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WoW Rookie: All about Darkmoon cards
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Last week, we talked about what it meant to be a rookie and casual in this crazy patch 4.2 world. Tharenar asked about something much different in the comments, though: Could you do a wow rookie: darkmoon cards column please? I started playing just before wrath and this whole section of the game is a mystery to me. What are the cards for? Why do I want them? Which cards are good and which are a waste of money etc. Thanks Fellow commenter Revnah provided a pretty good, short explanation of Darkmoon Cards, but I wanted to take the time expand on that this week. Darkmoon Cards are a big enough part of the end-game dynamic that it's worth our time to make sure we understand it. First, a little history. Darkmoon decks were created by combining crafted "cards." (The cards are made via Inscription.) You would then take these decks and turn them in at the Darkmoon Faire to get trinkets. Some trinkets, like those created by the Nobles deck, were so perfectly itemized that they never stopped being really, really good in the previous expansion. It's not that these trinkets possessed a very high item level. It's that they wasted no points on stats that weren't absolutely perfect. So later, when higher item level gear became available and spread their points among sub-optimal stats, the Darkmoon trinkets still had more of the stats that you really really wanted.
WoW Rookie: Logging into patch 4.2 for the first time
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. It's easy to feel overwhelmed the first time you log into patch 4.2. As the saying goes, it helps to take the time and read the patch notes. Patch notes are huge, however, and they contain a lot of information to digest all at once. All that complexity and new content comes crashing down on you the first time when you log in and things are different. Here's your essential guide to logging into the game for the first time since patch 4.2. The first rule is: Don't panic. The patch is huge, but it's not so huge that it will radically change your life forever. I promise, stern-looking gnomes in stark uniforms won't spring from the alleys and beat up your character. You're in no immediate danger. Let's go step by step through what you should be doing.
WoW Rookie: Rookie and Casual guide to patch 4.2
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Patch 4.2 is nigh, patch 4.2 is nigh. It's so nigh that's we're highly likely to see it this coming Tuesday. Like the Joker, Ragnaros just wants to watch the world burn. So we're putting on our Batboots and trotting off to stomp a 10-man or 25-man hole in Ragtop's chest. The thing is though, if you're a casual or new player, and thus aren't likely to be globe trotting into the Firelands, do you care about patch 4.2? Kinda. You care a little. There's a new quest hub for daily quests, and there are other ramifications to a casual player, but that stuff is mostly focused on getting you into the Firelands. Don't get me wrong; the new daily quests are really cool. But they won't last you all summer. You're expected to screw your courage to the sticking place and sally on to the new raid. All that being said, there are definitely things you should know about patch 4.2.
WoW Rookie: A raid rookie's lexicon of raiding language
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Breaking into the raid scene can be intimidating for a new player, especially one who's not done anything like 10-man or 25-man raiding. We can hope that 5-man dungeons provide a basic idea of the general dynamics: healers heal, tanks tank, and damagers damage. Most experienced raiders use language that a new player won't find in the game interface. Words like "tank" have a relatively obvious meaning, but phrases like "void zone" can be a little tougher to interpret when a new player first encounters them. This raider's lexicon has been built through 6 years of WoW raiding, and decades of MMO playing before Azeroth become an MMO. This guide is intended to help new raiders get an idea what the heck everyone else is talking about. Be warned that most raids also have their own internal lexicon, too; we can't tell you what everyone is saying, but hopefully we'll get you caught up on the most basic stuff.
WoW Rookie: How to balance life vs. WoW
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. WoW Rookie actually picks up the occasional question from folks who are more "casual players" than "rookie players." In this sense, I'm talking about people with full-time jobs, families, and other commitments than playing WoW. It's a matter of priority; folks love the game, wish they could put more time into it, but can only squeeze so many hours a week into killing pixel monsters. Balancing a full life with the wide world of Azeroth is a tricky thing. If there's one true fact about WoW, it's that it has a lot of content. A lot of content. Right off the bat, achieving level 85 can easily take over 24 hours of play time. If you can only spare three hours a week, that's at least a few months to reach maximum level. Even scoring level 85 doesn't mean you've seen all the content; you've barely scratched the surface. Endgame activities like PVP, raiding, and achievements multiply the amount of time it would take to "finish" the game, even if you don't count the ongoing cascade of new content with each new patch. A reader asked: I'm having trouble keeping up. I've been playing a few months and I don't know how to keep it going with summer and kids' vacations How do I keep up with it all, and get all the achievements done, without giving up my life? I only have about four hours a week to paly and feel like I'm falling behind. Is it possible to get caught up?
WoW Rookie: A rookie's outlook on patch 4.2
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Like a freaky Weeping Angel cat who gets nearer and nearer whenever you're not watching it very closely, patch 4.2 is drawing ever closer. We obviously don't know exactly when the patch will drop, but we can be relatively certain it's ... soon. I'd be surprised if we saw the end of June before we're rocking out in the Firelands. The upcoming patch is a content patch, which means that there will be new raids, new quests, and new stuff. The patch has class adjustments, nerfs, and balance changes to characters; you should definitely check out your class columns on WoW Insider to get a clue of how your character-based gameplay will change. That being said, the upcoming patch promises plenty of huge quality-of-life changes for rookie and casual players alike.
