Segment 52: Deadly Boss Mods

So now you’re raiding, or at least running instances. It doesn’t matter if you’re raiding old “vanilla WoW” dungeons or Baradin Hold, or anywhere in between; you want to do the best you can, whether you are the tank, a healer, or DPS. That means you need situational awareness, because while a mage doing the safety dance in Naxxramas may be low on the DPS charts, a dead mage…

This morning, as is my usual habit, I tried to log into WoW from the computer in our library at home. Instead of the normal “Authentication Successful” message, a larger splash screen popped up, telling me that my account had been locked due to a detected “change in play pattern.” Now, my pattern is highly predictable. I normally play on the computer in my home library mornings and evenings, on my office work computer…

Those of you who listen to the podcast know all about my deep concern for the state of the game, but today my concern has reached a whole new level. Lately, I’ve been seeing great and dedicated players and friends quit the game left and right (5 of my good friends have quit the game and from what I’ve been hearing it seems like more are following), an overload of negative comments on the blogosphere…

Segment 49: AutoBar

AutoBar is a multi-bar add-on that automatically adds potions, water, food, quest items, and other usable things into buttons for quick access.

By default, it creates three new bars: Basic, with such things as your hearthstone, mounts, bandages, potions, trade skills, quest items and trinkets; a Class bar, with primarily non-combat spells and abilities; and Extras, with companion pets, fishing items, and miscellaneous other items on it.

You can move the…

Segment 48: Pawn

You’re running 5-mans, trying to gear up so you can level even faster, or run heroics, or raid. You see other people clicking “need” on gear that you think you might want, but you’re not sure if it’s really an “up” for you, and you don’t want to be “that guy.” What do you do? Pawn.

Pawn is an add-on that uses values from Wowhead to quickly compare…

Segment 46: PlayerScore

The single biggest complaint heard in World of Warcraft is about pick-up groups, usually called “pugs.” Why? Because players join pugs without the proper gear or experience to make a successful run. In the past, group leaders (now called “dungeon guides”) had two add-ons to help them determine the level of readiness a player might bring to his pug, GearScore and SkillScore. Individual players could use them to determine their own…

Segment 45: Custom sounds

Some players play with all of the World of Warcraft sounds turned off; others turn on everything; and some prefer to replace or augment the in-game sounds with custom sound files. This week we’ll look beyond music players, at a couple of add-ons that help you with customizing the sounds in WoW. This segment was inspired by John Trahan. Thanks for your suggestion, John!

Since all of these add-ons use…

Segment 44: Music Players

This week we’ll look at a few music players that run from within World of Warcraft. If you’ve ever died while tabbed out to change your music, or missed an important message on Ventrilo or TeamSpeak because the music was too loud and you couldn’t change the volume on WinAmp, you may find one (or more) of these to be a godsend. However, for those that require playlist makers, let…

Segment 42: Add-ons for Warriors

Warriors fall into that World of Warcraft category that can either tank or DPS; with that in mind, we’ll look at a few add-ons that lend themselves to these roles.

First up is TidyThreat, which is a plug-in for TidyPlates. TidyPlates modifies the nameplates you see over the heads of mobs, and TidyThreat makes it instantly clear, using color bars, which mobs are…

Segment 41: Add-ons for Rogues

This week we’ll talk about some add-ons for the most versatile of melee DPS classes, the Rogue. In addition to simple DPS, Rogues are often called upon to provide crowd control, scout, open locks, and find traps.

Quick Rogue Info is a customizable set of information frames for rogues. Included are buff and debuff bars, combo points, poison stacks, threat, DPS, player health, target health, energy, and…

Segment 40: Add-ons for Priests

I’m going to focus primarily on healing priests here, because you guys are the ones that stand back and make sure the rest of us can work. And, of course, sometimes you have to pick us up, dust us off, and send us back into the fight. That’s what Moms, Dads, coaches, and Priests do.

So, without further slobbering…

Healbot Continued is *the* quintessential add-on for healers. If you’re…

Segment 38: Add-ons for Mages

This week we’re going to take a look at a few of the add-ons meant for mages, the glass cannons of the World of Warcraft. As always, be sure to get the latest version if you’re going to try these out; out-of-date add-ons may not work at all, or worse, they may do something completely different to what you want. Check out the links in the segment notes for…

Segment 37: Add-ons for Hunters

This week we’re going to look at add-ons meant for Hunters and their pets. There are many of them available, and I’m not planning an hour-long segment, so this will just skim the cream off the top, covering one or two of the various types available. For the full list, take a look at Curse; there’s a direct link in the segment notes.

Now, let’s give your…

Segment 36: Add-ons for Druids

This week we’ll take a look at add-ons meant specifically for that most versatile of classes, the druids. You really need to look at the blog to get the full benefit of this segment; everything I talk about here is linked in the blog. Be sure, before you try out any add-on, that it has been updated to at least WoW version 4.0.1

Any discussion of druid add-ons must…

Like most other Guild Masters in World of Warcraft, I have been frustrated by the lack of features we had been given to control our guilds. This is something I had lamented previously on the WoWphiles Podcast because the previous system didn’t offer much needed features like reorganizing guild ranks.

Patch 4.0.1 has brought us increased functionality for Guild Masters, which Blizzard no doubt realized would be necessary due to the increased importance being placed…

GoGoMount and GoGoPet

Edited for Patch 4.0.1

If you have have made any effort at all to learn about the World of Warcraft achievement system, you are probably aware that there is an achievement for obtaining fifty mounts. There’s another for one hundred mounts. There are also achievements for fifteen pets and for fifty pets. Breanni has even created a guide to the vanity pet achievements over at WarcraftPets.com

But how do you…

Note remaining download size. Gee, I hope that’s wrong!

Click thumbnail to enlarge.

Since we are approaching the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and the 2-year Anniversary of the release of Wrath of the Lich King, I’ve taken a few minutes to think about the things that made Wrath special.

Some of these reasons may be more personal for me and less so for you, so feel free to add your opinions and thoughts on the topic in the comments section.
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1. Accessibility of end…

This is a little outside my usual territory, but I love this comic so much, I just wanted to share.
Click the picture to go to World of Warcraft, eh?

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