It has been six years and two expansions since the initial release of World of Warcraft, though if the number of subscribers show any indication on the game’s current state, which is well over 11 million, WoW isn’t losing any steam. Not only does World of Warcraft dominate the MMO market, it is without a doubt one of the most played and highest grossing games of all time.
So what is World of Warcraft? If you feel compelled to really ask that question, then you probably were living under a rock for the past decade. World of Warcraft is Blizzard’s follow-up to their popular RTS franchise, Warcraft. The game takes place in the ever expanding Azeroth, though more continents are added with every expansion pack. The Outland was added with The Burning Crusade expansion, and more recently Northrend with Wrath of the Lich King. The game’s content is incomparable to any other game in sheer scope alone. Questing, leveling, upgrading gear, upgrading abilities, dungeons, raids, competitive PvP and professions are a handful of the generalized categories of things you can do in WoW, each with countless subcategories and refined detail from years of patching. Though it would be difficult to cover everything WoW has to offer, I will try my best to give you a more learned perspective on the game and its expansions, telling you of both the good and the bad you will experience if you decide to dish out $15 a month and a hefty down payment on the three games.
First I should begin with my personal background within the World of Warcraft. I started playing around three to four years ago, primarily playing either a paladin or a rogue. At first I was really into the PvP (player vs. player) aspect of the game, and even managed to fall into the top 25 during the third season of arenas. I decided to reroll a warrior afterwards, dedicating him mainly to PvE raiding. The warrior was one of the best tanks (damage absorbers) on the server at the time, and managed to clear endgame content not too long after release. I have experienced PvE, PvP and everything in between to its fullest in WoW, as well as have read almost every novel written based on the game (take my word for it, there are a lot of WoW books). There were times where I spent up to 20 hours straight in one sitting just gathering gold, and times where I threw my mouse at the wall in frustration. You could say that I was a little bit of an addict. I quit World of Warcraft shortly after Wrath of the Lich King, mainly due to my lack of free time conflicting with my unhealthy competitive nature. I played many other MMOs afterwards, mainly Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Aion, though none of them had the lasting appeal that WoW had on me.
Before you can start playing WoW you must first create a character. This will be your avatar within the game, so get ready to stare at its rear end from a third person perspective for many hours. Your first choice when creating a character is to choose its faction. There are two factions: Horde and Alliance. Though each side may play as any class they wish, (which we will get into later) every faction has its own set of races, and every race has their own distinct look, racial abilities, towns and cities. Though every race has their own towns and cities, these areas are restricted by faction, not race. A Horde player may go to any Horde city, though if he tries to enter an Alliance city, the player would be swarmed by guards (not to mention running the risk of other Alliance players taking you out). As a member of the Horde, you may choose to be a large and brute Orc, a towering and ugly Troll, one of the peaceful and nature loving Tauren, a member of the gruesome legion of the Undead or a pretty Blood Elf. The Alliance have the choice of either the noble and honorable Humans, stout and tough Dwarves, ancient and purple (yes purple) Night Elves, a tiny and cute Gnome or a virtuous and blue (yes blue) Draenei. Don’t be too concerned for racial abilities when choosing a race, as they are all more or less balanced in the long run. Make sure you choose a race that you like cosmetically above all else, as once you have chosen, it costs $30 to change. Each race has its own specific starting area and starting quests as well. Every beginning quest unravels into a dilemma, and after you complete the final tasks given to you for your region you are thrown out into a more generalized questing environment, shared by everyone from your faction. Every race has a colorful and distinct look to them, giving you a feeling of uniqueness among your fellow players.
An example of an Orc rogue.
Your next task is to choose a class. Though every faction has access to all of the available classes, not every race does. You may choose to be anything from a warrior, focusing on melee output and damage absorption, to a priest, being able to heal wounds and ailments. As a hunter you would focus mainly on range damage, utilizing a pet for optimal impact. A mage relies on heavy burst range attacks, while a warlock uses an array of damage over time abilities to slowly impair and ultimately eliminate the target. Paladins are a hybrid between the warrior and the priest, being able to deal and take significant damage as well as being able to use holy magic like a priest. A shaman is another example of a hybrid class. Though shamans aren’t the best damage takers, they definitely have amazing damage dealing and healing potency. Druids utilize the power of nature, allowing them to morph into different creatures, giving them flexible playability. Rogues on the other hand are optimized to take out their target and escape as swiftly as possible. Wrath of the Lich King introduced the death knight, though this class may only be made once you have an existing character that is at least level 55.
