WoW Rookie: How not to be a noob
by Lisa Poisso 
Sep 2nd 2009 at 6:00PM
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic, and be sure to visit the WoW.com WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's.This week, WoW Rookie would like to share a little gem of an article we discovered that delivers a catch-all of collective wisdom on rookie mistakes. If you've ever agonized over how to act and what to do (and how not to act and what not to do) in your first group, or your first instance, or your first Battleground, or your first raid ... Be still, restless heart; the answers are here.
What's to learn from this oh-so-savvy article? Start off with a listing of common tactical mistakes categorized by role (tanks, healers and DPS); these are the Learn2Play basics that aren't necessarily things you'll learn leveling up on quests and the occasional instance. Next up, listings of things you should and shouldn't do between pulls in a group, when part of a raid group or duking it out in a Battleground. A final section discusses netiquette and common social conventions (something WoW Rookie has also covered extensively).
Everyone makes mistakes - it's when you make multiple rookie mistakes over and over and over again that fellow players begin looking askance. So without further ado, we're going to send you over to WoWWiki to check out How not to be a noob.
Oh, and before anyone gets into another debate over the use of "newb" versus "noob" versus "n00b" versus versus "nub" versus [redacted] ... Today's use of the term "noob" comes to WoW Rookie courtesy of the aforementioned article (tagged "Scrub," if you really MUST know) at WoWWiki.com. WoWwiki.com is one site that should be in every savvy WoW player's bookmarks. Whether or not you're into theorycrafting and metagaming, WoWWiki connects the WoW dots. From obscure lore to obscure stats, from popular builds to popular strats - if you have a question about WoW, WoWWiki most likely has the answer. So get thee over there, now! Go on - click!
How Not to Be a Noob
Find more great advice for new players at WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide.
- Your first steps
- Grouping with others
- Buying, selling and trading
- Account security
- Gameplay how-to's
- Good to know
- Managing your game time
- Social conventions and netiquette
WoW Rookie walks you through all sort of new-player concerns, from game lingo for the beginner to joining your first guild as a mid-level player and on to what to do when you finally hit level 80. Visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's.Filed under: Tips, WoW Social Conventions, Features, WoW Rookie
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ken Sep 2nd 2009 6:05PM
Whats a noob? xD just kidding lol
Fhtagn Sep 2nd 2009 6:10PM
"Overuse of Powerword:Shield: Shields are very useful. However, overusing them is bad because it is mana-inefficient. Newbie healers heavily use shields in solo play, so priests who spam them are often new to instance healing."
Now that Discipline is a useful PVE healing spec, this guide is a bit out of date. The rest of the page gave pretty solid advice, though!
elvendude Sep 2nd 2009 7:14PM
/agree
If my target doesn't have weakened soul, I'm doing it wrong. =)
Golis Sep 3rd 2009 12:55PM
be VERY careful when shielding warriors especially at the beginning of fights. The Rage mechanic relies on them being hit (and then healed). Shielding them too soon may cause the warrior to be unable to get the rage they need to hold the aggro.
Once the rage bar is full and the warrior is dumping rage, a little shielding can be a great thing, but let them know ahead of time that you will be using that tactic.
Brent Sep 3rd 2009 1:48PM
@Golis
That hasn't been the case for months now. Warriors and bears gain rage when damage done to them is absorbed, whether through PW:S or other means.
Jamie Sep 2nd 2009 6:16PM
Can I mention that there is a difference in definition of newbie & noob?
Noobs are annoying players who act like morons but should know better than to act a fool, eg ignore nettiquette/troll people, etc, etc.
Newbie are new players to a game/class, hence they have NEW in the word.
Everyone is a newbie at one point in time to something, you can be a newbie to a class even if you've played the game for a long time but not that class.
Although in closing I accept a lot of people consider both words to mean the same thing, I blame lazy typers!
Dazaras Sep 2nd 2009 6:38PM
Right, because the Author totally missed specifically mentioning that. And it isn't at all explained in the wiki she linked to.
/sarcasm
seriously though, anyone who doesn't know that is one or the other.
jtrain Sep 2nd 2009 6:26PM
It's interesting to note that 'tank' is automatically assumed to be 'warrior' in this article, obviously written pre-bc. I applaud blizzard for making all the tanking classes viable in the current game. Although I do wonder if current Warriors have been gimped (AoE threat?) to correct past imbalances.
Snuzzle Sep 2nd 2009 7:58PM
Indeed. The mentions to CC (which is now all but obsolete), and AoE damage putting you at the bottom of DPS meters (AoE is currently king) just further reinforce the fact that this article is woefully outdated.
jbodar Sep 3rd 2009 3:28PM
@Snuzzle
While parts are still out of date, the line is referring to AOEing a single target, which WILL hurt your DPS.
"Not only does this help to put the noob to the bottom of the damage meters, but using AOE on a single target without good reason..."
Lee Gibson Sep 5th 2009 1:13AM
It's a wiki. Fix it.
fufu Sep 2nd 2009 6:46PM
What kills me everytime I see it, people putting prismatic gems in prismatic sockets to "match" the socket. The gem guide above actually mentions it. hehe.
Or people not knowing you can eat and drink at the same time. cough..like my guild leader till he reached level 45.
Sleutel Sep 2nd 2009 6:59PM
Am I the only person with a blinding, unreasoning hatred of the word "netiquette"?
Cozmo D Sep 2nd 2009 7:02PM
While this is a huge step in the right direction, the WoWwiki article misses on the fundamental point of all noobs. GTFOOTF, I wrote an article on this yesterday.
Comments welcome.
http://gtfootf.blogspot.com/2009/09/ok-now-gtfootf.html
Zoquara Sep 2nd 2009 7:10PM
Also known as: DSIS: Don't Stand In Sh*t.
Or, as I once read on a guild app: This is "World of don't-stand-in-the-fire-craft", right?
Mynarc Sep 2nd 2009 7:46PM
Now while the first rule of World-of-don't-stand-in-the-fire Craft is don't stand in the fire, the second rule is "Sometimes there is fire and you are MEANT to stand in it"
The Claw Sep 2nd 2009 8:19PM
Here's to Koralon and a whole new collection of fires not to stand in. Cheers!
uncaringbear Sep 2nd 2009 7:10PM
Am I the only one that thinks that the article doesn't really belong in WoWwiki? It's hardly an example of an objective and unbiased piece of writing, which are standards you usually strive for in wiki's, even WoW wiki. While much of the information is useful, a lot of it is also phrased in absolutes and written in a condescending tone. There are far better examples of useful articles from WoW wiki than this one.
krizzlybear Sep 2nd 2009 8:54PM
You would probably want to stay away from encyclopedia dramatica then =/
Spark Sep 3rd 2009 2:54PM
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uncaringbear Sep 2nd 2009 7:10PM
Am I the only one that thinks that the article doesn't really belong in WoWwiki? It's hardly an example of an objective and unbiased piece of writing, which are standards you usually strive for in wiki's, even WoW wiki.
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Actually, a wiki is just a type of collaboration platform. The policies of any given wiki has nothing really to do with being a wiki. Probably the most famous wiki is Wikipedia which has a neutral point of view policy. And indeed, so does WoWwiki (by intent or because they use the software developed by Wikipedia).