Does cosmos really help?Follow

So i downloaded and I havn't tried it yet, so I just wanted to know if it was anygood

Absolutely

I did it! One word... yay!

If your experience is anything like mine, the answer is a definite yes. However, it can be a bit overwhelming at first. I'd recommend turning off everything you're not sure of in the options (the system menu will have a new option at the top). Personally it bugs me that all ninety-seven of the additional toolbars default to being on. Personally I turn off the PopBar and both SideBars and just use the SecondBar (the one that appears above the main toolbar, on the left).

There are still a bunch of options I don't really understand (sadly, Cosmos is woefully documentation-deficient). For instance, what the hell does TotemStomper do? I dunno.

Here's a quick rundown on the features I find really helpful:

QuestMinion -- My favorite mod, adds a floating window with all the quests that you flag in your quest journal documenting how far along you are in gathering stuff. This really helps keep you aware of what you should be targetting when you're in an area where you can work on multiple quests.

MapNotes -- Not as important if you don't mind alt-tabbing away to Allakhazam while playing, but it's still nice to be able to jot notes on the map.

SecondBar -- Handy for keeping less commonly used abilities that you still want to be somewhat handy. I generally stick all my buffs in there and don't bother setting up hotkeys for 'em, just click on them to activate. I'd recommend using the option that allows you to join the two bars together, so that paging up or down shifts to a new set of two.

QuickLoot -- I used to love this, but I've since discovered my favorite standard UI trick that I don't think is mentioned nearly enough -- shift-right-clicking automatically tries to loot everything (Bind on Acquire items won't be automatically picked up, so no worries there) and I believe it closes the window all by itself (but that my be QuickLoot doing it for me). This also works with resource nodes/chests/quest items.

Clock -- Sure it's dead simple, but I don't have a clock near my computer, so I like it. It's nice and unobtrusive.

That's about all I can think of, but I'd definitely recommend playing around with it.

Not that anyone asked but if anyone's wondering, TotemStomper is sort of a totem macro maker for shamans. That way you can drop four totems pressing only one key instead of individually pressing a button for each totem.

The people who created Cosmos should have small shrines built in their honor anywhere WoW is played. It's a wonderful tool and I highly recommend it. As others have said though, it is fairly deep (I had no idea there was a note taker for maps until I read this thread) so just pace yourself in it's use.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Cosmos for both documentation and links to d/l from :)

Ive heard rumors about blizz banning accounts for the use of cosmos. True? Or just rumors?

Just installed it today and I already love it. I know I am not going to be able to live without it so let's hope future patches don't mess things up!!

Well, I tried it on my Mac, and while I do not understand all the features yet, it seems to be working fine... except for an error report that pops up when I quit WOW...

anyone know what that is about?

Regarding the target distance mod, Cosmos used to have it, but it was taken out because Blizzard removed the underlying functionality that made it work. There was a getTargetDistance() function (not its real name) that used to return actual values, now it just returns nil. However, in the same patch (IIRC) they added the change that makes the numbers in your hotbar red if you're out of range for an ability, so it's not that necessary now. Also, it was always strictly two-dimensional, so if you were at a different elevation than your target it was always underrepresenting the true distance.

As far as I know, there's no mod that currently has this functionality. Anybody know of one?

On the subject of patches, pretty much every client side patch in beta broke it, and I'd expect that to be the case going forward. Technically, it gets broken whenever Blizzard releases a new client in which they change the interface version number, 'cause Cosmos sees that it's outdated and doesn't even try, lest it ***** something up royally. That being said, the Cosmos gurus usually have a more-or-less functional version available within a day or so.