WoW noob needs help

First thing, in my opinion, look up every WoW expansion and read an overview of if. Classic is the base version of the game (called 'vanilla') updated to the pre-TBC expansion patch 1.13.X and probably with some extra updates now too.

You'll find lots of opinions on Vanilla. Yes, questing was a bitch. Patch 1.13 simplified it a bit (since it was pre-expansion). In other words, classic is not vanilla, and don't get fooled by that.

In my opinion TBC was the best expansion they ever did, WOTLK was good too, and Cataclysm (before the dungeon nerfs). Never played afterwards since it seemed the game went into a downward spiral of silliness and stupidity and dumbing down everything way too much.

Unfortunately, your options are a bit limited - you can either play "classic" (pre-TBC) or retail (which i don't even know how it's called now).

But if you want the TRUE vanilla experience (with most of its bugs and stupidity) I can provide a free option for you, if you contact me by PM.

Research at least these things, watch videos etc, and make an opinion for yourself before committing.

I have never played WoW in the official servers (only Wotlk in some pservers), but I have watched many WoW Classic videos on youtube and I've read reviews of the game, so I can confirm, that Classic is the better option than current retail. Though, like FrostyFeet said, it's kinda grindy - leveling is slow (unless you are a caster and you can AoE multiple mobs at the same time, especially in a dungeon group), you also need to farm gold for abilities, professions, riding skill and mounts (you will walk A LOT before you get your first mount; some quests force you to ping-pong between zones or even continents) and, if you manage to hit lvl 60 at some point, for consumables as well. Another flaw of the game is the class and itemization disbalance - while there are 9 classes with 3 different specialisations to choose from, only few of those specs are actually viable and you can't bring whatever spec you like in a raid.

If you jump blindly into the game, I think you will get a glimpse of that magical feeling Vanilla offered in the past, but be warned, that while the game tries to stay true to its roots, the gamers don't. Players play it differently - more optimally - but imho reliving that magical feeling would still be possible, as long as you find a guild or other people that specifically want to play the game as they used to back in 2004.

But, anyway, I agree with Crusader2010 - it's better to watch/read WoW reviews and get an idea of what the game is like. 3 weeks ago a user by name of Sykomyke made a WoW-related thread here:

https://outof.cards/forums/off-topic/video-games/3739-wow-classic-is-you-is-or-is-you-aint-my-baby

and he and Flux started a very detailed discussion, so I would recommend you to check it out. They both talk about the positives and the cons of Classic and the later expansions. I can also link you some videos, which I watched recently:

If you are interested in a melee class, to my knowledge only warriors and rogues are good. If you decide to go as a warrior, then prepare for a long and tedious ride, because that's the class with the longest downtime. But it's one of the most sought out in the end-game. One of the reasons why people prefer TBC/Wotlk over Classic is that they can play other specs in raids w/o being blamed for bringing a weak toon. Fortunatelly, we can expect to see those expansions in the near future.

Good to hear that you're interested in WoW! It's a fantastic game.

The first thing you should do is to is to download the Starter Edition of WoW. It's completely free and you will be able to play to level 20 with a few minor restrictions. It is played on the current, "retail" version of the game. You should do this to experience the core gameplay loop of leveling, questing, and the game's atmosphere.

You've reached the level cap, you like the game, what should you do? After this, you have to purchase a monthly subscription. You have the option to buy it online for 15 €/$ a month or buy it from retailer stores for a bit extra and get a fancy box with it. Look for this. If this is your first time, I do not recommend for you to purchase more than one month or either of the latest two expansions, Battle for Azeroth or Shadowlands.

This subscription is valid for all versions of the game. You can either continue your level 20 character on the current version, create a new one, or play Classic. It is up to you which one you choose, but you should know all the options. 