WoW Rookie: How to choose characters to play with a partner
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. It might not seem like an obvious issue, but playing WoW in tandem with a significant other can require a little forethought and planning. You can level solo in WoW pretty easily, but it can actually get more complicated if you're running around as part of a dynamic duo. The complications become apparent when you're splitting drops, competing for resources, and trying to get items to complete quests. The game is (mostly) balanced around a single person leveling, and dividing everything in half can get a little frustrating. Then things get still more tricky later in your character's life when you're trying to find groups, join a guild, succeed in raids, and otherwise enjoy the end game. After all, you're essentially a sort of mini-team, and any group you join will need to have room for both characters. What all this adds up to is that it helps for you to plot your characters, trade skills, and future plans in advance. Just a little bit of planning can help immensely. Let's talk about the things you should decide when you're creating your characters together.
WoW Rookie: A new player's guide to classes
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Most of the class summaries you find around the web are ... dated. They were written many patches ago. Since then, classes have changed radically. Even without the obvious example of the shaman's once being able to tank, a lot of how the classes feel when you play them is radically different from when the game started. Consider this a refresher. If you're truly new to WoW, there are a few terms you should understand in this guide. There are three generally accepted roles when you group up to do dungeons and raids. Tanks are the big, tough guys who keep the enemy focused on themselves, because a tank is capable of taking the damage. Healers repair the damage taken by tanks and the rest of the party. DPS stands for damage per second, and it's become shorthand for all the folks who lay the smack down on the enemy. While all characters can do damage, DPSers can do multiplicatively more damage than anyone else. Crowd control allows you to briefly keep an enemy from fighting you. For example, Polymorph turns an enemy into a sheep. Enemies can't hurt anyone if they're sheep, right?
WoW Rookie: You're level 85 ... now what?
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. You just hit level 85. Congratulations! You've achieved the highest level possible. That's a very exciting thing to do, but now you're facing an even more daunting issue. It's pretty easy to feel like the game is over for you, but we promise ... you've really just started. Take a look at this list and ask yourself if you're really done with everything WoW has to offer. Not all of these options will appeal to you, of course. The ones that do interest you, though, will provide nearly as much fun and challenge as the leveling process itself.
WoW Rookie: Patch 4.1 for rookies and casual players
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Patch 4.1 landed this week. While there is tons of information on WoW Insider and other locations, it helps to get down to the basics to figure out what pieces of the patch affect casual players. Did you see the trailer? If you didn't see the trailer, you should check it out now. It's right above this text, just to be clear. The trailer's pretty cool. It does continue the legend that all trolls are inevitably and irrevocably evil, but a lot of folks already knew that. The opening dialogue kind of puts you on the Zandalari's side for a bit, but then the trolls all go butterfly-chasing insane.
WoW Rookie: Becoming a PvP legend, step 2
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. We talked a few weeks ago about how to become a PvP legend. That advice was the pretty general stuff like "master the mouse turn" and "learn the other classes." Let's start talking about the more advanced stuff that will take your game to another level. Remember that learning how to PvP isn't an easy road. While you can look up specific strategies and mods for boss fights, battlegrounds and arenas are dynamic, fluid fights. Your opponent will act and react according to your behavior, not follow any kind of script. The challenges are different, and it will take some time to pick up the way PvP works.
WoW Rookie: How to learn mouse turning
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. We talked about the first steps to becoming a PvP legend last week, which spawned an interesting discussion. Most folks generally accept that it's "best" to control your movement with a mouse -- or at least your turning. This is because your characters spins about faster if you make the motion with your mouse. At the same time, if you're moving with your mouse, your other hand is free to execute keyboard commands. Controlling your character this way can be a significant behavior change, especially if you've been a keyboard turner for your entire World of Warcraft career. Learning how to mouse turn requires relearning your interface and even going so far as completely rearranging a huge number of buttons. Let's talk about how to mouse turn.
WoW Rookie: How to become a PvP legend, step 1
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. After last week's discussion about how to win Tol Barad, we received several emails asking, "How do I PvP?" These aren't questions about how to fight in the battlegrounds or even a request for the basic PvP rules. Instead, the question is how to get good at it. As we dive into the topic, let me say first and foremost: Opinions vary on the "best" ways to learn PvP. I'm a person who finds the very heart of the game in player versus player content. I advise tanks and healers regularly to "get thee to a battleground," since that's the best place to practice reaction time, environmental awareness, and other pure skill reflexes. While it seems to me that Cataclysm has shifted its focus mostly away from PvP, that arena of play is still my favorite. The second important caveat is that learning to PvP can be hard. Mods won't help you much. There's nothing like Deadly Boss Mods to warn you when a player opponent is going to use certain attacks. Macros are certainly very helpful, but the road to getting good at PvP is lined with hundreds and thousands of deaths. Make your peace with the spirit healer now, and let's learn how to PvP.
