This isn’t going to be an in depth guide into how to complete each quest or what class/race to roll or what talents to take.
My goal it to make the new WoW player realise that they are having the most fun they will ever have playing WoW. Leveling your 1st toon is akin to sex. It will never be quite as exciting as it was the first time. You may be better at it and the people you do it with may be able to teach you a thing or two in later life but nothing beats the fun you have exploring and learning with people who are just as clueless as you are. Those fumbling, chaotic, and often hilarious attempts at trying to hit the next level or do a particularly difficult quest will live with you forever.
Don’t look at all those epic geared lvl 85 hardcore raiders with envy. They are more envious of you because they know the journey you have just begun and know what a barrel load of fun you have coming your way.
So let us Begin
Lesson 1. DON’T POWER LEVEL
Take your time and fully explore each area. Make sure that you check your map before moving to a new area. If there’s an area you haven’t been to yet go have a look. Even if there’s no quests there, you will be adding to your achievements requirements list simply by uncovering the area but it’s more likely you will find some quests or a good mats farming area you would have otherwise missed.
Lesson 2 DON’T FORGET YOUR SECONDARY PROFS
Depending on what class you roll some of the secondary professions are almost mandatory. E.g. if you’re a rogue or a mage you have very few ways to heal yourself so 1st aid is essential. While it may not be obvious now Cooking and Fishing give massive benefits later on in the game and having to go back to do the quests and gather the mats when you finally realise you need them is a proper pain in the backside. Do it now while your questing in the areas anyway. Keep all you professions level appropriate. In other words make sure everything levels up with you (including your 2 main professions). That way you kill a shit load of birds with one stone. Gather mats, level profs, Get quests, Explore areas, get achievements…..do them all the 1st time round and you will have a very well rounded and effective toon when you get to level 85 ;)
Lesson 3 MAKE FRIENDS
I won’t lie to you you're going to come across quite a few arseholes playing WoW. The world is full of them, both real and virtual. So it makes it all the more important to keep in touch with those few sane, intelligent, fun people you do bump into. If you are like I was when I 1st started playing you probably aren’t that interested in doing the content that requires you to group just yet but take if from someone who knows. Eventually you will feel confident enough to take on a dungeon or two and at that point those decent people you met among the riff raff will come in very useful and this is where you develop those deep friendships that may last for as long as you play WoW. The 1st guy I ever grouped with for a tough quest is still playing 6 years later and were still good buddies.
Lesson 4 NEVER BUY GOLD AND NEVER GIVE YOUR LOG-IN DETAILS TO ANYONE
Some people will do anything to make a buck, including wiping out everything you achieve in WoW. They will strip your character and clean out your bank. They will check your friends list and find ways to do the same to them. They will read you emails and try to gleam as much as they can about you and if its at all possible it wont only be your gold in WoW they steel.
Its sad but true. WoW is full of crooks and they aren’t all the back stabbing rogues.
Lesson 5 DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHICH CLASS/RACE TO ROLL
One thing that Bliz is always trying to do is balance the classes and races. They try to make sure that every one is viable in all content. So if someone tells you your Shaman was a bad choice and you should have rolled a paladin ignore them. Your shaman’s time will come and if you master your class they will always out perform a badly played toon of any class.
Its down to what you find fun. There’s a class/race combination to suit every personality and finding the one that suits you is far more important than finding the one that is flavour of the month. Come the next patch they wont be.
Lesson 6 DON’T BE AFRAID TO FAIL.
For a very long time I shyed away from battlegrounds. I just knew I was going to get my ass kicked in PvP. I imagined a very long and steep learning curve and I was right. What I was wrong about was that it would be anything other than a complete blast! Once you get over the 1st few knocks to your pride you begin to have fun. It’s the same with Dungeons. Some people are scared because they think they will end up with a group of people who all know what to do and they will be griefed for messing up. Well I wont lie. That will happen but its all part of the maturing process of your toon. And for every idiot who griefs you there will be one of those decent peeps who will explain what you should be doing and helps you understand whats going on. Add him/her to your friends list and ignore the idiot and always remember how tough it was to learn. One day you will have a noob in your group messing up too. Are you going to be on his/her friends list or ignore list at the end of it?
Lesson 7 DON’T BE NARROW MINDED ABOUT CONTENT
Would you pay your Sky TV subscription but never watch any channel above say channel 100? No of course you wouldn’t So why limit yourself to what you do in WoW. For many people there are 2 distinct paths in WoW, PvP and PvE. I have met loads of serious raiders who look down on anyone who concentrated on PvP and would rather spend half an hour having their fingernails pulled out that do a battleground. PvP’ers call PvE’ers Carebears. Its indicative of the gulf between the two factions. Forget Alliance and Horde. Get PvE’ers and PvP’ers in a pub together and all hell would break loose….But why? They are both fantastic fun and take it from one who knows. PvP will improve your PvE skills and visa verse. Plus Bliz have been very careful to make sure there is plenty of overlap so, for example, almost always the easiest available epic weapon will be a PvP weapon and it will outperform any blue PvE stuff you can get from dungeons. Conversely you wont ever see a top PvP’er without at least some PvE gear for the extra damage.
Lesson 8 LEARN WHERE TO LOOK FOR INFO
There are loads of resources on the net nowadays. Everything from very general help like this post all the way to deep Theory Crafting like elitistjerks.com/. While levelling something like wowhead.com/ will be more useful but liberal use of google will always deliver good results. Sooner or later you will discover that add-ons (3rd party mods) can improve the experience and give you more information that the in-game interface. E.g. Questhelper will always point you in the direction of your next goal. When the time comes www.curse.com/ will prove invaluable.
Lesson 9 FIND A GUILD
There are plenty of guilds who take lowbie players and to be honest your better off with people around your level anyway. That way you wont have a problem getting people for dungeons and you will be contributing to the guild achievements. I spent a couple of years in my 1st guild and it grew with me, along with all the other members. A guild that grows together develops a synergy that makes them a very effective end game guild. Plus being in a guild turns WoW into a very social experience. Sometimes I just come on to chat with friends the same way you would on MSN
And finally Lesson 10 DON’T GET OBSESSED
I’m not really the right person to be preaching this one but its very true that this game can become an addiction. Always remember its just a game and while your doing other stuff you little toon isn’t pining away for you in Stormwind Square. The living, breathing toons around you should always come 1st.
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