So after X amount of years im finally debateing whether to play wow or not.  I have friends who have played it or are returning to play it but myself i have never even tryed the trial.

Im a old skool online gamer , played all the MMO's back in the day,   mainly pvp ones IE: Neocron1+2//SWG//DAOC//EvE(which im playing now still) i did try a couple of PvE ones mainly EQ2 which was fun at 1st then became abit tedius.

Now i am//was a big fan of Warcraft 3 (<3 the TD's) but if im honest the stupid childish kids who played that kinda put me off WoW.

But what i would like to know is a few things....

1# PvP -  Whats it like ?  Like daoc ? Bg's? Fun ?

2# Items - Easy to get good kit or is it gonna be like DAOC Trials of Atlantis  raids etc ?

3#  Stealther classes?

4#  Is it gonna cost me much ? alot of xpansions out = lots of ££££££ for me ?

Thats all i can think of atm so will come back later with some more Q's

Thanks in advance \o/.

Hello Bamm, i played WoW for like 4 years now so i think i could help you (i've quitted it 2 weeks ago tbh, mainly because due to real life (girlfriend, friends and summer etc)

WoW is a very easy Game to learn, i found it a really good game. i liked the Pre-Burning Crusade content, the raiding is awesome and challanging. it has become a very Casual friendly game

1# 

Well i have not played DAoC myself, but what i like about the PvP of WoW is the free movement. it feels like you really have to play it, you can make advantages of it.  the class inbalancement is pretty bad but okay. BG's are fun especially AV, although fast you know that you are on a grindfest for gear, doing the same and same all over again.

2# 

Getting gear is very very easy to get, especially through Heroic Instances and PvP. Raiding has been buffed trough the Pieces, like Gloves are no more class specific but instead it's a token, the glove token drops and it is for 3 classes, such as Warrior,Shaman,Hunter   which previously was 1 or 2 drop glove for Shaman only  while 2-3 tokens drops now each boss.

3#

Yes there are 2 Stealth classes,  Rogue's and Druid's    Rogue's are the sneaky assassination types who sneaks to people or explore Instance content.

Druids have a cat form which can turn stealth at lvl 20.  Druid's can be Healers/Dps(Melee, Spell)/Tank 

4#

There is a standard monthly fee of 11,99 euro, (15-17 US Dollars) and an expansion each 1,5 - 2 years. 

I'm suspecting that if you found EQ2 tedious, you might not like WoW as much either. If EQ2 was tedious because of being PvE instead of PvP, EQ2 does have PvP servers.

To answer your specific questions (even though I'm not on WoW anymore for over a year):

#1: I've mostly played on PvE servers. The little I played on PvP is that I found myself to be ganked a lot as a lowlevel player by someone a few levels higher than me. It was kind of frustrating to say the least. Some areas in WoW are known as ganking paradises on PvP servers.

#2: I've never participated in raids. But from what I've understood from raiding buddies is that you have to raid a lot to get the epic gear you wanted, and then hope you rolled high enough to get it because with you are like 10 others in the team who also want it.

#3: You have stealth classes. Namely the Rogue. Night Elves are capable of some stealthing as well.

#4: Well, you can stick to the basic game if you want, you're not required to buy the expansions. But if you want to stay uptodate and be able to raid with others in new endgame content (if raiding is your thing at least), then you're probably required to buy the expansions. So far there's only one, with a second coming very soon (if it's not released already). The real costs are in the subscription fees.

Originally posted by Bamm

So after X amount of years im finally debateing whether to play wow or not.  I have friends who have played it or are returning to play it but myself i have never even tryed the trial.

Note that once you purchase the game you must get the full install to keep playing, it only works for the free trial.

If you haven't played WoW yet and you enjoyed WC3, you will enjoy it.   For how long is the question.  Some people get bored after a month, some have been playing non-stop for years.

Just make sure you attempt the following before giving up:

1) Get to level 29ish and do the Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin BGs. 

2) Do the Deadmines with a pickup group, or better yet, join a guild that accepts low level players and do it with them.

3) Pick gathering professions, at least one, to make sure you can afford to buy stuff with your first character.

4) Read the quests, read the optional lore (ie the letters and stuff you have to deliver - most people don't and assume there is none)  Read the books and stuff.

5) Don't be disheartened if a high level player kills you, it's not the end of the world.  Most of your fights will be vs the opposing faction that are levelling up in the same areas you are.  It makes for some interesting battles.

6) For many, the game begins at 70.  Here you have access to all 5 battlegrounds, the arenas, the start of raid progression, heroics, dailies and all of that.  Get in an ACTIVE guild with an age restriction, and teamspeak, and watch all the 'kiddie MMO' stereotypes you heard about the game melt away into nothing.

7) Enjoy all the new friendships you make, and just ignore the occasional idiot.

Nice few replys thanks.

So crafting in this game...does it exist  ?

is it worth doing from start ?

