This amazing game from Blizzard has me hooked for the past few months.
This article might not really make sense to many of you ... but for those of you to who it does - heres some of my learnings from the game
Call this my own personal WOW Guide if you may....
I have levelled up a hunter to level 80 and a priest to level 77 as I write this article - and I also have a few mid level characters....and here are my general do's and donts for the game
So here goes....
Game Aids
1) Please get the relevant addons for the game...especially get yourself Questhelper and Auctioneer addons. These are quite useful and you can do so much better with these addons
2) Get a wide screen monitor - the game experience is really much better the bigger your screen. Believe me. I had used a small monitor before and now I use a big one and I love it...
3) I play in Windowed mode. That way - I know if someone pings me in Gtalk or something while I play :). Choose your preference! Some like their screens filled up...but I like it this way
Gold Making
I dont consider myself a great gold maker in WoW or something - but there are some fundamental things you can do - to make gold in WoW. Some of these are very simple things which anyone will know once they play the game for sometime
1) First and foremost thing you want to do - is to forget all those stupid crafting professions. I mean all of them. ALL OF THEM.
Be a miner/skinner or herb gatherer at the starting levels. This is especially true for your first character in a realm/faction.
However tempted you may be to roll a leatherworking profession since you are a hunter or an engineering profession to get that cool bike ride - it is not worth it.
Crafting professions give you value (if at all) only VERY VERY VERY late in the game - and that too - the value can always be purchased. For levelling up your leatherworking from say 1-450 you will easily spend a hell of a lot of money and time which can easily be spent gathering stuff and making money.
Take my case - my leatherworking is now at 441 (my character can bee seen here)
Even with skinning as my primary profesion - I still need Artic Furs, Primal Fire/Water/Shadow etc. / and Orbs and what not - in order to level - and not a single crafted item that I am wearing is made by me.
I never even found anything worth selling - maybe a few armor kits here and there - and a few of the items which are used by disenchanters. Hardly worth the effort I put into L/W. End of the day - it did not make me money and it did not make me anything worth wearing.
Had I taken a mining profession - I would be riding an epic mount by now and still had the same gear I am wearing.
The highest gear items - are almost 90% available only on 10/25 man dungeons in PVE and by playing Arenas for PVP. You dont craft them. So what is the point of a crafting profession?
This is seriously an area where I See that Blizzard needs to add more value for people to actually make value from taking a crafting profession.
So - be a miner/skinner/herba.
Personal preference would be miner/skinner or herba/skinner (you hunt animals often you might as well skin them and since ores share the minimap with herbs - you dont usually get too many of them anyways)
Sell any crap you mine/herb/skin and you are easily making money in no time. I started a character with these professions now and I am comfortably making good money even in level 20.
If at all you choose not to listen to my advice and want to roll a crafting profession - be a Tailor. Netherweave Bags are a good source of money and later Frostweave bags. My other character is making good money off of tailoring.
Thus far Enchanting hasnt made much money for me - maybe I am just not spending enough time Disenchanting to make money. I need to investigate.
But if there were any advice I were to give on Gold making - it would be roll a gathering profession. No matter how high a level you reach - you can always use the gold.
2) My second tip on gold making is the Auction house. There are some simple rules in auction house
a) Sell what people want -
nobody wants a stupid Green item (except maybe enchanters) which is priced above 4G. You get better items in a random dungeon run
nobody wants a 6 or 8 or 14 slot bags...they want what they cant buy off the vendor.
nobody wants vendor trash - so dont sell it
Money is almost 80% of the time to be made off items which are "Raw Materials" to a profession/item. It is very rarely to be made of Actual items. Learn to identify raw mats
Stop making frostweave bandages after you hit level 80. The frostweave cloth in my realm sells 4G a stack - you are better off selling it than making bandages
b) Sell competitively - just because somoeone just put up a frostweave bag for 10G a piece - does not mean you have to jump on it and sell it at 9 G. Wait for the item to get sold and then resell in the market price. Patience is a virtue. Some noob idiots will always sell stuff at a value much less than what an item is worth. Dont waste your time and energy trying to undercut noobs. It is not worth it.
