The Range Helper gadget is designed to provide a better visual indication of your ability to execute a skill based on your current range from the target. It does not provide anything that is not offered by the default user interface but it presents it such that it should be more noticeable than the changing of a hotkey number colour from white to red.
The gadget can display up to 4 orbs each representing a different range or position:
Position Orb - This orb shows green if you are able to execute a melee-range rear positional attack (e.g., Backstab) or red if you are not. If you are within melee range but not what the game deems to be 'behind' the target then it will show red. Similarly if you are out of melee range or facing away from the target it will render a red orb.
Melee Orb - This orb shows green if you are within melee range and facing the target, i.e., if the game allows you to execute a melee ability on the target the green orb will be rendered; otherwise it will be red.
20m Range Orb - This orb will render green if your 20 meter range abilities can be executed. E.g., Fiery Spike, Flame Thrust, taunts, etc.
Max Range Orb - The gadget will calculate what your maximum range is based on abilities in each class that can be extended with talents. Thus it will typically be between 30m and 35m depending on talent selection. NOTE: It does not calculate it from your soul selection it calculates from the max range abilities of each class.
This gadget is not a replacement for the Range Finder gadget but an augmentation of it. I use both for raiding.
Enhancements I'd like to make at some point :
- Make the orbs resizable. Currently they are fixed in size
- Applicable to focus and target of target
- Role-specific configuration
- Change the mechanism for refresh. Currently they refresh every 300ms (approx) but I would prefer an event-based trigger for update. NOTE: I could have used the same mechanism as Range Finder if not for the fact that some mobs rotate without changing their position and thus I had to intermittently sample to determine if the position orb should be red or green.
Feedback can be provided at the hosting site forums or directly to me at [email protected].