Shadowlands Pre-Patch (9.0.1)

This post was edited around 11:30 AM Eastern time on October 13th.

Did you think we'd make it?  I wasn't sure.

I just built v9.0.1-1.0-alpha53, which is going to be v9.0.1-1.0 tomorrow, assuming nothing explodes before the servers go down for patching.  I think we'll be okay.  The beta server was having some latency that impacted my last-second testing, but I think it's okay.

Some quick highlights:

Remember where you live.  If you're not in an area that has launched the pre-patch, don't upload any of your addons until pre-patch hits.  Many addons will not be backwards compatible with their old versions, which means if you upgrade, they'll be broken until pre-patch hits, even if you downgrade again.

Backup your WTF folder.  Your WTF folder (_retail_/WTF) contains all your configuration settings for all of your addons.  Keep a backup, in case something doesn't migrate well for pre-patch.  Backup your WeakAuras.  If an issue gets resolved with an addon, this will let you backtrack.

If you want to do some testing ahead of pre-patch (whether PTR or beta), you can download the alpha here. 

Okay, so what has changed?

EVERYTHING.  Well, every DPS and tank specialization was revamped and rebuilt.  If there are new SimulationCraft profiles, they've been imported and tweaked for the addon.  If there are not new SimulationCraft profiles, the old profiles have been iterated on to work with pre-patch mechanics.  Many specializations have new or revised specialization options, so be sure to take a look at /hekili > Your Specialization > Core.

Expect a lot of changes in the next several days, as theorycrafters commit their updates to SimulationCraft.

Toggles:  The "Essences" toggle will also be the toggle for your class Covenant abilities.  /hekili > Toggles will reflect that this is really the Covenant toggle now.

ElvUI Cooldowns:  ElvUI users will find a new option in /hekili > Displays > Primary (or any) > Main (and Queue).  You can check Apply ElvUI Cooldown Style and the first/queued icons will use the cooldown text style that you've configured in ElvUI.

Special Snowflakes:  Fire and Shadow have both been iterated on quite a bit.  Fire is still a bit of a processor hog.  Consider showing fewer recommendations, as it is cheaper on CPU.  I'll get to iterate on Fire again when things calm down.  Shadow is modeled nicely with the Mind Blast/Searing Nightmare casts during your Mind Flay/Mind Sear channels.

Border Thickness:  I received a request to let people change the thickness of the border around recommendation icons.  You can adjust this in /hekili > Displays > Any Display > Border > Border Thickness.  Maybe you like 2 pixel borders instead of 1 pixel borders.  Live your best life.

Target Detection:  The addon now supports pet-based target detection for Hunters and Warlocks.  The short summary is that you can place a pet ability on your own action bar.  If you are targeting an enemy that is within range of your pet, the addon will count enemies around your pet (who are in range of the pet ability) as valid targets.  Pet-based target detection requires some thoughtful configuration, so take a look at /hekili > Your Specialization > Targeting > Use Pet-Based Detection and follow the instructions there.  I hope you have a Blood Beast or Succubus pet!

Target Swaps:  Target-cycling (when you have checked /hekili > Your Specialization > Targeting > Allow Target Swaps) has been improved a bit.  The addon now does a better job of figuring out if your real, current ability cast is going to be on your current target or not.  This is helpful for Destruction, when you're casting Havoc or Immolate on other targets.  Note: it's still completely valid to prefer that the addon not direct you to change targets at all.  Use your judgment!

Keybindings:  Keybind detection was improved, especially for Bartender and ElvUI users.  There will probably still be some issues in odd circumstances, so you can set these in /hekili > Abilities > Ability Name > Override Keybind Text when there are problems.  You can also style queued icon keybind text differently than the primary icon.  See /hekili > Displays > Any Display > Keybinds > Use Different Settings for Queue.

Efficiency:  I put a lot of time into general efficiency updates as well.  Things should be faster in general, even for CPU intensive specs.  (If you've ever looked at processing time in a snapshot, you might see scary numbers.  Keep in mind, the most CPU intensive part of a snapshot is generating the snapshot text with all the conditions and values...  Actual processing time is generally 20% or less than what the snapshot captured.)

Priorities:  Some SimulationCraft syntax is now autotranslated into the addon at time of import.  Previously, the addon would treat % as / (for division).  Since newer SimC priorities also use %% for % (modulus), it was easy to get confused about the criteria.  So this conversion is done for you when you (or I) import SimulationCraft priorities.  (This is something that only power users who import custom priorities need to be concerned with.)

Issue Reporting:  The Issue Reporting tab (and Snapshots) now include Shadowlands-related information.  This means it is even more essential to include the Character Data / Snapshot when reporting problems, because I have to know your circumstances in order to investigate why you are having an issue.

Profiles: In Shadowlands, all your classes will share the same profile by default.  This makes it easier to keep the same display settings across classes and specializations.  If you are carrying your configuration over from Battle for Azeroth, nothing should change for you.  But fresh installs will share configuration on all characters by default.  You can adjust this in /hekili > Profiles.

You're likely to run into odd recommendations now and then, as theorycrafters iterate on their priorities and/or bugs are found.  Remember, if you see recommendations you disagree with, you can Pause (default: ALT-SHIFT-P) to freeze the recommendations and mouseover to see the rationale.  You might find a bug, or you might learn something you didn't know.  Or both.  When you pause, it also creates a Snapshot that you can upload to GitHub if you report an error.  You can retrieve it from /hekili > Snapshots until you reload UI or log out.

If you do have an issue, report it here and remember to read and follow the ticket instructions.  Things are going to get frantic with updates, so the more complete your ticket, the quicker I can address any issues.

Finally, thank you to all the Patreon patrons, donors, contributors, issue reporters, and users of this addon.  I have a lot of fun learning all the mechanics of different specializations and providing you guidance in your gameplay.  It takes a lot of time, so all the support that's been provided helps keep it realistic for me to continue development.  It's all welcomed and appreciated.

Take care, and see you in the Shadowlands...  Well, Orgrimmar for now.