Newbie guide/All

With each character your create, you can only interact fully with people on the same server (realm) and faction (Horde vs Alliance) as your character. You can create characters on different servers if you like, but then they cannot support each other by e.g. swapping gear, money, supplies or mailing items to each other, etc.

You are allowed limited access to other servers. There is, however, the possibility of paid transfers. For a fee, you may move one character to another server of the same type, for example PvP to PvP or PvE to PvE. You may also move from PvP to PvE, but not the other way around. The character will be unplayable while the transfer occurs, and a character can only be moved once every month. That is to say, if Alice was moved, she cannot be moved again for a month, but your second character ("alt"), Bob, can.

Other than that, the only way for people on different servers to meet is through the cross-realm PvP battlegrounds, where characters from servers in the same battlegroup can meet. However, there is no guarantee that two players who would like to interact will be put into the same battleground game.

Playing on a server with a time zone similar to the one you live in means more people will be on around the time you're going to play – assuming you play during peak hours, which varies but is usually between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the server during weekdays. This affects the game in several ways, some of which might not be immediately apparent or affect you until you reach higher levels.

Your realm's time zone can affect your World of Warcraft experience in following ways, among others:

• The number of people who are available for you to group with. This is critical for instanced dungeons, and if you are interested in endgame you may find that this is your most important consideration as you will want to be active around the same time that the people in your guild are raiding.
• The amount of buying and selling that is going on and the prices in the auction house at peak hours.
• The amount of competition for resources that are out in the wild. The more people playing, the more might be looking for the same herb or quest mob that you're looking for.
• The number of opposite faction players who are around to attack you (especially if you are playing on a PvP server).
• The amount of activity going on in Battlegrounds. (Note that since the introduction of Battlegroups this has become a much smaller consideration.)

People who are usually unable to play during peak hours often try to play on a realm in a different time zone than the one they live in. If you tend to be available earlier than peak hours, you might want to look for a server that is in a time zone earlier than where you live. Similarly, if you tend to be available later than peak hours, you might want to look for a realm that is in a time zone later than where you live. This will generally maximize the number of people who are around when you are also looking to play.

The European Realms are divided up by which language is primarily spoken on them. There are no rules banning you from speaking other languages on the servers, but you may feel more comfortable on a server where the majority of players speak a language that you understand.

Each realm has a population listed on the server selection screen. Each realm is characterized as having Recommended, Low, Medium, High, and Full population. Recommended servers are what Blizzard thinks will give a new player the best experience, while the rest are categorized based on how many players are currently logged into the realm. These servers change throughout the day, so you may want to decide on a server at the time you would normally play, so that you'll know how full it is normally. You cannot create a character on a Full server unless you already have characters there. Some High population servers have wait queues during peak hours. This means you cannot sign in at all to them until other people have completely logged off of that server.

Each type of realm has benefits and drawbacks for new players.

• Realms that are usually at "Low" population are often very welcoming of new players. The lower population means that there is a great deal of demand for new players on the realm, and experienced players will often be more willing and helpful in bringing a newer player up to speed than on other realms and may have more patience with new players in general. However, the realm's Auction House will probably not have a very wide selection of items available to buy and it may be challenging to find players to group with. There will probably never be a need to wait in queue to log into these realms.
• Realms that are usually at "Medium" populations offer a compromise between extremes. There is not much if any demand on these realms for new players, although they are usually not disliked, either. These realms usually have a wide variety of items on their Auction House and finding other players to group with will not usually be a problem. Even at peak hours there is seldom if ever a queue to log into these servers.
• Realms that are usually at "High" populations can be rather discouraging of newer players (and not just those who are inexperienced with World of Warcraft). These realms sometimes have queue times to log in that can range from a few minutes to an hour or more. While the Auction House is often full of items and there are usually a lot of other players looking for people to group with, bear in mind that with a larger group of people there are can often be a corresponding increase the number of players who behave badly toward others or are outright unpleasant to deal with, something that on Low and Medium population realms are at a relative minimum (thought hardly immune from). However, a player looking to act negatively toward other players will probably be able to find other like-minded individuals, and even find entire guilds devoted to this sort of behavior.
• Realms that are often at "Full" populations are much like realms at "High" populations, but even more so. Players on these realms may be outright hostile to new players regardless of their experience with World of Warcraft, as login queues on these realms may regularly last hours. However, if you are able to log in, the Auction House will be full of items and there will be a vast number of players who you may be able to group with.

Blizzard occasionally releases new realms so that players can experience World of Warcraft on a completely new server. New servers, instead of displaying population, display the "New" status. New status means the server has just recently been put online and characters will be lower levels on average and the population of course starts very low. This generally means less resource competition and also a small economy so trading at the auction house will be reduced and prices will usually be lower.

