Hello. I’m starting my wow journey in earnest this time around (hopefully) after being stuck on class trials time and time again.
I’m looking for advice on how to get the most out of the game. I’m in no rush to “current” content, I’d rather explore the world, get attached to it and my character. (I’ll play on Argent Dawn)
I plan to reach loremaster on one character eventually as well. Basically clear out everything I missed out during my youth due to lack of funds at the time. Experience it all.
I already know that I’ll be clearing most things one-shotting stuff unfortunately, but I accepted it.
Any suggestions are welcome, addon recommendations, pathing etc. I’d also like to get some clarification regarding the new player railroading and shortened quest experience for expansions.
If I do the shortened experience with the teleporting book I saw on youtube, can I later replay the expansion(s) in earnest still or will that screw things up somehow?
(See my loremaster/completionist aspirations.)
This is a wonderful thing to see on the forums, I hope I can add something to this!
I am going to make this as short and as simple as I can, hopefully it’s not too jumbled. Below you’ll be given a quick breakdown of what I consider to be three important aspects, followed by some links and sources that might be helpful.
As I don’t really know how versed you are already, I’m going to approach this from a zero knowledge presumption and you can pick and choose what might be relevant in this.
Become familiar with the game
Starting off, my first piece of advice and what I would suggest you do is that you become familiar with the game itself. Its systems, its features. Begin with the fundamentals of the Races, the Classes, and onward to the various game modes such Dungeons, Delves, Raids, Battlegrounds, World Quests, World Events—the list is long.
My suggestion is that you become familiar with the controls, the gameplay, the rhythm of what this game is at its very core. I’d also suggest that this extends to the infrastructure of the game as a whole, as well as the the social components, not to mention the sheer number of menus.
What are they, what are they for, which ones are relevant? Explore them!
In my opinion, this is going to be the hardest thing to get into. Take your time!
Become familiar with the world
The world of Azeroth, and beyond, is vast … and wonderous.
Besides general gameplay locales such as capitals, and vendors, the Auction House; what are the different continents and islands? Where are they? What are they?
While I will provide some helpful links below, there is a near unlimited amount of material online that you can use to help you get into what the Warcraft mythos is and what it is about. That said, I’m not necessarily saying you should do this alongside just general use during questing and navigation. Yet, it arguably would help.
What’s arguably so great about this mythos however [compared to contemporary franchises] is that it is heavily compartmentalized. Once you know of a few key places or landmarks, figures and events, you’ll immediately be able to trace back and see more or less all the branches of this work and this mythos. While big … it’s pretty compact.
Familiarize yourself with the foundations, and they will serve your entire journey.
Become familiar with the community
Lastly, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the community as a whole.
This includes, as I’d argue, everything from the official social media channels to various popular and featured creators; to guilds and communities; as well as events and happenings. Allow yourself to get an overview of how the players populate the world, how they [we] congregate, and what that could potentially mean for you.
There are so many resources available in and around the game, including but not limited to things like community websites and Discord servers. What are they? How do they work? Would any of them be of interest?
These are the eventual questions that you’d likely want to answer.
Do these three steps in order, no matter how deep or how long you decide to pursue it, and I guarantee you’re going to have a far easier time getting into the game, the world and the community.
Let’s get into some practicalities!
As requested, this journey wouldn’t be complete without some tools to help you along the way. Personally, I am in the corner where I don’t suggest AddOns right away to players but rather allow them to explore the game first.
These two sites are a must-have for me, though:
- Wowhead
Whether you’re on the hunt for guides, or help finding an NPC, troubleshooting a quest and sifting through comments; whatever you need, you’ll often find it here: Wowhead. By the community, for the community, this site is handier than it might look at first glance. Having it by your side, and sanctioned by the company itself, it’ll serve your journey well.
As an example, their New Players guides are often very good:
A personal entry and tool I use side-by-side with Wowhead, the Warcraft Wiki is an invaluable resource to compliment the databases found on the former. Perhaps primarily suitable as an encyclopaedia for all things story and lore, I often find myself browsing the page for references or sources that might be missing from other places.
https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Warcraft_Wiki
Before I go …
Like many other players I am a so-called Guide in-game. And I am used to helping so-called Newcomers such as yourself, whether new or returning players, in various ways. For that reason, beyond this ‘little’ reply, feel free to add me if you have any further questions or if there’s anything you need while on your journey. While I reckon you will have access to the Newcomer Chat in-game, I’d rather be certain I’ve offered a place for you to turn.
BattleTag:SwedishCabe#2652
Additional resources
Where and how should I proceed?
Read more
Now what?
World of Warcraft is primarily an endgame, current content, MMORPG. As you mention.
For this reason, playing through the past content for your levelling experience in the hopes of getting the full picture is arguably not optimal nor viable with the current system. As such, I would suggest you use your levelling experience to instead become familiar with the game itself. Focus on learning the game until you reach current max level. Once you have a character at 80 (soon to be 90), then you can start looking back.
As such, how you should proceed is to level a character through Dragonflight.
