Advice for WoW newbie?

[Bee]

Ok, I finally decided to break down and pick up WoW. I've read a lot about it and think I'd enjoy the game and content (probably too much), but never picked it up in the past because of my dislike of 99% of online players I've dealt with in similar games. My plan is to probably start a character that can solo relatively easy and then create an alt who I'll bring along to group with the other 1% of online players if I can find an appropriate guild. I'll probably try PvP at some point, but I've generally disliked it on other games because of dealing with that 99% group of online players. So my question is does anyone have any advice for a noob in my situation? Server? solo class/race? alt class/race?

[CraigSca]

I'm afraid I'm not much help here. I have a 49 priest, but I never really took to the game like I did the original EQ. I'm "this close" to quitting because though the game is beautiful, it never really sucked me in.

As far as soloing is concerned...I'd pick a mage or something and put them on the good side as that's where the majority of the players play.

Sorry I'm not much help.

[Shkspr]

WoW is pretty painless to solo for the opening 20 levels or so for most characters - I'd start with a human, because the human lands give maybe the easiest introduction (everything laid out well, quests lead into one another easily). As far as class goes, I'd try a paladin first. They get the big sword to hit things real good and take less damage, and have a few spells to help you get the hang of the timing thing. Warriors have an auxiliary bar that works backwards of most other classes and spellflingers go splat well.

Once you take the paladin up to level 10-15, go Horde side and try a hunter (troll, I think). Hunters don't get their pet until level 10, but are an awesome solo class for a good long while after that. Plus it'll give you a chance to see the Barrens, where most Horde players wind up in short order. After you've leveled up to 19 (not 20!), give Warsong Gulch a try in the battlegrounds - it'll expose you to PvP in a controlled environment and give you an idea if you want to delve into that side.

At that point, you can go back and try whatever strikes your fancy. You've still got elf, dwarf, and undead to give you new experiences in different areas of the game, plus each class plays different so you can learn whatever aspect you want. At that point, choose whatever class you like best and level that alt up as best you can.

As far as server goes: it's looking like there are far fewer problems with logins these days, but you may still hit a peak time where you get put in a queue. Don't worry about it too much, it's not on your end, and as the Christmas crowd drift away post game, the server crowds will ease.

[Ryche]

I'm currently playing a 34 orc warlock on Drak'Thul, which is one of the newest pvp servers around. I would suggest playing on one of the newer servers if you are just starting, that way you won't have quite as much of an experience gap as you would on a server where everyone is 60 already.

Pretty much any class can solo pretty easily. I love playing a warlock, although they are pretty common on the horde side. The biggest factor is whether you want to fight up close or stand back and do damage. Pick the race you like the looks of best as far as choosing a race.

[condors]

you may want to try an undead shadow priest

i found it easy to level and welcomed in groups

if you like being a healer respec down the road is a no brainer but a shadow priest is very easy to solo although i didn't enjoy being a healer close to as much as i did leveling as a shadow priest (i never got with the right group of people and gave up)

[Bad-example]

I just restarted my WoW account. Paladin is the only class I have been able to stay interested in past level 10. That is more personal perference than anything else...I solo often, like to melee and love having the ability to drop a heal on a stranger when I find someone about to die. I plan on giving druid and shaman another try, but for me pally is more fun.

Lothar and Kul Tiras are the servers I have been playing on but both seem pretty crowded compared to when I last played.

[Fidatelo]

I've got a 56 warrior on Terenas. For soloing I'd advise against a warrior, I've solo'd pretty much all the way to 56 and it's been a pain in the arse. No heals means no room for error.

For a beginner who likes to solo, I'd go with a Druid. They are an awesome class, almost the best of all worlds, and very survivable on your own.

[sabotai]

I have a Dwarf Hunter alt, and it was a lot easier to solo than my Night Elf Druid (but that might be because of the difference in experience with the game. I was a noob to the game when playing my druid).

Paladin, Warlock and Hunter are probably the 3 easiest solo classes (and maybe Shaman, but I have not played Shaman). Warlock and Hunter because at lvl 10, you get a pet. Paladin because they hit hard, wear good armor and can heal themselves. They have a few spells that make escaping very easy if things get out of hand quickly.

For professions, I'd suggest two of the gathering skills to start with. Mining and Skinning would probably be best. Copper Ore sells for a good amount on the AH because there are always people trying to power level Blacksmith, Engineer and/or Mining, so Copper Ore sells for a good amount (60s per stack on my server). Leather of all kinds usually sells very well too, and it's pretty easy to get.