WoW Rookie: How to win Tol Barad
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Tol Barad can be a massive, confusing, hot mess to anyone who isn't already accustomed to its evolution. Don't worry, though -- despite all of the dailies quests, NPCs, and various fluff, Tol Barad is actually fairly simple. There are two parts of Tol Barad. There's the "always open" quest area and the battlefield area. The quest area is Tol Barad Peninsula, while the battlefield is just plain Tol Barad. Winning Tol Barad gets you honor and other fabulous prizes. Winning is about flag control, similar to Arathi Basin. Essentially, there are three flags located in a triangle inside larger fortification. When you stand near the flag, a slider will move in the direction of your faction. The more people near the flag, the faster it goes.
WoW Rookie: Being polite in game
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. It might seem like an odd notion, but not everyone understands what's polite in the World of Warcraft. This isn't because they are rude in real life or necessarily lack the social skills to properly order a cup of coffee. (I'll admit, though, after a few battlegrounds and seeing the behavior in BG chat, I wonder about that.) The most common reasons folks are inadvertently rude in game is because they're new to our subculture. They haven't been inculcated to the subtle niceties that come with pretending to be elves and trolls. Especially if this is their first MMORPG, they might only be dimly aware that other characters are also players and that any amount of human interaction might be expected. The goal here isn't to lay down some kind of draconian law of behavior. It's just an attempt to talk about being polite.
WoW Rookie: Understanding mitigation versus stamina for tanking
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. I was recently asked by an up-and-coming tank to explain a little more about the ongoing decision to gear for stamina or gear for mitigation. You see a lot of WoW advice sites advocate mostly gearing for avoidance, while letting the innate stamina on gear handle providing your hit points. It's a fair subject, and a relatively important one in Cataclysm. The thing to understand about Cataclysm is that a healer's mana is no longer infinite. Even a highly skilled healer, loaded up with spirit, can run out of mana. This means the number of heals that a healer can provide in a boss fight is also limited. Any damage taken above that limited healing results in death and a party wipe.
WoW Rookie: Learning how to tank
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Tanking is a pretty fun thing to do. It seems like a lot of the WoW populace isn't terribly interested in it, though. When you use the random dungeon finder, it seems like groups are waiting for tanks more often than any other role. That's pretty confusing to me; tanking isn't that hard, and it's pretty enjoyable to be the tough guy who gets beaten on by the boss. I think what makes tanking intimidating is that it's a highly visible role in the group. Tank failures translate quickly into group wipes, and a tank who is vulnerable to damage can be a big drain on healers. Tanking can be stressful. The tank is also a fulcrum for the group's DPS. If the tank isn't putting out enough damage, the DPS character get "threat-capped." That's another way of saying the DPSers have to "peel back" their DPS sufficiently that they don't pull aggro. Again, it's another highly visible way in which tank challenges are translated into group performance. Still, the game seems like it needs more tanks. Here's how you get started with the role.
WoW Rookie: How to start collecting mounts
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. When you hit the end of your leveling process, there are a few obvious things to do. You can gather additional gear by doing heroics, and you can start exploring the wide world of raiding. You can start cruising the world of PvP, especially if you already did some battlegrounds while leveling. Another way to spend your time is collecting mounts. You can cruise Stormwind and show off your collection, or just enjoy the roleplaying value of having 100 cool rides. The game even has a series of achievements to show off your accomplishment. You get Filling Up The Barn for 25 mounts, Leading The Cavalry for 50 mounts, and Mountain o' Mounts for 100. As you'd expect, you get a new mount for achieving Mountain o' Mounts. Let's talk about a game plan for getting to 100 mounts.
WoW Rookie: Deciding whether to level through PvP
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. Most folks consider levelling a character to primarily be a PvE progression through the game's content. After all, you complete quests, gather gear, collect gold, and slowly move up through the levels. Having heirloom gear makes the process faster, and the occasional zone-based daily quest can make it even a little easier. But there is another option. Either as a primary way of advancing your levels, or simply as a break from so-called "normal" leveling, you can hit up a battleground and collect experience. Player vs. player isn't for everyone; it can certainly be frustrating while you learn the ropes. To help you make the decision whether to spend time leveling in PvP content, let's examine some of the pros and cons.
WoW Rookie: How to get up to speed for heroics
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. There is a normal, expected progression for characters in the endgame of WoW. You level to 85. You do instances at normal difficulty. And then, once you've got enough gear (an overall item level of 329), you move on to heroic difficulty. "Readiness" for heroic instances is determined by the random dungeon finder solely on your item level. That can be a problem if you have raw, bad luck. You might never see the necessary items drop from bosses. If you do see them drop, it's possible you might not win the roll. Heck, maybe you just won't see the items drop from bosses fast enough to keep up with guildmates or friends. With all that being the case, it helps if you have a battle plan to get your character to item level 329 as quickly and efficiently as possible.
