Here are some good social guidelines to follow whenever you play WoW:

Speak well

Use completely sentences and spell words correctly. Unless you’re with people you know well, don’t use “txt-speak” when you type. Most importantly: don’t use curse words. You never know if you’re playing against a 10-year-old whose mother is sitting beside him ready to report you to the Game Masters.

Learn WoW’s terminology

Start with our article on WoW abbreviations. Don’t be afraid to ask people what they mean; most people are quite nice and are flattered when they are asked for advice. (If someone calls you a noob/nub, just turn and walk away. They are not going to be nice to you.)

Don’t yell

If you type “/yell” in chat, whatever you type after that will be broadcast across the entire area where you are. It’s really annoying. People will even put you on Ignore if you continue to do it. Know that there are more appropriate ways to get your message to the right people. If you want to sell something, use Trade Chat. If you want to join a group, use /LFG. If you want to ask for quest help, just use “/say” near any town’s bank.

Don’t leave people in the lurch

If you join a group to run a dungeon, make sure you have 1 – 1.5 hours to devote to finishing it. Otherwise, at the very beginning, let the group know you need to leave early. It’s extremely rude to leave an instance in the middle. You leave everyone in the lurch and they will probably wipe (all die) without you.

Roll “Need” only on items that are upgrades

If you’re in a group, make sure you discuss how loot will be rolled on before you get to an instance boss. Typical rules are that everyone can roll on green items, but blue items should be “Needed” only by those who can benefit from them. (For example, a warrior should roll Greed on a blue-level cloth robe, but the Mage and Priest can roll Need.) Doing otherwise will get you branded as a “ninja” and it will be very hard to make friends that way.

If you need more help, sign up for our new eCourse! Of course, simply following the rules of everyday life are a good guideline, no matter where you are. Especially remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Why do you need gold in WoW?

Remember when you got your driver’s license? All you wanted was some wheels to get you around town faster. But your Dad wouldn’t give you the keys unless you earned money to put gas in the tank, right? In WoW it’s pretty much the same thing. For the current WoW patch, you can buy a mount at level 30, which will put you back a total of 45 gold for training and a mount. But when patch 3.2 comes out soon, you’ll be able to get a mount at level 20! You can’t make that kind of gold by selling grays from the starter zones! And with our power-leveling tips on this site, you’ll be getting to level 20 or 30 even faster than most people. So you’d better start learning how to get your cash flow moving.

1. Learn the Fishing skill and catch Deviate Fish at the ponds in The Barrens called Lushwater Oasis, Stagnant Pools, and Forgotten Pools. These fish sell for big money on most servers and you can get them at any fishing level.
2. Train two gathering professions and sell everything on the Auction House. (See box to right.)
3. Use sites like WoWEcon and Allakhazam to help you set your prices. Remember to choose your server and faction on WoWEcon because every server has a different economy.
4. Continue to gather lower-level ores and herbs even if they won’t level up your profession because everyone needs these materials (e.g., Blacksmiths and Engineers always need Copper).
5. If you choose Enchanting and you get a green quest reward that you can’t use, disenchant it and sell the shards on the Auction House.
6. Use the Auctioneer add-on and read the manual!

You must balance your desire to power-level with the fact that you will absolutely need gold to buy a mount. Obviously, gathering herbs and figuring out Auction House prices takes time away from your power-leveling. On the other hand, what good is it to be level 70 and have no mount??

Add-on Review: Bagnon

As I’ve said before on this blog, anything that makes questing in World of Warcraft less frustrating and more fun gets a big thumbs-up in my book. To make things easier in the game, you can find lots of add-ons at places like Curse and WoWInterface. Add-ons are little programs (Blizzard-approved) that you can install to make your WoW life more enjoyable.

Bagnon – A WoW bag organizer

One of my favorite add-ons is called Bagnon. It takes the place of all your different bags and merges them into one big bag so that you can see everything at once. You can even find items with a search box — which comes in very handy at higher levels when your bags are large and you can’t find those pots you need! This add-on is also handy because you don’t have to click multiple times to open all your bags at once: just hit one key (”b”) and you get a window that shows every item you’re carrying. Bagnon even works at the bank, too!

Quest help

I definitely recommend searching for add-ons that will enhance your WoW gaming experience. There are even add-ons that can help you with questing, like pointing you toward the monsters you need to kill or optimizing the order in which you finish your quests. I’ll be reviewing more of these types of add-ons in weeks to come. In the meantime, happy questing!

Photo by chanchan222

Some people who play World of Warcraft like to level — but I’m not one of those people. Leveling is called “grinding” because it feels like a chore that will never end. Yes, there are some quests with good storylines that should not be missed. However, for each one of those quests there are ten more that involve grinding out kills — dozens of boars, gnolls, murlocs, or demons.

At first leveling is okay because you have goals to aim for: new powers at level 10, faster travel at level 20, a mount at level 30… But it really starts to drag between level 30 and level 58. Many gamers use power-leveling guides to help them through this grinding period. These guides do not play the game for you, they just help you find your quest objectives faster. You can get to higher levels in the game so you can experience the most interesting content.

Blizzard announced that for upcoming Patch 3.2, more quest help will be built into the game. Larisa at The Pink Pigtail Inn is saddened by World of Warcraft’s trend toward power-leveling. I feel the opposite way. I believe that anything which makes the game funner, less frustrating, and less of a grind is a good thing.

I think the new patch will help with frustrations, but it won’t make a significant difference in your leveling speed. If you want to level faster, you need to be organized and optimized in the way you approach quests. Even if you’re new to the game, you can level faster than most people and avoid grinding if you know the right tricks.