I'm trying to define what an ideal PvP timer tracker should do. Some questions regarding this are what should be tracked, on whom, under what conditions and where and how the timers should be displayed.
Some incoherent fragments/thoughts
Broad categories of PvP relevant timers to track:
(short) buffs
debuffs
cooldowns
casts
Some of these are partially already tracked by certain addons not specifically dedicated to pvp timers. Especially unit frames tend to track casts for targets for example. However, since other units' casts may also be relevant the question is whether these should best be tracked separately, or whether all should be tracked uniformly.
For whom should they be tracked? All of them for the same?
options:
player
target
target of target (target of target of target etc.)
recent targets
last targets (can't think of a good reason to use this over recent targets)
nearby characters (thinking about renew's recent work with coordinate distance calculation in bgs/outdoors)
party
raid
friendly players
enemies
whole combat log range
From whom should they be tracked? (probably no reason to limit this for PvP, more of an issue in PvE for dots)
player
everyone
How should they be displayed?
Options are mainly bars and icon counters (like these https://camo.githubusercontent.com/...92e696d6775722e636f6d2f597264387650662e706e67).
I would say bars are better for short timers (more precise information about duration) and icon counters are better for long timers (focus on information about the effect (larger icon) which is less obvious for long lasting timers, takes up less space)
Where should they be displayed?
Probably at the center of the screen for short timers and more out of the way for long timers, but an important aspect here is also how to associate timers with units.
For target only tracking this isn't an issue but that's probably not enough and when using very liberal tracking (e.g., everything in combat log range) then there can be a huge information overload, making it hard to discern the relevant timers. Most trackers which use bars put the name of the unit on the bar, but if you have 20+ timers this is no longer practical, but what's the alternative? Just stick to more conservative tracking? Sure, full combat log range is probably unnecessary, but using recent target tracking may miss some relevant information and using range based tracking (given that you'd have to at least use a range greater than the max cast range) may be just as bad as full combat log range if you're standing in a large group.
Another option would be to add enemy frames like here (http://iliana-sc.github.io/enemyframes/screenshot.png) and then put the timers in proximity of the corresponding unit frame, but when tracking all the categories of timers they probably take up so much space that this will look rather chaotic. And of course then you also have to worry about how to manage the enemy frames, for whom to show them, where, how many, in what order etc.
Some incoherent fragments/thoughts
Broad categories of PvP relevant timers to track:
(short) buffs
debuffs
cooldowns
casts
Some of these are partially already tracked by certain addons not specifically dedicated to pvp timers. Especially unit frames tend to track casts for targets for example. However, since other units' casts may also be relevant the question is whether these should best be tracked separately, or whether all should be tracked uniformly.
For whom should they be tracked? All of them for the same?
options:
player
target
target of target (target of target of target etc.)
recent targets
last targets (can't think of a good reason to use this over recent targets)
nearby characters (thinking about renew's recent work with coordinate distance calculation in bgs/outdoors)
party
raid
friendly players
enemies
whole combat log range
From whom should they be tracked? (probably no reason to limit this for PvP, more of an issue in PvE for dots)
player
everyone
How should they be displayed?
Options are mainly bars and icon counters (like these https://camo.githubusercontent.com/...92e696d6775722e636f6d2f597264387650662e706e67).
I would say bars are better for short timers (more precise information about duration) and icon counters are better for long timers (focus on information about the effect (larger icon) which is less obvious for long lasting timers, takes up less space)
Where should they be displayed?
Probably at the center of the screen for short timers and more out of the way for long timers, but an important aspect here is also how to associate timers with units.
For target only tracking this isn't an issue but that's probably not enough and when using very liberal tracking (e.g., everything in combat log range) then there can be a huge information overload, making it hard to discern the relevant timers. Most trackers which use bars put the name of the unit on the bar, but if you have 20+ timers this is no longer practical, but what's the alternative? Just stick to more conservative tracking? Sure, full combat log range is probably unnecessary, but using recent target tracking may miss some relevant information and using range based tracking (given that you'd have to at least use a range greater than the max cast range) may be just as bad as full combat log range if you're standing in a large group.
Another option would be to add enemy frames like here (http://iliana-sc.github.io/enemyframes/screenshot.png) and then put the timers in proximity of the corresponding unit frame, but when tracking all the categories of timers they probably take up so much space that this will look rather chaotic. And of course then you also have to worry about how to manage the enemy frames, for whom to show them, where, how many, in what order etc.
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