What is WoW?
WoW Is short for the MMORPG game World of Warcraft. It is a game owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The plot of the game is to defeat enemies and level up the max level. Acquiring new gear and currency along the way. When you get to the max level there is various things to do. You can go on raids. You can do heroic dungeons. You can do regular dungeons. You can farm materials and sell them on the Auction House for in-game currency. And much more!
EXPANSIONS: The expansions available for WoW as of right now, are
Vanilla (Before Expansions):
Burning Crusade:
Wrath of the Lich King:
Cataclysm:
Classes and Races:
Alliance| Horde
Human | Orc
Dwarf | Undead
Night Elf | Tauren
Gnome | Blood Elf
Draenei | Goblin
Worgen | Troll ()
Classes: Shaman
Warlock
Warrior
Mage
Druid
Paladin
Rogue
Death Knight
Priest
Hunter
Factions What are Factions? Factions are basically reputation with another race. But horde can never get reputation with alliance, and Alliance can not get reputation with Horde. Reputation with another faction is gained through many ways, whether it be quests for that faction, killing enemies for that faction, or Wearing that faction's tabard and doing dungeons.
What type of factions are there? There is the following:
For Classic WoW (Vanilla)
Argent Dawn
Bloodsail Buccaneers
Brood of Nozdormu
Cenarion Circle
Darkmoon Faire
Gelkis Clan Centaur
Hydraxian Waterlords
Magram Clan Centaur
Ravenholdt
Shen'dralar
Syndicate
Thorium Brotherhood
Timbermaw Hold
Wintersaber Trainers
Zandalar Tribe
Alliance
Darnassus
Exodar
Gilneas
Gnomeregan
Ironforge
Stormwind
Alliance Forces
Silverwing Sentinels
Stormpike Guard
The League of Arathor
Horde
Bilgewater Cartel
Darkspear Trolls
Orgrimmar
Silvermoon City
Thunder Bluff
Undercity
Horde Forces
Frostwolf Clan
The Defilers
Warsong Outriders
Steamwheedle Cartel
Booty Bay
Everlook
Gadgetzan
Ratchet
For The Burning Crusade
Ashtongue Deathsworn
Cenarion Expedition
Honor Hold
Keepers of Time
Kurenai
Netherwing
Ogri'la
Sporeggar
The Consortium
The Mag'har
The Scale of the Sands
The Violet Eye
Thrallmar
Tranquillien
Shattrath City
Lower City
Sha'tari Skyguard
Shattered Sun Offensive
The Aldor
The Scryers
The Sha'tar
For WotLK (Wrath of the Lich King)
Argent Crusade
Kirin Tor
Knights of the Ebon Blade
The Ashen Verdict
The Kalu'ak
The Sons of Hodir
The Wyrmrest Accord
Alliance Vanguard
Explorers' League
The Frostborn
The Silver Covenant
Valiance Expedition
Horde Expedition
The Hand of Vengeance
The Sunreavers
The Taunka
Warsong Offensive
Sholazar Basin
Frenzyheart Tribe
The Oracles
For Cataclysm
Avengers of Hyjal
Baradin's Wardens
Dragonmaw Clan
Guardians of Hyjal
Hellscream's Reach
Ramkahen
The Earthen Ring
Therazane
Wildhammer Clan
What are factions good for? If you are exalted (max reputation with that faction) with a faction, you can get new gear and items from there quartermasters. You can also get exclusive mounts only available to that faction.
Mounts What are mounts? Mounts are in game Vehicles sort of. Mounts range from camels, to motorcycles, to helicopters, to gryphons. There is a huge variety. There is over 150+ Mounts in WoW.
All of these mounts will be listed here:
Gear Gear is pretty much self explanatory. It is armor and weapons used in order to make your character better. It is dropped from enemies, gained from quests, or purchased with Gold, Justice Points, Honor Points, Valor Points, or Conquest Points.
All items can be found here
PvP What is PvP? PvP stands for Player vs Player. It is basically where characters of say Horde fight characters of Alliance. PVP Is anywhere, whether it be Battlegrounds, Arenas, Tol Barad, or Wintergrasp. You can always have fun feeling 1337 and pwning some n00bz. There is servers dediacted to PVP so if you are interested, find a PVP server.