c) When you undercut someone - undercut sensibly
If the cheapest price in AH is currently 10G 99S 99C for an item, you only need to price it at
10G 99S and 98C to undercut him/her
Dont be a noob and take the price to 9G...that is just plain silly. Not only are you losing 1G 99S 98C but you are in effect bringing the market itself down drastically
3) The third tip to gold making is to farm
a) Farm for fish - there is a lot of money to be had by selling raw fish in the market. Whenever you are just plain bored to do anything else - go fish yourself to money. It doesnt matter which level you are. You can always fish and sell what you catch.
b) Farm for leather - a good place is Gundrak Raptors near Zuldrak - they give you 2-3 Borean leathers a kill. I cant think of any other place where you can get 2-3 Borean leathers in 1 kill. In an hour I create 200 Borean leather which is roughly 40 Heavy Borean Leather - each of which is easily worth 8-10G - which is 300-400 gold per hour
c) Farm for Emblems - you can convert them into Orbs which sell for good money in the AH.
4) (applicable to level 80s - who can easily get a lot of Emblems of Triumphs)
4) Dailies - Especially once you are level 80. They give you 13G and 23S per daily. You can do 25 of those. Argent tournament grounds and areas in Icecrown (shadow vault) have dailies which can all be finished in 1-2 hours and would fetch 13G 23S per quest and you can do 25 of those every 1-2 hours. This is easily 331 G in just the quest reward - plus you get to loot the corpses which would separately yield another 100-200G worth of items and you get to skin the kill sometimes, not to mention the occassionaly mining/gathering which you do in the process (if you are a miner). This is one of the fastest ways to earn money in the game.
5) Be Sensible.
Yes.
Be Sensible.
You dont need a heavily overpriced gun in the AH - which would cost you 10G and you are in your level 10 - just entering the WSG battles . You are much better of saving that money for your first mount. Remember the epic flying mount and Artisan Riding skill - they take a ton of gold. Also - you need to save for your skill learning/profession levelling/travel/repair etc.
Resist the urge to make unnecessary purchases in the AH.
A simple rule of thumb you can use is - never make a purchase which is than XX% your bank balance (until you are level 80 or are making the purchase because you ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY MUST) and you should be fine.
You can decide the XX suitable for you. I would recommend 20-30%.
Social Tips
1) Please learn to be polite. It is very important that you are polite to people. Dont go shouting "noob &£$% idiot" if someone accidentally does not heal you - or you die because of a fault in a dungeon group.
Everyone makes a mistake.
This is just a game. Its not as if you got really killed or something. You can always respawn and get back into the game
2) If you are a Tank/Healer in a dungeon group - it is very important you dont just ditch the group because you got a stupid dungeon or because the group is not keeping pace with you. DPSers are easy to find. But not a tank or a healer. So before you roll as a Tank/Healer - think about if you are serious about doing a dungeon - or if you might go for a bathroom break and not come back.
3) Always inform the group the buffs you need when you need
4) Watch for mana breaks (mb) and dont just keep running and killing everything in a dungeon
5) Dont "Need" when you dont "Need" an item
6) To sum up - just dont be a jerk and dont show off.
Gear
1) maxdps.com is a good site. Use it to identify the right gear
2) Gearscore addon is quite good. Use that as well.
3) The path to a good gear needs patience. I would suggest you start off with the 5 man dungeons and slowly move to 10-25 man once the gearscore is decent (say 4K + )
4) Join a good raiding guild and take part in the weeklies
5) End of the day it is just Gear and Skill which matter in WoW. Gear is something you surely can improve quite easily and you better work on it.
6) Make sure you Enchant/Socket and use all your Glyphs when you have the money to do so. Currently my characters lack the enchants - and I am still working on it - (not sure if I want to enchant tier 9 gear or want to wait to get to tier 10 and enchant it once and for all)
Seasonal Contests
1) Take part in the seasonal games and also on the Fishing tournaments. Some of the items they reward like the Darkmoon cards/the ring from the Kaluak fishing etc. are very useful items to win.
2) Easy money and easy way to gain levels as well.
PVP
1) PVP is different from PVE. Learn the essential differences.
