Breakfast Topic: Help a newbie!
by Elizabeth Harper 
Dec 24th 2007 at 8:00AM
If you could offer one piece of advice to a new World of Warcraft player, what would it be? It is the holiday season, after all -- time to lend a helping hand to those less fortunate. So for all of the new players reading today, let's tell them what they need to know to survive their adventures in Azeroth (and hopefully make it to Outland, Northrend, and wherever else Blizzard might have in store for us in the future)! I'll get us started:- Pick up absolutely everything from a corpse, even if it seems useless. You can sell it for cash -- maybe not much, but it adds up in time.
- Train first aid! Even if you're a class that can heal itself, there will be times you're low on mana, and you'll be glad you have those bandages.
- Cooking may sound dull -- but food can provide useful buffs, which makes cooking a worthwhile skill to have. And... if you want to become a successful chef and make all sorts of awesome, higher-level food the easiest way to skill up is to train it up with fishing. (Though fishing is dull, dull, dull -- you'll thank me when you don't have to go from skill zero to skill 375 because you need a rare fish to make your favorite food.)
- Don't forget to have fun!
Filed under: Tips, Tricks, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Stormtamer Dec 24th 2007 8:13AM
Try to only buy class skills you will actually find a use for at the lower levels.
On my hunter i barely found any use for some of the tracking skills. So spending your small amount of cash on crap like 'Track Giants' at lvl 17 is something id avoid.
Also try not to train in weapon skills until you have some cash spare your not gonna need for much else.
Spending all my cash on Bow and Sword skill on my Horde Rogue meant i had to run from Org to the southern barrens for a while becasue id ran out of money for flying, and then was spending money money on repairing more gear than i had before.
Rainnajax Dec 24th 2007 8:14AM
I would tell a newbie about rested xp and how to make the most of it. Especially when they are around level 10-15 and are starting to work on professions. I think it makes the most sense to grind on mobs that drop the mats you need when you are rested, because you are basically killing three birds with one stone, getting better xp overall, getting mats to skill up your profession, and getting practice with defense and weapon skills.
:-)
Rainnajax
Theserene Dec 24th 2007 1:34PM
Thing is, after the last patch, rested XP is near to useless.
aratan Dec 24th 2007 8:16AM
I would add the following -
- if you can buff someone, then do it. Not everyone you see, but if you are trotting along and see someone else out in the wilds, then buff them with something. You could get a useful buff in return, or at the least, get a reputation as a thoughtful person.
- if you see someone in trouble in a fight, then help them out. Bandage them, heal them, wade in if it looks like they are likely to be overwhelmed. Defintely do this for someone playing the same side as you, your call on whether you assist the opposition (Horde vs Alliance).
- be polite. Don't be a jerk and Inspect someone's gear and then criticize it. If somoene is killing stuff and not skinning it, ask if you may skin it. Ask if anyone else is herbalist or mining before gathering the herb/ore yourself.
Aratan
Perseus Dec 24th 2007 10:04AM
- if you see someone in trouble in a fight, then help them out.
i've had pretty bad Experiences doing that, mostly from jerks who i grab aggro from, and then just run away and let you die.
But then again it's just me.
Aldazor Dec 24th 2007 5:19PM
If you're thinking about helping a warlock fighting without a pet, make sure they're not trying to get Soul Shards. If the mob is low on HP and the warlock is doing fine, just buff them and move along.
Diaz Dec 24th 2007 8:18AM
Don't but ANY gear/weapons, you get everything you need from quests, drops etc.
The auction house is your friend. Learn to use it early and sell sell sell.
brogadorn Dec 24th 2007 8:24AM
1) wowhead.com or thottbot.com very valuable for quest info.
2) Get only the gathering professions when starting off, like Mining and Skinning. Engineering, JC, Enchanting, etc... are money funnels, gathering professions will get you money faster.
3) Don't try and do quests that are so out of your lvl that you die every 5 seconds in the zone.
4) Try and do as much of the quests/zone on your own or with others that are in the same lvl range as you. Don't ask 60+ guildies or random players to help you out, it doesn't help with xp.
5) Don't spam Murloc movie titles in the /trade channel
zygote Dec 24th 2007 12:04PM
I rock the boat on "only gathering" professions at the low levels.
My first character was herb/alchemist fairly early on and made decent bank. Then he snagged the Swiftness Potion recipe off of the AH for a song and proceeded to get extremely wealthy — particularly during WSG weeks.
