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How to Plan a New Character Efficiently
来自 dayoodin
[Last Updated]:
2022/01/29
变更日志
补丁:5.4.8
目录
评分:
Purpose
Starting point for less experienced WoW players looking to create a character, noting major decisions that are made early on to reduce d'oh moments later, explaining some of the basic mechanics of the game, and citing a few tips about the user interface and other small details that tend to get overlooked, but are really helpful in starting out. Basically, a culmination of all the things I wish I had known when I first started to play WoW.
Planning Your Character
When you start a new character, there are several decisions to make surrounding the direction in which you want to take it.
Class
Tip: You can change everything about your character later (by paying a fee), but you
cannot
change your class. So, this is probably the most important decision you'll make.
The
class
you select depends entirely on which role you want to perform. In a "battle" situation, these are the three roles to fill for everyone to survive--tank, healer, and damage dealers:
Role
Purpose
Healer
Heals the hurt, especially the tank (if the tank dies, everyone dies).
Tank
Focuses the mob on them, grabbing their attention using well-timed aggro methods and sustaining the majority of the damage.
Damage Dealer
Damages the mob, delivering it either through melee (in-your-face fighting) or casting (sending spells from a distance). The damage, regardless of its delivery method, can can either be immediate or "damage over time" (otherwise known as "DOTs"). When first starting out and getting your feet wet, this is generally an easy class to play, as healers and tanks are a bit more specialized.
Now that you know what the roles are, you can review each
class
in detail to understand the benefits of each and which will support the role you want, as well as consider how your choice of class will affect the professions you choose to do (more on that later).
Keep in mind:
Leveling your character.
In the beginning, your character spends most of its time questing and leveling, which basically involves killing and looting a lot of things. Leveling your character alone is harder to do as a "clothy" (such as Priest or Mage) or leatherwearer (such as Druid or Rogue) than it is as a character who can eventually wear mail (Hunter or Shaman, at level 40) or plate (such as a Warrior or Paladin). On the other hand, most clothies and leatherwearers can both heal themselves
and
do damage, making them a little more self-sufficient for leveling.
Not every class can perform every role.
This means that you cannot play a Warrior and expect to be a healer, too. But several classes can perform more than one role—in fact, some characters, like Druids and Paladins, can do all three roles!
Some roles are more challenging than others.
Healing and tanking can be stressful, requiring a lot of tactical knowledge and perfect timing, with everyone's "lives" in your hands. DPS is generally less challenging, but can be very involved, depending on the situation. At times, it requires multitasking, paying close attention to what's going on around you, so you can stay healthy so the healer can focus on the tank (common sense things, like, don't stand in a fire or be too near the mob when it's spraying poison everywhere), keep "adds" away from the healer so the healer doesn't die (if the healer dies, the tank dies, then everyone else dies), and assist with helping those who cannot help themselves (like freeing others from immobilizing webs).
Ease of getting into raids and dungeons.
Because healing and tanking are more challenging, fewer people choose to play them. This means that if you want to do a lot of raiding and dungeons, you generally will have to wait for less time than a DPS character to get in. I find that healers, especially, are sought after.
PVP versus PVE.
For someone like me, I focus on player versus environment (PVE) for the most part. I do not like player versus player (PVP). If you want to do PVP, though, this may also factor into your decision for what class to be and the role you wish to play.
Tip: In the end, if you really can't decide or want to focus on more than one role, you can do
Dual Talent Specialization
at Level 30.
Glyphs and Talents
As you progress in the game, you will be able to fill your talent tree and glyph table. It's best to consult experienced class players and do research to find out what combinations work best for what role you wish to play. Aside from your gear, your choices in this area are the most deciding factor in your efficiency and effectiveness in your role.
Faction
Now that you know what role you want to play, you can start to build your character. First you must decide if you want to play Horde or Alliance, which are the two main factions in the game.
It is less of a choice between "good" and "bad," and more of a choice between:
Alliance
- Fanciful, attractive, "normal" characters with angelic, clean appearances (like Humans!)
Horde
- Gruesome, less traditional characters with missing jaws and grotesquely colored skin with bones poking out (like
undead
Humans!)
