The purple / blue horizontal line towards the bottom of the screen is the XP (experience bar). When it's full, you have achieved a new level and the bar will reset to zero. Each level requires more XP points to complete. If you mouse over the bar, it will flash up your progress in numbers, i.e. x/y, e.g. 15000/33800.
The purple bar is the normal bar. An explanation pop up when you mouse over the bar. A blue bar is a well resting bar. You will gain double xp points than you would with a purple bar when the bar is blue. The bar turns blue after spending time in areas, such as an inn or a city where your level bar reads 'zzz'. It's therefore advisable to log out if you can in side an inn or city to accumulate more time in the blue bar status.
A notch will appear to indicate how rested you are. You will accumulate one bar of rest for every 8 hours spent in a resting area. The counter continues even when you're logged off. A maximum of 30 bars, i.e. 10 days of being logged off can be accumulated at any one time.
If you are outside of an inn or city, being logged off still accumulates rest points but at a rate of 25% of that gained whilst in an inn or city.
Do note that only combat points is affected by a rested state. Any xp points gained in any other way, such as quests or discovery / exploration, is not affected.
One last note: resting is based on character not account. By having more than one character you can continuously play in the blue state, earning double xp points and hence leveling up faster.
The official word on resting can be found here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/resting.html
Friday, 29 February 2008
On returning to the inn
There's always end-of-day type tasks to complete when you come home with bags filled to the brim with treasure - or junk more often. Do them as you come in - that way when you log in again you can head out straight away, without having to do boring chores. As the last action of game play, it feels like reward time. As the first action of game play, it feels like a waste of time.
Here's the list:
Here's the list:
- Repair: Hit a repair person first. Don't worry about the content of your bags. When you repair items, it does not repair items in your bag, it only repairs items that are equipped. However, since you're here, you might as well sell or your junk.
- Selling: Do your homework well before you sell anything. Don't go on the colour coding of grey-white-green-blue etc. when selling items. This is a misleading assumption. Certain junk (grey items) which are of inferior quality are used in various recipes as reagents and may sell well on the auction house. When you start in a new area, have a browser running nearby and research each junk item before selling. If there's any resell value, save it for the auction house. If you will be needing it later as an ingredient yourself, stack and deposit in the bank whenever you are near one. You'll be very thankful later when creating a single item requires 4 pearls or 4 large fangs for which the drop rate is miniscule - but you have plenty in the bank from earlier levels. Only sell grey and white items that are truly worthless.
- Cooking: Buy any spices from whichever vendor that sells 'em to cook all the meat you've just collected. Know your recipes by area. If you're in Hillsbrand Foothills, you'll probably come back with lion, big bear, clam and turtle meat. Most cooked products will sell for double what the raw ingredients sell for. Level up your cooking by picking up recipes relevent to your area (either via the auction house, local quests or local vendors). You don't need 'em all, just one or two will do. Buy what spices you need first - particularly if the vendor who sells them is not located inside the inn. Make your way to the nearest cooking fire - usually near or inside the inn - and cook all you have ingredients for. Keep a portion for yourself as needed and sell the rest to the nearest vendor.
- Check your mail - if you have any and action appropriately.
- Log out - If you're not already inside the inn, make your way to the inn. Wait for the zzz bar to come up. Most of the time the zzz bar flashes up whilst standing next to the post box outside the inn. Make your way to the front door of the inn and log out here. This way, when you begin your play tomorrow, you're ready to head out immediately.
Repair
The mini-map at the top right corner of the screen has a selection of search and display on map functions. One of these are 'repair'. When entering a new area, select 'repair' and yellow dots will indicate where nearby vendors are located who will repair your gear.
Always repair as you go along, either on returning to the village or just before exiting the village. It's worth the little extra hassle. If you always repair it means your gear will never break on you, you will not neglect to repair significant damage by rezzing in the graveyard and I repeat, your gear will not begin to fail when you're far away from any repair person or break in the midst of fighting a monster.
Look after your gear and it will look after you. :)
Always repair as you go along, either on returning to the village or just before exiting the village. It's worth the little extra hassle. If you always repair it means your gear will never break on you, you will not neglect to repair significant damage by rezzing in the graveyard and I repeat, your gear will not begin to fail when you're far away from any repair person or break in the midst of fighting a monster.
Look after your gear and it will look after you. :)
Level 1 - 6
The first six levels truly are for newbies. They are designed to teach, via assimilation, how to play the game: how to move, how to fight, how to use your bag, how to train, how to quest, how to explore and how to have fun whilst doing all these things. New to just about everything, I found them invaluable. The first time I logged in was as a night-elf druid in Shadowglen. It was nerve wracking. I admit to suffering from a little stage fright until I realized that I wasn't on stage.
