User:Seebs/NewbieGuide

=World of Warcraft Newbie Guide=

So, someone you know has been talking a lot about World of Warcraft ("WoW"), and is trying to get you to play it. All you know so far is that "LF39M Hogger" is funny (it is!) and that there's a ton of jargon. You want to know what all the jargon means, what they're talking about, and so on. Most importantly, though, you probably just need to start with questions like "what is WoW" and "would I enjoy WoW". So bear with me a bit, and read through the top-level stuff first; that will make it a lot easier to understand the more specific material. If you already know this, great -- it won't take long to skim it.

In the interests of starting out simple, some of the material on this page is, technically, not quite true. WoW is full of interesting complications and special cases -- but you don't need to know about them to get started.

WORK IN PROGRESS -- please don't edit unless you're me until I get this sorta in order. Feel free to post stuff on the "Discussion" page, though -- suggestions, feedback, etc. welcome.

What is WoW?
WoW is a game. In WoW, you control the actions of a character in a fantasy world; because you are controlling and developing a character, WoW is considered a "role playing game" (RPG). WoW is an online game -- you have to be connected to the Internet to play it. WoW is a multiplayer game. While you don't specifically have to be playing with someone else to enjoy WoW, the game contains thousands of other players you can interact with. Because the game has thousands of players (rather than, say, four), it is called "massively multiplayer".

You may hear the acronyms "MMO" (massively-multiplayer online) or "MMORPG" (massively-multiplayer online role playing game) used to describe WoW. All this means is that it's an online game where you control a character who develops over time, and there are lots of other players.

Do you need to play with other players? Not really. You can wander around doing whatever you want. However, a lot of content in the game requires cooperative effort by groups of players. You don't have to do that content, but most people regard it as a big part of what makes the game fun. The game has a ton of mechanisms for social and economic interactions with other players.

WoW is hugely successful. Key factors to this include:


 * The game tries very hard to be approachable and have small penalties for errors. Many previous MMOs penalized death severely.  WoW penalizes it lightly, to encourage you to experiment and try things.
 * The game encourages different play styles, allowing you to focus on what you enjoy most.
 * The game lets you try multiple things. You can create multiple characters, rather than being limited to one (some games did this!).

WoW is a subscription-based game; you buy the game, then you pay for a subscription. The cost in the US is about $15/month for the subscription. If you buy the base game only, you spend $20 (or so), and have access to a great deal of content, but not everything. There are two expansion packs which add additional content. The first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, is usually available for around $20-$30, or possibly bundled with the original game for $30-$40. The second, Wrath of the Lich King, costs $40 as of this writing. The subscription fee is not affected by whether or not you have bought the expansions.

What do you mean by a "roleplaying" game?
There's two separate concepts here. In general, a computer "RPG" is a game where you control a character who has traits or statistics which are part of how the game plays. A typical shooter game is not an RPG; you always play a character with the same attributes and characteristics. In general, RPGs give your character statistics which can change over time; your character might become stronger, or faster, or more powerful. WoW uses a system of "classes" (character professions, such as "priest" or "warrior"), "races" (character species -- not all characters are human!), and "levels" (characters start at level 1, and progress over time to higher levels, where they are more powerful).

There is a separate issue, which is the question of whether you play your character "in character" -- reacting to events and making decisions in terms of how the imagined person would behave, rather than purely in terms of game statistics. That's up to you. Roleplaying can make a character much more interesting to you, if you find it fun, but some people don't enjoy it.

Would I enjoy WoW?
Probably. One big thing you have to get clear on right away: WoW is a huge game. There are many different aspects and parts of play. You probably won't enjoy all of them. If someone recommended the game to you, you may find that the things they enjoy bore you to tears, but that other things really appeal to you a lot. That's okay. You don't always have to play the game the same way.

