New players of Blizzard's World of Warcraft don't necessarily have to catch up to 17 years' worth of content to enjoy the Warcraft MMO. Thanks to WoW's quick progression system, players have a lot of options to "advance" through the ranks and enjoy the game's endgame content quickly. Thanks to these mechanics, players have a lot of options to personalize their Warcraft experience and make it their own.
Unfortunately, newcomers to the hit MMO may experience some roadblocks on their way to enjoying the full depth of the WoW experience. Sometimes, these mistakes cause minor inconveniences to gameplay. However, some players might think that other mistakes can ruin their playthrough entirely and they may need to create a new character. What exactly are things that newcomers need to stay clear of to fully enjoy their World of Warcraft experience?
Updated June 17, 2022 by Rhenn Taguiam: With Blizzard having just announced Dragonflight as the next World Of Warcraft expansion, now is just as good a time as any to boot up the game and make a character from scratch. This could hopefully give players enough time to immerse themselves in current Warcraft lore and get to the climactic finish of Shadowlands.
And with this head start, their characters could get to the endgame just before Dragonflight changes the status quo once again with new dungeons and a potentially-game changing story. However, before fans make new characters, it’s recommended for players to always remember the game’s lore, their guilds, and teaming up with friends.
15 Not Getting Immersed In The Lore
While newcomers to the game could definitely “jumpstart” their future Dragonflight journey with Timewalking Campaigns to get to Level 60 quickly, neglecting the opportunity to immerse in Warcraft lore can certainly ruin the experience for new players. At its core, Timewalking Campaigns can let players have a first-hand encounter with the most climactic moments in each of the game’s expansions. However, at Level 50, they get interrupted in their journey and get sent straight to the current expansion.
Thankfully, players do have the option to pause experience gains during Timewalking Campaigns to experience the expansion’s offerings for themselves. They even have the opportunity to switch Campaigns at any time, potentially “reliving” the story of all expansions. Players should take the opportunity to do this if possible, as this allows them to experience the climatic growth of the World Of Warcraft lore prior to the return of the dragonflight.
14 Skipping The Little Things
Lore is perhaps one of the largest components of the World Of Warcraft MMO, especially given its RTS roots. However, players shouldn’t simply zoom through the Timewalking Campaigns to “catch up” with the larger premise of the game. Players may be able to appreciate their role as one of Azeroth’s protectors more as they engage in the little things - particularly questlines and talking to various people within the game world.
Thanks to the game’s fair share of both straightforward and multi-chain quests, players can discover a lot of secrets surrounding various citizens of Azeroth. Players may be able to immerse themselves more efficiently once they’re able to fully indulge themselves in the game’s many questlines on their way to the higher-level zones.
13 Forgetting About Guilds
While players always have the opportunity to play the game alone, there’s always the opportunity to create or join Guilds with other players. As with other games, Guilds allow players to have a mini-community in the game, featuring their own item vaults and separate perks whenever they play together.
Newcomers might feel out of place in the larger context of Guilds in the game, but they should join one given the opportunity to enhance their experience. Having a community of like-minded players can certainly strengthen the multiplayer aspect of the MMO.
12 Neglecting Team-Ups With Friends
Aside from playing with guilds, newcomers to World Of Warcraft should certainly try bringing friends along or even looking into communities such as Reddit or Discord for people to play with. While Guilds themselves offer a “community” element to the MMO, it’s when players actively play through the game with friends that they can explore the live play aspect of the MMO.
After all, a lot of encounters, raids, and instances in the game offer wild circumstances to teams experiencing them - such as puzzles and surprising cutscenes. Players who play through these with friends can experience personalized situations that can make solo playthroughs more unforgettable in the context of experiencing these things as friends.
11 Focusing Too Much On A Build
It makes sense for a raid-intensive MMO like World Of Warcraft to have players focus on things such as character optimization, especially when it comes to the endgame. After all, nothing ruins a good raid than a player who doesn’t know what they’re supposed to do or, worse, is not built properly for the said raid.
However, new players who focus too much on an optimal build on the get-go may not be able to fully enjoy their first experience of the game. Considering the game has 12 Classes with three skill trees each, new players may be able to appreciate future optimization of their builds if they’re able to freely explore the point and purpose of the build’s elements before fully engaging in them.
10 Ending Up In The Wrong Realm
Players in World of Warcraft get segregated into servers called Realms. As with other MMOs, WoW's servers serve as a complete iteration of the game world that houses player characters. In turn, players can also expect Realms to facilitate interactions solely between the characters in these servers. These Realm-only interactions include direct communications, trading, forming guilds and parties, and even world events. Essentially, the Realm Selection window has the following characteristics:
Realm Name: This specifies the name of the Realm. These names usually come from popular characters in the franchise.
