WoW vets, help an MMO newb

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Okay, i've decided to buy WoW soon (probably in a week or so) but I'm a total n00b to MMORPGs and Warcraft in general, so I need your help.

First of all I need to know about what options i should choose for my character.

Horde or Alliance?

Race?

Class?

Profession?

What's the best combination for a newb? Most imprortantly of all I want a character who is going to be the most fun to play. That's my main concern. I've heard the Undead are the most fun, but is this an unusual opinion or is it popular opinion?

Because i'm new to MMOs i also want a character who is going to be well suited to soloing. I don't want to get involved in group based gameplay just yet. I'd like to take the time to learn and discover things on my own terms and pace, without pissing other people off by holding a team back by making n00b mistakes.

That covers the most important questions for now. I'm sure more questions will arise based on replies.


PS. oh yeah, and these are possible combinations i've thought might be suitable. let me know what you think.

1. Undead Rogue
2. Elf Hunter
3. Tauren Druid

All with primary professions in herbalism and alchemy. I'll probably learn fishing and cooking as secondary skills too.
 
i'd make an orc or dwarf hunter instead of an elf since they get better racial traits.

rogues and hunters are probably the better soloing classes for new players.
 
Not necessarily. Shadow Meld is a great ability for a hunter to have :P

also, 150% movement speed @ death is a great and underrated bonus ;o
 
Undead Rogue rocks, undead are the only race that get a little help from shadow priests (Can't be fear kited for 20 seconds when you use Will of the Forsaken).

You can learn as many secondary professions as you want.
 
Zaptruder said:
Not necessarily. Shadow Meld is a great ability for a hunter to have :P

also, 150% movement speed @ death is a great and underrated bonus ;o
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umm... what?
Son of Godzilla said:
Go with a mage.
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why?
Tre said:
Undead Rogue rocks
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why exactly?
Tre said:
undead are the only race that get a little help from shadow priests (Can't be fear kited for 20 seconds when you use Will of the Forsaken).
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how is this a good thing?
Tre said:
You can learn as many secondary professions as you want.
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i know. the only other secondary skill available besides the two i mentioned is first aid and i don't want to spread my resources and time any thinner than i already intend to for herbalism, alchemy, fishing and cooking. learning all these skills takes time and money right?
 
Just try it out, and I'll have to aggree with the hunter suggestion. Every class can solo to 60 easily if they wanted to, if your going horde and hunter might as well go orc. Otherwise use your brain and go NE hunter so that you can use shadowmeld *stealth*.
 
"undead are the only race that get a little help from shadow priests (Can't be fear kited for 20 seconds when you use Will of the Forsaken)."

How is this a good thing? I should've said "against." Basically, if you ever plan on doing any sort of PvP or friendly dueling or whatever and go against a Priest, there are certain spells like fear, charm, etc. that would force you uncontrollably to run away or not attack. Will of the Forsaken allows you to be immune to those spells for 20 seconds, which helps.

Also, Undead can breathe underwater for insane amounts of time (because you know, they're undead).
 
oh Nooooo they're "forsaken" which is why my friggin exorcism doesnt work against them...bastards.

I didnt know there was a time limit to how long the undead could breath underwater.
 
"I didnt know there was a time limit to how long the undead could breath underwater."


Yeah, there's a limit like with everyone else (you'd think there wouldn't be since...you know), but it's a very, VERY long one. Like many, many minutes.
 
Avoid rogue, there's too many of them. And at endgame they can get totally hosed by other classes if they fail to get the drop on their enemy (which always happens in duels.)