Herbalism, on the other hand, doesn't really get to be a good money maker until the later levels. All of the herbs found in the low level zones just don't sell well and you can't find them as much as ore or leather (When you collect herbs, you typically only get 1 or 2 of the herb, while mining will oftan give 3 or 4 ore per outcropping, plus stones and sometimes gems). And leather is just insanely easy to collect. But, the trade off is a stack of high level herbs sells for a TON on the AH (much to my annoyance being an alchemist/herbalism. I have to pick my own herbs or pay the insane prices on the AH, and it's usually just not worth it. I refuse to pay 18 gold for a stack of mountain silversage. I just won't do it. Other players who have money to burn will pay the insane costs of herbs, I won't. :))

If you want to get into one of the crafter professions (Blacksmith, Leatherworking, Engineering, Alchemy), I would suggest waiting until level 40. You can't get into the really good stuff until then anyway (the cap until 40 is 225, 300 is max), and by then, whichever one you choose to do, you should have the main gathering profession for that crafting profession pretty high, which would make leveling your new crafting profession very easy. For instance, if you want to do blacksmithing (btw, probably the worst of all the crafting professions since it's mostly a money sink. Not profitable at all and weapon drops are usually far better than anythign that can be crafted...but it's fun. :) ), you would want to make sure you have Mined up a bit so that leveling Blacksmith will be easy. Same for engineering (mining), leatherworking (skinning) and alchemy (herbalism). Trying to level a crafting profession by buying the supplies off the AH can and will get very expensive.

Enchanting and Tailoring are the last two professions. Tailoring mostly uses cloth that drops off of mobs, so that doesn't have a gathing profession associated with it. Enchanting gets it's raw materials by disenchanting weapons and armor that drops off of mobs or is created by other players.

As for sever, I would suggest not joining a server listed as "New". They will have their newbie zones very crowded. If you plan to play mostly during prime time (peek hours), there's not much you can do. I think all servers will be quite full and you'll have to wait in a queue. However, some servers typically have longer queues than others. I have not seen my server (Lothar) with more than a little over 200 people waiting, while other servers might typically have 500 or 600 people waiting.

[Bee]

Thanks for all the info guys. I need to look at some of the mod add-ons as well. I've been told a couple of them really help out.

[sabotai]

The main one I use is CT Mod. Some people in my guild use something else, but I forget the name of it.

[Yellow5]

Khaz Modan Dwarf Hunter here. :)

Pet Feeder addon for hunters is a must. Also using one that scrolls damage numbers above you (/sct is the command) but I forget the name of the addon. Lots of good stuff @ hxxp://ui.worldofwar.net/

I also use a tool called WoW Cartographe from hxxp://tixu.scribe.free.fr/indexen.php. It's a nice desktop map util that has saved me hours of running around in the WoW world.

[EagleFan]

I recommend a rogue for soloing. They are masters at killing (especially once you learn poisons) and can escape when things get tough when you get the vanish ability.

I never tried an MMO for that whole 99% reason that you mentioned and the fact that I saw nothing that made me want to lpay one. This game can be very addicting at times and can become a major time sink so be careful.

[cuervo72]

My advice? Play CoH/CoV. :D

(Honestly can't say much about WoW, though I figure it's pretty good; a guy I work with has a lvl 60 so I certainly won't badmouth it. I'm with you on the solo thing though, and I am having no problems soloing CoH, especially now that arch villains spawn only for groups. Oh, and the game is great for having TONS of alts. :D).

[thealmighty]

I may not be the normal player, but here are my thoughts at this point on the classes I have tried:

60 night elf hunter- most fun of classes I have done and easy to level. I could solo things with my hunter at a much earlier lvl and pet takes damage mostly so repair costs are low. Plus eventual feign death ability is awesome.
41 night elf rogue- got bored and haven't played in a while, but stealthing otherwise impossible quests is a hoot.
36 human warrior- see rogue, without the stealth fun
human paladin- as I say, maybe it's my weirdness, but I got very bored with this one and deleted him around 25
41 dwarf priest- my current character. sux royally to advance at lower levels but as shadow spells develop is much easier. The thing about priests is they are always in demand for groups at all levels of instances
Also, I go mining/skinning and NEVER have money problems after it gets going. Bought lvl 40 mount with priest right at lvl 40 and still had 50+ gold left.

I am not really into the whole endgame thing. I prefer the chase to high level rather than the actual being there. My hunter has 900+ gold so it's not like I couldn't if I wanted, just not into that.

[Marmel]

My advice? Play CoH/CoV. :D

(Honestly can't say much about WoW, though I figure it's pretty good; a guy I work with has a lvl 60 so I certainly won't badmouth it. I'm with you on the solo thing though, and I am having no problems soloing CoH, especially now that arch villains spawn only for groups. Oh, and the game is great for having TONS of alts. :D).


Is that AV fix in yet? I have been avoiding a mission because it is an AV mission and my SG has been dodging it on me. :)

Anyway, I've played both and CoH is so much more fun, and very solo friendly.

[Bee]

My advice? Play CoH/CoV. :D

(Honestly can't say much about WoW, though I figure it's pretty good; a guy I work with has a lvl 60 so I certainly won't badmouth it. I'm with you on the solo thing though, and I am having no problems soloing CoH, especially now that arch villains spawn only for groups. Oh, and the game is great for having TONS of alts. :D).

I played CoH for a pretty long time. I kind of got burned out on the superhero thing, but I'll probably go back to it at some point.

