Segment 26: Leveling Guides

This week we’re going to look at leveling guides; specificly, Zygor’s Leveling Guide, and an alternative.

Let me start off by saying that I emphatically do NOT recommend Zygor’s Leveling Guide, and I’m not going to give you a link to the official Zygor site. If you still want it after listening to this segment, you can find it easily enough.

Zygor’s Leveling Guide is an in-game guide; that means it’s an add-on. It also is sold, not supported by voluntary donations. That means it’s in blatant …

Segment #25: LightHeaded

This week we’ll look at a very lightweight add-on that adds speed and accuracy to your questing.

LightHeaded is a very simple add-on that displays quest information and comments from Wowhead in-game, eliminating the need to Alt-Tab when you get stuck on a quest. Data is only loaded when you first request it, so you can be sure you’re not using more memory than you need to.

Lightheaded supports TomTom, MapNotes, and Cartographer2 and Cartographer3; by clicking coordinates shown in LightHeaded, you can automatically add a …

Segment 24: AutoEmote and AutoProfit

This week we’re going to look at two small add-ons; one just for fun, and one to help you get the junk out of your bags and put some jingles in your pocket. Both of these are considered outdated, but they continue to work and so I continue to use them. Remember to check the “Load out of date add-ons” box in the add-ons window before entering the world.

AutoEmote is a just-for-fun add-on which will automatically issue emotes back to the people who …

Segment 23: ArkInventory

This week I would like to tell you about a mod that will help you keep your bags organized, and also let you check all your various storage spaces on the realm when you are pretty sure you have an item, but can’t remember where you put it.

ArkInventory (or “AI”) as it comes “out of the box” allows you to have one large virtual bag instead of the vanilla WoW default of a bunch of smaller bags. Without any custom configuration on your part, it also …

Segment 22: RaidBuffStatus

Are you a raider? Are you a raid leader? Either way, you need to know the status of buffs on yourself and, if you are the leader, of the entire raid. Proper buffs can make a marginal raid successful, while missing buffs can make your raid fail.

RaidBuffStatus is an add-on to check, show and report on the complete buff status (including flasks etc) of a party or raid. It shows the information on a dashboard much like XRS. It can report via whispers and to raid …

Segment 21: SkillScore

SkillScore is a lightweight addon that will let you quickly check a player’s experience in specific raids.

SkillScore is a much more useful indicator of a player’s experience than GearScore, because it doesn’t depend on the luck of the Need or Greed roll. SkillScore will tell you how many times the player has completed ICC 10 and ICC 25, for example.

Similar to GearScore in the abbreviated mouseover display, SkillScore will give you a much more detailed tooltip by pressing . SkillScore caps the score for …

Segment 20: WetSpot

Are you leveling or planning on leveling a new toon? Are you trying to plan ahead and get enough gold to get your riding skill and mount at level 20? Did you take two gathering skills so you can do that? Good plan! Did you take Herbalism and Mining? Not so good, since you can’t detect Herbs and Minerals at the same time!

There’s a solution for you (can I say “There’s an add-on for that?”) – as well as for hunter and druid tracking, and fish …

Parrot

Some time before Patch 2.0.3, way back in the beginning of 2007, Blizzard incorporated the basic concepts of the add-on Scrolling Combat Text into “vanilla WoW.” Newer players probably have no idea that there was a time when you needed the SCT add-on to see combat hits scrolling up from the center of the screen.

While the now-built-in floating combat text is a big improvement, it could be even better. That’s where Parrot comes in.

Parrot allows you to adjust the start and end points of your scrolling combat text, …

_NPCScan

Have you spent hours flying aimlessly around Storm Peaks, trying to find the Time-Lost Protodrake? Wasted days in Sholozar Basin, looking for Loque’nahak? This week’s add-on detects rare mobs for you, alerting you when you get within detection range.

Before installing _NPCScan, you’ll want to clear your game cache. The add-on’s Web page explains how in detail, but the short version is “delete your cache folder.”

When a rare mob is found, _NPScan wil alert you with audio, flashing the screen, and providing an animated targeting button. There’s a “test” …

This week we’re going to take a look at a simple yet powerful aid for healers, called Grid. I will also mention a few enhancements to Grid, and a link to a tutorial on how to get the most out of Grid.

Grid is an essential tool for healers. Anyone who has been in a raid knows that, many times, there is way too much going on during a fight to look at the standard raid array to see who needs healing, who has a HoT on them, who …

Those of you listening to the audio segment will probably notice my voice is rough and more nasal than usual; sorry, I’m just starting to get over a sinus infection. Here’s the text for those who wonder what I actually said.

Decursive is a mod which makes affliction removal easy, effective and fun for all the classes having this ability.

It’s easy to use. Decursive configures itself automatically for your character class. It works straight out of the box; no configuration is required, although advanced options are readily available. Decursive is …

Murlocs are for realz!

Murlocs are real!
Handfish species of fish that look like murlocs.

Remote Auction House details
Thanks to a comment from Hiruu, we got to the bottom of what the charges are for in regards to remote services.

Healing in Cataclysm
We look at how healing is changing in Cataclysm.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week with the addon RaidBuffStatus

Evinrue’s NPC of the Week
Evinrue is back with her segment to tell us about Keristrasza

Listener Email & Comments
We mention some of the things that you, …

Omen3 is the first add-on for the Emporium’s “official” kick-off.

I’m thinking of doing a weekly column for WoW add-ons, if there’s any interest in the listener/readership here. The idea is that I will try them out and recommend them for general use or specific classes, along with links to where you can get them.

To give you an idea of my qualifications, I have been playing RPGs since 1976 (Dungeons & Dragons first edition!), and MMORPGs since Everquest (the first one). I’ve played through EQ, Asheron’s Call, Diablo II, and now World of Warcraft (remember when “raid” meant “level 58+ …