Oh and shadowmeld isn't that great, I mean you can't walk around with it on and you can be detected pretty easily.
 
honestly i'd avoid undead rogue/elf hunter combos as those are insanely common among the classes, but undead rogues > all others in pvp (and otherwise... gnomes, yes, gnomes, are the next best). orc hunter is pretty common on the horde too, but that's because every trait except blood fury benefits a hunter.

really, mage isn't a bad choice like SOG said. the class is a little too heavy on the "kill fast, use up all your mana, rest for the next mob" play but it's a strong damage class and valuable in groups, and not terrible at soloing. warlock is also a good soloer but I'd really not recommend that to a new player as it's a little more complex than most other classes past about level 30 or so.

another option, at least on the horde, is shaman. they're a pretty strong solo class and a capable healer for groups. essentially your typical all-around type class.
 
firex said:
warlock is also a good soloer but I'd really not recommend that to a new player as it's a little more complex than most other classes past about level 30 or so.
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yeah, i've read up about warlock and that it can be kinda complex, so i decided already that I'd leave that till later after a bit of practice. I'd probably go with the undead or orc for that class.
firex said:
another option, at least on the horde, is shaman. they're a pretty strong solo class and a capable healer for groups. essentially your typical all-around type class.
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yeah, i was thinking shaman. but what's the better race to go with for that class? Orc, Tauren or Troll?

And remember guys, I'm not all that concerned which is the best to have in terms of kicking ass. I just want one that has fun quests and interesting traits other races and classes don't have.

Druid seems interesting because of the forms it can change into (Bear, Cat, Aquatic, Travel), but the only races that have access to that class are Elves and Taurens. I've heard Taurens are fairly boring and elves just seem kinda... typical.
 
I'd pick shaman then, if you want a class that feels unique. And no race for them is "the best" despite a lot of people saying tauren are because of their war stomp racial trait.
 
I'd also add my support to the druid suggestion

If you want to be a druid for the horde, however, you need to be Tauren.

For alliance you need to be Night Elf - those are the only two allowable races.
 
Whatever you do, make sure you pick Horde (looks like you are leaning that way). :) I have no problem with Alliance content, but the Alliance outnumbers the Horde by 3 to 1 on almost every server. Being an underdog is much more fun, trust me! (And we need you to help fight the dirty Alliance!) :)

I really wouldn't worry about making a 'wrong' decision. In my experience every single class in the game is a blast to play. Also, picking race is not a very important decision. Races have different abilities (4 per, most passive abilities), yes... but they don't make much of a difference in the end. (One could argue that Undead's abilities do... and they are very nice, but still situational and I don't think overall they would make you a better "character"). Pick the race that looks how you like, and has the feel that you like.

As for starting area, they are all good, and if you don't like the stuff you're experiencing nothing is stopping you from exploring and heading to the other areas. :) Each race can still get the other race's quests.

Good luck and have fun!
 
yeah, the horde seems more interesting to me. alliance seems kinda generic, but i'll give both a shot eventually.

and i didn't know you could get other race's quests. that's great.

I'm leaning towards these choices atm.

Orc Shaman, herbalism/alchemy, fishing/cooking
Tauren Shaman, herbalism/alchemy, fishing/cooking
Dwarf Hunter, mining/engineering, fishing/cooking, first aid
Tauren Hunter, skinning/leatherworking, fishing/cooking, first aid

Good choices for a beginner simply looking for a fun experience? And what about professions? What's going to make me plenty of money and assist my character?
 
MrAngryFace said:
I have a cow lady druid in GAF guild, but my undead rogue rul3s, in a different guild tho :(
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what's the cow lady like? fun or not? i thought i remembered you mentioning that Tauren are a bore.
 
Tauren rock, their starting area and quests are a FUCKING CHORE.

Walk here, collect this, do this, purify that. SHIT! Once you escape the vile grasp of mulgore you have to do barren quests which I think are also a lot of walking around.

Frankly I think the undead have the best starting area, my rogue was so much easier to get going.

However I had a lot of fun tonight in a group with my druid, and since im able to travel to travel to better areas to quest I suppose the suffering was worth it.

Tauren quests are ass tho, but god is it beautiful country.
 
buy EQ2 instead

sorry, someone never fails to troll the eq topics. seriously, buy what you're more interested in
 
Man I wouldnt recommend WoW to a single person at this point. Wait until there's an expansion or a few more patches that add more content.
 
Meier said:
Man I wouldnt recommend WoW to a single person at this point. Wait until there's an expansion or a few more patches that add more content.
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Eh... I'm kind of feeling bored now that I'm level 60... but... it took three months of constant enjoyment (5+ hours per day) to get there. Very much worth it... compare that to how much time you'll put into one console game.
 