WoW gameplay comes in several categories. Any character can pursue any or all of these, pretty much at any time. What you enjoy most is a matter of personal taste. Here are some of the primary categories:


 * Cooperative group: You can go into dungeons and fight incredibly tough monsters, working together with a group of other adventurers.
 * Player vs. Player: You can fight other players of the other "faction" (WoW divides the world into two factions, Horde and Alliance).  (Usually abbreviated "PvP".)
 * Professions: You can develop skills which allow you to gather materials or create items.  There are gathering professions (obtaining materials) and crafting professions (using materials to make things).
 * Roleplaying: You can just hang around talking to other people "in character" -- using the persona of your character, rather than talking as though you're playing a video game.

Sometimes these kinds of gameplay are combined. People might group up to engage in PvP as a team. Some players prefer to stay in character even when adventuring in a group.

How do I get started?
There are a number of ways to go about this. If you have friends who play, especially friends whose schedule is similar to yours, they can get you a trial code that lets you create a trial account. A trial account will let you play the game some and find out whether you enjoy it. If you have no doubts, you can buy the game directly. However, Blizzard has a special promotional program; if a friend refers you, you get additional benefits (like faster character improvement and some convenience features) which can make it easier to get started.

Either way, you're going to want to think about what kind of character you want to play, and what kind of game you want to play -- there are a few options there.

Picking a Character
There are a few things to think about when picking a character. Don't worry about finding the "best" character -- you can play several characters on a single server (though not all at once). So pick something that sounds interesting. You can delete a character you don't like, and you can make many characters; there is very low risk.

Faction
The game divides players into two factions, Horde and Alliance. You cannot communicate with members of the opposite faction. What that means is that, if you are looking to play with a friend, you need to know what faction that friend is playing. (You can play both factions on different characters, but your first character should probably be of a faction where you have friends.)

Sex
Male/female. Pick whatever you want. There are no game-mechanic changes. In general, many players will treat a female character better, especially if they think there might be a female player. Sad truth: A lot of gamers are hard up.

Class
Your class determines more than any other thing what your game will be like. Not sure? Don't worry about it -- you can have multiple characters. There are ten classes; only nine of them are available to you as a starting player, though. Feel free to pick a couple that look interesting and try them out.

Classes are usually described in terms of what they can contribute to a group, and their basic play strategies. These are called roles. (This is not the same word "role" as used in "roleplaying game"; it's more a matter of what resources and abilities you bring to a group.)

Roles
There are three fundamental roles. The names for them are a classic bit of jargon; only one of them has a plain English meaning. The three roles are tanks, healers, and DPS. Some classes can really only play one role; some can play two or three different roles, depending on circumstances, gearing, and choices made during character development. Additionally, there are a number of other kinds of roles, such as "crowd control" or "support", which may overlap with some of the fundamental roles.

Tanking
Tanking is making monsters attack you instead of other players. Tanks are characters who are harder to kill than other characters, and usually have special skills and powers to make monsters attack them first. The tanking classes are warrior, paladin, druid, and death knight. Tanking can be very rewarding, but is also fairly hard for most players; you have to be alert and on top of a lot of things to tank effectively. However, every tanking class can also be played as DPS, so don't worry about not having choices.

Healing
Healers, well, heal. As other characters are injured (or as you are), you can heal the wounds. The healing classes are druid, shaman, priest, and plaladin. Healers are absolutely essential to a lot of WoW content. Healing characters tend to be able to do a lot of content that other characters can't, but often do it more slowly. All the healing classes can perform other roles, so again, don't worry about not having choices. Healing is a great way to make friends, and if you like being helpful to other players, no other role is as good at it.

DPS
DPS is an initialism for "damage per second". Quite simply, DPS classes do damage, and they do it faster than anyone else. Every class can be DPS. DPS classes are effective at killing things, and killing them quickly. They are often less durable than tanks, and many DPS classes cannot heal. Some DPS classes (hunter, mage, rogue, warlock) have no other roles; this can limit them, but they often excel at their chosen role. DPS classes are often the easiest to play at first, and many people suggest a DPS class as your first class.