• There are normal and roleplaying realms (servers). On the latter, players are expected to choose a name for their character fitting for the world. So no Taurens with cow puns. Also, you can see more roleplaying groups in the world. On retail only, which realm you play on doesn't really matter as you can group with other characters on any server. The only thing you should check out is player count, which is high, medium or low. You should go for medium or high. On retail, all non-instanced world PvP is opt-in with Warmode, which gives you some extra rewards and you are always grouped with opponents. In Classic, world PvP on normal servers is also with an opt-in choice, but it is very rare. On dedicated PvP servers however, the setting is always on. You should expect high-level players repeatedly killing you for their enjoyment, aka "griefing". Also, all of your characters on that server must be either Horde or Alliance, you cannot have characters on both sides. Some players enjoy PvP and are delighted with action happening at any time, but for a first-time player I do not recommend playing on a PvP Classic server.
• In retail, the leveling experience is refined and allows for choice between zones. There is less downtime in traveling and you can get more varied quests, not limited to "go there, kill this, gather that". You always have abilities to press and larger survivability. With a subscription, you have 110 levels to go through.
• In Classic, leveling is much grindier as the age of the game shows. Quests are very simple but also quite monotone. For much of the game, you will be traveling on foot. Many classes have downtime between abilities and pulling 3+ enemies means death. You only have 60 levels, but reaching it will take longer than 110 on retail. Itemization is sometimes weird and non-intuitive.
• When creating your first character, you should just go with whatever you like! The character's race is mainly for aesthetic and story reasons, the abilities don't really matter. If you want to play melee, you should play a Warrior, Paladin, Shaman, Rogue or Druid. In retail, classes have 3 specializations (except druids have 4 and demon hunters have 2), and they might have different roles like tanking or healing. But don't worry, every class can play DPS roles. Rogue, for example, has 3 different flavors of DPSing. Paladin, on the other hand, has only one, but the other specs make it able to heal or tank. Only one specialization can be active at a time but you can switch anytime. All specs are viable at every level in retail.
• In classic, there are fewer races and classes. There are no specs, but 3 talent trees to gain abilities and bonuses from. You can mix and match however you like. You can make your Warrior more tankier by investing some points in the Protection tree, for example. However, rearranging your talents costs gold.

After you reach level 110 in retail, you must purchase the Battle for Azeroth expansion before continuing to level 120. However, the next one, Shadowlands is almost here. Purchasing both would be quite expensive. I recommend waiting until sometime in the summer when BfA will be automatically added to all accounts. This way, you will save 45 €/$. There is no extra purchase necessary for max level in Classic.

• The max level endgame is different for both versions. In retail, you have daily and weekly tasks and never-ending world quests to receive better gear and cosmetic rewards. Instanced group content, raids and dungeons can be played with an automatic group finder.
• In Classic, max level progression is not tied to real world time. But you also have to grind the same mobs/dungeons/raids for upgrades. For all content requiring groups, you must join or assemble it yourself.
• In retail, the world and your gear gets prettier and prettier as you progress through past expansions. Graphics are great in current content.
• In classic, the looks are quite dated, but at least it loads fast.
• In retail, there are many activities outside normal combat and gearing. You can collect achievements, mounts, pets with which you can battle with Pokémon-style and appearances to play fantasy dress-up.
• In classic, cosmetic rewards and collectables have a much, much smaller focus and you can't change the appearance of your gear.
• Retail receives new content patches every 6 months or so and expansions every 2 years.
• Classic's content is divided into phases. Currently, we're at Phase 4 of 6. There's no more content announced after that.

This is a lot of information, so take your time to think it through. But also know that there is no punishment for playing both. Try out all versions and see for yourself which one you enjoy more. After all, you should play games only for your fun!

Feel free to say any questions you may have, I'll gladly answer all of them!

Quote From Theodrinus

Show Spoiler

Good to hear that you're interested in WoW! It's a fantastic game.

The first thing you should do is to is to download the Starter Edition of WoW. It's completely free and you will be able to play to level 20 with a few minor restrictions. It is played on the current, "retail" version of the game. You should do this to experience the core gameplay loop of leveling, questing, and the game's atmosphere.

You've reached the level cap, you like the game, what should you do? After this, you have to purchase a monthly subscription. You have the option to buy it online for 15 €/$ a month or buy it from retailer stores for a bit extra and get a fancy box with it. Look for this. If this is your first time, I do not recommend for you to purchase more than one month or either of the latest two expansions, Battle for Azeroth or Shadowlands.

