Addon Corner – Tidy Plates: Threat
There aren’t really a multitude of addons out there that are specifically written to assist tanks. Today’s reviewed addons however are most helpful if you are a tank. I have been using them extensively for a month or two, and I fully endorse them. Originally I had wanted to make a companion video, but that’ll have to wait for another time.
Step 1: to use this, you need to run with name plates turned on. Press ‘V’ and enjoy seeing nameplates over the head of all neutral and hostile mobs.
Step 2: Install Tidy Plates, which is basically an addon to skin the default nameplates Blizzard gives us. TP’s default skin is extreme fug though, if you ask me.
Step 3: Install Tidy Plates: Threat as theme for Tidy Plates. You need to have both TP and the threat module enabled. Runs out of the box, but can be adjusted. You can turn off display of nameplates for neutral mobs, e.g., or adjust size, opacity for the various threat levels.
What does the skin do overall? It makes the nameplates respond based on the amount of threat you have on the mob. If you set the addon in tank mode, nameplates of mobs you currently do not have aggro on, are large and red. Mobs that are aggro’d on you but another player is just about to snag them off you will be framed in yellow. Mobs you hold safely have green frames. The less threat you have, the bigger the nameplate. Especially in AoE situations, this makes actually locating stray mobs very easy, and you can just click on the large nameplate for targetting. You can freely define the threat threshholds that will have the color and behavior of the nameplates change.
In my example screenshot, I have full control over the pull, all mobs are on me. I managed to frontload a lot of threat, the closest party member is only sitting at 4% threat. All green, all safe. But the less threat you have, the bigger the nameplate would be.
If you’re strugging in larger pulls, this is a fabulous visual aid, and I wouldn’t want to miss it anymore. On top of that, it has a low memory footprint and won’t tax your resources. Give it a spin or discuss it on Tankspot, as the author is specifically looking for feedback from us. 
P.S.: if you are not of the tanking kind, the nameplates have a DPS mode, which means they would be all green for you, if your threat level was safe, and go yellow as soon as you gain threat on the tank to your personal warn level. Big and red when you have pulled aggro. Could be useful, right?
I got a 24″ widescreen monitor for Christmas, and it’s been since TBC since I discussed my whole UI, so expect a dissecting the UI post very soon.
P.S.S.: Another player who tanks like a girl made a demo video. Enjoy, and thanks for the link, Gabbu. Another review can be found over at Pwnwear.
Installed it at your suggestion today.
Mind = blown.
.-= Rilgon Arcsinh´s last blog ..Hastening Our Will =-.
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Glad you enjoy it.
Reply
I fully endorse this addon. It is amazing. Thanks for reviewing it.
.-= Antikris´s last blog ..antikris77: @Criqe Seriously, wake up that person in your bed and snuggle up. =-.
Reply
A demo video for Threat Plates is already out, you might want to add a link to your post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU7vizgszUs&fmt=22
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Added, thanks for the link!
Reply
Nananea Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Thank you for the link the the video I made! Getting a lot of views from your blog, so wanted to stop in to thank you!
~Nananea
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:51 am
Thank you for making the video! Seeing it in action explains it much better than my blog post ever could.
Reply
unfortunately the colors seemingly cannot be customized – i belong to the unfortunate few-percent-group of colorblind tanks and i already have to struggle to “see” the difference between friends and foes in many situations – most of the time i just watch omen and tab through targets to cope with that.
how my heart leapt when i read about this addon – it would be a huge visual help for me – but watching the video crushed my hopes – the only difference in the nameplates (apart from the size, which helps *a tiny bit*) i can see is the glow around the nameplate – it is a bit more defined on the supposedly red plates.
Reply
Tryna Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
You might try leaving feedback for the addon author, letting them know of the colorblind issue. They can probably make a colorblind mode!
Reply
Theuth Reply:
April 1st, 2010 at 3:06 am
In the default version of TP, there is a tug-o-war threat setting that you can turn on… it puts a little bar on top of every plate that explands (from the center) to the right to show your threat lead and to the left to show your threat deficit. The bars are yellow when you’re in the clear and blue when you need to reestablish threat. I’m not colorblind and I use this feature because it is a great visual indicator.
Reply
Oh my goodness, must get for baby death knight tank!
.-= Shizukera´s last blog ..New Year’s Stuff =-.
Reply
I recently started using Tidy Plates for my baby tank and it does indeed simplify keeping threat on mobs i AoE situations.
