Newbie Warmane Guide

I noticed a lot of people in the community forums, including myself just last week, asking questions about gear and what plans should be made when leveling on this Server. So I will suggest a few tips which has gotten all of my toons to near-top gear as soon as they hit level 80, allowing my guys to run the instances and enjoy endgame immediately, without having to worry with dead time and depression of not being allowed in runs due to 'Gear Score'.

This is written for Horde namely, as I don't know the issues or zones for Alliance. And for any other case, I play only on Deathwing.

Contents:

I - VotePoints

II - Your UI

III - Levels, Gold, and You

IV - Gear

V - Guild

VI - Reroll

Instance I - Vote Points

Vote points can make and break you. A lot of newer players will spend their Vote Points as they get them, maybe saving up to 20-30 to get some purple item at some random level (often, 20, 40, 60's). Don't do this. Your gear has no real matter. If anything, just buy the cheap stuff on the AH (note that due to the intense economy, cheap rides on the lines of 1-20 gold). The gear you need to be at all effective to get to 80 will be provided through quests, random drops, and the AH (or a friendly donation).

You can technically get to level 80 Naked. This has been done many times, although it can slow you down a bit and many people like to look pretty while they fight. Whatever your persuasion is, DON'T SPEND YOUR VOTE POINTS!!! SAVE THEM FOR LEVEL 80.

### - You can vote every 12 hours. Make sure you take advantage of this if you're serious about playing. This can net you 10 VP a day, this will be very useful to you end game. You'll want AT LEAST 90 VP by the time you hit Endgame. That or be super friggin rich (which isn't too difficult to do)

Exceptions to spend VP on: Frostweave Bags. These cost 2 points each. And can be a worthy buy as soon as you make your toon. This gives you 40 more slots to put items. More items to place, more to sell. Even junk has a price.

Another good spend is Insignia of the Horde (or Alliance). This is a nice little starter trinket for 1 VP that can break any Stun/Fear/Polymorph/Rooting/Snaring effects on you with a 5 minute cooldown. Only needed if you plan on avoiding ganks. This is really 95% PvP.

Instance II - Your UI

When I see screenshots and videos of people who don't use a UI, it blows my mind. Because they usually have maybe HALF of their screen visible, at the most. I myself like to have as much of my screen visible as possible, so I use UI Mods. Or better known as AddOns. You can make your life a lot easier by using AddOns, you can make it even easier by downloading and installing the Curse Client v4 auto-installer. This will allow you to just click a button and the Curse Client will install everything for you, so you don't have to go through the steps of 'installing' your AddOns.

If you don't want AddOns, then that is your loss. If you're afraid of them due to their technical uses, calm down. They're not that difficult to get. Curse.com has a wide assortment of very useful addons that not only help you see what you're doing, but they can help you macromanage your common issues and boost your gold big time. (I have made around 100k Gold [in about 2 weeks of casual gaming] due to a few AddOns helping me out).

Some suggested AddOns?

-Bartender v4 (Allows full customization of your action-bars/menubar/petbar actionbar/totems/stances/vehicle/etc. This includes, size, padding, placement, and disabling certain bars)

-Prat 3.0 (A very simple Chat-Addon that colors posts in chat to identify class, and can do much more if messed around with)

-Auctioneer (Got some gold you're not gonna spend anytime soon? Play the AH. This will determine what items are selling high or low. You can sort things by not only their buyout cost, but their fluctuation of prices and by 'per item' instead of stacks. This is how I make a lot of my gold.)

-Talented (This gives you a massive overview of your Talents, showing all three talent trees at once, and allows you to create templates. A great thing to play with when bored since you can create any 'talent build' in it's fake-talent-tree creator)

-TipTac (A tooltip editor, it allows you to move where your tool tip is and makes it look a lot sleeker. I love my tooltips. A tooltip is what pops up when you hoverover objects in the game, including items and spells)

-Omen3 (This is the most used Threat Meter, it tells you how much Threat Per Second you've developing, along with everyone else in the party, so you know if you can crank up your pace, or slow it down a bit.)