This subscription is valid for all versions of the game. You can either continue your level 20 character on the current version, create a new one, or play Classic. It is up to you which one you choose, but you should know all the options. 

• There are normal and roleplaying realms (servers). On the latter, players are expected to choose a name for their character fitting for the world. So no Taurens with cow puns. Also, you can see more roleplaying groups in the world. On retail only, which realm you play on doesn't really matter as you can group with other characters on any server. The only thing you should check out is player count, which is high, medium or low. You should go for medium or high. On retail, all non-instanced world PvP is opt-in with Warmode, which gives you some extra rewards and you are always grouped with opponents. In Classic, world PvP on normal servers is also with an opt-in choice, but it is very rare. On dedicated PvP servers however, the setting is always on. You should expect high-level players repeatedly killing you for their enjoyment, aka "griefing". Also, all of your characters on that server must be either Horde or Alliance, you cannot have characters on both sides. Some players enjoy PvP and are delighted with action happening at any time, but for a first-time player I do not recommend playing on a PvP Classic server.
• In retail, the leveling experience is refined and allows for choice between zones. There is less downtime in traveling and you can get more varied quests, not limited to "go there, kill this, gather that". You always have abilities to press and larger survivability. With a subscription, you have 110 levels to go through.
• In Classic, leveling is much grindier as the age of the game shows. Quests are very simple but also quite monotone. For much of the game, you will be traveling on foot. Many classes have downtime between abilities and pulling 3+ enemies means death. You only have 60 levels, but reaching it will take longer than 110 on retail. Itemization is sometimes weird and non-intuitive.
• When creating your first character, you should just go with whatever you like! The character's race is mainly for aesthetic and story reasons, the abilities don't really matter. If you want to play melee, you should play a Warrior, Paladin, Shaman, Rogue or Druid. In retail, classes have 3 specializations (except druids have 4 and demon hunters have 2), and they might have different roles like tanking or healing. But don't worry, every class can play DPS roles. Rogue, for example, has 3 different flavors of DPSing. Paladin, on the other hand, has only one, but the other specs make it able to heal or tank. Only one specialization can be active at a time but you can switch anytime. All specs are viable at every level in retail.
• In classic, there are fewer races and classes. There are no specs, but 3 talent trees to gain abilities and bonuses from. You can mix and match however you like. You can make your Warrior more tankier by investing some points in the Protection tree, for example. However, rearranging your talents costs gold.

After you reach level 110 in retail, you must purchase the Battle for Azeroth expansion before continuing to level 120. However, the next one, Shadowlands is almost here. Purchasing both would be quite expensive. I recommend waiting until sometime in the summer when BfA will be automatically added to all accounts. This way, you will save 45 €/$. There is no extra purchase necessary for max level in Classic.

• The max level endgame is different for both versions. In retail, you have daily and weekly tasks and never-ending world quests to receive better gear and cosmetic rewards. Instanced group content, raids and dungeons can be played with an automatic group finder.
• In Classic, max level progression is not tied to real world time. But you also have to grind the same mobs/dungeons/raids for upgrades. For all content requiring groups, you must join or assemble it yourself.
• In retail, the world and your gear gets prettier and prettier as you progress through past expansions. Graphics are great in current content.
• In classic, the looks are quite dated, but at least it loads fast.
• In retail, there are many activities outside normal combat and gearing. You can collect achievements, mounts, pets with which you can battle with Pokémon-style and appearances to play fantasy dress-up.
• In classic, cosmetic rewards and collectables have a much, much smaller focus and you can't change the appearance of your gear.
• Retail receives new content patches every 6 months or so and expansions every 2 years.
• Classic's content is divided into phases. Currently, we're at Phase 4 of 6. There's no more content announced after that.

This is a lot of information, so take your time to think it through. But also know that there is no punishment for playing both. Try out all versions and see for yourself which one you enjoy more. After all, you should play games only for your fun!

