Inventory management
by Paul Sherrard 
Dec 21st 2006 at 11:15AM
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.
For whatever reason, I've found that I'm best at sorting my inventory and keeping it relatively clean when I'm using a mod that combines all my bags into one giant bag. I like placing my hearthstone and mount in the bottom left corner, my FR gear on the right, and leave a bunch of empty spaces at the top. This way I can easily see what needs to be sold, and what I need while traveling around Azeroth. Ahh, sweet order out of bitter chaos.
My journey from disorganized, I-can't-believe-I-just-accidentally-vendored-my-lighforge-helm buffoonery to serene at-one-with-my-loots-and-my-boots inventory nirvana was not one of instant success. I tried many, many mods before finally settling on Bagnon. Bagnon was great, had no dependencies, and didn't disagree with any other mods. Our time together was like a spring romance before the tornado season of WoW 2.0.1 hit. Since the patch, I've been forced to give up on Bagnon (which has now changed its name and look to vBagnon) and move to OneBag. I'm happy for now with my simple system of one bag with a bunch of slots, and simply grouping items by type and usability.
So how about you folks, do you prefer to use individual bags for certain types of items? How do you sort what to sell from what you need on you? How about those of you who have bags for your professions - have you found that these new bags help you stay more organized? What experiments have you tried, mods installed and then removed, all in the name of better inventory management?
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Tricks, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tad Dec 21st 2006 12:48PM
I'm not a big fan of one large bag, as I find that having multiple bags makes organizing my items much easier.
My first bag is for random vendor items, the second for potions and useable items, the third for profession related items and cloth, the fourth for quest items, and the fifth varies by character (ammo bags, herb bags, etc.)
I just don't think I could find anything if they were all in one bag.
Profit Dec 21st 2006 11:38AM
I want my Bagnon back!!!
I want my Banknon back!!
I've tried the vBagnon but it is a cut-rate copy of the original and doesn't support single bank bags either.
I've settled with OneBag, but still not happy. I can't view my other toons bags or banks and I can't seem to get the bag colors to stay...
I guess I could try and fix the original, but I am too lazy... Too much like work for me ;)
Orin Dec 21st 2006 11:30AM
As a raiding Druid, I keep a LOT of gear on me. Feral DPS, Feral Tank, Healer, Nature Resist, Fire Resist... That used to fill 3 full bags, two of which were 18-slot... I have since shrunk it down to only the items I *need* in the raids I attend, plus a solo set. It is now 2 full bags, plus one or two items spilling over... Quest items also go in my now nearly empty 3rd bag.
I keep one 18-slot bag for consumables of various types that I use. My main bag I fill with the things that come and go, such as conjured water, vendor trash, things I will mail to alts ASAP, etc.
I've considered using bagnon, but just haven't had the time to deal with it. My system has worked for a long time now, and I'm not dying to change it. As it is I'm still getting used to all the other addon changes I made when the 2.0 patch hit...
andy Dec 21st 2006 11:45AM
well after the 2.0 panic, i couldnt use auctioneer and out of sheer fear to sell something for underprice i kept hold of it.
only on tuesday did i install the beta for auctioneer and sold 14 pages of post items and 2 banks full to my alt on the ah, for over 900 gold. probably the richest lvl 3 gnome in IF atm :) but on the plus side it means my epic mount is available for me to buy when i ding 60 this weekend :)
Tomazed Dec 21st 2006 11:42AM
Personnally, I never get used to item split in different bags, so I have been managing my bag with a one-bag-addon since I got my second bag :)
I was using AllInOneInventory prior to patch 2.0, but now I'm using vBagnon as I find it to be ligther than aioi.
It has all the config I need, I can see my reroll bags and bank too :)
and As you said, the best way to handle your inventory is to put your most used stuff, the one that will not changed everyday on the last bag, leaving space upward for the loot. In that way, you won't have to find thoses darn grey item between your felheart belt and your felheart leggins ><
But autoprofit does this for me now ^^
Roguerhunter Dec 21st 2006 11:45AM
HI guys,
I think that Blizzard needs to come up with extra slots on the characters profile for perhaps a Maxium of 3 slots. My ida if I was to propose would be that a player could obiviously carry a 2H Sword equiped and its go nice stas for DPS so when out of combat if hes wants added defense or FR stats he clicks on his WPN in the slot and 2 slots open with 2 Alt 2H wpns in there and you click the one you want and then that item equips itself. Sam with Helm, Chest, Boots you should be able to pick out of 3 that your carring or 2 at least.
Tomazed Dec 21st 2006 11:52AM
Whoops!!!! my mistake, I said I was using vBagnon, but no, I'm using Bagnon for Wow 2.0, yes, it exists
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info5465-BagnonBurningCrusade.html
It works perfectly for the live servers!
enjoy!
Tholrom Dec 21st 2006 11:46AM
Profit...check out the new version of vbagnon (which is just the next rendition of the same stuff by the same author). I don't use any of it's extra features and it has banknon in there now. As it sits, it works nearly identical to the original bag/banknon now. :)
Siedre Dec 21st 2006 12:05PM
My bags are pretty messy. Like Orin, I keep all my item sets in the last two bags, as well as tools like hearthstones and skinning knives. I don't use a bag mod; instead I use other mods so I can ignore my bag altogether. I use ItemRack for quick shifting of item sets. I also have my weapons and trinkets on my key rows to switch them up. I use an Ace mod called Automaton that, when properly set up, will sell all the grey junk that needs vendoring. I haven't used it yet, but there's a nice consumables mod that gives you extra bars for organization called AutoBar and AutoBarConfig. That's another Ace beauty. I'm becoming an Ace convert!
