It’s been nearly 14 years since Blizzard launched the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. You’ve had plenty of time to get your affairs in order before finally taking the plunge into Azeroth. Don’t worry, the World of Warcraft hasn’t passed you by. You just might need a little help getting started. We got you.
Patch 8.2: Rise of Azshara Icy Veins Survival Guide All the 8.2 content on Icy Veins - from news, guides and all the other info we have on the new patch.
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Feature GuidesEssence guideMechagon guideNazjatar guideJunkyard TinkeringHeart of Azeroth 8.2Rustbolt Resistance factionUnshackled factionWaveblade Ankoan faction
Class Essence GuidesBlood Death Knight EssencesFrost Death Knight EssencesUnholy Death Knight EssencesHavoc Demon Hunter EssencesVengeance Demon Hunter EssencesBalance Druid EssencesFeral Druid EssencesGuardian Druid EssencesRestoration Druid EssencesBeast Mastery Hunter EssencesMarksmanship Hunter EssencesSurvival Hunter EssencesArcane Mage EssencesFire Mage EssencesFrost Mage EssencesBrewmaster Monk EssencesMistweaver Monk EssencesWindwalker Monk EssencesHoly Paladin EssencesProtection Paladin EssencesRetribution Paladin EssencesDiscipline Priest EssencesHoly Priest EssencesShadow Priest EssencesAssassination Rogue EssencesOutlaw Rogue EssencesSubtlety Rogue EssencesElemental Shaman EssencesEnhancement Shaman EssencesRestoration Shaman EssencesAffliction Warlock EssencesDemonology Warlock EssencesDestruction Warlock EssencesArms Warrior EssencesFury Warrior EssencesProtection Warrior Essences
Profession ChangesAlchemy 8.2Blacksmithing 8.2Cooking 8.2Enchanting 8.2Engineering 8.2Inscription 8.2Jewelcrafting 8.2Leatherworking 8.2Tailoring 8.2
Nullification Dynamo - Heart of Azeroth Essence Spotlight Nullification Dynamo is a Tank Essence gated behind Rustbolt Resistance reputation. Check out our Heart of Azeroth Essence guide to learn more about the 8.2 system.World of WarcraftWoWToday at 13:182 comments
Mike Morhaime Gamelab Interviews Ex-Blizzard President Mike Morhaime talked to multiple sites about why 50% of Blizzard's projects do not get to see the light of day, why Heroes of the Storm failed, and more.BlizzardBlizzardToday at 08:114 comments
Abyssal Commander Sivara - The Eternal Palace Boss Preview Abyssal Commander Sivara is the first encounter within Azshara's Eternal Palace that will open July 9. In our boss preview, we're looking at the Encounter Journal, loot that you can get from there, and more.World of WarcraftWoWYesterday at 13:172 comments
Season 3 Essences Available Starting July 9th Today, we're looking at Essences gated behind Mythic Season 3, the Eternal Palace raid, and Operation: Mechagon, available starting July 9th.World of WarcraftWoWYesterday at 10:471 comment
Patch 8.2 Hotfixes: June 28th We're back to daily hotfixes as is usual after a new patch, and this time we have evade and size fixes for certain creatures, a bunch of Azerite Trait PvP tuning along with the standard quest and world quest fixes - including the announced Runelocked chests fix and making Fabious harder to get.World of WarcraftWoWJun 28, 2019 at 17:022 comments
Heart of Azeroth Essences TutorialEssences are a major feature of Patch 8.2 and Blizzard recently uploaded a short feature preview to the official World of Warcraft Youtube channel, explaining how the system works. For more information, check out our Heart of Azeroth Essence guide.World of WarcraftWoWJun 28, 2019 at 06:40
The Crucible of Flame - Heart of Azeroth Essence Spotlight The Crucible of Flame is the first Essence that you get in Patch 8.2 right after unlocking the Heart Forge.World of WarcraftWoWJun 27, 2019 at 18:13
Updated: New Mount Reward for 6 Month Subscription Updated with official post.
Here comes another new incentive for players to subscribe for 6 months with the brand new Syverian Dreamer mount!World of WarcraftWoWJun 27, 2019 at 18:0515 comments
Patch 8.2 Hotfixes: June 27th The latest round of hotfixes is now live. We have a bunch of quest fixes, Rogue's Blade Flurry will deal the correct percentage of damage from Between the Eyes critical strikes, Gems appear in the Auction House’s gems tab again, and more.World of WarcraftWoWJun 27, 2019 at 17:185 comments
Patch 8.2 Hotfixes: June 26th Here come the inaugural hotfixes for Patch 8.2 and they're not as huge as the can usually be with a new patch! We have a reduction in points needed for a win in the NazjatarPvP event, cursed items' negative effects have been reduced, combat allies will show back up in Nazjatar after a rezone and a lot more!World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 18:535 comments
Runelocked Chest World Quest Change Now Live Update: the hotfix has gone live.