Feel free to say any questions you may have, I'll gladly answer all of them!

Nice post, mate. You described the game very well to those, who have absolutely no knowledge of what to expect from it. But, let me say some things:

1) I don't know about current retail, but to my knowledge the race matters. Like, for example you would prefer a dwarf priest over a human or night elf (cuz of Fear Ward). Or humans for the melee roles thx to their Sword and Maces Specializations... and Diplomacy makes grinding rep easier.

2) Isn't TBC to be expected? There was a survey some time ago, which asked the players how they wanted to start in that expansion. It's not certain whether it will be implemented as quickly as your normal Classic phases, but it's going to happen. It's just not officially announced.

Quote From Kovachut

Quote From Theodrinus

Show Spoiler

Good to hear that you're interested in WoW! It's a fantastic game.

The first thing you should do is to is to download the Starter Edition of WoW. It's completely free and you will be able to play to level 20 with a few minor restrictions. It is played on the current, "retail" version of the game. You should do this to experience the core gameplay loop of leveling, questing, and the game's atmosphere.

You've reached the level cap, you like the game, what should you do? After this, you have to purchase a monthly subscription. You have the option to buy it online for 15 €/$ a month or buy it from retailer stores for a bit extra and get a fancy box with it. Look for this. If this is your first time, I do not recommend for you to purchase more than one month or either of the latest two expansions, Battle for Azeroth or Shadowlands.

This subscription is valid for all versions of the game. You can either continue your level 20 character on the current version, create a new one, or play Classic. It is up to you which one you choose, but you should know all the options. 

• There are normal and roleplaying realms (servers). On the latter, players are expected to choose a name for their character fitting for the world. So no Taurens with cow puns. Also, you can see more roleplaying groups in the world. On retail only, which realm you play on doesn't really matter as you can group with other characters on any server. The only thing you should check out is player count, which is high, medium or low. You should go for medium or high. On retail, all non-instanced world PvP is opt-in with Warmode, which gives you some extra rewards and you are always grouped with opponents. In Classic, world PvP on normal servers is also with an opt-in choice, but it is very rare. On dedicated PvP servers however, the setting is always on. You should expect high-level players repeatedly killing you for their enjoyment, aka "griefing". Also, all of your characters on that server must be either Horde or Alliance, you cannot have characters on both sides. Some players enjoy PvP and are delighted with action happening at any time, but for a first-time player I do not recommend playing on a PvP Classic server.
• In retail, the leveling experience is refined and allows for choice between zones. There is less downtime in traveling and you can get more varied quests, not limited to "go there, kill this, gather that". You always have abilities to press and larger survivability. With a subscription, you have 110 levels to go through.
• In Classic, leveling is much grindier as the age of the game shows. Quests are very simple but also quite monotone. For much of the game, you will be traveling on foot. Many classes have downtime between abilities and pulling 3+ enemies means death. You only have 60 levels, but reaching it will take longer than 110 on retail. Itemization is sometimes weird and non-intuitive.
• When creating your first character, you should just go with whatever you like! The character's race is mainly for aesthetic and story reasons, the abilities don't really matter. If you want to play melee, you should play a Warrior, Paladin, Shaman, Rogue or Druid. In retail, classes have 3 specializations (except druids have 4 and demon hunters have 2), and they might have different roles like tanking or healing. But don't worry, every class can play DPS roles. Rogue, for example, has 3 different flavors of DPSing. Paladin, on the other hand, has only one, but the other specs make it able to heal or tank. Only one specialization can be active at a time but you can switch anytime. All specs are viable at every level in retail.
• In classic, there are fewer races and classes. There are no specs, but 3 talent trees to gain abilities and bonuses from. You can mix and match however you like. You can make your Warrior more tankier by investing some points in the Protection tree, for example. However, rearranging your talents costs gold.

After you reach level 110 in retail, you must purchase the Battle for Azeroth expansion before continuing to level 120. However, the next one, Shadowlands is almost here. Purchasing both would be quite expensive. I recommend waiting until sometime in the summer when BfA will be automatically added to all accounts. This way, you will save 45 €/$. There is no extra purchase necessary for max level in Classic.

