official World of Warcraft

[the evn show]

does anyone know if you can queu for dungeons with a lower level?

You have to be 'reasonably close' in level to queue for dungeons. If your brother hits 71 you should be able to run pretty much any northrend dungeon you want together.

also i vaguely remember reading some thing about gear in cata being like tbc where it instantly replaced vanilla epics. has anyone heard any thing more about this? or is it just rumour?

My priest (basically full best in slot) was starting to replace pieces in deepholm (level 83 zone) and by the time I was done Uldum I'd pretty much scrapped every piece of gear I had.In terms of time /played that's probably about 8 hours. My mage had a mix of 251/264 (ICC 10/25 normal mode) gear and was replacing stuff within an hour or so of transferring to the beta server.

So basically if you're in full best in slot, you'll get about 8-12 hours out of your fancy gear before you replace it with greens and blues. If you haven't been farming hard ICC25 heroic mode then you'll start replacing gear pretty much as soon as you start in Hyjal. In either case you won't be using any WoTLK gear by the time you're 85.

That's the opposite of TBC -> WoTLK where your Sunwell epics could carry you all the way through the first tier of WoTLK raiding (and classic -> TBC where AQ40/Naxx gear had no real upgrades until after patch 2.0.3). Even if you have shadowmourn you'll be tossing it in the bank by the time you're done deepholm.

[treemonster]

You have to be 'reasonably close' in level to queue for dungeons. If your brother hits 71 you should be able to run pretty much any northrend dungeon you want together.

My priest (basically full best in slot) was starting to replace pieces in deepholm (level 83 zone) and by the time I was done Uldum I'd pretty much scrapped every piece of gear I had.In terms of time /played that's probably about 8 hours. My mage had a mix of 251/264 (ICC 10/25 normal mode) gear and was replacing stuff within an hour or so of transferring to the beta server.

So basically if you're in full best in slot, you'll get about 8-12 hours out of your fancy gear before you replace it with greens and blues. If you haven't been farming hard ICC25 heroic mode then you'll start replacing gear pretty much as soon as you start in Hyjal. In either case you won't be using any WoTLK gear by the time you're 85.

That's the opposite of TBC -> WoTLK where your Sunwell epics could carry you all the way through the first tier of WoTLK raiding (and classic -> TBC where AQ40/Naxx gear had no real upgrades until after patch 2.0.3). Even if you have shadowmourn you'll be tossing it in the bank by the time you're done deepholm.

that doesn't sound too bad then.

i should be replacing these quest green and getting rid of my last couple tbc arena epics pretty quickly in cata then. i seem to remember alot of qq at tbc launch about people replacing their epics in hellfire though.

at this point i'm actually surprised when running these dungeons when i actually end up dpsing anyone even if they're my same or lower level. being frost spec and all doesn't help either.

i have to spend some time fighuring out the ins and outs of bar configuration and dual speccing. it seems when switching specs, spec specific spells toggle on and off, but do other spells toggle as well? say if i want to put frostfire in my button 2 slot for frost, but arcane missles in that same spot for arcane, would it toggle them when switching specs?

[the evn show]

i should be replacing these quest green and getting rid of my last couple tbc arena epics pretty quickly in cata then. i seem to remember alot of qq at tbc launch about people replacing their epics in hellfire though.

Without getting into a big discussion about gear in TBC: if you replaced your loot before patch 2.0.3 then you were wearing garbage. Most players (>99.5% of all players) were in 'bad gear' and so while they might have worked hard to get their item level 58-66 epics, it was years behind the ~ilevel 90 gear from end game instances that only the elite few had access to. Your molten core gear was replaced by greens in hellfire but if you had loot from AQ40/Naxx then it'd last you all the way into SSC.

It wasn't until Patch 2.0.3 (~2 months after TBC came out) that they "fixed" epics and gutted alchemy that Tier 3 stopped being viable at end-game. Even then Tier 2.5/3 still lasts until you get to Northrend.

i have to spend some time fighuring out the ins and outs of bar configuration and dual speccing. it seems when switching specs, spec specific spells toggle on and off, but do other spells toggle as well? say if i want to put frostfire in my button 2 slot for frost, but arcane missles in that same spot for arcane, would it toggle them when switching specs?