[cuervo72]

Ahhh. Well then, ignore me Bee. :D

And yes Marm, the AV->EB thing went through oh, about a week ago. It has made the 40+ levels soooooo much better. I had an arc blocked for about 4 levels because I couldn't take the Envoy solo (eventually did when he was conned yellow, and he couldn't even hit me). Now, no such problems; I've soloed Psy Clock King, Bile, Nemesis, Nosferatu, Anti-Matter. Elite bosses I can deal with and like a lot, AV's no.

And even though I have CoV, I'll agree that I still like CoH a lot better. Maybe I just haven't gotten far enough, or maybe it's because I started CoH late (June). After I get my main to 50 I'll play CoV more...if I'm not too busy trying Kheldians. Or I could continue with my Mind/Kin, he's a lot of fun to play, and *very* soloable with containment.

[Marmel]

Ahhh. Well then, ignore me Bee. :D

And yes Marm, the AV->EB thing went through oh, about a week ago. It has made the 40+ levels soooooo much better. I had an arc blocked for about 4 levels because I couldn't take the Envoy solo (eventually did when he was conned yellow, and he couldn't even hit me). Now, no such problems; I've soloed Psy Clock King, Bile, Nemesis, Nosferatu, Anti-Matter. Elite bosses I can deal with and like a lot, AV's no.

And even though I have CoV, I'll agree that I still like CoH a lot better. Maybe I just haven't gotten far enough, or maybe it's because I started CoH late (June). After I get my main to 50 I'll play CoV more...if I'm not too busy trying Kheldians. Or I could continue with my Mind/Kin, he's a lot of fun to play, and *very* soloable with containment.

That's great to hear. I occassionally browse the forums, but found I don't care what changes they make, the game is fun no matter what. I like CoV, but found CoH is just much more fun for me and that is the bottom line. 3 levels away from my first 50...time to go try Nemesis solo.

[Bad-example]

I loved CoH but even after that patch that supposedly limited the spawning of AVs in missions, my 43 scrapper's mission list was still clogged with unsoloable missions. I refuse to to just mindlessly clean the streets to level and can't solo the Clockwork King or the Carnival of Shadows AV. Unless they add in the ability to renounce missions, I don't see myself going back.

[Bad-example]

dola

http://wow.allakhazam.com/

http://www.thottbot.com/

Best sites for finding quest info in WoW.

[kingnebwsu]

Bee, I'm on the server Drak'thul (or something). I have 3 Horde chars on there that I'm using more or less. It's a PvP server, but it's only PvP in certain "contested" territories. Myself, my girlfriend, and a good buddy of mine are on there pretty much every night if you wanna choose that server and get some help. You can always PM me here with questions or whatever.

Enjoy the addiction...it's fantstic :)

Get some UI/mods or whatever. I just got them tonight and am gonna try them out. some of them look really cool.

As far as classes, priest is by far my favorite. It's always in demand, because people would rather bash things (warriors) than heal things (priests/others). I have a 23 warrior, 18 priest, 14 shaman. I had an alliance hunter&priest before. All the classes are pretty cool. Being able to heal yourself is pretty fantastic though.

Good luck and PM me if you have any questions.

For anyone else who hasn't played it yet, WoW is fantastic :)

[hukarez]

Thanks for all the info guys. I need to look at some of the mod add-ons as well. I've been told a couple of them really help out.Probably really obvious, but eh:

Take a break every now and then!

When WoW had first come out, I had visited my friend in Norwalk in the morning when he started playing. I went by the next day, around the same time, and found that he was /still/ playing the game. The amount of oil that built up on his skin was unbelieveable.

[cuervo72]

I loved CoH but even after that patch that supposedly limited the spawning of AVs in missions, my 43 scrapper's mission list was still clogged with unsoloable missions. I refuse to to just mindlessly clean the streets to level and can't solo the Clockwork King or the Carnival of Shadows AV. Unless they add in the ability to renounce missions, I don't see myself going back.

You're still getting them as AV's? They should be EB's for anyone not running on Invinceable. I guess maybe depending on your build (I've only played BS/Regen as far as scrappers go - probably the most suited to bosses - except for a MA/DA in the teens) those could still be a problem, but I'd think they'd be doable unless they're significantly above level. At least the Clock King...from what I hear those Carnies are still a bear.

[Bad-example]

The Carnival Mistress and the Clockwork King arch-villains still spawn for my scrapper on the lowest difficulty setting. Both use psychic attacks and both dropped my MA/SR guy like a bad habit. I reactivated my account just to find out if that patch changed matters, but only played the one day before cancelling again.

[cuervo72]

Hmm, it really should have, I've not seen an AV since the change was implemented, unless it's counting when you *took* the mission, but I can't imagine that was the case.

I just had the Bobcat mission from Tina McIntyre, and she was an EB. She was still tough as balls - dropped me twice (first time too early and absolutely wasted instant healing), and came *real* close a couple more times. Always nice having 70k debt and only getting a 5k payout from defeating her. And that's even with her at even level (orange) - I've had easier times with other ones conning red.