Do ppl make a living off of it ? (so i dont need to go farm gold)

Is it like daoc where u needed plat after plat to become a legandary  crafter?

 I think you would like wow ok , but the end game comes down to raiding or boring repetitive pvp. I would give crafting a 4 out of 10 from games i used to play. Im personally playing right now so it cant be all that bad. More than likely Ill be getting AOC though ... hope it has a good release. If you arent waiting on AOC or WAR ...you may as well give the trial a go , its on the main site.

Hey there, to echo some of the above statements. WoW has PvP, but be warned. WoW is NOT a PvP game, its a PVE game that also happens to have PvP. It doesnt have PvP pathways where a player can progress as mainly a PvP player...but I argue that they are still missing out on most of the game.

There are stealther classes, they are fun to play.

WoW will cost a bit, youll need to buy the main game and its expansion..with a new expansion due out this year. It has the standard subscription fee.

May I also suggest you look into Guild Wars, which is a game you have not listed. That is a game that is staring to rival WoW in population and is a PvP game.

Good Luck

Torrential

Originally posted by Bamm

Nice few replys thanks.

 

So crafting in this game...does it exist  ?

is it worth doing from start ?

Crafting exists and is reasonably simple to do. Whilst there is some grind associated with levelling crafting, it's not nearly as bad as in, for example, EQ2. Each player may select 2 primary crafting professions. You should be able to these up relatively early on (before level 10).

Whether it is worth doing from the start depends a lot on the individual crafting skills:

Roughly:

Herbalism/mining/skinning - these will make you a small amount of money initially, but soon become very profitable. Taking two gathering skills is the easiest way to make large amounts of money as you level.

Blacksmithing/Leatherworking/Tailoring - if you put a reasonable amount of effort into skilling up at the same time as you level, then at any given point you will typically wear one or two items you have made yourself. These professions can also create some really nice epics for endgame. Some classes/specs can almost completely gear themselves up using these professions, whilst others get less utility from them.

Jewelcrafter - Makes magic rings/necklaces/trinkets. This works much like the other gathering professions. Jewelcrafters also get the ability to prospect metallic ores for gems, which can be another nice source of profit

Engineering - another crafting profession, this one was reasonably balanced, but has done relatively poorly since the release of the burning crusade expansion. Still - engineers can create some really nice helmets for themselves at endgame.

Enchanting - enchants provide extra bonuses to existing items. For example, it's possible to enchant a shield with a bonus 18 stamina. However, in order to create the raw materials for enchanting, you need to destroy existing magic items. And there is very little demand for lower level enchants. Hence enchanting is expensive to level.  Good enchanters are, however, in high demand at endgame.

Some professions work better together than others. Common combinations are:

Mining / skinning - dual gather, highly profitable

Herbalism / skinning - dual gather, highly profitable

Skinning / Tailoring - some tailoring items, particularly bags, need leather, and skinning provides it

Skinning / Leatherworking - a leatherworker with the ability to gather his own raw materials

Mining / Blacksmithing - a blacksmith with the ability to gather his own raw materials

Mining / Engineering - an engineer with the ability to gather his own raw materials

Mining / Jewelcrafting - a jewelcrafter with the ability to gather his own raw materials

Herbalism / Alchemy - an alchemist with the ability to gather his own raw materials

Tailoring / Enchanting - Create items with tailoring and then destroy them to provide raw materials for enchanting

Mining / Enchanting - Use mining and the auction house to generate the profit needed to level enchanting

Do ppl make a living off of it ? (so i dont need to go farm gold)

This varies a lot according to the profession. However most crafters will still need to farm - since achieving max level in a crafting skill is relatively easy compared to some other games, and there will be a lot of competition.

Is it like daoc where u needed plat after plat to become a legandary  crafter?

How good you are at crafting depends on two things:

Firstly - what your skill level is. This is relatively easy to increase and is largely a function of time/gold spent (some professions, such as blacksmithing and engineering are far more costly to level than others).

Secondly - do you have access to any rare recipes? Many of the crafting professions have rare recipes that aren't available to everyone. They may only be available if you are in good standing with a particular endgame faction, they may be ultra-rare world drops, or they may drop only in very high level raid instances and then sell for a small fortune on the auction house.

If you want to become a "legendary crafter" you will need to obtain many of these rare recipes, which may take a lot of gold and effort.

Originally posted by Bamm

But what i would like to know is a few things....

1# PvP -  Whats it like ?  Like daoc ? Bg's? Fun ?

Fun but don't bother unless its a BG you can win. There seems to be an imbalance where horde win the first 2 BGs and alliance always win the main BG (AV).

2# Items - Easy to get good kit or is it gonna be like DAOC Trials of Atlantis  raids etc ?

Very easy. Epic PvP gear is a days work / piece in pvp. PvE gear is harder to get but for example you always get *Something* for killing a boss such as tokens you can trade in for epics.

