Warcraft the information thread

[empress dee]

You may ask questions in this thread for anything you don't understand.

The sides to choose from

The horde - your warchief is your boss, kind of like a king and from my experience, this side is for the veteran players. Everything seems more spread out and you do more travelling with this side, plus the storylines tend to be a bit more interesting.

The alliance - vowed to save the planet of Azeroth, these are traditionally the heroes of the game. Easier game play and perfect for beginners. The downside is travel doesn't seem to be the main focus here and the storylines aren't as cool as the horde side is. I mean they lack some originality here. You serve King Varian Wrynn if you choose this side.

The horde races

Orc - originally from Draenor, this race found Azeroth as a means to survive, but with demonic blood in their veins, the majority of this race was corrupted. They pride themselves on strength and honor.

Troll - sharing the land of durotar cannot be easy for these forest dwellers, but they do thrive on their voodoo magic and their leader is currently the warchief. Not all trolls are agreeable with one another though. However, serving this race, you will be a darkspear troll. There may be new breeds of trolls to be in the future.

Tauren - peace loving cows and bulls, this race will remind someone of the aboriginal tribes in general. This race is a personal favorite of mine for the horde because they do not seem like the violent type, but hey, it is true that they are animals.

Blood elf - Originally known as high elves, this race turned from the alliance since their king had been killed and their beloved Sylvannas had been changed into a creature of the scourage. They are more attractive than the other races, but their city tends to be a maze.

Undead - Sylvannas is your queen and you had been reborn. You are the least attractive of the races, but like the orcs, you are now just trying to survive as ghosts.

Goblin - this race has the most exciting story line ever! As well, this race allows you to experience what mounts are like early in the game. You don't get to keep the hog you ride, which is ashame, but the experience is there. The only downside to this race is that you're known as greedy.

Panda - you chose to serve the horde because you would rather a troll lead you than a human.

The alliance races

Human - your race rules! Literally! Your king leads the alliance, You also have the longest chain of quests you can complete as well, the first time through them all, they are the most exciting and not too complicated to figure out as long as you read the quest. You can level quite quickly with this race.

Dwarf - pride your blacksmithing skills here. Seriously, these smaller creatures love weapons, armor, gryphons, and beer. You start in the snowy mountains of Cold ridge, which of the races of the alliance, this race has the second easiest quest chains to complete. You can also earn some gnome reputation as a dwarf.

Gnome - the smallest, and probably cutest races you will ever see. These guys may be small, but they are the fastest of the bunch. They pride themselves on engineering as their leader loves to tinker. Your questlines merge with the dwarves.

Night elf - forest loving, long eared race. If you loved Legolas in the Lord of the rings, and wished his skin was purple instead of human, then this race is for you. They love nature, so herbalism, alchemy, and inscription should be the professions to be here.

Draenei - direct rivals to the orcs. Originally from eredar, this race is the oldest one in warcraft lore. They were forced to evacuate their home twice. Once due to the Scourage threat and then again from the orcs nearly wiping them all out. They love gems and archeology. Jewelcrafting gets a bonus boost if you are this race.

Worgen - howl at the moon! Yep, you guessed it, you're a werewolf. You were saved by the night elves when Sylvannas and the undead try to wipe out your lands. As dogs, your claws are sharp and are used for shredding flesh, so leatherworking gets a bonus here.

Panda - you have no originality! You would rather serve the humans than the trolls. But then again, maybe you are a beginner and love pandas. So, who am I to stop you from choosing this side.  

[empress dee]

The classes

This will determine your fighting style.

Death Knight - You served the lich king and for a time you still do. You eventually break free, though of his control and become one of the strongest melee classes.

Warrior - shields and swords and plate mail. This class can become as powerful as a death knight, except you don't skip 54 levels to get there. It is debatable on whether this class is stronger or not because you can get more experience with melee combat in exchange of it taking longer. At level 100, though you can be just as powerful if not more powerful than a death knight.

Rogue - you like to keep in the shadows, and you like to use daggers. Yep, you're a ninja in this class. Best to do exploring in. The downsides are you can only wear leather and you get weaker as the levels get higher.

Shaman - one of the magic wielding classes and is a well-rounded class. You can heal, you can dish out damage, and you can lead. The only down side to this class is you can only wear cloth, which means your health is never very high.

Warlocks - dark hunters. You control a minion and you are generally a ranged fighter. The thing is, you can melee fight too. These are weaker than hunters mind you since they can only wear cloth.

Paladins - one of the strongest classes in the game. You can heal, and wear plate armor. Healing warriors. If you tried using a warrior, and you were okay with it, then you will love being this class.

Hunter - the only class that gets unfair treatment. This class should have a tanking spec, but it doesn't. You control a pet and you tend to pull aggro a lot, which is what tanks do. Except tanks don't control pets. This class is as good as a paladin, except that you can only use bows or guns so being an engineer would be a wise profession.

Mage - one of the weakest classes in the entire game. True you can use magic, but you can only wear cloth so your health isn't that high and you're supposed to be a damage only class.

Priest - another disappointment, unless you are a healer. Best be in a group at all times if you are this class.

Professions

A big part of the game, which a lot of people tend to choose these when they are level 100 since they can be in one area and get it done. However, I find that its less boring if you get the professions as early as possible and that is level 5.

Professions cost money, but they can also make you money and make you stronger faster. Will had covered this in another thread, but I can simplify things here.

There are three types of professions. Gathering, production, and secondary. Gathering professions will gain you materials for commonly used production professions. Production professions usually means you will be making gear or something to help improve your character. And secondary means everyone can use these.

Gathering professions

Herbalism - you find herbs
Skinning - you are gathering leather
Mining - ores

Production professions

Alchemy - goes well with herbalism because you need herbs to make the potions and elixirs. Potions and elixirs can buff up stats, with one that can change you into a dragon.

Inscription - goes well with herbalism because you need to mill the herbs in order to make pigment for ink. This in turn makes glyphs that are spell buffs for your character.

Leatherworking = goes well with skinning because you need leather to work with,

Blacksmithing - goes well with mining because you need ores to make into gear and weapons.

Engineering - goes well with mining because you need to make metallic powder in order to blast things with. And you need metal to make gears and things to tinker with.

Jewelcrafting - goes well with mining because you need to use the ores to craft and to find gems.

Tailoring - make bags and cloth gear.

Enchanting - use green or higher level items to make dusts in order to create wands or to make gear more powerful.

Secondary professions

Cooking - self explains that you are going to be a chef with this profession and everybody has to eat sometime.

First aid - use cloth to create bandages

Archeology - a money making profession by finding artifacts and goes well with alchemy.

Fishing - everyone loves fishing in this game (not). Its just a way to make some money without having to spend a lot.  

[empress dee]

quests and reputation

Quests are one of the three ways of leveling a character, and is the fastest. Each quest comes with a little bit of a story along with instructions on what you need to do in order to gain a reward. A lot of quests earn you reputation.

Reputation is important because through it you unlock other features like more mounts and achievements. The more people you have good reputation with the better.

dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds

These three is the second way to level a character. Dungeons and battlegrounds will be first and with battle grounds you are against real people playing the opposite side as you. Dungeons are a great way to get gear rewards as well as raids later on in the game.

Raids become more vital when you reach level 100 because it will be the only thing you can do unless you want to catch up on some rep you missed.

finishing words

Well, now you know the basics on how to play the game. Any questions?