Ok, got WoW for Christmas. Yes, I realize I'm years behind, but I don't think I've even played any video game in about 9 years (Hmm not sure if it was Thief or Neverwinter...), let alone an online game. So, what exactly am I in for? I'm assuming I should probably lay low, play solo for a while before I even try to interact with anyone, just to learn what the heck I'm doing. All I know so far is what can be gleaned by watching The Guild and that episode from South Park. Any advice?
Just one, really: Enjoy yourself. World of Warcraft is VERY good at supporting you through the first 20 levels or so. Compared to other games in the same genre, WoW shines in explaining how things work to newbies. Once you hit 20, you'll know all you need to go exploring the world. And no, you do not need to stay solo. There are dungeons in the pre-cataclysm world for as low as level 10 or so, but I don't know what happened to them with the new expansion.
Don't be afraid to ask for help from the high levels too some are not friendly but most are and may have lower level alts they want to play too.
Thanks. I'm sneaking peeks at the manual today at work. I hope to get it loaded up tonight and create a character. I'm off tomorrow and if I can find something for the kids to do, it could be my first chance to experiment. I kind of feel like a 41 year old who finally decided to learn to ride a bike.
Thanks. I'm sneaking peeks at the manual today at work. I hope to get it loaded up tonight and create a character. I'm off tomorrow and if I can find something for the kids to do, it could be my first chance to experiment. I kind of feel like a 41 year old who finally decided to learn to ride a bike.
If you go horde on the Uther realm, our (tiny) guild would be happy to help show you the ropes. Look for anyone in <short bus crew> and tell them you know Aaron.
One more thing: Even if you don't pick Uther, I'd pick a Player vs. Environment (PVE) realm, at least to start. That is, unless you fancy the idea of a level 85 guy riding a dragon dropping out of the sky and popping your head like a grape. Repeatedly. Don't get me wrong, Player vs. Players (PVP) servers can be fun, but only if you know what you're getting into. ;-)
Not new, but certainly funny...
I though for sure she was going to pronounce them "Joblins." ;)
Ok, got WoW for Christmas. Yes, I realize I'm years behind, but I don't think I've even played any video game in about 9 years (Hmm not sure if it was Thief or Neverwinter...), let alone an online game. So, what exactly am I in for? I'm assuming I should probably lay low, play solo for a while before I even try to interact with anyone, just to learn what the heck I'm doing. All I know so far is what can be gleaned by watching The Guild and that episode from South Park. Any advice?
Heh, I've been a born again noob several times, because I'll start playing for a while, get up to level 40-50, neglect the game for a while, quit paying the monthly fee, wait a few months to a year, delete my old characters because I'm completely lost with them, and start over.
It was kind of interesting, that when I made up a new Undead priest, which was my first character way back before any expansions, he has different things to do at the start than my old priest did, despite being in the same general area.
I will put in a plug for the Paizonians. We are a Horde guild on the Velen server. It's a PvE server, meaning no attacks from the other faction unless you start/allow it.
I just started playing in mid 2009. The South Park episode actually got me interested. It hasn't been too hard to learn the ropes. Each expansion makes the beginning levels easier to manage.
Join on Velen and look for any of us online to help you.
The starting events for the new races now take into account events which have occured since the game was first put out. Just to try them out, I've been making new characters of all the races.
I picked up that some of the changes in the Undead storyline seem to stem from the events of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I've been kind of wondering about other areas.
So far, before my hiatus, my highest level characters were an Undead Priest, a Dwarf Priest, and a Drenai Paladin, so I'd probably notice changes in those areas the most readily.
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I will put in a plug for the Paizonians. We are a Horde guild on the Velen server. It's a PvE server, meaning no attacks from the other faction unless you start/allow it.
I just started playing in mid 2009. The South Park episode actually got me interested. It hasn't been too hard to learn the ropes. Each expansion makes the beginning levels easier to manage.
Join on Velen and look for any of us online to help you.
One of us. One of us.
Thanks again for the offers and advice. I fell asleep putting one of the kids to bed last night, so didn't get it installed till today. Tonight's goal: create a character. So far, thinking an Orc warrior or rogue and I'll try to end up in Velen when its time to choose a realm. If there is a specific niche the Paizonian guild needs filled, let me know, and I hope to run into you there sometime!
