Solo Queue - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Episode 8 – So You Want to Start WoW NoW?

Show Notes

The Basics of WoW

• What is an MMORPG (and why is this a solo podcast?)
• What is WoW?
  • Scene - Azeroth, Draenor, Argus and other planets in the universe
  • High-fantasy world of physical combat, magic, cosmic forces, politics, conflict, and the lives of various everyday characters of many races
  • Timeline of WoW
  • Predecessors RTS I, II, III
• Retail vs. classics
  • Retail since 2004, expansions 2 years or so; next in late summer, trilogy, so great time to begin!
  • Classic flavors
    • Classic
    • Advancing classic flavors, now WotLK, soon Cata
    • Hardcore mode
    • SoD

Into Azeroth for the First Time

• Server types and populations and choosing
  • Character creation screen
  • Factions
  • Races, classes, specs, roles, armor classes
  • Customizations
• Talents - points every level that enable choice of new spells, abilities
• Who are you playing with and how do you want to play?
• Exile’s Reach vs. starting zones – both have their benefits
• How to level
  • Chromie time after first character. Will be leveling right now through BfA for first time. Can also start in WoW Remix MoP.
  • Expansion summaries and history
  • Suggestion for leveling
  • This is a good place to list all of the expansions and give a brief rundown.
  • Quests, XP, gold, reading text or not
  • Gear – levels, BoE, BoP, Soulbound, Warbound, Account-bound

End of Part I of Starting WoW NoW - but more to come!

Outro

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.

If you want to support the show, SoloQueueWoW at Patreon.com

Thank you to current patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, and ThatSkyGuy!

Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.

You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Good luck choosing which version of WoW to immerse yourself in.

“I'll see you out there."

Episode 7 - The Just Barely Not April April Episode (Oops I...)

Welcome to episode 7:

I started with good intentions of hitting the main topic of how to start playing WoW in 2024.

Well, news swallowed up most of our time, so that topic is coming to a special episode soon!

The all-new “I Was Wrong” segment

A healthy mea culpa for various incorrections in previous months

Location:

Stormwind, the human capital and heart of the Alliance

Popping in to a tavern or inn for a local drink:

Pig & Whistle in Stormwind

First the tavern, then the podcast – check it out!

Bourbon. In-game and out.

News updates

• 2024 Roadmap update.
• Lots of 10.2.7.
• Blizzard and WoW return to China this summer.
• A strange series of layoffs – Christie Golden? Really? And Blizzcon?
• Alpha testing for TWW going on now – do you care about spoilers?
• Blizzard Math: 60 character slots + 5 character slots – 5 character slots = 60 character slots.
• The War Within 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition – are you in?
• Preview of the WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria!
• Why I like all the innovative flavors of WoW

Main topic: Will arrive in Episode 8, pinky swear

Outro

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.

If you want to support the show, SoloQueueWoW at Patreon.com

Thank you to current patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, and ThatSkyGuy!

Sorry to bump your main topic, SkyGuy.

Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.

You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Good luck choosing which version of WoW to immerse yourself in.

“I'll see you out there."

Episode 9 – First Raid Clear of...Dazar'alor?

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 9! – 3:27

• Sound issues lately - I think I have them resolved.
• Goodpods listed Solo Queue was as a Top 50 video game podcast last month!
• Upcoming episodes: 10 will be an HDYS interview with Gin of Live, Laugh, Lore podcast. Ep. 11 will be just the second half of the introduction to playing WoW. Sorry to leave you hanging, ThatSkyGuy!

News – 8:37

1. TWW launches Aug. 26 - I was only one day off! Early access on Aug. 22, Season 1 activities on Sept. 1.
2. I broke down and went all in on the 20th anniversary collector's edition.
3. TWW beta access was June 5, with codes for collector’s edition people arriving June 12. I am holding out against spoiling the Day 1 experience for myself, so no beta coverage here.
4. Mid-Summer Fire Festival begins today, June 21!
   1. You can travel from zone to zone, city to city, and lighting your factions’ bonfires and extinguishing those of the rival faction. Do this to collect Burning Blossoms, the currency for the Fire Festival. There are buffs you can get and vendors to spend your blossoms on. In addition, there are festival related quests and achievements to check out.
   2. Holiday boss is Frost Lord Ahune
   3. This also brings in a big change to how holidays work in general. Now, you can only get one of these premier rare drops on the first attempt of the day per Bnet account.
   4. To balance out the reduced availability, Blizzard have introduced bad luck protection, with chances rising after every failed attempt.
   5. Once per day per account, Ahune will drop the Satchel of Chilled Goods - chance at the new Cliffside Wylderdrake armor, along with blossoms, Ahune's staff, and other items.
   6. Festival runs until July 5, so 14 attempts.
5. 10.2.7 patch was released May 7 with various small story questlines, content.
   1. Dranei HA
   2. Troll HA
   3. Harbinger questline - setting up the TWW, good stuff.
   4. Sins of the sister - difficult to remember or find, is in Bel'Ameth.
   5. Be Yourself Visage Day - issues with not finding the NPCs is due to you not having done the questing related to those NPCs. Frustrating, but understandable, but frustrating.
   6. All DF quests previously locked behind Renown levels are now available to all level 70 characters.
6. WoW Remix - MoP of course is live! 59 days left and counting. Once 70, I hear it is quicker for any Timerunner alts that you make AFTER achieving 70.
7. BfA Raids now soloable
8. Is the first TWW raid soloable? Not quite. Blizzard announced Story Mode as a new Raid difficulty. Neru'bar Palace, first TWW raid, will feature a new difficulty called "Story”. It is not Follower Raids. Party of 1-10 for a pared down battle with only the final boss.

