Wowpedia:Categories

Welcome to the categories page. This is a manually-updated list of important categories used in Wowpedia. The page is ordered to show information about some of the more commonly viewed categories first, so that new users have a starting point from which to begin navigating content by category. These are grouped into area of interest, with categories relating to player reference, such as quests and items, listed first, then categories used by editors such as boilerplates further down. The top-level sections are logical divisions for display purposes - they are not intended to correspond to any specific category.

Note that there are many, many categories in use in Wowpedia and these are only an out-of-date subset.

Player references
These categories are directly related to in-game content, and provide a logical means of organizing information about quests, items, mobs and other elements of World of Warcraft.

Quests
The quests category contains information about the many quests available to players throughout the game world. The quests in this category are broken up into several sub-categories to make it easier for users to find specific quests. The following list shows some of the common subsections for quests. You can visit a section directly, or go to the category page to view a comprehensive list of subcategories.
 * Category:Quests
 * Category:Quests by level - List of quests sorted by level
 * Category:Quests by faction - List of quests associated with a particular faction. For example, Category:Sons of Hodir quests lists all of the quests associated with the Sons of Hodir.
 * Category:Escort quests - List of all quests that are escorts
 * Category:Quests by instance - List of quests related to World of Warcraft dungeons, sorted by the specific instance.

When creating a quest article, the article should be added to all applicable subcategories, including the appropriate zone (such as Category:Borean Tundra quests if the quest is in Borean Tundra) or instance (Category:Scarlet Monastery quests).

Items
All items in World of Warcraft fall into this category. The category is divided by item type (Category:World of Warcraft cloth items), quality (Category:World of Warcraft uncommon items), use (Category:World of Warcraft neck items) and source (Category:World of Warcraft leatherworking crafted items).
 * Category:World of Warcraft items

Individual items are frequently placed in subcategories which have multiple parent categories. For example, an item might be placed in Category:World of Warcraft plate head items, which is a subcategory of both Category:World of Warcraft plate items and Category: World of Warcraft head items.

Note that Category:World of Warcraft items should not be confused with Category:Items, which contains items from previous Warcraft games.

Equipable Items
It may be helpful to be familiar with the conventions related to categorizing items players can equip. The basic category for all pieces of armor is as follows:
 * World of Warcraft   items

The exception to this format is items that do not have an armor type, such as trinkets. They would be categorized as follows:
 * World of Warcraft  items

Item quality
Items that are not grey should be categorized according to their quality.
 * World of Warcraft  items

Item source
Items that are found in particular instances or are obtained through faction rep, crafting, or another special method should be categorized accordingly.
 * World of Warcraft leatherworking crafted items

Instances
Every instance and raid in World of Warcraft is included in this category, and each has a subcategory which contains information about mobs, NPCs, bosses, loot, strategies and more. This category provides an ideal starting place for researching boss encounters and raid runs.
 * Category:Instances

Classes
The classes category contains the page for each category. In addition, each class has subcategories covering builds, tactics, abilities, talents and more. For example, the category would contain the Hunter article, as well as a hunter subcategory, Category:Hunters which contains all of the pages related to hunters, and subcategories for hunter abilities, gear sets, trainers, and more.
 * Category:Classes

Professions
Information on the various professions. All professions fit directly under this category. For example, Category:Skinning contains all of the pages related to the gathering profession of Skinning.
 * Category:Professions

Achievements
The achievements category contains all of the achievements and Feats of Strength currently implemented. These achievements are sorted into subcategories based on type, such as Category:Exploration achievements.
 * Category:World of Warcraft achievements

Gameplay
The categories in this section relate to general gameplay more than acting a direct reference. These categories may contain strategies, but more commonly they relate either to the game client (such as the UI category) or to the culture or lore of World of Warcraft.
 * Category:Gameplay

This category covers all the gameplay related articles. It is primarily designed to allow separation from the UI and Editing pages. Very few articles should actually appear here - rather, its a high level category to contain the additional, lower level categories below.

Newbies
Category:Newbies

Information for Newbies. Note that this will often overlap with other areas such as Category:Classes or Category:Professions - pages can have multiple categories. Add anything here that a newbie is likely to need early on.

Examples: Starting a Warlock, Newbie Guide

Game terms
Category:Game terms

Pages which describe any terminology; this may include generic MMORPG/RPG terms, WoW-specific words, or anything which would fit into a Glossary type section.

Examples: Channeling, Attributes

User interface
The User Interface category contains information relating directly to the WoW Client. Subcategories include Category:Macros which contains information about creating and using macros, Category:AddOns which contains articles about popular mods, and Category:Interface customization which contains articles of a more technical nature related to the creation of custom mods.
 * Category:UI

Editing
The editing categories provide a convenient way for editors to locate tools for helping improve and grow Wowpedia.

Templates
Templates are intended to provide editors with the ability to easily add complex content to articles. For example, an editor can add to a page by calling the Alliance/Horde template.
 * Category:Templates

Most of the templates are sorted into subcategories to make it easier to find a needed template. No content other than templates should be in this category or it's subcategories, except for instructions and policies directly relating to the general usage of templates.

Templates should not be confused with Boilerplates. Templates are small pieces of code to embed a small amount of content into an article. A boilerplate is a template for an entire article, containing most, if not all, formatting needed to create the article in accordance with the standards of Wowpedia.

Boilerplates
Boilerplates provide a uniform starting point for creating certain types of pages in Wowpedia. For example, if you are creating a page about a quest, you can use the quest articles boilerplate. Documentation for each boilerplate is provided in an associated Help page. Please refer to the help page for instructions on using the appropriate boilerplate before creating the page.
 * Category:Boilerplates

Nothing other than boilerplates should be included in this category.

Common boilerplates
The following list shows some of the more common boilerplates you might need when creating a page. Please visit Category:Boilerplates for a comprehensive listing.