It seems matching of things, be it colors or shapes or whatever, isn't exactly Blizzard's strong suit, as there's a hotfix coming to the latest of these types of quests. The Runelocked Chest world quests in Nazjatar (that you have to unlock - check out our zone guide to find out how) are being tweaked so you don't have to match colors in a row but instead just complete a specified total number of matches. So you don't need to match 5 in a row, but instead let's say match 2 in a row 5 times, which is much easier to do.World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 18:406 comments
Rise of Azshara Crossroads Cutscene The Crossroads cutscene takes place after the Stay of Execution Scenario of Patch 8.2. This article contains spoilers.World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 17:296 comments
Anima of Life and Death - Heart of Azeroth Essence Spotlight Anima of Life and Death is a Tank Essence gated behind Dungeons in Mythic Season 3. Check out our Heart of AzerothClass Essence guides for more details on 8.2 Essences.World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 12:031 comment
8.2 Azerite Essence Rank 4 Animations Associate FX Artist Luis Aguas, who's responsible for animating 8.2 Essences, has uploaded some Rank 4 animations to Artstation. Rank 4 Essences only provide a cosmetic upgrade to the visuals of the Major Power on an Essence.World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 10:544 comments
Patch 8.2: Undocumented Changes With Patch 8.2 live it's time to look at undocumented Rise of Azshara changes that were not present in the official Patch 8.2 notes.World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 10:023 comments
Fabious Underwater Mount Secret Discovered As usual it didn't take long for the Wowsecrets discord to come up with a solution to one of the game's mysteries. And while this particular one wasn't that complex, it's still impressive how fast they got it done. Fabious, the underwater mount from Nazjatar appears to be a very vain seahorse and requires a lot of attention. Luckily, Zenkass/Kassidi of Proudmoore US figured out that what he really wants is his picture taken with the player and he'll join them in their quest!World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 00:593 comments
Quest Reward Ilvl Change, Essence Clarification, Mobile App Update We have three short blue posts today covering a recently fixed bug from the PTR regarding a quest reward item level getting reduced, a second clarifying how the ranks for the new essence system work and a third on the mobile app getting updated as we speak.
First off, it seems an early Nazjatar quest reward weapon has had it's item level drastically reduced from the PTR version (415 to 370), as the old version was bugged and had an unintentionally high one:World of WarcraftWoWJun 26, 2019 at 00:304 comments
Get a Level 110 Boost for 25 Euro You can never really have enough alts it seems and leveling them can be annoying for a lot of players. Redditor skybeuter pointed out a cheaper way to boost your alts to level 110, considering the regular char boost service costs around 53 Euro.World of WarcraftWoWJun 25, 2019 at 19:2311 comments
Rise of Azshara Intro Cinematic Here comes the big entry point into the new patch as Azshara welcomes both the Alliance and Horde into her domain in an appropriately flashy manner.World of WarcraftWoWJun 25, 2019 at 17:343 comments
Rise of Azshara: List of Known Issues for June 25thPatch 8.2 is now live in Americas and Blizzard posted a list of known issues for Rise of Azshara that should not be reported, because they will be fixed via hotfixes starting later today.World of WarcraftWoWJun 25, 2019 at 17:20
Patch 8.2: Rise of Azshara Icy Veins Survival Guide The patch is upon us and there's a staggering amount of new content and new features coming with it, so it's also time to consolidate all our coverage, guides and info on the patch in one easily accessible place.World of WarcraftWoWJun 25, 2019 at 15:55
Class Guides Updated for Rise of Azshara (Patch 8.2) All our Class guides have been updated for Rise of Azshara. Individual Essence guides can be found here or on the main page for easy access. We've also put up a Rise of Azshara Survival guide.World of WarcraftWoWJun 25, 2019 at 14:51
Class Essence Guides for World of Warcraft Patch 8.2 Our Class guides have been updated with new Class Essence Guides to help you pick the best Essence for your Class in Patch 8.2!World of WarcraftWoWJun 25, 2019 at 01:211 comment
BfA Trial + 3 Days Gift Being Sent Out to Some Players With the new patch coming tomorrow/Wednesday, it seems there's a round of Battle for Azeroth trials that include 3 days of free game time going around, but the gift is only hitting certain players. The gift is showing up in the Battle.net app, seemingly only for inactive accounts and possibly only those inactive since Legion as well. There also seems to be a way to trigger the gift if you haven't received it by going to the Battle.net site and clicking to set up a subscription (but not going through with it), which should trigger the gift if you're eligible for it.
