrench icon on the lower right of the Omen2 window.
2)   Select the “Modules” option on the left and click the small plus (+) button to expand it down.
3)   Select “Single Target Mode”.
4)   On the right side now with “Single Target Mode” highlighted, you will see an option that says “Show tank as 100%”. What this will do now is whomever has the current attention or aggro of the targeted mob will show a bar with 100% in the Omen2 list which should appear at the very top.

This is shown in the screenshot below:

[attach=1]

Omen2 Warnings

Omen2 comes with many methods of alerting your attention to where you sit in terms of threat with the current target. Sometimes fighting is hectic and stopping to watch the little bars on the screen aren’t your first priority or you forget. Because of this you can set ways for Omen to get your attention if you become a danger to yourself in Threat. By default Omen2 tries every way to alert you to threat and well, this can be pretty damn annoying sometimes. Especially when you are involved in a fight where you are required to balance Threat very very close. To configure the Warning options you can do the following:

1)   Go to your Omen2 Options by clicking the minimap icon or the little wrench icon on the lower right of the Omen2 window.
2)   Select the “Modules” option on the left and click the small plus (+) button to expand it down.
3)   Select “Single Target Mode” and click the small plus (+) button to expand it down.
4)   Select the “Warnings” option.
5)   On the right side of the screen you will see a list of ways you can configure Omen2 to alert you to danger. By default, everything here is usually checked “on”.

This is shown in the following screenshot:

[attach=2]

Here is a brief explanation of all the options you see on the right:

• Enable Warnings â€" Turns the ability for Omen2 to alert you. If you uncheck this box it will completely disable all alerts for Omen2.
• Enable Screen Flash â€" This turns the ability for Omen2 to flash the edges of your screen red when you are in danger of high threat on the current target.
• Enable Screen Shake â€" This will allow Omen2 to shake your screen like an earthquake if you are in danger of high threat.
• Enable Sound â€" This tells Omen2 to play a noise if you are in danger of high threat.
• Enable Warning Message â€" This allows Omen2 to print a message at the top of your screen when you are in danger of high threat.
• Sound to play (dropdown box) â€" If you have the box “Enable Sound” checked, this is where you can select what noise is played when the alert is given.
• Warning Threshold (slide bar) â€" This bar tells Omen2 when to send an alert. The default is at 90% threat but you can adjust this to whatever you feel is comfortable for you. 90% is the general recommended warning level. (Threat levels will be explained further down).

Understanding Omen

Now that we have Omen2 all configured in its most basic settings, the trick is how to understand and decipher the bars. Omen is more than just a bunch of multicolored bars with numbers. Each bar contains specific information (which can be set in options but we will deal with the default options for now).

Please see the below screenshot breakdown for what is displayed in the Omen2 window.

[attachimg=3]

Omen2 displays a different “>Pull Aggro<” bar depending on your distance. In WoW, a mobs attention will be diverted after a certain level of threat is attained on it depending on your distance from it at the time. For example, it will more likely beat on things right next to it than charge for things a distance away unless you pass a certain threat level.

For Melee range (5 yards or less), the threat threshold for grabbing a mobs attention is 110% but technically you have aggro at 100%. The mob/boss just won’t start focusing primarily on you until 110%.

[attachimg=4]

[Shadowwolf]

For ranged (greater than 5 yards), the threat threshold for grabbing attention is 130%. Again, like with melee range, you technically have aggro at 100% but the mob won’t usually come and chase after you until 130% or more.

[attachimg=1]

Omen will adjust the “>Pull Aggro<” bar % display according to your distance to the target.

Aggro Change

When a target changed aggro a lot, from charges, random attacks, etc, Omen bars might go a little crazy as shown below.

[attachimg=2]

The above shot was of a mob that initially aggro’d on me as my mage but was picked up by the tank with Growl/Taunt and some attacks. This was capped the instant the changeover took place and showed that if I were to lose aggro, from some ability or death that there was one other person right under me in line had there been no tank grabbing it.

That’s basically all there is to Omen. Feel free to explore the other options within its settings and customize it to your liking, but please do watch as the other “Modes” Omen can display threat are new and not heavily tested. “Single Target Mode” is the safest bet for displaying threat the most accurate way.

Hope this helps people in understanding Omen and Threat =)

[Shadowwolf]

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[Shadowwolf]

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[fiere redfern]

Thanks for the guide, Shadow =) Think I've got all the changes figured out now... crazy devs and their tweaking =P

[Liege]

I was wondering about Omen2 until I just read this, great post Shadow