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Our Rookie Guide is here to help your newly boosted level 90
So you've just boosted a new character to level 90 and you're not sure where to go from here. How does this new class work? How should you gear them up? What should you do once you randomly land on the Timeless Isle with a class that you have no idea how to play? Don't worry, because our Rookie Guide is here to help you out, even at level 90. If you're not sure what this boosting rage is all about, check out the level boosting section to figure out how to get started -- and once you've gotten your new character to 90, read through the section on what to do at level 90. Have new-to-90 questions we haven't answered yet? Or maybe you're looking for something you can't find in the guide? Drop us a note and we'll look into covering it for a future WoW Rookie!
What are heirlooms and how can I get them?
If you're new or recently returned to World of Warcraft, you've probably heard mention of heirlooms. This stellar leveling gear binds to your account rather than your characters -- so you can mail it to your alts -- and levels as you do, getting better as your character advances through the game. And best of all, heirloom gear often grants you an experience bonus for equipping it -- typically 5% or 10% bonus experience for each piece of armor. What that means is faster leveling with no need to worry about hunting down the best gear along the way. Because heirlooms are targeted squarely at level 90 characters leveling alts, you might not have put much thought into them -- but we're here to tell you that you don't need to wait until level 90 to pick up some heirloom gear for your character. If you know where and how to get it, you can grab a few pieces as you advance -- and with the sizable benefits they offer, you'll probably be glad you did. But whether you're a new character leveling up or a long-time level 90 thinking about a new alt, we'll walk you through what's available and where to find it.
How to get started building your own battle pet arsenal
No, we aren't talking about hunters today: the battle pet system allows all of us to have and fight with pets through a special battle pet interface. And though you're not likely find mention of pet battles before you hit Pandaria, you can start participating in pet battles as early as level 5. And even if you aren't a fan of the "gotta catch 'em all!" game on which the system is modeled, we think pet battles are a fun break from leveling -- and since you're walking right by battle pets to collect and fight as you wander through each zone, why not have your battle pets advancing at the same time you are? The concept behind battle pets is simple; your battle pets fight other battle pets throughout the game in a turn-based format, gaining levels (up to 25) and skills (each pet has 6). Whenever you see another battle pet -- or battle pet trainer -- you can fight to gain experience and, of course, the glory of victory. If that sounds interesting, let's get started on the road to becoming the fiercest pet tamer in Azeroth!
Seven things every newbie needs to know
While plenty of old hats might say the WoW newbie experience is easy mode now, I'd call it streamlined: rolling a new character or leveling an existing one has never been more straightforward. Gone are the days when you had to pull up Wowhead (or download an addon) to figure out every other quest, the days when you kill dozens of monsters for a single quest drop, the days when you had to run through high level zones to collect flight paths. If you don't remember having to run from across the Wetlands to pick up the Menethil Harbor flight path -- dying more than once along the way -- count yourself lucky, because those corpse runs were decidedly un-fun. However, even in this golden age of newbiedom, there are some aspects of the game that just aren't explained very well. So, whether you're brand new to the game or, like me, returning after an absence, here are a few things every newbie needs to know.
How to win at Warsong Gulch
In our continuing efforts to help players new to PvP get out there and blow up other players, we're focusing this week on Warsong Gulch. We'll talk briefly about the rules of the game and then look at common strategies. Warsong Gulch is one of the simpler Battlegrounds in terms of raw strategy. It's essentially Capture the Flag. Each team has a base, and a flag that sits in that base. Your team's goal is to grab the enemy's flag and return it to your base without losing your own flag. Do that, and you score. Score three times and you win. When you pick up the flag, you can't mount or use certain effects without dropping the flag. Notably, druids and shaman can engage their travel forms while carrying the flag, making them speedy options for what's known as the flag carrier. (Speedy does not imply superior; we'll get into that later.) The longer the FC holds the flag, the more damage the FC will take from player attacks. When you kill an FC, the flag will temporarily sit on the ground, waiting for someone to pick it up. If the friendly team does so, the flag returns to base. If the enemy team does so, they now have a new FC. There you go. Those are the basics.
