WoW Classic Starting Tips: What To Do First

While Word of Warcraft Retail is giving you a lot of assistance right from the start, WoW Classic offers you a lot less orientation, no matter whether you choose WotLK Classic, a Classic Era realm or the Season of Discovery version of World of Warcraft Classic.

This article will guide you through the basics that most WoW Classic game versions have in common, starting from the moment you enter the world. Whether you're a seasoned MMO veteran or completely new to the genre, we've prepared a few tips that will help you during your first steps in Azeroth.

When entering the game, you'll find yourself in a starting zone, specific to your chosen race. Your adventure begins here. But before making your very first moves, you should start with some interface adjustments.

WoW Classic Tips: First Steps

Setting Up Action Bars

The action bars are your main control hubs for your character's abilities and spells. By default, WoW Classic shows only one action bar, so you should enable more right from the start for easy access to more abilities and more sorting options. To do this, press 'Escape,' go to the 'Interface Options,' choose 'Action Bars,' and enable the additional bars.

You can drag and drop spells and abilities from your spellbook (default hotkey 'P') to your action bars. The main action bar at the bottom has keybinds from 1 to 9 per default. We recommend binding your most important fighting abilities to keys 1-5. As soon as you get non-fighting skills in your spellbook (like Cooking, for example), you best put them into the two right action bars to always maintain an overview of where your fighting skills and non-fighting skills are located.

Leveling Up With Quests

Your primary goal in every World of Warcraft version is to level up. In WoW Classic, leveling is supposed to be a marathon and not a sprint. Killing enemies, completing quests, and exploring new areas all grant experience points which you can see in the experience bar above your action bar. Focusing on questing and killing mobs (which is part of many quests) is generally the most efficient way to level up.

You can identify quest-givers by the yellow exclamation marks over their heads. Interacting with them will open a quest dialogue, offering background and objectives. You can look up all your current quests in your questlog (default hotkey 'L'). Completing these objectives and returning to the quest-giver grants you XP and sometimes also rewards like items or equipment. Quests range from killing a certain number of creatures to collecting items or exploring unknown territories.

In Azeroth, you'll encounter enemies of various levels. Pay attention to the color of the mob's level displayed next to their health bar. If it's red, the enemy is much higher level than you and you'll most likely not able to beat it. Green and yellow indicate that the enemy is around your level and should be manageable.

Resting XP Bonus

When you log out in an inn or a major city, you'll accumulate Rested XP, noticeable by your XP bar turning blue. When you return, you'll gain double the experience points from killing monsters until your Rested XP is used up. This system encourages taking breaks and making your leveling journey more efficient upon return.

To maximize your Rested XP, we recommend to always log out in an inn or a capital city. You can tell you're in a rest area when your character portrait displays 'ZZZ'. Not only does this give you the Rested XP bonus, but it also ensures you're in a safe spot when you log back in.

Buying New Skills

Unlike in modern WoW, in Classic, you must purchase your class's new abilities and skills as you level up. Every two levels, visit your class trainer, typically found in larger towns or cities (ask a guard to get the exact location), to learn new skills. These skills cost in-game gold, so managing your gold is an essential aspect of the game. Always prioritize crucial skills for your class and role.

With these tips, you're now equipped to begin your adventure in Azeroth. You should be able to get used to WoW Classic's game mechanics pretty fast and should not get into bigger trouble until you reach level 10.

Reaching level 10 enables your Talent tree (default hotkey 'N'), where you can now choose a specialization for your class and unlock special skills. You'll get one new talent point per level. Spend them, and spend them wisely, as every talent point reset will cost you gold.

And now have fun with World of Warcraft, the most addictive game ever made!