Not new, but certainly funny...
That was soooo wrong.
Rocky start. Got killed fighting a pig a few times until it sunk in a level 1 rogue really is no match for a level 7 dire boar. Once I got that clear in my head, things went a lot better. But how did it get to be 530 in the morning so fast?
Rocky start. Got killed fighting a pig a few times until it sunk in a level 1 rogue really is no match for a level 7 dire boar. Once I got that clear in my head, things went a lot better. But how did it get to be 530 in the morning so fast?
That's such a apt analogy for the game . . . ;)
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Rocky start. Got killed fighting a pig a few times until it sunk in a level 1 rogue really is no match for a level 7 dire boar. Once I got that clear in my head, things went a lot better. But how did it get to be 530 in the morning so fast?
Yeah, follow those introductory quests: they pit you against level-appropriate enemies and are great for learning the ropes.
Any Paizonian guilds for an up-and-coming Alliance Hunter? And what server if so? -cringes in fear of Horde retaliation-
No need for fear of retaliation . . . I've got a split personality between my Human Paladin and my Undead Priest . . . ;)
If you want survivability in your first character, chose a class that can heal itself. Priests, Druids, Shamans and Paladins are all viable. As you gain some more levels I'd say that a Paladin is probably the easiest to keep alive when soloing (apart from the Hunter, but if your Hunter Pet dies or you can't seem to shed aggro, the Hunter won't last all that long).
The Paladin benefits from heavier armour than the others, has "secondary healing" abilities (judgements) and can heal himself directly. Plus he has the ultimate "get out of jail-card" in an ability that allows him to become invulnerable for a short period of time (to either get off that all-important heal or maybe to use his Hearth Stone to get the heck out of Dodge).
If you want a caster character, the Druid, Priest and Shaman are the most survivable, again because of self healing. You'll probably do more damage as a Mage and if you chose a frost spec (available at level 10) you get added survivability over the other two Mage specs (because of more crowd control abilities - so you can just run away if things get too hoary (pun!)).
Instance/dungeon runs (available at level 15) can be a lot of fun! You can pick up some rather nice gear in there and you're working together with 4 other people. If you're a damage dealer, the wait for a group to assemble can be quite a bit longer than if you're playing a tank (usually a Warrior, Druid specced for it, or a Paladin (also Death Knight when you get to those levels)) or a Healer (Priest, Druid or Shaman).
Don't be afraid to ask for any good advice, especially if you decide to start doing instances (which you should do at the lowest level available, those instances are the easiest and thus great places to learn) and want to play a tank or healer.
Below level 40 you can, in most cases, get away with not being specced for your role, but above that the instances get tougher and more specialized, so you'll need to actually be e.g. a tank spec to tank.
A good Priest spec for both soloing and doing instances is the Discipline spec, since you'll get abilities that are great for healing and for survivability when soloing + your "special" spec ability is very useful for healing and can be used to deal respectable damage too.
Anyway, hope that's helpful. Otherwise, as others have stated already, don't be afraid to ask more questions here. :-)
I forgot something...
To me, the cardinal rule in WoW is:
GET.BIGGER.BAGS!
As soon as you can afford to, buy bigger bags. Check the Auction House in the capital cities, but also remember that some of the prices can be out of sync with "real" prices. Some people think you can only buy bags from the AH, so even prices for bags that can be bought from normal vendors might be overpriced.
Depending on the price level on your realm, 8 and 10 slot bags might be cheaper to buy directly from a vendor (either a bag vendor or a general goods vendor).
The cheapest bag of the "larger" bags is usually the Netherweave Bag. This is because it's a normal tailor-made bag and is fairly easy to make. You should be able to buy these for less than 10 gold. If the price is above that, don't buy them, just wait until some are below 10 gold.
Now, the reason why bags are so important is two-fold. One is sheer convenience, you don't have to fear that your bags fill up quickly so you have to discard items in the middle of nowhere. Second, you can carry a lot of stuff with you, basically pick up everything you can, even grey items. Then remember to sell all the grey items when you get back to town. Even though they might not seem to be worth much, these grey items are very abundant, so you'll quickly get a lot of money from them. At higher levels some grey items (usually weapons) will even net you more than a gold a piece.
Also, with more bag space you have more space for your profession items.
