Help & manual

Last updated: 6 August 2026

Contents

Everything you need: from installing the app to your first recording, and on to cloud, clips and troubleshooting.

1. Quick start in 5 minutes

Install and launch. On first start the setup wizard walks you through the four things WipeWatchers needs to know.
Point it at your WoW install. Start WoW and click Detect WoW automatically – or pick the logs folder yourself (…\World of Warcraft\_retail_\Logs).
Choose a recording folder. Defaults to Documents\Recordings. Expect several GB per raid night.
Pick your activities. Raids, Mythic+ and PvP – all on by default.
Check your audio. Desktop sound and microphone are recorded as separate tracks.
Turn on combat logging in WoW (see section 3) – without a log, WipeWatchers cannot detect pulls.

After that there is nothing left to do: launch WoW, pull a boss – recording starts on its own, and stops on its own too.

2. System requirements

Windows 10 (version 1903 or newer) or Windows 11. Video capture uses Windows.Graphics.Capture, which requires that version.
A GPU with a hardware encoder (NVIDIA NVENC, AMD VCE/VCN or Intel QuickSync). Without one, encoding falls back to the CPU – workable, but far more expensive performance-wise.
Free disk space. Rule of thumb: at the default High quality (16 Mbps), roughly 7 GB per hour of video. Settings → Video → Storage estimate shows a projection for your chosen quality.
World of Warcraft – Retail, Classic, Classic Era, PTR or Beta. Multiple installations side by side are supported.

WipeWatchers needs no external tools: capture, audio and encoding all run on built-in Windows components.

3. Setting up WoW correctly

This is the most important step, and the most common reason for "nothing happens". WipeWatchers detects pulls, bosses, deaths and keys purely from WoW's combat log file. If logging is off in-game, there is nothing to read.

Enable combat logging

Type /combatlog in game. WoW then writes to …\_retail_\Logs\WoWCombatLog.txt. Note that WoW turns logging back off on every restart, and in some cases when you switch characters. If you don't want to do that manually every time, use an addon that enables logging automatically.

Enable Advanced Combat Logging

Options → Network → "Advanced Combat Logging" – or via console: /console advancedCombatLogging 1.

Without it WipeWatchers still records, but the recording will have no roster, no death recaps and no meters. The app detects this and tells you so in the detail view.

Display mode

Use windowed or borderless. Exclusive fullscreen can block capture or produce a black picture.

4. The setup wizard

It runs automatically on first launch and can be reopened at any time: Settings → General → Setup wizard → Show again.

Step	What happens
WoW installation	Set the logs folder, auto-detected or picked manually. WoW must be running for detection.
Recording directory	Target folder for the MP4 files. Changeable at any time.
Activities	Enable or disable raids (per difficulty), Mythic+ and PvP.
Audio	Desktop sound, microphone and optional per-application tracks.
Done	Optionally continue straight to cloud & auto-upload.

5. How recording works

WipeWatchers follows the combat log and starts recording exactly when something worth recording begins:

Raid – on boss pull. Only bosses from the current season are recorded, in the difficulties you ticked. Settings → Activities → Which bosses? shows the exact list.
Mythic+ – when the key starts, optionally only from a minimum key level. If you leave the dungeon, the app shows a countdown ("Left dungeon – stopping in Xs") and ends the recording.
PvP – arena, solo shuffle, skirmish and battlegrounds, each toggleable.

Overrun. By default 8 seconds of overrun are kept after a kill or wipe so the ending isn't cut off. The duration is configurable per activity.

Manual recording. The collapsed sidebar has a record button at the bottom – for anything that isn't a detected activity. Those recordings show up under Manual.

Status. The sidebar always tells you where you stand: Waiting for WoW, Ready or Recording. Recording only ever happens while WoW is actually running.

6. The interface

Categories (left rail)

All, Raid, Mythic+, PvP, Manual, Clips and Saved. The number on the right is the recording count. The category you last used is restored on the next launch.

Clicking the logo collapses the rail into a narrow icon strip.

