WoW Rookie: Mad weapon skillz

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One of my favorite things about World of Warcraft is the wide variety of sharp, pointy objects and projectiles at my disposal for beating on my foes (and occasionally my friends). At times I find myself overwhelmed by the number of options for each class, and I've always wanted a handy guide to what I can use and where to get it. Since I couldn't find such a guide, I've decided to create one. Hopefully you will all find it useful also.

Weapons available to each class:

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Druid- Daggers, Fist weapons, One and Two-handed Maces, Staves

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Hunter- Bows, Crossbows, Daggers, Fist Weapons, One and Two-handed Axes, One and Two-handed Swords, Polearms, Staves, Thrown Weapons

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Mage- Daggers, Staves, One-handed Swords, Wands

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Paladins- One and Two-handed Axes, One and Two-handed Maces, One and Two-handed Swords, Polearms

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Priest- Daggers, One-handed Maces, Staves, Wands

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Rogue- Bows, Crossbows, Daggers, Fist Weapons, Guns, Maces, One-handed Swords, Thrown Weapons

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Shaman- Daggers, Fist Weapons, One and Two-Handed Axes, One and Two-Handed Maces, Staves

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Warlocks- Daggers, One-Handed Swords, Staves, Wands

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Warriors- Any except wands. But really, what Warrior would be so unfashionable as to wield a wand, anyway?

Even though classes have access to the above-listed weapons, each are only proficient in a handful at character generation and need to train the others as they go along. You must go into the major cities and train weapon skill. Of course to make this process a little more annoying, the ingenious developers at Blizzard split the skills among the major cities. Expect to do some exploring as you pick up new weapon skills.

On my Tauren Hunter, I love to use guns. For quite some time I failed to train bows at all because they just didn't suit the destructive appeal of my beloved marksman(dy). Eventually, at some point in my 60s, I found that I did have to train bows as weapon drops demanded. I sorely wished that I had taken the time to level up bows earlier. Live and learn. Unless you have a compelling (role play?) reason why your character uses only one type of weapon, train as many of them up as possible.*

When you first pick up a weapon skill, you start at one point in that skill and must rank it up to match your character's current level. This is an arduous and sometimes painful process. The maximum skill is five times your level. This means that at level 10, weapons max out at 50 and at 40, weapons max out at 200. When your weapon skill is significantly lower than the level of the opponent you're fighting, you have a better chance of missing and doing pathetic amounts of damage.

Remember you can switch weapons while in combat, so if you're training up a skill and need a little extra fire power swap back to your regular weapon. I recommend setting up a macro for equipping an alternate weapon, and even a shield when necessary.

Some races and classes can boost their weapon damage through skills and careful selection of armaments.

Weapon Talents:

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Rogue can take Weapon Expertise which increases skill with Daggers, Sword, and Fist Weapons or they can spend points in Mace Specialization which increases skill with maces.

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Paladins may select Combat Expertise, which increases skill with all.

Warriors have access to Weapon Mastery, a talent that increases skill with all weapons.

Racial Weapon Skills:

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Dwarves boast +5 to guns

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Humans lash out with +5 to (1- and 2- handed) swords and maces

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Orcs are armed with +5 to axes of all flavors

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Trolls are blessed with +5 to bow and thrown weapon skills

Training is merely the first step in learning to master weapons. Not all swords are created equal. Next time we'll get into the nitty gritty of selecting weapons.

* Notice the level 70 Warrior does not have any points in crossbows and staves. This is because warriors rarely use ranged weapons, so they can get away with only training one or two and even though Warriors can equip staves, most probably never would equip staves.

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