FAQ And Strategy Guide - Guide for World of Warcraft
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[World of Warcraft] FAQ/Strategy Guide [Version] 0.12 [Author] Jdude84 [Contact] jch0449 [at] gmail [dot] com [AIM] JCLT811 [Table of Contents] 1. About WoW 2. WoW Lingo / Abbreviations 3. Frequently Asked Questions - Game Basics - Professions - Making Gold - Mounts 4. Game Etiquette 5. How To - Keyboard shortcuts - Pulling - Tanking - Grinding - Farming - Questing - Using the Auction House 6. Zone Information - Eastern Kingdom - Kalimdor 7. Administrivia - Legal Information - Credits - Version History - Contact Info [1. About WoW] World of Warcraft, known to its players more affectionately as WoW, or "The game that stole my life from me", is the latest in the craze known as MMORPGs. It's massive. It's multiplayer. To most, it's amazingly addictive. But I'm assuming you know most of that already. This section really goes over nothing, so if you know what you're looking for, skip this and head down to the other sections. For those unaware of the existance of such game, here's a bit more information. World of Warcraft [Website: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com] (Lots of useful basic information there, by the way) is a MMORPG. Yes, it does cost monthly to play, on top of the $49.99 to buy the game. The going rate is currently $15/month, and more payment info can be found on their site. If you're looking for reviews, check out the section devoted to such things right here at GameFAQs, or just google it, if perchance you don't trust GameFAQs (and why would you do such a thing?). In general, if you like online RPGs, you'll like this game. If you like killing things, you'll love this game. The depth of this game cannot even be attempted to be covered even in brief in less than a few hundred paragraphs. If you can think of it, odds are it is in this game in some form, or is planned to be included in future patches. Yes, game content is non static and is updated quite frequently. Further, more...useful information can be found throughout the rest of this guide, so without further ado: [2. WoW Lingo / Abbreviations] If you've never played an online RPG before, you'll be surprised to see the crazy amount of abbreviations, terms, and crazy lingo strewn across the many channels of WoW. While most of the following can be found in the game manual and/or on the WoW community site, if you've got no idea what a aggro hating kiter is, you may want to read the following section. For "ease" of searching, they're listed in alpabetical order, descending. [Add] An enemy that attacks you while you are fighting another enemy. Sometimes also referred to as "aggro". [Aggro] Twofold meaning. The more common is the same as an [Add], where an enemy you did not intend to attack attacks you while you are fighting another enemy. The second, lesser used, refers to the amount of hate a monster has for you. Hate is generated by the threat you cause to the monster, or by healing other players. Generally common to hear mages complaining about aggro. [AFK] Away from keyboard. If you don't know what this stands for, you've probably not heard of the internet either. [Aggro Radius] Exactly what it sounds like. It's the circular distance around a particular [Mob] in which they will [Aggro] you. Determining the aggro radius on various enemies simply takes time and experience, as most all of them have a slightly differing range. [AoE] Stands for "area of effect". Certain spells, such as arcane explosion, have this attribute. AoE spells will hit all enemies in a certain radius, such as 10 yards. [AE] Stands for "area effect". Pretty much the same as [AoE]. [AH] Stands for "auction house". These are located in Ironforge, Orgrimmar, and Gadgetzan. [Avatar] Your character. [Buff] A status boosting spell casted on yourself or another player. Examples of this include Arcane Intellect, Blessing of Might, etc. Frequently you'll see party members asking you to buff them. [BFD] Stands for "Blackfathom Deeps", which is one of many [Instance] dungeons found throughout the game. Also one of the first ones you'll be able to enter, in many cases. [BoP] Stands for "Bind on Pickup", an attribute of many drops. Means the item cannot be traded or sold ot another player as soon as it's picked up. [BoE] Stands for "Bind on Equip". Means that the item can be picked up and traded, but not if you equip it. Most "greens" have this attribute. [BRB] Be right back. Again, you know this already if you've spent more than 5 minutes on the internet. [Carebear] Generally used by players who prefer [PVP], this is a term given to players who prefer to attack enemies rather than other players. I've not seen much of this used, but it might be more rampant on PVP servers. [Caster] Someone who casts spells and other incantations in order to fight, rather than run up and bash them directly. Mages and priests are good examples of this, while certain classes like druids can both work as Casters and [Melee] fighters. [Combat Pet] A pet owned by a player that can be controlled to help fight enemies. As opposed to other pets, which are non combat. Hunters make great use of these. [Cooldown] The waiting period before another spell or ability can be used again. In general, the more powerful the spell, the longer the cooldown. [Creep] Lesser used term for an enemy or monster. [Critter] An animal that doesn't attack back, such as a deer or rabbit. You can still kill them, however. [Deadmines] Almost always, this will be the first [Instance] dungeon you're able to fight in. Located in Westfall. [Debuff] A spell cast on an enemy or (in PVP) a player. Usually this lowers one of their attributes or gives them a negative status effect. [DoT] Stands for "Damage over Time". [DPS] Stands for "Damage per Second". You'll see a lot of talk about this. In general, higher DPS equals better. Rogues have excellent damage per second, while classes such as mages tend to lack in this area. [Drop] An item found on an enemy. Loot, money, etc. [Elite] A term given to certain enemies and quests. Elites act just like any other enemies their level, only with a lot (and i mean a lot) more health points. They're just as easy to hit, but they're very strong. These often require groups to kill. Note that all elite enemies can also be identified by the gold dragon around their icon in the targeting window. [EXP] Sometimes also referred to as "XP", this stands for Experience Points, those precious numbers you need to get your next level up. [Farming] You'll hear differing opinions of what this means, but in general it's the act of fighting lower level monsters in order to make faster amounts of gold. Often this is done by fighting lower level humanoids, who drop cloth, as well as money and often equipment. [Flagged] On PvE or RP servers, you cannot attack an opposing character unless they have flagged themselves available for PvP. This can be done by typing /pvp, attacking a pvp flagged enemy, aiding a pvp flagged ally, or entering certain areas like opposing cities or the arena in Stranglethorn Vale. Flagged status lasts for five minutes. [Gank] To kill another player in an uneven way, either by attacking someone many levels lower or by teaming up. Also known as "Ganking". [Grinding] The act of staying in the same area fighting the same enemies for a very long time. Generally used in coordination with [Farming], in order to collect faster amounts of money, and sometimes, [EXP]. [GM] Stands for "Game Master". They're the big bad scary dudes in charge who can help you out if you encounter problems. [Greens] Used