WowAce

Hi Elkano,

ElkBuffBars sat on my screen for years, so when 12.1 broke it I went digging

into what exactly changed. That turned into a small addon, written together

with Claude, and I am sharing it in case any of it saves you time:

https://github.com/mixMugz/WoW-TinyBuffBars

It only does player auras as bars — no other units, no config UI, nothing close

to the scope of EBB. It is a proof that bars are still possible in 12.1, not a

replacement for anything.

What killed the old approach: AuraData fields now carry

SecretWhenUnitAuraRestricted, so in combat, encounters, M+ and PvP any

comparison against them raises. Reading auras and drawing your own bars is over.

The sanctioned replacement is CustomAuraContainer (Blizzard_AuraContainer,

always loaded). You declare aura groups and a frame template; the client decides

which aura lands in which group and fills your regions with secret values

itself.

Three things that cost me the most time:

1. There is no per-aura callback. initializeFrame runs once per created frame,

and AuraButton forbids UntrustedScriptExecution, so nothing can be attached

later. Everything per-aura has to be group membership or one of the client's

declarative bindings — AddDispelTypeTexture for colour by dispel type,

SetCancelAuraButtons for right-click cancel, and so on.

2. Splitting permanent from timed. A group's only duration filter is

maxDuration, i.e. "timed only", with no inverse. For helpful auras on the

player you can work around it with candidateFilters.excludeSpellIDs, because

CanApplyIdentityCandidateFilters short-circuits to true there. For harmful

auras on the player it returns false on purpose, so debuffs cannot be split

at all.

3. Which makes a permanent aura in a mixed block awkward: its duration is zero,

so every client-driven element reads zero and the bar renders empty. What

works is to not paint with the StatusBar at all. Drive it by ElapsedTime with

reverse fill, keep its own texture invisible, and anchor a separate coloured

texture from the bar's left edge to that fill texture's BOTTOMLEFT. A

permanent aura has zero elapsed time, so the zero-width fill sits pinned to

the right, its left edge lands on the far end, and the colour spans the whole

bar. Timed auras shrink normally. No classification, nothing to read, works

the same inside a raid.

It is all MIT — take whatever is useful, the code, the approach, or just the

notes above. No attribution needed, no strings attached. If EBB comes back, I

am first in line to install it.

Thanks for all the years of it.

I'm so glad this is still going, I think I've been using it since it came out 20 years ago.

Currently using the r223 alpha and my buffs and tench are back where they've always been, however the debuffs are nowhere to be found. I've had a look through the variables and the references are still there and appear to still point to the correct ID to "stick to".

If you have any clues as to what I'm missing that would be great, but I can live with it till a later release.

Is there a way to 'hack' a settings file up? I have always used EBB and upon switching to the alpha, everything disappeared and it's like my old settings didn't carry over.

I installed version 223, but I noticed that after logging in, it always places itself in the upper left corner, and from there you have to always place it in the correct place. It doesn't have a settings screen, not even on command.

omg downloaded the alpha and i can see my debuff bars again. i can finally know if i have a debuff or not, really cant live without this after being accustomed to it for 20years... only thing is it hides my blizzard buff frames (i was just using it to show debuff bars and using blizz buff bars) but ill just target myself as a workaround while i wait. thanks man

Hello. Thanks for the amazing work, this really is a fantastic addon. Does anyone happen to know how I could remove the TENCH column, as it's currently bugging out and showing incorrectly. Cheers.

Downloaded the alpha but am I clumsy? I cannot see the configuration window I type /ebb no such command. I right click on the EBB icon on my broker bar and nothing comes up. No error message. How am I supposed to configure stuff? :D

Anyways I wanted to start using EBB becuase I really want to get rid of my static buffs And see some short combat buffs like less than 60 second long buffs only. Is this doable?

@Elkano Ohh I didn't see your big comment above prior posting sorry, Ok I'll wait patiently. This game is gargabe without addons now anyways. :S

I have also been using Elkano's BuffBars for many years.

For more than two decades, I have felt somewhat helpless watching the default way the game displays Buffs and Debuffs remain almost completely unchanged. As the game has evolved through the years, more and more Buffs have become important to monitor, while an increasing number of Debuffs have become critical to pay attention to—especially in high-end raids.

But after I started using Elkano's BuffBars, all of that changed.

I could clearly see the final second of a Buff and use that information to squeeze out one last, perfectly timed ability. I could also immediately notice important Raid Debuffs on myself and react quickly enough to avoid boss mechanics.

Even today, I still haven't found another addon that can truly compare to Elkano's BuffBars as a bar-based timer.

Whether it is the way it presents information—which, perhaps, was simply too far ahead of its time—or the incredible precision of its timers, these are the reasons I have continued using it all these years. A timer bar provides visual feedback precise enough to let players judge even the final 0.1 seconds, something that ordinary Buff/Debuff icons simply cannot replace.

Even after Blizzard began restricting addon functionality to varying degrees starting with 11.0, I still never gave up on EBB.

Knowing that you are preparing to redevelop Elkano's BuffBars, there isn't much I can personally do to support you. The most I can offer is my support through words and language.

But I sincerely hope you can find some confidence and motivation in my message.

Because to me, Elkano's BuffBars has never been just another Buff addon.

It has become an irreplaceable part of my experience playing World of Warcraft for all these years.

So please, accept this gratitude from a long-time user with a clear conscience.

thanks for the info bud, love this addon and cannot play without it. thanks for all your hard work

@Elkano Probably been using this myself for 20ish years, glad you're still at it

@Elkano People like you is what makes the community great and the game working decently enough; if it wasn't for blizzard fucking things up for no reason..

@Elkano I’m excited to see you back and actively working on arguably the best buff/debuff addon that wow has ever seen. I know it's temporary but just the ability to move the buffs/debuffs as a whole during your alpha releases would be amazing. One anchor point to “Option Click” or “Shift Click” and drag like Decursive is an option but I’m not sure how dificult to code it in would be. More coffee for you soon !