Welcome to the World of Warcraft! This popular MMO has been around since 2004, but there’s always room for new players to join the fun. Here are a collection of quick and easy tips to help you get into the game and enjoy it!
Customizing the Game
There are a few options you may find extremely useful in your Interface options. These are Control: Auto Loot Enabled; Combat: Auto Self Cast Enabled; and Objectives: Instant Quest Text Enabled.
There is an auto-run key, bound by default to Num Lock. There is also a walk mode, which can be toggled on or off by pressing /.
You may find as you enter towns that you are inundated with spammers trying to sell gold or power-leveling services. If you right click on their name in chat, you can choose Report Spam. This will send a report to the GMs, and mute them so that you no longer see their messages.
Quests and Grouping
World of Warcraft offers a convenient quest tracking tool. This makes it easy to see where you need to go to complete quest objectives. To help you level faster, take a look at your quest tracker before you leave town and plan to complete several quests at once before returning – saving you valuable travel time.
Stuck on a quest? Can’t find a mob or item? The chat channels can be helpful, but sometimes there’s no one around to answer your call. Instead of giving up, look it up! One of the most highly regarded resources for World of Warcraft is the database at wowhead.com. It can be searched for anything, and includes maps, notes, and guides to help you find what you need.
Be social! World of Warcraft, while offering a great amount of solo content, does have many group quests and missions – and end game content is very group and guild oriented. Make friends, look for a guild, and have fun!
Managing your Money
Take at least one harvesting profession: mining, herbalism, or skinning. These professions are not only easy to level up, but the materials you gather will offer a steady stream of income for you on the game’s auction house.
Sell everything you can on the Auction House. This player-to-player market can easily make you money on almost any item that is colored white or above (gray colored items are considered vendor trash.)
Save money. As you level up, training will get more expensive, as will getting the mounts you’ll need to get across terrain fast. Rely on quest rewards and item drops to gear up as much as possible; resist spending money on upgrades.
Character Builds and Class Roles
Classes that can tank are Warriors, Paladins, Death Knights, and Druids. Classes that can heal are Priests, Paladins, Druids, and Shaman. All classes have the ability to be DPS as well.
As you get new abilities (learned every two levels until level 61), make sure to read their descriptions carefully, and practice using them. Not all skills are useful in all situations, and it helps to know what skills you have and when to use them.
When using the LFG/Dungeon Tool, make sure to only select the role (tank, healer, or damage) that you are prepared to do in a group setting. Although you may play a class that can tank, heal, and do damage, no character is capable of doing all three effectively in a dungeon. Stick with what you know and you’ve designed your character to do.
These dozen tips should get you started and well accustomed to one of the most popular MMOs in the world. Happy hunting in Azeroth!