Lastly, I'll not go into add-on territory unless you'd like some advice. However, given the advice above, I will suggest one simple add-on for you to install. It's a add-on that adds a small button on the vendor pane when you talk to them. If you click it you sell all the grey items in your inventory and tells you how much you made from the sale.
It's an extremely easy way to clear out space without having to go through all of your bags, searching for grey items.
It's called SellJunk.
...\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns
When you start up the game and get to your character selection screen, you'll find a small add-on button in the bottom left corner.
Click it and make sure the add-on you've installed is checked and make sure the "Load out of date AddOns" button in the upper right corner is checked too.
A bunch of good advice...
Your comments got me thinking more about character choice. I don't have a sense yet for which race/class really feels "right" to me. I think I'm going to create a few, play a few levels and see which clicks, rather than just work up one and find out its not me.
I forgot something...
To me, the cardinal rule in WoW is:
GET.BIGGER.BAGS!
LOL :)
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Not to scare you off random dungeons but I'd recommend going with your guild/people you know first. Its good advice and all to ask for advice but there IS a reason WoW has a bad reputation with some of its player base. I remember when I first started really playing a little over a year ago and I started out pally tanking. I did a couple random dungeon queues but found people don't like teaching and would rather complain, mock, etc usually. So I started queuing with my brother who had played the game since its creation and always ran dungeons with him first to learn the fights/ropes.
Not everyone is a jerk but it can sometimes see more people are in this game than most. Maybe its a population ratio or maybe not.
Even to this day with the new dungeons I always find myself watching youtube vids of dungeon runs to know what I'm doing before I do it myself. Everyone blames the tank >_< ... or the healer. It can go either way.
As suggested above though, protection paladin spec is in a FANTASTIC place right now to level. Lot of survivability with very little trade in damage. You get a lot of neat abilities and can take on large groups at once compared to other classes/specs. Most tanks are that way actually. Warrior tanks are similar in this fashion. However, tanking can be a pain even if it does mean a shorter queue time for random dungeons so its something to consider.
Quick update- I'm having fun! Been trying out few races/characters to see what I like. I have an Orc Rogue 10, a Tauren Warrier 11, and an Orc Shaman 6 that are my favourites so far. I'm going to spec the Rogue for solo play and the others for group.
I tried a Blood Elf Hunter - I think some guy tried to pick him up. Said I had a pretty name, offered me gold, wanted to be friends immediately... I don't know, just felt a little weird. I've had mainly positive experiences with other players so far. One Priest tried to help me with a train I collected, raised me after I died and gave me a nice buff to top it off. Another time, I was running down a path and whomp! Some guy on a massive beast landed beside me, gave me a couple of buffs, and bounded off before I could even see what he was, let alone a name. It took me a minute to realise what had happened. By the time I did, I couldn't see him anywhere, and wasn't sure if it was appropriate to yell "thanks whoever just buffed me". Is it considered too much to mail a tip for such things if you know the helpers name, or is just a Thanks the right response?
Only negative interaction so far was bunch of level 85's hanging out in front of main city making disparaging comments as I ran by. Figure they must be around 12 yrs old and just ignored them.
For those in the Paizonian guild, how do I go about finding you?
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You can look out for me. I'm usually on as Savendir.
Also, when it comes to buffs, a thank you typically suffices. My other personal favorite is when you see someone headed to the same monster/into the same cave/etc and you can guess you are on the same quest. Offer to group with them on it. Otherwise it's a race to the mobs, and the slower player has to wait for them to respawn, which bites. If you group, you can both complete the quest. When you're done, say thank you, leave the group, and carry on.
Month and a half later, still having fun, still feel like a noob :)
Couple of memorable events:
Had my first zeppelin ride at the start of the lunar festival to visit the Elder at Thunderbluff. Scenery was incredible. Successfully resisted the newby urge to jump off the side to see what the fall would be like...
Learned early on that while a stealthed rogue is very good at exploring the wide wilderness, enemy guards 50 levels higher will still see you from a suprisingly far distance away.
Fell off a BIG cliff, edge of continent type, with a looong fall (by accident). Had a number of big buffs on, landed on a ledge halfway down, took about 970ish damage and survived with 3 health. Awesome.
People will pay a surprising amount of gold in the Auction House for low level items. My jewelcrafting rogue has a nice little business going.