Dual spec has separate action bars and glyphs for each spec. If you're a tank in spec one you'll have "shield block" in the "1" button slot. If you switch to DPS you can put "heroic strike" in the 1 button slot. When you switch back to tank you'll have shield block where you left it. Even if you have the same basic spec (ie: arcane PVE for spec #1 and arcane PVP for spec #2) you'll have different action bars when you switch.

[+.Vamp Subscriber²]

I've dabbled in WoW over a few years - made a char, got to level 15/20, stopped playing, deleted. Rinse and repeat.

Looking to actually go the distance when Cata comes out (want to make a Worgen me thinks). Can anyone recommend a good EU server and even perhaps guild (don't think there's a Neowin guild from reading the past few pages)?

Do you think it's still ok to start out now or is it a little late to be a new player in this game?

[Minifig]

Playing a human hunter until Cataclysm drops, then going Worgen.. :happy:

Do you think it's still ok to start out now or is it a little late to be a new player in this game?

Now is as good a time as ever to get in with the fact that the old world just changed and things just flow much, much better.

[game_over]

Loving the new textures, Stormwind City looks amazing!

5 more levels to go before i hit 80, i should be able to do it in 2 weeks, taken Monday off work to finish up. Also need to get my professions up to date my cooking and first aid is still below 150.

[game_over]

It's probably common knowledge but if anyone wanted to get the rest of the expansions before cata they are doing a nice deal right now:

http://eu.battle.net/en/promotion/

[Lord Nite]

Loving the new textures, Stormwind City looks amazing!

5 more levels to go before i hit 80, i should be able to do it in 2 weeks, taken Monday off work to finish up. Also need to get my professions up to date my cooking and first aid is still below 150.

With the Pilgrim event going on, you could easily level Cooking to 350 by just doing the quests. All the ingredients (minus the Turkey that you have to hunt down) are available at the vendors on site. I actually held off leveling cooking until the event started, and I'm now at 346/375.

[Argi]

Do you think it's still ok to start out now or is it a little late to be a new player in this game?

Now is actually probably the best time because all the original levelling zones have been redone.

[game_over]

With the Pilgrim event going on, you could easily level Cooking to 350 by just doing the quests. All the ingredients (minus the Turkey that you have to hunt down) are available at the vendors on site. I actually held off leveling cooking until the event started, and I'm now at 346/375.

Is there where you sit around the table? i never understood it. I should do some reading on that, i jumped into the chair and couldnt get back out, didn't realise what i was supposed to do, assumed it was a holiday quest i could leave and forget about it.

[+.Vamp Subscriber²]

Now is as good a time as ever to get in with the fact that the old world just changed and things just flow much, much better.

Now is actually probably the best time because all the original levelling zones have been redone.

Thanks guys, I guess I'll mess around a bit til Cataclysm drops then start properly on a Worgen :)

Still undecided on a class. Probably something melee orientated.

[enigma-penguin Veteran]

Decided to grind out a little bilgewater rep XD

[_neutrino Veteran]

How many dungeons did you have to do to get that much rep?

[thegnarlypanda]

I've dabbled in WoW over a few years - made a char, got to level 15/20, stopped playing, deleted. Rinse and repeat.

Looking to actually go the distance when Cata comes out (want to make a Worgen me thinks). Can anyone recommend a good EU server and even perhaps guild (don't think there's a Neowin guild from reading the past few pages)?

Do you think it's still ok to start out now or is it a little late to be a new player in this game?

I recommend Nagrand, Alliance and the guild Friendship before Glory. Because we are amazing. Also, the server doesn't actually seem to have many ###### on it compared to a few others I have played on.

[enigma-penguin Veteran]

How many dungeons did you have to do to get that much rep?

I started when it was broken and only worked in the old world, so I used the BRD bug to farm the 7 dwarfs up until I hit honoured. That took about an hour or so, so I cant equate that into full runs. Once they hot fixed it I got into heroic dungeons and it took about 15-20 runs to get from honoured to exalted, but I was also farming BRD mobs in between instance pops too.

For the sake of measurement:

BRD mobs:

Elites - 3 rep

Bosses - 60 rep

Heroics

Elites - 15 rep

Bosses - 300 rep

[vip]

How many dungeons did you have to do to get that much rep?

