RareScanner is an addon for World of Warcraft that includes a group of tools to help you track rare NPCs, treasures and events while you play.
The notable tools that RareScanner includes are:
Alerts from nearby rare NPCs/treasures/events
This is the main feature of RareScanner. The addon displays a button in the middle of the screen with information about all the entities detected nearby. Around the button information related to the entity is displayed, such as a miniature (in the case of an NPC), the name of the entity and the loot that you could obtain after killing/collecting it.
World map information
RareScanner adds icons of every rare NPC, treasure and event that it tracks to your worldmap. When you hover your mouse over these icons you will get extra information in a tooltip.
It also shows all the spawning spots for every tracked entity and for some entities it also adds some guidance icons to help you reach to its position, force its spawn or unlock it.
Starting with Dragonflight, now RareScanner integrates with the new control that highlights reputation sources in the world map, so when you select a faction it will also highlight every rare NPC and container that grants reputation with the faction selected.
You can customize all the information displayed in the map and the tooltips from RareScanner options panel.
Rare NPCs explorer
RareScanner is designed to help you track every rare NPC/treasure/event in the game, but usually you will be more interested in finding NPCs that drop useful loot, like missing mounts or pets that you want to add to your collection.
While you can use the world map to check the loot of every NPC/treasure by hovering the mouse over their icons, it will take a lot of work to find exactly those missing items, so here is where the explorer comes in handy.
Custom NPC
RareScanner allows you to add your own NPCs (even if they aren't rare), so you can get alerts whenever you pass by them.
Filtering entities
Out of the box RareScanner will be tracking every entity in the game, however you might be interested only in a few. Using the previous tools (the world map interface, the explorer, the button with the alert or RareScanner options), you can configure the addon to track only for what you are interested in.
More information
Visit the pages for this project to learn more about the addon.
Important notes for Dragon Isles.
1. Expedition Scout's Packs, Tuskaar Tackleboxes and Disturbed Dirt: These treasures are everywhere. In order to avoid getting constant alerts for them you should filter them completely or at least filter their visual/audio alerts so they won't drive you crazy. You can find these options under "RareScanner -> Container filters".
2. With the launch of a new patch I need one or two weeks to collect all the loot tables, so every rare NPC added in 10.0.5 don't have much loot available yet. For this reason, you shouldn't use the explorer to filter NPCs yet, because it will filter all these new entities. If you do, use the "NPC filters panel" to reenable them.
3. Currently in Dragonflight there are a lot of non-elite rare NPCs without vignettes, so you will have to enable "enemy nameplates" to let the addon detect them.
Tips for a better performance in Dragon Isles.
1. Disable tracking for world map vignettes if you aren't hunting rare NPCs and you don't fly yet. With this option disabled you won't get alerts of NPCs in the other side of the island, only of NPCs right beside you.
You can create the next macro to easily toggle this option depending on your interest.
/rarescanner swmv
2. Adjust the sensitivity to a more confortable value if you notice that the addon is too annoying.
It seems that something is preventing the icons from changing from green to blue when killing a rare in Forbidden Reach?
did something change here?
In reply to NukaRaven9:
Hello!
2 days ago Blizzard modified the way rare NPCs behave in Forbidden Reach and now you can kill them multiple times in a day, so that's why they remain green.
Anyway I'm going to do a little change so they remain "dead" (blue icon) a short time (probably 10 minutes) before they turn green again, so it doesn't feel weird because the icon remains in your world map after killing it.
Cheers.
Is there any way to show a Timestamp on Chat Alerts? I looked in options but didn't see it.
Oh & thank you so much for the fix for the Forbidden Reach rares. :)
In reply to Catitude:
Hello!
It doesn't include that option, however if you look for the icon in the map, it shows in the tooltip when was the last time seen.
Cheers.
Hello,
What do the colors of the heads mean? On Forbidden reach I have red / orange / green heads.
Thank you
Update : found the answer ! https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/rarescanner/pages/map-interface/legend-of-icons
In reply to okaboo:
Nice!
Cheers.
And yet, it still doesn't work
In reply to selvaon:
Same issue here, after first kill all warnings cease, followed a mate to a rare spawn and even though it was there and I was involved in the kill there was no warning.
In reply to badvock1971:
With that setting disabled you have to enable enemy nameplates, and then be close enough to the rare NPC to get the alert. Didn't it work?
I will take a look tomorrow to see if there is something broken, it was working before 10.0.7.
Cheers.
In reply to maqjav:
I will double check the settings but it does seem to be limited to the new zone, Phenran always seems to alert to spawn regardless of the kill rate for the day.
In reply to badvock1971:
I'm starting to think that maybe that option I'm talking about only applies to entities found by vignettes and not nameplates. I will do some tests tomorrow and fix it, so don't worry about it, you are probably right and it doesn't work. I added it at the beggining of the expansion and my memory is not what it used to be :P
Cheers.
In reply to maqjav:
Hahah I feel you ;) Thank you for taking the time to look at the issue, it's driving my mate crazy and he's doing my head in now ......lol :)
In reply to badvock1971:
And as I thought it wasn't applying to NPCs found with nameplates.
I will release a patch today with the fix and other things I have been working on.
Cheers.
In reply to maqjav:
Hello again.
It should be fixed in 10.0.7.4.
Cheers.
In reply to maqjav:
Mate you are a star, Thank you, going to go test this now :D
In reply to maqjav:
Hi, I updated the addon to 10.0.7.4 and it still isn't fixed for me. :(
In reply to Valkari:
This is the test you have to do:
1. Disable RareScanner -> General -> Ignore alerts for already killed/completed entities
2. Kill whatever rare. For this test kill one in Forbidden Reach.
3. Enable enemy nameplates and wait close to the spot where that NPC spawns.
3.1 If the addon detects its nameplate, you should get the alert.
I did several tests this morning and it was working fine. If it doesn't to you, please send me your settings to check if there is something fishy going on with your exact settings: C:\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF\Account\{YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME}\SavedVariables\RareScanner.lua
Cheers.
In reply to maqjav:
It notifies me if I'm near the rare, not anywhere else. Whereas before the first kill, it shows me no matter where I am in the Reach, so I'm able to fly across the map to it. Is there no way to change that after the first kill? D:
In reply to Valkari:
Hello!
Nope, sadly no.
It is explained in the first comment in this same thread ;).
Cheers.
In reply to maqjav:
So far getting the notifications just after I kill the mob :) Sadly hasn't given me notification of the mob when in the area of them though in fairness that could be me getting there and tagging the mob before the scanner has kicked in.