-XLoot (Gives you a much sleeker looking loot bar, along with strong color identifiers to rarity of items)

-Carbonite (If you want to breeze through quests, know what enemies are around, and have a great companion for your navigation, Carbonite does it all. It has a navigation system to tell you what quests are close by, their 'area' and common quest givers and returns. It also will alert you when any PvP players are running amuck. A MUST HAVE!!!)

-ArkInventory (If you want a very organized bag-mod, this is the one. It allows you to set up your bags the way you want. It first makes it so your bags appear as one window. You can then set rules to certain 'areas' of the inventory, so you can keep your Quest Items away from the main bag, or seperate trade-skill items from other items. Everything!

Instance III - Leveling, Gold, and You

The three most important things in WoW, right? Level, Gold, and NUMERO UNO. Well it is important if you want to get what you want, FAST. Heck, you doing this could even help out your party/raid. It may even make you a better person. It will definitely make you a better WoWer, that's for sure, if you continue reading.

If you want to Level fast, you can make 80 in just a few days of casual playing. But if you want Gold too? Well, you may have to enjoy the other parts of WoW to really capitalize. Now note, I am setting the following standards of this guid with Auctioneer and Carbonite addons. Please get these as my techniques can only really work with them.

Zones to Level:

Stop what you're doing, if you're not a Humany-Fellow, get out of Eastern Kingdoms. It's slow leveling. Anyone who argues this is simply boasting. There is a reason why it's called Eastern Kingdoms. Because Ally's play there. So once you get to level 10-20 (you may want to level to 20 if you're Undead or Blood Elf, so you can save yourself the trip to get your Mount. But meh, you can get to 20 a lot faster in Kalimdor). Besides, if you want your Flying Mount discounts, you need Exalted with Ogrimmar. You're not gonna do that by helping out the fleshies on Eastern Kingdoms. So do whatever easy quests are over in EK and get to Kalimdor and begin questing in Crossroads (XRs).

Now if you want to chop the head off the snake of the worry of having enough gold for a Flying Mount and an Epic Mount (you can save about 1k gold doing this), you need Exalted with Ogrimmar, so please, complete the bulk of the quests in the starting areas in Kalimdor. Or, OR! you can come back and probably finish them super fast. You should be exalted by level 40-50 with Ogrimmar if you've done at least 10 quests in the starting area. (When I say starting area, I mean STARTING AREA. Go get those apples, kill boars, wake up Peons with a club, and moar!

10-20 :: Barrens/Ratchet

21-25(28) :: Southern Barrens

25(28)-35 :: 1k Needles/Salt Flats

36 - 40 :: Salt Flats/STV/Booty Bay

(Optional, Badlands, SUPER SUGGESTED FOR MINERS)

41-50 :: STV/Booty Bay/Hinterlands(Great for Herbalists)

(Optional Searing Gorge, MINERS AGAIN!)

51-60 :: Gadgetzan/Wintersprings/Felwood

Now, that guide ain't great, but you should just know to collect all the quests you can and just do them smartly. When I say smartly? Quests are bugged, have slow spawns, and other people are doing them too. So let's say you have a collection quest with a slow spawn? Go do a quest somewhere else in the same zone!

Example: 1k Needles, you get the Wyvern Eggs collection quest along with a quest to collect reeds in the small oasis. You can also get another quest that requires you kill an Elite Panther. Rotate these if people are doing those quests while you're trying to. Knockout those quests, they supply a generous amount of EXP.

Need more help with leveling? Many many walkthrus are supplied. I may make one for Molten-WoW a little later if enough people like my explanations.

GOLD!!!

We all want Gold, even though, wth are you gonna spend it on? You spend it on enchantments! And Slotted jewels! That's right. Well they are costly. You can find yourself pumping out hundreds and often times thousands of gold to get what you want. Right now I have about 10k Gold on my toon, and I feel poor. Wanna feel like me? Well, you may have to be devious.

There is no wrecked Economy on Deathwing! Everything levels out. Sometimes prices spike, but so do things in the real world. I was selling Knothide Leather for 2k one day and the next day it was 500g a stack! That's just how it works. So don't be depressed, get a job! Get a profession. What are the best jobs? To be honest, the best money maker to me is between: Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting. MAYBE TAILORING. All I know is Tanks NEED good gear and you can give them great armor at end game that they really really need. Is it hard? Yes. Jewelcrafting is the same way. I hate JC'ers, you rip us off. But whatever. Give me your gems.