When these new servers are populated, everyone starts at level 1, but after a month or two there will be many hardcore players at the level cap and endgame will begin to pick up from there. Down the road, there is also the possibility of entire high level guilds transferring onto the server, giving it a kick start. However, players may not pay to transfer to new servers for six months.

In some servers the ratio of the members of each faction is uneven. On some servers, there are more Alliance than Horde, while other times it can be a complete opposite, or even an evenly-matched ratio. Imbalances in factions can be an issue for PvP, grouping up, or just trying to complete quests since sometimes you have to wait for quests to respawn. Sites like WarcraftRealms.com show you the horde/alliance breakdown and other useful information (e.g. how many horde players are online at 9pm) connected with choosing a realm. However, nothing can be completely accurate, so please don't try to use statistics from anywhere except the World of Warcraft official website, here, as facts.

Some say that one reason for the Alliance bias is the argument that the Alliance quests and areas are more polished than the Horde quests/areas. Other than that, some choose to play characters that are more appealing to the eye, or more similar to traditional heroes of fantasy literature and games. However, there are some arguments for the Horde as well. Some argue that the Horde player base is more mature than the Alliance player base. Others like the wide diversity of races in the faction. From there, the choice between Alliance and Horde would obviously depend on taste. See Races for more information on each.

This is probably the biggest choice you have to make while playing World of Warcraft. There are four types of servers.

PvE (Normal)

These servers pit player versus the environment, and are stigmatized as "easy mode" by some people, leading to the term carebear for players who are on PvE servers, so you're not likely to get much respect from people who are into hardcore PvP. But in these servers, you don't have to worry about players of the opposite faction killing you since the only way they can kill you is if you choose to let it happen.

This may be the least stressful gaming experience especially if you are new to the game, because of this it may be good idea for your first realm to be in a normal server so you can learn how to play as well as enjoy the story of the game. You can PvP if you want, but you are not required to. On these servers, most PvP takes place inside the Battlegrounds and Arena, but can also take place anywhere else. Attendance to the battlegrounds is completely optional, as is any other PvP experience.

RP (Role Playing)

If you are more interested in being immersed in the game world than leveling up or getting cool items, these servers are for you. In these servers, you don't have a character to power-level. You are the character. People accept you if you talk like your character (with whatever accent, whatever vocabulary), and you're also able to act like your character. In this server you also don't have to worry about PvP since you can only be killed by other faction players if you so choose (like PvE servers). You are much less likely to get griefers on this server. Also, character name rules are stricter and out of character speech on public channels or in /say or /yell can earn you a visit from a GM who will require you to behave, etc.

PvP (Player vs. Player)

Hardcore PvP gamers will tell you that Player vs Player, or PvP, is the only way to go. In some ways, it is the most rewarding experience. In other ways it is the most frustrating and annoying experience. PvP brings an additional thrill and sense of excitement in the game. Also it opens up so much more of the game since most of the time you have to watch your back. Factions are usually more tightly knit and players on your side will frequently jump in to save you (if they can) at first sign of you struggling or give you warnings and other helpful stuff. Of course this also means a potentially frustrating experience such as if you're level 25 and trying to explore an area and having level 50s come by to gank you. This is not recommended as a first server, as it limits your leveling. Note: If you are interested in playing both factions on the same realm, don't choose a PvP server. An account cannot create characters of both sides on the same PvP realm, you must pick either Alliance or Horde for all of your characters.

RPPvP (Role Playing Player vs. Player)

The newest type of server, RPPvP servers have the elements of all-out PvP combat, but with the constraints of the RP ruleset. This is the type of server to choose if you are interested in being able to act out a character as truly as possible, by having him/her being able to attack members of the other faction at any time. Like PvP servers, an account can only have either all Alliance or all Horde characters on these servers, not both.

After you choose the starting details of your character, you will be given what looks like a cinematic based on your race with a voice-over giving some background history of the race. This is actually a real-time fly-thru in the game and you will see actual players moving around if you look carefully, and you may get a glimpse of some combat. The fly-thru usually starts at a capital city and flies through parts of the country-side to your starting area.

Depending on your race, you will start in one of eight starting areas:

Horde

• Orc: Valley of Trials, Durotar, Kalimdor. This area is dry and rocky, mostly consisting of reddish desert.
• Tauren: Camp Narache, Mulgore, Kalimdor. Mulgore is lush and green, with large lakes, grassy plains, and mountain valleys.
• Troll: Valley of Trials, Durotar, Kalimdor. (Same as Orc.)
• Undead (Forsaken): Deathknell, Tirisfal Glades, Eastern Kingdoms. Tirisfal Glades is a dark forest over-run with the mindless undead of the Scourge.
• Blood Elf: Sunstrider Isle, Eversong Woods, Eastern Kingdoms. Rebuilt city. The Fly-thru actually begins in the Ghostlands, showing the straight path of destruction left behind by the Scourge after their attack on the Elven city.

