Breakfast Topic: What was your most memorable noob moment?
by Chris Clow 
Dec 2nd 2011 at 8:00AM
Everyone began this game with very little idea of what they wanted to do. We all had even less of an idea of how we were going to do things. One byproduct of this fact is that it engenders a cheerful nostalgia, an aura of innocence that plays across our memories in the finest rose tints. Things seemed simpler back then; the community seemed nicer and the game more original. While I don't actually believe that WoW was significantly better back in its earlier encounters, I do look back fondly on killing murlocs in Elwynn Forest, while I find current chores (despite their similarity) to be somewhat odious in their tediousness.
The other byproduct of our naïveté in our early days in Azeroth is the noob moment. These are the events we look back on and say, "I can't believe I was that bad!" Those of us with more fragile egos repress those moments entirely.
For me, the noob moment that remains burned in my memory was a Gnomeregan run. I've been tanking since level 10 on my first character, and it was on that first character that I found myself tanking for a group that was chock-full of clothies. The run went fairly well, and despite a couple wipes here and there, we managed to down Thermaplugg. He dropped the Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator, which had significantly more armor than the Hallowed Helm I had equipped at the moment. So I rolled need and won the item over the priest, mage, and warlock. My attempts to explain about the armor were shouted down, and I slinked away wondering what I did wrong.
It wasn't until I was around level 50 that I realized why that group was so angry at me. Looking back, it's one of my secret shames.
Have you ever suffered a noob moment?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
thedailyaustin Dec 2nd 2011 8:04AM
My first character was a Night Elf Hunter...
RS Dec 2nd 2011 8:20AM
hey! wait a minute....
quasarsglow Dec 2nd 2011 8:29AM
My boyfriend's first toon was a NE warrior, he saw some folks running around with pets and he ran around asking how they got them and what he had to do to get one. Everyone kept telling me to use tame pet once he got the ability, but no one realized from general chat that he was a warrior. He spent several weeks completely frustrated.
naixdra Dec 2nd 2011 9:14AM
Going into WSG as a lvl 12 NElf rogue...
Wait, it gets better.
Grabbing the flag then trying to stealth it back to our base, it seemed like such a good idea.
So many angry tells.
So I switched to horde and avoided all pvp until 60.
dodgeballer2005 Dec 2nd 2011 12:56PM
@quasarglow That sound like a noob move on all of General Chat's part.
Let's play Spot the Noob Moves.
Made a Human Warrior and levelled him to about 20. After getting some sweet Deadmines gear, I was thinking of rolling a Horde Character and mailing all of my gear to him. Noticing that it was Soulbound, I disenchanted it all, hoping to remove the Soulbound effect. I didn't get my gear back and wondered "Why do I have all of this dust in my bags?"
That was back in Vanilla, when I was like 13.
paulmewis Dec 2nd 2011 8:12AM
Attacking a lvl 80 season 8 geared priest as a lvl 30 paladin. He MC'ed me to attack a guard and I died.
I ressed and a strange red flagged sheep had spawned. I attacked it and died. I later realised whilst levelling engineering on an alt that it was an explosive decoy.
paulmewis Dec 2nd 2011 8:14AM
Oh I forgot to mention he was attacking Stormwind at the time. I believed it was the convention for all players to assist in killing horde invaders.
MattKrotzer Dec 2nd 2011 9:56AM
I think the second part of your story is more of a 'noob' moment than the first! ;D
Taruun Dec 2nd 2011 8:12AM
I ran all the way along the Deeprun Tram from Ironforge to Stormwind.
No, I didn't say I took the train. I ran in the track below it because I didn't know that the train existed.
Svetopolk Dec 2nd 2011 8:41AM
Haha, same here:)
Skyrei Dec 2nd 2011 9:12AM
I've done that... for fun. :)
Koba Dec 2nd 2011 11:15AM
i did it while not know there was a tram, so though redridge mountains, to burning steppes and there my journey was a bit interrupted by some huge skullnumbered ogres. spend a couple of hours corpsewalking and decided that ironforge wasnt a place for humans anyway.
later that day someone told me about the tram.
sandellhl Dec 2nd 2011 11:58AM
I had noticed that the tram went underwater and I always thought "Why doesn't it stop there? That looks like a cool zone, I wonder what level it is..." so I jumped off at that part and realized I would have to walk the rest of the way. Luckily, I was a mage so I could blink every once and a while...
jrose Dec 2nd 2011 4:54PM
I did that too!! and when I came to SW, I was wondering how come I couldn't attack anyone. I didn't know it was a city.
Pwnzoar Dec 2nd 2011 8:12AM
When I first decided to try out raiding in 3.2, I whispered someone advertising in trade to join their group for Naxxramas. They asked me what my DPS was. Never having heard that word in my life before, I opened up my character screen, and after mousing over a few stats, I saw "Damage Per Second" which was at about 700. Proud of myself for finding it, I quickly replied. They never answered back.
mazca13 Dec 2nd 2011 8:16AM
Haha, that's a wonderful one. Such an easy and obvious mistake to make, when you consider many other things they may ask (what's your hit rating, what's your hit points...) would be found just there!
sporkwind Dec 2nd 2011 11:13AM
Definitely did that one myself. I didn't get recount until I was leveling my second character.
That and gearscore. Man that thing confused the hell out of me for so long.
mgthomas411 Dec 2nd 2011 12:10PM
I would have to say back in Vanilla WoW, I was in a raid with my guild in MC. As a DPS warrior, I was asked to fill in as an off-tank after one of our tanks was didn't show. Since I had never tanked before, I asked the raid leader what abilities I needed to make sure I kept aggro to which he replied: Keep up sunder stacks and heroic strike while in defensive stance.
I promptly told him it sounded easy enough, but couldn't seem to find defensive stance on my interface. After much confusion, he figured out what the problem was: Turns out I never did the level 10 required quest in order to pick up defensive stance! Don't think I'll ever live that one down LOL
kremlincardinal Dec 2nd 2011 8:14AM
Watching my friend (a level 12-ish NE warrior) run into the Tower of Althalaxx (full of high-teen elites)...then following him.
kremlincardinal Dec 2nd 2011 8:17AM
Also - with the same friend in Astranaar a few levels later: we saw a PVP skirmish break out (we were on a PVE server) when some Horde players came to town. I was playing a hunter, and wanted to see if I could shoot at someone flagged for PVP. I didn't know it would flag ME for PVP. Thus, I quickly became fodder for a lvl 60 Orc warrior. And kept being fodder until I figured out I had to hide out of sight until I became unflagged.