to refer to the colour of "uncommon" equipment or item drops from enemies. Item value/rarity is referred to by colours, and you'll see the term greens a lot, as they are worth quite a bit more than your average item, but common enough that you'll see quite a few in a single span of gameplay. [GTG] Stands for "Good to Go". A good one to know, if you're used to this as "Got to go", and you keep seeing your party members say it. Usually stated by mages or other mana users who have just recovered their mana. [Hate] The amount of [Aggro] an enemy has towards you. Also referred to as [Threat] sometimes. [HP] Health points, hit points, health. Life. Whatever. [Inc] Stands for incoming. Crazy. [Incoming] Sometimes abbreviated as [Inc], this simply means there's an attack coming towards you. Genereally used in dungeons or elite quests. [Instance] A unique copy of a dungeon in which only you and your party members are inside. Other groups may still enter the same area, they'll simply be in another copy of the dungeon. Generally these are elite filled areas, such as the deadmines or blackfathom deeps. [Kiting] The act of keeping an enemy/other player out of range where they can attack you, but in range of your attacks. Very, very effective once mastered. A real annoyance in [PVP] battles. [KS] Kill stealing/Kill stealer. The act of taking kills from someone else, or someone who does such. Generally frowned upon. [LFG] Stands for "Looking for Group". Another good one to know, especially if you're heading towards an instance. [LFM] Stands for "Looking for More". Used to differentiate between someone looking for a group, and someone in a group looking to fill that existing group up. [LOL] Stands for "Laugh Out Loud". The bane of many an online player's existance. [LOM] Stands for "Low on Mana". Mages should have a macro for this. [Looting] To take treasure/drops from a chest/enemy/corpse/object. Sometimes used in a negative connotation to describe party members who just take everything. [LVL] Stands for level. Used by players who hate vowels, apparently. [Melee] Closed range attacks and/or attacking style. You're either ranged, or melee. Yes, some classes or both, but you obviously can only engage in one type of battle style at a time. [Mez] Used to describe any spell that incapacitates an enemy. Abbreviation of mesmerize. Examples of this would be a Paladin's hammer of justice spell. [Mob] Used to refer to anything from your generic enemy, to a monster, to a [NPC]. [Named] An enemy which has a proper name instead of a generic one. Often they will have a silver dragon around their icon in the targeting window. Note their location, as they are often the target of quests. [Nerfing] Player created term to define the actions Blizzard takes to modify/weaken different classes in certain updates. It's generally accepted that this was coined from the popular "Nerf" toy series, which generally consisted of "soft" versions of every sport possible. Witty, yet overused. Complaining about nerfing runs rampant, and is usually a good way to get inter-class arguments going. [Newbie] Used to describe players who are new to the game. Sometimes used in a negative connotation, although others use the term [n00b]. Sometimes shortened to Newb. [Ninja] Usually short for "Ninja Looting", this refers to the act of players in a party looting chests or drops with no regard to other players in the party. Don't do it, people will hate you. Lots. [NPC] Stands for 'non playable character'. Generally used to describe characters such as innkeepers, vendors, or other 'friendly' characters in cities. Also used to describe the act of selling junk items to vendors. Often you'll hear players telling others to "just NPC it" when referring to a low level item. [n00b] The more negative form of [Newbie], generally used to describe someone who is annoying and or rude, rather than low level or new to the game. [PC] Stands for "Price Check". Used when you want to sell something but aren't sure of the value. Be careful with this one, especially if you get immediate offers. [Pet] Also referred to as a Non-Combat pet, these refer to pets who do not aid in battles. These can range from dogs to parrots, and much much more. [Pop] Abbreviation for "Populates", describes the act of an enemy [Spawn]. [Port] Stands for teleport. The act of warping around the world via various means, removing the need to walk. Lazy kids these days. [PST] Here's one that took me a while to figure out. Stands for "Please Send Tell". You'll see this EVERYWHERE. It's generally used as a prefix by people who are selling/offering/looking for almost anything. Basically means they want you to whisper them. [PVE] Stands for "Player Versus Environment". Used to describe player versus NPC content. [PVP] Stands for "Player Versus Player". Used to describe...well, player versus player content. Certain servers are PVP servers, which means you can attack and be attacked by anyone almost anywhere. [Pull] Here's an important one. Pulling describes the act of drawing an enemy (almost always by use of a ranged attack or spell) away from a large group of enemies. Used in parties and dungeons almost exclusively, this is a very, very common tactic used to fight one monster at a time rather than 2-5 of them. Learn to pull, or don't try to at all, or your party members will get very angry with you. Common pullers are Hunters, Rogues, or any "tank" class. [Puller] Someone who pulls. Generally determined by a party before entering a dungeon. [Raid] A large party formed to attack very, very high level enemies. Almost always you'll need to be in the 50-60 range to join a raid. [Res] Sometimes also abbreviated as Rez. Both refer to Ressurect, or Ressurection. Players saying this (generally in a group) are calling out for one. This will ressurect a player instantly at the spot of their corpse. Very useful in dungeons. [Respawn] Used to describe a dead enemy respawning. [Rolling] Used to describe the act of rolling a die to either win equipment drops in a group, or for other certain actions. While rolling for items is automatic, it is very common for groups to agree to "roll for" things such as chests/ore veins, and other items while grouping. Do not, and I repeat, do not roll for things you can't use that are bind on pickup. You'll never get in any groups if you do this, so it's not worth it. [RP] Stands for "Role play" or "Role playing". Some servers are RP only, which means you may only act within character. [SFK] Stands for "Shadowfang Keep", an instance dungeon within Silverpine Forest. [Spawn] Same thing as a respawn, basically. [Spawn Point] As you may have guess, this refers to the location in which enemies spawn/respawn. [Stack] A unit of measure that isn't exactly exact. Refers to a full set of items stacked in your inventory. Some items stack in sets of 20 (EG: Linen cloth), while others stack in sets of 10 (Ores), or more/less. [Soulbound] Item attribute that means that it cannot be sold or traded to another player. It is, as the name suggests, bound to your character. [Tank] Twofold. A tank is a character with a high amount of armor and HP, who can take a great deal of hits. Usually used in a party. Good examples of tanks include Warriors, Paladins, and Druids in Bear Form. Also, "tanking" is referred to as the act of being a tank. It is usually a warrior's job to tank in parties, while a class such as a priest or paladin is responsible for healing the tank. [Taunt] The action of causing a monster to attact you instead of someone else. Also known as pulling or drawing [Aggro]. [Threat] Basically the same thing as [Hate]. [TY] Stands for "Thank You". Everyone with AOL knows what this is. [WB] Stands for "Welcome Back". [WTB] Stands for "Want to Buy". Usually used as a prefix followed by what item the person is looking for. EG: "WTB Stacks of [Linen Cloth] PST". Get used to seeing plenty of this. [WTS] Stands for "Want to Sell". Used in the same context as [WTB]. [XP] Experience points, also referred to as [EXP]. [3. Frequently Asked Questions] [Game Basics] Q. What does _________ stand for? A. Check section 2. If you can't find it there, e-mail me at jcho449 [at] gmail [dot] com Q. How much does the game cost? A. $49.99 for the actual game itself. 