The Blood Elf starting location.
Once you have chosen your faction, race and class, decide on a gender, name and facial appearance for your character and you are good to go! The character creation process for World of Warcraft is a user friendly and brief process, though your cosmetic availability is limited compared to newer MMOs. The “limitation” is merely a condensed selection of facial features and hair styles, and is more than made up for by the amount of depth and variety that each class and race has to offer.
World of Warcraft has thousands of quests, ranging from the trivial boar killing to the epic ones, requiring you to take out towering monsters or heavily guarded bases. Unfortunately most of the earlier quests aren’t the most exciting, as they were designed back in 2004 when grind quests were the most budget friendly quests to implement. After level 60 or so you will start to notice a slight shift, however, as not only do the environments and creatures look drastically better than their aged counterparts back in Azeroth, but the quests begin to get a little more exciting. Once you reach Northland you will immediately notice a change in pace with questing, as the main storyline is implemented into regular quests and cutscenes are implemented much more frequently and with greater quality.
Questing in World of Warcraft takes on many forms. The most basic kinds that you will encounter are the one man errand type quests. These quests usually involve you exterminating a certain number of creatures in the surrounding area, collecting valuables for your employer, delivering items to clients in far off places or sometimes even assassinating noteworthy figures. These quests usually deliver the most amount of experience in the least amount of time and are recommended to do if your primary intention is to level up as fast as possible. Next you have group quests. These are similar to the previous type, though usually have more difficult enemies to kill. Most of the time you will encounter “elite” creatures while doing these. Elites are noted by the gold dragon crest around their portrait, and are significantly stronger than a regular enemy. It is very rare that you will be able to take down one of these by yourself, so teaming up with other players to take down the common enemy is your best bet. Group quests usually have a greater reward in items, gold and experience.
An example of a quest giver in WoW.
In some of the most dangerous locations in the game lie dungeons. These dungeons are a social part of the game, requiring you to team up with four other players to conquer through. A successful party usually consists of a tank to absorb all the damage from the enemies, a healer to ensure the tank is kept alive while doing this, and three damage dealers to take down the enemies. All of the enemies in dungeons are usually very tough elites, making it near impossible to attempt one of these on your own. Every dungeon has a handful of bosses to kill, most of the time being your primary objective. Bosses are a huge leap in difficulty from regular creatures, almost always having special properties to them. Strategy is key here, so running in and throwing out random attacks won’t do you much. The reward for slaying bosses is much greater, however, as they almost always drop rare and valuable items. Not only that, but it is common for instance quests to ask you to take down a certain boss and the rewards from those quests are almost always much more valuable.
- A dungeon boss defeated.
Daily quests are the final type of quests that you will encounter. These quests may be done once every day, and are meant to either farm gold or reputation. You will not notice these until higher levels as they serve little to no purpose until you reach the maximum level. Once you have reached the final level and finished all the current available quests, doing dailies will serve as a source of income as well as an effective method to build up your reputation with other factions.
Questing is what you will be spending most of your time doing until you reach the maximum level. The effective and entertaining questing mechanics created by Blizzard makes this time enjoyable for the most part. Unfortunately grinding is a must, though it is made manageable by the frequent character progression in abilities and equipment you obtain as a reward.
- A mage on a typical kill quest.
There are many different factions besides the standard Horde and Alliance throughout the world. These independent groups are sometimes scattered in various towns and cities, or you might even walk into their own town. Helping these people out will land you reputation with them, giving you access to exclusive items only purchasable from their merchants. These items can be anything from rare weapons and armor to exclusive mounts, and are almost always worth the trouble. Be careful though, as you may also lose reputation with these factions. It is even possible to get a hostile reaction from them if you are hated enough, making it essential to watch your reputation gauge with an area before entering their territory. Later in the game you will have scenarios where you will have to choose between two rivaling factions, fighting for one of them against the other. Both factions have their own unique benefits and exclusive items going for them, yet you are only allowed one to befriend. The reputation system in World of Warcraft is definitely done marvelously, making your actions actually have consequence at times.
