I've only played a little on my friends account, but the game seems pretty great.

I have a couple questions though.

Hows the low level population these days? Will I be in a ghost town until I get to lvl 50 + ?

I was thinking of rolling an Arms warrior or a protection Paladin, will this be a good idea for my first time?

I personally prefer grouping over soloing, will there be a lot of group action going on in my journey leveling in the lower levels?

Any PvE server you recommend?

Also any other advice, tips etc?

Also will I loose my life to this game and become a cave troll? Eating left overs out of the fridge at 3 a.m?
 

 Yes.  If you have friends playing, you might want to play on their servers.  Just pick a class and start playing.  If you make it to end game with your first character, I'll be damned surprised.   Honestly, PvP and PvE servers aren't that much different.  With BGs, WG, and arenas there is enough PvP. 

There are low levels all the time, people re-roll constantly.  Wymmrest Accord is a good young server.  It's RP, but I don't RP.  People are generally nicer on RP servers.  Plus sometimes the RPers are amusing.

Its never to late to join, see the world as it is before the changes happen next year. Before you join any PvE server look and see which one has the higher population so you don't have to be solo questing much. Since WoW is five years old there may not be to many low levels to do dungeoun runs a lot. Role whatever class and race you like as they are all good and your not following the F.o.t.M crowd.

Also if you plan to craft pick the two proffessions that will make you money and be somewhat self sufficent.

And finally no that won't happen unless your personallity is addicted dependant.

Originally posted by Luneth7

I've only played a little on my friends account, but the game seems pretty great.

I have a couple questions though.

Hows the low level population these days? Will I be in a ghost town until I get to lvl 50 + ?

I was thinking of rolling an Arms warrior or a protection Paladin, will this be a good idea for my first time?

I personally prefer grouping over soloing, will there be a lot of group action going on in my journey leveling in the lower levels?

Any PvE server you recommend?

Also any other advice, tips etc?

Also will I loose my life to this game and become a cave troll? Eating left overs out of the fridge at 3 a.m?
 

The level population is large and healthy, keep in mind that WoW still bosts almost 11 million players. All zones are filled with players and you will never be short of players to group with. If you have friends already playing then I suggest choosing that server but Aggramar is among the original servers and is always full, solid economy, tons of guilds and for the most part is friendly player heavy. the moment you get on a sever toss into global chat that you are a new player looking for a helpful guild from time. Arms Warrior and Paladin are excellent classes to for a new player.  Finally, its entirely up to you how much time will be spent playing WoW, maybe your the type of person that will become an addict and foget all of life to focus on playing or maybe you will be mature about playing and realize that their is life outside of WoW. There are tons of players that could sit and write about WoW to a new player for hours but when it comes down to it you simply have to jump in, learn and get your feet wt. Good Luck.

Anytime is a good time to start this game. Roll a toon today and be level capped in a month....if your casual.

Thanks for all the help guys.

Also I forgot to mention I did play the Open Beta of WoW years ago but most recently my exposure to the game was playing a bit on a friends account.

I'm still kind of up in the air if I want to buy the box and subscribe. There doesn't seem to be anything else in regards to MMORPG's out right now that catches my eye so I think WoW might be my best idea. The Draeni and Tauren are quite cool looking :P

But I'm still not sure, kind of up in the air. I never had a chance to try out Aion but I don't think that game is really for me.

Also can someone give me a list of the new/popular PvE servers?

 

When i played i played on Hellscream. Its an old server and pretty popular.

 nha both of those class are fairly hard to play if you plan end game ,try easier class.

your always close to a big city where ever you start in game so you ll meet player in city

stick to recommended server and you have more chance of meeting player 

but leveling is so fast thats its not an issue ,unless you re planning to lock your level and do all dungeon when their respective quest are red if so you will need to go on worldofwarcraft forum and post that your searching for a guild that is doing those run ,yes some start from first instance and go to end game 

but most will want to powerlevel you ,so whatchout if you try to do all the game content and try to keep all your quest red you ll have to lock your level 

might be some guild that lock level  red dungeon instance 

probably still very hard if all group player have those dungeon quest red also but its probably the only way to have fun at low level if not powerlevel to 67

join us.....join us...... nah jk wow is not addicting if you can control yourself like me im not casual i play raids but have a life

Originally posted by Luneth7

I've only played a little on my friends account, but the game seems pretty great.

I have a couple questions though.

Hows the low level population these days? Will I be in a ghost town until I get to lvl 50 + ?

I was thinking of rolling an Arms warrior or a protection Paladin, will this be a good idea for my first time?

I personally prefer grouping over soloing, will there be a lot of group action going on in my journey leveling in the lower levels?

Any PvE server you recommend?

Also any other advice, tips etc?

Also will I loose my life to this game and become a cave troll? Eating left overs out of the fridge at 3 a.m?
 

Well I play wow since launch :) and I'm still playing it. It's the only mmo that keeps me playing, and I've already played a lot of them (EVE, lorto, archlord, Rom, ... ) so I know what I'm talking about ;)

It's always a good time to start with this game, people are rerolling all the time so you won't be alone :) and you will see more rerolling after the next expansion, because blizzard will give a huge update to low lvl zones, and there will be 2 nex races and more classes for other races.. so verry interresing for a new player!

It's a good idea to roll a warrior! a group always needs a good tank, so there will be a lot of work to do for you ;-)

However I suggest you to maby make your warrior fury, leveling goes faster this way if you wanna level solo atleast, but ofcourse you can always level with arms, that's more interesting for grouping.

You will find a lot of groupquests and there are also a lot of low level dungeons, there is quite a lot of groupaction going on lower lvls. But ofcourse you will see the most of the groupactions in the endgame.