1 month of play time is included with the disks. Subsequent months are $14.99/month, or slightly less if you buy multiple months at a time. Q. Do I need a credit card to play this game? A. No, you can buy prepaid game cards and choose to pay with those. Q. What system specs. do I need to run this game? A. Opinions vary, but I would suggest at least 512MB of RAM, a decent Pentium IV/M or Athlon processor, and a 128MB video card. If you don't want to lag anywhere, you'll want 1GB of ram and a 256MB graphics card. Get the gig of RAM, more than anything, if you have the rest, and you'll be fine. Ironforge lags for EVERYONE now and then. Q. What is the maximum level? A. As of now, 60. There are possibilities of extending the level cap, but no current plans exist, at least that are known to the general public. Q. What is "Rest EXP"? A. Rest XP is generated when you log out at an inn or city. Basically, the longer you don't play, the more rest EXP you get. When rested, you gain double experience from kills. This does not apply to quests, and the maxium rest EXP you can save up is 2 1/2 levels, which takes roughly 2 weeks to accumulate. Q. Are there any "resets" or any downtime? A. There is no time specific or influenced content in the game, although it does play in real time. There are no resets, however there is scheduled maintainence every Tuesday morning that usually lasts from 6-11 AM PST. Downtime is well known to last longer than that, but the only days you should run into performance issues will be on tuesdays. Q. Do I lose my characters after the 10-day trial (Only if your friend gave you the 10-day free trial card) A. No. You still keep your old characters should you decide to buy the game after trying it out on the 10-day trial. Q. Can I transfer characters between servers? A. In some cases you may transfer them from higher to lower population servers, but only in this case. Check blizzard's website for more information if you are interested. Q. How many characters can I have total? A. 50 total. Q. Can I play this game on multiple computers? A. Yes, so long as you register your key/name on their website, you can use your login anywhere around the world 24/7. The only restriction is you may only be logged in from one location at a time. You can't log in with two characters at once. [Professions] Q. How many professions may I have at once? A. You can have two Main Professions, and all three Secondary professions (Fishing, Cooking, First Aid) Q. What main professions are there? A. Skinning, Mining, Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, Herbalism, Alchemy, Engineering, Enchanting, Tailoring. Q. Why so many? How should I decide which to pick? A. There are many various suggested combinations. MOST will work, but a few of the more popular ones include: Skinning/Leatherworking, Mining/Blacksmithing, Skinning/Mining, Enchanting/Tailoring, Herbalism/Alchemy. Q. Should I only use professions my classes can use? A. Absolutely not. While there are certain professions that greatly help certain classes, there are a ton of them that are great at generating revenue regardless of class. That being said, having your human mage be a blacksmith/leatherworker might not be the best idea. Q. Ok, so where do I go to learn how to become a _________? A. This varies greatly dependent on your race, class, and intended profession. You can get directions to any trainer from a guard in a major city. It's not hard, trust me. [Making Gold] Q. Gold? What's that? A. At low levels, you might not even have gold yet. For those unaware: 100 copper - 1 silver 100 silver - 1 gold 100 gold - A lot of money Q. So, how do I make gold? And fast. A. Making gold is almost an inappropriate term. Quite often, you'll be making silver over and over again, which will turn into gold. Very few drops in this game sell for a gold or more. When they do, it will almost always be at the auction house. Q. Auction House? A. There are three Auction Houses in the game: Ironforge (Alliance), Orgrimmar (Horde), and Gadgetzan (Both). These can be either an excellent place to make money, or a slow, certain doom that results in you blowing all your money on equipment. Be advised, you WILL want to buy anything you can use once you get to the auction house. That being said, you can greatly increase your revenue by visiting here frequently. As a very basic example, consider linen cloth: A stack of 20 sells for 2s60c to vendors. While this isn't nothing, the same stack can go from anywhere to 25s-30s (or more, if you're lucky) at the AH. That's a 1000% increase. Generally, any profession created items or items needed by professions sell very well at the AH, as well as any rare items. More detailed specifics will be covered elsewhere in the guide. Q. What if I don't wan't to/Can't get to the AH? A. Well, you have a couple of options: - Save your "greens"/rare items in your bank - Collect EVERYTHING you see, and NPC it - Try trading to other players on an individual basis I highly reccommend saving anything that looks valuable, and eventually selling it at the auction house, because it most likely is. As far as regular junk is concerned, you should have no trouble getting 5 bags of some slot value very early on, so pick up everything you see and sell it. It does add up. Q. That's all good and all, but so far you're just telling me to "kill stuff". A. Again, specifics will be covered later. However, in general, if you want immediate "money", humanoids drop copper/silver, as well as various types of cloth. Both add up VERY quickly if you decide to "Farm" them for a while. They also seem to drop equipment more often than other types of enemies, so you can almost never go wrong with fighting them. Other than that, nothing short of game experience and selling items to vendors will let you know what enemies are worth more than others. Spiders tend to have good drops as well. It all depends. Q. What professions make the most gold? A. I'm not nearly experienced with all the trade skills, especially at 200+ skill levels, but in general, if you want to make money, especially at lower levels, you can't go wrong with skinning/mining. Both ore and leather sell very well at the auction house. Even a stack of copper bars goes for upwards of 20s/stack. Q. I followed your advice, and I barely make anything! A. Context is important: At level 1-10, you'll be lucky to sell any individual item for more than a silver. Stacks of things will still sell generally low, as will equipment. Also consider that killing level 8 humanoids will get you around 30c, while fighting level 30s can get you upwards of 2s if you're lucky. Don't expect to make gold at any decent rate before level 20. At level 25 you may start to see gold amounts increase slowly. The only exception to this is of course, professions. You can make a bunch of gold mining and skinning early on. At low levels, it's more about being able to afford skills for your class and