Recording list

The list groups by day and folds multiple pulls of the same boss into a session – expandable, with the pull count and the best attempt (lowest boss HP reached). Kills and wipes are colour-coded.

Source: All, Local or Cloud – plus a per-guild filter if you are in guilds.
Filters: search, difficulty, kill/wipe or in-time/depleted, boss, dungeon and minimum key level. The slider icon in the header collapses and expands the filter bar; if filters are active while it is collapsed, the icon shows a green dot.
Filters are remembered per category and survive a restart: your raid filters are still there when you switch from Mythic+ back to Raid. The X clears the current category's filters.
Multi-select: Ctrl- or Shift-click. Del deletes the selection, Esc clears it. Selected recordings can also be uploaded in bulk.

Detail view

Header with boss or dungeon, result badge (KILL, WIPE 12 %, IN TIME, DEPLETED …), pull number and duration.
Timeline below the video with pull, deaths, interrupts, bloodlust, phases and boss kills. Click to jump there, drag to select a range.
Right-hand panel with tabs for Deaths, Roster, Interrupts and Meters. Clicking a death opens the recap: damage taken in the final seconds, the killing blow, and which defensives were used or left unused.
Boss HP curve or key curve with boss splits (approach vs. actual fight time).
Meters for damage and healing, either over active combat time (Infight) or including downtime (Overall).

Player shortcuts

Key	Action
`Space`	Play / pause
`←` / `→`	5 seconds back / forward
`Shift` + `←` / `→`	Previous / next marker
`D`	Jump to next death
`Esc`	Clear list selection
`Del`	Delete selected recordings

7. Perspectives (POV)

When several people upload the same pull, WipeWatchers recognises it and bundles the recordings into a single entry. The POV picker above the video switches between angles without losing your position in the video.

Your chosen perspective sticks: move to the next recording and WipeWatchers shows the same player again, provided they recorded it too. Perspectives that are still uploading or processing are greyed out.

8. Clips, export and drawing

Create a clip: drag a range on the timeline and click Create clip. The clip becomes its own recording under Clips and keeps the original audio. Original takes you back to the source recording; conversely, a scissors icon in the list marks every recording that has clips.

For cloud recordings the cut happens server-side – nothing is downloaded to your PC. From a death recap you can create a clip around that death in one click.

Export: save the whole video or just the selection as MP4.

Drawing: freehand, arrow, rectangle, ellipse and text straight onto the video – handy for raid reviews.

9. Local disk space

Settings → Storage

Recording folder – where files go; the app sorts them into subfolders by type and date automatically.
Storage cap (GB) – once exceeded, WipeWatchers deletes the oldest recordings automatically. 0 means unlimited.
Permanent protection – recordings marked with the lock icon are never deleted automatically. They also appear under Saved.
Clean up now – previews how many recordings would be deleted to reach a given target, broken down by raid kills, wipes, M+, PvP, manual and clips.

10. Settings at a glance

General

Language (German/English), Battle.net region for roster links, start with Windows, minimise to system tray, start minimised, automatic updates, and the setup wizard.

Games

Your WoW installations, each with its own logs folder. Multiple versions (Retail, Classic, PTR …) are supported and individually toggleable. Detect picks up folder and version from the running game.

Activities

What gets recorded automatically: raid difficulties, minimum key level for M+, PvP types, overrun times. Which bosses? lists the current season's bosses in pull order – older tiers are skipped.

Video

Maximum resolution – an upper bound, not a fixed value. If the game runs smaller, the smaller image is used; larger images are scaled down, preserving aspect ratio (ultrawide included).
Frame rate – 60 by default.
Quality – Lossless (~50 Mbps), High (16), Medium (8), Low (4). High is the recommendation for long sessions.
Recording mode – Auto, Low CPU load (GPU) or Maximum compatibility (CPU). Switch to CPU if you get a black picture or artefacts.
Video encoder – normally Automatic; pick one manually to force a codec.
Diagnostic logging – writes load, VRAM, FPS and frame timing to app.log. Only enable it when chasing stutter.