DPS is often divided into "melee DPS" and "ranged DPS". Ranged DPS characters do damage from a distance; melee characters must do it up close and personal. Both categories have strengths and weaknesses.

Pet Classes
Pet classes isn't really a separate role, but it affects gameplay a lot. Hunters and warlocks are defined by their use of "pets" -- creatures under their control which are a significant part of their gameplay. Controlling the pet adds some complexity to gameplay, but the pet's limited AI is often enough to make life a great deal easier for newbie players. Many, many, people recommend hunter as the first class to play if you are new to WoW. Some death knights can become a pet class, acquiring a ghoul under their command.

Support Classes
Some classes have abilities which enhance other characters; this can allow them to function in a supporting role even if they are otherwise a pure DPS class, for instance. Most characters have at least one option for strengthening or helping other characters, with rogues and death knights as the primary exceptions. Characters with good support capabilities are a good choice if you like being helpful.

Crowd Control
Crowd control is the ability to prevent some enemies from attacking. Fighting three enemies in a row is MUCH easier than fighting three enemies at once. A crowd control ability prevents one of the three enemies from fighting. Several classes have crowd control abilities at various levels. Crowd control abilities differ in what targets they can affect, whether they can be used in combat, in duration, and so on. The common theme is that crowd control abilities allow you to tackle fights that would otherwise be too hard. While crowd control is rarely required, it is often a huge boon to an effective instance run.

Hybrid Classes
You'll have noticed that some classes are listed under more than one role. A class which can fill multiple roles is called a "hybrid" class. In general, hybrid classes offer greater flexibility, but sometimes this comes at the expense of some of the flexibility within a role that another class might have.

Specs and Talents
You don't need to know much about specs and talents to start playing, but being aware of them can make sense of a lot of things. Starting at 10th level, characters receive "talent points" which allow them to buy "talents" -- new abilities, or improvements to existing abilities. Each class has three "talent trees" -- groups of related talents which focus on a different aspect of that class. The full name for your set of talents is "talent specialization", often abbreviated to "spec". For classes with multiple roles, talents are how you decide which role to favor.

Most characters end up selecting a mix of talents from two trees, with one primary and one secondary. There is no formal game mechanic for this; you just pick whatever you want. People asked to describe their spec often just give the number of talent points spent in each tree. (Trees are always referred to in alphabetical order.) For instance, a rogue who is "0/20/51" has specialized in the Subtlety tree, with Combat as a secondary tree.

Individual Classes
Individual classes are discussed in detail in Classes.

Race
There are ten races, five Horde and five Alliance, available. Each race can play only certain classes, so your choice of class may determine what you can play. The Horde races are Blood Elf, Orc, Tauren, Troll, and Undead; the Blood Elf race is available only if you have the Burning Crusade expansion pack. The Alliance races are Draenei, Dwarf, Gnome, Human, and Night Elf; the Draenei race is available only if you have the Burning Crusade expansion pack.

Picking a Server
Blizzard claims around 12 million paying customers. That's a lot. It's so many that they couldn't all be on the same systems at once. So Blizzard runs multiple "servers" (hundreds of them). Characters on a given server can interact with each other. In general, characters can't interact with characters on other servers. There are two questions you have to answer to pick a server. Plus one key one:

If you are starting to play WoW because of a friend, play on the server, and faction, your friend is on at first.

Do you like roleplaying?
Roleplaying servers have rules requiring names to be at least vaguely plausibly reasonable in-game, and likewise, controlling the content of communications. These rules are not heavily enforced; in general, a name that doesn't fit the rules will not be noticed unless a player reports it.

Roleplaying servers tend to attract people who enjoy roleplaying, but it's not a strict requirement. If you don't want to roleplay, but are able to avoid being overtly out-of-character, you can still be on a roleplaying server without any problems. Some players choose a roleplaying server because the population is usually more consistent about spelling and writing clearly.