Since more attractive races (like Blood Elves) have been added to the Horde side, in the end, it's really just about your preference for the design of the available races in each and their respective leveling areas, and how each race combines with their available classes (not all races can play every class).
Race
Just as every class cannot perform every role, every
race
cannot play every class. This means that if you want to play a Night Elf, but you also want to be a Shaman, you must eventually choose between being a Shaman or being a Night Elf because you cannot be both. Sometimes a desire to play a particular race dictates your class choice; however, I think it is most typical for people to choose their class first, then select which race to be within that parameter.
Also, some classes just lend themselves to a particular race; for example, Trolls make good hunters because of a Bow Specialization ability they have innately. So, it's good to look over the abilities each race is "born" with to see how that might coincide with your plans.
Naming Your Character
Odds are, the name you want will be taken. If this is the case, these are the tactics I use to try to still get the name I want, even if it isn't what I originally envisioned:
Add an extra character to the end or the beginning
Create an anagram
Try a different language (baby name websites are very handy for this!)
Use wikipedia to find a nuance to name your character after
Spell it phonetically
Take out the vowels
And then here are some examples from my characters:
Nareendi
- Anagram of "Draenei" with an extra "n."
Dayoodin
- This character's original name was "Deudan," an anagram of "undead," but everyone kept pronouncing it wrong, so I changed it to the phonetic spelling of "Dayoodin"
Schattena
- I'd heard a long time ago that "Schatten" is German for "shadow." I wanted my shadow priest to have this name, but it was taken, so I just added an extra "a" at the end.
Hexa
- I originally wanted "Hexe," which was taken, so I changed the last "e" to an "a"! It wasn't taken, and I ended up liking it better than the original name I wanted.
Rmplstltskn
- I wanted a Goblin Warlock named "Rumpelstiltskin," but that name is too long, so I just took out the vowels.
Crepuscular
- This word describes animals that are active at twilight. I gave it to my Druid as her name because she turns into a bat when she flies. (I know, I am a super ultra nerd.)
Choosing Professions
When you are level 5, you will be able to choose your professions. While your character is out and about questing, you can work on these professions, which can be handy in several ways:
Make your own food, clothing, gems, mounts, potions, bandages, and other items
Make money by selling items on the Auction House
Garner achievements and titles
Garner special skills, abilities, and resistances
There are primary, secondary, and tertiary professions.
Primary
With the
primary professions
, you can only pick two. It is important to think this through thoroughly because, even though you can change professions later, it is a lot of work and very time-consuming because you must go back to Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms and raise your professions from 0—it is like leveling your character all over again.
Ideally, you want:
The output from one profession to work as the input for the other.
This simply means that I am not going to choose Herbalism as one profession and Leatherworking as the other--it would make more sense to choose Skinning and Leatherworking because then you have one gathering profession (Skinning) which works as the input for the crafting profession (Leatherworking).
To find an advantage to using a certain profession with your race or class.
Choose professions that make sense for them to do because it gives you an advantage; for example, as a leather wearer, Leatherworking can be a good choice because you can make some of your own clothing. Or, if you are a Hunter, Skinning is good because, as you progress, you can not only make clothing for yourself, you earn a Master of Anatomy ability that increases your critical strike chance, which is handy for bow users—so much the better if you are a Troll, who, as I mentioned earlier, is "born" with an innate Bow Specialization trait. And, some races have an affinity for a particular profession; for example, Draenei are "born" with an innate Gem Cutting ability so doing Jewelcrafting makes sense and Tauren are "born" with a Cultivation ability which makes herbalism a natural for them.
To pick professions that are not unattainable for your play level.
Some primary professions are easy because they are simple gathering professions that fit nicely with other primary professions; these are: Skinning, Herbalism, and Mining. Other primary professions, like Leatherworking, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, and Inscription require the output from these gathering professions, as well as more time and gold, but they are not overly challenging. The remaining primary professions (Enchanting, Engineering, Jewelcrafting, Tailoring) are more advanced, requiring more gold, planning, and patience, but also output from the gathering and less-involved crafting professions and even a reliance on others players to gain experience. These latter professions do not make very good starter professions and work best if you have a lot of gold or you have other high-level, established characters who can help you provide output from other professions. For example, while you can get jewels or metals from Mining, you can't cut the jewels into what you need for enchanting unless you also have Jewelcrafting, nor can you melt the metal into the rods or bars you need unless you also have Blacksmithing. So, it really takes three professions to be a jewelcrafter, but you can only select two--this is where it helps to have another character who might be a miner or a blacksmith (or a guild that can help you out).