Audio

Desktop sound and microphone are recorded as separate tracks, plus optionally one track per application (e.g. Discord.exe, Mumble.exe) – the app must be running when recording starts.

Volume balance – microphone versus game audio in the finished video.
Noise gate – mutes the mic below a threshold. Auto detect measures your speaking level for 3 seconds; talk normally while it does. Monitor lets you check the result.

Overlay

Burn a recording timer and the boss or encounter name into the video. Plus up to five chat covers: regions burned into the recording – filled with a colour, your own image, or blur, e.g. to hide chat. The live preview helps you position them (WoW must be running); it is downscaled and compressed, so don't judge quality by it.

Integrations

WarcraftLogs – direct link to the report for each fight. The log must be uploaded publicly; private logs won't be found.
Encounter database – encounter and phase definitions from the server. Re-detect phases applies current definitions retroactively to existing recordings, as long as their combat log data is still stored locally.

11. Cloud, guilds and uploads

Signing in

Settings → Cloud. Three ways:

Sign in with Battle.net – if your WipeWatchers account was created that way, or to create a new one right now.
Email and password – your WipeWatchers credentials. These are explicitly not your Battle.net credentials.
API token – a personal token from your profile.

Guilds

Use Join guild with an 8-character join code to become a member. From then on you can upload into the guild library; each guild has its own storage and your own role in it.

Uploading

Manually via the cloud button in the detail view (or in bulk from a multi-selection) – or automatically via upload rules: per activity, with a filter and a target, e.g. "mythic kills into guild X", "M+ from level 12, timed only", "nothing shorter than 60 seconds".

Upload behaviour: bandwidth limit and quiet hours – time windows with weekdays during which automatic uploads are held back and started afterwards, e.g. during raid time. Manual uploads always start immediately.

Upload queue: the panel above the libraries shows active and waiting uploads with speed and remaining time. You can pause individual uploads, hold them, reorder them or pause everything at once. Clicking a row opens the matching local recording.

Per recording you choose the library (personal or guild) and the visibility:

Private – only you.
Guild – all members of that guild.
Public – anyone with the link.

Copy the share link from the Share & visibility dialog. For private recordings it only works for signed-in people with access.

Storage and expiry

Used and available cloud storage is shown in the cloud settings. When it gets tight, the uploads page shows a banner and suggests the largest wipes for deletion. Recordings with an expiry date show the days remaining.

12. Updates

WipeWatchers checks for new versions itself. When one is available a chip appears in the sidebar; clicking it installs the update and restarts the app. With automatic updates enabled this happens on launch without asking. Updates never run during an active recording.

The update channel can also include pre-releases – they are labelled as such, and you can switch back to Stable at any time.

13. Troubleshooting

Nothing is being recorded at all. Check in order: is WoW running? Is /combatlog active in WoW? Does Settings → Games show the correct logs folder, and is the installation enabled? Is the activity switched on under Activities – and for Mythic+, is the minimum key level set too high?

Only raids are missing. Only current-season bosses are recorded, and only in the difficulties you ticked. The list under Which bosses? shows what to expect.

Black picture or artefacts. Switch WoW to windowed or borderless mode. If that doesn't help: Video → Recording mode → Maximum compatibility (CPU), or pick a different encoder.

No roster, no meters, no death recaps. Advanced Combat Logging was off. Enable it in WoW (Options → Network) and record again – it cannot be fixed retroactively.

Stutter while recording. Drop quality from Lossless to High, reduce frame rate or resolution, set recording mode to Low CPU load (GPU). For a proper analysis, enable diagnostic logging.

Microphone too loud or too quiet. Audio → Volume balance. Game audio arrives quietly by design, and normalisation brings overall loudness back up afterwards.

Upload stuck or failing. Check whether quiet hours are active – it will start later by itself, but you can force it with Start now. Otherwise check the target's free storage and retry. If it persists, the error log on the upload row has the details.

Nothing helps – send logs to support. Settings → Send logs to support. You get a short code to share with support or on Discord. Uploaded are your log files, your settings (without passwords or tokens) and system/GPU info; paths may contain your Windows user name.