We don't know what the exact requirements are for it at the moment and it could be just random, but these are some of the facts gathered up over on the WoW reddit. I've tried this myself on an account that's been inactive since around the start of BfA, but did not receive the gift.World of WarcraftWoWJun 24, 2019 at 23:49
How to Unlock Flying in Patch 8.2 (Official Preview) To unlock flying in Patch 8.2, you must reach Revered with Rustbolt Resistance, and Waveblade Ankoan (Alliance) or The Unshackled (Horde). On top of that, you must earn Pathfinder, Part One, and explore Mechagon and Nazjatar.World of WarcraftWoWJun 24, 2019 at 17:1617 comments
Patch 8.2: Silent Glider Mount Silent Glider is a new ray mount which drops from Soundless (rare creature) in Nazjatar. Check out our comprehensive Nazjatar Zone Guide for more information about the new 8.2 zone.World of WarcraftWoWJun 24, 2019 at 16:561 comment
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Comprehensive Guides for World of Wacraft Patch 8.2 We've updated our guide section with new guides for Rise of Azshara, which include zone guides for Mechagon and Nazjatar, a guide for Heart of Azeroth and Essences, reputation guides for the new factions, and Profession guides.World of WarcraftWoWJun 24, 2019 at 06:286 comments
WoW Classic: Racials and Racial Passives A list of racials and racial passives for all races available in Classic WoW.WoW ClassicWoW ClassicJun 23, 2019 at 15:497 comments
Patch 8.2: Rusty Mechanocrawler Mount Today, we're looking at the final mount from Mechagon--Rusty Mechanocrawler!World of WarcraftWoWJun 23, 2019 at 10:361 comment
WoW Classic Addons: Azeroth Auto PilotAzeroth Auto Pilot is an interesting addon for speed leveling in WoW Classic and in this spotlight, we're taking a closer look what it does.WoW ClassicWoW ClassicJun 23, 2019 at 08:3413 comments
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Why Play Now?
Before we get into the tips, let’s answer the important question: Should you play World of Warcraft in 2018? Of course you should. This article would be a huge waste of everyone’s time otherwise. Why? For one, it’s a game with over 13 years of content to explore. It’s a hero’s journey that takes players from the starting zones of Azeroth to epic battles on far-off planets. They grow from fledgling adventurers performing odd jobs for random NPCs into legendary heroes of the realm performing odd jobs for random NPCs. It’s a world rich with lore, flush with quests and filled with interesting people, both real and artificial.
World of Warcraft is an older game, yes, but frequent updates have kept the game looking and feeling fresh. Updates like 2013’s individual fingers for player characters, or the recent additional of level-scaling adventure zones, allowing players more choice in which zones they visit while leveling up their characters. In fact, recent changes to low-level experience gain and monster strength have made leveling up a new character more interesting than it has been in years.
Leveling In World Of Warcraft Is Fun Again
Before this week’s 7.3.5 update hit, leveling a freshly-made character in World of Warcraft as an…
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Plus, as a brand-new player, you come into the game without any preconceived notions of what World of Warcraft should be. Lapsed players returning to the game after a long absence might lament how simplified the game’s mechanics have become. They might miss things like having to purchase spells and skills instead of learning them automatically or complex talent trees brimming with options to fine-tune their characters’ performance. Blizzard’s streamlined the game extensively over the years, trimming off extraneous features, stats and mechanics. Returning players might hate them, but all of these changes make for a very newbie-friendly game.
But Why World Of Warcraft?Not Feeling Well Work From Home
It’s got character. It’s got charm. Counting the Warcraft series of real-time strategy games, it’s got an ongoing narrative backed by more than two decades of lore. Though Final Fantasy XIV puts on a great show, World of Warcraft is the most story-rich MMORPG going.
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And it’s easy. For some that might not be a selling point, but if you’re looking for a stress-free MMO that doesn’t require a lot of its players (at least not at lower levels), then World of Warcraft is perfect.
Before You Start, Check Your Computer
Before you run out to the store and pick up a copy of World of Warcraft, make sure you have either a PC or Mac capable of running the game. Rather than paste the system requirements from Blizzard’s page into this article, I’ve devised a simple method for determining if your computer can run the game. Just answer this multiple choice question:
Was your computer built or purchased in the past eight years?
Blackberry 10 gsm arena. Visiting the official WhatsApp will open you to various devices available for WhatsApp.You can either download Whatsapp for your Blackberry 10 on PC and then or visit Whatsapp on your BB10 browser to download latest WhatsApp for your Blackberry.However, if you have already installed BlackBerry Runtime for Android Applications you can install Android WhatsApp instead of Blackberry WhatsApp and it will work.
If you answered “Yes,” your computer can run World of Warcraft in some shape or form. I would have said ten years, but the game requires Windows 7 or higher, and Windows 7 wasn’t widespread until late 2009.
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If you answered no, damn. You should upgrade that thing. Not saying it won’t run the game at all, but seriously. Treat yourself. Pick up a Walmart HP special or something.
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Buying The Game
Don’t buy the game. At least not yet. World of Warcraftoffers a free trial that allows new players to experience the game up to level 20 (of 110). There are limitations to a trial account—you can’t chat in most public channels, form adventuring parties (you can still join them) or earn more than 10 gold. But it’s still enough to get a feel for the game, the races, the professions and general atmosphere. If you don’t like playing the demo, you can stop. You tried. Maybe World of Warcraft is not for you.
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But if you do, or are on the fence, upgrading to the full game with almost all of the current expansion packs is only $20. The basic edition of the game gives you access to all content up to level 100, plus it comes with a free month of subscription time. Considering the game costs $15 a month to play, it’s almost like getting the game for $5. Sort of.