Secondary
Secondary professions
are less involved. And, unlike, the primary professions, you can do as many as you want, rather than picking only a couple.
I tend to train them all from the get-go so I don't have to play catch-up later, as I'd rather dig up fossils, fish, cook while I'm already questing in an area where the lakes have the level of fish I need, the mobs drop the cloth and meat I need, and the ground has the items I need to dig up. This is vastly preferable to returning to all the low-level lands as an 85 grinding and killing mobs for their drops or paying insane prices on the Auction House for supplies when you get too bored to collect them yourself. If you want to focus on achievement points, it's especially important to train for all of these right away and do them as you go along or it will be very painful later.
Tertiary
Sometimes primary professions have a tertiary skill associated with them; for example, with Inscription, you might have Herbalism as your second primary profession (going with the tip of making one profession's output be input for the other), but you will also learn how to mill herbs as a part of Inscription, just as you learn to cut gems in Jewelcrafting and cure hides in Leatherworking. These are passive and nothing that you train for specifically.
Setting Up Your User Interface
You don't have to download a bunch of fancy add-ons to make your interface work for you. I still find all that intimidating and I've been playing for years. Here are a few simple user interface changes I made, though, to help a bit--all but one of these are all done directly in the WoW UI without downloading an add-on. To get to the interface menu, I press ESC and click
Interface
in the list that appears, though there may be other methods.
Toolbars and Key Bindings
The WoW interface comes with several toolbars for the middle and left and right sides (all under
Interface > ActionBars
). However, I found this was not enough, so the only add-on I have is one that allows me to have more toolbars than are available by default. Along with these, key bindings (press ESC and click
Key Bindings
) are an important way to create mindless efficiency.
WoW has some default key bindings that are helpful in pulling up information about your character. These are all available in the lower right of the toolbar near your bag information. By pressing one letter, you can pull up your character information, your list of quests, your bags, and more! Run your mouse over each to see what letter to use. One that isn't listed that might be useful is that to see your friends, open your friends list by typing the letter
O
.
Map
If it isn't done for you by default, zoom out on the map in the upper left all the way, so that you can see the biggest area possible. This is especially helpful with trying to perform gathering professions or as a hunter to see mobs. At this time, you can also make sure your map is "showing" the things you want to see (such as where a bank is or where the nearest herbs are).
Information Windows
There are chat-type information windows that appear by default on your screen:
General
and
Combat Log
. The general one is pretty much a chat window and the combat log is a "what happened" window that gives you specific details of fights, including what happened to you, what happened to others, what you did to others, and more. I stack these on top of one another, instead of leaving them in the default tab state. It takes up more UI space, but I can see them both at once, which is more important to me and not too distracting if I make them transparent. You can change the colors, transparency, and all sorts of details to make them as useful to you as possible.
Tip: With regard to interacting with other characters, you do this in the
General
window. This can be both fun or bothersome:
Fun.
You can do some RP, if you want, such as typing
/hug
or
/highfive
or
/dance
—the options are endless! I don't do it too much, but if someone helps me defeat a mob or rezzes me after I died in a dungeon, I do a
/thank
. Just like in real life, small things like that make a big difference in interacting with people!
Bothersome.
If someone is pestering you with whispers while you're out questing or yelling profanities in a large city, you can always
/ignore
their character. This way, anything they "say" will never appear in your chat window again. (On the flip side, if you find someone fun and want to be friends with them, you can do a
/friend
!)
Titles and Names
You can turn off the titles for NPCs, other characters, and their pets. This can be helpful if you feel your screen is too cluttered with extraneous information. For example, I don't feel it's necessary when I'm walking through Elwynn Forest to have all the level 1 squirrels labeled as such. You can do all this under
Interface > Names
.