Sorry to hear that you ran into that roadblock, I was down on playing with my main with all those A/V's (would have resorted to sweeping I guess), but have been very happy with the change. If you ever do go back and find that they still aren't changed, you might want to /petition it.

[law90026]

Personally, I play way too much WoW. My main is a 60 warrior on Dark Iron now.

Everything that follows is personal opinion.

1) Easier classes to play: Rogue, Hunter. These 2 classes are common and you have more room to make mistakes with them then other classes. A rogue is a damage dealing machine while a hunter is a ranged attacker with a pet.

2) I realise you stated you don't like to group. Let me suggest that you should probably stop playing WoW now before it's too late. WoW is easy to solo to 60 if you want. But at 60, the game changes to become a very social one. In order to do level 60 stuff, you will need people to group up with. If you don't like that, you will get bored at 60.

Suggestion: Find a good guild to join. It makes things a lot easier, seriously, and it can be a lot more fun. Before my warrior, I played a rogue till 54 pretty much solo .... and it got rough at the end because I couldn't do the level 50+ instances without a good group.

3) Decide between PvP and PvE servers: A PvP server means that you're fair game for anyone on the opposite side once you enter a contested area, i.e. areas above level 15 or 20. This means you can get ganked mercilessly and/or corpse camped. If you don't like this, do NOT join a PvP server.

A PvE server means that PvP in the world must be consensual, becuase both of you need to turn on your PvP flag. It makes it safe for you to quest and run around ... but it gets boring after a bit :) PvP adds a little spice to your game, sometimes anyway.

4) Professions: I suggest taking 2 gathering professions (mining, skinning, herbalism) for your first character. Money will be an issue and the gathering professions allow you to sell your material on the Auction House for the needed cash. Don't forget, with enough cash, you can buy the stuff that others craft, hence you don't necessarily need a crafting profession. Of course, some of the best stuff cannot be bought.

I suggest NOT taking enchanting. That is a really really expensive profession to level although it looks very attractive. You lose out because you disenchant stuff you can sell to get the enchanting materials. Also, it's sometimes hard to sell enchants because people hate paying for them. It's very very irritating.

[Ragone]

You should base your professions off what class you choose

obviously as say a hunter.. you'll prolly want mining/engineering.. or perhaps skinning/leatherworking

clothies usualy take tailoring and some sort of gathering(herbalism) sometimes enchanting.. but enchanting is SUCH a huge money sink

Honestly, i'd suggest warlock or hunter as a super solo class.. as they can solo alot of elite quests that most normal soloers can't

[Bee]

I'm leaning towards a Hunter at this point for my main solo character and then probably an undead priest for my main alt for grouping. If it's as easy to level as I've been told, I'll probably try a few other classes as well.

I've been told there's an auction house mod that helps a lot (don't remember the name right now). Sounds like there are tons of mods out there, so I still need to figure out which ones I'm going to load initially.

Thanks everyone for the links and information, it's helped a lot. The game should be here Friday, although I might not get much done this weekend since it's my wife's birthday but I should at least get everything loaded. :D

[Danny]

Hunters are great for leveling once you get to level 10 (when you get your pet).

Your biggest problem as a hunter will be finding groups, but if you get in a good guild then that won't be a problem.

[Fidatelo]

I've been told there's an auction house mod that helps a lot (don't remember the name right now). Sounds like there are tons of mods out there, so I still need to figure out which ones I'm going to load initially.
- WowEcon is a nice basic mod that will show auction values for all items, so you can quickly decide whether something should be vendored or if its worth putting on the AH.
- Auctioneer is a more complex mod that will allow you to exploit the AH market by showing you items that are underpriced, which you can then buy and repost at a higher amount. I've only used it briefly, prefered WowEcon for its simplicity.
- AllInOneInventory is a great little mod that merges all of your bags together for easy access.
- MonkeyQuest is a nice quest tracker that works much better than the built in blizzard one.

[Bee]

Auctioneer is the one I was told about before, but WowEcon sounds like something that might suit me better (simple is always good :D). I'm not really interested in spending a lot of time with the AH market, I just don't want to sell something to a vendor that's worth a ton at the AH.

[Mustang]

I'm relatively new to the game myself.. (Only been on about a month and have a 35 lvl Rogue on Alexstrasza) I'm in a guild but, mostly solo so, I took the herbalism/Alchemy skills just so I could make my own healing potions and such and be a little more self sufficient.

One thing I really like is that it really takes some time to build up funds. Seemed like forever before I actually had a single gold piece. (Hell, only have 32 right now.. would have more but, with the skill costs and I try to improve my armor every 3-4 skill levels..)