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Or if you’re really, really into the game and don’t want to spend an additional $50 on the Legion expansion and then another $50 in September for this year’s Battle of Azeroth, there’s the Complete Collection. It includes the main game and every expansion pack up to and including Battle of Azeroth for $90. Don’t get it unless you’re absolutely sure. There’s no going back from the Complete Collection. Not without feeling silly, at least.
Choosing A Server
You’ve got the game, installed it on your computer, and now you are ready to play some of them Worlds of Warcraft. But which World of Warcraft world will you World of Warcraft on? There are currently tons of World of Warcraft servers to choose from. Which you should pick can depend on a number of factors.
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Time Zone: A server’s time zone generally determines when people will be playing on that server. If you’re on an Eastern U.S. server, things start picking up between 4 and 5 PM Eastern on weekdays, with activity slowing as the night turns to early morning. If you’re on a Pacific server, expect to dial those times back three hours or so. Say you live on the East Coast but work a job that gets you home pretty late. You might want to consider a Pacific server.
At least that’s how server time zones are supposed to work. Thing is, the in-game server picker doesn’t list servers by time zones, only by geographic region. If you want to see servers by time zone, you’ll have to hit up a site like Wowpedia, which maintains a handy list.
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Physical Server Location: While I’ve never had any issues with lag playing World of Warcraft on servers far from my physical location, some people like a server close to home. That’s fine, as long as your home is near Chicago or Los Angeles. All of the America’s World of Warcraft servers are located in one of those two cities. Want a list? Wowpedia for the win once more.
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Server Type: There are four types of World of Warcraft servers. Pick one.
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Note that PVP servers will be going away in the next expansion as part of a massive revamp to the way PVP works in the game, so enjoy those while you can. Soon everyone will be able to PVP or not PVP at their discretion.
Where Your Friends Are: If you’re starting World of Warcraft to play with friends, they really should have convinced you sooner. Pick the server they are on anyway. That way you are always with your pals, and you can ask them for gold and leveling help.
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Server Community: If you don’t have friends (aww) and want to make new ones (yay), take some time to poke around the official forums for the server you’re considering. At the very bottom of the World of Warcraft forums page there’s a set of forums specific to every game realm. Hop in, read some posts. Get a feel for what you’re getting into. And should you choose a server, go introduce yourself. Everybody loves new players. Even the people who shout “GOOGLE” when you ask questions in chat. Especially them.
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Picking Sides
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The “war” part of World of Warcraft refers to the ongoing struggle between the human-led forces of the Alliance and the orc-centric armies of the Horde. Before making a character, you must make a choice. Back in the early days of WoW, it was a simple choice. The Horde had ugly races and Shamans, the Alliance had pretty races and Paladins. But now both sides have all the classes, everybody’s got elves and pandas—the lines have blurred.
Take a look at the races for both sides. See one you like? Pick that side. Have friends playing on the Alliance side? Pick Alliance. Have friends on the Horde side? Pick Alliance, because those friends are bad and wrong.
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Look, people have their personal preferences. I tend to lean Alliance, in case you haven’t noticed, but I’ve met great people on either side of the conflict. If all else fails, make a character for both sides, and see which one you like the best.
Then go with Alliance.
Creating A Character
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It all comes down to this. Seven races. Ten character classes. Which will you choose? WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE!?
Racial Profiling
There are thirteen playable races in World of Warcraft. Six are Alliance and six are Horde, with the roly-poly panda race available to both factions. Assuming you’ve already picked a faction, that means you’ve now got to choose which type of gnome you want to be. Or the other races, sure.
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Each race in World of Warcraft has its own resistances, enhanced stats and some sort of special ability. Ignore these completely. They don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. There are two main concerns involved in choosing a race as a new player.
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Take gnomes. Gnomes are adorable and cuddly and they make fun noises. But for some reason Blizzard has denied them the ability to be Druids, Paladins or Shamans. Until Blizzard realizes that gnomes are a force of nature that cannot be stopped, you’ll have to choose one of the lesser races if you want to be a Druid.
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Otherwise, pick what you like. Something pretty. Something cool. If you’re a role-player, pick a race that suits the sort of RP character you want to be. If you want to dance on mailboxes in your underwear, go for night elf. If you want to smell really bad, undead is a choice you can make. This is your chance to be anything you want to be. Take it .
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Know Your Role
For a new player, picking a class isn’t that big of a deal. In fact, part of the fun of starting fresh is going through the various character classes and seeing what sticks. There was a time, year ago, when some classes were more friendly for new players than other, but Blizzard has simplified the leveling process so much that any available class is viable. The main concern to keep in mind when selecting a class is the role you’d like to play in an adventuring party—healer, tank or damage-per-second (DPS).
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What’s really nice about World of Warcraft’s classes is that many of them aren’t locked into a single role. At level 10, players choose one of three specializations (specs), ability paths that help define how their chosen class plays. For some classes (Mage, Rogue, Warlock, Hunter) the different specs are simply different ways to perform the same role. For others, spec choice determines the role they’ll play.