Meier said:
Man I wouldnt recommend WoW to a single person at this point. Wait until there's an expansion or a few more patches that add more content.
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too late. i bought it today... just need to wait for my DVD burner to be returned. :|
 
Pff, WoW is worth it. Especially if you pace yourself. I have my rogue, I have my alt. Sure I level fast but I dont bum rush it hardcore anymore.
 
Warcraft has plenty of content for such a fresh out of the gates MMO.

Just because a handful of folks pigeon holed themselves into avoiding varried
content and played to the point where they developed a permanent scent of cheetoes
and are now allergic to sunlight, fresh oxygen and any drink that isn't 140 calories and comes in a can isn't a valid camp. :p

As far as your build. Firstly, don't worry about limiting your secondaries. Such as fishing, ect. You can take as many as you like. Only key gathering and production skills are limited.

The secondaries are also easy enough to churn out when you need a break from the typical fare.

Money wise...eh. You're not going to make a ton of cash at the moment from production. Honestly, the best cash is in the gathering. Be it leather, herbs or disenchanting.

At this point it's skewed more towards being convienant and fun. Although money on the whole isn't that important in WoW anyway.

The Horde is underdeveloped compared to the Alliance. Dunno if it was planned that way, but either way you swing it, they're missing a lot of the lore. Undead are about as lore-heavy as the Horde gets.

On the other hand, the Horde have much more humor and a lighter air to them than the Alliance. So it kinda balances out.

I've tried a few races by now, and IMHO I'd say the Night Elves have the best polish to their general setup. Although they're a bit fruity and overpopular.

As for what class/race combo, it mostly depends how you're gonna play and your personal tastes...sorry I skipped a lot of the thread. Oi.
 
Alex said:
Just because a handful of folks pigeon holed themselves into avoiding varried
content and played to the point where they developed a permanent scent of cheetoes
and are now allergic to sunlight, fresh oxygen and any drink that isn't 140 calories and comes in a can isn't a valid camp. :p
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:lol
oh snap
B000031KJM.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Alex said:
As far as your build. Firstly, don't worry about limiting your secondaries. Such as fishing, ect. You can take as many as you like.
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heh, but there are like only 3 secondary skills atm anyway.
Alex said:
Honestly, the best cash is in the gathering. Be it leather, herbs or disenchanting.
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Isn't enchanting/disenchanting a service profession as opposed to a gathering or production profession? And I've heard the complete opposite about it in terms of the money it brings it.
 
Strictly disenchanting brings in some solid cash, as far as I am aware. The materials seem to sell for a ton on the Auction House on my server at least.

From what I know enchanting mostly becomes a money sink due to accepting chump change fees in exchange for skill ups.

I may be wrong altogether though, heh. I'm an Alchemist on one character and a Engineer on the other, but this is just what I've heard.
 
It ran well enough on my P3-1000, Geforce 4 ti4200 and 384 PC100 RAM, so if it doesn't something is screwy. I've upgraded (entire new rig) since then, but the only real problem was the slow RAM in conjunction with large areas. Lots o' loading spurts due to the streaming world.

WoW really does run well, the rule of thumb is simply to tinker with the draw distance to your taste, as 90% of WoW's resource eating comes from it. And to be honest, outside of gorgeous aerial travel, it doesn't really make a big difference.
 
Enchanting is by FAR the most expensive tradeskill in the game, I'd stay away from it on your first character.
 
Best bet....try each class for a few hours. You'll get to 6-10th lvl and can get a feel for what works for you.

WoW is great about that - fast lvling and no commitment.

Then run with what feels right.
 
trippingmartian said:
Are there any classes that play remotely close that of the Necromancer in Diablo II?

I love summoning creatures to do (most of) the dirty work. :D
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Warlocks (orc, gnome, human, and undead) are the summoners and this is the list of what lvl you need to be at to get the next pet/minion.

Imp @ 1 - quest
Voidwalker @ 10 - quest
Succubus @ 20 - quest
Felhunter @ 30 - quest
Infernal @ 50 - drop (lower Blackrock Spire)
Doomguard @ 60 - drop or from Curse of Doom


Also, I haven't played Diablo II, but the people who have said WoW plays as much like it as EQ.

