Triggers and Untriggers

Triggers and Untriggers

Some status triggers (and most custom triggers) in WeakAuras have a Hide option which allows you to choose between "Automatic" and "Custom". When "Automatic" is selected, the trigger will simply "turn off" whenever the specified options are not true. However, when "Custom" is selected, you will be able to specify a second set of options for the trigger, which will determine when the display should be hidden. This is referred to as an "untrigger". Unfortunately, untriggers do not work how you might expect, so this page will briefly explain how they do work.

The most important thing to know about untriggers is that a display's untrigger will not even be checked unless its trigger has already been checked, and failed. This means that an untrigger cannot be used simply as a second set of constraints on when a display should trigger. For example, you might want to create a Health type trigger which will turn on when your target's health goes below 66%, but will shut off when your target's health goes below 33%, so you set the trigger to "< 66%", enable the untrigger, and set it to "< 33%". This does not work. The correct way to accomplish this is to use two triggers; click the "Add Trigger" button at the top of the trigger tab, give your display a second Health trigger, set one to "< 66%" and the other to "> 33%".

So what is the point of untriggers if they do not provide a second set of constrictions on a trigger? Untriggers are instead meant to allow a trigger to have a "grey area" - a set of values for the trigger in which its display's visibility is only determined by its past visibility. For example, consider a Health trigger set to "< 35%" with an untrigger set to "> 50%". This will make the trigger's display appear when the player dips below 35%, but it will not disappear when the player is healed from 35% to 45%; the player must be healed above 50% for the display to disappear. This makes the values between 35% and 50% a "grey area". If you only know that the player's health is 45%, you cannot determine whether the display should be showing or not. If the player was below 35% just before being brought to 45%, the display will be visible. If the player was above 50% just before being brought to 45%, the display will not be visible.

For custom triggers, see Custom Triggers.