WoW Tips for New Players

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erilar
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WoW Tips for New Players

Post by erilar »

Figured I'd start a new thread for advice posts.

EvilGenius wrote:
Quick Leveling Tips:
1) Completely ignore professions. They take a LOT of time and you can always go back later.
2) Completely focus on quests. Get all of the quests you can for an area and then keep working on one until it's complete. If you get multiple quests for a particular area (kill so many felsworn, get the widgit from the monument, gather the plant that grows in the area, etc), then track them all on-screen at the same time. Complete them all and cash them in at the same time.
3) When you log off, ALWAYS leave your toon in a city or an inn so that you build resting bonus for xp.

I'll put in my 2 copper too. Agree totally with #2 and #3. Re. #1, professions can definitely take a lot of time, but IMO don't neglect your gathering profession (skinning, mining, herbalism). You'll hate yourself later, because you'll have to go back to the newbie zones and grind them up - very boring. You can always run out later and mine up a stack of copper ore real quick to work on your blacksmithing, but it will suck if you're skilling up mining at the same time.

If you go this route, you don't have to focus on leveling your crafting profession per se, as that can take more materials then are necessary to maintain your gathering skill. At a minimum, keep your gathering skill high enough to gather where you're questing and gather when you happen to come across a node.

A good way to follow this approach is to take two gathering professions when leveling - usually skinning (because you gather from the stuff you kill - more convenient) and then either mining or herbalism. This nets you the most money as you progress, since you're selling everything you gather on the Auction house.

I'll add a #4) loot EVERYTHING - even the crappy gray items. Sell all your gray-quality items to vendors, and sell everything else you can't use on the auction house - even white-quality items.

The only deviation to the two gathering profession idea is if you eventually want to do enchanting. If that's the case, do it from the start. This is because you'll have to disenchant all the magic items you loot (unless you use them) to make the raw materials for enchanting. Since you loot magic stuff in the process of leveling, and earn magic item quest rewards you don't use, you can skill up enchanting as you go. I recommend that you don't do enchanting with your first character though. One makes a lot of money selling magic items they don't need on the auction house, and your character will always be broke if you're disenchanting all this stuff.

*** BUT ***

Personally though, I would highly recommend against speed leveling. Enjoy the quest stories. Read all the flavor text. Explore the nooks and crannies. Work on your professions as long as you're enjoying them.

You'll get burnt out and bored if you speed level. You will have to "go kill 20 boars" regardless of whether you're speed-leveling or not. The story behind why the cute boars must die will be the thing to keep you engaged though.

As long as you're doing your best to work on quests in geographic "clusters" like Bob said, you'll still level just about as fast as rushing through it. Most new players won't be skilled enough at a fresh character to speed-level it efficiently anyway.

Don't make it into a job - enjoy the game. Otherwise, by the time you get to level 40 with us, you'll hate it and won't want to play anyway. Priority one: have fun!
"This enemy you cannot kill. You can only drive it back damaged into the depths, and teach your children to watch the waves for its return." - Quellcrist Falconer
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erilar
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by erilar »

Tip #2 - Bank Toons

This is one of the single most brilliant thing WoW players invented. Roll up a level one character, and then run them (on the road or you'll die a hundred times) to the nearest major city - Ironforge, Stormwind, or Darnassus. Humans are probably easiest - their city is very close.

Find the bank, the mailbox by the bank, and the auction house. Park them by the mailbox. This is where they will live.

When your lvl 10+ leveling character returns to the inn with full bags, first sell off all the gray-quality crap. (There are even addons that do this with a single button press.) Then, mail everything else you don't plan on keeping to your new bank mule character, or "bank" for short.

Then, at your leisure, log onto your bank toon and hump all the white-quality or greater loot to the auction house for sale. You'll make way more money selling your stuff in the AH then to a vendor. White quality stuff all has a use to someone (usually for crafting), and someone will eventually buy it.

Other uses for bank toons:
[*] send them recipes you find that you can't learn yet. Stuff can sit in the mail inbox for 30 days before it gets mailed back return-to-sender.
[*] Your bank toon can also keep stuff (crafting materials, etc.) in the bank for your other characters.
[*] Mail is instant between your owwn characters (it used to take ~30 mins). So, mailing stuff back and forth for storage is pretty convenient.
[*] Need something from the AH and don't feel like flying to the city? Log onto your bank toon, buy it, and mail it to the toon that needs it.