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Take my level 10 Paladin, whom I will never play because of my irrational hatred of blood elves. He has a choice between being a Holy healer, a Protection tank or a Retribution damage dealer. He can switch between these three specs on the fly, so he’s never locked in to any one role. Or he can sit there and rot, because blood elves are the worst.
Here’s a breakdown of which of the starting classes can be what:
My advice? Experiment. Try each class. Fiddle with their specs. See what you like. Don’t make the mistake of going to the World of Warcraft forums or Reddit page and searching for “best tank class” or “highest damage per second.” Take your time and find the character you want to play. Or just play them all.
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That Name Is Unavailable
The final step in creating a character is choosing a name. You’ll see this message a whole lot.
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Fourteen years of people selecting names does not leave a lot of options open, but keep trying. People delete characters all the time, so there’s no telling when you might find a gem of a name. Crunchy was taken, but my plan to do a rotating animated GIF of rejected names was thwarted when my second choice turned out to be available.
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Once you’ve got a name, hit that “Enter World” button and you’re good to go.
Time To Play
Now we’ve come to the easy part. Over the years, the leveling experience in World of Warcraft has evolved to the point where all you really have to do is follow the quests. No matter which character class or race you choose, when you log into the starting area you get a brief cinematic, followed by your first quest.
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That quest leads to more quests—fighting creatures, collecting things, talking to NPCs.
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There’s no real need to grind for experience points. There are always quests. Thanks to the recently introduced zone scaling feature, these quests are always tailored to your characters level. And when you complete the story/quest line in one area, there’s another one waiting to be tackled in the next.
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Should you find yourself unsure as to where to go next, hitting SHIFT+J brings up a handy Adventure Guide, showing all the zones, dungeons and player-versus-player activities available to a player of your level.
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Don’t worry if you find yourself passing on quest areas as you level up. My level 25 Warrior in the image above has four different zones she can quest through. There’s no way she’ll be able to do all of them. Pick one and make a note of the others for the next character you level up.
You’re going to miss out on some cool story content the first time through. 2010’s Cataclysm expansion drastically retooled most of the game’s early zones, adding rich, dynamic storylines to areas previously deemed skippable. There are less “collect 10 pelts” sort of quests and more “find the ingredients to make a thing”, “steal the plans” or “investigate the mysterious place” quests. And when the game does ask you to kill X number of creatures to collect Y items, there’s generally a good story reason.
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The only old world zones untouched by Cataclysm were the starting areas for the blood elves and draenei. If you roll either of those races, get out of the starting zone as fast as you can.
Otherwise, ask any World of Warcraft player which leveling zone storylines can’t be missed and you’ll get different answers. On the Alliance side I’ve always been fond of the Deadmines storyline in Westfall, with its whispers of insurgency and underground pirate ship. And while I’m not big on the Horde, I have to admit the entire Undead (Forsaken) storyline, which takes players from Tirisfal Glades through Silverpine Forest to the Hillsbrad Foothills and beyond is one of the better realized pieces of fiction in any massively multiplayer game.
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Making Friends
The leveling process in World of Warcraft can be pretty lonely these days. The days when every low-level zone was filled with players chatting about disgusting things and making Chuck Norris jokes are long gone (no matter how hard I try to bring them back). You’ll mostly see other characters in dungeon finder parties, randomly grouped together by the game from a cross-server pool, disappearing once the dungeon is done.
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But you don’t have to play alone. This is a massively multiplayer role-playing game, after all. There are people. You just need to find them.
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When general chat channels are available, use them, preferably maturely and respectfully. I like to say “Hi!” when I enter a new area. Most of the time the response is dead silence, but every now and then people will start talking.
The best way to make friends in World of Warcraft is to join a guild. Oftentimes new characters will start getting random guild invites the moment they log into the game from officers desperate to pad their ranks. If their pitch is good, give them a chance. You can always leave if it’s not a good fit.
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Better yet, remember those server forums I talked about earlier? Go there and search for guilds looking for new members. Or post your own “Looking for Guild” message. Describe the sort of folks you’re looking to play with, say something about yourself, and there’s a good chance you’ll find your own World of Warcraft family.
Learning The Lore Of Warcraft
It’s possible to play and enjoy World of Warcraft without knowing any of the game’s lore. Basic concepts and characters are explained as the game’s story unfolds, and while individual zone stories can be skipped, the main story beats remain the same. But if you want to get the most out of the game, some reading, or at least extended watching, is highly recommended.
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For a general overview of game’s lore, Blizzard’s own World of WarcraftChronicles series comes highly recommended. It’s an exhaustively detailed look at the history of not only Azeroth, but the entire universe. No really, the first volume deals with the birth of the cosmos and the powerful forces that shaped the game world. The second covers the history of Draenor, the homeworld of the orcish race, along with the first two wars between what eventually becomes the Alliance and the Horde.
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The only problem with the Chronicles series is that it’s a bit behind what’s happening in the game right now, and it’s doubtful that volume three, due out later this month, will catch up.
