Omen: A Short Tutorial
Let’s do a quick and basic rundown on how to setup and use a threat meter. We’re going to use Omen for our demonstration because that’s what we like. Our blog, our addon, our post, right? Right.
Download Omen, install, start WoW, look on your minimap for the Omen icon and click it. Poof, your Omen meter header will appear:
Tada. Now we want to ensure that it is always On when you’re pet is out. Right-click on the title bar there and select Active With Pet:
Very nice. Next we want to take a look and see what the threat-bars look like. Select the Show Test Bars option and lets see what happens.
AUGH! TEST BARS! Don’t panic, it’s alright.
We’re going to make our pet’s bar green. Green is good, right? Right. When the bar on top is green, we’re good! In a future post we’ll make the Main Tank’s bar green. With a whole raid on the meter, it’s really easy to see if the MT is on top if you’re always used to seeing a green bar heading the list.
Right-click on your pet’s bar and change the bar’s color.
Poof, it’s green!
Now we’re going turn off the test bars by selecting Clear Threat. Good job.
Right then. Next we want to turn off the Aggro Gain bar. We’ll discuss what it’s used for in a future discussion, but for now it might be confusing. Click on Display and then uncheck Show Aggro Gain.
And as long as you’re there, go ahead and select Show KTM Data. You may have people in your parties and raids who use the KTM threat meter and this option will allow your Omen to process their KTM messages and incorporate that data into your threat-display.
Select the Close option and you’re ready to test it out!
Find something fun to kill. We’re going after the moths outside of Shattrath City. Send your pet with Growl and let him attack. Your Omen display will begin to calculate that mob’s threat list.
Oh, look look look! Not only did it start calculating the threat list, but the title changed! Omen will keep track of multiple threat lists by mob-name, isn’t that handy?!
Note: if you have two mobs of the same name, Omen combines the data of both mobs into one threat-list. Watch for that; it can be confusing.
OK, now start attacking that mob yourself and watch the meter.
Notice that Omen is collecting our threat info and displaying it with our pet’s. Right now, Hobbes threat is higher so it is on top and at 100%. Since we only have 2k threat versus Hobbes’s 3.4k threat, we are at 59% of the mob’s threat.
2000 / 3400 = 0.588 or 59%
If we had 3.4k threat, matching Hobbes, we would have 100% threat as well.
Now as a ranged DPS class, we won’t surpass Hobbes on the threat list and grab aggro until we reach 130% of Hobbes’s threat. At 3.4k threat, we’d need 4420 threat to grab aggro at this instant.
Look at the TPS column, that stands for Threat Per Second. Hobbes’s threat is increasing at a rate of 423 threat per second while our threat is increasing at a rate of 471 threat per second. If our respective TPS rates remain constant, we would eventually surpass Hobbes and grab aggro because our TPS is higher than Hobbes.
If we were to Feign Death, and not be resisted, our threat would drop to zero and our bar would disappear from the chart.
One last thing, let’s open up on a new target, but let’s open with an Aimed Shot. Watch what happens to the Omen display.
Blamo! Our Aimed Shot crit completely blows away Hobbes on the threat list and we’ve got aggro. We are at 100% threat because we are at the top of the aggro list, Hobbes is at 48% and climbing.
Notice that we stopped firing and our TPS is now zero while Hobbes’s is at 250 threat per second. Hobbes will need six seconds at his current TPS-pace to equal our threat and begin to complete for aggro. Hobbes, as a melee class, needs to exceed our threat by 10% to get aggro back, so he’ll need even more than six seconds to push us from the top of the threat list. Hopefully you see why a Feign Death at this point is our most efficient method of allowing Hobbes to get aggro.
That should cover the basics of running Omen, we’ll do more in-depth use and analysis in a later post. If you have any ideas or things you specifically want covered in such a discussion, please comment. 
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40 Responses to “Omen: A Short Tutorial”
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Very nice tutorial, thx m8 =D
Great info to get Omen up and running. I recently started to use it myself and was a bit surprised when I hit the preset 90% “WARNING” mark of my pet’s threat. So to touch on that real quick:
You can choose at what Percent of your pet’s threat level you start to receive a Warning message, from 0 through 130. The Warning shows up as bold red text, and also gives you the option to select one of several audio clips to help let you know you’re approaching the point of stealing aggro.
Incidentally, I am one of those who are interested in what the “Aggro Gain” means hehe
Omen makes a hellavua lot more sense now, thank you.
How does it work in PvP?