I am curious as well, and can it be any heroic ?

[enigma-penguin Veteran]

It can be any dungeon in fact, the amount of rep is all that differs; I do however suggest heroics (it's much faster). In the end you're looking at about 20+ runs at least, I can't judge for sure as I started before they fixed it. Get a few friends together, throw the tabard on and just do some back to backs. That will get you a good measure from neutral/friendly, but again I wouldn't say the guess is far off.

[_neutrino Veteran]

well i know what i am going to be doing this weekend.

[vip]

Thanks, me and two guild mates are doing it now .. almost honored :D

[treemonster]

Dual spec has separate action bars and glyphs for each spec. If you're a tank in spec one you'll have "shield block" in the "1" button slot. If you switch to DPS you can put "heroic strike" in the 1 button slot. When you switch back to tank you'll have shield block where you left it. Even if you have the same basic spec (ie: arcane PVE for spec #1 and arcane PVP for spec #2) you'll have different action bars when you switch.

ahh that clears that up thanks. will have to spend some time laying out my arcane bars tonight

Do you think it's still ok to start out now or is it a little late to be a new player in this game?

wow has only gotten easier and easier to start from scratch in over the years. with RAF and new cata overhaul of azeroth and improved leveling flow over all, you can hit 60 easier than ever. leveing in tbc land is a breeze, and wotlk land has been made less slow overall, so it shouldn't feel as jarring to go from outlands to northerend on your first toon and suddenly see your leveling rate slow to a halt wiith even more quests per level than at any poin tin the game previously. that being said normal 5 man dungeons in wotlk are a lot easier than tbc dungeons and give pretty good exp per run.

just thought of a question after i went to bed last night. i vaguely recall something about the gear stat changes at some point during wotlk, but can't remember the details. so spell power has been more or less removed and combined int o a stat like intelligence or spirit or something right? anyone got a link to what the stats like int and spir do now exactly? most of my gear seems to have tonnes of sta and int and a bit of spir, and then the whole gear score thing is confusing me as well but it's not such a big deal i guess since i don't plan on running heroics often even after my gear score gets to that point.

and anyone find the pvp vendors in org? i'm not too worried about them right this moment but once i hit 85 my main goal will be gearing up through normal BGs and tol barad grinding until i am fairly viable for world pvp and rated BGs(assuming i have a decent guild by that time)

[treemonster]

oh and short run down on melee classes:

warrior: can do decent pve dps or tanking. don't know if they've improved their leveling ability in world quests but thanks to the dungeon finder you can spec tank early and level and learn to tank quickly. dungeon queues should be fast as tank at any level. their main weakness is world pvp, where they are fairly easy kills especially to casters, but last time i played alot they were good in arenas. pretty decent in av grinding as they can tank the bosses pretty easily in any spec. if you're decent at tanking and like to do it you should have no problem getting raid spots if that's what you want to do.

paladins: hybrid heavy armour class, that's fairly strong in any roll or activiity. depending on current spec no real weaknesses in any kind of pvp. you can try out healing, tanking and dps with this class. some say it suffers from being boring to play though. depending on spec can be extremely hard to kill even when outnumbered, very resistant to world pvp ganking.

rogue: dps only. you can spec between trees that emphasize stealth and being able to escape sticky situations, burst dps, and somewhat medicore sustained dps. takes patience and quick reflexes to play well. strongest in certain BGs and solo world pvp(ganking and camping). just remember to apply your poisons every so often. used to be hard to get raid spots with this class though, don't know if that has changed.

DK- not well versed with this class but if you don't have a toon over like 60 or w/e is the prerequisite you probably won't start with one anyway. seems people either love or hate the class. to me it feels very spammy and facerollish and super easy mode when i've played mine in the past in pvp and pve, though i've only gotten one to about 60 or 61. good tanks especially in certain fights, good dps in certain situations, i don't know if they're still OP in arenas or not. the starting zone is pretty fun but doesn't last too long, starts at 55 and ends at 58 in about 3 hours of play. has the OP in pvp spell that grabs players and pulls them to you, which is great for singling out players in groups you are fight, interupting and isolating casters in particular and ranged classes in general, and preventing players from escaping you in world pvp(even on their ground mounts)