Gathering is definitely a plus, but if you can get your hands on a few of the "Money Printing Press" recipes, don't pass up the opportunity to make the bank.
Minibro Dec 24th 2007 8:36AM
Yes, use the auction house to sell, but for god's sake get auctioneer to learn the value of what you're selling. Just this weekend I picked up a shadow pearl in AH for 20s buyout - turned around and sold it for 27g. That was an expensive mistake that somebody didn't have to make.
zedwards Dec 26th 2007 11:50AM
It could be that the person intended for the sale to be 20g, not 20s (happened to me once on a blue polearm was selling...i was so sad)
mk30 Dec 24th 2007 8:44AM
in my experience, the biggest problem with "noobs" is that so many of them are "n00bs." so i'd say if you are a new player, recognize that you don't know a whole lot and be willing to take advice from more experienced folks.
(small example: yesterday ran rfk on an alt with a lock who put curse of weakness on every single mob. my main is a bt lock and i asked the guy to put agony up but he was adamant. just refused. oh yea, and our healing pally melee'd a boss while the tank died. that was a stellar run.)
Kanuris Dec 24th 2007 9:35AM
Weakness isn't a bad curse to use in an instance. If the tank was undergeared or dying too quickly then it's a great help.
Agony is all wel and good but it's useless if the tank dies
Vukara Dec 24th 2007 8:53AM
I'd say utilize any class and profession guides there are on the internet. There are plenty of resources out there.Also even though it may be hard to find groups sometimes, run lower level instances when you can while leveling up. This will help you understand your role in groups. Finally as stated before, don't focus too much on manufacturing professions. You can make more money with two gathering professions.
aratan Dec 24th 2007 9:24AM
@5, point 5. Amen. I would go further and say, do not sit in trade channel and get sucked into/start/continue/add to any pointless debates about anything.
bloodlight Dec 24th 2007 6:13PM
a couple of Issues,
1) level fishing, some of the best highend food buffs come from fish. and at least one Boss requires a 300 fishing, A guild on my server had to calll in an outsider to fish him up when they found out no one in teh guild had leveled fishing.
2 Don't beg for "run through" The instances are ther to help you learn to play the toon. Use them for that. If you are alwasy gettin g"run though" you will be a total tard when you try running the high level instances.
Lem Dec 24th 2007 10:12AM
Don't bother buying any gear till at -least- lvl 20. If you cant do the quests with greens you've picked up, you might want to consider trying a diffferent class.
Never open the trade window expecting gold. Why should someone give you gold for no reason? The money you get from mobs and from selling trash should be enough to cover training and food/water.
Do as many quests as you can before heading back to hand them in. Doing one or two quests at a time wastes a lot of time running around, especially when you dont have a mount.
If you keep dying on a particular quest, you're probably not high enough level for it. Do other quests and come back later. Believe it or not, 1 or 2 levels can make a world of difference.
Quest with friends. Questing with 1 or 2 friends of similar level can make questing so much faster, for all of you.
Dont get hung up on loot. Its not worth your time doing the same instance repeatedly for an item you'll just replace in 5 levels, your time could be better spent questing.
Finally, download the lightheaded mod. It gives you ingame access to wowhead quest notes, making questing that much easier.
doyesac Dec 24th 2007 10:10AM
First, make mistakes. Lots of 'em. You learn from mistakes so the more you make the smarter you are.
Second, realize when you are making mistakes. If something isn't working (why oh why can't I kill this monster 3 levels above mine? I'll just try again!) then do something else instead (huh... maybe I should do some of the yellow or green quests and not the red ones).
The main thing that interferes with this learning process is solving all your problems by running to the 70s in your guild and asking them for run-throughs. It's nice when you can have your over-powered friends get you free loot and XP, but you never actually LEARN anything that way.
Jasperwind Dec 24th 2007 10:13AM
Absolutely do not go to a major city and beg high levels for money. I don't care if you're asking for 2 silver, it's very tacky. Also, do not beg for gold from your guildies. I have left guilds because less than a minute after I join all the low levels start asking me for money. If you want to ask for money, ask someone you know IRL or played with a bit.
Eternalpayn Dec 24th 2007 10:22AM
@6:
"5) Don't spam Murloc movie titles in the /trade channel"
Are you from Sargeras by any chance? We've had an outbreak of this in the last week. They moved in from the barrens.