The best of WoW Insider: March 10-17, 2009
Things are hopping (as always) in World of Warcraft -- we're still waiting for an impending content patch, and the Public Test Realm (or the PTR, as we like to call it) is thriving with huge patch 3.1 changes and game updates. Even if you're not interested in World of Warcraft, the new patch is worth a look over at WoW Insider: our good friends at Blizzard are revolutionizing massively multiplayer gaming with every change they announce. News WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1Everything you need to know about the upcoming patch and then some. If you only click on one WoW-related link today, make this it. New mounts for Horde fishers in 3.1To re-balance the mount outage, Horde will be able to fish up a new mount soon. Full Tier 8 armor sets beginning to emergeAll of the shinies we'll soon be pining for in the game. Ulduar achievements unveiledCheck out what Blizzard has in store for all of the new raid's hard modes. Background downloader active for patch 3.1It begins. Some parts of the new patch are ready for primetime.
The best of WoW Insider: February 10-17, 2009
Lots of great news from the World of Warcraft this week -- we learned more about the big patch 3.1 update coming to the game, as well as the dual spec system. And someone (we aren't yet sure who) kept melting something called the Ice Stone, in one of the more hilarious bugs of the Love is in the Air festival. Good times -- learn more by reading these popular posts from Joystiq network site WoW Insider. News The Ice Stone has melted!Confusion reigned over a world event bug this week: what was the Ice Stone and who forgot to put it in the fridge? WoW Insider's guide to patch 3.1Everything you need to know about the game's next content patch, continually updated. Dual spec Q&A with GhostcrawlerOne of the game's devs lets us in on the plans behind the much-awaited dual spec feature. Voidwalker raid tanking going awayWarlock pets tanking? Blizzard is putting the kibosh on that. Jeff Kaplan leaving World of WarcraftThe game's last original top dev heads off to Blizzard's new MMO. Features The Queue: Change we can believe inYou've got questions, The Queue has your answers. Encrypted Text: Why the 3.0.9 Rogue changes were necessaryThe latest bugfix changes get discussed in our Rogue column. WoW Rookie: Level 80 -- now what?You've done it -- you've finally hit level 80, but you're not sure where to go next. Let the WoW Rookie help. Please give me something to grindBlizzard has gone out of their way this expansion to make leveling and questing as varied as possible -- which is why Alex just wants to do some mindless grinding. Officers' Quarters: Dual spec, double loot?How to deal with the dual spec system while dealing out loot to a raid.
WoW Rookie: Keyboard shortcuts
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know.Accept this fact: to be good at playing WoW, you need to learn to use your keyboard at least some of the time. You don't have to bail on your mouse, but it's very helpful to learn some of the very basic keyboard shortcuts that will make your life in the game that much easier. (Easy is good, right?)Using the game interfaceThere are hotkeys for almost everything you do in-game. You can find most of them by just hovering your mouse over the icons that you click -- as no doubt you may have already noticed. Let's start with the button bar that you use to bring up your Quest Log, Spellbook and other things. You'll see that when I hover my mouse over the gold cup icon, a tooltip pops up. The L in parentheses after "Quest Log" means you can just press your L key to bring up the log instead of clicking the icon. (Don't worry that it's a capital L, just press lower-case L. When a keyboard command is capitalized, it's written as "Shift-L".) After the break, you'll see a list of keyboard shortcuts for the game interface.
Reputation roundup for new players & new level 70s
Some of the best rewards in WoW can only be achieved if you have the appropriate level of reputation with a specific faction. Whether you're a brand new WoW player or a freshly-minted level 70 dipping your first toe into the endgame, you need to educate yourself about reputation (or "rep" as it's usually called). Fortunately, here at WoW Insider, we have a lot of tools that can help you find your way through the rep maze to the piece of loot you desire.For new playersWoW Rookie: Introduction to ReputationNew players should start with this article to learn what all the terminology means and how rep affects your gameplay. WoW Rookie: Azeroth ReputationsThis article is the next step in understanding rep and how it works for the world of Azeroth. Since you should start worrying about rep long before you hit level 40, this article shows you how to start preparing for getting your first mount -- especially if the one you hunger for is not your toon's racial mount. Breakfast Topic: Reputation grindingHere you can see what your fellow players have to say about what it's like to grind rep after level 60.For new level 70sAsk WoW Insider: Do you optimize your rep grinds?Advice from us and other readers on how to streamline your rep grinds in Outland.Faction frustrations eased in WrathA preview of how rep may change in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.Rep calculatorsHere are a couple of rep calculators we've reviewed. Liquidor's rep calculator WoW Reputation Calculator For extra credit WoW Rookie: Pre-Burning Crusade engame reputationsThis is a good primer on how rep worked prior to the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. Rep grinding in Azeroth after level 60 is not overly relevant now, but you may still be curious as to how it worked.