• The max level endgame is different for both versions. In retail, you have daily and weekly tasks and never-ending world quests to receive better gear and cosmetic rewards. Instanced group content, raids and dungeons can be played with an automatic group finder.
• In Classic, max level progression is not tied to real world time. But you also have to grind the same mobs/dungeons/raids for upgrades. For all content requiring groups, you must join or assemble it yourself.
• In retail, the world and your gear gets prettier and prettier as you progress through past expansions. Graphics are great in current content.
• In classic, the looks are quite dated, but at least it loads fast.
• In retail, there are many activities outside normal combat and gearing. You can collect achievements, mounts, pets with which you can battle with Pokémon-style and appearances to play fantasy dress-up.
• In classic, cosmetic rewards and collectables have a much, much smaller focus and you can't change the appearance of your gear.
• Retail receives new content patches every 6 months or so and expansions every 2 years.
• Classic's content is divided into phases. Currently, we're at Phase 4 of 6. There's no more content announced after that.

This is a lot of information, so take your time to think it through. But also know that there is no punishment for playing both. Try out all versions and see for yourself which one you enjoy more. After all, you should play games only for your fun!

Feel free to say any questions you may have, I'll gladly answer all of them!

Nice post, mate. You described the game very well to those, who have absolutely no knowledge of what to expect from it. But, let me say some things:

1) I don't know about current retail, but to my knowledge the race matters. Like, for example you would prefer a dwarf priest over a human or night elf (cuz of Fear Ward). Or humans for the melee roles thx to their Sword and Maces Specializations... and Diplomacy makes grinding rep easier.

2) Isn't TBC to be expected? There was a survey some time ago, which asked the players how they wanted to start in that expansion. It's not certain whether it will be implemented as quickly as your normal Classic phases, but it's going to happen. It's just not officially announced.

1) If anchorm4n decides to go for Classic, then yes, there are some race-dependent spells. But outside of current-tier raiding or high-level PvP, I believe those do not really matter for performance. Actual skill accounts for much more. And in retail, the differences between races are even less, all of them can perform with a less than 1% difference.

2) That's very likely, (I hope they'll do Wrath at some point,) but yeah, still unannounced. Even if they announce it this autumn on BlizzCon, the release is probably more than a year away. We do not even know the release date of Phase 5.

Quote From anchorm4n

I went with a Blood Elf Rogue for my first try on a whim. After 2 hours I'm at level 10 and slowly get a feeling for the game. I learned that confronting more than one enemy at a time is a bad idea and more than two is suicide. I like the card and the quest system but I have no idea about the main story so far. Probably it hasn't even begun yet. It's a little inconvenient that there seems to be no immediate indicator that tells me if a picked up piece of equipment is better than what I carry at the moment. That was a really useful feature in the witcher 3. Thanks again for helping me getting started!

Yeah, those are rogues. But you'll get tougher as you gain more levels and abilities. Which spec do you play?

For the story, this game is absolutely massive. The game does not have a single central storyline. Every expansion has its own. Levels 1-60 were revamped in Cataclysm, the third expansion and its quests are loosely related to that storyline. Except the Draenei and the Blood Elf starting zones, including Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands, which you are probably in right now. Those are from the Burning Crusade, the first expansion to the game. The questing experience in those zones is much closer to Classic. They may be a bit bland or repetitive. If you are getting bored, try visiting a Hero's Call bulletin board in a city and picking up the introduction quest for another zone. I believe you can play in most of the zones on both Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. On your map, when viewing a zone, you can see that zone's central storyline in a bulletpoint format. If you complete all of the questlines related to those bulletpoints, you'll get that zone's Loremaster achievement and you can consider yourself done with that zone.

There is a solution to your item problem: press Shift when hovering over an item in your bag or on any UI element. The game will compare it to your currently equipped item.

Quote From anchorm4n

I like the card and the quest system but I have no idea about the main story so far. Probably it hasn't even begun yet. It's a little inconvenient that there seems to be no immediate indicator that tells me if a picked up piece of equipment is better than what I carry at the moment. That was a really useful feature in the witcher 3. Thanks again for helping me getting started!