I still haven't grouped for any instances. I am starting to feel more comfortable with simply controlling my alts. I've actually been "holding" a shaman and a warrior at lvl 15 to do Ragefire Chasm at some point - decided to do this in response to advice that people are more forgiving of newbies at low level than higher. I did finally accept a duel request recently with my lvl 33 rogue vs. a lvl 40 paladin I passed while travelling out in the wilderness of Stranglethorn. Lasted maybe 15 seconds :) Guy totally blew me away, I bowed, he healed me right back up - nice, respectful encounter. Funniest part was that he had another player tagging a long who started yelling "Yeah!" "OMG awesome!" etc. Reminded me of that Warner Bros. cartoon with the baby kangaroo, the big bulldog, and the little yappy dog that bounced around behind him. I didn't emote any laughter, but I had a good chuckle at home.
Question for WOW sages out there: What is the best way to figure out an asking price for items that may or may not be rare? I've had two random world drops that my basic research on the Blizzard forums and Wowpedia/Wowhead suggests are not common. And I've noticed that prices don't necessarily reflect the mechanical stats of an item - there appears to be a "I've got something few others do" type thing. One is a blue Diamond Hammer, the other is a Razzashi Hatchling. The hatchling apparently used to be the final reward in a quest series that got cancelled with the Cataclysm release. I've seen one show up in the ah for over 2000 gold, which seems high to me for a pet? Googling for "item prices" hasn't been too helpful, so any suggestions for sites that track these things appreciated.
hmm I have a character in th Paizonian guild; but nobody was ever on so I stopped playing somewhere around 40th level or so.
I play on Bronzebeard and a few other servers; lately been playing Champions online since it is free; but my wow account is still active; on Bronzebeard have several charcters; but my 74 dwarf Warrior is my main; am on Runetotem I think; 75 wizzy Smouler; would be smoulder but Trolls cant spell.
have a host of characters on other servers; tried most classes and races; not warlock; hate hunters; dont like playing taurens; to big for inside dungeons and caves; enchanting is really hard and a big money sink; hard part is getting all the shards adn stuff you need as you have to destroy all your magic items. Been in the game since Beta; so there sure have been a whole ton of changes to the game; interface and all that; but if you play on a server I am on and send me mail; I will say hi and probably send you some stuff.
must say; the game is to totally easy now; my four year old can play it and wierdly; my eight year olds favorite character is a death knight; and I think their favorite thing to do is fish.
Month and a half later, still having fun, still feel like a noob :)
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yes; lot of game to see; big world.
Couple of memorable events:
Had my first zeppelin ride at the start of the lunar festival to visit the Elder at Thunderbluff. Scenery was incredible. Successfully resisted the newby urge to jump off the side to see what the fall would be like...
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Most characters safely jump off at 30th or so.
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Learned early on that while a stealthed rogue is very good at exploring the wide wilderness, enemy guards 50 levels higher will still see you from a suprisingly far distance away.
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Stealth has been nerfed a lot and they have changed skill trees so best to be about 5 level higher before you try to stealth past a guard.
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Fell off a BIG cliff, edge of continent type, with a looong fall (by accident). Had a number of big buffs on, landed on a ledge halfway down, took about 970ish damage and survived with 3 health. Awesome.
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you can get awards and titles for surviing falls; one easy one is in Undercity; jump from the cave the bat enters and survive the fall; you get an award.
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People will pay a surprising amount of gold in the Auction House for low level items. My jewelcrafting rogue has a nice little business going.
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yes, this is common on large population servers where a non crafting player is powerleveling a new alt.
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Question for WOW sages out there: What is the best way to figure out an asking price for items that may or may not be rare? I've had two random world drops that my basic research on the Blizzard forums and Wowpedia/Wowhead suggests are not common. And I've noticed that prices...