Insider Trader: Tradeskills for noobs
You've entered Azeroth with a brand spanking new character and you're trying to find your footing in the world. Perhaps this is even your first MMO entirely, and while looking for guidance, you're overwhelmed at the sheer volume of information available. Sound like you? While our very own WoW Rookie column has a wealth of information specifically tailored to new players, this week's Insider Trader is going to go in-depth and personal with your profession choices to help make sure that you get the job you want. Whether you are looking for a challenge, thinking ahead to your future, or looking to maximize your profit, you'll find the advice you need to make an informed decision. Have you already chosen, and are regretting it? Never fear, I'll walk you through backing out of the deal and finding something that really suits you.Make sure not to skip the comments section, as input and personal experience will help you learn about the different outcomes you might face.
WoW Rookie: I rolled the wrong class
If, like I did, you came into World of Warcraft with no real idea what the game was about, you may have just picked the first class that looked interesting and started playing. (If, instead, you read a guide to what the various classes can do, you may not have the following problem.) In my case, I picked Paladin, because I'd been playing a lot of D&D beforehand and the Paladin class there is a good melee combatant, especially against demons, undead and other evils, with some spot healing thrown in. I expected to run around hitting stuff with a sword. I didn't understand how healing works in WoW (that you could stand in one spot casting heal spells on someone else while he tanks a monster, for instance, didn't even occur to me) and so I happily leveled him to the mid 20's grinding away, doing the occasional quest, and finally got my first invite to a Deadmines group.As the healer. Now, I didn't even understand how healing worked in the game yet, much less that I was expected to do it: I knew there were healing spells, mind you, but I figured they were for after the fight or emergencies in it, and that (like the paladins I'd played in other settings) I'd have to run up and touch folks to use them. I had no idea I could stand back and cast heals, much less that all that lovely 'of the bear' gear I'd been collecting meant I had the mana pool of a diseased marmoset.
WoW Rookie: Welcome to PvP
For many players, the term PvP or Player vs. Player can be daunting. Nightmarish visions of ??-level players coming out from nowhere and disrupting -- to put it lightly -- questing or exploring have played a part in the choice of server. I started playing World of Warcraft with my girlfriend, now my wife, who decided that PvP was not for her. We rolled on a PvE server to level and explore the world in relative peace. A few friends of ours who started playing only recently also gave the same argument -- they wanted to appreciate the game without fear of being griefed by higher level characters. Because it was their first time to play, they also wanted to try out both factions (you can't make a toon of the opposing faction on a PvP server) to see what side they felt more comfortable with. In time, I managed to convince my wife to re-roll on a PvP server and we haven't looked back since. Later on, I learned that my friends also re-rolled on a PvP server (wisely choosing Horde...) after testing the waters on Mok'Nathal.Let's face it: Unless you play on a PvE server and consciously avoid it, PvP is inevitable. It is integral to the game. There are Battlegrounds that are virtually mini-games that players can grind to earn Honor; there are Arenas where players can compete for sport, prizes, and glory; and there are World PvP objectives that players can participate in to... well... pass the time. PvP is everywhere and with a variety of quests that nudge even the most casual carebear to live a little dangerously, it's almost impossible to play WoW without dabbling in PvP. Today on WoW Rookie, we'll go through some PvP basics to help you get started on a life of war -- or at least a taste of it.
WoW Rookie: Quest wrangling 101
It's no coincidence (just in case you thought it was) that when you first log into the game, the first thing you see is an NPC in front of you with a golden exclamation point above their head. Quests are a fundamental part of this game, not just in terms of lore and story, but also in character advancement (and earning all of that gold and XP that you're going to be doing). A good part of the game (in fact, the major part of the game up to level 70) is just handling all the quests and tasks you've got to do. From FedEx to kill quests, and from huge multi-part quest chains to simple fetch quests, handling all of those tasks is extremely important from the moment you enter the world of Azeroth.So today on WoW Rookie, we're going to give you a few tips on how to handle this most important of missions: figuring out where, who, and what's up with all the missions you get in the game. Keeping track of what you're supposed to do is sometimes just as important as doing it, and so after the jump, we've compiled a few tips for getting your Azerothian to-dos done.
WoW Rookie: Money-making 101
Once a week, WoW Rookie attempts to bring new players useful tips and tricks on improving their game.My first character rarely managed to keep more than a gold to her name until after she hit level 60, and I imagine the story is similar for most new players. There are plenty of skills to buy, so many professions to learn about, and always the lure of the auction house attempting to part you from your hard-earned coin. If I only knew then what I know now, mount money at 40 wouldn't have given me such grief -- instead of being frustrated over my lack of funding, I could have been frolicking through Azeroth on a brand new pony. But for new players struggling with money right now, I'm going to offer a few reasonable financial suggestions to help you on the road to your first big purchase.