One item I hated was how the pick lock skill was improved. Grinding it up to 100 on the practice boxes and then swim at the bottom of the lake to increase to 125 wasn't my cup of tea. There are the dropped boxes that you get sometimes but, wish there were a few more random spots where you could increase it a point here and there.. (maybe there is and I'm just missing it)

[thealmighty]

I would also advise a map coordinate add-on as well (if nobody mentioned them yet). That sucker saves a TON of aimless wandering.

[Bee]

I would also advise a map coordinate add-on as well (if nobody mentioned them yet). That sucker saves a TON of aimless wandering.

Is that an add-on that shows quest locations or does it do something else?

[sabotai]

I use Auctioneer. Two drawbacks with that, though. You have to update it frequently (once a day) for it to be any good, and it takes a good 15 minutes to update. So if you don't really plan on using the AH much, or are just looking to sell sell sell, don't bother.

BUT, it did help me get the Librams of Protection for 3 gold (not a typo. 3 frickin' gold for something that sells for 150+ Gold). Not to mention getting some other items cheap.

[thealmighty]

Is that an add-on that shows quest locations or does it do something else?
The one I have is just a small bar at the top of the screen that shows the x and y coordinates of the location you are at the moment.

However, it is used to find the quest locations of items or mobs or what have you by looking on thotbot or alakazam and then using the coords to find the correct spot.

[law90026]

Get Titan Bar if you can ... I really really like that. It's a bar at the top of your screen that has some useful information like xp gained this session, your gold, map coordinates, etc.

CT Mod/ CT Raid Assist are useful too. CT Mod allows you to some basic modifications to your interface without being too complicated. CT Raid Assist is a requirement for most high level raids.

WeaponSwap to allow a weapon-swaping macro.

ItemRack allows you to configure your equipment and swap it with a click of a button. This is especially useful for warriors because it allows completely new sets of gear to be swapped at one go (eg from Tanking gear to DPS gear to Fire Resist gear).

Scrolling Combat Text is nice IMO, it shows the numbers appearing above the heads of your target and also prompts you to activate specials.

All this is available at curse-gaming.com.

[lytic]

Thottbot has a nice add-on that groups a whole lot of them together.
I have a 60 Undead Warlock on Deathwing, along with a few alts. The great thing about soloing with a 'lock is that the Void aka Blue can be your tank for you, while you spam shadow bolt. When you get up about level 50, the Void becomes almost useless and you use your succubus more. They are more like a rogue, high DPS (Damage Per Second) and hold agro well because of it. I went Master Demonologist(MD)/Ruin path. The pets give me bonuses. The Suc gives me 10% better spell dmg, the Void gives me 10% less dmg when hit. There is 2 other pets, 1 is an imp (your first pet), I use him for when I'm grouping in an instance. It gives everyone in my group 420 extra hit points (including myself) and does decent dmg himself. He's also invisible until he attacks, so that's helpful. His MD buff to me is 15% less threat. So now that I have Ruin, I usually at the top of the list in Dmg dealt and I rarely get hit because of a good tank and the imp. The last pet is a Felhunter which I use for Battle Grounds (massive PvP). He can take away bad spells and curses on me and it heals him. His MD buff to me is 60 points to all my resistances. So I resist a ton of spells which helps when there is a lot of spell casters trying to hit me. He is also paranoid and therefore can see rogues that are stealthed. So I rarely get backstabbed or sapped.
1v1 PvP, I rarely lose... I can even do 2v1 pretty well. With the Felhunter out in Battle Grounds, the Warlock is also one of the most valuable. The Death Coil spell is the Warlock's "I win" in PvP, and you will usually hear people complain about it; it's also very effective in a tough PvE battle. PvE (vs Environment) especially against elites in instances, the Warlock is invaluable. High DPS, Healthstones (I can give out stones that are an instant 1440 HP restored), plus the pet buffs.
Warlock's are a lot of work because they are a cloth wearer and might be a lesser class until they hit level 40. Once they hit 40, they are arguably the best class and one of the most versitile in the game.
Hunters are also very good at soloing. The Hunters with Cats for pets that have a quick attack also give me problems in PvP since they mess up my casting (I have to fear them to win).
My rogue alt is probably my most fun of the others. It's the Char I use to quest with my wife (She's an undead priest). Shaman are also a lot of fun, but can be complicated as a first time class. They are the perfect healer/tank class.

[Bee]

Got the game...went to install it and Disk 3 is corrupted. :(

Tried it on 3 computers, tried copying the file to my hard drive, nothing worked.

Guess I'll be waiting a week while I send the game back and get a replacement. *sigh* I might just go buy another copy locally so I can get started playing.

[illinifan999]

I'm leaning towards a Hunter at this point for my main solo character and then probably an undead priest for my main alt for grouping. If it's as easy to level as I've been told, I'll probably try a few other classes as well.
.
I'm a Tauren Hunter on dethecus, and hunters are very overpowered in both PvE and PvP, moreso in PvP. If you are interested in PvP, what I notice from reading other servers forums and ours is that horde is almost always the most dominant side, of course there are exceptions, but I know on our server, alliance winning an AV is so rare that they make a post every time it happens.

