Welcome to the first installment of WTF? N00b!
This column is intended for those of you who have been playing for a less than 6 months, 8 months or for that matter anyone who considers themselves to be a newbie to the game.
Is this your first toon and you have not reached 80?
Then you too can learn some things from this column.
As a member of the Rawr Crew, I will be coming to you twice a week with each entry focusing on a different part of being a noob. It is my intention to post my first entry every Tuesday and it will focus on players who are leveling a toon between levels 1 and 35. This will be the place where we can discuss some of the really basic concepts, strategies and information that makes your game play more fun and productive.
The second entry, to be posted on Saturdays, each week, will be intended for those players that have been playing for some time, but are still learning the intricacies of the game. I will delve deeper in to those levels from 35 to 70 where the game play slows down, quests get harder and instances become a regular part of your game. The fact is that the game changes as you level and hopefully, between the two weekly entries, I can enlighten the readers to some new information.
So, let’s delve right into the first entry for you 1 to 35’ers…
The biggest mistake I made during these early levels was not upgrading my equipment. I have spoken to many people in my guild and they all say the same thing; upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. It is easy to think you are doing just fine with the equipment you have, and you very well may be, but with bigger, better and more enchanted gear your leveling will be easier than ever.
There are three main ways to really upgrade your armor, weapons and gear. These ways are: purchasing new gear at the auction house, enchanting your items, and running instances and raids. You are already getting some upgrades as you quest, both as quest rewards and as green colored items dropped by the trash mobs you have to kill during your questing. The problem with relying solely on this method of upgrading is that there is better gear available to you if you use the auction house effectively.
Many newer players are freaked out by the auction house and I will admit that until you have really gotten in there, it can be very intimidating. The auction houses in the alliance cities are far more hectic and crowded than are the some of the horde cities such as Undercity. Just go in, click on the auctioneer and view the different categories of items that you can bid on. Select weapons for example, choose your type of weapon, then in the middle at the top of the screen place a check in the box for items you can use to narrow the results and hit search. Find weapons that are of the highest levels that you can use and hold your mouse over the picture. This will show you the weapons stats and you want to maximize the amount of damage or armor as well as stats that are important to your individual class.
For example if I am a level 21 warrior who uses two-handed swords. I would be looking for a two-handed sword in the range of levels 19-21 that does the most damage and preferably has a + to strength. Since strength is the number one stat I use as a warrior, but there are other stats that could be just as useful such as critical strike, weapon damage or hit rating. If I was looking for armor I might want dodge or parry on my gear.
Now after you buy your new two-handed sword, you have a better weapon than you were using, but you are not done. The second method of upgrading is to have your gear enchanted. The bonuses already on your equipment are good, but you can make it even better by having an enchantment placed on that item. There are two ways to get enchantments: having an enchanter do the enchantment for you or buying enchantment scrolls in the auction house.
If you are in a guild, it is easiest and usually the cheapest way to approach one of the enchanters in the guild to enchant your items. You may still have to purchase the materials for the enchantment at the auction house, but many times the leaders of the guild will do enchantments for you free of charge or for a nominal fee.
If you cannot find an enchanter or your item is one that cannot be enchanted, then you can look under the item enhancement category in the auction house and find some enchantments and other methods of making your gear better. Many times this is a more expensive method, but some of the item enhancements such as leg enhancements cannot be enchanted, they must be reinforced with additional protection such as a heavy armor kit.
The last way to get your upgrades is to run instances and raids. While you get dropped gear from the trash mobs you encounter during questing, the gear dropped in an instance is of a much higher quality. There are far better pieces of gear both from the instance trash mobs and from the bosses. But, the best sources for gear in the game are the loot drops from the bosses in the instances/raids.
This is another area where you guild comes in handy (we will be discussing guilds in a future blog post). The guild is there to assist you in leveling and getting some of the leaders or members of you guild to run you through the appropriate level instances in order to get gear is critical. Whether it is Scarlet Monastery or the Dead Mines, you need to be running instances in order to get the best gear possible for your level.
As you progress through the game, you will find that the best gear is dropped by the bosses in instances and raids. This is not always the case at the lower levels, but in the higher levels you need to get your gear from boss drops or you will be left far behind in the battle for gear.
I hope that answers some of you questions and assists you in the game. Good Luck.
Inquisitor
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