CDMButtonAuras
If you have ever wished your action bars could show the same buff and debuff tracking that the Cooldown Manager provides, CDMButtonAuras was built with exactly that idea in mind. This lightweight addon mirrored tracked Cooldown Manager buffs directly onto your action buttons, complete with a border highlight, a duration timer, and stack counts. It was a clever workaround for players who wanted cleaner visual feedback without rebuilding their entire interface.
What CDMButtonAuras Did
The core concept was simple. You added buffs to be tracked in the Cooldown Manager buffs tab, using either the icon or bar display, and CDMButtonAuras watched those entries. Whenever a spell on your action bar matched a tracked Cooldown Manager buff by name, the corresponding button lit up with a highlight, a countdown duration, and a stack counter. That meant you could keep your standard action bars and still get the at-a-glance awareness normally reserved for dedicated weakauras or custom trackers.
It worked for both buffs and debuffs, as long as the Cooldown Manager could see them. The addon relied on Blizzard allowing filtered buff and debuff information to be extracted from Cooldown Manager buttons. Anything that was not a buff or debuff, such as totems, stayed hidden inside the Cooldown Manager and could not be mirrored.
Key Features at a Glance
- Duplicates tracked Cooldown Manager buffs onto your action buttons
- Adds a visible border highlight when a tracked aura is active
- Displays a duration timer directly on the button
- Shows stack counts for buffs and debuffs that stack
- Works with both icon and bar layouts in the Cooldown Manager buffs tab
Current Status: Discontinued as of WoW 12.1.0
It is important to be upfront about this: CDMButtonAuras is dead as of World of Warcraft 12.1.0. Blizzard's Cooldown Manager and aura changes broke the mechanism the addon depended on, and matching tracked auras by spell name is no longer possible. The addon cannot function in its original form.
The good news is that the new AuraButton API opens the door to rebuilding the same functionality more easily, this time based directly on auras rather than name matching. Anyone with addon development experience could realistically recreate the effect. For now, though, the original CDMButtonAuras for World of Warcraft is not a working option on live servers.
Version Compatibility Overview
Because the addon's lifespan overlapped with several client branches, players often ask which versions it touched. The table below summarizes the situation.
- Retail: Broken as of patch 12.1.0 due to Cooldown Manager and aura API changes.
- Classic: The Cooldown Manager framework did not exist in the same form, so the addon had no functional target.
- The Burning Crusade Classic: No compatible Cooldown Manager buff tracking to hook into.
- Wrath of the Lich King Classic: Same limitation; the required API surface was absent.
- Cataclysm Classic: No native Cooldown Manager buffs to duplicate.
- Mists of Pandaria Classic: Likewise unsupported, as the modern Cooldown Manager did not exist.
In short, CDMButtonAuras was a Retail-only concept, and even there it has now been retired by Blizzard's own changes.
How to Install It (and Why You Might Not Want To)
If you are running an older client where the addon still loads, or you simply want to inspect the code, the installation process is the standard one. If you are looking to download CDMButtonAuras for a modern client, be aware that it will not deliver the functionality described above.
- Locate the addon folder and extract the CDMButtonAuras directory into your World of Warcraft Interface/AddOns path.
- Restart the game client so it detects the new folder.
- Enable the addon from the character selection screen's AddOns list.
- Open the Cooldown Manager buffs tab and add the buffs or debuffs you want tracked.
- Ensure the Cooldown Manager buff frames are not hidden, since the addon reads from them.
One convenient route for managing legacy and current addons alike is the foxygame.net launcher, which keeps a curated catalog and handles one-click installation plus automatic updates, so a build like CDMButtonAuras stays easy to find and manage even when it is no longer maintained upstream.
Why the Name-Matching Approach Was Fragile
The original design compared the spell name on an action button against the spell name of a tracked Cooldown Manager entry. That worked, but it was inelegant compared to pre-Midnight addon capabilities. Any rename, localization difference, or API restriction could break the match. The new AuraButton API should let future developers hook directly into aura data instead, producing a sturdier result.
The Bottom Line
CDMButtonAuras was a practical solution for players who wanted Cooldown Manager buff tracking on their action bars without heavy configuration. Its reliance on name matching and filtered Cooldown Manager data made it vulnerable, and patch 12.1.0 finally closed that door. If you are curious about how it worked or want to study its approach, the code remains a useful reference. For active gameplay today, though, you will need a replacement built on the newer aura API, and the concept is certainly worth revisiting.