Trigger Types

Trigger Types

There are 4 categories of triggers: Auras, Statuses, Events, and Custom triggers. The first three will be explained here; for the fourth, see Custom Triggers.

Trigger types are considered separate entities from Display types, so any trigger can be used for any (non-group) Display type. Triggers pass information to the displays to which they are connected through mainly 4 channels: Duration Info, Icon Info, Name Info, and Stack Info. See Dynamic Information for more info. The Progress Bar type is the only Display type which shows all 4 of these types of information; the other display types show some or none of them. Similarly, some triggers do not provide all 4 types of information, some do not provide any, and some provide different types of information depending on circumstances. The types of information provided by each trigger type will be specified in this page, along with explanations of each trigger's options and behavior.

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Aura

Auras are the most commonly used triggers in WeakAuras. Auras are also known as Buffs or Debuffs.

Auras provide Duration Info, Icon Info, Name Info, and Stack Info. However, if the Inverse option is checked, an Aura trigger will not provide any of this information. Additionally, if "Smart Group" is chosen for the Unit option, the trigger will provide Duration Info and Stack Info but not an icon or name.

Trigger Options:

• Aura Name: The name of the buff or debuff. It is possible to specify up to 9 different aura names; the trigger will activate when any of the specified names are detected.
• Unit: The unit(s) which should be watched for the specified aura. See UnitId.
  • Single unit: Player, Target, Focus, and Pet
  • Multiple units: Party, Raid, Smart Group, Arena, Boss, Multi-Target, and Nameplate
    • Party looks at each of your party members (party1 - party5).
    • Raid looks at each of your raid members (raid1 - raid40).
    • Smart Group is a combination of Party and Raid, handling both group types, or player only when not grouped.
    • Arena looks at each of your arena enemies (arena1 - arena5).
    • Boss looks at each enemy with a boss frame during an encounter (boss1 - bossN).
    • Multi-target looks at all known units (includes all of the above).
      This can rely on combat log events to track information about creatures that do not have unitIDs and can be inaccurate.
    • Nameplate looks at each nameplate unit (nameplate1 - nameplate40).
      This can be more efficient that "Multi-target" but applies only to nameplates on your screen.
• Group Member Count: Only available if "Smart Group" is chosen for the Unit option. Such Aura triggers will screen all of the people in your party or raid, count how many people are affected by any of the specified aura names, and then that number will be tested by the comparison you specify in these two fields. For example, if Operator is set to "<" and Count is set to 5, then the trigger will only be active if less than 5 people in your party of raid are affected by any of the specified aura names.
• Hide When Not In Group: Only available if "Smart Group" is chosen for the Unit option. Prevents the trigger from being active when you are not in a party or raid.
• Aura Type: Whether the aura is a buff or a debuff. Unfortunately, WoW makes you specify, and will not search for buffs and debuffs at the same time.
• Stack Count: A comparison test for the stack count of the aura. Most auras do not stack, and those auras will have a stack count of 0 by default.
• Remaining Time: A comparison test for the remaining time of the aura.
• Own Only: Enabling this option will cause the trigger to only consider auras that were cast by the player.
• Inverse: Enabling this option will completely flip the behavior of the trigger; it will make the display appear whenever the trigger's conditions are not met, and invisible when those conditions are met. It also removes the trigger's ability to provide any dynamic information.
• Show all matches (Auto-clone): Enabling this option will clone the display for each affected unit. This functions best when the aura is in a dynamic group.

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Status

Status triggers are generally based on information about the player or the environment that can always be checked. Some of the more important types of Status triggers are described below:

Action Usable

The Action Usable trigger checks whether a specified spell is able to be used. This directly correlates with the way it is displayed on the action bar; if the spell would be grayed out (its proc conditions are not met, or there is not enough mana/rage/etc. to cast it) or is on cooldown, then this trigger will not be active.

Action Usable triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info, but do not show stacks.

Trigger Options:

• Spell: The name of the spell to be checked. It is only possible to specify a spell that is currently in your spellbook. If this option is not enabled, the trigger will always be active.
• Require Valid Target: If this option is enabled, the trigger will only be active if the current target is a valid target for the spell. Note that some spells, like AoE spells, cannot have a "valid" target.

Power

The Power trigger tracks the Power of a unit (not necessarily the player). There are many types of Power: Mana, Rage, Focus, Energy, Happiness, or Runic Power, Stagger, Combo points, Holy Power, etc. "Alternate Power", usually used in boss fights with an extra UI element to show it, is on a separate Status Trigger from the Power one.