Now, I use Power Auras for tracking my procs and it works quite well. I did notice in your screenshot, that you’ve got name + cooldown written on the icons showing your procs. Is that Power Auras? Satrinas Buff Frames?
I’m looking for an addon that shows me an icon when abilities are available (Shield Slam, Revenge, Thunder Clap etc.) AND does the above (showing cooldown, text etc.).
Hope you can point me in the right direction
/Aucassin
Reply
correction: now i’m happy: it seems to work by meddling a bit with the configuration:
http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f120/57223-new-threat-name-plates-theme-creation-3.html#post337339
Reply
Epic I am so glad you posted this.
Reply
This is amazing. Both my warrior tanks thank you for the suggestion!
.-= Metaneira´s last blog ..Mage Lang Syne =-.
Reply
How did you get the text at the bottom saying “4% by nolkta”. Is that done with tidy plates as well, cause ivé been using tidy plates for months and have never seen that…
It seems like its “digits”, or even something “shields up” like…
btw, love you blog, been reading it for months, yet never commented it before
Fresh lvl 80 warrior incoming this evening i hope
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
The 4% stuff is actually another tank addon I am using. This one is called myThreat. Another extremely awesome tank addon for me, because it directly shows me who’s on my heels and when I will have to start working harder.
Go go, warrior power!
Reply
I’ve been following your blog for a couple of months now and gotta say up front that you’re doing a marvelous job here.
I started tanking with my paladin only recently and this is the kind of add-on I’ve been looking for. It’s quite annoying in an AOE tanking situation to have the “Changed Target” message pop up on the screen and struggle to cycle through the mobs to find the one that’s gone astray. I’ll test this tonight, thanks for pointing this out.
Reply
Ooh I can’t wait to test this out with kitty spec… making sure I don’t pull too much aggro while intoxicated with LOLSWIPE.
Reply
This looks pretty similar to the addon “Aloft”, which I’ve been using for nearly a year now. These sort of addons are almost essential as an AoE tank. I still can’t understand people that claim nameplates clutter up their screen while tanking.
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
The difference to Aloft is the small memory footprint. I tried Aloft ages ago and really enjoyed it, but it has memory issues.
Reply
OH MAN. Just tried it on my level 40 warrior. She’s dual-specced so I can quest (not that I have much) and the addon actually flips the skins back and forth depending on whether I’m tank specced or not.
I am in love.
.-= Metaneira´s last blog ..Mage Lang Syne =-.
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
That is pretty cool, I think dual-spec support was only added recently. My love for this addon only increases more. And to think that it’s written by someone who plays a shaman hee.
Reply
I installed this addon a few weeks ago and have been SUPREMELY happy with it–I love it to death. I did have a small issue with it–namely, when I updated it via the Curse updater, it stopped working correctly. If this happens to you, make sure to get the newest version of Tidy Plates (the base addon) from WoW Interface (the Curse version appears to be a bit older).
.-= Brandon Tilley´s last blog ..Frostmourne Hungers =-.
Reply
You’ve got to be kidding me, I’ve been searching for the source where I read about this addon just yesterday.
Then I found and installed it… and today you make this post. Aaaaah!
Reply
Hi there!
unfortunatly i’m not registred at tankspot, so i kindly ask you to tell the author, that his theme is not supporting russian text. The original theme is. It would be great if he can ass russian text support or make it possible to use wow fonts.
Thanks in advance,
Era.
Reply
he can add*
/shy
Reply
You have made me a very happy tank, this addon is what I’ve always wanted.
I tested it out last night in a few random heroics with a couple of my guildies and asked them to get a bit crazy on the threat and not follow kill order and such.
I lost threat on lots of mobs, but it was easy to find them and get them back quick. Very rarely did they ever get to the target before I had them.
Reply
This is awesome. It’ll finally get me to use nameplates! Thanks!
.-= Linedan´s last blog ..Shining Pearls of Wisdom–Your PUG Tank and You =-.
Reply
I have used this addon for ages and I just love it
I had forgotten about your blog cause you post so rarely but Google reader explore showed this… Kudos on that.
But what I want to know if your still using Power auras for the Revenge and Glyph of Revenge cause it looks amazing.
Could you export and tell which font your using below the Revenge icon.
Reply
Thanks for this one, Kad – it’s actually a really big help. I really don’t like the new default name plates and was looking for something that would be better, but also more helpful.