Tip #2B - Auction House Addons

But how much should I sell this crap for?? Simply do a search for that item and see what it's selling for on average at the moment. Perhaps undercut the competition by just a little, and yours will sell faster.

Even better, get an Auction House scanning addon. These programs scan the AH for you, remember what everything is selling for, and will use some statistics to help you sell your items for the highest price possible, and most quickly. They also help you to get the best deals on what you're shopping for. These programs become more accurate after they've gathered data for a while.

For years, the king of these addons was Auctioneer, and it works fine. It just takes up a crapload of system resources compared to any other addons. I literally turn it off for all toons except my bank mule.

Enter AuctionLite though. I'm testing this one out now, and I really like it. It's more no-frills, but also consumes very little system overhead. It also scans the AH really quickly compared to Auctioneer. Auctioneer takes 10-15 minutes to scan the AH. AuctionLite takes ~2 mins.

1) Get an AH addon
2) Sell your lootz
3) .....
4) Millions!
"This enemy you cannot kill. You can only drive it back damaged into the depths, and teach your children to watch the waves for its return." - Quellcrist Falconer
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erilar
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by erilar »

Tip #3 - Pit Stops

Get in the habit of doing these three things every time you return to town:

1) Sell. Sell off all your loot to make room in your bags.
2) Repair. Your gear takes damage as you fight, so repair it every time you're in town. Look for the blacksmith guy or weapon salesman. Otherwise, you'll be out in Timbuktu when your sword breaks, and you'll be effed.
3) Buy consumables. Casters need drinks to regain mana. Everyone needs food (or bandages) to regain health. Innkeepers or General Goods vendors sell this kind of stuff. Hunters need ammo, and some other classes need reagents for certain spells. Buy what you need before heading back out!

If you don't see the vendor you're looking for, use the "tracking" button on your minimap to find them.

Even more importantly, if you forget to do one of these three things before entering a dungeon, your friends will want to feed you to the murlocs! :mrgreen:
"This enemy you cannot kill. You can only drive it back damaged into the depths, and teach your children to watch the waves for its return." - Quellcrist Falconer
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by NukeHavoc »

[sigh]

So much to learn. I think I need to grab my Mac and come hang out at your house one night so I can say "umm, Lance, what do I do *now*?" :)

ken
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Jonkga
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by Jonkga »

NukeHavoc wrote:[sigh]

So much to learn. I think I need to grab my Mac and come hang out at your house one night so I can say "umm, Lance, what do I do *now*?" :)

ken
Dude, I'd totally be willing to host "WoW night". :)
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by Hardcorhobbs »

I'd be up for a LAN night. I just have to keep playing catching up ;)
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erilar
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by erilar »

NukeHavoc wrote:[sigh]

So much to learn. I think I need to grab my Mac and come hang out at your house one night so I can say "umm, Lance, what do I do *now*?" :)
The lid on this forum reads "Don't Panic"! The AH stuff sounds complicated, but it's not. Basically, you'll make roughly 3X as much coin selling stuff on the AH vs NPC vendors. A couple of addons will ease the whole selling process. A face-to-face session would make it easy for me to show you how to install, use, & manage addons.


My druid is very close to your level. I should just come hang out and shadow you some night, and we can talk about stuff.

You have a headset w/ a mic, right? Get the Ventrilo client installed and we will schedule a night to play together. If you can get started one night earlier on (7-ish?), Zack can join us too. Let me know when you get a window to play.


And, the LAN party night sounds really fun. I'll hang onto my shipping box. :)
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Lars Porsenna
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by Lars Porsenna »

WOW is on my laptop, so I can definitely come to someone's house for a WoW party. The question is though, of bandwidth...

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erilar
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Re: WoW Tips for New Players

Post by erilar »

Lars Porsenna wrote:WOW is on my laptop, so I can definitely come to someone's house for a WoW party. The question is though, of bandwidth...
Jon's got cable - shouldn't be an issue. WoW doesn't use all that much bandwidth - a decent ping is much more important.

Jon will just have to pause all his donkey-pr0n torrents... :D
"This enemy you cannot kill. You can only drive it back damaged into the depths, and teach your children to watch the waves for its return." - Quellcrist Falconer
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