WoW: Got Plenty Of Gold, But.......

… I don’t seem to be able to buy any armor! Went to the auction house in Stormwind, but most of the stuff is redded out, which means I can’t have it yet, right? My character is a level 9…

Can I just go to someplace that SELLS armor and not have to bid on it?

Or am I at too low a level? This is me now:

Thanks!

Quasi
PS: A good friend sent me the gold

I wouldn’t worry about buying armor while you’re leveling. It’s just a waste of gold - you’ll find new, better stuff just by doing quests.

Instead, I’d use any extra gold you have for training after you level, tradeskills, and potions. If you have any left over, save up for your mount at level 30 (right? it’s 30 now?). I think you need 100 gold for that - if I’m wrong, someone will come along to correct me soon enough :slight_smile:

Don’t worry about buying armor at level 9. You’ll be fine with whatever you get from loot and/or quest rewards for the forseeable future. You’ll probably have a quest that will give you a decent weapon coming up before level 20. Really, buying armor is never a huge priority…at least not with gold. You may want to pick up a piece here and there to upgrade something, but you won’t need to buy full sets of armor ever. The best available armor comes from either loot drops or pvp rewards. A notch or so below that is quest gear. There’s no real reason to shoot for bleeding edge gear until you hit the level cap. With WotLK out now, you may want to pick up some of the S2 gear by earning honor on Battlegrounds as you grind to 70 to supplement whatever you get from running dungeons. And you should run a few dungeons as you level…nice blue quality drops to be had in there.

The armor you saw may be red to you because of your level, or because of your class. Below level 40, Druids, Rogues, Shammies, and Hunters wear leather or lower. Priests, Mages, and Warlocks wear cloth. Warriors and Paladins wear mail.

I’d spend the gold on getting the biggest bags you can afford for all your slots on your toon…think there are 5 bag slots. More storage means fewer trips to a vendor to sell, and more time spent questing/exploring/etc. Also bank as much gold as you can. You’ll be wanting a mount when you hit level 30, and they are not cheap.

At level 9 about 99% of the armor in the game is going to be unusable by you. When you get to 10, some more will open up. I’d just visit the armorers or the AH after you ding next to see what’s usable then. Also, you should be able to search the AH on level…go to the sidebar on the left when your AH window opens, hit “Armor”, then specify a level range up above, beside the search terms box.

Armor and weapons and miscellaneous magic items (and potions and bandages and some engineering items) are level-keyed. You have to be of a minimum level to use them. Obviously, as the level increases, so does the armor value or the weapon damage (and bonuses to stats). Really, the stuff you can buy from the AH or the armor vendors is equivalent to the stuff that drops from mobs and armor/weapon quest rewards. You can really save your money by not buying armor, at least until you’re higher level and need particular pieces to complete an armor set (although only certain pieces of sets are sellable…most are soulbound (Bind on Pickup)).

Cheaper than they used to be back in the day, at least…

(Pauses to yell at the lvl 1s to get off my lawn)

OK, looks like I was wrong. The level 35 mount is 35 gold for the riding skill, and 10 gold for the mount itself. So not as bad as I thought, but still you want to plan for this if you haven’t already.

The others have mentioned bags - and yes, I’d get the biggest bags you can asap. That’s a good thing to spend money on; armor, as everyone says, is not a good thing to spend money on.

Yes, get bags. Big bags. And watch prices. You can get bags from three places…some general goods vendors have bags, but they usually only have the first two (the 6-slot and 8-slot). Specialty bag vendors have a wider range, but they get expensive. You can also buy them on the AH, but here’s the major tip…check at bag vendors first and note down the prices. Then check the AH. If you can get them cheaper on Buyout on the AH than at the bag vendor, go for it. If the tailor who put them on the AH was clueless and made the prices higher than the vendor, don’t take the bait unless it’s something HUGE like a 14-slot or something that the bag vendor doesn’t have.