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For a less clinical look at the history of World of Warcraft, there’s a growing library of novels based on the figures and events that have shaped the game. I’ve particularly enjoyed Christie Golden’s contributions to WoW fiction, mostly character-focused novels exploring the stories of characters like former Horde Warchief Thrall, Arthas the Lich King, and renowned sorceress Jaina Proudmoore.
And if reading is not your thing, there’s always YouTube, where Warcraft historian Nobbel87 has been keeping players appraised of the backstory of important events and characters for years. There’s a good reason his 40 minute video covering lore from the creation of the universe on up to 2014’s Warlords of Draenor expansion has nearly 3.5 million views.
Tips From Players
World of Warcraft has a dedicated community filled with experienced players eager to help new players get their footing. I took to the forums and asked some of those players for their advice for starting players. Here are some of my favorite responses.
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You can check out the entire thread on the World of Warcraft forums for more mostly-friendly advice.
Have Fun
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The most important advice I can give a new World of Warcraft player is to just have fun. That might seem obvious, but MMORPGs can sometimes become more of a chore, especially in later levels where there’s not much to do but daily quests and regular challenging raids.
If the game stops being fun for you, stop playing. Take a break. Play other things. I hear that Final Fantasy XIV is nice.
We met on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the muddy shores of Lakeshire. There were 40 of us, alternatives in tow, laughing, buffing, flaunting. We exorcised our pre-raid jitters as best we could. North of Lakeshire lay the sinister Burning Steppes, home of Blackrock Mountain and home of our hopes and dreams. Blackwing Lair lingered at the top of the spire, promising extraordinary treasure and server-first accolades. On our leader’s mark, we rode together. It was dangerous to go alone.
Over the last few years there’s been a great deal of communal nostalgia for how Warcraft “used to be.” The game just celebrated its 10 year anniversary last November. That’s a decade of the map shrinking, of bad guys dying, of old friends disappearing into the internet’s ether.
The term they use for the original World of Warcraft is “vanilla Warcraft.” It means Warcraft before the expansions and innovations. For some diehards, this game has been trending downwards since the middle of the last decade. Some of this is real.
World of Warcraft is a different game than it was 10 years ago. In its massive success, its publisher, Blizzard, offered more and more convenience to players. In 2015 you can a press a button, be matched with other players cross-server, get teleported to a dungeon, and have loot automatically dropped into your bag. Journeys, like the ride from Lakeshire to Blackrock Mountain, are now blissfully quaint.
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The gameplay is more streamlined now, but there’s a generation of players who remember hiking through Horde territory, hands on their hilts, hoping to make it to Scarlet Monastery in one piece. Some of that wonder was lost.
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If you’re an old-timer or a newcomer who is curious about how things used to be, you can play the original World of Warcraft on private “vanilla” servers. These servers have existed since the launch of Burning Crusade, the first Warcraft expansion, but they’ve become prevalent as the game has gotten older. These servers are free to play on, and use cached files
to load exactly how things were when Warcraft launched. Their existence is against the game’s terms of service, but Blizzard, the people who make WoW, generally turns a blind eye. We’re talking about old content being played by misty-eyed veterans, it’d be cruel to drop the hammer.
When you play on a vanilla server, you can’t copy your character or trade gold back to your account on sanctioned Blizzard-run servers. Instead, you start your journey on the private server exactly how you would in 2004: at level one with a hearthstone and a bundle of linen cloth to your name. One of the largest private servers is called Nostalrius, encompassing 5,000 players. It joins names like Kronos and Feenix, and lets you travel back in time to wherever you left your happiness.
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But is it really possible to go back? Vanilla Warcraft is a mythical ideal. It is imaginary. It’s a place that exists in our heads, on a fulcrum of time, emotion, and digital space. You add 10 years and those old lands become spiritual. You might never be able to truly return to them, but you can try.
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“I didn’t have any history as a gamer,” 63-year-old Terry Hutchinson recently told me as he recalled first getting sucked into WoW. “I was 53 years old and worked most of my adult life as a systems analyst. I had gone back to nursing school, and had been reading various periodicals referencing World of Warcraft. It just sounded interesting to me. I installed it in February of 2005, and I just got sucked into it immediately. I think I got close to 320 days played, which is like two percent of my organic life.”
Hutchinson’s fondest memory playing World of Warcraft was a tight skirmish in Warsong Gulch, a game of player vs. player capture the flag. It went for three white-knuckle hours, before his side pulled out a victory.
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“Of course, it wasn’t long after that,” he noted, “that Blizzard put a time-limit on Warsong. Sure, that prevents those long, drawn-out matches. But you’ll never again get to experience a really well-played game like that.”
Another World of Warcraft veteran, Josh, who prefers to keep his last name private, is from Kansas. He found himself in a top five—worldwide—raiding guild called Risen at the age of 18.
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“I remember my buddy had thrown this big party while we were in high school, and I found myself in a bed with my prom date,” said Josh, now 28. “At 3:30am, my cell phone started going nuts, and I thought ‘oh shit, my parents,’ but it was this random number from Los Angeles. I picked it up and it was one of the officers in the guild. He told me I needed to get home, get on my computer, and help kill one of the Emerald Dragons that had just spawned. He said ‘welcome to the team’ and just hung up. That was the expectation. I’m an 18-year-old dude with this girl, and I had to say ‘I’ve gotta go kill this dragon.’ We weren’t hanging out for much longer.”