When it comes to which expansion or levelling experience you should choose, my suggestion is that you choose the modern experience; the Dragonflight expansion; this will allow you to become familiar with what the game is today. Most likely, depending on a few prerequisites, the game will automatically funnel you into Dragonflight but in case that it doesn’t, the quest you’re looking for is [The Dragon Isles Await] which you should get automatically. See the Wowhead link below for more information or troubleshooting if you can’t find it:
The Dragonflight expansion is suggested due to how it works, all the modern systems, how the story and gameplay is presented and much, much more.
It will provide you with a strong foundation to move forward, not to mention being mostly untethered from previous expansions and setting up the Worldsoul Saga.
When it comes to an Achievement such as [Loremaster], it is best taken slow and over time with a fully levelled character. This means that the content will be trivial, yes, but it will allow you to do it on—supposedly—your main character in the future.
You will have all the time in the world, once you’re comfortable in the game, to be able to check off all of the quests and the stories in the rest of the game in your own time.
Where and how can I learn about the world?
Read more
Denizens of Azeroth, Classes and the Timeline
The official website includes various tools that provide an easy overview of the game’s races, classes and history. The Races page introduces all of the game’s available races, the Classes page introduces all of the game’s available classes and the Timeline provides an interactive view of the franchise’s entries and patches.
The Warcraft® Remastered Battle Chest® includes the remastered versions of the original three Warcraft games that the MMORPG is based on; Warcraft® I: Remastered, Warcraft® II: Remastered and Warcraft® III: Reforged.
If one has the time and is set on exploring the world of Azeroth and beyond in a more in-depth fashion, it is arguably a solid way to experience what this world is and where it all began. The remastered versions also neatly match the aesthetics of the modern game, making the transition easier.
The Media Gallery is an overview of both the franchise’s many years of material in the form of novels, novellas, comics, short stories, cinematics and much more. On this page you’ll find content that is free, as well as featured content that can be bought from other retailers; such as tie-in novels and compendiums.
While perhaps intended as further reading if you decide to continue to pursue this journey and this world [as it might be unnecessary to buy this full series at this point in time], the World of Warcraft: Chronicle series is arguably a fantastic set of books that describes the entire mythos from beginning until present day.
No, you won’t. Not necessarily. There is a better way these days.
The game has changed. You no longer need to do Loremaster on one character. And you can go to any expansion at Level 10 with Chromie Time.
Achievements are shared account-wide.
You can the achievement for Quests for a zone on one character, say Grizzly Hills Quests, and for another zone on another character, say Borean Tundra Quests, and another zone on a third character, say Icecrown Quests, and they all add up towards your Loremaster of Northrend.
Or you can do Loremaster of Outland on one character, and Loremaster of Northrend on another, and they still count for both.
The way to approach questing for you is to make one character for each expansion. Make one for TBC, one for Wrath, one for Cata, and so on. Different classes, different races, Get each character to 10, then talk to Chromie and go to their expansion. You will still get your Loremaster, but you will also get a whole set of alts at level 70 or 80 you can choose from in the process.
While you will overlevel each expansion in the process, that will happen only near the end, so the amount of miserable one-shotting experience will be minimised.
Loremaster for EK and Kalimdor is a bit different. Their zones never scale above 30, so any character that gets to 35 is in one-shot mode. And they have a LOT of zones. You could make a bunch of characters and level them to 30, and/or you could suffer the Godmode experience.
So your plan is:
First character: You will probably be forced to start in Exile’s Reach, which I call Cardboard Island. OK, so pick a class, maybe use that Warrior you posted on.
Pick an expansion. I would pick Dragonflight. It is a good questing experience. It’s pretty weak story, and some bad characterisation, but the process is good and you get your mount nicely. Quest through it, following at least the featured quests, the ones with the brown shield around the exclamation mark.
That will level you, and bring you through the full story.
Once you get a character to 70, you are no longer locked to Exile’s Reachm and can choose your racial starting zone thereafter, for future characters. And I recommend you do, for the background and character flavor.
Then make, say, an Undead Warlock, level to 10 in Tirisfal Glades, and choose another expansion at Chromie, maybe Wrath.
Keep doing that, and you won’t regret your time seeing the world -and youwill have learned all the classes and have a flavor of the races, and youwill have all these characters to choose from.
I really recommend against it. I do in general, but especially for you, with your Loremaster aspirations.
We regularly see people who have taken the TWW Book Tour left in a limbo state because of bugs and glitches and inconsistent phasing, and unable to start the real campaign for the expansion,
Addons are in flux. Blizzard has declared war on combat addons recently, and most of those have been removed or neutered.
If you are inclined towards completionism in any sphere, I hightly recommend
Altoholic to keep track of your characters and
AllTheThings to keep track of what you have done and have yet to do.
Auctionator helps a lot with teh Auction House.
Personally, I very much like Bartender4, to make managing buttons and bars easier.
I would suggest searching YouTube for RECENT videos recommending specific addons. Look at them, see whether you think you would like them. Given the recent changes,any addon morethan three months old may be giving you out of date advice. Start with just a few, and add more as you fine a need for them.
Wowhead for quests, items, NPCs
Icy-Veins for how to play your class
and this video
It’s a year old now, and a little out of date. It is massively long, but broken into 1-2 minute chapters, and you get a Table of Contents when you view “more” to see the full description.
Do PLEASE ask again if you have any more questions or want any more detail.