Episode 18 - How Do You Solo? Interview with The Snek of Vol'dun!

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01/23/25 • 100 min

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Solo Queue - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Episode 18 – How Do You Solo? Interview with The Snek of Vol’dun!

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 18!

First episode of 2025 and Season 2 of Solo Queue is an interview with The Snek of Vol’dun, a vocal proponent of making the Sethrak a playable race. A chance social media encounter turned into a great conversation with a fellow solo player.

Still planning for a regular episode in January as part of the twice-monthly plan for this new year.

Interview with The Snek of Vol’dun – 8:52

Why the Sethrak?
A connection with the many snakes in Australia?
Lore of the Sethrak
A role to play fightinh Xal’atath?
A Sethrak in a Delve? “Enough to get you hooked.”
What classes could Sethrak play? Give us a Sethrak monk!
All the pieces are there: starting zone, back story, models, more
WoW 30th Anniversary Tour headed to Sydney
How did you start playing WoW, especially as a younger player?
Obligatory crapping on the writing during Shadowlands
Obligatory praising of Chris Metzen and his return
Snek as a solo player
Time zones are strange
Bits of Sethrak info in the Exploring Azeroth: Islands and Isles book
Should Sethrak be available to Horde or Alliance or both?
Predictions for what’s to come in the WoW story?
Updating “old” world zones for graphics and story could be easier with story progress and the presence of so many “Classic” versions
Blizzard, heed the command of The Snek of Vol’dun, the Sethrak’s strongest soldier!

Closing comments – 1:34:48

My thanks to The Snek of Vol’dun for coming on the show.

Outro – 1:36:30

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.
Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/c/soloqueuewow
Thank you to contributing patrons Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, Cyn, TheSnekofVol’dun, and Friends of Wumpus! Thanks to free patrons Max, Eddie, Tim, Bear, and Jon.
Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.
The Snek of Vol’dun is on BlueSky at bsky.app/profile/snekofvoldun.bsky.social, on Twitter at x.com/TheSnekofVoldun and has a YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/@TheSnekofVoldun
You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
January episode coming soon...

“We will see you out there."

Episode 18 – How Do You Solo? Interview with The Snek of Vol’dun!

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 18!

Still planning for a regular episode in January as part of the twice-monthly plan for this new year.

Interview with The Snek of Vol’dun – 8:52

Why the Sethrak?
A connection with the many snakes in Australia?
Lore of the Sethrak
A role to play fightinh Xal’atath?
A Sethrak in a Delve? “Enough to get you hooked.”
What classes could Sethrak play? Give us a Sethrak monk!
All the pieces are there: starting zone, back story, models, more
WoW 30th Anniversary Tour headed to Sydney
How did you start playing WoW, especially as a younger player?
Obligatory crapping on the writing during Shadowlands
Obligatory praising of Chris Metzen and his return
Snek as a solo player
Time zones are strange
Bits of Sethrak info in the Exploring Azeroth: Islands and Isles book
Should Sethrak be available to Horde or Alliance or both?
Predictions for what’s to come in the WoW story?
Updating “old” world zones for graphics and story could be easier with story progress and the presence of so many “Classic” versions
Blizzard, heed the command of The Snek of Vol’dun, the Sethrak’s strongest soldier!

Closing comments – 1:34:48

My thanks to The Snek of Vol’dun for coming on the show.

Outro – 1:36:30

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.
Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/c/soloqueuewow
Thank you to contributing patrons Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, Cyn, TheSnekofVol’dun, and Friends of Wumpus! Thanks to free patrons Max, Eddie, Tim, Bear, and Jon.
Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.
The Snek of Vol’dun is on BlueSky at bsky.app/profile/snekofvoldun.bsky.social, on Twitter at x.com/TheSnekofVoldun and has a YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/@TheSnekofVoldun
You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
January episode coming soon...

“We will see you out there."

Previous Episode

Episode 17 – The Real Anniversary Episode

1 Recommendations

Episode 17 – The Real Anniversary Episode

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 17!

First year of Solo Queue in the books and stumbling into some creative WoW-adjacent media got me thinking about all the value added to WoW by content creators outside of Blizzard.

Four Tanks and a Healer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A47d3fjDNSQ

Stormwind University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sgpgEy-UW8

Karazhan Library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkDNwkGDS84

“What have you done lately?” – 16:52

Trivia is now 42 characters every day – the end is in sight, January 7
For max leveling efficiency, that meant getting 5 characters to 80
I made my 2 Earthen characters
Monthly inventory for first time in 3 months
Sporadically getting weekly meta quests done to keep gearing the 5 level 80s

Addon Recommendation: Altoholic – 25:39

Tracks gold, levels, achievements, time played, and many more bits of individual character info account-wide, server by server, faction by faction.

...and Siren Isle – 27:03

Yes, it feels a lot like 10.0.7, but it is kind of different
Gameplay is...fine; better than the alternative of nothing until 11.1
Story is hard to take in, maybe just for me?

News – 46:34

Still 2 story questlines to come in 11.0.7, Dalaran epilogue and Lingering Shadows
Turbulent Timeways coming January 7 – 5 weeks of timewalking
New game modes coming to the Character select screen? Might it be...
Plunderstorm returns January 14 with less demanding reward system, new rewards, same battlefield
And two holidays are wrapping up next week, Anniversary event January 7 and Winter Veil January 5!

Winter Veil in your Garrison! – 56:36

The second-best place to celebrate Winter Veil is in your WoD Garrison, which naturally gets decorations and there are WV dailies to add more decorations. If you haven’t done it, why not now? I did, during the recording.

