I barely even notice General chat, in any zone.
Thanks all! Sorry I haven’t been back to this thread for a couple days…
I made a Druid to compete with the Mage, and am having more fun with the druid so far… will keep experimenting.
The good thing about a druid is you can perform any of the three core roles - only the Paladin can also do this. The bad thing is, well, you can perform any role and so it’s hard to specialise. Even with dual-spec enabled now, you have to choose one of the three roles to not do.
My first toon was a rogue and she’s still my main, one reason being she’s so straight-forward to play - get behind baddie, stab til dead. Repeat.
Yep. I’m not really interested in the “atmosphere” - if I want atmosphere, I leave my computer and go OUTSIDE. Maybe even travel. One of the WoW’s great strengths is someone I really dislike - the “immersive world.”
I also find not having Baggins annoying (or something like it). Fubar’s money manager tells me how much gold is on each of my characters - so if I’m on one that is broke in need a 60 silk to level up tailoring, I know who can send some gold. And whatever it is (something in Fubar I think) that lets me dump trash when my bags are full, autosell all my trash. Speculating via Auctioneer was how I was able to level newer characters in crafting - killing, looting and running quests isn’t really sufficient if you want to level quickly.
The following is entirely my opinion (though I will say I have been playing WoW for… oh… four years now)
For the Complete Noob:
Avoid add-ons until you’re at least out of the starting zone. I’ve been playing four years, and the only time I use add-ons is for high end raiding (when I even have time to do it!) or for something very, very specific (there are a few high end quests where a specialty add-on can be very, very helpful, but as a noob you’re about 70 levels away so nevemind). For raiding I use Deadly Boss Mobs and Omen. That’s it. Add-ons are optional.
Understand you will be confused and a little lost from time to time. It’s part of the game. Where to go for more info or help on website has already been mentioned in this thread. People are often willing to help in-game, although there are some jerks out there.
Loot everything. Sell anything grey or white to a vendor. Anything with the tooltip any other color should be sold at the Auction House if possible for greater profit.
For noobs, I recommend hunter or warlock to start. You get a companion that can help you with the fights (well, OK, warlock doesn’t get one immediately). If you really want to bash things over the head rather than shooting them from a distance then go with Paladin. Two other classes you might want as second characters are druid (I feel the class can get complicated with the three possible roles) or shaman (there are some clunky aspects to them, although my shaman is my main and I love her to pieces.
Try to find a guild. As a noob, you want a leveling or social guild. If the first guild you try isn’t a good fit go elsewhere.
NEVER NEVER NEVER buy gold or a leveling service.
If you wind up not liking WoW that’s OK - it’s just a game.
WOW Noob checking in. What a well-timed thread for me, it started just about the same time I started playing so I’ve been following along. Thanks for all the tips they have been very helpful!
I had always been curious about WOW but as a fairly casual gamer I was a little intimidated by the scope of the thing, not to mention the horror stories about getting addicted or jerks/scammers, and the monthly cost. But I finally decided “Eh, what the hell. I’ll give it a try”. After the 10 day free trial I was enjoying it enough to pony up my CC and decided to keep playing.
I started with a Night Elf Hunter just to get a feel for things and a little later when I saw from this thread there was Doper Guild on Cairne I went ahead and created an Undead Warlock over there, too. I’ve been enjoying the Warlock more…who knew draining souls could be so satisfying? 
And I get a minion…who hasn’t always wanted a minion?
I haven’t got around to joining the guild just yet but I’ll probably give you guys a holler soon. I’m still kind of in taking-it-all-in-exploring-figuring-things-out mode. It’s been a bit of information overload at first for me! The only other RPG I’ve played is Morrowind and while that has helped in understanding some of the basic framework/ideas of an RPG, obviously there are many differences between the two and I’m still absorbing/learning a lot of the particulars of WOW. Definitely getting easier on that front, though, and this thread has helped a lot. But I’m in no particular hurry, just kind of enjoying the ride for now, and I like the exploring/figuring things out part. And the satisfying “clink” of a soul shard as I drain the last bit of life from my enemies, lol.