i'll include druids here too i guess. can do pretty much any role in teh game. melee(even stealthed) or ranged dps, tanking and healing. is pretty much every single other class in teh game with a small twist. starts ou tboring though and some people i've played with say they don't really get interesting till either you get cat form or hit 60, but i've enver been able to stand them past level 5(they start out with a basic nuke and a heal, and imho nelf starting zone sucks). cat form is best for dps and works well in different areas of the game. one of the few people to beat me in world pvp in tbc was a cat druid. boomkin(ranged mage style dps) was pretty medicore for pvp when i played but i think it's ok for raiding dps, bear druids(tank) used to be pretty good for raid tanking, resto druids are great healers in every activity at end game and have the best mobility and great HPS with their instant and cast time HOTs. druids are hard to pin down with cc in my experience because they can just break it by switching forms.

oh and i guess shamans have some melee too, but meh. i know very little about them except totems and FROSTSHOCK FROSTSHOCK FROSTSHOCK and when they're specced healing they take along time to kill and they don't seem to have any cc. do well enough in every activity at endgame though.

hunters do have melee in teh form of their pets and some melee spells for when stuff gets in close, but they're mainly ranged so... most popular class it seems and get various small buffs to make them easier to play, but most hunters are played terribly and have several cliches associated with them such as their pet wiping raids constantly. great at getting killing blows in BGs though.

[CUBBYJR2005]

oh and short run down on melee classes:

warrior: can do decent pve dps or tanking. don't know if they've improved their leveling ability in world quests but thanks to the dungeon finder you can spec tank early and level and learn to tank quickly. dungeon queues should be fast as tank at any level. their main weakness is world pvp, where they are fairly easy kills especially to casters, but last time i played alot they were good in arenas. pretty decent in av grinding as they can tank the bosses pretty easily in any spec. if you're decent at tanking and like to do it you should have no problem getting raid spots if that's what you want to do.

paladins: hybrid heavy armour class, that's fairly strong in any roll or activiity. depending on current spec no real weaknesses in any kind of pvp. you can try out healing, tanking and dps with this class. some say it suffers from being boring to play though. depending on spec can be extremely hard to kill even when outnumbered, very resistant to world pvp ganking.

rogue: dps only. you can spec between trees that emphasize stealth and being able to escape sticky situations, burst dps, and somewhat medicore sustained dps. takes patience and quick reflexes to play well. strongest in certain BGs and solo world pvp(ganking and camping). just remember to apply your poisons every so often. used to be hard to get raid spots with this class though, don't know if that has changed.

DK- not well versed with this class but if you don't have a toon over like 60 or w/e is the prerequisite you probably won't start with one anyway. seems people either love or hate the class. to me it feels very spammy and facerollish and super easy mode when i've played mine in the past in pvp and pve, though i've only gotten one to about 60 or 61. good tanks especially in certain fights, good dps in certain situations, i don't know if they're still OP in arenas or not. the starting zone is pretty fun but doesn't last too long, starts at 55 and ends at 58 in about 3 hours of play. has the OP in pvp spell that grabs players and pulls them to you, which is great for singling out players in groups you are fight, interupting and isolating casters in particular and ranged classes in general, and preventing players from escaping you in world pvp(even on their ground mounts)

i'll include druids here too i guess. can do pretty much any role in teh game. melee(even stealthed) or ranged dps, tanking and healing. is pretty much every single other class in teh game with a small twist. starts ou tboring though and some people i've played with say they don't really get interesting till either you get cat form or hit 60, but i've enver been able to stand them past level 5(they start out with a basic nuke and a heal, and imho nelf starting zone sucks). cat form is best for dps and works well in different areas of the game. one of the few people to beat me in world pvp in tbc was a cat druid. boomkin(ranged mage style dps) was pretty medicore for pvp when i played but i think it's ok for raiding dps, bear druids(tank) used to be pretty good for raid tanking, resto druids are great healers in every activity at end game and have the best mobility and great HPS with their instant and cast time HOTs. druids are hard to pin down with cc in my experience because they can just break it by switching forms.

oh and i guess shamans have some melee too, but meh. i know very little about them except totems and FROSTSHOCK FROSTSHOCK FROSTSHOCK and when they're specced healing they take along time to kill and they don't seem to have any cc. do well enough in every activity at endgame though.

hunters do have melee in teh form of their pets and some melee spells for when stuff gets in close, but they're mainly ranged so... most popular class it seems and get various small buffs to make them easier to play, but most hunters are played terribly and have several cliches associated with them such as their pet wiping raids constantly. great at getting killing blows in BGs though.