I can't recommend you a server, there are A LOT of servers and I don't know annything about american servers because I play on the european ones ;) just take a low or medium populated server if you're new, or one were you have some friends on so they can help you. I personnaly prefer PVP realms :) for more openworld PVP action, that's also really fun to do.

And you will not loose your life! Wow isn't that hardcore as it was in vanilla-times (before the first expansion) It is a good casual mmo. You don't need to spend 16 hours a day to get good gear. I also raid, I have 2 lvl 80 chars, and I still have a life with studying and a gf ;) so don't be afraid!

and for the rest, HAVE FUN :D!

Check http://www.warcraftrealms.com/realmstats.php for a list of realm populations.

As for a class i'd suggest a dps class to start with unless you're familiar with tanking or healing.

nows a good time to play.the best would be after cataclysm but thats a year away.Theres a decent amount of lower level peole still esp if you play on a high pop server.I suggest rolling a hydrid, like a druid or paladin or shaman.That way when you dual spec, you can dps and still beable to be a main healer or tank, which means you can solo well and still find groups easy.A healer or tank has a much higher chance of getting groups then dps.I suggest you get cartographer and quest helper mods, it'll make questing easier.

Originally posted by dimaryp

 Yes.  If you have friends playing, you might want to play on their servers.  Just pick a class and start playing.  If you make it to end game with your first character, I'll be damned surprised.   Honestly, PvP and PvE servers aren't that much different.  With BGs, WG, and arenas there is enough PvP. 

There are low levels all the time, people re-roll constantly.  Wymmrest Accord is a good young server.  It's RP, but I don't RP.  People are generally nicer on RP servers.  Plus sometimes the RPers are amusing.

unless they start a hunter - hunter players tend to at least make it to the end game...

Originally posted by pussaykat

Check http://www.warcraftrealms.com/realmstats.php for a list of realm populations.

 

As for a class i'd suggest a dps class to start with unless you're familiar with tanking or healing.

Thanks for that link. It was really helpful.

I would wait for patch 3.3 in November.

Why?

In patch 3.3 there will be the clustered dungeon servers (like they clustered the BG's with 20 servers). If all works out well, it simply means all leveling dungeons will have a common Looking For Group tool to do dungeons with. That means even less popilar places will have around 20 times more people to search through.

An example: a dungeon that is for a lvl 30-35 level could now address say 50 players who are around that level on your server. With the new system you now would have a LFG tool to include 1000 players. That's a little revolution.

You can compare it  with the same situation before and after the clustered Battlegrounds. BEFORE in 2005 to mid 2006, you had to wait an hour sometimes before AV opened on certain Realms. These days AV spawns around 1 to 3 minutes on max level. Even at 04.00 AM you hardly need to wait for WSG or AB in any bracket and do some PvP.

Of course patch 3.3 is still not ideal to see the full effect, but CATA with the new races and new Azeroth from level 1 to 60 will be a real group based dungeon crawler expansion tx to the clustered servers.

In fact, just like the BG's you can play now anytime, the dungeon servers will allow much more dungeon runs even in the middle of the night.

So why not wait till Cataclysm? For the simple reason, NOW is the last time you can see all this Vanilla WOW levels for the last time. It will change in Cata.

Originally posted by Luneth7

Hows the low level population these days? Will I be in a ghost town until I get to lvl 50 + ?

Low-level population is a little sparse on most servers, but still MUCH MUCH better than almost any other game out there. You should never really have much of a problem finding groups for anything.

I was thinking of rolling an Arms warrior or a protection Paladin, will this be a good idea for my first time?

I would go Paladin personally. They were very OP (at least last time I played). I don't honestly know how they are to level though. I have personally played a hunter, mage, warlock, shaman, and death knight. I enjoy hunter the most of any of those.

I personally prefer grouping over soloing, will there be a lot of group action going on in my journey leveling in the lower levels?

It will definitely be harder to find groups for low-level instances, but WoW is the most popular MMORPG by far. You will less trouble doing so than in any other game...

Any PvE server you recommend?

I always play on PvP servers, so no. Sorry!

Also any other advice, tips etc?

Pick up gathering skills first and then a trade skill once you hit level cap (if you want to craft). If you have two gathering skills like herbalism/skinning or herbalism/mining, you will make LOTS of money as you go. Make sure to pick up the Auctioneer add-on and sell everything you can on the auction house for the best possible prices. If you do this, you will have no problems with money until the end game.

Also will I loose my life to this game and become a cave troll? Eating left overs out of the fridge at 3 a.m?

Honestly, its possible. The game is incredibly addictive. I have known people who have been completely destroyed by it and others who are able to handle themselves no problem. It is really up to you and how addictive your personality is.

I would also try to wait until Cataclysm comes out if possible. That way, you will be playing through the low levels on brand new content. You will have absolutely no problem finding groups at that point because everyone will be re-rolling to experience the new stuff Blizzard is putting in.

 It's always a good time to start with wow :P I play on Shadowsong and Kilrogg (EU PvE realms) and I mostly have no problems finding groups even with my lower level alts.

Sure, go for it.  If you've never really played there could be quite a few years of fun ahead for you.

No time like the present to get started.

Thank you guys for all the time you took to answer my questions and all the advice. I appreciate It. Hopefully It helped others as well who were looking to possibly start out now.

But I've decided I'm not going to play World of Warcraft.

For multiple factors, mostly because I'm quite sure there will be too much soloing that It wont be able to keep my interest.

I'm just going to wait It out until I find a new game that's right for me.

 

Edit:  Nvm, posted before I read through the thread.

Good time to start. Once you hit 77 80 comes real quick. You will probably hit 80 before going to Storm Peaks and Icecrown. Takes about 2-3 weeks to get full epic gear. Smooth sailing and enjoy the leveling.