I have been slacking on my posts on mods lately ever since patch 2.4 came out, and there is more content to discover. I’ve had a bunch of emails asking about some of the mods I use that have been neglecting (sorry!). It is about time I start it up again. This time I will be talking about a mod that I probably can’t Raid or PvP without: Quartz.

On the surface, Quartz is just a customizable castbar to replace the dull default Blizz castbar with something bigger and more colorful. Not only can you change the size and color of your bar, you can add the spell’s icon, name, rank, or cast time to the bar itself. It even changes your cast time according to your spell haste. And that is just the basics.

Latency

If you explore the mod deeper, you can add latency to your castbar. The mod will adjust your castbar depending on your current latency by adding a red “buffer” zone of how long it takes the spell to cast so you can start the next spell cast. This part of the mod is kind of difficult to explain. Let’s see…

Have you ever start mounting up on your horse, but then move before it finished “casting” and still end up mounted? Or cast a spell and right before the castbar finishes you get interrupted, but the spell still managed to get through? Sometimes you cast a spell and you don’t see the castbar right away. That’s is all because of the game latency.

2 Second Frostbolts? Niiiiiiice!

Latency is the time delay between the moment something is initiated, and the moment one of its effects begins. So when you press your Frostbolt key, the user’s game sends the command to the main server, the server receives the command and initiates it, sends information back to the game, which you see in the form of a castbar. All this can be affected by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or anything that may slow down your internet (downloading pr0n).

Quartz estimates according to your current latency, and adds the “buffer” zone so you know how long until the spell is done casting so you can cast again, or start moving. I normally “aim” for the middle of the “buffer” zone to start my next cast. It is very useful in raids where you are just chain casting on a boss, or in a situation where you have to move soon and need to know if you can get the cast off in time or not.

The castbar also adjusts to spell knockback due to taking damage so you know how long until the spell is done casting. This can be useful in various PvP and PvE situations.

Global Cooldown 

See that small line below the castbar with a white glowing dot? That is the Global cooldown timer, which goes from left to right, everytime you cast a spell. It is a very useful tool for when you cast an instantcast spell and want to see when you can cast again.

Global Cooldown bar going across the bottom.

Debuffs

It also comes with a very good debuff timer. It will keep track of how long until your sheep breaks, how long the chill effects are on your Frostbolts and Cone of Cold, how long until Winter’s Chill expires, and even how many stacks of the debuff is on the target. This is probably the main reason why I use this mod.

No more looking through the target’s debuff list to find my debuffs to see how many stacks of Winter’s Chill I have up, Quartz tracks it for me, and only the debuff that matters to me. If your are Fire spec, it keeps track of Improve Scorch, if your a Shadow Priest it keeps track of your debuffs and dots. An extremely useful part of the mod to use in PvE or PvP.

You can also have it set to show your buffs and your target’s buffs too if you want.

Focused sheep target at the top with sheep debuff timer.

Other Castbars

You can have a castbar to show your target’s casting. Good for PvPing when you need to know what the boss is casting, or in PvP so you can time your Counterspell to interrupt an enemy’s heal or spell. You can also have a castbar for your target’s target, and even your focus target.

This can be used to just see how much longer until your sheep target breaks.

There is also a bar for air when you are swimming underwater, bar for when the arena match is about to begin, and bar for how long til the challenge or party invite will last until it is auto-declined. All these miscellaneous bars are categorized under “mirrors”.

The smaller castbar above my own castbar is my target’s castbar.

Usage

The command to open up the Quartz menu is: /quartz

The menu that is brought up is broken down nicely to make it easy for you to customize every bar to the way you want them to be. You can change the size and color of every bar, enable or disable any options that you want or don’t want.

You can download this mod at: Curse.com

If you have any questions or would like to add something, just let me know.

Related Posts:

• PTR Patch 3.3 – Permanent Water Elemental
• Mage Guide to Ignite
• PTR Patch 3.2 – Frost Mages Get Mortal Strike and More Haste
• PTR Patch 3.1.0 – New Mage Glyphs
• PTR Patch 3.0.8 – Mage Raid Specs