Getting Started

Getting Started Guide for World of Warcraft

Welcome, new adventurer! This guide walks you through your first moments in World of Warcraft (WoW). By the end of your first hour, you’ll understand the basics of character creation, how to move, the UI layout, and what to focus on. Let’s jump in.

1. Character Creation (The First 10 Minutes)

After logging in, you’ll see the character selection screen. Click Create New Character.

• Choose a Realm: Select a realm type. For beginners, pick a Normal or RP (Roleplay) realm. Avoid PvP realms initially – they allow players from the opposite faction to attack you at any time outside of cities.


• Faction: Decide between Alliance (human-like, organized) and Horde (tribal, rugged). Both have great stories – pick based on visual style or friend preferences.


• Race: Each race has unique racial abilities (e.g., Dwarf Stoneform removes poison). Don’t stress over min-maxing; pick the one you think looks cool.


• Class: This is the most important choice. For a first character, consider:

- Hunter – Easy solo, ranged damage, pet tank.
- Paladin – Good survivability, heals, and damage.
- Mage – Powerful but squishy; learn positioning.
- Warrior – Melee, can tank; requires learning rage management.
- Druid – Versatile (heal, tank, damage) but complex.
- Avoid Rogue (stealth, combo points) and Warlock (drain life, pet micromanagement) until you’re comfortable.

• Appearance: Customize your character’s looks – hair, face, skin. You can change these later at a Barber Shop in cities for gold.


• Name: Choose a unique name. If taken, try variations.

Click Create and then Enter World.

2. The First Hour Walkthrough (Level 1 to 5-10)

You spawn in a Staring Zone (e.g., Northshire Abbey for Humans, Valley of Trials for Orcs). The game immediately presents a quest (yellow exclamation mark).

1. Accept the First Quest – Right-click the NPC. Read the quest text (or press Accept). It tells you what to do.
2. Move – Use W/A/S/D to move forward/back/strafe. Hold Right Mouse Button to rotate the camera. Scroll mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
3. Kill Mobs – Left-click a creature to target it, then press 1 on your action bar to use your first ability. Repeat until mob dies.
4. Loot – Right-click the corpse to collect items (press I to open inventory).
5. Return to Quest Giver – Follow the yellow arrow on minimap. Right-click NPC to turn in quest (golden exclamation).
6. Learn New Abilities – At level 2 or 3, your trainer will teach you spells. Press N to open spellbook, drag new spells to action bars.
7. Keep Questing – Follow the chain. Within 30 minutes, you should reach level 5-6. At level 5, you may get a choice of Profession (e.g., Mining, Herbalism). You can ignore professions for now or pick two gathering ones (sell materials on Auction House later).
8. Important Milestones:
- Level 10 – First talent point (press N to open talents).
- Level 14 – Ability to queue for Dungeons via Dungeon Finder (press I).
- Level 20 – Learn Riding skill and buy a mount (costs ~4 gold).

3. Controls on All Platforms

World of Warcraft is PC-only (Windows/macOS). There are no console or mobile versions. Controls are keyboard + mouse.

Customizing Controls: Press Esc > Key Bindings to rebind everything. Many players rebind strafe to A/D and remove turn bindings. You can also assign extra mouse buttons.

4. UI Overview

Your screen has several key elements:

• Action Bars (Bottom): Rows of buttons for abilities, consumables, and trinkets. Default shows two frames (rows of 12). You can add more via Interface options.


• Minimap (Top right): Shows surrounding area, quest givers (yellow/golden dots), gathering nodes (metal sound, flower icon).


• Character Frame (Top left): Your health (green), mana (blue), or rage/energy/resource (red/yellow). Also shows level, portrait, and buffs.


• Target Frame (Top center): Enemy or friendly target’s health, level, and buffs/debuffs.


• Experience Bar (Bottom of character frame? Actually at bottom center default): Shows progress to next level.


• Quest Tracker (Right side): Lists active quests and objectives. Click an objective to see it on map.


• Chat Box (Bottom left): Displays system messages, loot, and player chat. You can change tabs.


• Menu Bar (Bottom left, near chat): Buttons for Character, Talents, Dungeon Finder, Mounts, Collections, etc. Hover to see names.


• Bag Bar (Bottom right): Shows inventory bags. Click to open.


