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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Who knew?
by Sandra McIlveen 
Apr 22nd 2010 at 8:00AM
Did you know that there is a secret room in Dalaran that you can access only if you complete the achievement Higher Learning? I just found out about it myself. And while this piece of information is practically useless, it made me think ... What other things don't I know about? And then I started remembering all the times when I learned something so basic about the game that I said to myself, "How could I not have known that?"
There was the time before The Burning Crusade was released when I was happily making my mooncloth every four days and traveling to Darnassus or Darkshore to do so, when a guildie informed me that there was a moonwell in Stormwind. "Doh!" Then there was the time that I was grouped with a friend, happily traipsing around Eastern Plaguelands (so yes, I was almost level 60), and I would stop running every time I had to respond to an in-game whisper. My friend asked me what I was doing, and I explained that I had to stop running to type a response. He then informed me that I could use the mouse to auto-run and keep my hands free to type. "Doh!" More recently, I was in Dalaran exchanging Emblems of Triumph for Emblems of Conquest for Emblems of Valor for Emblems of Heroism ... (big gulp of air) ... in order to purchase Reins of the Wooly Mammoth. I needed 200 Emblems of Heroism, and I was exchanging all of my emblems one at a time. My guild was waiting for me to do a raid and asked what was taking so long. So I told them. And then they told me I could simply shift-right click on an emblem and pick the amount I wanted to exchange. "Doh!"
Why didn't I know these simple things? How could I have been playing this game for five years and not know these things? I used to laugh when I saw the tips on the loading screen. The one that informs the player that she can eat and drink at the same time always elicits a mental response from me that goes something like, "Who the heck doesn't know that? What a dumb tip." But recently I have begun to realize that there are many people just like me who let the simplest nuances of the game escape them for some reason or another.
So what things are you embarrassed to admit that you didn't know until you were well entrenched in the game? Don't worry, we'll never tell (wink, wink).
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 13 of 14)
BattleCOW8000 Apr 22nd 2010 5:04PM
while questing in Loch Modan with my first toon ever, i discovered that you could learn Cooking as an actual skill, and that npcs would sell you recipes. amazed and excited to begin my culinary adventures, i purchased a recipe for "Loch Frenzy Delight" and, not understanding how fishing worked, spent the rest of the day swimming around beneath the Stonewrought Dam literally fighting fish for cooking ingredients.
my lvl 13 dwarf warrior gained at least 2-3 levels from punching out fish before someone told me that you could buy a fishing pole.
Sunhead Apr 22nd 2010 11:36PM
R O F L M A O
This is gold.
Croe Apr 22nd 2010 5:25PM
I've not seen any mention made of Old Ironforge. I think it's behind the king's throneroom, but don't really remember. If you can get in there, it's just a large empty area of ruins, but interesting none the less.
Also, another very useful thing is that you can completely customize your chat windows by creating new ones, detaching them and decided what chat goes in which one and even color-coding them.
Heather Apr 22nd 2010 6:15PM
There's a lot I don't know. In fact, I didn't know about the emblem thing until I read this (although, really, that makes sense), but I only bought a couple of items with Emblems of Heroism with my Emblems of Triumph, so it's not like I wasted TOO much time going through them all. ;-)
For the longest time I didn't know how to use Focus Target or what it was or why I needed it. (And I really only use it for a macro for Misdirect; yeah I'm the one person in the world with only one Level 80 and she's a hunter soooo yeah)
As for stuff I didn't know when I first started....Swimming was trouble, but I soon got the hang of it except for that return to your body/wisp thing someone mentioned. And Dalaran Underground.
Oooh ghosts in Undercity sounds cool.
I didn't know Auto-Run at first but quickly learned after fiddling with the keybindings. And then quickly discovered the turn camera opposite way, which made fleeing from things much easier...But this is supposed to be about what I DON'T know...hmm...
Oh yeah, I didn't know about the shoe-shiner (or a lot of the other easter eggs inserted in the game, until I read about them on here)
Someone on here just mentioned something about the mail system that I probably don't know, I like right-click on fekking everything...
Someone on here also said to type /gquit to get secrets...and it reminds me of when I was in a Battleground and got tricked into leaving the BG (and getting the deserter dbuff) by telling us to type...what was it?...OH RIGHT.../afk ;-)
I have to try this shift-click mailbox thing. I feel like such a fekking idiot doing each one at a time
John Apr 22nd 2010 6:26PM
Did joo know that the Stablemasters are only for hunters, but they'll happily take money from your priest?
Er....nobody told me! My Shadow Fiend seemed pet-like.....
Killik Aug 13th 2010 4:21AM
I bought lock-picking tools for my first Warrior. They seemed like something I might find useful.
Calybos Apr 22nd 2010 6:45PM
Speaking of focus frames... I STILL have no idea what they're for.
I've seen lots of references to how to set them, how to adjust or remove them... but never any explanation of what they're actually FOR. Why would you set one in the first place? and how would you use it once you did? Beats me.
Wellsee Apr 22nd 2010 9:19PM
One example: As a DPS, I set my tank to focus, and have target of target turned on. Not only can I see what the tank is unloading on, but it is easy to click the tank's target making it my target too.
Another example: On escort quests I focus on the escort, so I know if it is in danger, low health, etc.
Heather Apr 22nd 2010 7:32PM
aauuuughh that mailbox items shift click thing and the emblems thing makes me feel like the biggest idiot ever
Heather Apr 22nd 2010 7:33PM
lol I meant obviously I didn't know about Dalaran Underground untilt oday, idk why I grouped that with swimming in my comment
snaketrap11 Apr 22nd 2010 7:53PM
When I made my first Night Elf all the NPCs kept telling me about this giant tree, how it was sick, how it was corrupted, how we had to heal it. I kept wondering when I was going to see it.I spent a lot of time looking around the starting area trying to figure out which of the huge trees was so special. It wasn't till i was sailing toward Darkshore and turned around that i realized what everyone was talking about.
NemesisCW Apr 22nd 2010 8:17PM
You can do forward loops and backward loops on a flying mount by pressing w and home or s and end.
NemesisCW Apr 22nd 2010 8:18PM
You can buy multiple badges at once by shift clicking when you're downgrading them to heroics.
NemesisCW Apr 22nd 2010 8:24PM
Press x repeatedly to teabag people.
isissaurfang Apr 22nd 2010 9:24PM
There are two flight points I didn't discover well after I turned level 80:
Talonbranch Grade (north end of Felwood)
Thonodroril River (east end of Western Plaguelands)
Especially the one in WPL makes things a lot easier :)
Hoggersbud Apr 22nd 2010 10:11PM
To be fair, the latter one is a new addition, added in some patch or another.
Spud Apr 22nd 2010 10:49PM
I had levelled my first toon back in 2005 (a Mage) to level 50 and was in Sunken Temple when someone asked me what my spec was. I said something like 10/10/20. They said that was weird but the doh moment for me was when I realised that you could scroll the talent trees and there were more talent points below! :(
Oh and levelling with my wife we were both 35 before we realised the /follow command existed ... That would have made things easier!
Toggle Sep 17th 2010 4:23PM
The sad thing is is you can't ask questions about these noob moments in any kind of public channel without being berated.
I had several people yelling at me and telling me they were putting me on their ignore list for asking what color a stamina gem was.
Killik Aug 13th 2010 4:24AM
To be fair, the kind of people who yell at newbies belong on *your* ignore list, so they are doing you a favour.
Schwiiing Apr 23rd 2010 1:08AM
I got to level 20 or so on my druid before I had any clue that I was actually able to cast heals on myself.
Auto self cast changed my world.