Hints for Playing the Game
by Damien Barrett 
Dec 20th 2005 at 7:00PM
Inspired by a forum post that asked readers to quickly list the most helpful hints in the game, both for noobs
and hardcores, here's a list:1) the autorun key is set to numlock by default.
2) if you're mountless and need to get to Raven Hill, it's faster to fly from Darkshire to Sentinel Hill and run there than it is to run the entire way from Darkshire.
3) Roll an alt character and add him to your friends list, and then email this "mule" any items you want to save but don't have space for.
4) Repair your gear. You'll lose it if it gets too damaged.
5) Murlocks like to mob.
6) If you can't see your healer, he can't see you (and therefore can't heal you).
7) If you're pre-60, try to log off at an Inn or in a major city to gain the "rested" buff which doubles the XP you gain from killing monsters.
Of course, there are many more hints. What are your best hints for playing the game?
Filed under: Tips
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
C.K. Sample, III Dec 21st 2005 2:18PM
testing....
Tolarian Dec 21st 2005 3:09PM
Cool tips for the noobie I am :)
Don't have any right now through :(
Titanium Dec 21st 2005 3:32PM
Just a minor clarification:
When you do not repair your gear and its durability reaches zero, you do not actually lose it, it merely loses its effects.
Jeremiah Owen Dec 21st 2005 4:02PM
Here's a few:
1.Pressing Ctrl+R will show your frame rate.
2.Holding down both right and left click on your mouse at the same time will move you forward.
GillyGil Dec 21st 2005 4:05PM
Any tips for Counter-Terrorist turn Elven Hunter Ub?r Noob that has no idea what professions (I think that the right terminology) to pursue herbs/mine/ect.!!
L'Emmerdeur Dec 21st 2005 4:06PM
Titanium is correct. The item remains, you just don't get the benefits of wearing it (armor, +stats, etc.)
Apeiron Dec 21st 2005 4:38PM
I highly recommend classes that have speed enhancement, mages with blinking/teleporting, druids in feral mode, and i believe shaman do too i just don't have one.
There are also potions that allow you to sprint for like 15 seconds.
You see where my priorities lie. :)
I also recommend figuring out "how to play the game" then making a new character.
Picking up your professions/skills such as herbing/mining and cooking/fishing/first aid are all easier to do as you go than having to come back and kill meaningless mobs.
Tryst Dec 21st 2005 7:42PM
shift-clicking on a stack allows you to split the stack. So, if you were bolting silk for someone and it stacks on your own silk you can give them back their portion. That's my new favorite fun fact that I learned just this week!
Stimps Dec 22nd 2005 4:51AM
a) Following on from Tryst's comment above, you can do a similar thing with vendors if you want to buy more than 1 item (up to a max of 20, sold items must be singles, not in stacks)
b) When you're a ghost you can run across water.
c) Instead of using an alt to store equipment, put it in the bank instead. Stuff mailed to your alt should go onto the AH to make some money =D
d) If you get turned into an elf / snowman, right-click on the buff icon to remove it.
e) Blow a kiss to christmas revellers in inns - you'll get misteltoe (use it on others to give them a bonus to their spirit) or holly (turns your mount into something more festive).
f) Look out for "overlapping" quests - quite often you can clear out an area and complete multiple quests. Checking out the info at http://thottbot.com/ might help with this.
g) Always read the quest descriptions - it's very rare that you'll be left guessing what to do next.
h) There are channels for chatting, trading, and looking for groups. Don't use yell.
i) Don't join the first guild that asks.
Faar Dec 22nd 2005 2:34PM
Don't forget the secondary skills! They may not look all that great at a glance, but if leveled in parallel with your character, they can really save your skin in a pinch!
*First Aid is very useful when recovering from a fight, or even during one if a party member is getting clobbered badly and needs patching up. Who would say no to +2000 hitpoints in just a few seconds?! Just remember that bandaging counts as a channeling spell, so if something is swinging/shooting at you, the process will be interrupted. Bandages and potions have different cooldown timers, so they can easily be combined.
* Also, heavy bandages are twice as dense as the cloth it's made of, allowing you to carry more when farming for cash. Linen, wool and silk bandages sell for slightly less than the cloth they're made of, but the heavy variety of each still allows you to haul in a lot more gold per trip than carrying just the cloth. Mageweave or runeweave bandages sell for more than the value of the cloth, so you GAIN money from making bandages, providing you don't want to go through the bother of trying to auction off the stuff.
* Cooking is also quite useful, as some particular foods give stat buffs (some high level recipes quite a lot - monster omelet for example). Also, cooking food will increase the food's level, making you gain more health from eating it or give your hunter pet more happiness from it.
* Fishing is great for hunters that use any creature that can eat fish (this includes turtles in the next patch). Fish recipes are also easy to come by from vendors, making it easy to level your cooking to 300 provided you spend enough time to level your fishing in the same manner.
* Night elf hunters who likes to PvP can Shadowmeld at the start of a fight and then begin charging up an Aimed Shot and stay stealthed/untargetable until the shot is actually fired.
* Shadowmeld is also useful when trying to evade pursuers. Hunters can use aspect of the beast to become untrackable on the minimap and then meld and crouch in a thicket of underbrush for example. Hopefully the angry orc and tauren will run past, not knowing where you went. ;) Just remember to put your pet to STAY, and then keep running until it despawns so it won't give away your position...
* Corpse camping hunters with any pet that can learn Dash or Dive should put their pet to aggressive and then wait on the corpse. With a little bit of luck, the pet will Dash off to the enemy as soon as it resurrects, giving that nasty smelly troll no chance to heal/bandage itself!
* Boars are good tank hunter pets against melee enemies thanks to their high armor rating, while bears are good against casters thanks to their high health. Their varied diet will also make either animal easy to keep happy. Boars can also learn Dash (as well as Boar Charge once next patch hits), thus further increasing their usefulness.
* Don't forget to Feign Death if you're about to get your butt handed to you by a mob in a PvE fight. It's unlikely to save you against a human opponent however... If you're a hunter in an instance and your party wipes and you happen to be an Engineer that has a pair of Jumper Cables on you, Feign Death is even more useful as you can now resurrect the priest/druid/shaman/paladin and get your instance run going again! Just remember to let any mobs kill your pet first before you jump up, or else you'll draw aggro again once the pet dies. Stay dead until everything has calmed down, but don't stay dead too long as you WILL DIE FOR REAL once the Feign bar has ticked all the way down...
* Feign Death can also allow you to put down more than one Freeze Trap in a fight. Try pulling a mob into one trap (NOT with Serpent Sting, as any (DOT) damage done to the mob will break the trap), then once it is trapped, Feign Death. If the spell isn't resisted, you can now put down a new trap in the path of the still frozen enemy and have it walk right into it once the previous trap thaws.
* Rapid Fire skill will cut down the "aiming delay" on your Aimed Shot skill (and you can fire two aimed shots before Rapid Fire wears off). Be aware though that against mobs you'll draw extra aggro for the greater than normal damage you're causing, so be ready to Disengage or Wing Clip if the enemy breaks off from your pet/party tank and comes gunning for you instead. Remember tho, Disengage is USELESS if the enemy does not have another MELEE target to focus on, so if your pet is dead and nobody else is fighting that mob, the spell will do nothing except drain your mana! In that case, Wing Clip it, or Scatter Shot it so you can gain additional distance.
* Wing Clip is also a very useful PvP spell against any char that runs into your "dead zone" and wants to keep you from firing at them.