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pricing; two theories; price to move in bulk; or price to not move but wait for big spender. Value of items goes up and down like the stock market; I suggest using the longest term stay in the AH and query whatever your selling and set your price just beneath theirs; some things like leather, ore; and such have fairly standard values with prices that spike when one or more players are powerleveling a crafter and dont have any guildies that will collect mass amounts of stuff for them yet have lots of gold onhand. With each expansion; prices drop as new realms have better drops and of items than previous; so an item in a new zone will generally sell better and fairly new things like jewelry and glyphs will sell better; now that enchants can be put on paper; they sell fairly well, but I dont suggest you go into enchanting until you get a character over 60 to pump you with money and perhaps items.
one thing about prices is this; look on thotbot or like that for items used in quests or crafting; these things sell at better prices; after all; if your in stranglethorn or some such and need all those pages for a quest; a character with money will just buy all the pages and finish the qeust; problem is; everyone knows this; so is sporatic sales unless you have a page no one else has; also; some things like cooking get really hard starting at 250 until you get to 310 or so; so if you sell large mightfish; you make a fortune; and sometiems zesty clam meat. Leather doesnt sell that well until your over Rugged on most servers; ore always sells at a good price. Items are hit and miss; but str/stam items and dex/ stam items sell well as well as int/con items; so for decent items of these; you can charge higher; crap items; which is more or less most other stuff; is stuff some enchanter will buy to disenchant or some sporatic player will buy to use for some special purpose. Scopes usually sell very well.
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Question for WOW sages out there: What is the best way to figure out an asking price for items that may or may not be rare? I've had two random world drops that my basic research on the Blizzard forums and Wowpedia/Wowhead suggests are not common. And I've noticed that prices...
No idea about the hammer, but the pet will likely sell for something ridiculous, particularly if it no longer drops where it used to.
The 'rule' of the auction house is just to put them up for something ludicrous, and if it sells, yay. If, days later, it's still sitting there, reduce the price to 'less ludicrous.' Eventually you'll sell it, if it's worth anything.
Some items just flat out don't sell, but generally, even unpopular items might get snagged by people looking to tear them apart and disenchant them for components / skill ups.
If you haven't tried it, make a newbie goblin, just to experience the beginning quest line in their original city. It's friggin' hilarious.
have yet to try a goblin or worgen; but hilarity is good so might give it a try soon.
hmm I have a character in th Paizonian guild; but nobody was ever on so I stopped playing somewhere around 40th level or so.
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must say; the game is to totally easy now; my four year old can play it and wierdly; my eight year olds favorite character is a death knight; and I think their favorite thing to do is fish.
I joined the Paizonians Guild. Celestial Healer and waltero are the members I see the most. They've been quite friendly and helpful - a good reflection of the boards here in fact. I haven't met them yet, but there are a few others who seem to pop by at random based on their alt activity. It is quite definitely a social guild, and its been fun helping the guild gain points towards its next level.
The fishing thing - my kids love that part too. I haven't let them play yet, but the 8 yr old created an alt, and my 6 yr old always wants me to stop quests just to fish.
pricing; two theories; price to move in bulk; or price to not move but wait for big spender. Value of items goes up and down like the stock market; I suggest using the longest term stay in the AH and query whatever your selling and set your price just beneath theirs;...
I just have trouble understanding why someone would pay so much for a pet. Particularly the hatchling I mentioned above. I mean, I know it was the end reward for a quest tree that doesn't exist anymore, but I can't imagine its that different than some of the other hatchling pets that go for a few gold. Anyway, I'm a cheap old gamer, so what do I know...
I'll shoot for the moon with it, and if it pays off, I'll tithe a chunk to the Paizonians.
If you haven't tried it, make a newbie goblin, just to experience the beginning quest line in their original city. It's friggin' hilarious.
I do like my goblins. As of yet, the only expansion I have is Burning Crusade. I bought the Battlechest on a Boxing Day sale, and didn't want to put money into the other expansions until I knew if I was going to like the game. So far it looks like I will get WoftLK and Cataclysm sooner than I originally thought. I was kind of hoping that WoftLK would go on sale given Cataclysm being released - note my previous "cheap old gamer" reference ;) . It's a bit of a contest at this point to see whether my will to wait for a sale wins out or my urge to get the newer stuff.
What server is the Paizo guild on again? and when to you guys usually play?
Its Velen. We don't have an arranged time - we usually are just crossing paths. I usually get a chance to go on about every other day, 2200-0000 EST, (or 1900-2100 server time).
Maybe we should have a tavern party during a "Paizo Holiday" like Eric Mona Day, or during PaizoCon for those who didn't get to go...