DO NOT GO INTO A PROFESSION THINKING YOU WILL GEAR YOURSELF AS YOU LEVEL!!! THIS RARELY WORKS OUT. Your gear you can make is usually devastatingly lower than your level and your current gear. You may get lucky and get a piece of gear you can make that is of your level. But more often than not, the gear you wish to make is either too low level, or too high level of items you need to fetch. Like skinning and especially tailoring.

If you want a money maker toon with no intention of being a useful Samaritan (unless you donate your goods) you'll probably want Mining and Skinning. Why not Herbalism? Because I don't care about Herbalism. Sure, end game Veins for Titanium is rare, but trust me, it's worth it. Again, Tanks are the biggest gear whores because THEY NEED GEAR to be starter tanks. And guess who they come to? Blacksmiths who use your Bars of Metal. Skinning because you can kill stuff, get exp, and get their carcasses to sell or donate.

Now, for whatever you choose as your profession, this is where Auctioneer addon comes to use. Just open up the auction house, click the POST tab, drag and drop the item in the box, click refresh, and then it will show you the suggested price to sell something to undercut your competition, almost guaranteeing you a sale. "What if everyone starts using this?!"

A-They won't. B-Doesn't matter.

DON'T BUY BAGS NEWB!

YOU!!!

Alright, sorry, I feel long winded, but I hope I am of help. Finally to conclude this chapter, YOU. You have to understand your limitations and attitude to an MMO like WoW. But thankfully this WoW isn't Blizzlike aka 3rd Job. But an MMO is work, it's fun work though. If it wasn't work, it wouldn't take so long. And in this, you should understand that researching is your friend.

What tools? NOT THOTTBOT. Thottbot is dumb, horribly designed, slow, and has false information. WoWHead.com. Bookmark it, make it home page, donate, do whatever you gotta do to understand that's the place to go for information. Namely WoW based information. If you want classguides, just google it. But you will want to read class guides, even if you're not rolling that class.

Anyways, if you have played MMO's you should already know what you're looking at and what you want.

RDPS/DPS/Healer/Tank, (Ranged Damage, Melee Damage: respectively)

If you're new to WoW or MMO's for that matter, your personality will really develop what kind of player you are. What I have found, each class has a certain personality strapped on, but I won't go through stereotypes. Just know, each one requires a certain amount of perspective and intelligence. Especially in Raids. There is no best class. I can tell you the best aggro class is Hunter. So if you want to steal Aggro, be a hunter. Lol. Seriously. Hunters, stop clicking so fast and breathe.

There is nothing wrong with rerolling. This is a funserver, leveling is fast, so if you drop a toon at 40, don't feel bad. Just transfer over gold. And you still get to keep your VP, BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T SPEND IT, RITE?!

Finally. Are you PvP or PvE? Me, I am PvE, because I like healing and Tanking, and that just doesn't happen in PvP. Tanks get burned down nearly as fast as your lower armored guys. And don't lie and say you don't get burned down. The only thing hard to burn down quicker than usual are feral-druids. Don't be an elitest. I've seen 5k+ GS Platies get served a pie in the face and bucket of urine over their head just as fast as leatherheads and clothies.

Can you do both? Sure, but don't start gearing up for both at the same time. I would strongly suggest PvE first, then jump into PvP. But if you have a ton of VP to spend, sure, start with PvP, hell, you may just stick with it. More power to you. I'll be the Tank getting burned down.

All in all, this will get you to end game with relative ease. (Except gankers, don't worry, you'll be ganking their lowbies soon enough, god knows I do. YEA, I'M THE GUY IN RED RIDGE MOUNTAINS KILLING YOUR PEOPLE! Call me a newb, w/e, it passes the time while I LFG).

Instance IV - Gear

There is nothing wrong with Blues! There is everything wrong with greens! I am speaking endgame of course. Don't walk to Endgame with green items. It's just bad edict. Am I being a GS whore? No, because I ran HC Chains with way lower GS than requested. But I knew better to get suitable gear for my class. And greens are drastically weak when compared to blues and of course purples. I say Blue ain't bad because you may be covered in blue when you start in your endgame pursuit. This is fine, you'll get your Purps soon enough.