If, in spite of the worldly advice above, you still feel the urge to buy armor, hie yourself to Goldshire and there should be a vendor in the smithy selling armor. Don’t know if he’s selling cloth or leather, though…

I believe he’s leather and mail. The woman beside him is weapons. I think you have to go to Stormwind for cloth, though there is a clothier in the logging camp. It’s quite a bit farther away from Goldshire than Stormwind is, though.

Okay, this has always been a big WTF for me. All over Azeroth (and beyond) there are weapon and armor vendors that sell gray (nonmagical) items. There’s no use for them, especially later on once everyone learns that they’re a complete waste of money.

Why the hell are they in there?

Some people will buy them as “town gear”. Something different to wear while running around in non-combat areas.

They’re a gold (well, at that level, copper) sink for people who haven’t figured that out yet. Also, because a bunch of completely empty smithies and storefronts would be seriously creepy.

Also, on RP servers (or for RP players on other servers) a coordinated armor set can be intangibly valuable in making your character look like he hasn’t been dragging himself across the landscape killing wolves and pigs for crazy-quilt armor*.

*Where the hell is that wolf or pig carrying those mail boots or leather gloves anyway?

Usually, they’re also the easiest repair guys to get to.

Get the biggest bags you can. On my server netherweave bags (16 slots) go for about 6g each, so 66g for all 11 slots (7 bank, 4 on you), assuming you have the gold for the bank slots.

Yeah, don’t make the mistake of thinking that the bank bag slots ALL cost the same as the first slot - they increase exponentially, IIRC. You can spend more gold than you want / need to by accident if you don’t pay attention there…

Joe

Bag slots go 10 silver, 1 gold, 10 gold, then 25 gold for each additional slot.

(Or maybe the first slot is 1 silver, I forget).

Yeah…my 70 mage doesn’t even have all available bank slots yet. Think I still have two left to purchase. Buying bag space in the bank isn’t a huge priority at low levels. Buying bag space for the slots on your character is a huge priority. I’d get at least 14 slot bags for each available space. If you’re a hunter or a lock, you get one less slot because you’ll want to equip a quiver or soul bag.

Thanks Y’all, but what are bags for “slots on your toon”? The same friend who sent me the gold also sent me three bags. I thought those were for looting, right?

But then someone mentioned “bank bags”.

Sounds like I better go read the manual, huh? :smiley:

Yeah, Athena, I’m just a level 9 with this character. My grandson played the game and gave me a character that was a level 18 (I think), but I lost him when I had the download problem.

Thanks also for the advice on the armor. I did get a trabard, but that thing looked so goofy, I took it off and sold it back. Since I’m not with a guild (yet), I decided I didn’t need it anyway.

Still hoping to get an invite to the Burning Dog Doper guild. Guess I’m just not there when y’all are.

Thanks

Q

OK, I’ll try to clarify.

When you play the game, at the bottom of the screen, on your right, is a row of spaces and your starting backpack . You can put one backpack (or bag) in each of the spaces immediately to the left of your backpack. Each bag can hold a certain number of items (also sometimes call slots).

When you open the banking screen, there is a similar row of spaces at the bottom of the bank window. You can buy the ability to place a bag in each of those slots, as well. You don’t need any slots for bank bags unless/until you fill up the spaces in your regular bank with stuff you want to keep.

Thank you, Oakminster. I know it’s a nuisance helping a Newbie, so I appreciate your time and your patience!

Quasi

Quasimodem,
This is going to sound silly and I’m probably wrong, but I sound silly all the time so might as well run with it! :slight_smile:

You are playing an Alliance toon, correct, if you are going to the Stormwind Auction house? The Burning Dog guild is a Horde guild - we can’t talk to you or invite your character into the guild as you’re on the ‘other side’.

This may explain why no one is on - we don’t show up in your searches as we’re on the opposite faction.

We’d love to have you, if you’d like to make a Horde toon - though I understand if you are set on your current character. :slight_smile: