Each week Matthew Porter contributes The Creamy GUI Center, a column aimed at helping you enhance your WoW experience by offering an in depth guide to addons, macros and other tools we use to play WoW, along with commentary on issues that affect how we all play.
Welcome folks to this week's The Creamy GUI Center. This week I tackle one of the great suggestions left by you the reader in the comment's section. We're gunna examine bag replacements and inventory managers in a special two part series. This week we'll see how to organize your inventory with bag replacement addons. And in the following week we'll look at which addons help you change gear around for different situations. But let's not put the cart ahead of the horse, first we have to organize all that equipment, so let's get to it!
It has begun. Anti-inflation measures intended to reduce player Gold before Wrath of the Lich King arrives have been put in place on the test server. Everyone's favorite (or most hated) socialite Haris Pilton has transformed into more than just a nod to bad pop culture, Patch 2.4.3 sees her as the single biggest gold sink in the game. Just like her enterprising real-life counterpart, Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry that is sure to bait some players into parting with their hard-earned Gold.
So Zach posted one of my favorite recent articles about making sure your bank toon looks stylish while it's taking care of your business, and I was amazed when I read the comments to see that a few people were wondering what the whole point of a bank alt was at all.
I have to admit that I was once like them. Why should I give up one of my precious character spaces for some dude who will just sit around Thunder Bluff or Ironforge and do nothing but store stuff that I should just be using or auctioning anyway? Of course, now that I have a bank alt, I'm pretty happy with the concept. If you're someone who hasn't made one yet, I'll tell you why I think you'd be happy with one too after the break.
Welcome to another installment of Hybrid Theory, wherein columnist Alex Ziebart assures the world that he does not, in fact, hate Retribution Protection Paladins. In fact, he raids with a Retribution Protection Paladin. Really. He does. Pinky swear.
Nearly every hybrid has felt the sorrows of lacking itemization at one time or another. Every hybrid has seen its ups and its down, has watched class balance fall into and out of order, and embraced their spec through the good and the bad. Throughout all of this, though, there has always been one ever-present issue. Completely unchanging. Viability and acceptance? Oh, no no no.
Bag space. The Blue Crew of Blizzard has made it very clear over the last few years that limited bag space is fully intended. It's viewed as an important aspect of game play. A mini-game, if you will. I must say, being forced into choosing whether you want to keep an item you enjoy or vendor it in favor of that new piece of resist gear that is mandatory for your raid's upcoming boss fight is the worst game ever. Sometimes little vanity items mean quite a bit, like your first epic. A lot of them are just plain neat, like the furbolg outfit maker.
Our guild alliance's resident science and technology geek (and I mean that in a good way) linked us a somewhat confusing article yesterday. Apparently, scientists have figured out a way to store and retrieve empty space. Of course, a question naturally comes to mind upon hearing about this: How soon until I can buy my own bag of holding?
But seriously, while I tend to be a bit of a pack rat in real life, I'm an even bigger pack rat in WoW. I still keep gear and quest rewards from 50 levels ago because they look cool. In addition, I play a Hunter (with a quiver), a Warlock (with a shard bag) and a Druid (with Cat Form, Bear Form, and healing gear on me at all times). As a result, I'm always on the lookout for ways to increase my bag space so I can fit in a little bit of loot once I'm stocked up on gear, consumables, reagents, and all the rest.
Luckily, I've found that upgrading your bag space doesn't have to break the bank or send you after waves of elite mobs that require 25-40 people to take down, and I'll share a few upgrading tips after the break.
You may have already heard that Magtheridon will be made easier in patch 2.4, but it looks like Blizzard's adding a few more goodies to make him more enticing to everyone. World of Raids has gotten news from a couple raid groups who have taken him down on the Test server, and it seems he's gotten a few other loot changes as well.
First of all, he drops more of the ultimate shiny stuff, 25 gold per raid member by some reports. Taking down a quick raid boss and getting 2 or 3 dailies worth of gold seems like a fair trade. He also now drops a 20 slot bag, called the Pit Lord's Satchel, which is BoP, but not unique. Like all 25-man bosses in 2.4, he will drop Badges of Justice. Finally, he also drops a Black Sack of Gems that will contain various Epic quality gems.
I'm sure if you were in the raid game pre-BC like I was, the same question is coming to mind: Is Magtheridon the new Onyxia for 2.4? Like 2.4's Magtheridon, she drops a really nice bag and a good amount of gold every kill. Like Magtheridon, her head can be turned in for a pretty sweet buff. Too bad Magtheridon's buff isn't quite as awesome, but it's all still there. Right now, Magtheridon is ignored or quickly skipped over by many raid groups, with only a kill or two just to get people their titles. But with these adjustments, both in difficulty and amount of loot dropped, he does seem like he may start looking a lot more alluring.
What do you think? Will these changes have you LF24M Magtheridon on a regular basis?
Yet another fun little tidbit slipped by unnoticed in the recent frenzy of 2.4 news, but no longer! Behold, a WoW Insider exclusive!
Okay, so it's not that special and I may have exaggerated the weight of this news item just a little, but I think most of you will be happy to know that the Magisters' Terrace drops a 20 slot bag: The Sun Touched Satchel. It is unique, but it seems to be a fairly common drop off of the trash inside of the instance. I don't have statistics and percentages for you but when I mentioned it in General chat, a fair number of people spoke up to say they had one as well. Judging entirely off of that, I assume it won't take you dozens and dozens of runs to get your own.
I'm sure this is a bit of a sting in the bum of Primal Mooncloth tailors when combined with the near-free 20 slot bags from Zul'Aman, but keep in mind that the bag is unique. I don't expect this will cause the market for 20 slotters to change much, if at all. Besides, I think everyone in WoW can agree that more bag space is a good thing, no matter the source.
World of Raids has been releasing information by the bucket loads, and one intriguing little morsel has caught our eye: The addition of four new bag types, marked "Leatherworking Supplies," "Soulbound Equipment," "Vanity Pets," and a fourth one simply marked "Unused."
Almost any vanity pet fanatic will tell you that one of the hardest things to do is deciding what to delete to make room for your newest little friend, or which pet to take out of the bank and parade about when heading out to quest, grind, or raid. The idea of making vanity pets easier to store and carry has been one that's been a perennial topic of the suggestion boards and an issue dear to the hearts of every pet fanatic who's set up elaborate trade agreements with the other faction or spent countless hours in Zangarmarsh just to make sure they got ALL the vanity pets possible, and it looks as if Blizzard has finally answered their prayers.
The leatherworking supplies bag is a bit harder to pin down. We already have a leatherworking bag category, so this may be simply a shuffling of data.
As far as a soulbound items bag goes, if it simply allows any type of soulbound item or gear, and comes in sizes greater than the current 18 slot standard, this could be great salvation for any class who carries around an extra set of gear for various situations, be they a Druid with tank, DPS, and healing sets, or a raider with various resist sets.
Of course, we can't say for sure yet if these new categories will be used right away for Sunwell loot or recipes, or whether they're simply in reserve for possible future use, but the prospect of more bag space has this druid drooling.
I guess it's not that surprising-- it does seem like we are carrying more stuff around lately, in terms of quest and rep items, if not just plain old extra gear sets. We've already had lots of ideas on how to fix things, from creating more keychain setups, to just plain coming up with more bag space. But fortunately, Drysc doesn't seem to have just bigger bags in mind-- he seems to have "better stuff in the works."
What that could be, we have no idea. Pack mules? Dimensional suitcases (made, naturally, of sapient pearwood)? Finally, player housing? Drysc says we'll find out soon.
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.
LFGear? Insider Trader has tallied up some tidy little tailored items this week for both cloth-wearers and non-clothies alike. Why would you use tailored gear if you're not a cloth wearer? As they say, "Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man ..." The stylish man of means has a shirt and suit for every occasion, and tailoring's where it's at. We've also discovered some nifty little utility pieces for the 70 Who Has It All™. (Oh, and if you're a tailor, these items are definite contenders for Auction House action.)
Also this week, we'll look into mana loom locations. Sorry, we don't have a long list of little-known locations to pass along -- but at least we can confirm the few known locations and perhaps dispel a few questions about where mana looms are not.
For the 70 who has it all While not noteworthy for the most space-pressed or epic-focused of players, these tailored items can be handy conveniences for the PvPer or the level 70 who has it all.
Azure Silk Belt Boosts swim speed by 15% -- useful when farming, PvPing near water, or swimming to Onyxia.
Spider Belt Removes existing Immobilizing effects and makes you immune to Immobilizing effects for 5 seconds; can be helpful in PvP.
Netherweave Net Captures a target up to 25 yards away in a net for 3 seconds. Unreliable and short-duration though it is, can be handy in PvP.
Hot on the heels of that trinket chain suggestion from the other day, I've got another easily-implementable suggestion for inventory management: I want to name my bags.
Not necessarily "Jonah" or "Sally" or "Tricia," although those are all very acceptable names for bags. No, I want to be able to label the bag that I keep all of my healing gear in my "Healing Gear Bag." And I want to label the bag that I keep all my quest items in "Quest Item Bag." Clear labels that help me organize exactly how things get laid out in my inventory.
Now, there's already a little bit of that going on-- "special" bags like Enchanting or Soul bags are already labeled, not to mention that you can't put anything in them that doesn't belong there. And obviously the same thing applies to quivers (Related: where on your bag bar do your hunters put your quivers? I always put mine just to the left of my backpack, but I just realized it didn't have to go there all the time).
But I want to put custom labels on all of my bags, so that if I happen to take a vacation (either out of town or to an alt), I can come back and know exactly what's where. There are lots of bag-related addons out there, and for all I know, one of them lets me do exactly this. But I'd like to see a nice and easy implementation in the normal interface.
ANYWAY, this Breakfast Topic is entirely selfish. Lately, I've continued to try and build up enough gold to get my epic mount, as well as bring my alchemy skill up, so I've been doing lots and lots of farming lately.
And I've come up with a few tips for doing it-- watch a movie while I'm at it, make circles around zones that have exactly what I want (Felwood, Un'goro, and Hellfire Peninsula have been great for Herbalism, but I've never done Mining or farmed for Tailoring items or Motes), and make sure to pick up bags meant for crafting items, so I have enough room to haul what I need.
So what tips have you picked up for farming? Some people are crazy about it-- I know my guildleader has done it for hours, getting both mining mats and herbs for our guild-- and surely they know lots of inside stuff that us casual players take a long time to pick up. What would you recommend to someone who heads out into Azeroth and Outland looking for nature's gifts?
When I first looked at this thread in the forums, my reaction was "QQ." But the more I think about it, the more reasonable it seems. The poster asks for an upgradable backpack, since bags larger than 14 slots are becoming the norm. I've definitely had trouble selling Netherweave Bags, since almost everybody seems to already have 16-slotters. In a world like that, the backpack becomes your smallest bag, and that doesn't make a lot of sense. Furthermore, anything that increases the amount I can carry, without me having to spend 90g each on Imbued Netherweave Bags, would certainly be welcome. Between a full set of extra gear (for healing), various consumables, quest items, rep pickups, herbs, etc., I don't usually have very much free space -- and that's even with having an AH alt that I mail everything off to once it's ready to be sold. Vendors have been pretty easy to come by, but still, I'd really appreciate an extra 4 slots, like the poster proposes.
Unlike most of the mods I've been posting, EngBags is a pretty new one to me, but I'm already in love with it. It's an all-in-one bag window that sorts your stuff for you -- trade goods go in one area of the window, quest items another, etc. Brilliant and a little bit demented. It's highly configurable, which can make it seem a bit daunting, but the default config is pretty good. I always found keeping my inventory organized a bit of a chore, and now I've got a mod to do it for me (though I do occasionally have to reassign things' categories for best effect).
Advanced Bags Plus is a slightly different solution for the same problem. It replaces your five bag icons in the bag bar with a modifiable number of virtual bags for different item categories. It seems slightly easier to configure than EngBags in terms of which items should go in which categories, but it keeps multiple bag windows, which I don't like as much, having used AllInOneInventory/OneBag/Bagnon and the like pretty much since I discovered mods.
Bags. We all got 'em, we all put stuff in 'em, but I'll bet that each and every one of us has a slightly different way of organizing and managing our inventories. Personally, I find that I'm a "less is more" kind of guy, probably because I get a bit overwhelmed with seemingly innumerable slots full of items both usable and junk-worthy. I like to make frequent trips to the Inn and sell off anything that I don't think I will use again or that I can't auction for a decent price. Seeing as I'm absolutely lousy at working the AH for any kind of profit, I vendor a LOT of things.
Back in the day, I used to try to keep my hearthstone and any important quest items in my last bag, along with a few food and drink items. This way, I could just open my backpack and say, "Oh look, stuff I looted that I need to vendor." Now that I'm 60 and raiding, I've found that my bag slots are taken up with different types of situational items - a few trinkets, my Nature Resist gear for AQ40, my Fire Resist gear for BWL, and a couple of different weapons for whether I'm standing back and need buffs, or in the mix and need to do damage. Popping open bags and trying to find what's what became a bit of a chore, and so I started looking for tools that'd help me manage my inventory.
It has begun. Anti-inflation measures intended to reduce player Gold before 
So Zach posted one of my favorite recent articles about 
Our guild alliance's resident science and technology geek (and I mean that in a good way) linked us a somewhat confusing article yesterday. Apparently, scientists have figured out a way to 
Yet another fun little tidbit slipped by unnoticed in the recent frenzy of 
Gaslaw asks on the forums whether 
LFGear? Insider Trader has tallied up some tidy little tailored items this week for both cloth-wearers and non-clothies alike. Why would you use tailored gear if you're not a cloth wearer? As they say, "Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man ..." The stylish man of means has a shirt and suit for every occasion, and tailoring's where it's at. We've also discovered some nifty little utility pieces for the 70 Who Has It All™. (Oh, and if you're a tailor, these items are definite contenders for Auction House action.) 
Hot on the heels of that 
Whenever I hear the phrase in that title, I think of 
Unlike most of the mods I've been posting, EngBags is a pretty new one to me, but I'm already in love with it. It's an all-in-one bag window that sorts your stuff for you -- trade goods go in one area of the window, quest items another, etc. Brilliant and a little bit demented. It's highly configurable, which can make it seem a bit daunting, but the default config is pretty good. I always found 
Bags. We all got 'em, we all put stuff in 'em, but I'll bet that each and every one of us has a slightly different way of organizing and managing our inventories. Personally, I find that I'm a "less is more" kind of guy, probably because I get a bit overwhelmed with seemingly innumerable slots full of items both usable and junk-worthy. I like to make frequent trips to the Inn and sell off anything that I don't think I will use again or that I can't auction for a decent price. Seeing as I'm absolutely lousy at working the AH for any kind of profit, I vendor a LOT of things. 
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