Miscellaneous Tips
Read Quest Text
It can be tempting to just grab a quest and go, but it's helpful to actually read the quest text, as it often contains important instructions regarding where something might be or how to complete it successfully. If you ever get frustrated because it seems like there's a "bug" in a quest, first stop and read the quest text thoroughly to make sure you aren't missing an element.
Tip: By reading the quest text, you can also learn the lore of the game, which can be fun and interesting, as well as help with an understanding of why things are the way they are.
Autoloot
Autoloot is your friend—be sure to turn it on! Select the
Auto Loot
checkbox under
Interface > Controls
.
Funding Your Character
I use "older" characters to purchase and send larger bags to my new character so they have more room for items while questing, as well as to send a little gold (50G lasts a while for new characters) to assist with training and such.
If you don't have older characters, don't fret. The game makes sure you at least get enough money from quest rewards and looting (always loot your kills—not only do you get money but they might drop an item that starts a new quest line that you would otherwise miss!) to be able to do your training and professions and to be able to do riding when it's time for that. To earn extra, along with normal gray and white drops that you can sell at any vendor, be sure to auction any green or blue drops you get that you can't use that are "bind when equipped" in the Auction House, as well as any output from your professions. The things that may have to wait are usually just superficial, like fancy gear you can buy at the Auction House, frivolities like companion pets, and, later, epic cold weather flying—all of which you'll earn in time, but you can't expect to have right away.
Training
The game is very obvious about it when it's time to train a new ability—like talent points, it tells you in the UI when you level up if there are any new spells you can get from your trainer.
Gear
I alluded earlier to the fact that some characters can wear cloth, others plate, still others leather. What is important to know here is that there are varying types of plate, varying types of cloth, varying types of mail, etc. This means that just because a piece is mail does not mean it is best for your Shaman, as it may contain stats that are meant for a Hunter. Similarly, just because a piece is cloth, it doesn't mean that it's meant for a Priest—it might be better for a Mage.
Tip: Pay attention to any armor proficiencies you gain; for example, when a Shaman hits level 40, they can wear mail instead of just cloth or leather, which greatly reduces squishiness.
Guild
If you don't already have a guild, you can keep an eye out for guild invitations, making sure that your goals for the game coincide with the guild's goals (for example, don't join a raiding guild if you don't want raiding to be your main focus in the game).
Tip: Sometimes an easy way to earn gold, especially if you are just starting out and have no higher-level characters to fund you, is if you are in a large city and someone is asking for people to sign their guild charter for 5 or 10 gold. If you are guildless, you can sign the charter, get the gold, then
/gquit
(sometimes you won't have a choice and they'll kick you out because they have specific plans for the guild).
Leveling
The more characters you make, the more you'll become acquainted with how it works. You start in the super newb-newb area (until about level 3), then go to the newb-newb area (level 5 or so), then the newb area (level 10 or so), and then you are released into the wide world on your own! Typically what happens is: You get a quest where you kill a bunch of things, then you get a quest to kill a smaller bunch of similar-but-tougher things, then you get a quest to kill the leader of those bunches of things and then the quest chain ends and you get a piece of gear. The quest chain you do to get
The Green Hills of Stranglethorn
is a perfect example of this.
Tip: While leveling, do all the quests in an area to earn the questing achievement for it and also complete the map of the area to get that achievement. The more of that you do now, the less you have to do later when you are "grown-up"! (I am big into killing two or more birds with one stone in this game, if I can.)
Conclusion
Obviously, there are a lot of other game nuances I have not gone over here, especially given all of the patches that have gone in since I wrote this 10 years ago (it's 2022 now) and all the confusing re-releasings of everything, but in general these are the very basics that will get you started on the right foot.
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评论
评论来自
SquireKel
This is truly a great guide. Very novel topic, well laid out. My only thought is that with so much text, some pictures would go a long way toward breaking things up and making the guide even better. Other than that, it looks great!
评论来自
989407
Very well written and informative. Includes basically everything a new player would need to know to get started, as well as some nice tips. Good job!