(No, I don’t mind asking the REALLY n00bly questions LOL)
wow, thanks for the great help. i hate getting addons i don’t understand right away. this will help me a great deal.
To answer your question, Bobo, threat is irrelevant in PvP. It may or may not show numbers, but you can ignore it.
The aggro gain bar (and i’m sure BRK will cover this on his own later) displays the amount of threat you would need in order to pull aggro. It adjusts itself to 10% or 30% higher than the mob’s current target based on your distance from the mob. I wouldn’t rely on it too much, though; just try to stay at least 1% below the main tank (this is for those non-hunters who can’t just FD every 30 seconds).
I’ve been using omen for a while, but now it makes alot more sense thanks:)
Could the fact that I haven’t selected to show KTM data be the reason while there are people who are not showing up in instances and raids?
Yes, Omen can get data from almost any other popular threat meter, once you configure it to do so via the settings. That was a great introduction into using Omen though its pretty much common sense to configure stuff. Can’t wait for your next post on this.
Thanks for the tutorial, BRK.
I don’t always take the time in-game to alter the config of an add-on, and just let it run default. You pointing out the essential (and cool) features is a real time saver.
I’ve been using Omen for a while and so I was gonna skip over this tutorial, but glad I didn’t. I found out you can change the bar colour and make sounds when you go over the warning threshold
There’s a very cool feature that you’ve missed. The threat bars can be “torn off” and moved around the screen and resized. Just click-n-drag. I’ve torn off the “aggro gain” bar, moved it to the center of my screen directly above when I keep my pet bar. And made it semi-ginormous. It’s about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. But now during pve boss fights, I only need to concern myself with that one bar since it always applies to my aggro compared to the highest threat. It doesn’t matter who or what is tanking, it always compares myself to them.
Not missed; omitted. We’ll cover the Aggro Bar and other fun features in a future, non-introduction-to-Omen post.
We do not like to include “advanced” information with the “basic” information, regardless of subject. “Learn the Fundamentals” could be our motto.
Thanks fo rdoing an intro; even though I’ve been using Omen since I saw you suggest it I learned a few things. Including the percentage at which you pull aggro also helped a great deal! I had no idea that ranged DPS pulled aggro at a different rate than melee. One question though: would a warlock’s DOTs be considered range? I hope that’s not a totally noob question. They’re not range damamge so I figured they might have a different percentage…. How did you know those numbers anyway? I feel I’m missing out on some real handy knowledge.
Yes they are. And the big problem is that, once a warlock gets aggro, it’s really hard for him to dump it because those dots keep on clicking.
Research! From thousands of websites, all across the universe, tabulated, organized, and reformatted for your ingestion and enjoyment.
It’s what we do here at BRK, right? Right.
Thanks for the great intro. You pushed me to get off my butt and install it. After reading much of your stuff could already see the response to Anonymous about the stuff you missed. /buttkisson Good one, missed.
/buttkissoff
Awesome job again BRK.
I’ve been using Omen for a while and loved it, but now I get to set it up correctly!
Thanks,
Fahr & Bacon
Thanks BRK, I appreciate your in depth explanations. I have been reading your posts for quite some time now, and figured it was about time I gave you props. I have been using KTM for about a year now and it drives me crazy that I have to constatly mess with it. As soon as I get home, I will be installing Omen and ditching KTM. Was very glad to find out that you can sync KTM wiht Omen. I am looking forward to your post on the “Aggro Gain” but then… I look forward to all your posts. Thanks again BRK!
Thanks for a great intro tutorial! Last night my boar and I conspired to install this on our husband’s computer after testing it on our own. He’s a tasty fire mage and the guild wants him to join the Kara run, but he fears his own threat to the point that he is underperforming. Omen is by far the best threat meter I’ve tried yet, I’m suggesting it to everyone I know.
The time it took to set up Omen (using your directions): first computer, appr 3 minutes. Second computer, appr 1.5 minutes. Thanks again!
Kaistarri and Jinx
BRK, as always, you saved me a ton of time! I have linked to your tutorial from our guild blog instead of writing my own. Thank you - now I will go play my hunter in your honor and farm small eggs for those auction buyers so desperate to spend their gold.
[...] integrating the addons I found out about by using the package. In the tradition of BRK’s recent Omen overview (which was great - thanks Damh), I’m planning on documenting the rebuild and posting it here [...]
Thanks BRK, nicely done!
I love Omen very much but sometimes Party Members dont show up and this could be bad when im trying to not pull the mob off the tank. Does that have anything to do with the Show KTM Data” button? Or is that something different entirely.
