The Daily Quest: We were all newbies once
by Elizabeth Harper 
Mar 5th 2010 at 12:30AM
We may be pros at the game now, but once upon a time, we were just getting started, too. Let us not look down on our newbie friends -- for we were once the same. Instead, today's daily quest strives to offer advice for the new players among us.
- Tree Burglar's Elder blogging event challenges bloggers around Azeroth to offer their advice to the new player. Light & Leafy, The Angry Dwarfs, A Healadin's Tear, Stories of WoW, and World of Warcraft Philosophized wrote up some great advice applicable to newbies of all shapes and sizes. (And, of course, you can check out Blog Azeroth for even more.)
- Restokin discusses rotation basics for the new Moonkin.
- Alterac Volley offers ten tips for leveling quickly.
- Can Tank, Will Travel wonders if today's well-informed newbie is the same as the newbie of yesteryear.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sg_hariharan Mar 5th 2010 1:32AM
best
best
best
Angrycelt Mar 5th 2010 1:59AM
Maybe it's because I'm on an RP realm, but I dig helping out the obvious newbies as they run around all confused and overwhelmed. It ain't rocket science, but it takes a bit to figure it all out.
Glad to see articles that aren't just for progression raiding guilds.
swimstarguy Mar 5th 2010 9:03PM
People like you are why I decided to level on an RP realm.
:)
Bossy Mar 5th 2010 2:07AM
Newsflash !
Fast, faster, fastest leveling.
There is a new kind of players in WOW, that are using a much more pleasant way of playing:
Shut down experience at intermedaite intervals and redo dungeons to gear up and level your professions in a decent way. Advantages: be imba at you level and 4 levels above .... and ... then put expereince gains back on again and do some PvP in the Bg's.
The keyword is "fun" here.
Why rush to the end game where the only thing you do is gear up in easy dungeons and run ONE or TWO corridors of the last Raid ....
People are so silly: the gameplay is all there for the grabs and no one sees it.
Dreyja Mar 5th 2010 5:30AM
THANK YOU!
Yeah - take your time. I love to hear this from someone other than myself. : )
Fun is pivotal. I wish that more players understood that there may be player in a run that are not geared for FAST!
I am not the most competitive person in this game, not by a LONG SHOT but if there is anything I can ever offer is:
Be Kind to the people coming into an experience saying, "I have no idea what is going on."
I kind of hate the whole pvp ethos (that I have seen thus far) for exactly that reason.
Dreyja Mar 5th 2010 5:32AM
As long as that attitude doesn't' rush things to the pont where new players are so stressed that they won't try new things.
I've been there. :)
Dreyja Mar 5th 2010 5:43AM
Erm... I an realizing that I was reacting in a positive way to this statement because he/she used the word 'fun'.
Faster IS NOT BETTER! As they are arguing!
It may be more fun at times but forcing a gear score in a random is not the way to do that (I realize that Gscore was not offered here).
:) I just wanted to make sure that HOW I agreed w/ Bossy was clear. :)
Gitsnak Mar 5th 2010 10:18AM
If it were down to me, I`d introduce "Hell levels" along the lines of what was in Everquest. Though there would be no XP loss, maybe make thr 15th, 30th and 45th levels "hell levels" say requiring 10 times the current XP.
Nadi Mar 5th 2010 2:11AM
Brick Tank (http://bricktank.blogspot.com/) focuses on exactly this for most of his blog, covering tanking gear and tips for leveling bears (as he levels)!
Alden Mar 5th 2010 2:37AM
All these blogs and articles for newbies... if they are reading wow articles and blogs, however, they usually have progressed beyond newbie status.
Along the same line, I've always wondered how many actually rookies read wowrookie.
Keeva Mar 5th 2010 6:18AM
They're good for veteran players who are rolling a new class and need a nudge in the right direction.
The generic newbie advice though - I have to agree, I didn't start reading sites and blogs until I had been playing at least a year.
Lissanna Mar 5th 2010 10:17AM
Actually, I have a HUGE chunk of my readership come from my druid leveling guide & the intro to healing guide that I have stickied on the WOW druid forums - which attracts a lot of people who are new to the druid class or even new to WoW. So, I end up needing to write intro-level posts just to cater to that huge chunk of my readership (and I wrote my latest series of moonkin posts because of requests that I got to do so).
Marky Mar 5th 2010 7:05AM
Clear and important distinction to be made!
Some of us were newbies, and like to help other newbies, who ask questions politely and are willing to learn new things about playing our class to benefit ourselves and others...
Then there are the noobs, who never knew anything and never wanted to (or, if they could, wouldn't afford others the respect of the astonishingly minute effort required to make their question intelligible)...
Erzfiend Mar 5th 2010 7:50AM
I really wish the people who need to read these articles did read them.