As you have already probably deduced by now, the World of Warcraft is huge. It will be difficult and near impossible to get around on foot alone, so transportation is definitely a must. Early in the game you will receive your first land mount which can travel much faster than foot. Eventually you will be able to upgrade to an epic land mount, giving you blazing speed as you travel to your destinations. After your land mount comes your flying mount, adding a whole new dimension to travels in WoW. Although your first flying mount is relatively slow, if you have deep pockets you can upgrade to a flying mount that is more than double the speed of your latest land mount. For the most part mounts are faction specific, though you can obtain unique mounts if you know where to look. The only differences between the Horde and Alliance mounts are cosmetics, as mounts only serve the purpose to get you from point A to B faster. Some of the Horde mounts include skeletal horses and giant raptors, while the Alliance could use mounts such as enormous tigers and vicious looking rams.
- The Undead’s poster mount.
Mounts are not the only form transportation in WoW, however, as there are many AI controlled transportation methods that can get you to a destination on a set route faster. The Horde primarily uses zeppelins and chimeras to get around spanning distances. The Alliance relies on good old fashion ships to get around, as well as good old fashion giant griffons. The Alliance also has a train which travels between two of their main cities, serving as a great way to get around efficiently. The pre-set flight paths between towns is the most effective way to travel great distances until you get your epic flying mount (which will probably be awhile, as they do cost a ridiculous amount of gold). Of course the most primitive WoW transportation method is the use of a hearthstone. Hearthstones are items that you begin with, and can be linked to any inn in any town or city. You can only be linked to one place at a time, so choose carefully. Your hearthstone has a relatively long cooldown on it as well, so you should use it only when needed. Probably the only other type of transportation that you will be using is portal travel. Usually the most popular cities have a district with portals setup, allowing you fast travel to any of your faction’s own major cities. A competent mage can also create portals, so if you ask nicely a nearby mage may be able to conjurer something up for you.
Overall the transportation system has been ironed out to near perfection over the years, serving as a time efficient mechanism while always maintaining the scope of the game.
Professions play a big role in both the economic and combat areas of the game. You are allowed two primary professions, though you may take up as many of the secondary professions as you like. Primary professions include mining, blacksmithing, engineering, alchemy and jewelcrafting. Primary professions can be classified in one of two categories: gathering and crafting. Gathering professions such as mining and herbalism focus on collecting raw material scattered across the world, whereas crafting professions focuses on utilizing these items to create practical uses out of them. It is most common to choose one gathering profession and one crafting profession, although some choose to take two gathering professions to optimize gold income. Secondary professions on the other hand are more of your necessity skills such as fishing, cooking and first aid. Seasoned cooks (no pun intended) are able to create food which not only restores health and mana, but grants the consumer a significant buff as well. With first aid you can restore your health at a rapid rate at certain times, which you will soon realize is useful more often than not.
This weapon was created by an expert blacksmith.
Another social aspect of World of Warcraft is guilds. A guild is simply a group of players who enjoy playing with each other. Now the level of strictness varies from guild to guild, and is mostly dependent on the goals the guild has. There are guilds that simply just enjoy talking to each other and doing occasional instances, recruiting anybody who shares similar interests. I have personally been in hardcore guilds and have created hardcore guilds, so my experience is pretty much on the extremist end of the spectrum. Just to be considered to join one of these guilds you will need to be at the maximum level with amazing gear, as well as a credible reputation on your server. This is followed by a lengthy application you will be required to fill out on the guild’s personal website, and after an extended period of time you are notified whether you made it in or not. Assuming you get into a professional guild, you are greeted with the raid calendar indicating the times you are required to be on, usually spanning entire nights on end. The only goal for these guilds is to get into the hardest 25-man raid dungeon, take out the bosses as quickly and efficiently as possible, and get the best gear on the server. The type of guild you choose to join is completely dependent on the type of player you are, but it is almost guaranteed that you will find a guild that suites your needs somewhere on the spectrum.
What is arguably the main purpose of World of Warcraft is raiding. A raid is similar to a regular 5-man dungeon in structure, but that is all the two have in common. Raids generally take the form of either 10-man or 25-man raids. Usually the same raid would have a mode for each, though the 25-man version would have upgraded item drops. Unlike dungeons, raiding requires every player in the group to have the necessary gear, skill and experience in order to complete the raid. Every tiny detail makes a difference when raiding, down to the last buff. Every player in the group must optimize themselves to the fullest, ultimately forming a unit that is capable of taking down even the hardest of boss in battle. The main storyline for WoW is progressed from raiding, and the conclusion of each expansion is reached.