Popping in to a tavern or inn for a local drink – 40:01

Pandaren Plum Wine at The Lazy Turnip. We are drinking the local this month.

Question of the month – 40:56

After giving the news and drama of Remix, have I been paying too much attention to headlines and nerf news and not enough time just playing and enjoying? What is your opinion on MoP Remix? Do you like this different style of content in this period leading up to a new expansion?

Introducing the Raid of the Month! – 42:55

One big part of many solo players game is waiting literal years for Blizzard to open up old end-game content to solo players. With the news that BfA raids are now soloable, I chose Battle of Dazaralor for my first Raid of the Month on my Night Elf Feral Druid main, ilvl 484, 499 weapon.

Dazaralor is a 12-boss raid and was the second raid of BFA. It launched in January of 2019, so I waited five and a half years to be able to solo it. That is too long. I chose it because it has two rare mounts that can drop on Mythic, both are pretty cool. The GMOD is a massive robot mech suit mount, the Goblin Machine of Death. It can drop in Normal, Heroic, or Mythic difficult. The Glacial Tidestorm, a very cool elemental off Jaina, only drops on Mythic.

First 9 bosses gave little trouble. A 3% wipe after 5 minutes on Mekkatorque, but second time was fine. No GMOD. Stormwall Blockade was very difficult and took some research and four deaths. Jaina was easier, but no Glacial Tidestorm.

Final tally

11 new appearances, no mounts, bunch of five-year-old achievements, 2,471 in gold, minus 250 in repair costs. Profit of 2,221 gold for roughly an hour of time, maybe less. I did eat dinner in the middle. Difficulty was a satisfying level, but I want this in less than five year. #FollowerRaidsWoW

Outro

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.

If you want to support the show, SoloQueueWoW at Patreon.com

Thank you to current patrons...

Episode 3 is up and focused on the breadth of features in 10.2.5. Are you liking the breadth or wishing for more depth? Ever completed a Superbloom but forgot to pick up the quest first? Comments, answers & help for all of it, along with an expansion announcement! (SQ, not WoW) SQ Ep. 3 is on your podcast platform of choice. I'll see you out there!

Don't mind this: SKmW1OYni0tWQd9S8iYc

Episode 3 Show Notes:

Opening:

Tyrande and Shandris talking about the future of the Night Elves in a Bel'Ameth in-game cinematic.

Welcome to episode:

Welcome to January, to 2024, and to Episode 3 of Solo Queue!

Starting in Bel'ameth to celebrate the drop of 10.2.5 and the opening of the new Night Elf capital city.

• Big news of the week is the arrival of 10.2.5. My first content update as a content creator. A fair amount of early online reactions seemed to be on the negative side, and I do not want to get drawn into that.
• I will look for the positives because I think there are positives in 10.2.5 and I think there are realistic limits to what we can expect from a .5 patch, from an MMORPG in terms of story, and from a development team that I do believe is trying to turn a very large ship towards a better future.
• In the show, we are going to talk about the big activities of 10.2.5:
  • The arrival or return of two capitals for two Alliance races
  • Some Azerothian Archives
  • A little bit on the Follower dungeons
  • My adventures in the Season of Discovery
  • The news
  • A video for advice on gearing as a solo player
  • And my mostly positive thoughts on 10.2.5 overall, despite some of the negative feedback that may be out there.
• Some extra big thanks.
  • Big thanks to the Thrall's Balls podcast for support of Solo Queue on their own show. Check out their recent episode #124 on Spotify, Apple, or your own podcast feed or say hello @Thrallsballspod on Twitter
  • Thanks to my first two Patreon subscribers! Andrew and Righteous Bandy have taken the leap and are supporting the show with actual money! Some firm Patreon goals and rewards, including extra episodes, are coming.
  • And, thanks to you! Yeah you. I see you listening and reading these show notes! I want to hear from you with feedback and suggestions. soloqueuewow on socials, at gmail, and even at the Patreon.
• I will be recording occasional interview episodes entitled "How Do You Solo?" I am going to be reaching out to players and content creators alike to hear how they play the game. There just might be another episode in your podcast feed before the February episode scheduled for the 21st.