I've been playing for about a year and a half now, but I still consider myself pretty much a newb. I'm just about to get my first level 80 (my main right now is a 77 belf lock, previously I had a character on a different server who was 74, so I'm still learning stuff), and I'd like to hopefully get into groups with people who have a bit of patience when we can't finish an instance in 10 minutes.
I'm still learning all the different aspects of this game, and I try and read up on an instance before queuing so that I'm not a complete hindrance to the party, and I make this known at the beginning of a run. Luckily I haven't been kicked yet for this, but there have been people who have dropped group when I reveal I've never done this particular dungeon before.
All I want to say to those experienced players who are only running randoms for those two emblems of triumph is this: Please be patient and don't turn into a complete jerk when you find that DPS isn't pulling amazing numbers or that healer has to drink more often than you think they should. You were once in the same boat because no one starts out awesome. And if you really have an issue grouping with under-geared or under-experienced players, remember that that is one aspect of the "random" in a "random dungeon." If it really is such a big problem, then maybe try getting a group of people together solely for doing this so you can have your ten minute run and be on your way.
And to all the newbies out there: just because you're new to something doesn't mean you have an excuse for not having some idea of what is going on. There is so much information out there that is so readily available, it's easy to gain a bit of knowledge about what you are up against, be it a battleground, raid, or 5-man. It's okay to be a newb, just don't be a noob.
ajnorway Mar 5th 2010 8:59AM
I have been playing for only a few months now and my main is a 70 belf pally, so i am a newb. What really gets me and im sure a few others is when you get someone in a random who has an 80 of the class your playing so they try to tell you how to use it. Now if it were only "use this instead of this" and "its more effective this way" I wouldnt have a problem but when they tell me to use something that i dont have and wont have for a while and i tell them i dont have it, they bail stating "pally is incompetent."
Lissanna Mar 5th 2010 10:37AM
True, you have to be sensitive to the other person's needs when you are giving them advice. If you are insulting (or give them bad advice), then you are contributing to the problem instead of actually helping. So, when they have a talent I don't like, I ask them why they picked it up before telling them that they should have chosen X instead & why X is better for them.
Cetha Mar 5th 2010 9:02AM
angry dwarf : "Being polite keeps you alive (or gets you back from the dead). If I see something like “preist res” in the chat window, then I really hope you know your way back from the graveyard, because you’re definitely not getting resurrected by me. The characters we play have names, and the game itself even has a name auto-completion system included after you type the first few letters and press [Tab]. It doesn’t get any easier than this. My priest’s name, Ranshe, doesn’t have any accented letters that might be hard to type, so there’s absolutely no excuse to not use it. We’re all living people in this LFG group, even if you will never see us again."
This was my favorite of all these. I have a particular pet peeve for when people refer to you by your class instead of by your name. We all have names, just use them. If someone has a super long name or some funky characters, just abbreviate it. We are all people, not npc's here to do your bidding.
Miri Mar 5th 2010 9:55AM
I have no issue with newbies--I don't mind taking the time to help someone out (in-game out out-of-game) or point out a way (gently) that they could improve. Whether it be glyphing, their talent spec, gearing, etc. I try to play at the top of my game with the gear I have (I no longer raid on any of my characters), but I'm well aware as to what I need to be doing to be a better player.
I accidentally queued my guild group (there were 3 of us, so we were pugging some spots) into the normal dungeon randomizer, and I didn't even notice that the mobs were hitting with less force, or anything. It wasn't until someone hit 80 in the instance that I went, "wait, am I in a heroic?" The person who dinged came back and said "Yea, I was wondering what you all were doing here--I figured you are were just in here for shitsngiggles." I could have dropped group then, but I had nothing to gain from it, so I plugged along and was happy to see the newbies that I had never met before get some upgrades (I think we only sharded one item). My favorite part of WoW is being able to help out newbies in that regard =)
What I can't stand are the n00bs--they are the ones that make the game lose it's luster. The n00bs are the ones who don't take advice, think after 1 month (without leveling anything beyond a DK) that they are god's gift to the game, put down everyone they play with when they are playing less than optimally, etc. Unfortunately, people had to deal with someone wearing my guild tag with that attitude--and that was an embarrassment to me. I'd rather have someone who is willing to listen and better themselves, and maybe be running around with blues and greens trying to complete a heroic than have an a'hole who is griping about his tank/healer/whatever when he/she is taunting mobs off the tank. The insult to my guild tag is gone, and in the process I've acquired some newbies--and the fact that their first raid was Kara (at 80!) during the week didn't faze me in the least--it's their overwhelming desire to become a better player and have fun in the process.
Do I think players are better informed in this day and age? It really depends on the player. I know people who research on their own--I know players who have to be spoonfed information and then they still don't do anything with it--I know people who don't know what is considered the "best" resource (not some random unknown website) and thus end up with "bad" data.
As long as a player is open and willing to friendly criticism, and is willing to try and make improvements, I don't care if they are DPSing below the tank--as long as they are having fun and walking away from their playtime each evening with a smile on their face, then my job as a WoW vet is done =)