评论来自
FatalHeaven
Great guide. Very
-very-
minor detail. When discussing classes towards the beginning of the guide you cite Warriors and Paladins as "always wearing plate." They in fact wear mail until level 40 when it is then that plate becomes available to them. The only class currently in game who always wears plate from the point of creation is a Death Knight. (Which is only relevant for players who already have a player above level 55.)
Other than that I highly suggest images to break up the text and make the guide more "colorful."
Overall, fantastic guide. :)
评论来自
Padsoldier
Class section: Paladins can also perform in any role, but they're easier than Druids for a beginner, so it wouldn't hurt mentioning them too.
I really liked the "Naming Your Character" part, as that part is often difficult for me. Good job overall.
评论来自
1064255
Over the time that I've played WoW, I've made quite a lot of characters. The reason being is that I want to find that certain race/class combination that would fit me. My highest leveled character would be my 86 Tauren Druid, named Undeadtaco. This is a wonderful guide, as I read it, and should help some newbies to the game create a new character for PvP, PvE, and RP. Yet, I think I should've checked it out before naming my Druid... Oh well. Fantastic job, dayoodin!
评论来自
1062406
I should have read this guide before I named my Panda Rogue Pandarogue. LOL
Great guide by the way! Thanks for sharing!
评论来自
Isgebind
A couple of things for this excellent guide:
If you come back, perhaps you could add Monks to the Paladins/Druids as classes that can perform tanking, healing, and DPSing roles.
"nor can you melt the metal into the rods or bars you need unless you also have Blacksmithing."
The bars part here is somewhat misleading, as you'd only need Mining to melt them into bars.
Gear section: "I eluded earlier to the fact that some characters can wear"
The word you're using is actually "alluded"--to elude something is to try to escape it.
评论来自
1004665
This is a great guide for beginners, but I'm thinking you should add a section on choosing your server; PVP/PVE/RP, and maybe even mention something about the pros and cons of server traffic (full vs low).
评论来自
harrithebona
Nice guide it really helped me to level :)
评论来自
dattenborough
Great guide. I find most of this site (wowhead) generally unhelpful as a new player. Everything seems to be in code. I'd actually appreciate if you could define "aggro". Thanks!
评论来自
1015609
LOVE this guide. Have you written one or do you know of one that explains DPS, mastery vs. crit vs. hit, the talent tree options, glyphs, etc. for the beginner? I didn't have a guild or mentor explain these things when I started and I made some very poor choices not knowing the later ramifications. While it is possible to change these things later in your character development, it would have saved a bit of embarrassment in dungeons. Could not understand why I was being told I was dragging the group down, getting kicked out, when I was "hitting" it with everything I had. I mean, it worked questing!
I now have a lvl 90 retro pally with the wrong gear, wrong talent specs, and wrong glyphs. Would have helped to have a little more insight to why I was choosing things - and this is my first MMOG, so to say I was clueless, is a vast understatement!
I think many new players are told to just jump in and learn as you go without understand the little things that make such a big difference or are mislead by players that tell them to "just follow us" in a dungeon, gaining experience and loot we didn't earn.
Again, thanks for a great guide and oh how I wish I had read it when I started playing!
评论来自
1210757
Great guide! Only suggestion i have is that you should add accents and stuff in the name section. It makes it much easier to use the name you want, for example my character name is åura
评论来自
Warramir
Nice guide, very helpfull for new players.
评论来自
Vergrim
I agree with many of the positive comments from the others. This guide is simple and clear enough to help a starting player.
One other thing I thought of to add, perhaps is a bit more about the social aspect of the game. New players are often unaware of the different types of players (good and bad) that they may encounter, or may join huge leveling guilds at first invitation and find themselves lost in the shuffle.
Also, returning players often meet a chilly reception while they are relearning their class and readjusting to new zones and encounters. Perhaps a small section on the best ways to group and the features that allow you to deal with the less savory elements of the WoW player base would help new/returning players as well.
评论来自
1406853
Definitely wish I would have read this when I started 6 months ago. Would have had an easier time. I love how you guys actually talk to newbs like me like the humans we are...don't get that many places anymore. Thanks!
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