Phase 3: Profit !

Happy Monday, kids! Hopefully it’s going well for you.

I’m a big fan of podcasts, and that is the topic of this post. I listen to them almost all the time that I’m playing. Unless there’s a reason to be on vent, or I’m on a serious AC/DC and/or The Clash bender, I’ve got a podcast going.

Recently the WoW world changed. 4.0.1 shook up everything, and I, like almost everyone else, am scrambling to get my WoW ducks in a row. Tanking was different, addons are/were broken, etc. All kinds of things have changed, and I have been relying on podcasts for information more now than I have at any time since… well… since I can remember.

All this got me thinking- what do I really, truly feel is valuable? Which podcasts make my WoW experience better? I am now a host of the wonderful Call To Auction podcast. However, long before I started hosting, I was a fan. I relied on that podcast to keep me informed. Thinking about all this got me wondering a few things: (1) What do I need to listen to?; (2) What do I like listening to?, and (3) What are you, Dear Reader, listening to that maybe I and everyone else reading the blog should be aware of?

So let’s get into it. Here’s what on my podcast list. Be careful, it’s not a short list. With that said, let’s go!

-Back in the day, before I was a host, Call To Auction was my A+, #1 podcast. It was (and still is) great. It is, as far as I know, the only AH-centric podcast around. Seth had the 1 Copper podcast for a little while, but that’s gone. So I listen to CtA. (Big surprise, right?)

-Also, Back in the day, I listened to the Tankspot podcast and Veneretio’s Tanking Tips podcast religiously. I’m a tank, so that makes sense. And I would still listen to them today… but they just don’t do the podcasts with any frequency. As far as I can tell, they’re both dead, barring the odd update. So, listen to them when they come out, but don’t wait around for them.

-I still enjoy The Instance and the WoW Insider show. They’re aimed at gamers who aren’t as experienced as I am, but they have good content and, most importantly, incredible prominence within the community. Let’s put it this way- if I try to talk to Ghostcrawler, I’m at the same level as all the other mouthbreathers who stand in the fire. Those podcasts? They get special treatment, to the extent that The Instance #200 got a Russell Brower interview. I’m not begrudging them this access- they’ve earned it by being leaders in this area for years. Their content isn’t aimed at me, but it’s not something I can afford to ignore. (That, and Matthew Rossi is still the best warrior tank podcaster that I’ve encountered.)

-Rawrcast. I’ve called into Rawrcast many times, and have listening since the beginning, “back when they sucked.” The Azeroth United fallout, that Raid Warning commented on, was… well… unbecoming. But I really, really like their show, and think they do a good job.

-Speaking of that devil, Raidwarning. I also listen to them, and they’re fun. I think they do a good job, even if they get a little too drunk to record sometimes. But I like that!

-All Things Azeroth. This is certainly aimed at a different listener base than me (read: much more casual). However, this podcast is one of the grand-daddys of podcasting, having been going strong since vanilla. And, imho, Anne Stickney has been a wonderful addition to the show. She counter’s Medros’ casual tendencies with hardcore raiding insight, and a show of this quality it hard to find.

-Blue Please! I’m a fan of TotalBiscuit. Yes, he’s the shock-jock of WoW, but he’s good at what he does. In fact, he’s amazing- hosting a show every week, alone? No thank you. He is, among other things, exceptional at complaining about things that should be complained about. He says things that nobody else in the WoW community does, and they’re usually things that should be said. Blue Please! doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I like it.

-The Guardian Tank podcast. Eldritch does an exceptional job aggregating everything that tanks need to know about, no matter what the class. Everyone (DPS, Heals, Tanks) should listen to this podcast because it will tell you how tanks are thinking at the current moment. This is especially valuable because this is the only tanking podcast that’s regularly updated, and he (Eldritch) has done a great job filling the void left by the lack of Tankspot/Tanking Tips podcasts.

-Slash 2. It’s vulgar, profane, base, and I really like it. It is like listening to my friends complain about WoW. (And make a LOT of jokes that are in no way politically correct or safe for work. So consider yourself warned!) I enjoy it.

-Bind On Equip. They’re fun, and they’re from Australia. It’s a good show that gives insight to a tight-knit group of gamers who have real lives, outside of WoW. I also love the humor and the bumpers, and don’t miss a show. The re-rolling Horde series was great, and everyone should take a listen.