professions than anything else. [Mounts] Q. When can I get a mount? A. Level 40. No sooner. Please don't ask how to get one before level 40. Q. How much do they cost? A. 90G. Q. What's this about "Epic Mounts"? A. Epic Mounts can be acquired only once you've reached level 60, and they cost an impressive 1000g to buy. They increase your movement speed by 100%, however. And no, that's not an extra 0. Q. How am I supposed to afford these? A. Save. It's really not that hard. I'll include a strategy for earning gold for your mount later, but I assure you there's no magical formula. Spending less and selling more will eventually result in you earning 90g. It picks up a bit as you get closer and closer to 40. Q. So what do I get for my 90g exactly? A. Besides looking cool riding around on some random animal, when summoned, your mount increases your movement speed by 60%. Q. Is it really worth it? A. If it wasn't, do you think everyone would be buying one? In short, yes. However, don't ignore equipment for 20 levels just to get a mount. Careful balancing will result in you getting your mount and still having decent equipment. [Misc.] Q. What are "Greens" exactly? And what about other equipment levels. A. In this game, equipment is sorted by level/colour. The corresponding levels and their colours are as follows: Poor - Grey Common - White Uncommon - Green Rare - Blue Epic - Purple Legendary - Orange Artifact - ??? As you will find out, greens aren't THAT uncommon, but blue's are much, much, much harder to find. In general you won't even see your first blue until around level 20-25, and much later for your first purple. For some reason, these are referred to as "greens", "rares", and "epics", at least on my server. Why people chose to alternate between name and colour I'll never know. Q. What about the colours regarding quests? A. WoW uses a colour coding system to determine the difficulty of quests: Grey - Much lower levelled than you (very easy) Green - Lower levelled than you (easy) Yellow - Near or at your level (normal) Orange - 2-3 levels above you (hard) Red - 4+ levels above you (very hard) Level numbers may not be exact, but in terms of difficulty, it's almost immediate to tell whether or not a quest is possible at your level. Q. I notice enemies have colours as well, same thing as with quests? A. Almost, only a slight difference: Grey - Much lower levelled than you (very easy) Green - Lower levelled than you (easy) Yellow - Near or at your level (normal) Orange - 3-4 levels above you (hard) Red - 5+ levels above you (very hard) The difference here is, grey monsters will not give you any experience at all, and red enemies should basically never be attempted. Orange mobs are possible to be killed, depending on your class and skill level, but it's best to stick to yellows/greens. Q. Any other odd colour things I should know about? A. Skill increases work the same way. Other than that, that's all you'll need to know about the lovely colours in WoW. Grey - No skill gained from this action Green - Very low chance of gaining skill Yellow - Almost always gain skill Orange - You will gain a skill point from this action Red - Your skill level is too low/You do not have the required profession [4. Game Etiquette] The way you act while playing the game can have a huge influence on your character, not to mention everyone else. As with all MMORPGs, since you are almost always playing with other people - either directly or indirectly, you should learn some basic forms of online etiquette. This is especially true if you party frequently or plan to (which is almost required at higher levels). While you can get away with being an ass for a while, most players would agree that eventually it will catch up to you at endgame, and you won't be able to progress with your character to the extent that others will. That being said, here are a few basic rules of etiquette regarding playing the game in general, and partying: [1] Rolling on Item Drops This is probably the most important form of etiquette when it comes to partying in WoW. Very often in a party you will be fighting elites, which have a much higher drop rate of rare items (often greens, sometimes blues). While most of these are Bind on Pickup, quite a few are Bind on Equip. It is generally accepted that for BoE items, you may roll for everything. However, it is also common that if you win an item, can't use it, and someone else needs it, you should give it to the other player instead of being a greedy bastard. For example, if you're a level 24 mage in the deadmines who just picked up a nice mail armor, you should probably let the warrior or paladin in your party use it if they need it. On the matter of BoP items, the rules are slightly different. While the above are more of suggestions and popular personal opinion, you should absolutely NEVER roll on a BoP item that you CANNOT use. Now let me clarify what this means Firstly, if you're a rogue, don't start rolling on that nice blue staff that dropped from your first instance run. Rolling for items you cannot use is simply a waste, and since they are soulbound, you won't make that much money at all NPCing them. The more common annoyance, is when someone, say a Warrior for example, rolls on a really nice leather item. While warriors can EQUIP leather, this doesn't mean you are to roll for it. Warriors wear mail, plain and simple. If you roll on a set of armor lower tiered than you're suppose to wear, people will get pissed, and you will be removed from your party. So don't do it. In fact, if you ever see anyone roll on something they don't need, whether they win it or not, you should have them removed immediately. You'll quickly learn that groups that don't get along, or groups with a bad member in them never work well at all. In summary: - Don't roll on items you can't use (BoP) - Don't roll on items lower tiered than yours (BoP) - Adopt the policy of rolling on everything, but sharing when needed (BoE) [2] Looting in a party In parties, the drop system is slightly different. If you're in a party, every nth drop will be yours to loot, with n being the size of your party. This does not vary, whether you solo a mob yourself, or don't even fight, if it's your "turn" to have the drop, it becomes yours to loot. You get access to all the items in the drop that are below the group loot threshold (usually greens). This being said, if you're in the deadmines fighting 3 normal mobs and 2 other elites at once, don't run off and pick up that nice shiny object if there's two other elites left to be killed. People that loot before battles are ended are highly, highly annoying. Most group leaders will at the least warn you for this, some just boot you on the spot. Always wait until battles are over to pick up any loot, no one's going to steal your drops. On the opposite end, be sure you always scan an area before leaving it to be sure you haven't missed any drops. [3] Rolling for chests in parties It's another common policy to "roll" for any chests encountered while in a party. Pretty standard procedure. When you find a chest, if no one else has found it, alert everyone, then roll once all members are there AND you have cleared the area of any mobs. Rolling for chests while fighting always causes problems, so just don't do it. To roll for a chest, simply type /random 100, this will roll a number between 1-100. Highest wins. In the rare case of a tie, players usually reroll. Winner gets the chest, very simple. Good idea to agree on this BEFORE you party, as with most it is implied, but generally there's at least one player who will just run