World Of Warcraft For The Brand New Player

Ya know, I've been playing the World of Warcraft (WoW) for awhile now. I'm hardly an expert, but the game is comfortable for me and I know where to go to get questions answered. But what if you're brand new to the game? Maybe your Kid (or your Mom) got you into the game, but you're not sure where to start and for whatever reason the other person isn't around to help or maybe you're looking up your own help.

First off you are going to have to pick a server to play on. When you first start the game you will be given a choice: Normal, PvP, RP, and RPPvP.

• Normal is just that, fighting monsters and progressing in the game.
• PvP is Player Vs Player and basically means that other players can wander by and kill you and that you can return the favor when you get the opportunity. Very high level players will occasionally come by and squish you (often from hiding) and there's not much you can do about it. Again, you can return the favor when you get to higher level.
• RP is Role Playing and is for people who really want to get into the roles of their characters. You can RP on any server and most people on RP servers don't actually RP.
• RPPvP should be pretty easy to figure out. ;)

My suggestions is that you stick with a "Normal" or "RP" server to start with, skipping anything to do with PvP. Also, try to pick a server with "high" or "full" population, or even "New Players." If there are a lot of people on the server you will have greater chances of finding the help you need from other players.

Just a note: WoW has organized Player Vs Player combat which you can join if you wish, regardless of the server that you join. It's just that if you're not on a PvP server then other players will not be able to wander by and "gank" you.

Next will come your Race and your Class. There are a variety of races to pick from and they are evenly split among the two factions in the game, Horde and Alliance. Each race has certain special racial abilities. Don't worry too much about these at this time, just pick one that looks right to you and that you will enjoy playing.

There are nine classes to pick from and a tenth (Death Knight) that requires you reach level 55 on some other character first.

• Melee classes stand toe to toe with the opposition and deal with them.
• Ranged classes shoot arrows or cast spells.
• Healing classes keep the rest of the group healthy.

Read the descriptions of each class and pick one that you might like to play. My recommendation is that you skip being a healer for now, since that type of character really needs to be part of a group and is a bit more complicated to play.

Hunters might be the easiest class to play. They have a pet that keeps the opposition busy while the Hunter fills the opponent with arrows or bullets. Warriors are tough fighters as are Paladins. Rogues can effectively sneak around and attack from ambush, as can Druids.

A lot of beginning, and even experienced, players pick the hunter. Besides being easy, there's just something that's kinda cool about being able to find and tame your own critter.

Keep in mind that on any server you can have ten characters. So if you don't like the one you started just create another. Or do so anyway for the variety.

What's next?

Ok, so you now have your new character and it's time to enter the game. You'll see a screen with a bunch of icons and other things. Click on things to see what they do, hover over them with your mouse pointer and a "tooltip" will pop up describing what the icon or entity is. The manual that came with your game can also help and there are a ton of WoW guides available on YouTube and elsewhere.

On the lower left part of your screen will be the "chat box." Much of what's in that box will be gibberish at this point, so don't worry about it. At some point someone will try to talk to you via the chat system. You will see their name in your chat box, right click that name and an options menu will appear. Click "whisper" and you will be able to send that person a message. Or hit 'w' to reply to their whisper.

Right in front of you will be your first "Quest Giver." Right click that entity, read the description of what you have to do, then go do it.

Welcome to WoW and may your trek to the upper levels of the game be entirely too much fun.