Bunkai Dec 21st 2006 12:05PM
SHIFT+B FTW!
I've never seen a need to an all-in-one bag mod when I can simply use the hotkey above to open and close all bags at once. By doing that, I have a built-in division of my quest items, consumable items, gear items, and "loot" items with very little need to actually think about how to sort things.
I can open all my bags in a single keystroke, look in my Backpack and drag items to their respective bags and then close all bags again in a single keystroke.
I even do ML for our raids, and still this has been a very low maintenance and highly organized method to manage my inventory.
I also use AutoProfit to clear the clutter.
In general, you get better performance if you can make the default UI work for you, and with keybindings, macros, and a little bit of brain power, it's not difficult to do.
Bugmaster Dec 21st 2006 12:21PM
guess what Bagnon's back been using it since i started playing again last monday so u can get it now.
btw it has some new nigty feature: there are bout 7 buttons on top which u can select or deselect and they kinda do the organizing for u so u can just select lets say the armor button and ull see right away what pieces of armor u have in your bag, no more messing round ur items in ur bag anymore its awesome
best regards, bugmaster
Sylythn Dec 21st 2006 12:28PM
About the only bag mod I ever used was one that told me how many empty slots I had in each bag. Other than that, I carry around different bags. I've already got one grey mageweave bag, so if I'm taking another, I try to make it one of my red ones. That helps sort things out. My backpack has all the stuff I need regularly (potions, bandages, healthstone, quest items for the day, etc.) My last bag is always my shard bag. And sometimes the second to last bag gets replaced with my enchanting bag. I tend to keep tailoring mats in one bag, auction items in another, and vendor items in a third. It'll be great when I have all traveler's backpacks - but I wish I could color them differently, so that I can tell which is which.
Donner Dec 22nd 2006 12:00PM
I like to keep all the gear that I only use for raiding in my bank when Im just soloing crap or running a minor instance like scholo. It keeps open enough space I still need 18 sloted bags though /cry. Ive got one 16 slot and the rest are 14 slots its kinda gay actually.
Kryz Dec 21st 2006 2:05PM
I'm using the vBagnon and it's not too bad. It took a bit getting used to and some setting adjusting, but I like it.
I ussually keep my top row for things like hearth stone, mount, profession items(pick, skinning knife...) and potions/bandages.Second row is armor changes, then the bottom left is quest items, and bottom right is my conjured food/break/ruby. I don't know why I don't just throw it all in there, but I feel like I've been doing this for as long as I've had the allinoneinventory thing way back when.
Profit Dec 21st 2006 1:07PM
Thanks Tholrom and Tomazed!
I so miss my one big bank bag... Hope to get the new ones installed tonight and see which is better...
Doc Dec 22nd 2006 12:20PM
One method I found that works pretty well is to keep all my raid gear (NR/FR/FstR/MeatShield-gear) in 2 bags which I can quicky drag and drop switch between 2 bags in my bank. The 2 bags I switch it with contain all my random solo and small group quest items, as well as things like BG, AD, CC tokens. When I raid, I stop by the bank and switch out the 2 bags of gear. When I'm done, I go back and switch them back.
I like keeping my pots, hearthstone, and other commonly used items in 2 bags leaving my main bag for whatever random crap I pick up. The items in those two bags are likely put onto my action bars already so I have no need to look at them in the bag. In the end, the only bag I really ever look at is the main backpack.
Tigraine Dec 21st 2006 6:19PM
I really LOVE Advanced Bag Plus.
Replaces Bagbar and gives you special "Bags" that are somehow sorted. So all consumeables go into one bag, all equipment goes into one bag, quest items one bag etc.
and the great thing is .. those bags have no fixed size, less consumeables, less screen space. more equipment, the bag simply grows. (Don't get me wrong, there is still the bag slots limitation from the normal bags you still carry around. ABP just hides the normal bags and displays "virtual" bags.)
The Anonymous Dec 21st 2006 10:47PM
On my warrior: Bag 1 is for quest items, expensive consumables (flasks/unique item buffs), mount and other nick nacks. Bag 2 is for DPS/Tank gear (depending on which I'm wearing), spare weapons and spare trinkets. Bag 3 is for FR/NR gear. Bag 4 is for cheap consumables, foods, sharpening stones, etc. Backpack I try and keep empty for drops but is usually holding a few misc consumables.
On my mage (pre-raid ATM): Bag 1 is for quest items, mount and rep drops. Bag 2 is for enchanting stuff. Bag 3 and 4 are empty. Backpack holds mount, reagents, pet, bandages and consumables.
Lonewind Dec 22nd 2006 10:09PM
Being a former raiding druid in a resto/balance spec I used to only have my resto gear and my balance pieces, aswell as various odds and ends. Which was just about 16 slots total.
Aside that I had 1 bag with odds and ends, like skinning knife, gloves and finkles, normal + aq mount. Dartols, heartstone, 1 stack of vendor water (for soloing), 3 stacks of reagents and some other stuff. 1 other bag for potions like healing, mana, regen, oils etc.
Also i'm a huge fan of outfitter and love the principle of just swithching gear while at the bank and take out other sets such as FR/NR gear depending on where we were going.
This leaves me with my bagpack and 1 more always empty when I'm not raiding. When I raided I brought whatever resistance gear needed for the instance, aswell as a good surplus of protection potions. Still leaving me with my backpack empty unless it was a heavy consumeble day like Gothic/Loetheb.
Bank contais a shitload of potions so I'm always prepared, 2 bags with various quest items, 1 bankbag with various leather and 2 bags with gear. Whatever I dont need anymore is trashed almost immediatly or sent to a bank alt.
My friends use to complain about lack of space, while I on the other hand dont know what to do with mine. :)