This AddOn is terrific, basically.
Reply
[...] under Addons, Druid, Healing, Instances, Kitty, Raiding Leave a Comment At the suggestion of tank like a girl and pwnwear, I tried Tidy Plates and it is indeed [...]
Hi Kadomi,
I’m a warrior tank on Stormrage, and I really like the stuff you write. I downloaded a couple of days ago after reading your post. I think it’s a great idea. Question: it looks like in the youtube video she has her nameplates spread out (not overlapping) despite having tons of mobs grouped up. Do you know if there is a setting in TidyPlates to do this, or is it a separate addon? My only complaint with it so far has been that all my nameplates are overlapping, making it a little harder to see them.
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
That’s actually part of the default interface settings. Go to Interface options, Nameplates, uncheck overlapping nameplates.
The first day after 3.3 was a nightmare. Try running CoS and Gundrak (ew, snakes) with overlapping nameplates. Barf.
Reply
Ceiphas Reply:
January 15th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Correct me if I am wrong but there appears to be no way to change the threat thresholds at which the bars change. The scale settings only change the size. I was hoping to get more warning (as yellow bar) before losing threat, but I cannot achieve that. In fact I have never seen the bars do anything but turn directly from green to red. As such I must still rotate through while watching my omen threat meter. The red bar only helps me select a mob I need to taunt if I lose one.
Reply
Thanks! Heehee, wow I’m a noob. I guess I just never paid much attention to nameplates before because my standard way of maintaining threat is to tab through my mobs, find those that I don’t have a huge threat lead on. Thanks for the fast reply! I think this addon will transform my multi-mob tanking.
Reply
I want to know if your still using Power auras for the Revenge and Glyph of Revenge cause it looks amazing.
Could you export and tell which font your using below the Revenge icon.
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 1:37 am
I still use Power Auras, but not as Revenge and proc alert on my warrior. The addon is Surgetrack, which has ButtonFacade support. The font is called 12 ton fishstick.
However, the addon broke with 3.3, no longer alerts to S&B, and has a sound bug, so I can’t 100% endorse it. Too bad, it really looks best from all the proc alert addons.
Reply
As far as i know i also read somewhere there is a way for tidyplates to disable showing them if the mobs are neutral….but i haven’t found it so far….that would make tanking gundrak snakes SO much easier and les annoying. At the moment that is the only place where i turn nameplates off, and aoe tank, rotate abilities and pray
Reply
i love you. i’ve been looking for a good nameplates add-on for the LONGEST time!
Reply
love this addon. tried it and loved it. one question though… has anyone else noticed their recount doesn’t work after installing this addon?
Reply
Hey, I’m checking out curse client but cant find threat plates. where did you find it?
Reply
Kadomi Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:27 pm
They are called Tidy Plates: Threat, available at WowInterface and Curse both.
Reply
Ohh, now that’s straight up freaking spiffy!
Downloading that sucker as soon as I get home.
.-= Psynister´s last blog ..Death Knight Tanking: Frost (61-70) =-.
Reply
[...] ThreatPlates is your big visual notifier and I love it. Threat levels are color coded for green/yellow/red, and the border around targets who you have agro on will let you know who’s hungry for your flesh and who’s focused on your Voidwalker like they should be. Rather than duplicate an already great explanation, I’m going to direct you to a post that gives you just that at Tank Like A Girl. [...]
[...] ThreatPlates is your big visual notifier and I love it. Threat levels are color coded for green/yellow/red, and the border around targets who you have agro on will let you know who’s hungry for your flesh and who’s focused on your Voidwalker like they should be. Rather than duplicate an already great explanation, I’m going to direct you to a post that gives you just that at Tank Like A Girl. [...]
[...] my screen too much, didn’t like the way they looked. Then I saw a post by Kadomi over at Tank Like a Girl about two addons–Tidy Plates, and the Threat Plates skin for Tidy Plates. I gave them a [...]
[...] the suggestion of tank like a girl and pwnwear, I tried Tidy Plates and it is indeed [...]
I downloaded this add-on and as stated before by a fellow colour-blind tank I could barely see the healthbars, after that happened I decided to check out the regular tidy plates and found there are some simplified tanking plates to use.
I decided to try out these plates and found that they by themselves seem to perform most of the functions of the threat plates but in my opinion in a much more effective, simpler way.
The plates are larger, easier to click, easier to see, and easier to configure and im more than happy with them.
Reply