Alliance

• Dwarf: Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh, Eastern Kingdoms. A snowy area with mountain paths and frozen lakes.
• Gnome: Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh, Eastern Kingdoms. (Same as Dwarf.)
• Human: Northshire Valley, Elwynn Forest, Eastern Kingdoms. A low, forested region with various human settlements in it.
• Night Elf: Shadowglen, Teldrassil, Kalimdor. A huge, ethereal, twilight forest that perches entirely on top of a colossal World Tree to the northwest of Kalimdor.
• Draenei: Ammen Vale, Azuremyst Isle, Kalimdor. Misty forest area around the crash site of the Exodar.

See Also: Category:Questing guides

The combination of Questing and killing mobs is the primary way of gaining experience. You can also get smaller amounts just by exploring new areas (although this is impossible without first being at a reasonable level and shouldn't substitute combat experience considering the risk involved). You can also gain experience by just killing mobs without questing, although this may become boringly routine after some time. As for just milking experience from mobs, there are guides elsewhere explaining which mobs are best for killing at certain levels of classes (some of which are listed at the bottom of this guide). The rule of thumb is, monsters two levels lower than you allow for the fastest XP, as they die fast while still providing decent XP per kill.

As you progress and gain levels in the game, you will be able to learn many new and exciting skills (abilities and professions) and spells. These are all learned at your class trainer, profession trainer or weapon master in the various cities. If you're having troubles locating a trainer, just ask a city guard. The class trainers will offer you more skills and spells at every even-numbered level. The profession trainers will allow you to advance in skill stages and offer you more recipes as you increase your skill level.

As of level 10, you can also further specialize your character by investing talent points into talents geared toward different aspects of your character.

Quests

Duke Hydraxis, a quest giver

Quests are the core of the World of Warcraft experience. From around level 10, you will almost always have a dozen active quests in your quest log. A lot of the time, if you're like many, your log will have the maximum of 25 quests in your log. It is good, however, to limit this as well as is reasonable, because others frequently have quests to share with you. The more of the group working on the same quest, the better, as you can all work to a common goal and you each know distinctly what that goal is.

Quests are obtained from NPCs, from items in the world, or shared from party members. Not all quests can be shared, and there are many quest lines that you must follow from the beginning; you cannot skip within a quest line.

In your starting area, you will find some quests that are common to all, and for some classes, you will have some class-specific quests. All of these quests are good to start gaining experience. These often include killing low-level creatures in the area or speaking to one of the nearby NPCs.

interact with quest giver quest giver out of range

You can identify quest giving NPCs from the ! over his head. Talk to the quest giving NPC to get the quest. The giver of a quest you have yet to complete will have above his head a silver ?. When you complete the quest by meeting its requirements, the quest giver will have a ? over its head. These symbols will also appear on your mini-map to help in navigation and discovering new quests.

Note: If you have the requirements, but some items are in the bank, you must retrieve them to finish the quest. They must be in hand. Otherwise, it will appear as though the quest is bugged when it's not.

Most of your first 10 levels will come from quests and from monsters you kill as a part of doing quests. While a good group is a very good thing, if you find yourself in a party that wanders around killing non-quest monsters and doesn't seem to be working towards a quest, it may be better to go questing alone. Most frequently, groups involving different classes are much more effective than groups of only one class, or being solo. Also, in groups, players can share many quests with one another so that all of them can be doing the very same quest, and if the quest involves only killing monsters, each monster killed contributes to everyone's quest. If a quest involves picking up an item from one specific mob, all party members can pick it up at once.

Obtaining Wealth

interact with vendor vendor out of range buy/sell after talking

You gain money in World of Warcraft by completing some of the quests (some of them have no monetary reward associated with them), killing mobs and looting their corpses, selling excess inventory items to the vendor NPCs, or learning one or more professions. Don't forget to pick a profession and skill it up as much as you can in the early levels. Trying to max out your profession after you hit 60 is a tedious and very undesirable process. As you go up in level, both the quest rewards and the money from mobs increase, as a general rule. Also, humanoid and undead mobs drop loot for more cash per kill than any of the beast type mobs who aren't quest-related. Upon completion of a quest at your maximum level (60 before, 70 after The Burning Crusade) you receive a monetary reward instead of experience. The same rules apply, you get more money if the quest was more difficult.

interact with trainer trainer out of range

As for choosing to learn a profession and selling the product of your labors at the auctioneer, that all depends upon how glutted the market is with that tradeskill and/or those products. If the market is saturated at the moment, if you can afford to occupy the space, hold onto your products and maybe they will be more in demand later. Note that sometimes you can get more money by selling raw materials (skins, ore, gems, and herbs) than by selling finished products (armor, weapons, potions, and other gadgets). This is because most items can be used for various products. However, no player can make all products, and raw materials are of little use to them if they cannot use them for what they need.