I have to say one one thing that surprised me in my first impressions of the game was how pretty it was! Especially the pinkish forest of the Night Elf starting area, but even some of the areas I encountered with my Undead character like the Undercity are aesthetically interesting. Not what I expected from my pre-play conceptions of WOW as a hack n’ slash macho war game.
You get much cooler minions later on. What have you got now, the little goblin guy, or the big blue blob? Somewhere around level 20, you’ll get your succubus. She’s hot, sassy, and used by non-demonology (something like that) specs in PPV, or was when I played. If you go the demonology route, later on you’ll get a really bad ass demon with a big freaking axe. I think there is some way to get one even badder, but it involved randomly sacrificing a party member.
On the hunter, you get pets, too. That starts at level 10.
You may also enjoy this thread
First warlock minion is the imp, second one is the voidy.
I kind of miss my lock, who was abandoned at level 57. I have too many alts and I fear they get lonely.
Little goblin guy (imp). He’s pretty handy. It will be interesting seeing the blob…
Yeah, I know. But minion just sounds cooler. 
Ooh thanks hadn’t caught that one yet I’ll check it out.
PvP pet is the Felpuppy. PvE I’ve seen imp, felguard (the big guy with the axe), succubus, and felpuppy. The voidwalker (blueberry) isn’t common outside of certain leveling periods/specs.
The ritual to summon the doomguard no longer kills anyone, just costs some health. There’s a heck of a cooldown on him, but he’s certainly got his uses.
There’s also the infernal, but it’s much more situational.
And if a lock goes destro spec, he can just go with the imp for the health boost, phase shift it, and forget about pets for a while.
They’re really trying out some big changes with talents in the Cataclysm beta. They’re very very subject to change, but talent trees have been pared way down, and each tree grants an “iconic” ability when you pick it at level 10 (but you can’t put points into any other tree until around level 70). Arms warriors get mortal strike, arcane mages get their water elemental, ret paladins get divine storm, demo locks get their felguard, and so on and so forth. All at level 10.
I forgot about Felpuppy! I did use him Pvp once I got him. I respecced to get Felguard and try it out, but then I moved and lost broadband about a month or so later. In PvE groups, I’d let the group call it. Most groups wanted the Imp, which I think gives extra mana, or regen, or something as a group buff. Been way too long since I played.
WHOA! Arcane Mages get PETS now? Damn. That has to be 7 flavors of awesome.
Sigh. In the City of Ironforge, in the bedroom of the second floor of the Inn to the left of the main gate (as you enter the city), a little gnome is sleeping. He wants to wake up very badly. His name is Kahbueme, but his friends called him Boomer…
The water elemental was introduced in Burning Crusade, as the final talent of the frost tree. It’s not a permanent pet, but very very useful. Its freeze spell is like a ranged frost nova. Currently (in Wrath) you can get the summon up to 50% uptime; a one minute duration with a two minute cooldown. It has a lower uptime if you don’t have the talents to boost the duration and cut the cooldown. You can also “glyph” it to be permanent, but then it loses its freeze spell; then it mostly just spams waterbolts, making it far less useful. You currently can’t get it before level 50, so getting it at level 10 will be kind of a big deal.
ARCANES GET MY FROSTY? I can’t check the trees at work, but are you sure that’s the Arcanes?
There is a very distraught gnome with short white hair and huge blue eyes bouncing up and down while going “nonononoFrostynonononohesminemineFrostynononono”
C’mon, one of the in-jokes I have about my mage being Frost (which she is, has always been and will stay damnit because of character concept reasons and that’s it) is that she’s Another One Of My Pet Classes!
Ah, I mis-typed and then misread. Arcane mages do not get any pets. At level 10, arcane mages get Arcane Barrage (previously unavailable until level 60), frost mages get their elemental (previously unavailable until level 50).
You can see an overview of a recent beta build here.
Ah, phew… breathes again The gnome sits down, recovers her breath, lies down for a while, then stands up and says ‘cookies, anybody?’