There's a time and place for everything in Wow and the start-up areas are generally secluded villages surrounded by high mountains that instantly illicit a warm and fuzzy feeling. It's a safe and very forgiving place with very few gawkers. It took about 2-3 hours of interrupted game time the first time to get to level 6. I was keen to log out often and despite a voice over from Chris sitting next to me on where to go and what to do, it remained a stressful event. I was new and everybody could tell. It felt as if the world was staring at me. Only, it wasn't. Mostly, there were only NPC's.
My second start-up was a Gnome Rogue beginning in Coldridge Valley. It took about 45 minutes to level through to six. The dwarf paladin came next and since it was also in Coldridge Valley, it was a mere 30 minutes to reach level 6. I still enjoy spending the occasional 45 minutes leveling up a new character. There is a sense of security to be had from the definite familiarity of repeating the same process regularly.
First there's the start-up video - gotta watch the video. I first shuffle my keys so that all similar buttons for different characters are in the same spaces. Attack in the middle, intro spells on the right and finishing spells on the left. I pick up the first couple of quests - usually kill quests right next to where you're standing and take out 50 - 100% more than the quest requires.
Around level 3-4 there's usually a delivery quest to somewhere else in the valley. I take it and pick up any quests offered along the way. As I go along, I equip any loot or quest reward items that is superior to what I have as well as all and any bags. There's also a 'find your trainer' quest thrown in around level 4. If you loot and sell stuff to vendors from the get go, you will have plenty of money to pay for any training by the time you reach your trainer at level 4.
The last quest of the start-up valley is usually a group / 'dungeon' quest. By this point, if you've killed a little more than was asked you're already at level six and can with a little care solo the group quest within a few minutes. As soon as the quest is finished I hearth-stone out.
At level six, I find a repair person where I repair all gear and sell all junk, I visit my class trainer for the last time and learn all spells up to level six. It is time to say goodbye to the safe little valley that now feels like home but will soon be forgotten. If you're sentimental, take a screen shot as a souvenir, it will be a long time - if ever - until you lay eyes on this little town again and begin the long and winding road to the nearest town. Either in the start-up valley or along the way, there will be delivery quests directing you toward the town and there's usually at least one - such as stealing ten pumpkins if you're undead or fighting through the pass if you're a dwarf or a gnome - that allows you to collect additional xp. Take it. Take it all. By the time you reach the town, you'll be level six and three quarters.
On reaching the town, have a quick run around. Talk to all vendors, find any trainers and finally make your way to the inn. Set your hearthstone to the inn here and settle in, you're done.
There's a time and place for everything in Wow and the start-up areas are generally secluded villages surrounded by high mountains that instantly illicit a warm and fuzzy feeling. It's a safe and very forgiving place with very few gawkers. It took about 2-3 hours of interrupted game time the first time to get to level 6. I was keen to log out often and despite a voice over from Chris sitting next to me on where to go and what to do, it remained a stressful event. I was new and everybody could tell. It felt as if the world was staring at me. Only, it wasn't. Mostly, there were only NPC's.
My second start-up was a Gnome Rogue beginning in Coldridge Valley. It took about 45 minutes to level through to six. The dwarf paladin came next and since it was also in Coldridge Valley, it was a mere 30 minutes to reach level 6. I still enjoy spending the occasional 45 minutes leveling up a new character. There is a sense of security to be had from the definite familiarity of repeating the same process regularly.
First there's the start-up video - gotta watch the video. I first shuffle my keys so that all similar buttons for different characters are in the same spaces. Attack in the middle, intro spells on the right and finishing spells on the left. I pick up the first couple of quests - usually kill quests right next to where you're standing and take out 50 - 100% more than the quest requires.
Around level 3-4 there's usually a delivery quest to somewhere else in the valley. I take it and pick up any quests offered along the way. As I go along, I equip any loot or quest reward items that is superior to what I have as well as all and any bags. There's also a 'find your trainer' quest thrown in around level 4. If you loot and sell stuff to vendors from the get go, you will have plenty of money to pay for any training by the time you reach your trainer at level 4.
The last quest of the start-up valley is usually a group / 'dungeon' quest. By this point, if you've killed a little more than was asked you're already at level six and can with a little care solo the group quest within a few minutes. As soon as the quest is finished I hearth-stone out.
At level six, I find a repair person where I repair all gear and sell all junk, I visit my class trainer for the last time and learn all spells up to level six. It is time to say goodbye to the safe little valley that now feels like home but will soon be forgotten. If you're sentimental, take a screen shot as a souvenir, it will be a long time - if ever - until you lay eyes on this little town again and begin the long and winding road to the nearest town. Either in the start-up valley or along the way, there will be delivery quests directing you toward the town and there's usually at least one - such as stealing ten pumpkins if you're undead or fighting through the pass if you're a dwarf or a gnome - that allows you to collect additional xp. Take it. Take it all. By the time you reach the town, you'll be level six and three quarters.
On reaching the town, have a quick run around. Talk to all vendors, find any trainers and finally make your way to the inn. Set your hearthstone to the inn here and settle in, you're done.
How many (main) characters are too many (main) characters?
Most people have one or two 'mains' and then a few 'toons.' An staggering amount of work goes into creating a main. Leveling up is time consuming, fitting out a character with appropriate gear is both expensive and time consuming and then there's the 5 professions to level up too. A well rounded high-level character takes months to years in the making for casual gamers and is a serious creation.
How many mains depend on the number of hours invested weekly in game play. If you work full-time and/or plenty of over-time and have any life outside of Azeroth, there will never be time to have many. With one, leveling up within months is doable, with two, you may be looking at years. However, this assumes that as well as leveling up, you will also spend time enjoying the scenery, exploring the regions and paying attention to your professions, i.e. no power leveling to be found here. It also assumes that you will be making money for your mount at Level 40 (around 100 gold) by auctioning unwanted items. The auction house eats up time at an alarming rate. If you simply grind, farm or quest your way up, you could probably fit in one, maybe even two mains. In order for a character to really be a main character, it has to be said that you will need to play that character for at least a few times during the week, otherwise you loose the feel for it.
Start up as many as you want. Blizzard allows a total of 50 characters on an account and 10 characters on a realm, so use it. There is no law stating that you simply have to level up to the top, or that you have to do it as fast as possible. The reason why casual gamers flock to Azeroth is the sheer volume of activities. You can be a clothier or a weapon smith, a professional lock-picker or a fisherman. However, if you don't enjoy the hunt, don't bother. Most of your time will be spent killing things in the manner of your choosing.
If you find a play style that suits you well, you will probably never want to have more than one main character. If you are a little indecisive or learn through experience, you will probably test drive all the different classes before committing to a single main. If you are a casual gamer, i.e. someone who has a a full-time job and commitments who plays as a hobby, there will never be enough time to all the things that you want to do and be all the things you want to be. Choose one character and you will get to shape and mould him/her into something equating an excellent car, or maybe more like growing a second skin. Through your characters' eyes, you will be able to engage in a great many different types of activities to satisfy any mood that you happen to be in when you play.
The choice of how many has a simply solution - quality or quantity. Have one and you will have time to customize, develop and individualize it. Have many and your play will be superficial, but varied. Depth or variety. Or possibly, a happy comprise of 3 - 4 mains that are leveled up slowly. The choice is yours.
How many mains depend on the number of hours invested weekly in game play. If you work full-time and/or plenty of over-time and have any life outside of Azeroth, there will never be time to have many. With one, leveling up within months is doable, with two, you may be looking at years. However, this assumes that as well as leveling up, you will also spend time enjoying the scenery, exploring the regions and paying attention to your professions, i.e. no power leveling to be found here. It also assumes that you will be making money for your mount at Level 40 (around 100 gold) by auctioning unwanted items. The auction house eats up time at an alarming rate. If you simply grind, farm or quest your way up, you could probably fit in one, maybe even two mains. In order for a character to really be a main character, it has to be said that you will need to play that character for at least a few times during the week, otherwise you loose the feel for it.
Start up as many as you want. Blizzard allows a total of 50 characters on an account and 10 characters on a realm, so use it. There is no law stating that you simply have to level up to the top, or that you have to do it as fast as possible. The reason why casual gamers flock to Azeroth is the sheer volume of activities. You can be a clothier or a weapon smith, a professional lock-picker or a fisherman. However, if you don't enjoy the hunt, don't bother. Most of your time will be spent killing things in the manner of your choosing.
If you find a play style that suits you well, you will probably never want to have more than one main character. If you are a little indecisive or learn through experience, you will probably test drive all the different classes before committing to a single main. If you are a casual gamer, i.e. someone who has a a full-time job and commitments who plays as a hobby, there will never be enough time to all the things that you want to do and be all the things you want to be. Choose one character and you will get to shape and mould him/her into something equating an excellent car, or maybe more like growing a second skin. Through your characters' eyes, you will be able to engage in a great many different types of activities to satisfy any mood that you happen to be in when you play.
The choice of how many has a simply solution - quality or quantity. Have one and you will have time to customize, develop and individualize it. Have many and your play will be superficial, but varied. Depth or variety. Or possibly, a happy comprise of 3 - 4 mains that are leveled up slowly. The choice is yours.
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
Black-out Wednesdays
It's 11:08 a.m. (12:08 CET) and the World of Warcraft site is still down for maintenance. Nothing unusual, I rarely expect it to be up before noon, but it would've been nice if it was back on-line on time. If I can't play, I might as well blog about playing. Addicted? Who me? Never. I'm just not a hard core player. Wish I was; wish I could be some days, but musculoskeletal problems and well, having a non-virtual life sort of preclude ridiculously long stints glued to a chair, monitor and computer keyboard.
I have never played any MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) before. In fact, I have never understood the appeal of gaming in general. Bring out a board of Scrabble or Monopoly any day, but computer games held no allure. I did find myself with an inordinate amount of free time due to major physical restrictions over the last couple of years, and my husband gently tried to fill the empty hours with gaming. First arrival was a copy of an outdated Simcity picked up at a car boot sale for 20 pence. It was fun for a few days, but grew a little tedious. He came home with an old version of The Sims from the car boot sale the following week, purchased for 10 p. A similar pattern emerged. It was fun figuring out the game play, but then it becomes boring. The next car boot sale yielded the latest version of Simcity and it was amusing for a whole two weeks. Christmas came and I received a copy of The Sims II, which was amusing all through January and then petered out rather quickly.
Wondering yet why my husband has been trying to raise my interest and awareness of computer games? Well, he's had his eye on World of Warcraft for three years. But unless I play, or find some hobby that I can engage in for more than 10 minutes at a time, he doesn't have the time to play. Being the ever loving wife that I am, I bought him 'The Burning Crusade" pack for Christmas. (I knew so little about gaming that he did not receive a wrapped packaged, but instead a trip to PC world and the gaming isle.) I also reassured him that he could indulge at his leisure without any unnecessary interruptions.
However, I thought it necessary to occasionally interrupt with important questions. Whilst reading my book on the couch whilst he played, I couldn't help but notice the screen. Within a week, I was a passenger seat driver, directing his game play. So much so, that was banned from the living room whilst he played. I couldn't help myself, it was just so interesting and luring. Three weeks later, I received a belated second Christmas present - my very own Warcraft installation pack.
Less than two months later and here I sit on a Wednesday morning, twiddling my thumbs and waiting impatiently to log in. I want to level up my rogue, I want to go farming, I want to twink my Level 18 hunter just a little bit and I even have the shopping list to prove it.
I have never played any MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) before. In fact, I have never understood the appeal of gaming in general. Bring out a board of Scrabble or Monopoly any day, but computer games held no allure. I did find myself with an inordinate amount of free time due to major physical restrictions over the last couple of years, and my husband gently tried to fill the empty hours with gaming. First arrival was a copy of an outdated Simcity picked up at a car boot sale for 20 pence. It was fun for a few days, but grew a little tedious. He came home with an old version of The Sims from the car boot sale the following week, purchased for 10 p. A similar pattern emerged. It was fun figuring out the game play, but then it becomes boring. The next car boot sale yielded the latest version of Simcity and it was amusing for a whole two weeks. Christmas came and I received a copy of The Sims II, which was amusing all through January and then petered out rather quickly.
Wondering yet why my husband has been trying to raise my interest and awareness of computer games? Well, he's had his eye on World of Warcraft for three years. But unless I play, or find some hobby that I can engage in for more than 10 minutes at a time, he doesn't have the time to play. Being the ever loving wife that I am, I bought him 'The Burning Crusade" pack for Christmas. (I knew so little about gaming that he did not receive a wrapped packaged, but instead a trip to PC world and the gaming isle.) I also reassured him that he could indulge at his leisure without any unnecessary interruptions.
However, I thought it necessary to occasionally interrupt with important questions. Whilst reading my book on the couch whilst he played, I couldn't help but notice the screen. Within a week, I was a passenger seat driver, directing his game play. So much so, that was banned from the living room whilst he played. I couldn't help myself, it was just so interesting and luring. Three weeks later, I received a belated second Christmas present - my very own Warcraft installation pack.
Less than two months later and here I sit on a Wednesday morning, twiddling my thumbs and waiting impatiently to log in. I want to level up my rogue, I want to go farming, I want to twink my Level 18 hunter just a little bit and I even have the shopping list to prove it.
- Silk Cloth And Wool Cloth
- Bronze Bars
- Fire Oil
- Large Fangs
- Medium Leather And Heavy Leather
- Small Illustrious Pearls
- Fade leaf
- Grave moss
- Silver ore
- Lesser Astral Essence
- Fine Thread
- Grey Dye
