Breakfast topic: Keeping track of WoW
by Matthew Porter 
Jun 30th 2008 at 8:00AM
Let's face it, World of Warcraft is a big game. Nine classes with a new one on the way, ten races, ea
ch with all unique spells and abilities, over fifty zones to explore and soon a new continent, each with more quests, baddies, and precious loot than we can count. With so many details a virtual world like WoW has, just how the heck do you keep track of everything? Everyone has certain goals in mind for their characters.
Do you go for the casual approach and just store it in your noggin? Or maybe you've lined your monitor with so many sticky notes you can barely see your character. Perhaps you're the obsessively anal type and keep a notebook binder or excel document handy at all times? Myself, I'm guilty of using an online application called Backpack to keep my profession notes and wish lists in order. Share with us in the comments how you keep track of all your WoW information!
ch with all unique spells and abilities, over fifty zones to explore and soon a new continent, each with more quests, baddies, and precious loot than we can count. With so many details a virtual world like WoW has, just how the heck do you keep track of everything? Everyone has certain goals in mind for their characters.- Be a master of a certain profession
- Be exalted reputation with certain factions
- Quests you want to go back and do (I'm with you completionists!)
- A wish list of goodies to be gotten and exactly what you need to get'em.
Do you go for the casual approach and just store it in your noggin? Or maybe you've lined your monitor with so many sticky notes you can barely see your character. Perhaps you're the obsessively anal type and keep a notebook binder or excel document handy at all times? Myself, I'm guilty of using an online application called Backpack to keep my profession notes and wish lists in order. Share with us in the comments how you keep track of all your WoW information!
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
katiya Jun 30th 2008 8:16AM
A simple small notebook that I carry with me throughout the day. Sometimes I get an idea for something and I just quickly jot it down.
Although at this stage (late in the life of tBC) I have less need for it - it was invaluable in the early days - getting geared up for karazhan - listing what mats were needed for items to create and to level up my profession.
I have no doubt a new notebook will be bought over the summer to help me get my characters up to 80.
Khanmora Jun 30th 2008 8:22AM
I am a notebook keeper as well as a spreadsheet creator :)
Mareena Jun 30th 2008 8:26AM
I have a Notepad document that I use to keep track of what gear I still need dropped off of what bosses. Not much left on that list at this point.
Lucas J Jun 30th 2008 8:28AM
I use a spreadsheet to keep track of mats I have on my various characters. It's on Google Docs, so I can access it anywhere. But each of my characters also has a small notebook that keeps track of gearing options, factions I need to grind, as well as a timeline for important dates - level 40, level 60, etc etc.
Elmo Jun 30th 2008 8:30AM
a piece of paper and a pen.
it also results in countless doodles.
Badger Jun 30th 2008 9:04AM
^^ This.
Dranaerys Jun 30th 2008 8:52AM
I used to keep track of all my mats and jewels and metals, but I realized that they were jsut taking up space in my bank slots and it was far more practical to sell them off. At the end of the day, commodity values may fluctuate but the prices remain more or less constant, so its rarely worth hoarding it in your bank or on bank chars unless its a very hard to come by material. Gold can buy it almost all. :p
In WotLK though I suspect Ill forget all about my professions and work on them when I hit 80, since I currently have enough cash to see 1 or 2 alts through to 80. When I start on my profession grind, I suspect Ill call upon the help of Notepad to list the mats I need to levelup.
Zali Jun 30th 2008 8:54AM
I wing it. If I learn about something I want, then I sort of put on blinders and plow through whatever I need to do to get it. Often times this results in heading off on tangents as I end up going after something different... but I think this is a more realistic approach to the game itself. A person living on Azeroth or on Dranor wouldn't really have access to the resources that we have to look stuff up, so I try to avoid that in game.
Obviously that can't be avoided completely, nor do I try to avoid every aspect of outside help. I look up quest objectives if I can't find them in game quickly. I'll look up where to best farm mats, or other resources, etc... But I do try to learn in game as much as possible, just like my characters would have to do if they really did exist.
Dringo Jun 30th 2008 9:14AM
I use an Addon called Omnibus for it wich is a kinda Notepad for WoW with Multiple Documents possible
arb Jun 30th 2008 9:25AM
Save yourself the money for Backpackit and use Google Docs (http://docs.google.com).
Phil Jun 30th 2008 9:32AM
Todoist: http://todoist.com/
Add on top of that a set of Google Docs for all my guild management stuff, and a single-site browser that combines Wowwiki and Wowhead and you've pretty much got my toolkit.
