This is the first World of Warcraft thread for ILG

I realise this is a ludicrous thing to be doing in 2008 and all, but: I am about to install my first ever WOW 14 day trial! Give me three character creation tips please.

WELCOME TO CRACKVILLE, POPULATION: 7,000,000

1. Do you have friends who play already? If so, pick the side that they play. If not, as far as poking around is concerned I highly recommend creating a human character (if Alliance) or undead character (if Horde). The human starting area is well-positioned right in the middle of the map and gives you easy access to the rest of the map and the undead are just uberstrong.

2. Most classes are gear-dependant, as the various stat bonuses on things will increase your health/damage output/healing output (depending on class of course). However, some classes are WAY more gear dependant than others; in general, if you pick a physical damage class (warrior, rogue, hunter, paladin), you will find yourself in much more of a gear bind in the later stages of the game than if you picked a magic damage class (mage, warlock, priest, shaman, druid). This isn't that big of a consideration in the early stages of the game, but as you start levelling it will become more important as you figure out what your favored playstyle is.

- Do you want to be a tank, soaking up damage and getting monsters to focus their attention on you so your party can burn them down? If so, create a warrior.
- Do you want to put out tons of damage up close and personal? Create a rogue.
- Do you like keeping others alive? If so, create a priest, shaman, paladin or druid.
- Do you like killing things from a distance with burst damage? Create a mage.
- Do you want a pet that can keep monsters off of you while you kill them? Create a warlock or hunter.

3. Each class has three different talent trees and can be specced in many ways to do many different things. You can create a damage-heavy warrior or priest, a paladin tank, a druid tank, etc etc etc. With that in mind, don't be afraid to create more than one character and play around with them until you find the one that you enjoy the most. You can create up to... nine? (I think) characters on a server, and I believe overall one account can have a total of 50 character spread out across different servers. Be aware, though, that if you are on a PvP server, all of your characters have to be of the same faction.

There are tons of websites out there with more detailed character creation tips, usually with aims towards running high-end instances or participating in PvP. The most important thing to remember is that you're there to find your playstyle and have fun; all of the advice out there is secondary to that.

Undead warlock - steeper learning curve but you can burn through quests and levels. You have a pet to tank. You can kill multiple mobs (monsters in wow speak). And you can cannibalize back health and turn that health into mana (magic fuel).

Warriors are very gear dependent, so if you are going to play alone a lot of the time, you probably won't want a warr b/c you will have a harder time getting gear.

Playing a healer (paladin/priest/druid/shaman) has the advantage of often being needed by other groups. I usually play a priest b/c I am a masochist.

Excellent! Didn't realise I could have more than one character, that's good news and takes a lot of the pressure off, really. Much happier to experiment now. I fancy doing lots of ranged stuff, because it's a role I've never gone for before in an RPG, I'm usually all about melee. So yep, guess I'll probably start out with either hunter or mage.

Let's assume my friends will be ILG friends...are we mostly horde or alliance?

I'm Alliance on Deathwing (human holy priest named Grinz: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Deathwing&n=Grinz, lol @ my crappy healing wand).

Undead (Horde race) are fucking brutal; undead warlock/mage/priest are all good ideas. (I am not sure if the trial account lets you create more than 1 character, actually, so if you have to pick just one go for whichever one you think will be the most fun.)

Is this something that still plays well by yourself? Or is it almost essential to go around with hordes of other players?

Eventually you're going to want to hook up with other players but esp. the levelling process can be soloed (some people enjoy that process more than the party-based content).

Well, yep, I started up an undead mage, and I'm having fun just questing and levelling up, so far (I'm only at 6 though, and have only recently ventured out as far as Brill).

I'm Alliance on Magtheridon. But I'm willing to transfer servers for the right guild. :)

I am actually experimenting with only soloing (not even doing instances). I enjoy it a lot so far (level 35) but I think endgame is so instance-oriented I will eventually have to cave and find a decent, adult, VERY casual guild (and the likelihood of finding that is why I won't group at the moment).

I deleted my character and uninstalled after 7 days. Not because I didn't like it, but just because of the lack of sleep.

I might go for the trial client. my peeps, what should I roll?

undead, duh.

undead WAHT

undead girl.

I liked playing a warlock as my first class, though, in all seriousness.

noooooo Tom, roll a dwarf hunter on Deathwing! I'll help you level!

dwarf hunters are fun too.