around looting anything they can, including chests. [4] Tradeskill items in parties In some cases, you'll come along tradeskill resources while in a party. These could be anything from dead monsters (skinning) to veins (mining), or other resources. These are usually easier to manage, as you'll rarely have more than 2 of a specific profession in even a 5 man party. It's common to decide to either roll for these, or simply alternate if there are two of you. Of course, if you're the only miner in your party, go crazy when you get to any veins that might pop up on the map. Just be sure you let your party members know. Additionally, don't stray too far from your party just to get to one more silver vein. When you draw aggro from 2 elites just to up your skill level by one, the rest of the party may get angry at you. Be careful. [5] Downtime in parties Parties consist of many, many different characters. Skinners, alchemists, rogues, humans, night elves. Most every character has a different playing style, but in parties the biggest issue is that of downtime and fighting tempo. While rogues and warriors can almost always charge from battle to battle with little downtime, classes like mages often need to rest every few battles to regenerate (almost always this is for mana purposes). If you are one of the "faster" playing characters, don't get carried away and rush around without the rest of your party. For those of us who like to play mana loving characters who need the downtime, try and do your best to minimize it by making efficient use of your mana, and using food/water/etc to speed up downtime. Parties who are good at coordinating downtime are generally very effective in reaching their goal. [6] Know your role The party etiquette train keeps on rolling. A great way to get people to hate you while you're partying is to play like a completely ignorant person in respect to party role. While you may play one way while soloing, partying often requires slight changes in your playing style. If you're a priest, this means you're basically only going to heal players. If no one needs healing, this doesn't mean you are to burn up your mana attacking something that you really won't be doing that much damage against. Other bad ideas include trying to tank with pretty much any class other than a warrior, paladin, or in rare cases, a druid. If you're one of the lower levelled players in your party, or if you're a cloth or leather wearing character, it's usually a good idea to let another character pull, thus letting them draw most of the aggro/damage from the attack. Mages who try to pull with ranged spells usually result in the healer of the party spending way too much mana keeping them alive. For classes such as the paladin or druid, you'll notice that you'll be expected to work as a "Secondary healer" often, meaning don't just run in there and bash/cast randomly against everything you see. If you're one of only two healers in the party, often one healer isn't enough. Help with the healing, you'll be greatly appreciated and find yourself many a future party. There are plenty more class specific roles, but those get far too advanced for a simple ettiquete lesson. In general, do what you can to help the party succeed, not just yourself. [7] Chatting etiquette Just a few general rules when it comes to chatting in the chatbox. Most are obvious, but a few are good to know. - Don't type in all caps. - Don't yell (/yell) everything. - Don't beg - Don't do anything you wouldn't want to have to tolerate - Don't whine about other annoying players, this is just as annoying. There's an ignore feature, use it :) - Don't trade in any channel other than trade. Shift+Click inserting items only works on the trade channel (/2) for a reason. - Don't spam things like LFG or WTS over and over. Not only does it often take a while to get replies to these, spamming will only get you less replies and a lot of annoyed people. - Try to use as much English as possible. Seeing "WTS +2BS 4G PST" may be an efficient way to get your message out to serious players, but it is just a little hard to read. (That being said, there's nothing wrong with using them within reason - EG: "LFG deadmines, PST") - Other less useful abbreviations, including but not limited to PLZ, LOL, THX, ROFL, and other such things you learned when you were 12 are simply annoying. I tend to ignore anyone who overuses these, and so will most others. [8] Kill stealing Most of us know what it is, no one likes it. Don't follow around another player taking all their kills just because you don't like the colour socks they're wearing. Regardless of your potential dislike of someone else, or perhaps the simple ability to kill everything before anyone else can touch an enemy, it's not worth it. [9] Random Encounters / Aid There are plenty of little things you can do while travelling around solo to improve the general gameplay for others as well as yourself. If you've got any sort of healing spell and see someone low on health, heal them, especially if they're in battle. When you're passing someone on the road en route to your next location, cast any helpful buffs you may have on them. Almost every time they'll do what they can in return, which can add up to a nice boost for the next 30 minutes. I've had buffs from different players for entire periods of play before. They pay off now and then. [10] Why bother? So what's the point of playing like a decent human being? For one, not everyone plays like this, so when you do get into a party, if you do a good job and are reasonably easy to get along with, quite often you'll get on many players' friends lists, which will result in many many future parties when you log in. Not only will you no longer have to spend time looking for parties, you'll have trusted, reliable players to party with as you ascend (usually along the same rate with them) in level. Being good with people is just as great an asset as an epic drop is later on in the game, so you might as well make the investment starting with your first deadmines run. Besides, most of these are just common sense, so just start hopping in parties and have fun. [5. How To] Ever wondered how to to something? Looking for something a little more descriptive than the general faq? Look no further, everything covered below should be in enough detail to satisfy your desires. Well, almost all of them. [Keyboard Shortcuts] While most, if not all of these are in the manual or located somewhere in the official documentation, there's a few that seem to elude most starting players, plus, who reads through the 200 page booklets that come with games? The following is a list of some of the more useful or commonly used shortcuts in the game. And yes, it did take me a good hour to figure out how to chat in the general channel. Chat commands: Enter - Bring up the chat window /1 - Switch to general chat channel /p - Party chat /g - Guild chat /say - Chat (seen only by those around you) /yell - Yell Shift-C - Toggle combat log Shift-Click - Insert selected item into chat (Trade channel only) Battle commands: Tab - Target enemies near you F1 - Target self F2-5 - Target party members Shift-F1- Target pet T - Attack target Shift-T - Have pet attack target Interface/Misc. commands: Num Lock - Autorun Alt-Z - Show/Hide user interface Shift-Up - Cycle upwards through action bar Shift-Down - Cycle downwards through action bar /played - Show total time played (Very dangerous) [Pulling] Pulling is pretty much the same either soloing or in a group, but it takes a bit of skill and practice to get decent at. Unfortunately, it's mainly