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Josh would progress with Risen all the way through the Ahn’Qiraj raid and onto C’Thun, one of the most infamous final bosses in World of Warcraft history. For a while he was in one of only three guilds making attempts on him. In modern World of Warcraft raiding, top guilds datamine encounters, learning the exact mechanics of a boss fight before they enter the room. That wasn’t the same with C’Thun.
“Nobody knew what the hell was going on back then,” Josh said. “We were trying to reflect his eye-beams off the gongs and shit like that. The game was just so different then. I love the datamining. You gotta use all the resources available, but it was just cool to try all that stuff. That’s what people miss, and it’s never going to come back.”
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Alexey Chuenko worked at an internet cafe in Latvia. He could stay up all night, and play on distant U.S. servers.
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“At that time my English wasn’t very good, so I couldn’t communicate with other players, but when I tried World of Warcraft it just blew my mind,” he said. “I may have wasted a lot of time in Warcraft,
but it did teach me English. I can assure [you] that that was the biggest improvement in my life.”
Chuenko is Russian and had a skewed vision of the U.S. before he started playing World of Warcraft. But he found himself in an American guild and nurtured international relationships that was forged in the wipes, jeers, giggles, and brotherhood of a digital land. He lost contact with those friends when he moved his character to a European server, but he returned in 2011 to see if he could pick up the pieces.
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“The guild was still around, so I created a new character and rejoined, I played to about level 30, but the people in the guild had changed and only a few of them remembered me. It just didn’t work for some reason,” he said. “As you get older you try to restore the memories of your youth, but it never seems to work.”
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The tipping point most people point to is Cataclysm, the third World of Warcraft expansion which arrived in 2010. The premise was that Deathwing, a legendary dragon, had emerged from the world’s core, forever twisting its surface. It was all the justification Blizzard needed to revamp the old geography. They warped landscapes, removed and updated quests, making World of Warcraft a much more navigable place. Unfortunately, they also destroyed many of the things that now stoke the nostalgia.
“Sure you had to run around on foot in these massive zones, but that forced you to explore and see all the details,” said Andy Paquette, another player who started in Warcraft’s first era. “One of my best memories was playing on a 13-foot screen at this LAN center and questing in Feralas. All that green and the mountains, it was like nothing I’d seen before.”
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Nostalrius is Terry Hutchinson’s first private server experience. He’s been travelling through his memories since January.
“I became so frustrated with the current expansion, and I realized I couldn’t play it anymore,” he said, “but I still wanted to do battlegrounds and run around the old world. I Googled ‘vanilla private servers’ and Nostalrius happened to come up. I figured it was a good time to cancel my subscription and give it a shot.”
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Nostalrius does the legwork. It’s an ancient version of World of Warcraft, scrubbed clean of any expansionary blemishes. It’s not quite a transporter to the past, not if you’re a veteran WoW player, since you’re still walking into a virgin world with seasoned eyes. If you’re an old-timer, you’ve been there before. You’ll never not know what lies beyond the next border. Tapping into that wonder again is far more spiritual than mechanical.
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“It was great in the way that it allowed you to embody your high school self and go through those early years again,” said Paquette, reflecting on his time in private servers. “I played a rogue like I did during vanilla, and I couldn’t wait to try and raid again. But after I hit 60 (the level cap), I spent three days trying to get a group together for Blackrock Depths, and it was impossible. People are too used to the convenience, and I realized that vanilla just can’t work anymore.”
The physical World of Warcraft does not exist, so it’s odd that it musters this sort of melancholic nostalgia. It’s not something I’d expect anyone who didn’t experience a decade in Azeroth to understand, but you can bury authentic feelings in these stoic, static, internet landmasses. There’s love in Ironforge, laughter in Stranglethorn Vale, brotherhood on the trail from Lakeshire to Blackrock Mountain.
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“To tell you the truth, no, it doesn’t give me the same feeling.” said Tnas, a gamer who has been playing on Nostalrius since the beginning of April. “It’s not even close. I started playing here on the suggestion of a close friend who I played through vanilla with, but vanilla as it happened was the experience. We were part of one of the most influential moments in the history of gaming, and I don’t think anything will recapture that for us.”
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Hutchinson understands this, and instead treats his time in Nostalrius like a pilgrimage.
“It gets close, closer than I expected,” he said. “Yes, it’s not like I’m going into these zones and experiencing them for the first time. But it’s close. One of the first things I did was hike down through the Barrens to the Thousand Needles so I could see the Great Lift. I remember what that was like. Sure, I knew it was there, and I knew what to expect. But I had to see it. I had to ride it.”
