H/A Bis Tracker: The Complete Guide

I built the H/A Bis Tracker because tracking Herald of the Titans and Argent Defender gear the old way — alt-tabbing to the BiS pages every time something dropped — got old fast. This addon uses the exact same verified item data as those pages, but puts it in-game: a real character model dressed in your target gear, live alerts the instant a BiS item is up for roll or drops, and a tooltip hook so you know whether an item's worth anything the second you hover it. The addons page has the pill-list feature summary; this is how it actually works and how I use it.

The main window — character preview on the left, tracking controls on the right.

1.The character preview: dressed by default, not by request

Open the window and the model is already wearing your build's target gear — there's no "generate preview" step. It works whether or not you actually own any of the items yet, since the whole point is showing you what you're aiming for, not what you currently have. Click-drag rotates the character to check a piece from any angle. The two side columns mirror the real character panel's slot layout (including Shirt and Tabard, shown empty on purpose — more on that below), and the weapon row collapses Ranged and Relic into one slot, since they're the same physical inventory slot in this expansion: Paladins, Druids, Shamans and Death Knights never have a true ranged weapon there, only a Libram, Idol, Totem or Sigil.

Same addon, different class — the model and gear always match whoever's actually logged in.

Every ring around a slot means something real: green is "you have this, or a listed alternative counts too," red is "still needed, and it's a real boss drop," grey is "still needed, but it's bought, crafted or a quest reward" — shown so you know exactly where to get it, but grey items never trigger a roll or drop alert the way an actual boss drop does. "Have it" is decided by a real scan of your bags, bank and equipped slots, never by chat, since anyone can accidentally link an item they don't actually have.

2.Choosing what to track

The right-side dropdowns pick your scenario (Herald of the Titans or Argent Defender), your spec/build, and any build variant — exactly one at a time. Earlier builds of this addon tried tracking both scenarios at once and it was a genuine mess: two different profiles wanting two different items in the same slot has no sane single answer, so it's single-scenario by design now. If you still want to know about drops for the scenario you're not currently viewing, Options has a separate "also alert for the other scenario" checkbox that only affects alerts, never what the window shows.

Real dropdown menus for Spec/Build, Build variant and Tracking — click to choose, not cycle.

"Scan Bags / Bank Now" forces an immediate re-check. The bank specifically can only be read while the bank window is physically open — a real client limitation, not a bug — so its last-known contents are kept until you open it again, rather than being wiped the moment you loot something unrelated in the meantime.

3.Real-time alerts: you will not miss a roll

This is the part I actually built the addon around. Group Loot's native Need/Greed popup triggers an alert the instant it appears — no delay. Master Loot raids are covered too: any raid warning containing a real link to a tracked item fires the same alert, regardless of which addon posted it (RaidRoll, RCLootCouncil, or a raid leader just typing it by hand), since it's matching on the item link itself, not specific wording. The popup pulses and plays a sound (built-in or your own custom file) until you dismiss it or it expires on its own, and you can drag its on-screen position anywhere and lock it in from Options.

This is what you'll see the instant a tracked item is up for roll — group loot or master loot, either way.

A separate, quieter notice fires from loot chat whenever a tracked item actually drops, for you or anyone else in the raid. It's purely informational — only the real bag/bank scan above ever marks something as obtained, never a chat message or a roll.

4.The shirt and tabard warning

Both achievements are gated by an average item level cap, not a gear check — and wearing a shirt or tabard counts toward that average the same as any other equipped item. The tracker shows both slots empty, matching the real character frame's layout, but hovering either gives you a direct warning instead of the usual "not used by this build" note.

Exactly the mistake that can knock you out of eligibility without you noticing.

5.The tooltip hook: check any item, anywhere

You don't have to open the tracker window to know if something's worth grabbing. Hovering — or clicking a chat link for — any item anywhere in the game (bags, a vendor, a trade window, loot, another player's link) adds a line straight into that item's own real tooltip: green "Have this for Herald of the Titans" if you already have it or a listed alternative, or red "Needed for Argent Defender — Ring (vendor)" telling you exactly what slot and where to get it.

Right in the real tooltip — no extra window needed, works alongside GearScore and every other tooltip addon.

6.Options worth knowing about

• Window / alert scale — one slider resizes the tracker window and every alert popup together, so they stay proportioned to each other.
• Custom sounds — drop your own file in the addon's Sounds folder and pick it from the alert sound dropdown, separate from the built-in Blizzard sounds.
• A listed alternative counts as "have" — toggle this off if you only want the exact primary pick to count green.
• /bis or /rnbis to open the window, /bis scan to force a rescan, /bis config for settings, /bis movealerts to reposition the alert popup directly from chat.

7.What Herald of the Titans and Argent Defender actually are

If you're new to either achievement: Herald of the Titans requires defeating Algalon the Observer in Ulduar with your average item level at or under 226, meaning most of your gear has to come from Ulduar itself, Trial of the Champion, Naxxramas or crafted items — not the current raid tier. Argent Defender is the equivalent for the full Trial of the Grand Crusader gauntlet, Northrend Beasts through Anub'arak, under a similar ilvl ceiling. Both are true gear puzzles as much as fights — which is exactly why this addon exists. I've written up the real boss-by-boss mechanics and where the ilvl-capped gear lists themselves live in a dedicated guide: Herald of the Titans & Argent Defender. The gear data both that guide and this addon pull from is credited there in full — it's not my own theorycrafting.