What about Mages and Warlocks

[Lord Nite]

Is there where you sit around the table? i never understood it. I should do some reading on that, i jumped into the chair and couldnt get back out, didn't realise what i was supposed to do, assumed it was a holiday quest i could leave and forget about it.

Yes, that is the seasonal event that you sit at the table, but that is only part of it. Outside the major cities you have vendors and quest givers that ask for certain items. Since I am Horde, I only know their side. The quest givers will basically have you travel to each of the cities, buy the mats and prepare the dish needed to complete that daily. After one day, and making all that you can, you should be 350+ cooking.

[Soulsiphon]

I've dabbled in WoW over a few years - made a char, got to level 15/20, stopped playing, deleted. Rinse and repeat.

Looking to actually go the distance when Cata comes out (want to make a Worgen me thinks). Can anyone recommend a good EU server and even perhaps guild (don't think there's a Neowin guild from reading the past few pages)?

Do you think it's still ok to start out now or is it a little late to be a new player in this game?

I was the exact same way and came back maybe a month ago and started leveling like a madman, on a purely casual basis. I managed to get to 57 following some guide which at last login before this latest patch had me in Western Plaguelands. Okay fair enough. However, I log in after this latest patch, my quest journal where'd I'd had *many* chains still unfinished, was completely cleared out/spider webbed. I was standing by some wreckage in the forest surrounded by mobs now 20 levels below me and my talent points had been completely reset. Since I don't hang around test forums or game forums generally, I suppose I didn't know a complete respec was coming for me but oh well, just take several minutes and try to remember where I had everything.

I was using my nephews 80 mage to 2-box and port myself around and the travel is still ridiculous compared to other MMO's, and apparently they've just made it MORE cumbersome by eliminating the portals in Dalaran - there may be more I dunno.

I canceled before going any further, even with the upgrade special it was just really bad timing for coming back - for me at least. The day I activated my account they patched 4.0.0 or 4.0.1 or something, which completely changed stuff and after this latest one the guide I had been using is undoubtedly outdated in 1 days time so not really sure what to do even if I was going to keep playing.

Best of luck though I mean it's not like there isn't some fun to be had in WoW...for awhile.

[treemonster]

What about Mages and Warlocks

not really melee. neither are priests. locks do have melee pets but, i didn't feel it was enough to include them, as they are far less melee than even hunters.

but if you are interested

mages are mainly dps but depending on spec have a good mix of cc and survivability as well. great in world pvp bg's and raids, but they seem to be pretty gimpy in arenas due to mana and other issues. for some reason blizz keeps nerfing them it seems, but they're still pretty fun to play(at least for me). although each spec tree plays fairly differently, they're all basically one kind of dps or another. for some reason unlike other classes you have to really pay attention to your mana consumption or you will suddenly be useless in the fight until it's over. still depsite them being nerfed fairly often i got called OP by everyone in pvp on my server during tbc.

warlocks- again basically dps, but have pets that can fill a variety of rolles including some cc, off tanking, and dps. can use either DOTs or nukes, and have lots of debuffs, and can drain hp and mana. as well as some (in some opinions) strong cc in certain situations. during tbc well played equally geared locks could lock down my frost mage for the whole fight while dpsing multiple targets with dots and drains. good dps in raids as well. another popular class, but often not played very well, but less so the cliches around hunters last time i heard anything. good at any end game activity.

preists can dps or heal or damage mitigation. their dps spec kinda locks out decent healing, and some say it's gimpy for dps compared to other classes. their heals are pretty decent, but i don't know the details. disc priests are beastly in pvp as they are hard to kill or lock down especially if you use mana(ie casters) and do well enough in certain healing related roles in endgame pvp. other healers tend to be more preferable in my experience in arenas though. leveling through dungeons is a breeze as a healer due to instant queues

keep in mind with these two posts i'm pretty out of date on a lot of things, but all of this is pretty basic so it should be still relevant. still, i'm probably wrong on a lot of points due to my experiences and knowledge being out of date or second hand.