As for what spec, I'd say start off with marksmanship since you'll get aimed shot which is the the first part of why hunters are so overpowered. You'll learn how to feign death/lay down a freezing trap to get away from melee classes, and when they're frozen you load up that aimed shot, rinse and repeat and you win. I can usually take on warriors and rogues up to 3 lvls higher than me only taking maybe 1% damage if they get the jump on me.

Profs, well I did mining and tailoring, a lot of the stuff you need to lvl up tailoring with sell nicely to the NPC's, and in the higher lvls you can start making serious cash. Mining is just a gathering and selling that over time gets you enough money. I've heard herbalism/alchemy makes more though.

As someone said before PvP servers are exciting, a lot of times you'll get very frustrated, and want to quit especially when you're a lvl 30 and a lvl 60 is just stalking you while you're trying to quest. But it makes up for it when you hit the higher levels and can take out revenge on the other side.

I haven't had any troubles getting into groups for instances, I don't usually group up to quest and if I do it's only because one of my friends is doing the same one, but it's nice to look at the damagemeter during the instance and see me blowing everyone away.

As for addon's, hxxp://www.nurfedui.net/ is a great addition. It's got coords, time to lvl, how much money you're making/losing an hour, it's really useful. I also started using auctioneer about a week ago and it's really made finding deals on the AH and turning around and making a big profit a lot easier.

imo you should pick either a tauren or an orc hunter, but that's just because I hate alliance with a passion. ;)

[Lathum]

OK, so been thinking about taking the plunge.

I know there is a free trial, free month etc...

Do I actualy have to go buy the disk or can I DL the game online, and if so where?

[Cork]

OK, so been thinking about taking the plunge.

I know there is a free trial, free month etc...

Do I actualy have to go buy the disk or can I DL the game online, and if so where?

I believe you can download the software, but will need to "purchase" it to actually play pastthe limts of the trial or 30-day free period. Blizzard should have links to the software on theor WoW web site.

-Cork

[Schmidty]

I saw it at Best Buy for like 9.99 or so a month ago. Maybe it'll be a little more, but now much.

[RendeR]

Safest bet, get out now while you still have a life.

[Rich1033]

Search around Worldofwarcraft.com and you should be able to find a link to DL the game. That shoud work for the free trial.

[Lathum]

I found the link, but when I tried the instal it got stuck checking the internet connection.

[Lathum]

ok, anyone have advice. I went to the WoW free trial site and it gives you an option to create an account or DL the game. I didn't want my trial to start right away so I DL'd the free trial. When I try and run it the testing internet connection comes up but then nothing happens? Any ideas why?

[Bad-example]

Perhaps a firewall issue?

[Lathum]

Perhaps a firewall issue?

I thought of that, but my Norton usualy pops up a window asking me if it should allow acces to that program, so I'm not sure thats it.

[Eaglesfan27]

Maybe their servers are down? They have been down the last few Tuesday mornings for routine maintainence as they prepare for the expansion to be released this week.

Edit: Yep, all realms are down right now. Should be up early this afternoon or late this morning depending upon where you live. Here is the realm status page: WoW -> Realm Status (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/realmstatus/)

[saldana]

if anyone is on LightningHoof, i started about a week ago....orc hunter...same name as on here (and my pet's name is lathum:))

[RedHawk00]

my $0.02, i have quit twice, don't raid, find 2-5 guys/gals you like to hang with and do heroics, pvp, and have fun. Don't chase the latest and greatest, set up some reachable goals for yourself and forget about the real world for a few hours at a time.

[Lathum]

my $0.02, i have quit twice, don't raid, find 2-5 guys/gals you like to hang with and do heroics, pvp, and have fun. Don't chase the latest and greatest, set up some reachable goals for yourself and forget about the real world for a few hours at a time.

thats basicly what saldana and I are gonna do. Just run rampant together and cause chaos. Thats after we convince my wife to let me sign up.

[dubb93]

my $0.02, i have quit twice, don't raid, find 2-5 guys/gals you like to hang with and do heroics, pvp, and have fun. Don't chase the latest and greatest, set up some reachable goals for yourself and forget about the real world for a few hours at a time.

My advice would be actually be similar yet different. I encourage raiding, but only if you can do it with friends. Start your own guild, if you have any RL friends that play have them join you. On my server we have 6 of us that are from the same town in our guild. We raid on our own terms with our guild members.

We don't chase the latest and greatest b/c that is beyond us, but you don't want to be lvl 70(or 80) in blues. The game loses its fun at that point.

[spleen1015]

FYI, Tuesday is always WoW maintenance day. The servers are usually down from 8am EST to 2pm EST. One same days the outage is extended by 2 hours at the beginning of the window. There are some says where they just recycle the servers and the outage is only 15 minutes.

[Shkspr]

Plus, the expansion hits on Thursday. There will be 5-8 million people playing over the next couple of days, so server lag and wait queues may be an issue.

[dubb93]

The servers should be coming back up soon. They have been down ALL day at this point. They had an issue with the in game mail system today.