Type: This details the nature of the Realm in question. Realm Types include PVE, PVP, Roleplaying (RP), RPPVP, and Test. Essentially, players who simply want a standard MMO experience should pick a PVE Realm. Likewise, players who want to engage more in WoW's combat component should pick a PVP Realm.
Population: This gives players an idea of how many players exist in a Realm. These Populations include Recommended for most players, as well as Low, Medium, High, or Full Population.
Realm Selection Considerations
At first glance, Realm choice shouldn't even be considered a big deal for most players. However, newcomers who pick the wrong Realm might be left unsatisfied with their overall experience, especially if their Realm choice didn't fit their playstyle and expectations. In turn, what should new players watch out for in Realm Selection?
Why aren't players speaking the same language? Aside from player population, WoW's Realms also become grouped into regions. Ideally, players will want to pick a Realm where other players speak a common language. That way, communication won't be as difficult and players will feel more comfortable with their experience.
Why aren't there people around? Given WoW's popular Raid scene, newcomers who just reached endgame might find it weird to feel frustrated at the lack of party members to do Raids with. However, this caveat might have to do with playing within the wrong time zone. Remember, since Realms are segregated into regions, players of those Realms likely become active at certain times. These affect the availability of players to party with, trade with, or even do PVP with.
Why aren't friends there? Players who got invited to play by their other friends should pick the Realm where their friends are located. Sadly, characters can only interact with others in the same Realm.
Why are people roleplaying their characters? Interestingly, some Realms in World of Warcraft actually serve as Roleplaying (RP) servers. These servers encourage players to fully immerse themselves in Azeroth in the form of their characters. Meanwhile, players who want to RP but still fight other players actively should join Roleplaying PVP (RPPVP) servers.
9 Unsatisfied With Race And Class Combination
In World of Warcraft, characters comprise majorly of two things: a Race component and a Class component. Essentially, the Race simply denotes the "species" a character is in by the time they enter Azeroth. Meanwhile, Class pertains to the field of combat expertise that character has.
Thing is, unlike other MMOs, WoW has Classes locked down to specific Races. In short, players who want to play a certain Race may not necessarily be able to pick a Class they want - and vice versa. Sadly, this might lead to some players being unsatisfied with their Race-Class combinations, or even not leaving the Character Creation screen at all. Players who find themselves stuck in the Character Creation screen might have a difficult time choosing their character's Race and Class. Here are some important considerations:
Race Considerations
What about lore preference? New players who want to stick to lore could always read up on their preferred Race or Class to see how their cultures would ideally motivate citizens to become adventurers. For instance, while Night Elves fit the Rogue Class in terms of innate abilities, the lore does state a Night Elf having a penchant to become Druids. Likewise, players who want to join Anduin Wrynn in Stormwind will want to create a character with a Race allied with the Alliance. In this regard, players who want to feel more immersed in Azeroth may want to create a character based on lore first.
What about Allied Races? New players might wonder why some Races remain locked during Character Creation. These Races are actually considered Allied Races, and players can only unlock them for other characters once they finish their favored Allied Race's questline.
Class Considerations
What about roles? Players who want to create characters based on their endgame potential might want a Class that excels in a particular role. Thankfully, all Classes in WoW have DPS Specializations. However, certain Classes also do specialize in healing or tanking. Essentially, Druids, Paladins, and Monks have Specializations that spread across all three roles. Meanwhile, Priests and Shaman have great Healing Specializations, whereas the Warrior, Death Knight, and Demon Hunter have Tank-focused Specializations as well.
What about Hero Classes? Newcomers might have seen the Death Knight and Demon Hunter Classes during Character Creation. They serve as Hero Classes or Classes that refer to a cadre of warriors based on an iconic personality in Azeroth. For instance, the Lich King Arthas Menethil created the Death Knights to serve under him until they broke free of his control. Meanwhile, Illidan Stormrage trained Elves to become Demon Hunters, beings capable of harnessing Fel Magic to slay demons. Due to their specialized nature, players who pick Hero Classes will immediately start at Level 55. As such, it's unadvisable for newcomers to immediately pick these Classes.
8 Using The Experience Boost
Newcomers who create their own character will end in Exile's Reach, a new starter zone that will take new characters to Levels 1 through 10 in order to know the basics of the game. After they finish Exile's Reach, the game sends players to the Battle for Azeroth storyline for them to level up through Level 50. It's only after reaching Level 50 that players will finally get sent to the Shadowlands expansion. However, new players who want to "get straight to the action" actually have the option to just skip the leveling process entirely. Thanks to the Level Character Boost, players can just send a character straight to Level 50 from the Character Select screen. How exactly does this work? Essentially, players can get the Level Character Boost in three ways:
Buy the Shadowlands: Heroic and Epic Editions. Players get a free Character Boost if they purchase the Heroic and Epic editions of the Shadowlands expansion.
