From the first day it opened its doors to gamers, over 15 years ago, World of Warcraft consistently counts its player base in millions. And despite its age, the game displays a constant effort to retain its vast player subscriptions by introducing new and innovative content.
Today, it's hard to find a gamer who hasn't at least tried this revolutionary MMORPG. However, if you are one of these people, and the latest release of WoW Classic has prompted you to finally join Azeroth, this list will help you find your feet, whichever version you play.
Despite it being highly player-oriented, logging into WoW for the first time can be a confusing experience. But, as you start to progress in Azeroth, these are the 10 things you will learn playing World of Warcraft for the first time.
10 Mounts Are Extremely Important
Mounts are a crucial part of virtually any open-world RPG, but boy do they matter in WoW, especially in Classic.
You see, in Classic, owning a mount is almost a privilege and something players work very hard towards achieving. Even class mounts like the Warlock Felsteed will set you apart from others who are still gathering their gold to obtain one. However, once you finally do get that mount, your life is going to get much easier.
Things are different in retail expansions as mounts are cheaper and can be purchased much earlier, but they are still an irrefutable part of WoW that has resulted in people hoarding them and competing to see whose are more unique and rare.
9 Leveling Takes A Long Time
If you're new to the RPG genre, WoW is going to make you think that the game is all about leveling. The 120-level cap in BFA seems almost unreachable at start. And while in the new Classic servers the cap is only 60, due to the difficulty of questing, the leveling process will be even longer.
Also in Classic, the new addons don't function, gold is extremely sparse, and every mob is to be feared. In any case, making your way to the max level is a true adventure. And the real fun only starts there, as reaching the level cap will allow you to start engaging in the exciting endgame content.
8 Some Things Only Happen Once
Similarly to life, World of Warcraft is a game that constantly evolves and changes, whether it be through expansions, patches, or exclusive one-time events. This means that if you failed to join WoW from the start, you've certainly missed a lot of exciting content and unique experiences.
The exclusive one-time events, which occur once and never again, often coincide with new expansion releases. Examples include the Burning Legion Invasion, the so-called Corrupted Blood Plague (a disease that spread to players across the world - yes those are all player corpses in the picture), and the Opening of Ahn'Qiraj that offered a special mount to only one person per realm, ever. Players lucky enough to participate in these will forever have unique and fond memories of the "good old days."
7 It's All About That CC
As a starting player, your primary focus might be on casting spells or attacks for those juicy yellow numbers. That's all fine and dandy - a great damage rotation will go a long way in making you successful in WoW. However, it's the crowd control (CC) abilities that really make or break the game, especially in Classic. New players are usually not aware of the impact a 5-second stun or a root has on their survivability and success.
Each class has at least one crowd control ability, and the game progressively teaches you to apply these to overcome your enemies, lest you die by their hands. They are also the single most important buttons in endgame scenarios and PvP, allowing you to incapacitate raid mobs to keep your party alive or make an enemy player unable to use abilities while you go all out on them.
6 The Possibilities Are Endless
The feeling of venturing into the open world of Azeroth and exploring all it has to offer is undeniably one of the greatest feelings a new World of Warcraft player will ever experience.
Nothing beats the excitement and uncertainty of questing while talking to players from all over the world and reading intriguing and lore-rich stories told by the game's countless NPCs for the first time.
5 There's A Lot To Carry
The exact number of items hidden across Azeroth is virtually unknown, though as of yet, Wowhead.com displays a total of 114509 searchable items on their page. Fittingly, the amount of bags and items you can carry in them is unlike most other RPGs in existence.
In the new Battle for Azeroth expansion, characters can equip up to 5 bags, including their default 16-slot backpack. With the largest equipable bags in the game, the total number of items you can carry around is 144, while bank slots will allow you to back up literally hundreds more. So, if this is the first time you're playing the game, investing in a hefty backpack is the first thing you should do.
4 You'll Get Stuck... A Lot
You'd be surprised how often you'll find your character getting stuck behind various objects, unable to continue your journey and having to resort to using the Hearthstone to teleport all the way back to your designated home inn. But, it gets even worse, you can also get stuck while dead.
World of Warcraft has a somewhat unique death experience that prompts you to travel in ghost form to your body to resurrect. However, if you're unable to access your corpse, you'll have no choice but to resurrect at a graveyard with a penalty (drastically reducing your hit points and damaging your armor).
It gets worse: in some cases, it's possible for even your ghost to get stuck, which is when all hell breaks loose. If this happens to you, the only way out is to contact and rely upon the generosity of a GameMaster to fix the issue.
3 The Economy Is Important
No first-time World of Warcraft player likely ever expected the game would straight-up become a lesson in economy and finance. And yet, maximizing your gold earning is purely that. Gold is extremely important in WoW, and the earliest expansions made it quite a scarce resource, meaning players had to get really creative to obtain large sums of it.
By far the best way to earn gold in WoW is through the Auction House, where you can put up rare and valuable items for other players to bid on. Now, prices of these constantly go up and down, similarly to the prices of stocks in real life. As a first-timer, you'll be surprised how intricate and complex the methods of the best gold-makers are and how similar they are to the real-world economy. Yet, in need of gold and/or items, you'll quickly start catching on and earning some serious dough in the process.
2 The Audio Is Truly Epic
Whoever was in charge of the audio when World of Warcraft was being developed must have been a genius. The music, everything from the cinematics to in-game zone music is absolutely incredible.
On top of that, every ability has a remarkable, distinct sound that makes it easily recognizable from others (and there are hundreds of abilities in World of Warcraft). Hearing WoW music will immediately throw any old player into a nostalgic fit and remind them of all the great times they've had playing the game.
1 Expect Revenge
Similarly to real life, while you're out sharing Azeroth with other players, note that your actions will determine whether you end up on someone's friend list, ignore list, or hit list for years to come.
While it may seem fun to gank an unsuspecting enemy player while they're just questing, it's highly likely that this same player will remember your name and jump at the first opportunity to repay you in kind. That may be today, tomorrow, or 5 years from now, in another expansion.