As far as I can tell something big happened with it b/c Blizz is sending in game mail out to every char when the game comes back up explaining the problem. I seriously hope we didn't lose all of our mail. If thats the case alot of people just lost a crap ton of gold. Basically lost all of your ah sells since the last time you logged on. It could be in the thousands of gold for some players.

[Rizon]

I was always scared about raiding until I got into a large, casual guild. Raiding with cool people is SUPER fun. It's exciting, scary and if you've got some laid back, good players, then it's a blast.
PVP in battlegrounds is fun as well.
I've got a 70 lock and 61 priest.

[dubb93]

Blizz is really putting it to alot of peeps today with this. Two days before the expansion and the game has been down ALL day. I hope everyone here didn't have anything they needed to do b/f the expansion drops b/c if they did they now have one less day to do it in.

Myself, I've been trying to get my enchanter to 375 enchanting before the expansion. I had plenty of time to do it in yesterday(....now today it looks like I may not have enough time afterall. Really couldn't be worse timing on Blizz's part. Hopefully it comes up early enough that I can quest for greens for a couple of hours tonight and then hit it hard tomorrow. Need to go from 361-375 and I have no mats atm.

If all else fails I'll just waste some gold and buy the mats at the ah I guess.

[spleen1015]

You won't need to be 375 for the expansion. There are enchanting patterns starting at 350 with WotLK mats.

It will probably cheaper for you to wait.

[dubb93]

You won't need to be 375 for the expansion. There are enchanting patterns starting at 350 with WotLK mats.

It will probably cheaper for you to wait.

Yea, but the higher I am pre WotLK means the sooner I can start selling those WotLK dusts and shards. Atleast thats the reason I'm telling myself I want to get to 375 :)

[Rizon]

I had today off. I thought I'd be playing WoW all day. Oops.

[law90026]

My advice would be actually be similar yet different. I encourage raiding, but only if you can do it with friends. Start your own guild, if you have any RL friends that play have them join you. On my server we have 6 of us that are from the same town in our guild. We raid on our own terms with our guild members.

We don't chase the latest and greatest b/c that is beyond us, but you don't want to be lvl 70(or 80) in blues. The game loses its fun at that point.

I would agree with this. I've seen most of the content in TBC but the most fun I've had is just kicking back with people I like playing with in a 10-man instance rather than a 25-man instance. You'll never be a true leading edge guild but that's not something I'm personally interested in anyways.

[Ryche]

I had today off. I thought I'd be playing WoW all day. Oops.

Same here. Oh well.

Need to hit my enchanting and tailoring hard tonight too. Want to do a little more exploring in the Outlands too, still have a couple zones I've barely seen.

[saldana]

My advice would be actually be similar yet different. I encourage raiding, but only if you can do it with friends. Start your own guild, if you have any RL friends that play have them join you. On my server we have 6 of us that are from the same town in our guild. We raid on our own terms with our guild members.

We don't chase the latest and greatest b/c that is beyond us, but you don't want to be lvl 70(or 80) in blues. The game loses its fun at that point.

what server are you on...need any more members?

The servers should be coming back up soon. They have been down ALL day at this point. They had an issue with the in game mail system today.

As far as I can tell something big happened with it b/c Blizz is sending in game mail out to every char when the game comes back up explaining the problem. I seriously hope we didn't lose all of our mail. If thats the case alot of people just lost a crap ton of gold. Basically lost all of your ah sells since the last time you logged on. It could be in the thousands of gold for some players.

this will totally suck if that is what happens...i am a relative noob, and my character is only lvl 16...i had a high level friend help me clear an instance and I kept all the drops...i had about 15 items that sold in the AH on Monday that i logged off before they cleared...it would only be a couple pieces of gold, but to someone with very little, 2 is a freaking LOT!

[mauchow]

I've been tryin to purchase a month subscription for a while now.. still error on WOW website.

[EagleFan]

Anyone doing the expansion?

Having fun with a Death Knight so far. Haven't tried my reglar chars in the new zone yet.

[spleen1015]

Anyone doing the expansion?

Having fun with a Death Knight so far. Haven't tried my reglar chars in the new zone yet.

Dinged 71 on my main after about 4 hours of solid questing.

[Lathum]

So I just started and am up to a lvl 5 mage. I am also a Troll. I have found alot of armor but my armor rating is cloth and when I try to wear other armor it tells me I haven't yet learned that proficienty. Will I ever and how?

[sabotai]

A mage will only use cloth. Mages don't get to train for other types of armor.

[Lathum]

ahh, thx!

[Bad-example]

Taking a break after recently getting my rogue to 70. Need to get 12 more in leatherworking for 375.

Hoping Fry's blows out the expansion as a loss leader in the near future.

[DanGarion]

My advice to you after playing a MMORPG for nearly 5 years is not to start. It's not worth wasting your time.

[EagleFan]

Tonight really sucks, tried to log in and am like 320 in the queue with a wait time of over 20 minutes.