The other reason to get a Warlock is they get a free mount - 90g you don't need to save up for like everyone else around lvl 40.




Disenchanting/enchanting is not a money making profession. It is the biggest money pit ever. I think it was a bone to hardcore EQ2 players who don't mind grinding/farming for items to disenchant. There might be a handful of exception servers, but the materials you get from disenchanting an item are almost always significantly less than the original item.

Herbs, skins, and minerals are the way to go if you don't want to worry about money.
 
Subitai said:
Warlocks (orc, gnome, human, and undead) are the summoners and this is the list of what lvl you need to be at to get the next pet/minion.

Imp @ 1 - quest
Voidwalker @ 10 - quest
Succubus @ 20 - quest
Felhunter @ 30 - quest
Infernal @ 50 - drop (lower Blackrock Spire)
Doomguard @ 60 - drop or from Curse of Doom


Also, I haven't played Diablo II, but the people who have said WoW plays as much like it as EQ.

The other reason to get a Warlock is they get a free mount - 90g you don't need to save up for like everyone else around lvl 40.




Disenchanting/enchanting is not a money making profession. It is the biggest money pit ever. I think it was a bone to hardcore EQ2 players who don't mind grinding/farming for items to disenchant. There might be a handful of exception servers, but the materials you get from disenchanting an item are almost always significantly less than the original item.

Herbs, skins, and minerals are the way to go if you don't want to worry about money.
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Thanks for the heads up. I've played a little of this game as a warrior, but I'm hearing that Warrior is an awful class. I think I'll mix it up with the Warlock when I get my copy in the mail this week.
 
what are the "hardest" but most rewarding (and coolest) classes and professions?

from what ive read rogues and warlocks intrigue me the most but you really cant know until you play the game. i basically just want to have the most bad-ass character possible.
 
trippingmartian said:
Thanks for the heads up. I've played a little of this game as a warrior, but I'm hearing that Warrior is an awful class. I think I'll mix it up with the Warlock when I get my copy in the mail this week.
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Warriors are awful solo and are healer and premium equipment dependant and pretty weak early. However, as you approach the lvl cap, this isn't a problem as you won't be soloing as much with raids and won't need to be buying as much.

Warlocks have the opposite problem. They're great solo and early, but they take a lot of skill and management in groups, so towards the lvl cap they're not as immediately useful, like say warriors. The last 2 summons are a pain too from what I've read.


All the classes are fun to play, but the balance issues become magnified with PvP. I kinda wish Blizzard would present things more in terms of PvP and where a class stands in the paper-rock-scissors. That's not what most people are used to though, so all the intro stuff you'll read is focused around role playing. Until you're in the game and experiencing PvP death around lvl 20, the PvP issues don't really matter. The way things are now, rogues and healers have an easier time in PvP. That's not to say good hunters, warriors, mages, and warlocks won't clean up in many confrontations, it's just that they don't leave as much room for error.

If you have serious interest, just go read the WoW class boards. You'll hear the satisfied and dissatisfied, and get an idea of where the class your interested in stands in PvP in addition to finding out how to optimize a character in that class.


As far as professions, I'd say go to the professions boards on WoW. If I had to start over again from scratch, I'd go herb/alchemy. The potions are immediately useful and as you get higher lvl and need more money for your mount and better equipment you can sell rare herbs. Engs. get a handful of great PvP stuff, but you can't get to till the 30s. IMO, for the crafters, right now most of the stuff isn't as good as drops from mobs and you can get more money selling the raw materials than what you can make with them. Furthermore, you almost never will be crafting for yourself since you'll be able to get better stuff closer to your lvl at auction. If you just enjoy making stuff that is one thing, but do realize without dedicated guild support, you will invest money raising your skill lvl at various points.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I've played a little of this game as a warrior, but I'm hearing that Warrior is an awful class.
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Why is that? Probably the only letdowns about warriors right now (because they are in need of serious tweaking improvements similar to Paladins who instead need serious nerfs), is that they are horrible in PvP. A warrior is mainly good for fighting other warriors. We can take the damage, but we lack the serious benefits of being what seems more and more like a half assed support class. We don't heal. We don't have much in terms of crowd control (other then a single mass aggro taunt with a BIG 5 minute cooldown), and the damage we deal is less then palatable at best since we have to lug around a big shield (mostly) or only use a single slow swinging sword with a lack of crits that rogues, by comparison, dish out almost by the second.