3#  Stealther classes?

Rogue is the current flavour of the month. It's a lot of fun and fast to lvl (best single-point dps) so a good first class

4#  Is it gonna cost me much ? alot of xpansions out = lots of ££££££ for me ?

 It's been a while since the last expansion - you can pick both up for £15 at most. There's a new one coming out next month.

Thats all i can think of atm so will come back later with some more Q's

 WoW is about how you approach it. There are a lot of snotty kids that quit parties because mom says dinner is ready so my best advice is to NOT party until you've found a good guild full of mature people. A lot of guilds counter the kids by saying 18+ and vent to prove it.

Thanks in advance \o/.

WOW offers a 10 day trial. Just see for yourself.

Try the trial and ignore the nay-sayers...

I agree with most posters. Try it, there's a free 10 day trial. Nobody can tell if you will like it more than you. personally, I love it.

Gear, well, it depends on what you mean by "good". During leveling, you will typically get enough gear drops to allow you to level through the game. You can buy much better gear on the AH. Make money by harvesting and selling dropped stuff.

if you want "uber" gear for PvP, etc., you'll have to raid or PvP a lot to get the top gear.

Is it just me, or does the delete key not work in this forum? Really annoying to have to use backspace instead! Is this 1985?

I would say you have to try the 10 day guest pass first and if you think you'll gonna love the game, all you need to do is just buy the key. That simple! You can even buy it online so you don't have to go out of your house to buy one.. Hope you have fun playing like I do..

Originally posted by Bamm

I have friends who have played it or are returning to play it ...

Why don't you ask your friends instead of a bunch of people that don't even know you!?!?

how would we know if you like it or not lol. Do you want to like WoW? You don't know untill you try. I have both wow pack if you want it i can sell it for cheap.

1# PvP -  Whats it like ?  Like daoc ? Bg's? Fun ?

2# Items - Easy to get good kit or is it gonna be like DAOC Trials of Atlantis  raids etc ?

3#  Stealther classes?

4#  Is it gonna cost me much ? alot of xpansions out = lots of ££££££ for me ?

1. PvP is not like Dark Age of Camelot. They have a somewhat similar setup with two major teams "Horde versus the Alliance", but they haven't made much use of it other than the fact that they are separate teams. It's an amazingly shallow version of Dark Age of Camelot's Realm vs Realm. I believe during early development they had some pretty grand plans for it, but this got thrown down the drain when they decided to make only focus on PvE.

A year after release they added Battlegrounds and a simple PvP system to give something for the PvPers. In The Burning Crusade they kind of gave up on the Faction vs Faction concept and added Arenas, which is now the primariy focus of WoW's PvP side, and will likely be even more so in Wrath of the Lich King. Though, even now 4 years after release, there isn't much PvP content in the game. WoW PvP beats many other MMOs for other reasons, however - the fluidity of the controls makes sure that the game is actually fun to play, and compared to many other PvE-based MMOs they still have more PvP content. With Age of Conan's PvP being a massive failure, WoW is at the moment a fine choice for an MMO if you want PvP - despite the fact that it's a PvE game. Don't expect wonders from the PvP content, but expect it to be fun at the basic level.

2. It's not easy to get a good kit. You'll have to do hour-long raids. However they have greatly improved raiding since the early days of WoW. Raid instances are much more accessible, so if you want to be part of the raiding guild, getting into a raiding guild is possible for most anyone who isn't a total douche, if you are willing to get a proper PvE specialization for your class.

3. There are two stealther classes. The rogue and the druid. The druid can only stealth when he's shapeshifted into his Cat Form. All Night Elves also have the ability to stealth with Shadowmeld, but are unable to move while doing so, making Shadowmeld's use much more limited than true stealth.

4. Compared to other MMOs, it's not particularly cheap nor expensive. Perhaps there's some special deal for getting the game and both expansions once Wrath of the Lich King launches? Haven't really looked into this yet. Subscription fee is comparable to other MMOs, so this also shouldn't be a problem for you.

Bottom line, WoW doesn't have over 10 million subscribers purely because of Blizzard's name, low system requirements and advertising - it's actually a good game, and an MMO that actually manages to make it fun to move your character around and use abilities. It has its flaws, sure, but it's a game that's managed to keep many of us occupied for years.

I think I managed to nail the game fairly well without coming off as a fanboi. I'm currently not subscribed to the game - I'm at the moment taking a break from the MMO scene, and was hoping for Age of Conan or Warhammer Online to satisfy my MMO needs. Age of Conan however is out of the picture for me, so Warhammer Online is the thing I'm currently looking forward to. If Warhammer Online doesn't satisfy me, very likely I'll return to WoW with Wrath of the Lich King (haven't sold my WoW account, and not planning on it) ... but we'll see how that story turns out.

But why don't you give the trial a shot before rushing off and buying?