I <3 my draenai paladin.

bubble & hearth lolz

^^^^^ this

I <3 my draenai shaman! A little OP tho; the only thing keeping me from completely blowing away mobs my level without blinking is the fact that I'm wearing gear that's outdated by 5-10 levels.

why does my hunter have to be a dwarf? I need to research

make a night elf hunter and name him Legolas.

that name is sooo already taken.

dwarves have GUNS xpost.

is there already an ornaldo bloomps?

you should start on a role-playing server and just screw with people. (insert obvious ilx comparison)

Only certain races can be certain classes; on the Alliance side, night elves, dwarves and draenei can be hunters but humans and gnomes cannot. I suggest dwarf over night elf because dwarves have this racial ability that allows them to basically be immune to damage for 30 seconds. Since you have a pet that will be attacking whatever you are killing, this should give you the ability to survive many fights that might seem otherwise impossible.

also night elves are for girls.

srsly tho, listen to Dan.

huntards are e-z mode i.e. all the chinese gold farmers use hunters. i could see tombot as more an orc warlock or tauren warrior. don't be a pansy ally.

I prefer undead warlocks because cannibalize comes in handy big time. warlock is a fun starting class in general, because it makes you all cranky and stubborn. priest is fun if you hate yourself.

p.s. guess what I am doing other than posting on ILX.

<----was at priest riot after ProM nerf

one riot, one ranger

lol bnw

I find playing a priest way more fun than any of the other classes because tanking sucks and dpsing is boring. Also it's been much easier for me to find groups as a healer than a dpser.

I am levelling a blood elf priest on another server and he is awesome.

damnit you guy are making me miss the days where i played a top tier NE druid :( I CAN NEVER PLAY AGAIN

This is not meant in any sort of snotty holier-than-thou fashion, but can I just say that i am SO GLAD I never got near this game. I feel certain it would've eaten me alive.

based on the data from that one dude who data mined the armory I think that if I were to play I would have to be a fishing-obsessed troll shaman

named Belichick

I find playing a priest way more fun than any of the other classes because tanking sucks and dpsing is boring. Also it's been much easier for me to find groups as a healer than a dpser.

this is so true.

the server I am on is always needing tanks too, tho. mage is EZmode, that's for sure.

seriously guyz should i 'get into' this? where should a n00b start?

I recommend getting into it if you are willing to accept the enormous time sink it can become if you find that you like it.

I always recommend DPS classes to n00bs because a) tanking sucks and is not satisfying, and b) healing is also hard and you are more likely to be blamed for party wipes than anyone besides the tank. Mages, warlocks and hunters in particular are good starter toons; I always recommend Alliance because I know those races better than I know the Horde races.

can I just ask what the fuck DPS stands for

Damage Per Second, aka Classes That Can Quickly And Efficiently Kill Things. Some classes have different builds that allow characters to tank (aka soak up damage and remain alive, neutralizing threat to the rest of the party), heal (self-explanatory), buff (make other classes more effective at their jobs) or DPS (PEW PEW PEW DED). Different classes are suited to different roles but mages, warlocks, hunters and rogues are always damage classes no matter how you build them.

ok do i get to 'cyber' with hot elf chicks?

Yes, but they will be hot elf chicks played by 16-year-old boys looking to scam you for gold.

no change there then

I recommend getting into it if you are willing to accept the enormous time sink it can become if you find that you like it.

That is so the crux of the matter. I tried it, and I 'got into' it, and I found that I liked it, but I also found that I wasn't getting to sleep before 5am each night. So I quit, after just seven days...and even now, two weeks (or so) later, I'm having dreams where I'm exploring woods and killing bats and generally levelling up, and whenever I wake up after one of those dreams I a) regret quitting, and b) regret ever starting.

So yeah...handle with care dude.

Actually, hitting the level cap and doing scheduled raids helped me cut back my playing time; I now know when I'm going to be playing and exactly what I'm going to be doing when I'm on, so I can concentrate my play experience in a manner that I don't do when I'm in level-grinding mode. (Of course, I do have two alts that I really want to lvl but I am terrified of devoting the time to it because I know I won't be sleeping or eating all that much.)

so you're not at the point where your guild leader is telling you to grind for resistance gear for hours before every raid?

that's where we were when i quit. fuckin' ahn'qiraj.

Haha I only did AQ40 once; pretty much all of my raiding pre-BC was in Molten Core and I never bothered to get fire resist gear. (Also this is another reason why I like playing a priest; pretty much all I'm ever asked to do is heal. No special tanking gear requirements or anything odd like that; just heal.)