Non-roleplaying servers allow much more latitude for names, and don't enforce the in-character/out-of-character rules. Roleplaying is permitted, but a lot of players will harass roleplayer on non-roleplaying servers.

Do you want PvP as a constant part of your game?
Servers are split between "PvE" and "PvP". On a PvE server, you can explore nearly all of the world without entering PvP combat. On a PvP server, whenever you are in an area that is not allocated to one of the two factions, players from the other faction can always attack you.

Normal, PvP, RP, RP/PvP
So there's two choices -- but instead of making it two separate choices, Blizzard just gives you four options. A "Normal" server (also sometimes called a "PvE" server) is a non-roleplaying server where PvP is optional. A "PvP" server is a non-roleplaying server where PvP is always active in most of the game. "RP" servers are PvP-optional, with the roleplaying rules; "RP/PvP" servers are PvP-enforced servers, with the roleplaying rules.

If PvP isn't your primary interest in the game, you should probably start on a PvE server. If you like roleplaying, you should probably start on an RP server.

PvP servers can be very frustrating for solo players; a group of people of the opposing faction will crush you like a bug, and many players prefer to stay consistently in groups for precisely that reason. As a result, you may find a PvP server more stressful if you don't usually play with friends.

Created my Character, Now What?
First off: The game has an in-game tutorial. Whether you've played other games like this before or not, please don't ignore this. The little messages it gives you are very helpful for understanding the user interface, and will make it easier to get started.

If you're familiar with PC game conventions, many of them apply. You move using the WASD keys or arrow keys. ("WASD" is a common convention because the keys are arranged roughly like a set of arrow keys under the left hand; W is forward, A turns left, S backs up, D turns right.) You can use left-click to target or select things, and right-click to interact with them.

If you are playing because you were invited by friends, play on their server and faction, and ask them to help you get started.

The starting area is generally very forgiving; monsters are weaker than you might otherwise expect, and you should be able to easily do the first few "quests" (assigned challenges which have rewards for completion). You can pretty much run around just exploring and reading the in-game tutorials, but a few things might help.

Social Groupings
There's a lot more to be said, but the part you need to know now is:

WoW provides for "guilds", which are social groups of people who have banded together for some common cause. A guild might be focused on dungeon adventures, or PvP combat, or roleplaying, or it might be a bunch of coworkers or friends who just like to hang out together. Each character can be in at most one guild, but your characters do not need to be in the same guild. Guild members usually help each other out and cooperate, and your guild is generally your first stop if you are looking for help.

Characters who are adventuring together usually form a "party". Members of a party share rewards from combat, such as experience and loot. A party of more than five members is called a "raid". If you are in a raid, you will normally get no credit for content that is not specifically designated as "raid content". Content designed to challenge groups of ten, twenty-five, or even forty adventurers is called "raid content". Guilds which specialize in this content are called "raiding guilds".

Parties and guilds are not connected by game mechanics; it does not matter whether other people in your party are in your guild or not.

Using the Social Interface
With hundreds to thousands of players on a single server at once, Blizzard thoughtfully decided not to use an interface in which everyone's messages all show up at once. Communication is divided into "channels" -- messages sent to a given channel are seen only by people reading that channel.

To start talking, you usually just press Enter, then type your message, and press Enter again. By default, this will talk on the same channel as your previous message, and the "/say" (in-character speech) channel by default. You can also use slash (/) to enter commands. Here's a few common commands for saying things:

By default, you start out joined to a channel called "General". The General channel, usually "/1", is used for general conversation. It is not usually in-character, although you are allowed to be in-character if you want. Mostly, the General channel is full of idiotic jokes. Sorry. It can't be helped.

Each zone of the game has a separate General channel. Each faction has a Trade channel (usually /2), which is shared among all capital cities. Custom channels are worldwide, as are party and guild channels. For instance, you and your friends might have a private channel you created just so you could chat with each other even though you're in different guilds.

No channel really allows cross-faction communication. However, members of the other faction can see text you send with /say and /yell; they just can't read it, because the game converts it into gibberish.