WoW Rookie: An overview of professions
While some may argue that World of Warcraft doesn't have enough professions, there are enough choices to leave any new player at a loss when it comes to selecting one for the first time. So today we're going to discuss the good and bad of the game's ten primary professions and six secondary professions -- and hopefully give you the knowledge to make some informed decisions next time you need to chose a profession for yourself.Interested in knowing a bit more about the game's professions? Keep reading! Want to tell us which professions you find the most useful (and why)? Leave us a comment!
WoW Rookie: Choose your class!
UPDATE: See our updated guide for Wrath of the Lich King-era classes at WoW Rookie: Choose the right class.The first question many players have when they first tear open their World of Warcraft game box is, "What class should I play?" And I'm afraid that my standard answer to the question is terribly unhelpful, "Why don't you try them and see which one you like best?"I still think that's the best answer (I simply can't know all of your likes or dislikes to simply tell you "Mage" or "Shaman"), but today I'm going to try to give you a more helpful answer by defining the playstyles of each of the nine classes, and making some suggestions on which ones are the most newbie-friendly. So if you're trying to figure out which class might be best for you, read on!
WoW Rookie: All you needed to know about stats, part 4
In the conclusion to this series of posts, we're going to be discussing the game's defensive stats -- which are probably only of minor importance unless you're interested in tanking. Though if you're one of those people (like me!) who has to know everything about the game, this is interesting information which will explain a lot of things about how damage is handled in World of Warcraft. If you're tuning in to all you needed to know about stats for the first time, it may be worthwhile to go back and read part 1 (covering the five basic attributes), part 2 (covering physical damage stats), and part 3 (covering spell damage stats) first -- but if you can't wait to know all there is to know about defense, resilience, spell resistance, dodge, parry, and block, keep reading!
WoW Rookie: All you needed to know about stats, part 3
In today's continuation of our series on what the various stats in World of Warcraft do for you, we're going to be discussing caster stats. And, while a long-time player probably knows everything I'm talking about here, someone who's newer to the game might find spelling all of these things out to be handy. Curious as to how gear with +spell damage helps you out? Not quite sure how useful gear with mana per five seconds on it is for your class? You're in the right place.However, before you keep reading, it's well worth it to check out part 1 (covering the five main game attributes) and part 2 (covering statistics effecting physical damage). Coming up our next installment we'll talk about defensive statistics (armor, dodge, parry, resilience, etc), so stay tuned!
WoW Rookie: All you needed to know about stats, part 1
I don't know about you, but when I first started playing World of Warcraft, I couldn't have told you the difference between strength and spirit. I equipped every piece of gear I found without regard for what statistics it had. Intellect for my rogue and strength for my warlock -- why, yes, that sounds almost exactly the way I must have started my adventures in the land of Azeroth. But, yes, I did learn eventually. I read my class forums a lot, took advice from fellow players, and finally figured out what all of those funny numbers meant on my gear -- and whether they were good for my class and playstyle or not. But I imagine there are some new players in the audience who haven't gotten to that phase yet -- and this is written to help them out. Curious to see what the five base statistics -- agility, intellect, spirit, stamina, and strength -- actually mean? (Note: there are many more statistics to consider than these base five, like attack power and critical rating, but all of the other statistics are influenced by the main five -- so we'll discuss these today and the rest later this week.) Keep reading to find out all about them!
WoW Rookie: Soulstone and you
As a priest, pally or possibly a lower level shaman, you are often bestowed with the responsibility of a soulstone, giving you the ability to self-rez. And as we all learned from Uncle Ben in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. If you have never had the chance to be on the receiving end of a soulstone, it is easy to make a rookie mistake. While it is by no means complex, there are certain do's and don'ts that aren't always obvious. With that in mind, here are some things to remember if you are given a soulstone... If you are new to the soulstone business, odds are your warlock is too. If you have never played a warlock, you might assume that when a soulstone expires some kind of elaborate fireworks display appears in the warlock's UI, informing them that the group is screwed if they wipe if he doesn't conjure another stone. Without a proper mod, this is not the case. Odds are your new level 21 warlock friend doesn't have the fancy mod. So pay attention to your soulstone, and when you see it expire, or a minute or two before it expires, let your warlock know in party chat or in a /whisper. Your lock will usually appreciate it.