And, I’ve been thinking about WoD lately, which had its 10th anniversary in November. 2025 is my 10th anniversary in WoW. Throughout the coming year, I am going to go through some of the highlights of this much-maligned expansion to show what is still enjoyable, including featuring the 3 WoD raids in Raid of the Month throughout the year.

Raid of the Month: Antorus (Legion) – 1:12:02

Speaking of RotM, we visit the final raid of Legion, Antorus, the Burning Throne and see where that giant sword came from. Is it worth it? Lots of running around, Eonar a slow encounter, but if you want the 2 mounts and various transmog, then yes, get in there, at least a few times. Did I get any mounts? Listen to find out – no spoilers!

Also a plug for the website simplearmory.com – check it out to see all of your collectable items, along with a planner to go hunt them all down!

Drink of the Month – 1:30:20

All that raiding has me thirsty for Dwarven Mead and Greatfather’s Winter Ale at the Stonefire Tavern in Ironforge, in sight of Greatfather Winter himself!

Main Topic: Yep, more Winter Veil, including *SPOILERS* presents opened! – 1:31:50

We head across the molten channel in Ironforge to check out Winter Veil activities, including a ride out to kill the Greench, unwrapping the 2024 presents live, and sharing my Winter Veil wish list, now for 2025.

Plans for 2025 and gratitude for the influences that led me to SQ – 1:41:18

SQ plans for the coming year, a Season 2, if you will. Biggest is the goal of two episodes each month, a traditional (and shorter) episode, and a second episode of various formats, including interviews, single topic deep dives, or overflow topics for the month.

I want to close this episode with gratitude for my sources of inspiration for Solo

Queue including traditional radio, some Blizzard podcasts no longer with us, and many that are. Thank you, fellow podcasters! Honored to be among your ranks.

Solo Queue Mailbox – 2:04:16

The second and third reviews on Apple Podcasts from Mr Rascolwitz and Cyn (psmst1). #grateful

Truly, thanks for a great first year of Solo Queue! I hope you keep listening and sharing it with friends.

Outro – 2:08:47

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.
Support the show at Patreon.com/SoloQueueWoW
Thank you to patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, and welcome Cyn! Thanks to free patrons Max, Eddie, Tim, and Jon.
Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.
You can contact me at soloqueuewow ...

Next Episode

Episode 19 – Three Drinks in on Lunar Love, Confucianism, Socrates, 11.1, and a Meh Castle

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 19! – 8:04

A few words from me on the guiding principles of Solo Queue and why consistent publishing is not really one of them. Sorry to miss the two episodes a month pattern on the very first month. I am okay with that and hopefully you are as well. Still hoping to get you 24 episodes this year.

And a big thank you to Snek of Vol’dun for the fantastic interview last month, the most downloaded episode in a first week of release!

“What have you done lately?” – 13:00

Anniversary Trivia Recap – 942 total levels and now 40 characters are level 70 or above
Fix for losing in-game dialog audio
Nelf Druid main finally in all epic gear and Circlet maxxed to 658
Kirin Tor questline is good story-telling
Plunderstorm – I already bought out the vendor!

News – 45:37

SoD Phase 7
Cata Classic XP buff
Anniversary Classic Phase 2
To Retail news, Turbulent Timeways trick
Can search for characters in the select screen

11.1 News and Previews – 56:55

List of selected features coming in 11.1 at an unknown date, likely Feb. 25?

Love is in the Air and Lunar Festival – 1:11:25

New stuff in Love is in the Air and I encourage you to hit respect your elders, if for no other reason than achievements and a new mount for Lunar Festival, which traces its roots to Confucianist ideas honoring your ancestors and the Chinese celebration of Lunar New Year.

Drink #1 – 1:22:50

Moonglow, a special Lunar Festival drink to tide me over to the Drink of the Month

Drink #2 – 1:23:45

Yup, a second drink. Must be big stuff afoot. To steel the nerves for Raid of the Month, a Shadeskin Brandy from a dude named Slabchop. “It burns like sin,” as they say in Revendreth.

Question of the Month – 1:25:33

What should the next playable race be?

Sethrak, ogres, jinyu, hozen, valkyr, naga, or something else?

Raid of the Month: Castle Nathria (Shadowlands) – 1:27:35

It has been four years and that means the raids of Shadowlands should be available to be soloed by mere mortals. I tackle Castle Nathria for the first time, and of course, I do not remember all the story bits going into it. #followerraids

Drink #3 – 1:40:06

All that raiding has me thirsty for a second Shadeskin Brandy.

Verdict on Castle Nathria – 1:40:29

The first raid of Shadowlands has no mount? And it has large swaths of RP dialog and slow-walking NPCs? And it took much longer than an hour? And it yielded only 500 gold? What do you think my recommendation is?

Main Topic: Did You Hear What Denathar Said About Me and Fellow Podcasters Unite! – 1:47:17

A passing comment by Denathar on Azeroth United has me fired up to defend my honor and reputation as a podcaster! My defense includes comparing myself to Socrates. What ego? What are you talking about? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Socrates

Then I long for a tighter community of podcasters and celebrate the growing Solo Crew community, even though I tend to steer clear of groups and communities in WoW and life. #wowpodcastersinBoston?

Outro – 1:59:23

Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.
Support the show at Patreon.com/SoloQueueWoW
Thank you to patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, Cyn, and Snek of Vol’dun!
Thanks to free patrons Max, Eddie, Bear, Jon, Friends of Wumpus, Sean, Lavie, Curro, Aronaar, Aedan, and Guardian Sandy!
Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest. Leave a 5-star rating and a review to help grow Solo Queue.
You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

“I will see you out there."