Power triggers provide Duration Info, but not icon, name, or stack info.

Trigger Options:

• Unit: The unit whose power should be tracked. If the specified unit does not exist, the trigger will not be active.
• Power Type: By default the power trigger tracks the primary ressource. If a Ressource Type is selected that ressource is tracked.
• Power: A comparison test for the amount of Power of the specified unit.
• Power (%): A comparison test for the percentage of Power of the specified unit.
• Hide: See Triggers and Untriggers

Cooldown Progress (Spell)

The Cooldown Progress (Spell) trigger tracks the progress of a spell's cooldown.

Cooldown Progress (Spell) triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info and stack info. If the Inverse option is enabled, the duration will always be full.

Trigger Options:

• Spell: The name of the spell whose cooldown progress should be tracked. It is only possible to specify a spell that is currently in your spellbook. If this option is not enabled, the trigger will always be active.
• Ignore Rune CD: Spells are technically put on cooldown whenever they can't be used due to rune cooldowns. Enable this option to ignore Rune CDs.
• Remaining Time: Checks the remaining time of the cooldown.
• Stacks: Checks the number of stacks of the spell.
• Show: You can select between showing the display "On Cooldown", "Always" or if "Not on Cooldown"

Cooldown Progress (Item)

The Cooldown Progress (Item) trigger tracks the progress of an item's cooldown.

Cooldown Progress (Item) triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info, but not stack info. If the Inverse option is enabled, the duration will always be full.

Trigger Options:

• Item: The name of the spell whose cooldown progress should be tracked. It is only possible to specify a spell that is currently in your spellbook. If this option is not enabled, the trigger will always be active.
• Show: You can select between showing the display "On Cooldown", "Always" or if "Not on Cooldown"

Death Knight Rune

The Death Knight Rune trigger tracks a single death knight rune. You can specify which rune to track. Obviously, you can use 6 displays with Death Knight Rune triggers to track all 6 runes.

Death Knight Rune triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info, but not stack info.

Trigger Options:

• Rune: The rune which should be tracked, enable this if you want to track a specific rune.
• Rune Count: The number of available runes, enable this if you want to track how many runes are ready.

Health

The Health trigger tracks the health of a unit (not necessarily the player).

Health triggers provide Duration Info, but not icon, name, or stack info.

Trigger Options:

• Unit: The unit whose health should be tracked. If the specified unit does not exist (e.g., Unit is set to "Target", but you do not currently have a target), the trigger will not be active.
• Health: A comparison test for the amount of health of the specified unit.
• Health (%): A comparison test for the percentage of health of the specified unit.
• Hide: See Triggers and Untriggers

Item Count

The Item Count trigger tracks how many of a specified item the player possesses.

Item Count triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info, but not stack info. Unlike most triggers that provide duration info, Item Count triggers only provide a "time remaining" value, and not a "maximum duration" value, which means that text displays of duration will display a number (specifically, the number of items possessed), but visual means of tracking duration will always remain at full.

Display Options:

• Item: The item which should be counted.
• Include Bank: If this option is enabled, items in the player's bank will also be counted.
• Include Charges: If this option is enabled, items which can have more than one charge will have each charge counted separately. Note that stacks are different than charges.
• Item Count: A comparison test for the item count.

Item Equipped

The Item Equipped trigger tracks whether the player is wearing the specified item.

Item Equipped triggers do not provide any dynamic information.

Trigger Options:

• Item: The item which should be tracked. If this option is not enabled, the trigger will always be active.
• Inverse: If this option is enabled, the trigger will be active if the player is not wearing the specified item, and not active if the player is.

Stance/Form/Aura

The Stance/Form/Aura trigger tracks the player's current shapeshift form. Stance/Form/Aura triggers provide Icon Info and Name Info, but not duration or stack info.

Trigger Options:

• Class: The player's class.
• Shapeshift Form: This option will contain the shapeshift forms.

Totem

The Totem trigger tracks the duration of one of the four types of totems (Fire, Water, Earth, Air). It's also used for Druid Mushrooms.

Totem triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info, but not stack info.

Trigger Options:

• Totem Type: The elemental type of totem to track.
• Totem Name: If this option is enabled, the trigger will only show when the specified totem name is active.

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Event

Event triggers are based on one-time events, and are generally active only for a specified amount of time.