On the plus side, Warriors can tank. In fact, they're the best tanks in the game. It's our job. If you don't have a warrior purely specced in protection, you're a waste of a character. This is limiting in a number of ways as having a healer with you or plenty of healing potions is absolutely essential, but in the end game, a great high level warrior will be of so much help to the high DPS low armor classes such as warlocks, mages, and rogues that it's not even funny. Team a warlock, a mage, a rogue, and a priest together and you have probably one of the best all around high level instance groups in the game (ignoring Horde and Alliance specific classes). You can even switch out the warlock for a Hunter as that class is excellent with pulling single mobs and has a very high and consistant ly safe DPS with a nice pet who can tank if more then one mob happens to be pulled.

Though I can't stress enough that Warriors do NEED some upgrades in terms of damage dealing, they are absolutely essential in end game instances and raids for basically taking all the damage. They'll be your best friends. Just keep them well healed and you can't go wrong.
 
Never, ever, ever go to the WoW boards, ESPECIALLY the class specific ones expecting level-headed and intelligent discussion. They're so off the mark it's ridiculous.

I do reccomend bookmarking the WoW General board though, as the sticky threads are updated often and contain good information straight from Blizzard.

Balance for the most part is pretty reasonable, but Warriors and to a lesser extent Warlocks have some issues. The problems said classes have are majorly magnified, but are worth noting if you intend to roll one of them.

Warriors problems stem almost solely from PvP and oddly balanced abilities in conjunction with narrowminded talent tree focus. Same deal for Warlocks, mostly PvP, from bugs, reagent problems and the overpotency of Dispel magic.

Personally, I'd just roll what you want and enjoy it. Class balance is going to be ever changing, something will always be broken in the populaces eyes, and everything always has it's own situations and rivals that it'll shine against.
 
Extra advice would be to handily ignore any and all Paladin nerf fit throwers.

There's two types of folks who can't manage Paladins: Warriors/Warlocks who are in need of a buff and dummies.

I wonder how much longer it'll be before people seem to understand that all you're fighting on a Paladin is timers and survivability, and that the current god of WoW is the lil' ol' Shadow Priest.
 
Alex said:
I wonder how much longer it'll be before people seem to understand that all you're fighting on a Paladin is timers and survivability, and that the current god of WoW is the lil' ol' Shadow Priest.
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Shadow Priest eh? hmmm... Undead Shadow Priest sounds kinda cool. Is it a difficult class to get into (especially for a newb) like the Warlock is meant to be?
 
Not so much, I personally had an easier time on it than my Warlock. The life of a Priest is pretty middle of the road as far as solo difficulty and general ease of use goes. Not easy, not exceedingly difficult, just kinda...there.

For builds, the popular method is Shadow/Disc to level up, Holy/Disc for end game raids, back to Shadow/Disc for PvP and Battlegrounds.

But yeah, if WoW has a "best" class, it's Priest.

~Solo scales from solid to great as you progress in Shadow.

~they're the best in PvP, not one class is safe against a well played Shadow Priest as far as I'm aware. Which is where the handful of aware folks get their "NERF" complaints from.

~Drooled and fought over for all forms of grouping and raids.

When they nerfed Mind Soothe on that last server reconfig, and Priests swore they'd quit their class, citing that they were "useless and broken" all I could do is laugh.

Undead is the kicker as well. If you picked that, you picked ungodly (no pun intended) well.

Despite all things though, WoW is pretty balanced. But an Undead Shadow Priest is about as "ahead of the curve" as you can currently get. Dwarves as a runner-up race.

I wound up quitting mine, it's a great, great, class. And in much demand, but I didn't like how the progression was handled nor did the concept of a Shadow Priest personally appeal to me.
 
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