Episode 17 – The Real Anniversary Episode

Solo Queue - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Episode 17 – The Real Anniversary Episode

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 17!

First year of Solo Queue in the books and stumbling into some creative WoW-adjacent media got me thinking about all the value added to WoW by content creators outside of Blizzard.

Four Tanks and a Healer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A47d3fjDNSQ

Stormwind University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sgpgEy-UW8

Karazhan Library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkDNwkGDS84

“What have you done lately?” – 16:52

• Trivia is now 42 characters every day – the end is in sight, January 7
• For max leveling efficiency, that meant getting 5 characters to 80
• I made my 2 Earthen characters
• Monthly inventory for first time in 3 months
• Sporadically getting weekly meta quests done to keep gearing the 5 level 80s

Addon Recommendation: Altoholic – 25:39

Tracks gold, levels, achievements, time played, and many more bits of individual character info account-wide, server by server, faction by faction.

…and Siren Isle – 27:03

• Yes, it feels a lot like 10.0.7, but it is kind of different
• Gameplay is…fine; better than the alternative of nothing until 11.1
• Story is hard to take in, maybe just for me?

News – 46:34

• Still 2 story questlines to come in 11.0.7, Dalaran epilogue and Lingering Shadows
• Turbulent Timeways coming January 7 – 5 weeks of timewalking
• New game modes coming to the Character select screen? Might it be…
• Plunderstorm returns January 14 with less demanding reward system, new rewards, same battlefield
• And two holidays are wrapping up next week, Anniversary event January 7 and Winter Veil January 5!

Winter Veil in your Garrison! – 56:36

The second-best place to celebrate Winter Veil is in your WoD Garrison, which naturally gets decorations and there are WV dailies to add more decorations. If you haven’t done it, why not now? I did, during the recording.

And, I’ve been thinking about WoD lately, which had its 10th anniversary in November. 2025 is my 10th anniversary in WoW. Throughout the coming year, I am going to go through some of the highlights of this much-maligned expansion to show what is still enjoyable, including featuring the 3 WoD raids in Raid of the Month throughout the year.

Raid of the Month: Antorus (Legion) – 1:12:02

Speaking of RotM, we visit the final raid of Legion, Antorus, the Burning Throne and see where that giant sword came from. Is it worth it? Lots of running around, Eonar a slow encounter, but if you want the 2 mounts and various transmog, then yes, get in there, at least a few times. Did I get any mounts? Listen to find out – no spoilers!

Also a plug for the website simplearmory.com – check it out to see all of your collectable items, along with a planner to go hunt them all down!

Drink of the Month – 1:30:20

All that raiding has me thirsty for Dwarven Mead and Greatfather’s Winter Ale at the Stonefire Tavern in Ironforge, in sight of Greatfather Winter himself!

Main Topic: Yep, more Winter Veil, including *SPOILERS* presents opened! – 1:31:50

We head across the molten channel in Ironforge to check out Winter Veil activities, including a ride out to kill the Greench, unwrapping the 2024 presents live, and sharing my Winter Veil wish list, now for 2025.

Plans for 2025 and gratitude for the influences that led me to SQ – 1:41:18

SQ plans for the coming year, a Season 2, if you will. Biggest is the goal of two episodes each month, a traditional (and shorter) episode, and a second episode of various formats, including interviews, single topic deep dives, or overflow topics for the month.

I want to close this episode with gratitude for my sources of inspiration for Solo

Queue including traditional radio, some Blizzard podcasts no longer with us, and many that are. Thank you, fellow podcasters! Honored to be among your ranks.

Solo Queue Mailbox – 2:04:16

The second and third reviews on Apple Podcasts from Mr Rascolwitz and Cyn (psmst1). #grateful

Truly, thanks for a great first year of Solo Queue! I hope you keep listening and sharing it with friends.

Outro – 2:08:47

• Thanks to Blizzard and OGRE for audio, my lovely wife, and you for listening.
• Support the show at Patreon.com/SoloQueueWoW
• Thank you to patrons, Andrew, Righteous Bandy, ThatSkyGuy, and welcome Cyn! Thanks to free patrons Max, Eddie, Tim, and Jon.
• Subscribe to the podcast at your podcast feed of choice, Apple, Spotify, and all the rest.
• You can contact me at soloqueuewow at gmail.com, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

“I will see you out there."