BigWigs is a boss timer and warning mod. I was inspired to write this after my very first raid run. I was horrified by the massive amount of spam my raid leader was creating with his boss mod. I was getting messages all over the place for things I didn't care about (Hunter can't dispel a curse or interrupt a heal). I also found that the "60 seconds until painful doom" timer messages were such a waste. Why not use a nice simple timer bar to show this?

So the solution was simple, provide a better set of boss mods. Show info in the most relevant way possible, and give the user control over their mods, not the raid leader.

The other part of this solution was to create a simple plugin to block incoming bossmod spam. To accomplish this I wrote BossBlock, which is now included in BigWigs v2.0.

Now there's a few other things that distinguish BigWigs from that other boss mod. First off, the timer frame is movable, as is the message frame if you choose not to send your alerts to the RaidWarning frame. There's a larger variety of sounds available, so more important messages can grab your attention while simple info messages won't drive you to sticking sharp objects into your speakers. BigWigs is also designed to only monitor a boss if you are nearby. This means you must target or mouseover a boss to enable that boss's module. When the boss dies the module will disable itself, after sending a nice "you killed it!" message.

The best difference, however, is one you can't see. BigWigs will take advantage of the new addon communication channel to send sync messages. This means that modules that rely on combat log triggers, like detecting when Ragnaros is engaged after a wipe, can trigger even if the player isn't in range to catch the combat log message. The only requirement for this to happen is that another BigWigs user is in range of the event. This sync system has the potential to allow for detailed info to be exchanged between BigWigs users, for instance the player in C'Thun's stomach can update the rest of the raid with data automatically.

A FuBar plugin is embedded in BigWigs to allow for easy configuration. If you don't use FuBar, then you will get a minimap icon that provides access to the same menu.