• Buff/Debuff Icons (Top right of character frame? Actually below health bar): Shows active beneficial effects and poison/disease.


Tip: Press Esc > Interface > ActionBars to enable additional bars (like bottom left/right, right bar) for more ability slots.



5. Essential Early Objectives



Your main goal in the first few hours is to level up and learn the game. Follow these priorities:

1. Do All Quests – They give experience, gold, gear. Never skip them.
2. Learn Your Class – Read tooltips of each ability. Understand resource generation (mana, energy, rage) and cooldowns.
3. Equip Upgrades – Open inventory (I), right-click gear pieces that have higher armor or better stats.
4. Talk to Class Trainers – They appear in each major city and sometimes in hubs. Train new abilities every 2 levels (costs silver).
5. Repair Gear – Visit a Repair NPC (anvil icon on minimap) when your gear turns red. Pay a few copper.
6. Collect Loot – Sell grey items to vendors. White and green items can be equipped or sold. Hold onto gear with stats like Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina relevant to your class.
7. Explore – Touching flight paths (green exclamation) unlocks fast travel. Always accept them when you see a flight master.



6. What to Do First vs. What to Avoid



Do First:

• Accept every quest you see.


• Kill mobs that are your level (no more than 2 levels higher).


• Use Auto-Run (NumLock) to ease travel.


• Check your Spellbook (P) regularly for new spells.


• Eat food and drink water between fights (right-click food in bag) to restore health/mana quickly.


Avoid:

• Chasing higher-level zones – Stick to your starting zone until quests dry up.


• Buying gear from the Auction House – It’s expensive and questing gives enough.


• Skipping quest text – You’ll get lost. Read at least the objective.


• Aggroing multiple mobs – Unless you have a strong area-of-effect (AoE) ability, you’ll die.


• Joining player vs. player combat – On a PvP realm, avoid flagged areas until you understand PvP.


• Spending gold on cosmetics – Save for mount training at level 20.

7. Early Resource Priorities

Tip: Do not waste gold on repairs early; you’ll get plenty from vendor trash.

8. Common Beginner Mistakes

• Ignoring the Class Trainer – If you don’t train, you won’t learn new spells. Visit your trainer every 2 levels.


• Overlooking Key Bindings – Clicking abilities with mouse is slow. Practice pressing keys 1-6, Shift+1-6, etc.


• Not Using Auto-Loot – Enable it: Esc > Interface > Controls > Auto Loot (check). Then right-click corpse once to loot all.


• Running Past Flight Points – Unlock every flight master you encounter; it saves time later.


• Hoarding Junk – Grey items have no use; sell them. White items sometimes are quest items – check quest log.


• Trying to Solo Elite Mobs – If a mob has a gold dragon border, it’s for groups. Avoid until you’re overleveled.


• Ignoring AddOns – While not needed early, popular addons like Deadly Boss Mods (for dungeons) and TomTom (waypoints) can help later. For now, play vanilla UI.

9. Day-One Checklist (First Play Session)

Complete these tasks before logging off:

1. [ ] Create your character and enter the world.
2. [ ] Complete at least 10 quests in the starting zone.
3. [ ] Reach level 5-6 (should take ~1 hour).
4. [ ] Train your first two class abilities (visit trainer).
5. [ ] Equip any gear upgrades you’ve found.
6. [ ] Learn First Aid (secondary profession) from a trainer in town – you can bandage yourself for out-of-combat healing.
7. [ ] Set your Hearthstone to an inn (right-click innkeeper, select “Make this your home”).
8. [ ] Open your Map (M) and find a flight master; talk to him to unlock flight path.
9. [ ] Empty your bags – sell all grey items, deposit anything you want to keep in your Bank (found in major cities).
10. [ ] Look for a Bag upgrade – buy a 6-slot bag from a vendor (costs a few silver) or quest reward.
11. [ ] Practice your rotation: Use your main damage ability (key 1) and a damage-over-time or buff (key 2).
12. [ ] Read the Quest Log (L) to ensure you have no incomplete objectives that are far away.

Once done, you’re on track to a successful first day! The next session should focus on reaching level 10, choosing a specialization, and unlocking the Dungeon Finder.

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Remember: WoW is a journey. Take your time, explore, and enjoy the vast world of Azeroth. Welcome!