a "feel" thing, so there's only so much you can learn from reading about it, as opposed to getting out there and trying it. Firstly, when pulling enemies you need to be aware of their level of what is usually referred to as "social activity". Certain enemies, like gnolls, are what you would call "social". They hang out around each other a lot, follow each other, and quite often you'll get a group of 2-3 or more of them chasing after you. Finding out social levels is mainly via experience, or just observing the way they act. Once you've established the way the little guys act, your goal with pulling is to ideally "pull" one of them away from what is usually a camp or group of anywhere from 3 to.. a lot of mobs. At most, you should pull 2, which is fine if you can handle 2 at a time. There's really very little to the actual act of pulling, most of it involves being patient and observing any movement patterns they have. Usually, you can find a spot where your target is the farthest away from the rest of the pack. This is when you're going to want to pull. As for which enemy you should target for pulling? If you're attacking a camp, it's best to attack any enemies on the "outside". Or, in the rare case there's an enemy all to himself in the middle of a pack, you're going to want to pull that one. It will almost always be obvious who you want to pull first, and if it isn't, you probably shouldn't be fighting there anyway. Once you've picked your target, there's a couple of ways to pull: Ranged pulling, and melee pulling. Ranged pulling is the more common, and definitely more effective. Using a bow, gun, spell, or whatnot, you simply fire at the enemy once they are the farthest away from the rest of the group. It's that simple, yet it will take you a while to get used to. If you're using spells, it's best to pull with your fastest attack, rather than your strongest. Often using a slow spell will result in the enemy making it closer back to the group by the time your spell goes off, resulting in all of them going after you just for that extra damage. Melee pulling, which technically isn't pulling at all, is a little harder, but can be very effective in parties if you have are tanking and don't have ranged. This is rare, and often limited to only paladins, but useful, as well as in solo. Since you can't pull with range, you're going to want to study their travel pattenrs, figure out when they're about 3-4 seconds away from the point where they WILL be furthest away, and just charge like a madman. By the time you get there, the mob should be about as far away as it will get from the rest of the pack. You can then lead the mob further away from the pack, kill it, and repeat until you've cleared the way. This is most effective when soloing, but should the need arise for it while you're partying, you'll please everyone else by not aggroing 3 enemies at a time. [Tanking] Tanking is an importance concept to understand. While it only comes into play in parties (it's rather impossible to "tank" while soloing), it's important to understand how to play with a tank, or tank yourself, if you are a "tanking" character. Firstly, characters that should tank are Warriors, Paladins, and Druids (in bear form). It's widely accepted that Warriors are best at this, but you shouldn't even attempt this if you're not one of these three classes. It's just too hard, and even if you pull it off, it's not efficient. That being said, tanking is a fairly simple concept. Your job is to take all the hits from an enemy or multiple enemies in a party. If you're thinking, "Great, i'm just a meat shield", you're only half right. While your primary job is admittedly to get hit, and hit a lot, you'll also be responsible for doing a fair amount of sustained damage. Obviously your primary objective is to draw fire so the primary damage dealers (EG: Rogues, mages) can do a ton of damage, but you'll need to do SOME damange in most cases to draw aggro from enemies. Tanking is simply just that, drawing aggro. Your job is to SEEM more threatening to the enemy than everyone else. There are a couple of ways to do this. Firstly, you can do a ton of damage to them, and they'll more than likely attack you (this is what you're trying to prevent happening to players such as mages in your party). You more than likely won't be doing enough damage compared to others in your party to succeed this way, so thankfully there are other ways to do this. The second way of drawing aggro is to heal other players. If you're a paladin this is a decent way of tanking, especially as a secondary tank. Simply heal those the other healer cannot in time, and by the time you're getting hit you'll be able to heal yourself to keep the aggro on you while the rest of your party wails on your attacker. The third, and often most effective way of drawing aggro is to use skills devoted to doing just this. For a Paladin, this means using Seal of Fury is almost a must. For warriors, you'll want to use Taunt, or Roar if you're a druid in bear form. Warriors in general don't have to worry about generating threat, it's pretty hard for them not to. Finally, while it's not exactly your job to do so, make sure the primary healer in your party understands it's their job to keep you alive first and foremost. While they need to take care of the others as well, if you don't have someone to constantly heal you, all your work tanking will go for nothing after a few rounds of enemies. Good team communication between healers and tankers equals good parties. Damage dealers don't need to worry that much, they just do damage as usual. And while this may seem rather obvious, do note that you should be using a shield and not a two hand while tanking. I've seen too many warriors saying they're going to tank and then charge at an enemy with a 2H. It's not a bad idea to have a set of "tanking gear" either on you or in your bank if you plan on tanking a lot. [Grinding] I'm not going to go into too much detail here with how to grind, simply because a lot of it is level and area specific, and you'll find tips for such in the Zone Information section. However, when grinding in general, there are a few basic truths that almost always hold true. Most of these are fairly obvious, especially to more experienced players, but if you're not sure what Grinding is, then it can't hurt to take a look at these suggested guidelines. Firstly, whatever level you're at, you should generally grind on monsters at or near your level. For me, this means fighting enemies no more than one level above or below you. Why? Monsters too high take too long to kill, and monsters too low don't give as much exp/loot as higher levelled ones do. The whole point of grinding is to maximize exp/money/drop gain. Otherwise, you're just fighting randomly and normally. With that in mind, determining which monsters to fight can be a little more tricky, and that's where the Zone Information guide comes in. In general though you'll find that you can't go wrong with grinding on humanoids. Every level gives the same amount of EXP, and humanoids drop not only copper/silver, but cloth and frequent equipment as well. After a decent day of grinding you'll probably make out with stacks and stacks of just cloth alone. Even if this is just linen cloth at lower levels, you'll still be able to sell it for very nice gains at the auction house. Other suggested tips for grinding is to locate an area where there is a vendor and/or bank nearby to sell vendor trash and store valueable finds. The worst thing you can do when you're grinding is to have a full inventory. Grinding doesn't