Would love to see more on Omen!
~Morath
The most likely reason your party members don’t show up is they’re not running a threat meter. I use a lot of addons personally, but the only one I feel I need is Omen/KTM. Everybody who ever groups should have a threat meter in my opinion.
Today i played in a dungeon and one of my teammembers had a blue-ish bar instead of the standard color. I was main tank so had to get the aggro, wich i did, but often that one player had about twice the amount of my aggro, but the mobs stayed on me. So my question is, was the amount of aggro displayed for that player wrong (because of other threatmeter, or anything like that) and had that something to with the strange colour of his bar?
Hey BRK,
I’ve always been a bit worried about threat meters as I’m a complete technophobe, and having meters active seems to have a REALLY negative effect on my lag.
Is this because my computer is old and crappy and has too much rubbish stored in random places, or just co-incidence that when i have dmg meters/threat meters running my lag seems worse?
This is not too crucial at the moment for my 67 hunter, but for my 68 healadin, it causes wipes if i lag, so i’d rather go without meters to ensure my group survives. Any advice would be most welcome.
Thx for a nice clear fear-reducing guide to Omen
Tell me how you got the charge sound for your threat warning and I’ll be happy.
I’ve heard it in a couple of your tutorial videos and I just can’t find it in Omen.
@Klauth,
That bluish-bar happens because Omen will show class colors as well as names. Likely, you had a mage with an attitude flinging all sorts of arc/fire/ice goodness at the mob and that’s who you saw creeping up on your brown (warrior) bar, or if you followed the advice of our dear friend BRK, green bar.
Does Omen keeps track of the threat caused by Healing Spells? It doesn’t seem to be the case with KTM, and so, I never know when mobs will start to come after me…
Maybe an option I missed?
@Mynako
Omen DOES keep track of all your healery hand-waving.
Quick question. Does Omen know when your Feign Death has been resisted and thus NOT change your aggro on the list? And this may be a noob question but how do you tell if your FD has been resisted in the first place?
@Lorana: If FD is resisted, you’ll know real quick–chances are, you’ll be dead or severely hurting in short order. If FD is resisted, as far as the mob(s) is(are) concerned, you never hit it. They’ll continue to target you while you stare helplessly at your cooldown timer (or your shrinking health bar, or a dying clothie…I’m sure you get the idea).
To whoever asked about the charge sound, I do believe that is part of DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) I know thats what mine does now..just cant remember 100% out of all my mods (full custom baby…i wants mah rims though)
@Kestrel: Is there any other way to tell? I’m one of those hunters that feigns everytime the cool down is up. So if it resists, I will have a little to time to stop dps or slow down but I don’t see a way to tell. And it still doesn’t answer the question if Omen is smart enough to tell that your feign death was resisted and thus not adjust your aggro level.
I have noticed a few occasions where Omen reports that I am below the tank in aggro but the mob still comes and wipes the floor with me. This could be the rare mistake on Omen’s part or it could be an issue with feign death aggro reporting.
[...] Omen ** the threat meter the right side of the screen ** supported by Wow Ace Updater or download here (warning: the curse.com isn’t updated regularly) ** yay aggro management! check out BigRedKitty’s Omen Tutorial here [...]
I was wondering if you might be able to do up a guide like this for the new Omen. Thanks for doing what you do buddy.
Can you post an updated tutorial for Omen2? I’m having a helluva time figuring it out.
I agree. I’m a late bloomer to Omen, and this new version is not so easy to manipulate like you have described. I can’t even get my pet to appear on the test list.
Please give an update to the tutorial.
Thanks in advance.
Warning Sounds in Omen2:
In what I believe is the Module you can expand the section to show the four modes of Omen. In the single target section there is an option for warnings. This is where you can turn on/off sound and make any other changes you like. Personally I have all warning sounds turned off because listening to other raiders has presidence.
FD on Omen2 and being Resisted:
When your MT is top of the aggro list all is good. You are second on the list but its that time in the fight to burn em down and pulling threat = wipe. Click that FD button and watch your bar on Omen disappear. If your bar is still second to the tank your FD has been resisted and you hope MD cooldown is up. If FD has not been resisted your bar is gone and you have left the helpless mage fend for his own means of not wiping the group. You may now begin the mana dump and top the damage charts as your treat bar will be at the bottom of the list.
[...] for instances or raids, please do your teammates a favour and install this. BRK has done a good introduction to Omen, mainly aimed at hunters but the principles apply to [...]
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