Best Way to get a Bosses Health

[upyursh]

So I know the boss name but I want to get its health. Is this the best way? Is their limitations to doing it this way?

      bossname = "Ya Mumma"
      bossmax = UnitHealthMax(bossname)
      bosscurrent = UnitHealth(bossname)
      bossPerc =  bosscurrent / bossmax

Do I need to boss targetted etc?

Upy

[Dridzt]

You need a valid UnitID.
Those won't work at all.

Edit: To make my comment a bit more useful.

You do need the boss targeted, mouseover-ed, or in case the default client shows bossframes get it from 'bossx' unitid.

If you want to save the HP you got back you probably need to store boss name or guid alongside the current raid difficulty/size.

Keep in mind that some bosses change hitpoints "dynamically" when hardmodes are activated.
(fx heartbreaker on XT-002 or Flame Leviathan with towers up)

Do you need persistent records of boss hp for some reason?

[upyursh]

ill try changing to boss1 (this is for Sind)

I am checking for Phase 3, once she's below 35% then i set a flag to Phase3 and then dont need health any longer really

Hmm actually I need to reset that flag at some point, hmmm

Upy

[upyursh]

So using boss1 didnt work for Sindy, I dont know why
I ended up using focus instead

Any ideas why UnitHealth("boss1") would return 0 during the encounter?

Is UnitHealth("Sindragosa") a better way of doing it?

Upy

[Xrystal]

It is case sensitive .. try "Boss1".

Edit: My apologies .. "Boss1TargetFrame" is the frame you see when fighting them. "boss1" is the internal unitID for that boss. Had to dig through unitframe.lua and xml for that.

Edit2: Rofl .. actually it was targetframe.lua. The BossFrames aren't located anywhere in Unitframe.lua/xml so perhaps that is why UnitHealth isn't working as planned ? But then you can use UnitHealth("target"). Ah thats why. "target" is a part of the unitframe system.

You might have to use "target" instead and keep her targetted.

[upyursh]

lol ok ill try that next time we face her

good news is my addon seemed to help organise people enough to get our first kill

[upyursh]

Originally Posted by Xrystal It is case sensitive .. try "Boss1". Edit: My apologies .. "Boss1TargetFrame" is the frame you see when fighting them. "boss1" is the internal unitID for that boss. Had to dig through unitframe.lua and xml for that.

Hmm its ok, I dont know why it wasnt working then, it just never found her :/

Ill create some debugging in the addon to try find the UnitID through a number of ways and see which one works. I'd rather not have to rely on a target or focus

Upy

[Xrystal]

Rofl... thought my last edit would get there before you saw it darn it ..

[upyursh]

haha im hitting refresh every 15 secs :P

[Waverian]

Originally Posted by Xrystal It is case sensitive .. try "Boss1". Edit: My apologies .. "Boss1TargetFrame" is the frame you see when fighting them. "boss1" is the internal unitID for that boss. Had to dig through unitframe.lua and xml for that.

Every string-based token I can think of (unitIDs, widgets) is case-insensitive.

And the bossN unitIDs are only valid when the default unit frames show boss targets, which is limited to static multi-target boss encounters in Icecrown Citadel. Gunship, Council, Valithria (?) are the only ones I believe use this feature.

[upyursh]

Thanks Waverian, makes sense why it wouldnt find her then I'll find an alternate method to check boss health than using boss1 for unitid then

[Waverian]

Edit: I just decided to actually read more of the thread. If all you want to do is detect when Sindragosa hits P3, then you can just use one of the spell cast events (whether standalone or combat_log_event_unfiltered), and as soon as Mystic Buffet is cast for the first time, you know you've entered P3.

Wowwiki also claims she has a chat yell for entering P3 (http://www.wowwiki.com/Sindragosa_%28tactics%29) but that would require localization for non-English clients, so spell cast would probably be easiest and most versatile.

Originally Posted by upyursh Thanks Waverian, makes sense why it wouldnt find her then I'll find an alternate method to check boss health than using boss1 for unitid then

You can use raid target scanning.

Example:

-- For localization. You can also use npc ids which I don't know how to use.
-- I believe DXE using the ids if you're looking for an example
local SINDRAGOSA = "Sindragosa"

local ScanForUnit = function(name)
	if UnitName'target' == name then
		return 'target'
	elseif UnitName'focus' == name then
		return 'focus'
	elseif UnitName'pettarget' == name then
		return 'pettarget'
	else
		for i = 1, GetNumRaidMembers() do
			local unit = ('raid%dtarget'):format(i)
			if UnitName(unit) == name then return unit end
		end
	end
end

-- Use like this:
local unit = ScanForUnit(SINDRAGOSA)
print(UnitHealth(unit))

[upyursh]

I am already monitoring combat log so I will use that to identify if she's around and then get her health etc, that should do the trick.

Thanks for the code btw I will store that

[Xrystal]

Originally Posted by Waverian Every string-based token I can think of (unitIDs, widgets) is case-insensitive. And the bossN unitIDs are only valid when the default unit frames show boss targets, which is limited to static multi-target boss encounters in Icecrown Citadel. Gunship, Council, Valithria (?) are the only ones I believe use this feature.

Ah, learn something new every day rofl.