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“I don’t play on private servers, because I know what would happen,” Josh said. “I’d just want to log off. Everybody tries to recreate the wonder. I recently played Guild Wars 2 and that has all the mysteriousness you want, but it won’t be the same, because you’re not that age again. It’s not 2004. You can’t just bury yourself in your bedroom and get immersed. I’ve got stuff going on. I’ve got a job, I’ve got a wife, I’m an adult. It’s not a bad thing, it’d be scarier if you hadn’t changed at all. You’re partially nostalgic for the game, but you’re mostly just missing that worry-free lifestyle.”
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Vanilla World of Warcraft is not magical on its own. It’s just a video game. But if it came at the right time it could be profound. For me, it was the conduit for all those sophomore year tremors. My best memories in World of Warcraft aren’t the gear or the journey. They are the circumstances. It could be an insulated chamber, no responsibilities, the time nights felt infinite. For Josh, it was as a high schooler in Wichita, Kansas, for Alexey it was an internet cafe, for Terry it was in his mid-50s, back at school, resetting a career. For all of us, World of Warcraft was a simpler time.
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“It’s all still happening,” Josh said. “If you were that age right now you wouldn’t be feeling nostalgia, because it’d still be new. Five years from now we’re going to be hearing kids talking about how great Warlords of Draenor was. I don’t wish World of Warcraft was new again. I just wish I could renew my situation.”
It’s difficult to come to terms with the fact that video games probably won’t ever thrill you the way they did when you were younger. It’s harder when you’re talking about a game that fused real friendships across the void.
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“I wasn’t at a good place in my real life during vanilla Warcraft, so maybe it was an escape for me,” said Vegard Haugland, 27 from Norway. “I felt closer to many of my in-game friends than the people around me at the time. I have very, very fond memories of messing around in Teamspeak with my guild buddies.”
Callinicus, Albinozod, there were moments where I cared about those guys more than anyone else in the world. Would we still relate? Do the blood pacts we made when our guilds fell apart still persist? Do you still remember the trail from Lakeshire to Blackrock Mountain? When you run into people you went to high school with, there’s not much conversation beyond rehashing old stories, but it’s still nice.
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“The Yeti cave in Winterspring. It’s one of the places that didn’t get touched during Cataclysm,” Josh remembered, “It was the best place to farm leather. I spent so many hours there. I grinded all my characters to 60 there. I’m going to have a dog someday, and my dog is going to be named Yeti. My wife has no clue it’ll be from a video game, and when she finds out she’ll kill me. But if I could experience one place again, it’d be that.”
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“Teldrassil. With the music, sometimes I just launch the soundtrack on YouTube and feel all those memories,” Alexey said. “That’s where it all started for me. You spend enough time in a virtual world, and it changes you.”
“Right now I’m in Hillsbrad, and the whole Tarren Mill area is littered with skeletons from world PvP, just like it used to be,” Terry said. “It will never be a brand new game again, but vanilla Warcraft feels alive to me in a way that I can’t find anymore in the retail product.”
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Most people don’t get to touch their memories. They linger, vague and out of sight, with no visceral landmarks. You cannot stop time. You can never truly go back. But World of Warcraft will always be there. Even as it’s tamed, even as the armies we led fade into history, even as our era ends, I can still listen to the echoes on the path from Lakeshire to Blackrock Mountain. The jitters. The buzzy microphones. The rumble. This was your life, this was all of our lives. It’s over now, it’s not coming back. But for a moment, you’ll feel it.
Luke Winkie is a writer and former pizza maker from San Diego and living in Austin, Texas. He writes about music, video games, professional wrestling, and whatever else interests him. You can find him on Twitter @luke_winkie.
I am at the part 'Not Feeling Well' and the Curative Brew is not showing up in my inventory. It says i create it but its not there. I have abandoned and tried 3 times, I have reloaded my UI and logged out and back in. There are other monks in 5 Dawns for whom it's not working either so it isn't just me
Same exact problem here.
Ok. this isn't a bug, it's unclear quest design. You don't click on the standing green initiates or use the Curative Brew (that isnt in your inventory). There are green initiates lying down that you click on.
It is a bit of a bottle neck quest. Not enough 'injured' npc to cure. Took me a few minutes to find the 8, but there were only 2 other monks on the same quest.
Ok. this isn't a bug, it's unclear quest design. You don't click on the standing green initiates or use the Curative Brew (that isnt in your inventory). There are green initiates lying down that you click on. Wow are you ever right - what a horrible quest design. how about you take the poisoned animation and debuff off of the npc's that don't apply to the quest Blizzard?
Anyone else have issues with Stage 4 and the storm brew imbibed?
Ok. this isn't a bug, it's unclear quest design. You don't click on the standing green initiates or use the Curative Brew (that isnt in your inventory). There are green initiates lying down that you click on. Thank you! After reloading my UI, re-logging and searching trying to figure out how to cure these green people standing right next to me.. they weren't the ones you have to cure at all. Ugh. Very misleading quest text/design.
Confirming that Aist's reply describes the correct procedure. Pretty terrible design -- inconsistent with normal quest interactions + what to do is about as clear as mud.
I feel like there is something wrong with this question. I've been running around the area for 10 minutes looking for a soldier to detox and not one. All of them are kneeling and I have no option for interaction.
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