There are different tiers to raiding in WoW. Lower tier raids are much easier than the higher end ones and are required to do beforehand in order to obtain the gear necessary to move onwards. These raids still require a great deal of time and preparation, though there are more leniencies to errors made. The lower end tiers of raiding can easily be done with a group of people formed on the spot, though as you progress upwards, the likelihood of doing raids with random people decreases drastically. Eventually if you are interested in doing endgame raiding to its fullest, you will have to find a decent guild that is willing to take you.
- A raid group attempting a boss in Ulduar.
PvP in World of Warcraft is another major aspect of the game. It can be done either competitively or casually, and is completely segregated from PvE gear wise. There are three main areas of PvP in WoW: World PvP, battlegrounds and arenas. World PvP can happen whenever and wherever, as both the Alliance and the Horde are likely to see each other while questing. Depending on the type of person you are up against, you can either take him out or be taken out easily. World PvP also runs you the risk of being corpse camped. This means that your killer stays next to your corpse even after he defeats you, killing you again every time you respawn. This can get annoying at times, and often leads to frustrated rage quits. Forming small groups and taking down towns of the opposite faction can be fun sometimes as well, until one of your victims makes it to a main city to warn everyone, turning the tables instantly.
The currency to purchase PvP gear comes in two forms: honor and arena points. Most items require a good amount of honor to obtain, while the highest tiers of gear would require arena points as well. Honor is earned whenever an enemy player within a certain range of levels from you is slain, while arena points can only be earned by participating in ranked arena matches. Though gathering honor can sometimes feel like a grind, arenas matches will influence your overall ranking, so accumulating these points will require a significantly higher level of focus.
Battlegrounds are instanced matches that are queued for, consisting of a team of Alliance against Horde players (usually randomly pitted together) with the same goal. Battlegrounds range from the classic Warsong Gulch, requiring you to capture the opponent’s flag and safely return it back to your own, to Alteric Valley, a huge game consisting of 80 players pitted off to take out the other’s leader. Battlegrounds are without a doubt are the most effective way to gather honor points, as they are quick and easy to join, contain a lot of opposing faction players and reward you with a set amount of bonus honor points if you claim victory.
The battleground Alteric Valley.
The most competitive area of PvP in World of Warcraft is arenas. Arenas require you to make a team, either consisting of 2, 3 or 5 players. You are given a starting rank, and depending on how good you and your partners are, that rank either drops or rises. Some of the best gear for PvP in World of Warcraft requires a very high rank, so expect to work hard to get your hands on those. Arenas are much less forgiving compared to other forms of PvP, as once you reach a moderately decent rank, every team you are pitted up against knows what they are doing.
As you might have already noticed by now, World of Warcraft is a very diverse and complex game. It would be near impossible to list everything the game has to offer, but hopefully this has summarized the most important and noteworthy aspects of the game. I had a lot of fun with WoW, maybe more fun than any other game. The one catch WoW has is that it is not just a pick up and play game. Unlike singleplayer or casual multiplayer games, you cannot just log in for a few minutes in between your schedule and log out. If you are looking for a game with excellent community and polished gameplay, as well as have the spare time on your hands, WoW will not disappoint.
Pros Amazing community, crisp visuals, expanding and quality content, in depth PvE and PvP mechanics. Cons Lack of casual endgame play, some imbalances, grinding required scenarios. Verdict World of Warcraft is definitely the best MMO on the market currently, and should without a doubt be your primary choice.
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Staff Writer, Strange Canadian | Dave is Canadian… just want to clear the elephant from the room here. RoboAwesome employs even the strange but neighborly Canucks. Dave’s favorite game series of all time are Final Fantasy, God of War and Metal Gear Solid. Though he enjoys most games he tries to focus only on the highest quality titles. Dave has earned his title “The Massacure” by fighting alongside the Stoneskins during the ninth war of the centuries, delivering them from the amber dragonkin virus. The cure could have only been distributed through massacre; thus the name Massacure. The name was granted to him by Khol’mar Ironfist.[...right... thanks, um, Dave...] 