What gear is most important? I'd generally say because of the Private Server, this would be constructed into two separate catagories. Gold and VP. VP should be used to get your most rare and difficult items to get. Please please please research the starter instances before deciding. (VH [blah], UK, UP, HoL, HoS, ToC, etc) It will tell you what drops there, so you can save your VP for that item slot. If you're too lazy, then I would say spend your VP on a weapon. I spent 18 VP on my weapon surprisingly enough. You may not be that lucky. Abuse WoWHead and it's filters to find a suitable weapon.

Another thing to think about is crafted items. More often than not, your crafted items cannot be VP'd for. This is to induce economical balance. And I agree with it. (It may not be for that reason, that reason just helps me sleep at night). So crafted items, you may have to shovel a few thousand gold for. But if you have followed my above guide, you should have plenty of Gold.

All in all, you want AT LEAST 2.2k GS by the time you're geared out. I was 2.9k when I geared myself out with AH, crafters, and VP.

IMPORTANCE OF GS: GearScore has mixed reviews, most people hate on it. But I find many of those people are the lazy people who just don't want to expand their gear with VP or what not. I was against GS and currently am slightly against it. I do believe GS helps us have an overview of your capacity. However, some people ask for ******ed GS requirements. Like 4k+ for Violet Hold. Come on now. The reasoning behind this is to get it done with fast. But people are acting like they have appointments. Get over yourself. Either way, have a decent GS to show off and get you into Pugs if nothing else.

(How can I see my GS? You need an addon called GearScore (imagine that).

So again, at endgame, only buy blue items on the AH, find a friendly crafter, bring mats if possible, it will make it a lot easier.

TIP: If you want your gear fast for endgame, find some standard crafted items. And start AHing it from level 50-60 (when you have gold to spend). Track the auction house for DROPS in prices and take advantage. Example? Titansteel was selling 1200g one day, the next day someone was selling 500g each. I bought them out. Put these in the bank so you're not tempted to resell. Do this till you get to endgame and you will save yourself gold, time, and tears.

Instance V - Guild

You don't need a Guild as soon as you enter the game. Hell, I'd suggest against it. Get your feel for the game before you worry about interacting with random personalities. However if you're desperate for help, then whore yourself out to a Guild. Myself, I have a strong issue with edict and when I choose a Guild, I generally don't leave it till it dies.

A guild provides you with a lot. Sometimes it can provide you nothing but a headache. I am currently in a FANTASTIC guild where generally the regulars help everyone out and has an open bank. And most people practice the take and donate policy. (I removed an iridescent pearl, I replaced with a few Saronite bars).

The Guild should be respectful to all players in their Guild, accepting the role they have chosen. At the same time, the player should understand that they should spec to help the Guild out. You a DPS Shammy but they need a healer? Hey mang, Dual Spec. Hell, a good guild will donate some gold to help with it and run you through some instances to get you geared. Help the Guild and the game becomes funner. Also, find a good Guild. This can be difficult. I got lucky.

What should you look for in a Guild? Activity, Population of 80's, and Leadership.

Activity: This really means is it active during the hours you play? There are a lot of foreigners playing. Choose the right Guild. If only 5 people or less are playing when you play, find a new Guild. You generally want AT LEAST 10 players active. A nice chatty Guild is generally a healthy Guild.

Population of 80's: You want 80's, because that means there are plenty of experienced players to get advice from. It also means they may have extra gold to help out. And even bigger than that, they should be 450 in their professions to offer you gear (so long as you supply mats) with no price. This is especially fruitful with JC'ers.

Leadership: If your leader or at least the officers doesn't maintain some welcoming demeanor, leave immediately. You want the higher ups to be offering help, suggestions, and good humor. Officers that treat you like garbage, well, the Guild is crap. /gleave immediately.

Instance VI - Reroll

Rerolling is fun, do it, it allows you to understand other classes. I went through all the classes to level 70 before I chose my Paladin to be my main. Just know, to be successful, you will need to reheat your VP's and have additional gold to support him/her. So what I did when I rerolled a new guy to hit 80, is I roll my Paladin for a while to stack up my VP and gold, and have it ready for when my alt-main hits 80.

Source: http://forum.molten-wow.com/showthread.php?t=10561