For some players, WoW Classic is a nostalgic trip back to the MMO of nearly 20 years ago, while for others, it's a chance to dive into the world of Azeroth as it was originally designed. For complete newcomers, however, Classic can be pretty overwhelming. Unlike modern WoW, the game doesn't hold your hand, and you're often thrown in at the deep end to figure things out on your own. But with this guide, you won't need to learn the hard way.
Today, we'll cover all the core aspects of the game and share practical tips for beginners, so you can hit the ground running and enjoy Azeroth without feeling lost.
Your Character
Alright, so let's say you've already created a character with a chosen faction, class, and race. Now, let's look at what your hero has once you're actually in the game.
First up are your abilities. You'll get some of them at the very start of the game and then unlock new ones every even level. They won't just appear automatically, though; you'll have to visit a class trainer to learn new skills. Some abilities also come with ranks, meaning you can upgrade them (also at a class trainer). Whenever you learn or upgrade a spell, make sure to drag the new version onto your action bar. Otherwise, you might end up using the weaker version by accident and wonder why your damage feels like you're poking mobs with a stick.
At level 10, you also unlock talents. Each class has three different talent trees, and you can progress through them by inserting points into talents (points are earned as you level up). Once you drop a point, it cannot be refunded. It's only possible to respec completely (reset your entire tree), but it's not free, and each time you do it, the cost goes up.
On top of that, once you hit level 5, you can start working on extra skills with professions. You can choose up to two primary professions and as many secondary ones as you want. Professions let you either collect resources out in the world (ores, herbs, skins, etc.) or craft useful stuff like gear, weapons, and potions. You can learn a profession at a profession trainer; this NPC will also help you level up your profession rank to unlock new skill brackets, as well as new recipes and higher-quality items that come along.
The In-Game World
The game's world is split into continents, each made up of zones that have their own theme, creatures, and related storylines. There are also cities, the big player hubs that give you access to vendors, trainers, the Auction House, and other useful services.
Much like in any other MMO, your main goal in Classic is to make your character more powerful to unlock tougher content and better rewards. You'll need to earn XP to level up (all the way to level 60) and collect various equipment, like weapons or armor, to raise your item level (also called gear score).
There are three main ways to gain XP:
- Questing
- Grinding mobs, i.e., killing lots of enemies in a particular spot or zone
- Running dungeons
As for gear, you'll naturally pick it up as you go from quests, dungeon bosses, or even random mob drops. Later on, at max level, the best gear will come from raids. You can also craft your own gear or buy it from the game's Auction House.
The In-Game Economy
Since we're talking about buying things, let's cover the basics of the in-game economy.
WoW Classic gold is the currency that keeps everything running. You'll need it for ability training, profession materials and recipes, consumables and gear repairs, your level 40 and level 60 mounts, and lots of other stuff.
You can earn gold directly from mob drops and quest rewards, or by selling useless loot to vendors. But the real heart of WoW's economy is the Auction House. It works like a traditional auction: you list an item, set a bid price and auction duration, and then other players can place their offers. You can also add a buyout price that lets someone instantly purchase the item without waiting for the auction to expire. There are also a couple of fees to pay: a non-refundable cut plus a deposit, which you only get back if the item sells.
Pretty much anything that isn't BoP (Bind-on-Pickup, meaning it sticks to your character when you loot it) can be sold on the Auction House. Usually, players make money from selling gathered resources, crafted items, gear drops (green quality and above), and sometimes even quest rewards.
Core Activities
Questing
Questing is your main way of leveling and exploring the world in WoW Classic. From the very first minutes of the game, NPCs will start handing you different tasks, like killing some mobs, collecting items, or delivering messages. In return, you'll get XP, gold, resources, and sometimes gear.
Quests you can accept are marked with yellow and blue (for repeatable quests) exclamation marks above an NPC's head. When you're ready to hand one in, the symbol changes to a question mark. If it's grayed out, that means you haven't yet met the requirements.
Dungeons
Once you hit level 10, you can start running dungeons. Those are special instanced areas filled with enemies, and you'll need a full group of five players to take them down.
Dungeons reward you with hefty XP and some of the best loot upgrades while leveling, including blue gear and, on rare occasions, even purple items. For many classes, dungeons drop pre-BiS pieces, which are gear that's considered best-in-slot before you step into raid content.
Before doing a dungeon run, don't forget to grab all available dungeon quests, as they're the main source of your rewards. Some of these quests can be picked up well before you're even able to enter the dungeon, so try not to skip anything.
Raids
If dungeons are the training grounds, raids are the real test of your skills. These are large-scale group activities where dozens of players team up to take down powerful bosses. Raids offer the strongest gear in the game, epic weapons, tier sets, and other items you'll keep for a long time.
Some raids won't let you in until you complete a special chain of quests or dungeons called attunement. Depending on the Classic version you're playing, raids can also come with different difficulty modes (for example, Normal vs. Heroic). Higher difficulty offers more serious challenges, but the rewards scale up, too.
PvP Content
If fighting other players is more your style, Classic has a bunch of PvP options for you to try out:
- With Dueling, you can challenge other players to 1v1 fights.
- You can also engage in Battlegrounds, which are massive PvP fights on structured maps with specific objectives like capturing the enemy flag or controlling resource nodes.
Classic also offers the Honor System. By scoring Honorable Kills (taking down players of the opposite faction within 11 levels of you) and playing Battlegrounds, you earn Honor points. These points increase your PvP rank (there are 14 in total), and with each new rank, you'll get unique rewards like gear, mounts, and titles.
And if you're playing on progression Classic (the version that follows WoW's expansion timeline and is currently at Mists of Pandaria Classic), you'll also have access to Arenas. These are small-scale, highly competitive PvP matches that also come with their own ranking system and rewards.