Lol; that would be funny; anyway; I play MST anytime of day at the end of the week or maybe an evening during the front end of the week; I usually check in at the boards before i game online; so if someone wanted to do something; just post it. I always wanted to make like a D&D party in wow; like find a time where a group of paizo's could game together starting at level one; like a classic D&D party; hehe; is probably must me and nast al Ja. hehe
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pricing; two theories; price to move in bulk; or price to not move but wait for big spender. Value of items goes up and down like the stock market; I suggest using the longest term stay in the AH and query whatever your selling and set your price just beneath theirs;...I just have trouble understanding why someone would pay so much for a pet. Particularly the hatchling I mentioned above. I mean, I know it was the end reward for a quest tree that doesn't exist anymore, but I can't imagine its that different than some of the other hatchling pets that go for a few gold. Anyway, I'm a cheap old gamer, so what do I know...
I'll shoot for the moon with it, and if it pays off, I'll tithe a chunk to the Paizonians.
I really think it comes from level 85 hardcore raiders with money that they don't know what to do with. Odd things like that sometimes fetch crazy prices.
Also, sorry I haven't been around as much the past 2 weeks-ish. Things have been a little crazy for me.
I would be happy to team up with folks. We could run an instance. I have done one with CH and it was pretty easy/fun. I could provide either tank or DPS. I don't mind doing a lower level instance as a team. We could earn guild points if we have 3 on the team.
We are inching closer to level 2 - moving in on 30% last I looked. I haven't been on the past week so I could get rested XP.
Level 2? are you kidding; dont think you get rested exps under 10; but not sure anymore; should be able to get from 1 to 7 or 8 in a couple hours if that is your goal.
Level 2? are you kidding; dont think you get rested exps under 10; but not sure anymore; should be able to get from 1 to 7 or 8 in a couple hours if that is your goal.
I was referring to our guild level - it is 30% toward level 2.
My characters are levels 63-81; they need the rest.
Velen, huh?
I think I remember rolling a toon on that server... Basil, or something like that I think...
Maybe I can log into him again.
You have Besel - level 26 undead warlock. He's still on the guild roster, but inactive.
I was referring to our guild level - it is 30% toward level 2.
My characters are levels 63-81; they need the rest.
It was about 23% a month ago, so I think we're doing a good job advancing it along for a guild our size. (Yay Paizonians!)
Going back through the Paizonians Guild thread, it appears that there are periodic surges of interest which tend to settle back to the baseline core - I wonder if we don't have enough alts at comparable levels to effectively group and retain those people's attention on an ongoing basis.
If there is interest in some grouping, two options could be Valegrim's suggestion of advancing some characters together, or alternatively announcing a Level "?" Event, to be held on a certain date to give people a chance to get a character ready.
I'm up for whatever people would like to try!
waltero, I'll send you an in-game email about some guild stuff I was wondering about. Hmm, actually, I'll put up one question in the Paizonians thread to keep it active.
I picked up WoTLK and Cataclysm - installed them last night. I'll need to read up on glyphs.
Razzashi Hatchling sale didn't go too well. Appropriate pricing seemed to be around 2600 gold. Unfortunately I left clicked when I should have shift left click and, well, I now have this little raptor tagging along at my heels. But I did get the pet achievement.
*sigh*
Anyway, I'm feeling much more comfortable with the interface, so its obviously time to change it :)
So what are the favourite/most useful addons people use?
I have only used a couple of AddOns.
I used to use Questhelper, but now with the small clusters of quests you get and the built in questhelper, it isn't that useful anymore.
If you're going to be working the auction house consider Auctioneer or similar program. Another alternative is to check the website Undermine Journal (it's back online after a brief hiatus). That site tracks all auctions and sales across the realms.
Although I don't use them, other Addons are available that keep track of your bag inventory of all your characters and ones that rearrange your interface. We aren't big raiders so I don't think Recount or similar ones would be useful.
Shoot my scribe (Vatic) a mail regarding any glyphs you might need.
Undermine Journal looks pretty slick. Exactly the sort of out-of-game AH reference I was looking for.
Oh, I've got a number of extra rings I made for leveling jewelcrafting. Some others must have done the same recently so they're not worth anything on the AH, I wondered if they'd be of use to you for disenchanting. I'll put them in the guild bank; if they are of no use, we can clear them out again.