World of Warcraft/Gameplay

The first step in playing World of Warcraft is creating an account. With a new game, players are given a free trial period to evaluate the game, after that they are required to have an active credit card account or pre-paid game cards in order to continue playing. Account creation is varied and may change if Blizzard Entertainment chooses so. At the time of this writing, you are required to have a valid, purchased copy of the game for account creation. Blizzards' Official website will be linked for accurate and up-to-date account creation guide.


 * | World of Warcraft Account Creation

After you've setup your account, you will likely have to update the game. There are two ways to do this. First, and easiest is to let the client built into the game (blizzard downloader) update it for you. The second is to manually download the updates and apply them yourself. The second method is useful if you are behind a firewall that is tricky and not letting the blizzard downloader work, if you have a slow internet connection you can download the patches off of a faster computer burning it to CD and installing as such, or if you have multiple computers that you want to update it may be faster to manually apply the patch instead of downloading it each time.

Characters
The eight playable races in World of Warcraft are split into two factions, Horde and Alliance. These two factions are at war and the majority of PvP game experience centers around conflict between the two factions. As well, factions cannot communicate with each other so if you want to play with friends, it is wise to choose the same faction. The Alliance consists of Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, and Night Elves; while the Horde is made up of Orcs, Trolls, Taurens, and the Undead.

Each race has specialized talents and a limited number of classes available for them to use. For example, a Gnome can only choose between the classes of warrior, mage, warlock, and rogue; and has racial abilities such as increased engineering skills, and intelligence whereas a Night Elf can be a warrior, druid, hunter, rogue or priest and has the ability to hide in shadows, and increased nature damage resistance. To further complicate the issue, each faction also has one unique class. The alliance have Paladins and the Horde have Shamans.

Each class has special talents and spells which are purchased through in-game trainers after the character has reach a certain level in the game. Each character has three distinct talent trees which strengthen skill classes and give new skills. This aspect of the game allows for great customization between characters of the same class and race.

Below is a link to a detailed guide for creation your characters, and further below that are links to detailed explations and histories of each race and class in Azeroth.


 * Character Creation Guide

Races

 * Dwarves
 * Gnomes
 * Humans
 * Night Elves
 * Orcs
 * Trolls
 * Tauren
 * Undead

Classes

 * A Quick Introduction to the Classes

For a more detailed instruction for each of the classes, see the links below.


 * Druid
 * Hunter
 * Mage
 * Paladin
 * Priest
 * Rogue
 * Shaman
 * Warlock
 * Warrior

Basics
The basics section contains just enough information so you can get started playing the game.


 * Equipment, Items, and Statistics
 * Combat
 * Grouping
 * Etiquette
 * Addiction, Inactivity, and MMORPGs

Advanced topics
There are more advanced topics that a person doesn't need to know to play the game, although they help out tremedeously.


 * Effective Leveling
 * Raid groups
 * Professions
 * Making Gold and the Auction House
 * Settings, Keybindings and Addons
 * Role playing and Emotes
 * Guilds
 * Factions

Zones
The zones section contains information about each specific zone in Azeroth. It will serve as a comprehensive guide to the completion of each quest in a paticular zone.

Eastern Kingdom

 * Elwynn Forest
 * Dun Morogh
 * Tirisfal Glades
 * Loch Modan
 * Silverpine Forest
 * Westfall
 * Redridge Mountains
 * Duskwood
 * Hillsbrad Foothills
 * Wetlands
 * Alterac Mountains
 * Arathi Highlands
 * Stranglethorn Vale
 * Badlands
 * Swamp of Sorrows
 * The Hinterlands
 * Searing Gorge
 * The Blasted Lands
 * Burning Steppes
 * Western Plaguelands
 * Eastern Plaguelands
 * Deadwind Pass

Kalimdor

 * Durotar
 * Mulgore
 * Darkshore
 * The Barrens
 * Stonetalon Mountains
 * Ashenvale Forest
 * Thousand Needles
 * Desolace
 * Dustwallow Marsh
 * Feralas
 * Tanaris Desert
 * Azshara
 * Felwood
 * Un'Goro Crater
 * Silithus
 * Winterspring

Towns and Cities

 * Orgrimar
 * Undercity
 * Thunder Bluff
 * Ironforge
 * Darnassus
 * Stormwind
 * Tarren Mill
 * Sepulcher
 * Crossroads
 * Camp Taraujo
 * Booty Bay
 * Grom'gol
 * Everlook
 * Gadgetzan
 * Thorium Point
 * Kargath

Instances
An instance is a specialized type of difficult dungeon created to prevent problems of over-crowding and kill stealing. These dungeons are often more difficult than the regular PvE experience and require working together in a five-person party, some even requiring twenty or more person raids. When entering an instance, a new copy of the dungeon is created which is unique to the paticular party or raid which has entered it thus no one else can enter the dungeon and kill a named boss without being explicitly invited to do so. This helps to stop players who would follow a group into a dungeon, wait for the them to clear the way to the boss, than fight the boss thus exploiting others clearing work. This also prevents over-crowding of a boss because any number of instances can be created and each has it's own copy of that paticular boss.

Eastern Kingdoms

 * Blackrock Depths
 * Blackrock Spire
 * Blackwing Lair
 * Deadmines
 * Gnomeregan
 * Molten Core
 * The Scarlet Monastery
 * Scholomance
 * Shadowfang Keep
 * The Stockades
 * Stratholme
 * The Sunken Temple (Temple of Atal'Hakkar)
 * Uldaman
 * Zul'Gurub

Kalimdor

 * Blackfathom Deeps
 * Dire Maul
 * Maraudon
 * Onyxia's Lair
 * Ragefire Chasm
 * Razorfen Downs
 * Razorfen Kraul
 * Wailing Caverns
 * Zul'Farrak
 * Zul'Gurub

Battlegrounds

 * Alterac Valley
 * Arathi Basin
 * Warsong Gulch

Special events
Periodically certain events happen in the game, most are calendar based but recently a one-off "world event" has been created.

Regular events

 * Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Competition
 * Darkmoon Faire

Calendar events

 * Lunar Festival