Chat Message

The Chat Message trigger is checked whenever the player receives a chat message.

Chat Message triggers provide Duration Info if they are used with Hide set to "Timed", and no dynamic info if they are not.

Trigger Options:

• Message Type: Checks the type of the message received. If this option is not enabled, all message types will be valid.
• Message: This option can be used to check the text of the message in one of three ways. If set to "Is Exactly", the specified string will have to exactly match the text of the message for the trigger to become active. If set to "Contains", the text of the message will have to contain the specified string at some point (e.g., if the specified string is "Icecrown" and someone said "LFM Icecrown Citadel", the trigger would become active). If set to "Matches (Pattern)", the text of the message will be checked if it matches the specified Lua Pattern. Lua Patterns are an advanced programming concept. If you're familiar with regular expression matching, see this warcraftWiki page for information on Lua's implementation of patterns. If not, you should probably avoid using this setting.
• Source Name: Checks the name of the sender of the message. If this option is not enabled, all message senders will be valid.
• Hide: Controls when the trigger will end once it becomes active. If set to "Timed", the trigger will simply last a specified amount of time (it will refresh if another valid message is detected before time runs out)(if no duration is specified, the display will remain visible indefinitely). If set to "Custom", another set of Chat Message options can be specified, and the display will remain visible until a message matching the second set of conditions is detected.

Combat Log

The Combat Log trigger is easily the most complex pre-defined trigger. It watches the Combat Log and tries to match combat log events. Combat Log triggers can have so many different arguments and meanings that a full description of the Combat Log trigger will not be attempted. Instead, see WarcraftWiki's overview on combat log messages for more information - although some fields cannot be checked in WeakAuras, most can. Additionally, consider using the /combatlog command in WoW to log your combat experiences to /Logs/WoWCombatLog.txt in order to find the specific arguments of a combat log message that you want to tell WeakAuras to detect.

Cooldown Ready (Item)

The Cooldown Ready (Item) trigger is checked whenever an item comes off cooldown (becomes ready to use). The point of the Cooldown Ready (Item) trigger is that it is only displayed on screen for a short time. If you want your display to be visible whenever a certain item is not on cooldown, use the Cooldown Progress (Item) trigger (in the Status category) with Inverse enabled.

Cooldown Ready (Item) triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info.

Trigger Options:

• Item: The item whose cooldown should be detected.
• Hide: Controls when the trigger will end once it becomes active. If set to "Timed", the trigger will simply last a specified amount of time (it will refresh if the item goes on cooldown and then goes off cooldown again before time runs out)(if no duration is specified, the display will remain visible indefinitely). The "Custom" option is actually not usable for this trigger type; if you select it, no further options will be given, and the trigger will simply remain active forever once it occurs.

Cooldown Ready (Spell)

The Cooldown Ready (Spell) trigger is checked whenever an spell comes off cooldown (becomes ready to use). The point of the Cooldown Ready (Spell) trigger is that it is only displayed on screen for a short time. If you want your display to be visible whenever a certain spell is not on cooldown, use the Cooldown Progress (Spell) trigger (in the Status category) with Inverse enabled.

Cooldown Ready (Spell) triggers provide Duration Info, Icon Info, and Name Info.

Trigger Options:

• Spell: The spell whose cooldown should be detected. Only spells currently in the player's spellbook can be specified.
• Hide: Controls when the trigger will end once it becomes active. If set to "Timed", the trigger will simply last a specified amount of time (it will refresh if the spell goes on cooldown and then goes off cooldown again before time runs out)(if no duration is specified, the display will remain visible indefinitely). The "Custom" option is actually not usable for this trigger type; if you select it, no further options will be given, and the trigger will simply remain active forever once it occurs.

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Custom Triggers

Custom triggers are an advanced feature that is only intended for users who know Lua. See Custom Triggers for more information.

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Multiple Triggers

Each display requires at least one trigger, but it is possible to use multiple triggers for a single display. When there are multiple triggers, there are three ways to determine which of the triggers must be active in order for the display to show. See the Display Activation and Deactivation page for more details.

To use multiple triggers with your display, click the "Add Trigger" button at the top of the Trigger tab. This will add another trigger to your display. WeakAuras supports up to 10 triggers per display. You can choose which trigger you want to configure using the dropdown list next to the "Add Trigger" button. Triggers other than the Main Trigger can be deleted by pressing the large "Delete Trigger" button.