Buy the Level Character Boost. Likewise, players can also just buy the Level Character Boost from the Game Store for USD 60.
Level Character Boost Considerations
However, despite the tempting nature of using a Level Character Boost to just get players straight to Level 50, players also need to understand some things about this feature:
What about the story? Players who use the Level Character Boost will get to Level 50, prepping them immediately for Shadowlands. However, this does mean that new players won't have the time to explore events prior to the game as they level up, including the prior Battle for Azeroth expansion.
What about Custom Options? Players who use the Level Character Boost won't be able to study custom options carefully as they level up. In that regard, the game will simply prompt players to choose these custom options, such as Talent Specializations. For newcomers, this means getting into Shadowlands and having to study their character's skills and Specialization synergies all at once.
What about Allied Races? Players who use the Level Character Boost on an Allied Race won't unlock the Heritage Armor set attached to that Allied Race.
7 Ignoring Chromie Time
Veterans of World of Warcraft who create new characters for Shadowlands will get to meet Chromie. Essentially, her role is to help players immerse themselves in WoW's other expansions without forcing all players to sit through all seven of them just before getting into Shadowlands. In turn, old accounts can create new characters, get to Chromie after Level 10, and Chromie Time to any expansion. These characters will stay in these expansion zones to level up through Level 50.
On the other hand, new players will experience a somewhat "forced" version of Chromie Time after reaching Level 10. Instead of choosing the expansion they want to level up in, they'll get sent straight to Battle to Azeroth.
Get Chromie Time!
The lack of Chromie Time for newcomers might seem a bummer for new players who want to experience WoW's story as a whole. In turn, new players who are about to get into Shadowlands might want to create another new character to experience the game's backstory for themselves. Are there any advantages to this?
How can new players access Chromie Time? Players who reached Level 50 won't be able to access Chromie Time. However, new players who reached Level 50 for the first time can unlock Chromie Time for their new characters. This is also why it's recommended for new players to create at least one other character in order to experience the story in other expansions.
What expansions are available in Chromie Time? Except for the vanilla release, players in Chromie Time can choose to level up through Level 10 to 50 in another expansion. These include Battle for Azeroth all the way back to The Burning Crusade. In turn, players can experience the growth or even fall of some of Warcraft's most notable characters, from Jaina Proudmoore to Illidan Stormrage.
How many other characters should do Chromie Time? New players who want to capitalize on Chromie Time might want to create six (6) other characters. Since the first one they'll use will already play through Battle for Azeroth, this leaves six (6) other expansions uncovered in terms of story.
Should a character skip expansions in Chromie Time? While players can "skip" to other expansions during Chromie Time, the rest of the game world does scale to their level. This means players who skip to other expansions mid-level always risk meeting Level 50 before even finishing one expansion. In turn, this isn't exactly advised for new players who want to focus on the story.
6 Leveling Too Slow
Granted, newcomers to World of Warcraft need as much time as possible to get acquainted with much of the game's many offerings. However, even most veterans would agree that the real fun in WoW lies in the endgame. After all, this is where max-level players can enjoy the full offerings of Raids, Battlegrounds, and Arenas. Sadly, given newcomers are still familiarizing themselves with the MMO's huge slate of monsters to fight and quests to finish, some of the might feel they're leveling up too slow.
Level Progression Considerations
Thankfully, newcomers may be able to circumvent this caveat by understanding some of the fastest ways to reach the endgame, even without using a Character Level Boost. Here are some things they need to consider in the leveling experience:
What about Quests? Aside from Storyline Quests, players who want to level up should consider a more holistic approach to Questing. For instance, players in any town or zone should get all Quests available from NPCs, and sort them based on their areas of interest. That way, players can complete Quests in droves just by staying in one area for a few minutes.
What about Grinding? Essentially, characters can gain more EXP by killing enemies slightly stronger than them. In WoW, hostile NPC strength can be gauged by the colors of their names - where yellow denotes ordinary enemies, while red denotes stronger enemies. Moreover, the special dragon border around an enemy icon indicates they're Elites, meaning they're extremely difficult to kill.
What about zones? Thankfully, WoW organizes enemies according to both strength and zones. Essentially, players can expect each zone to house enemies of a particular level range. In turn, characters can level up much faster if they know which zones to tackle first. Thankfully, this zone system applies to regions allied with the Alliance and territories with the Horde.
Is Chromie Time any help? Players might get invaluable insights into leveling time by understanding how fast characters can level up in other expansions via Chromie Time. For WoW newcomers, Chromie Time's Battle for Azeroth takes around 16 hours to complete. However, newcomers who want to level up other characters faster might consider choosing Warlords of Draenor, which others state could be completed within 12 hours. Interestingly, Legion comes at a close second with a 14-hour approximate max-level grinding time.