In addition, there are always the Trade Channel (only in cities) and the auction house (which appear in all racial capital cities, including Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Silvermoon, and Undercity for Horde and Darnassus, Ironforge, Exodar, and Stormwind for Alliance) where you can hawk your wares. All auction houses associated with a particular faction are linked, and there are also neutral auction houses which are also linked. The neutral auction houses are more expensive to post for sale (on the order of three times), and are not linked to either of the primary factions.

Rest

While in an inn or a major city (such as Thunder Bluff), your player portrait will begin to glow and your level in your portrait will be replaced with the letters "ZZZ", indicating that you are resting. If you log off here, you will continue to rest while offline. When rested, your XP bar will turn blue, and a notch will appear indicating exactly how rested you are. You will earn double XP from killing monsters while rested until your XP bar fills to the notch.

Experience you gain from a quest has no effect on the amount of rest you have left over, and it will not double up if you are rested.

One bubble of rested XP is earned for every 8 hours spent resting, up to a maximum of one-and-a-half full levels. In other words, you can leave your character resting in an inn for up to ten days without playing before you earn the maximum amount of rest state.

You also become rested while logged off in the wilderness, but only at 1/4 the normal rate. Be sure to log off at an inn or a major city whenever possible! And if you're at an inn, make sure you see the resting icon. It is usually a good idea to hearth back to the inn of your binding, if you can't run there quickly enough.

interact with innkeeper innkeeper out of range

To set or change your bind point, talk to an innkeeper and click make this inn your home.

When you are about 5th or 6th level, you will receive quests to go to another town area. This town is where the first inn available to a new character is placed. Put another way, until you get your first 5 or 6 quests out of the way you will not happen across an inn and so you will have to 'camp out' when you logout, unless someone shows you where it is so that you can go there before you receive such a quest.

Fighting and Dying

Traveling Around

Travel Guide
A Alliance Travel Guide	H Horde Travel Guide
• Stormwind to Booty Bay • Auberdine to Booty Bay • Ironforge to Gadgetzan • Menethil Harbor to Gadgetzan • Darnassus to IF/SW • Desolace to Silithus	• Thunder Bluff to Orgrimmar • Crossroads to Gadgetzan • Crossroads to Booty Bay • Reaching the Badlands
• Deeprun Tram and Boats	• Zeppelins and Boats
Outland
• Outland (Alliance)	• Outland (Horde)
Shared Paths
• Special Occasions

This page is a travel guide to WoW.

First of all, it should be mentioned that if you want to reach some point on the map while you are still a low level, and the way is too dangerous, a good option is to have a mage portal you to the capital cities of your faction or Shattrath. Alternatively, a warlock can use Ritual of Summoning with two other players to bring you almost anywhere. Either should get you closer to where you want to go.

If you are able to get a portal or a summons to Shattrath, you should consider binding your hearthstone at one of the inns there permanently. Free portals are available to each factions' capital cities near the center of this city, which can save you a lot of time and money later.

Any Alliance mage level 40 or higher should have the portal spells for Ironforge, Stormwind and Exodar. However, the portal to Darnassus is only available to mages level 50 or higher.

Horde Mages get the portals to Undercity, Orgrimmar and Silvermoon at level 40, and Thunder Bluff at level 50.

All Mages can learn the Shattrath portal spell at level 65.

All Warlocks can learn Ritual of Summoning at level 20.

You should be prepared to give the mage some coin. Each portal consumes a Rune of Portals, which costs 20s each, although it is generally considered common courtesy to include a tip for the mage's trouble. As with all player characters, mages vary in temperament and helpfulness, although 2-3 gold is usually sufficient to buy a portal from any mage. Warlocks need a Soul Shard and two party members present (with the Warlock), to perform a summons so they don't commonly perform one unless you are already in their party or in their guild.

Of course these methods can cost money and you're unable to collect flight paths on the way. Still, if you simply want to reach Stormwind as a level 6 night elf, just because all your friends are one of the three other races, and you want to level together, they're the fastest ways.

Inns and the Hearthstone

Wyverns, Gryphons, Bats, and Hippogryphs

interact with flight master flight master out of range

Zeppelins and Boats

Personal Travel

The Tram

If you want or need a travel route added to this guide, put your request in the discussion area.

See also

• The Transportation category

Items