How do you cheat?
Whether you are stuck on quest, lost or curious about dungeon drops, online resources on WoW are everywhere.
Some people consider using resources such as Thottbot to figure out a quest to be cheating. Personally, I will usually run through a quest the first time without looking it up and only look for help if I can't figure it out on my own in a reasonable amount of time.
There are a few well-known sites that are common among WoW players.
Thottbot: I have found Thottbot to have some of the best information but it does have its flaws. Quite often the site is busy or down and when it does work I find it very slow. Thottbot's search system also isn't the greatest, you can't search for the middle word of a quest name or item name, you must use the first word of words in order to get the proper results. Searches bring up a humongous list of hits most of which are irrelevant to what you are looking for and it can take a while to find what you are looking for...but it is there, somewhere.
I find often Thottbot has a lot of clutter as well, invalid or old entries show up in searches, a symptom of the fact it has been around since beta.
Another issue with Thottbot is its ownership. Thottbot is owned by gold selling company IGE brining up some ethical issues if you don't want to support these kinds of activities.
Allakhazam: This site has a much better look and UI, has almost as much information of Thottbot and usually works when Thottbot doesn't. The search is also much better, allowing you to search based on parts of a phrase, even from the middle. Example: searching for "a-me" in Allakhazam brings up the quest "Chasing A-Me 01" as it should, as well as the NPC A-Me 01, no other clutter or entries. In Thottbot you get dozens of entries that you must scan through before finding the right quest.
Like Thottbot, Allakhazam is also owned by IGE, it was bought out last year, apparently IGE is considering plans to consolidated the services. If you don't want to support gold sellers Allakhazam is out too.
WoWhead: A relative newcomer on the block, WoWhead just left beta status a few weeks ago. The interface, design and UI are miles ahead of the competition. Being a newcomer, WoWhead doesn't have an extensive database such as Thottbot, but it is growing everyday and will have entries for all but the most obscure searches. Being new, WoWhead has the advantage of less clutter from out-of-date or obsolete entries. WoWhead also has a built in talent calculator including the new Burning Crusade talents.
Searches on WoWhead are handled much better with a tabbed interface that categorizes results (quests, items, skills, etc.). I find that WoWhead still has issues with bringing up too much information, unlike Allakhazam, searching for "a-me" brought up hundreds of results, although they are easier to sift through, it did not put "Chasing A-Me 01" at the top.
WoWhead is owned by IGN, not to be confused with IGE, IGN is a well known video game news and information site owned by Fox Interactive Media Inc., therefore you can ease your conscience as you are not supporting gold-sellers.
Personally, I have been turned off Thottbot lately, I had used it since beta but the interface, clutter and unreliability of the site have led me over to WoWhead. I find WoWhead's user experience to be easier on the eyes, the database is really coming along, and I can sleep easy knowing I am not supporting gold-sellers.
So which online WoW resource do you use? Does the support of gold-selling influence your decision?