[spleen1015]

Tonight really sucks, tried to log in and am like 320 in the queue with a wait time of over 20 minutes.

ROFL. I am down to 22nd right now after starting at 910 about 50 minutes ago.

[Lathum]

can someone explain to me how my position in the queue is going backwards?

[Lathum]

This is an awesome trial, waiting forever to actualy play.

[spleen1015]

This is an awesome trial, waiting forever to actualy play.

With the expansion coming out yesterday, it might be a bad time to start playing. :D

Give it a couple of weeks and things will be better.

[Lathum]

well I dunno, then they shoulds suspend trial memberships or something. That was about as big a turrnoff as you can have.

[Bearcat729]

I guess I'm lucky. I've not had to face a queue time yet.

[DanGarion]

Wow pay for a game, and then you have to wait to play. Sounds really fun.

[Lathum]

Wow pay for a game, and then you have to wait to play. Sounds really fun.

lol, no kidding. I only have a limited time budgeted towards gaming. I can think of alot better ways to spend it then watching my number in a queue actualy grow. If it was a 10 minute wait, or even 30 I would be OK with it. But 3 hours? Gimme a break.

I don't want to sound like sour grapes because I know about the expansion, but alot of people just starting may not have.

[dubb93]

lol, no kidding. I only have a limited time budgeted towards gaming. I can think of alot better ways to spend it then watching my number in a queue actualy grow. If it was a 10 minute wait, or even 30 I would be OK with it. But 3 hours? Gimme a break.

I don't want to sound like sour grapes because I know about the expansion, but alot of people just starting may not have.

Did you roll on a "full" realm? Haven't had queues since I transferred off of Illidan. Just because a realm in WoW isn't "full" does not mean you can't have a good time on it. If you build relationships on the game with qualtiy, active, good players it doesn't really matter the server size. In fact, if it's a PvP server you may end up regretting not rolling on a smaller server as in my experience Illidan was nothing but a gankfest. Harder to farm, harder to run instances(always gay rogues ganking at the stones) and generally if someone was not ganking you were farming the same 20 mobs with 15 other people.

What is the name of your server?

[saldana]

Did you roll on a "full" realm? Haven't had queues since I transferred off of Illidan. Just because a realm in WoW isn't "full" does not mean you can't have a good time on it. If you build relationships on the game with qualtiy, active, good players it doesn't really matter the server size. In fact, if it's a PvP server you may end up regretting not rolling on a smaller server as in my experience Illidan was nothing but a gankfest. Harder to farm, harder to run instances(always gay rogues ganking at the stones) and generally if someone was not ganking you were farming the same 20 mobs with 15 other people.

What is the name of your server?

he is on lightninghoof (rppvp)...it is pretty full...lots of people waited a long time last night

[spleen1015]

To avoid the queues, I log in an hour or so before I want to play and just make sure my guy stays logged in. I check it every 20 minutes or so and take him out of AFK.

[Lathum]

So I just had the screen freeze on me, for the 4th time, and I had to exit the game and am now 400th in the queue.

[EagleFan]

To avoid the queues, I log in an hour or so before I want to play and just make sure my guy stays logged in. I check it every 20 minutes or so and take him out of AFK.

Go into a building, face a corner and hit the run button (NumLock) to make him run in place into the wall.

[Shkspr]

So I just had the screen freeze on me, for the 4th time, and I had to exit the game and am now 400th in the queue.

Look, honestly,both you and saldana should find a server with low or medium load. They're out there. If you've got other friends that you want to play with on a particular server, then you can start a new character after the rush dies down. You're not going to lose much ground by getting the mechanics down on another, and you can give the game a much more robust try without waiting for the queues to die down.

Oh, and if hundreds of people a night didn't use Spleen's trick, maybe the queues wouldn't be as long. :)

[saldana]

Look, honestly,both you and saldana should find a server with low or medium load. They're out there. If you've got other friends that you want to play with on a particular server, then you can start a new character after the rush dies down. You're not going to lose much ground by getting the mechanics down on another, and you can give the game a much more robust try without waiting for the queues to die down.

Oh, and if hundreds of people a night didn't use Spleen's trick, maybe the queues wouldn't be as long. :)

we thought about that last night, but realize that this is a temporary, if not extremely frustrating, deal. I have 3 or 4 other friends in that realm, which is why we joined on it...it is just a matter of patience and or timing for a while until all the hoopla dies down.

[Bearcat729]

I had my first queue last night, I figure trying to play this weekend is just going to be annoying.

I don't remember it being this bad when burning crusades came out, but Fozzie did choose a brand new RP server so maybe thats why we missed them.

[spleen1015]

Go into a building, face a corner and hit the run button (NumLock) to make him run in place into the wall.

I did this today and I still got disconnected. :(

[EagleFan]

I did this today and I still got disconnected. :(

Sorry. I had just remembered our guild leader telling someone that within the last week. Of course it could have been a disconnect not related to being away as I have lost connection a lot over he last week just while playing.