Roleplay RP or Roleplay is a pretty big part of WoW. It originally started as a strict roleplay game but progressively got to PVPing, raiding, and dungeoning. RP is basically acting. You take a scene and you improvise off of it, like a movie. The biggest RP server as of right now is Argent Dawn. So if you are interested, i would go to that server.
Roles Roles are basically parts taken in groups. There is 3 roles:
Healing
DPS (Damage)
and Tank.
Healing Healing is done by few classes. It is basically where a few people heal the other players of a group so they do not die, in order to complete something. Healers are found in raids, PVP, and Dungeons. The classes that can heal are
- Paladins
Shamans
Priests
Druids
Tanking Tanking is where 1 or 2 people, depending on the situation, take most of the damage from enemies so that their other group members dont die. The tanks have extra defense, health, and usually shields. The classes that can tank are
- Paladin
Warrior
Death Knight
Druid
Damage Damage is where people try to do as much damage or DPS as possible. DPS stands for Damage Per Second. Without DPS there would be no point in raids. Every class can do DPS.
All of these roles take part in a group to take down bosses in a dungeon for gear and Reputation.
Raids Raids are basically upgraded versions of dungeons. They take more than 5 people, and are harder, but of course drop better gear. Raids also have difficult fights. For some bosses you need to do a certain strategy to kill them. For instance, Occu'thar in Baradin Hold you need to pile on one spot when he casts Eyes of Occu'Thar. Then you need to burn them down or your group dies.
Dungeons Dungeons are downgraded versions of raids. They are easier, still require some strategy, and drop good starting gear if you want to get into raiding. Dungeons have 2 modes, regular and heroic.
Regular Regular is the easier mode of dungeons. It drops good gear to start heroics. Regulars usually do not require a certain Item Level.
Heroic Heroics do require a certain Item Level. It drops better gear, and has harder bosses. The strategies are different when in heroic. The usual Item Level for heroics is 329.
Quests Quests are the main way of leveling up in WoW. Quests are basically tasks gained from an ally and then completed for EXP, Gear, and Currency. The quests get harder as you level up to 85 though. There is quests to go into raids, dungeons, and even PVP. Questing is the fastest way of leveling up too.
Flying Flying is another type of mounts. There is many different flying mounts, which can be found in the mounts link i posted earlier. Flying costs extra money from other mount skills. There is 3 types of flying, Expert, Artisan, and Master.
Expert riding is the slower but cheaper flying. Increases your flight speed by 150%
Artisan is the faster but more expensive version of flying. increases your flying by 280%
and Master is the faster but more expensive version too. It increases your flying speed by 310%.
NOTE: You need the previous version of riding in order to get the next faster version.
Talents Talents are gained as extra abilities, or upgrades to your current ones. Talents work along with Glyphs in order to make your character the best it can be. Good talents can be found on the internet on sites like wowhead, or even google.
Update #1 TALENT TREES. Im not going to post all of the talent trees or anything here, but you can check them all and then see which ones you would want to put in here: Talent Calculator this is a very useful tool for planning out your spec so you can see if your points will fit what you want.
UPDATE #2 OFFICIAL WEBSITE & PRICES The official website, which i forgot to add Is World of Warcraft Website And Battle Net
The prices for WoW are for the game + all expansions: Can be found at the official WoW website
An account is $15 a month.
For most mounts off of the store it is $25
A character trasnfer is 25$
A name change is $10
A faction change is $30
And
An Appearance change is $15
UPDATE #3 Racial Starting zones Alliance| Horde
Human (Elwynn Forest)| Orc (Durotar)
Dwarf (Dun Morough)| Undead (Trisfal Glades)
Night Elf (Teldrassil)| Tauren {Mulgore)
Gnome (Dun Morough) | Blood Elf (Eversong Forest)
Draenei (Azuremyst Isle) | Goblin (Kezan)
Worgen (Gilnaes) | Troll (Durotar)()
UPDATE #4 What Item Level Is Item level is pretty much your gear ranking. The higher the item level, the better your gear is. Item level appears on the description on an item when you mouse over it. A good item level to start heroics, although the required is 329, is usually 332. Regulars 326. Raids, can range from 350-371