equal working on tradeskills either, so you're better off putting all that in the bank for the time being and maximizing your inventory space. The whole point of grinding is maximizing your gains on a purely time based scale. Other than that, just kill, kill, kill. It's a good idea to have a few healing and or mana items on you, depending on your class in order to minimize downtime If you're grinding properly you should be able to kill as fast as possible with relatively zero downtime. If you find yourself going too slow or healing too much while grinding, you're probably not doing something right. For more advanced suggestions, such as exact monsters to grind on see the zone info guide. [Farming] Farming is fairly similar to grinding, and for that reason I'm going to go into even less detail on it here. Farming is basically grinding, only less focus is placed on exp gains. Rather, you'll often be fighting monsters that give you little or sometimes no exp in order to kill monsters even faster than while grinding. Why would you do this? This is a great way to gather cloth and money off of humanoids, farm for equipment drops, or acquire items for certain professions such as skinning, cooking, and first aid. As for how to farm in general, take the basics outlined above in grinding, and lower the levels you're fighting by 1 or 2. That's really it. Often people will Grind/Farm at the same time, which is really only saying that they're trying to make a lot of money and some exp as fast as they can. The same general tactics apply however, and most people do this every once in a while just to make some quick cash, or save up for something such as a mount. [Questing] If you're looking for specific quest info, you're better off looking at the zone information section of the guide. The following is a very, very brief introduction on how you should approach questing, as completing quests often takes on a slightly different play style than randomly wandering around fighting mobs. Firstly, any time you encounter a new town or city, the first thing you should do is look everywhere. In buildings, behind trees, everywhere. Look for as many quest givers (Which, if you don't know by now, are the guys with little yellow !s over their heads). You're out to collect as many quests as you can. Your quest log really shouldn't ever be empty. You should always be struggling to empty your quest log, not fill it. After you've made your rounds through the area you're located in, take a look at the difficulty levels of your quests. It is of my opinion that you should attempt greens and yellows first. Why? Aside from the fact that they are obviously the easiest, if you wait a little later, you may level by then, and then rewards from completing this quest may become either marginally less or entirely obsolete. You'd hate to go through all that effort to end up with nothing, wouldn't you? Additionally, you probably are going to want to initially hold off on any elite quests for now. Now that you've determined which quests you want to do, take a look at the requirements for all of them. If you have any collection/killing quests that coincide, you're definitely going to want to do those first. Getting 2 objectives done with one kill is a great way to up your efficiency. Also, if there are any quests that are centralized to one area, it'd be a good idea to do those all at once or at first. You don't want to spend time going between 4 different locations for 4 different quests. You'll spend more time in between travelling than killing or questing, and you'll end up earning less than you would from just bashing on random enemies. After you've completed all the lower level quests, return all of them back and get to work on the harder ones. Often you'll find that many elite quests are grouped together in an instance dungeon, and you can complete 2, 3, or even four quests at once in a single party/instance dungeon run. After this, the orange and red quests you had before will either be easier to attempt due to a higher level, or you can simply try and find another group to do those. After you're done with all those, go back, look for any more quests that may now be newly availible, and repeat the whole process over again. Once you have no more quests to do, unless you really like that area for some reason, you're probably ready to move on and start exploring elsewhere. This strategy works especially well at lower levels (which I would consider anything under 30) and is a great way to gain levels early while they still don't require too great a deal of experience. Again, most of this will probably come as common sense to you, and if you're looking for region or quest specific advice, check the zone information section further down in the guide. [Using the Auction House] Using the AH can actually be a bit more complicated than one would think. While it's extremly easy, and sometimes all too fun to just sit there and randomly browse around wasting time and hoping you get lucky, there are a few tactics you can take while buying and selling in order to maximize your profit. This, obviously, can be split up into two categories: Strategic buying, and strategic selling. Buying items isn't really a big inside secret. You'll be just as good at level 20 as you will at 60. Half the time, it's just a matter of getting lucky and finding someone selling something worth 20 gold at 10 silver. It can happen, but don't count on it. So how are you supposed to be effective at buying in the AH? There's a few things you can do to end up getting what you want, and still having some gold left in your pocket. Firstly, buyouts are your friend. There's nothing worse than placing a bid on something you really want only to come back an hour later and find out that not only were you outbid, but the auction is over. If you see multiples of the same item for sale, always go for the one with a buyout. In some cases you shouldn't even bid on the item, you should just buy it immediately if this seems like a good deal. I can't tell you what a good deal is, as there are too many good and too much fluctuation in pricing, so you'll just have to develop that skill on your own. However, if you see a buyout that's priced considerably below the rest of the bids/buyouts on the same item, odds are that it is a pretty good deal. As far as bidding goes, you can usually win a few auctions by bidding on them during offpeak hours. If there's an auction that's nearing its end, and has a low bid, odds are you don't need to buy it out and can just bid on it normally. This is especially true on tuesday mornings, just before the servers go down for maintainence. Shady? Perhaps, but use every advantage you can get to get a good deal out of the AH. Selling, on the other hand, you've got a little bit more involvement in a successful auction sale versus getting lucky with a level 40 item for a single gold. Firstly, as stated above, buyouts are your friend. NEVER auction an item without some kind of buyout, even if it's higher than you think people are willing to pay. Note: this does not mean you should put buyouts for your stacks of linen cloth at 1g. No one is ever going to pay that much for low level items, so please stop trying to trick us. However, if your starting bid is 2g, there's nothing wrong with putting a buyout at 10g. You never know how desperate someone might get, and it's better than having no buyout at all. Secondly, choose your auction duration times wisely. If you're selling a stack of linen cloth, there's not much to it. On my server, these go from 20-30s a stack. I usually sell for around 25s a stack in order to sell them fast. This means that you won't be wanting to put this up for a full 24 hours. It costs too much to post the auction, and no one wants to wait 24 hours for a stack of cloth. You're best off putting the minimum bid almost (or as I do), equal to the buyout. 