Juliah Jun 30th 2008 10:28AM
We have a thread on our group forums called, "What are your pre-expansion goals?" Each person types in a list of what they want to accomplish. That way, if there's something we can do as a team, or if there's something someone needs help with, we can assist in getting them there. :)
Kiliani Jun 30th 2008 10:50AM
I have a couple of really, really OCD spreadsheets for analyzing gear choices for a couple of my characters (because I didn't like the resources that were available at the time).
Otherwise for short-term stuff (gems I need to purchase/have cut for an alt's new gear, number of a particular item to farm, etc.) I use post-it notes near my monitor... and for more long-term stuff (checklists of gear I want to try to pick up as upgrades, for instance) I have several Notepad documents on my laptop.
Taytay Jun 30th 2008 11:33AM
I'm a Post-It user. I have potion and elixir recipes stuck around my monitor. Anything else is posted to the desk. It's worked really well for me all these years.
Baul Jun 30th 2008 2:38PM
I hear that! I, too, am a post-it user. I like using them for keeping track of what I need for things such as Darkmoon Faire turn-ins.
Aichon Jun 30th 2008 12:23PM
I used to keep a text document, but it didn't cut it for me, so now I keep a list in Excel with stats, drop locations, how long pieces will last me in raid progression, etc. of all of the pieces of gear that are better than the ones that I have now. It gives me a clear idea of what upgrades I need to be working on now, and which I should put off until later. Plus, I can sort and filter it on-the-fly to only show drops from the boss we're working on or the dungeon we're in, which is kinda nice.
For Wrath, I don't expect that I'll do this same thing for awhile, at least until I hit 80 and start to get some gear, since it took a good few hours to do most of the data entry on my current sheet.
Tychon Jun 30th 2008 12:32PM
I need to step my game up. I have used a .doc for a couple things I was working on, such as honor needed for what peice along with what marks, so I didn't have to go check everyday. Nothing to the extent to the others that have posted. Sometimes it would be nice to have a spreadsheet thrown together of what I need to be working on. Rep, Honor, Instance runs for gear, what badge loot + how many badges it takes. Usually I forget for a couple days and stand around IF.... Which reminds me, I've always wanted to put together a check list for raiding. Pots: Check, Flasks: Check... I always seem to forget something, usually the mana oil or well fed food... Lets see if I can remember when i get off work.
Eisengel Jun 30th 2008 1:52PM
My first character I started with 0 prep and meandered through WoW. I hit max level in about a year.
The creation process for my next character was rather different. I went through a bunch of forums and blogs to get a good picture of how the classes worked, then talked with people I knew in WoW who played those classes. I fiddled with the talent calculators and looked at endgame raid utility vs solo questing/leveling ability. I decided on some classes and specs and looked up crafting professions and how much I could do with them for each class and role I was looking at.
When I rolled the character(s) I punched my way up to near 20-ish (out of the starting area) and hit thottbot/wowhead to look at quest reward gear. Once every 5 levels or so I'd look up quest gear in my level range and would then see if I could overlap any of the quests, and if the quests would allow me to fight mobs that would help me level my professions.
Once I got into Outland I hit the crafting professions and battlegrounds hard to get epic-ed out. When I was around 63 or so I started some theorycrafting... looking at PvP gear, crafted gear, and normal instance gear and seeing where it all was. I would drop the gear stats and costs into Excel to see how certain combinations of PvP and instance/crafting gear stacked up and what was the next best overall upgrade. I usually had at least 2 to 3 items I was working toward at any time, and I knew how they would affect my role in raid/instances and PvE.
It took me 12 months to get my 1st character to max level (60 at the time), in greens and blues. My 2nd character I took from level 1 to epic-ed out hell-on-wheels top raid DPSer in a little less than 3 months while fiddling with and partially levelling some other alts on the side.
I like to plan and look ahead, to set goals and know where I'm going. I won't say it wasn't fun to just kind of tool around on my 1st character, following the quest chains across Azeroth, but I definitely had a good time with the purposeful progression of my 2nd character. 2 months+ is nowhere near a fast 1-70 time, but for me it was nice to have a method to the madness.
Valianthe Jun 30th 2008 2:35PM
I have a few notebooks, a binder, sticky notes, excel, word, and notepad files all for my two accounts and 13 actively played characters. Nothing is really organized, as I seem to jump from one character to the next, sometimes finishing my goals, sometimes getting tired of the same class being played for too long.
I use MyBank for in-game but it doesn't work across accounts, and I like RecipeBook, but that also seems to not represent perfectly what recipes, formulas, etc. my characters do or do not know, resulting in buying things twice.
barb dybwad Jun 30th 2008 3:33PM
Backpack is awesome. Have used it for other things although not for WoW, where I use a combination of a private wiki (hat tip to pbwiki.com), an analog notebook and a small forest of sticky notes accreting around my monitor and desk.