News and updates:

• 10.2.5 is out. Remember that dynamic flying is now available anywhere normal flying is offered in the Warcraft universe. That includes Outland, and the Outland Cup. The event ends on February 1st.
• 10.2.6 is on the PTR, as was reported in December, but it is fully-encrypted, so there has been no data-mining and still, no one knows that that mysterious black pirate flag hanging off the 2024 roadmap actually means. Visually, it sits between winter and spring, so possibly March? We will see. Looks like it may be followed shortly by The War Within Alpha. And season 4 looks to be spring, so likely April at the earliest.
• On the Classic side, the next phase of Season of Discovery arrives February 8. The level cap will rise to 40 and a fresh slate of runes will be waiting to be found. And the Gnomeregon raid will be the end-game content for level 40 characters. If you are of the PvP persuasion, Stranglethorn Vale will once again be the most dangerous place to take a casual walk in Azeroth!

Side quests:

On being bad at video games, SoD, and HC Self-found mode

• I am not very good at video games. Have played games for decades. Now I find myself still alone at a desk playing games, but there are potentially millions of other players running by and "watching". Not quite as alone as before.
• Because of not wanting to either actively compete or passively be judged, I work to play alone. In SoD, I am trying to be self-reliant by creating more characters that can help outfit and supply the first character. That becomes the game within the game.
• Self-Found mode is interesting to me. It is how I tend to play, although HSF takes away the support of alt characters. SF has my interest piqued.

Popping in to a tavern or inn for a local drink:

I don't think the Night Elves are big drinkers, but if you head to the Silver Feather, the inn at Bel'ameth, you can grab an Azure Leywine that refresh, but still leave you clear-headed to help get the city set up.

Today I Learned:

You can accept all of those pesky weekly quests from the Adventure Guide (Shift-J, second tab after Traveler's ...

Episode 6 - The Just Barely Not March March Episode

Welcome to episode:

Odd time in WoW for me, vacation, time away, busy, end of expansion

Back to some basics. We are in one of my favorite Horde starting zones, Mulgore

What did I accomplish in WoW last month?

• Vacation stuff
• No SoD
• Did rip out the Hearthstone event
• Did my March Trading Post and 1000 tenders
• To do so, started leveling a 17 Tauren Paladin
• Started into the Plunderfest stuff, that gets us to news

News updates

• 2.6 – let’s talk about the Plunderverse
• SoD ramps up again April 4
• Nobelgarden - April 1 to 8
• My opinion on holidays - meh

Special Location with description:

You must do the Ahab Wheathoof quest in Bloodhoof Village once in your life to honor a young WoW player who was taken too early by cancer.

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Ezra_Chatterton

Popping in to a tavern or inn for a local drink:

Not any alcohol, but there is cheese!

Location #2: Thunder Bluff tavern music rest of way out

• Walking around Thunder Bluff - unique capital city
• Had a brief role in BfA - some Nzoth nightmare vision thing?
• Otherwise unused, like so many of them
• Layout is different, bit confusing - 3 lobe, double-ring
• Central spiral to all 3 inner locations, but can walk outside to access all 3
• Then each lobe has a separate mesa called a rise.
• Some interesting little places to find

Main topic: Back to what to do during WoW slowdowns

• Take a vacation, literally take time away from the game
• Read WoW novels and books and comics. Chronicles 1-3, 4 on the way.
• Also, the warcraft website https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/story Lots of short stories and cinematics.
• Not up for reading? Check out some of the many content creators who focus on the history and lore of Azeroth. One of the more popular is the YouTube channel of Nobbel87.
• RIP Warcraft Less Traveled (2010 to 2015
• Play Warcraft I, II, and III
• Collect all the grey, basic racial weapon appearances and armor appearances.
• Get a water mount; the one I recommend is the Subdued Seahorse, available from killing the rare spawn Poseidus in the underwater zone of Vashj'ir. Others like the Sea Turtle from Northrend fishing.

Outro:

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.

If you want to support the show, SoloQueueWoW at Patreon.com

Thank you to current patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, and ThatSkyGuy!

Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.

You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

"Good luck with getting to Renown 40 on the Plunderbus.

I'll see you out there."