2 hours will almost always work for these kinds of auctions. On the other hand, if you just found a high level rare off an enemy that sells to the NPC for a couple gold, you're ALWAYS going to want to place the duration of that item for 24 hours. It almost always takes longer to find someone who wants a piece of equipment rather than a tradeskill item, so always go for the longest amount of time possible. Additionally, whenever you're selling any item, especially a high level rare, it's reccomended that you search for the item first using the search engine to see what everyone else is selling that item for. This way you can not only find out the going price for the item, but if you want to undersell a bit to guarantee a quicker sale you'll be able to do that too. Other than that, you just have to be patient enough to wait for that gold to start rolling in. After a few rounds of selling you'll figure out what sells well and fast and what doesn't. [6. Zone Information] This will more than likely be a very large, very broad section devoted to various areas within the game. For now, it's mainly a shell and will take a while to update, so be patient. If you'd like to help with information, send it in in similar format to what is listed below. What you'll eventually find here will be a comprehensive listing of every region in the game, including suggested level range, basic quest help, profession advice (ore locations, etc) levelling tips, and other useful things. Basically, if you're wondering where to level your character, various skills, or grind, look here. Sorted by area for now, so you'll have to search by that, not level. [Eastern Kingdom] Zone information regarding the eastern continent, appropriately named the Eastern Kingdom. [Westfall] Suggested Level Range: 11-20 Suggested Professions: Skinning, Mining, Cooking General Info: Westfall is an excellent "second area" for any human characters coming out of Elwynn Forest. Amazingly, just west of Elywnn is where you'll find Westfall - so it's not only level appropriate, but amazingly easy to access early on in the game. For some reason I found myself coming here with other alliance characters as well - I even brought a Nightelf all the way over just because I like the area so much. I highly reccomend westfall if you're planning on levelling up either the skinning or cooking professions. It is an excellent area to get some very good ingredients for many, many cooking recipies, which are very easy to acquire. There's also a fair amount of skinnable enemies ranging from 10-17, and the hills are populated with a fair amount of ore as well. There are a few herbs laying around here and there, but you'll find Elywnn Forest to be more rich in those, from my experiences. For those really interested in grinding early on for cooking skill, make sure you go after Goretusks (Both young, normal, and great variations). These drop Chunks of Boar Meat, Goretusk Livers, and Boar Ribs -- all of which are the only require ingredient in many recipies ranging from early on up to around 110 cooking skill. If you're dedicated and get the recipies from quests or buy them from a bvendor/AH, you can level your cooking from practically 0 to 125 just off these alone. For those not so hot on cooking, Westfall offers many additional upsides as well. Humanoids here range from 10 to 20ish, which means you'll have plenty of those to keep you supplied with cloth and copper drops for quite a few levels. The defias drop many a nice piece of equipment early on as well, and you'll find yourself killing quite a few of them in the many various quests anyways. Some of these even stack, giving you the opportunity to complete 3 or 4 quests in a single trip. For those of you interested in mining, westfall is an even greater asset to you, as it is more than likely the first area you'll find decent rates of tin spawns, especially if you're a human. These can be found in the dagger hills, as well as the mines to the west coast of westfall. Add up all the profession opportunities, and levelling and questing aside there's got to be SOMETHING for you to do here profession related, and all of them are quite profitable especially this early on. With all that said about professions, there's still the matter of levelling, which i touched on a bit earlier, and more importantly questing. Westfall provides some great quest opportunities and rewards early on, starting with some lower end quests based on the various farm around the area, and ending with a series of quests based on fighting the Defias, whih ultimately leads to the famed Deadmines, which is more than likely the first Instance Dungeon you'll enter, especially as a human. You'll find some great rewards in here, and you'll be more than ready for it by the time you're done with the rest of westfall. That being said, take a look at some of the quests highlighted below. [Quests in westfall coming soon - sorry for the delay] [Kalimdor] [Coming soon - unfortunately. This while take a whiiile.] [7. Administrivia] Boring, yet required info. [Legal Information] This document ©2005 Jdude84. You may not use this document in any other way besides printing and using it to help you through this game. If you wish to use this for any other purpose, please contact me at jch0449 [at] gmail [dot] com All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. [Credits] Blizzard / World of Warcraft [.com] Basic game information, confirmation of various information (game abbreviations, etc) GameFAQs / GameFAQs.com Hosting the guide. Untermensch [Server: Thunderhorn] Provided me with some useful abbreviations/definitions, as well as slight additions to existing ones (EG: Icon around elites) [Version History] 0.1 - March 28th, 2005 Initial version. Basic game info/terms/F.A.Q. up. Coming soon: More in depth guides pertaining to FAQ topics, more FAQ answers, as well as new sections devoted to tradeskills. Much more planned in the more distant future as well. E-mail anything you'd like to see included in the guide. 0.11 - March 30th 2005 Slight revision. Formatting problems fixed. Game Etiquette section added and potentially completed. Am I missing anything? FAQ/General terms updated with a couple new of each. Began work on "How To" and "Zone Information" sections, which at the moment are the only incomplete sections of this guide. To complete: - How To - Zone Information Future content: - Class guide - Tradeskills - Other sections "down the line", as blizzard would say 0.12 - April 1st, 2005 Game Etiquette, FAQ, terms section updated. How to section completed in its current state, although more How To's will be added either at request or my discretion. But for now it's "complete". Started work on Zone Information. Future content to be added by the next two updates. [Contact Info] I can be reached via e-mail at jch0449 [at] gmail [dot] com. Preferably, it'd be nice if you put "WoW" or "World of Warcraft" or "Warcraft", or something pertaining to the game in the subject of your e-mail. Additionally, I can be reached via AOL IM, at JCLT811. I currently do not have an allow list, so this may change. Furthermore, I'm currently in college, so my availibility to answering e-mail and/or IMs may vary week to week and throughout the week. So please be patient, and I'll try to get back to you ASAP.