Improving the Interface using Addons 7 – Decursive (Cleansing and Dispelling)

I’ve had Decursive installed for so long I would almost consider it part of the default interface. Perhaps you feel the same?

If you already have a good raid frame system set up you can use that to monitor magic, curses, diseases and poisons. However, if you’d like to have a separate, stand-alone Addon for quick click removal of nasty stuff I’d recommend Decursive.

Introducing Decursive

Decursive is going to make your response time for removing the bad stuff from your friends really fast.

Default Decursive (just imagine the last line reads "Curse of Weakness")

The best thing about Decursive is that it self-configures to suit your character class when you log in. To use Decursive all you need to learn is:

• Red = Type A debuff = left click the square to cast your Type A to remove
• Blue = Type B debuff = right click the square to cast your Type B to remove
• Orange = Type C debuff = ctrl+left click the square to cast your Type C to remove
• Purple = Type D debuff = ctrl+right click the square to cast your Type D to remove

The Type A, B, C, D debuffs and corresponding cleansing spells you can use to remove the debuff will change based on what class you’re playing at the time and what cleansing spells you have available. The most common stuff you’ll need to cleanse will almost always be cleansed with a simple left click.

When I’m playing Cassandri, my Priest, I can Dispel Magic Red and Cure Disease Blue. Can’t remove poisons as a Priest? They won’t show up in Decursive if you can’t do anything about them.

Swap over to my Shaman, Xata, and in Obsidian Sanctum my Decursive flashes up Purple squares when raid members are cursed with Drain Life. Ctrl+Right click a couple times and it’s gone.

It’s also worth pointing out that the top left square in Decursive represents yourself.

While it’s true that Decursive is great out of the box, you can change the size, colours, layout and position of your Decursive squares and also define specific debuffs you wish to monitor and who (based on class) should be monitored for those debuffs.

Also, Decursive calls the bad stuff it monitors “Afflictions” so I’ll use that term from here on out.

Final Result

Decursive and other Addons, shown out of combat with no afflicted raid members.

Configuration

Decursive is a mix of shades of green and purple and grey with thin and thicker borders when you first install it. I think the default colouring is to do with range (out of range, in range but not afflicted). I did discover that the borders exist to identify the class of the player.

My thoughts on cleansing are:

• It’s pretty damn important to do most of the time in raids (fights like Yogg-Saron spring to mind)
• It’s the player’s responsibility to be in range of the cleanser
• Everyone, regardless of class, is worthy of cleansing, even if they can remove it themselves

With that in mind I scrapped the borders completely and switched all the in-range-but-not-afflicted, out-of-range settings to grey. I also scaled up my squares to about 120%. I think I also reduced the information displayed in the tooltips to just the name of the affliction.

I did come across a setting that colours the square differently when the player is “cloaked” (a rogue stealthing or a mage using invisibility) and I set this to black. I think this might help me in Battlegrounds where my Dispel Magic/Cure Disease could give away the position of my hidden friends. Not that I BG much, but I thought it was cool.

Eventually I plan to move Decursive right down next to my Grid Addon, but I keep looking towards my minimap (the original position of Decursive on install) so this is an intermediate step.

Monitoring Specific Afflictions with Decursive

99% of the time the default settings in Decursive will do the job.

But this is the situation I found myself in. Ulduar 10 man hard mode Thorim with his lovely wife Sif. Sif thinks she’s a frost mage. And just like a frost mage in a BG she likes to run around annoying players while they try and get on with the killing. All her debuffs are magic, they’re non stop (my Decursive lit up like a Christmas tree) and there are alot of them. But only one of the abilities was consistently getting people killed: Frost Nova.

With Decursive you can configure your Custom Afflictions to monitor Frost Nova (must be dispelled), Frostbolt Volley (ignore) and Blizzard (ignore) separately. Go into the Decursive menu, then to Afflictions, then Add a Custom Affliction and type in the name of the spell. It will now appear on your Afflictions list and branch out to a list of all the player classes:

• Checked = ignore this Affliction on this class
• Unchecked = behave normally and track the Affliction

Setting up Custom Afflictions with Decursive

You can find a mage to duel and test this out if you’re not sure. Worked like a charm for me the following week. Just don’t forget to change your settings back when you BG or Arena next!

You can also configure your Decursive to not light up when another Priest in your raid is afflicted by Magic (on the assumption they should cleanse themselves). I chose not to go down this path because I like to see everyone afflicted by magic in order to make smart Mass Dispel decisions.

What’s next?

View/read all the articles in this series.

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