Ahm, about the story - Theodrinus is absolutely right, that there is no single central storyline. In fact, there are so many different major and side characters influenting major and small events, that imho it's not really possible to mention them all in the game. And there's also an alternative universe :D.

In the next paragraphs I would like to share my experience doing the Loremaster achievement in Wotlk (i.e. completing almost all of the quests in Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland and Northrend) and reading the quests I was doing. Imho the game doesn't inform the player that much about the lore. Most of the quests in the Classic regions tell you to kill this or that, to go somewhere and fetch something etc. Like, who cares if a farmer X has a beast/zombie/defias rogue problem in his back yard or if a random stranger wants you to bring some supplies in the nearest inn, because they are too tired or scared. Quests like these feel too generic and are in the game for the sake of you gaining experience to level up. The Classic quests give you a loose idea of what is happening in all corners of Azeroth, but if you want to learn more about the major characters, I'd suggest finding external sources - like reading the warcraft related books & comics or watching some videos on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Nobbel87/videos

Some examples of vague storytelling in quests:

Back in TBC people didn't understand why they had to fight their beloved characters from Warcraft 3 and to kill them - Illidan and Kael'thas. It was way later explained in a book, that after his defeat in Northrend Illidan wanted to prepare an army against the burning legion and strike them down in their main domain, Argus (which was the former home of the Eredar before they went into exile, becoming the Draenei, or followed Sargeras, becoming the Man'ari). So he trained the Demon Hunters (Illidari), but he did so in secret, which led to the alienation of Akama. He didn't get his beloved sacred temple back as he was promised, he didn't understand what Illidan's plans were, so he viewed him as the legion's puppet and decided to betray him. He met Maiev, they decided to work together, Illidan eventually learnt of his duplicity, he ripped a portion of his soul and with it he tricked the Warden into a trap. And that's pretty much where the players came in - they learnt how Illidan kept Maiev hostage and Akama's soul under his command, how he terrorised the civilians in Outland (he captured orcs and turned them into fel orcs with Magtheridon's blood thus binding them to his will; he instructed Lady Vashj to seize control of the water reserves and to limit its supply to other creatures) and how he was raising an army of elven demon hunters in his own image for unknown reasons. So in TBC we saw him as a tyrant, as the villian of the expansion and thus the next kill target w/o knowing his true intentions. He just took drastic measures to mobilze the beings in Outland and send them against burning legion, because as the saying goes "the end justifies the means".

Another example, when the lore isn't mentioned in the game: In the Night Elf capital city Fandral Staghelm wants the players to bring him Morrowgrain for some goodies. It was revealed in a book, that he used that herb to keep Malfurion imprisoned in the Emerald Nightmare and planned to kill him later on. 

As you can see, you shouldn't expect to learn everything important about the major characters by playing the MMO. You will only get a loose idea of what's happening in the WORLD of warcraft. But if you ignore the meaningless quests, you are going to explore a whole new world. You will see how people live there, what problems they have, what kind of creatures inhabit certain areas etc. You will be like the cameraman of a National Geographic documentaion film who only has a narrow understanding of what he's filming. Your narrator will be the quests you complete and those won't provide you with the full information of the things you encounter. If you want to get all of the references, you can watch lore-related videos or read the books and let your imagination flow.

That was my opinion based on the Classic quests, which were preserved in Wotlk. I must admit, that with the next two expansions the storytelling in the quests became better. In Outland and in Northrend I got to experience more lore-related missions than the typical "kill this, kill that" ones. Don't ask me how the storytelling evolved in the next expansions and how it is in current WoW. Theodrinus informed you about the world revamp. When Cata launched, most of the quests in the classic regions were changed (heck, how could they have stayed the same when the whole Azeroth got shattered by Deathwing's actions). And since I didn't play on retail, I don't have an opinion about this aspect. But I think that it improved - you'll get to experience some ingame events and cutscenes, which would make you feel more involved in the lore.