-Finally, let’s not forget TIPOAA! The Incredible Podcast of Amazing Awesomeness is not to be missed. It is not, technically, just a WoW podcast. But it is hosted by Mike Schramm and Turpster, two WoW veterans. And they focus a lot of their time on WoW. Also, they’re great friends of P3P, and Mike was even a guest on CtA. Listen to it, it’s excellent.

There are a few others, especially non-WoW podcasts, but those are the ones that I look for. I also listen to Bill Simmons’ podcast, Adam Corolla, Daves of Thunder, This American Life, Radiolab, Movielicious, Film Sack, Savage Love, and the Sportscast with Spider and the Henchman. Those are, however, unrelated to WoW.

What do you, Dear Reader, listen to? What have I missed? Let me know. As ever, we look forward to all feedback. Let me know if I’ve missed anything by posting in the comments to this post.

GL! /bow

That, above, is a picture of my bank alt’s backpack. As an experiment before 4.0.1, I put all his gold in the bank. After very limited buying and selling, that’s how much I have now, as a direct result of 4.0.1, aka: Glyphmas! So I made about 9500 gold, not counting expenses.

Here’s my personal recap:

First of all, I don’t have a Scribe. I have no toon with Inscription. How did I make so much? Well, the night before 4.0.1, I went through my AH and bought any glyph that I could find at 5g or less. I was working alot in real life, I didn’t have time to properly prepare, and didn’t do anything before about midnight server-time the night before the patch. We recorded a special Call To Auction, then I went and bought any cheap glyph. That was it. I spent about 1,000g total and took about 15 minutes. I didn’t make as much money as Euripides or Markco, but for the amount of time I invested, I’m pretty happy. Glyphs that I bought for 4g were re-sold for 150g. Good times!

Other winners: uncut gems, infinite dust, eternal life, and eternal belt buckles. The belt buckles I owe entirely to Markco- he said they were going to be hot and he wasn’t lying. Due to a weird market spike, I was able to sell buckles that I bought for 18g (fyi: I don’t have a Blacksmith either, I just bought them cheaply) for 75g each. 30 buckles later, I’m very happy with my investment.

I didn’t have many losers, but the lack of a change to the various epic gem transmute timer cooldown(s) has made my Eternal Fire prediction inaccurate, but that’s about all I can think of. They’re selling like they usually do, but not in spectacular fashion at all. Another loser was the complete lack of Auctioneer, which means I was still figuring out Auctionator and bought a few stacks of Saronite Ore for 75g by mistake. I also was killed while attempting to solo Bloodlord Mandokir because I didn’t understand my stats and abilities. That was surprising, and hasn’t happened in a while, but that’s about all that jumps to mind in terms of bad things that resulted from 4.0.1. So, all things considered, I can’t complain.

But I digress… what I really want to know is how did you, Dear Reader, do in these past few days after 4.0.1? I want to know. Please put some feedback in the comments to this post. I’m sure we all did well, but I’d like to know how you did in specific markets. Thanks in advance for all feedback!

GL! /bow

Author’s Edit: Apparently, as CJ pointed out in the comments to this post, the ZG lockout has not been reduced and I was mistaken. Consequently, it looks like everything in the post is wrong. I feel like a dummy for putting up an incorrect post, but with all the 4.0 changes, I got overwhelmed and made a mistake. I’m tempted to delete the post, but for the sake of a little bit of tough love, I’ll leave it up, look like a boob, and take my medicine. Sorry for any confusion, Dear Reader.

Early in the evening/morning of this, the first day of 4.0.1, I went into ZG to take another shot at getting the Tiger Mount. I went in, didn’t get the drop, and left. Then, just out of curiosity, I took a look at my raid panel. After about a half hour of messing around in ZG, I got out, and this is what my raid browser said:

What?! 4 hours and change! Does that mean that ZG is on a 5 hour lockout? Is this a stealth-nerf? I didn’t hear about this, but maybe I’m out of the loop. Or, possibly, I’m the first to notice it. In any case, I imagine that this is one last cookie that Blizz is throwing our way, in hopes of getting us to go into ZG. For all of us AHers, this just means that we have 800% more access to ZG and all the stuff that you should be selling that drops in there.

So go into ZG! It’s even easier now. Go, farm stuff, and sell it. Until Auctioneer is fixed for 4.0, this is a bigger hassle than in the past. However, Auctionator works, and that’s a fine addon in and of itself.

GL! /bow