The most critical one would be your gear changes. You need more +sta and +resilience items in a PVP scenario - as it is more important that you live first. Only if you live you can tank/heal/dps.
2) In a PVP scenario - be realistic. Dont try to be a hero. If you are Horde, dont think you can take on 5 allys of the same level as you.
You can't. Period.
Go in groups in Battlegrounds. Unity is strength. You go alone - and you will soon spawn in the nearest graveyard.
I am not saying be a coward. All I am saying is it is better to live and win another day than to die brave and lose the bg.
There are no honor points for dying bravely in battle. You will only be sitting and doing nothing.
3) If you are in a flag carrying scenario (EOTS or WSG) - allow a player well equipped to carry it - if it is possible. A well equipped player is - ideally a druid who can shapeshift and run quickly or a tank who can take tremendous punishment before dying or a mage who can teleport quickly. If you are a hunter/priest/lock/rogue etc. it is maybe better of if you wait unless you have a very good idea of what you plan to do.
If you are a priest - and you do take the flag - keep your shield up all the time - and cast dispersion/use trinket wisely to get out of a stun/lock situation
If you are a hunter - use the Mark of Wild to give you boost to run speed and cast deterrence at the right time
Locks/Rogues - Try to stay away from flag as much as possible
4) If you are a caster - behave like one.
You strength is in staying away and causing damage. Dont be a fool and run into the enemy.
5) If you are a tank/melee - dont waste any time getting to the squishies
Rogues - Please learn to stealth well...that is the key to your success
6) In an Arathi basin - dont keep turtling. The moment you have 3 bases - stick to it unless absolutely necessary. Defend wherever you are and dont keep running up and down. A win gives more honor than you killing a lot of them and losing.
7) In WSG - once you pick up the flag - be sensible. Keep your allies close. And take your time to reach your base. You dont get brownie points for running back with the flag within 2 minutes (unless you are aiming for the 3-0 achievement in 7 minutes). Take your time. Find where your allies are. Choose the right path to run. Use the boosts within the small huts outside the tunnels. Get the fast move boost if possible. But most of all - dont just keep running. It is better to sometime stay back fight and then run.
Example - a level 71 hunter is attacking you and you are a level 78 pally. Take your time. Go kill the hunter. Then start running. If you keep running - you will keep losing HP. It is better to sometimes just fight and get it over with and then run.
8) In EOTS - Towers are more important than the flag. 3 towers al the time - and you win. You dont need any flag. First make sure you have 2 each defending a tower and only then go to the center.
10) In SOA - take out the tanks and machines. Concentrate more on them than on the players
PVE
1) In PVE - you need to have the gear which matches with what you are trying to do. A dps does not need a +sta or +resi at the cost of AP/Crit chance
2) PVE - dont pull the crowd which you cannot handle.
3) Learn what to do in different dungeons - this only comes with experience. But more importantly - if someone does not know what is the tactic - either educate him./her or be patient with them. Remember - there was once a time when you were new to the dungeon and someone else was patient with your "noob"ness
Levelling
1) In order to level quickly there are some basic rules
Always - pick all quests in a particular area and finish them. dont take 1 quest in Grizzly hills, 1 in borean tundra, 1 in crystalsong forest and 1 in icecrown and keep running up and down. Take 8 quests in same area and do it all in 1 go
2) Use questhelper
3) Always level in a region where the quests are closer to your level (quest color in the quest log should atleast be yellow). Abandon quests which have become grey/green
4) I have found dungeons to be one of the fastest ways to level. Always queue up for a dungeon and spend most of your time levelling in dungeons - they give good items/money and levels
5) Keep an alt for banking/selling/storage - and mail all items to the alt (or mule). Dont waste time running back and forth from Dalaran to Ogrimmar just to sell some stuff in AH
6) Remember to go to Outland/Northrend as soon as you hit level 58/68. Dont waste your time in Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdom doing nonsense runs which give you half the experience and practically useless items as compared to that in Outland/Northrend.
End of the day - remember. It is just a game. Enjoy it. Bring your friends to it. But always remember to spend enough time outside of it!
Cheers
cb