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Blizzard post - Quest Areas

The web team is looking for feedback on their upcoming Quest Areas page. Below is the text.

Please submit your feedback at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/guide.html or post here. Thanks!

Finding Quests for Your Level

Finding New Quests

If you’re having a hard time finding easy quests to do then go find some new quests! Ask other players for information about quests that you have not yet done. The best place to ask about quests is in your party with similarly leveled party members. Other players can sometimes share quests that you do not have. You can also ask people in your guild or people in the general channel. There are also web sites that you can visit that list quests you can do. The Brady Strategy Guide has large lists of possible quests too.

Other Options

Check out the Region Levels page and World Dungeons page which lists available areas and their level range. You can then head to new areas you haven’t visited to look for additional quests.

Solo Players

If you’re a solo player, do all of the quests you can in a region, then travel to another similarly leveled alliance region and start the quests there. Some of them will be much easier because the quests will be lower level than you. Continue to rotate between the areas until you’ve done everything that you can do. If a quest is gray or a very low green (low level) then you probably should skip it. With a party you can accomplish much more so this info might only be useful for solo players or groups of two.

Here are some area progressions you can try out. They are not exact and this page should only be used as a loose guide. You will have some quests that cross into regions that are not listed. This page doesn’t list raid areas past level 60.

Alliance

(1-15)
Elwynn Forest (1-10)
Dun Morogh (1-10)
Teldrassil (1-10)
Darkshore (10-20)

(10-20)
Loch Modan (10-20)
Westfall (10-20)
Redridge Mountains (15-25)
Darkshore (10-20)

(20-25)
Ashenvale (18-30)
Redridge Mountains
Wetlands (20-30)

(25-30)
Duskwood (18-30)
Ashenvale (18-30)
Wetlands (20-30)

(30-35)
Arathi Highlands (30-40)
Desolace (30-40)
Thousand Needles (30+)
Stranglethorn Vale (30-45)
Hillsbrad Foothills (20-30)

(35-40)
Arathi Highlands (30-40)
Desolace (30-40)
Badlands (35-45)
Stranglethorn Vale

(40-45)
Ferelas (40-50)
Tanaris Desert (40-50)
Badlands /The Hinterlands (40-50)
Stranglethorn Vale/Searing Gorge (43-50)

(45-50)
Ferelas (40-50)
Tanaris Desert (40-50)
The Hinterlands
Searing Gorge (43-50)
Azshara (45-55)

(50-55)
Un'Goro Crater (48-55)
Burning Steppes (50-58)
W. Plaguelands (51-58)

(55-60)
E. Plaguelands (53-60)
Burning Steppes (50-58)
W. Plaguelands
Winterspring (55-60)

Horde

(1-15)
Tirisfal Glades (1-10)
Durotar (1-10)
Mulgore (1-10)

(10-20)
Silverpine Forest (10-20)
The Barrens (10-25)
Stonetalon Mountains (15-27)

(20-25)

The Barrens (10-25)
Hillsbrad Foothills (20-30)
Stonetalon Mountains
Ashenvale Forest (18-30)

(25-30)
Thousand Needles (25-35)
Hillsbrad Foothills (20-30)
Stonetalon Mountains
Stranglethorn Vale (30-45)
Ashenvale Forest (18-30)

(30-35)
Arathi Highlands (30-40)
Desolace (30-40)
Thousand Needles (30+)
Stranglethorn Vale

(35-40)
Arathi Highlands (30-40)
Desolace (30-40)
Badlands (35-45)
Stranglethorn Vale

(40-45)
Ferelas (40-50)
Tanaris Desert (40-50)
Badlands /The Hinterlands (40-50)
Stranglethorn Vale/Searing Gorge (43-50)

(45-50)
Ferelas (40-50)
Tanaris Desert (40-50)
The Hinterlands
Searing Gorge (43-50)
Azshara (45-55)

(50-55)
Un'Goro Crater (48-55)
Burning Steppes (50-58)
W. Plaguelands (51-58)

(55-60)
E. Plaguelands (53-60)
Burning Steppes (50-58)
W. Plaguelands
Winterspring (55-60)
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World of Warcraft Girls Gone W.O.W. Movie on GameSpot DLX

From the WoW forum - "There's an example of the guild roster -- from there you can click on any member, see inventory, weapon skills, tradeskills, talent setup... anything.
Very, very, very cool site!"

My opinion as of this entry - site is slow, the graphics aren't appearing, sucks for now. I'll have to check it out again later.
WoWRankings.com: Where do you rank?

Places to go

Most of these have been confirmed to be good, but in order to prevent overcrowding in areas I will try to list several different places, all of which should be pretty decent. More often than not, the areas will only hold one or two people maximum as far as spawn rates go - any more than that and you have too many people and too little mobs to support them. Unfortunately, because of this, you might end up somewhere that isn't quite as good as you might've hoped, and if that's the case, I apologize in advance.

The levels are approximate, you may or may not have to supplement grinding for one or two levels in order to move onto the next zones early on, although most of the later parts deal mostly with areas to grind in. Also, when a level is listed next to a grind area, that means this is the level at which you can more than likely *start* grinding the mobs. You can probably *stop* grinding them about 4-5 levels past where the start level is. In fact, it's probably recommended that you do stop 4 levels past them.

Also, keep in mind that this is mostly for Alliance players, as it's the only faction I've played and thus have no experience with Horde lands. You'll also note the lack of Kalimdor lands up until Feralas/Tanaris. While I'm not saying Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains, Thousand Needles or Desolace are bad places, I honestly have no experience with them either, and these areas that I do list are typically sufficient to take you up in levels.

Please note that the level listed beside a place, if there is one, is the level recommended to *begin* the place. Each place should typically be able to last you for 4-5 levels (with the exception of quest areas), whether you have the patience to stay at that one place for that long is another thing.

Thanks to everyone that has contributed and added to the list!

Level 1-12:
- Newbie Zone :: You may have to leave at level 11.

Level 12-20:
- Westfall [Sentinel Hill, Westfall Lighthouse]
- Loch Modan [Thelsamar, Farstrider's Lodge, Stonewrought Dam]
- Darkshore [Auberdine]
- Elite Area: Mo'grosh mound (Loch Modan)
- Instance: Deadmines

Complete the easiest quests in the first area that you go to (Night Elves should visit Darkshore first, Dwarves/Gnomes should visit Loch Modan first, Humans should visit Westfall first.) Move onto the next zone, and do the same, but this time you can complete more of the zone. Leave the most difficult, unless you can get a group for them - don't waste too much time on it, though. Move onto the last zone and complete all, or nearly all of the quests available in that zone. By this time, you should be about level 17-18. Go back to the first zone, and complete the rest of the quests there.

Typically, my "first zone" is Westfall, in which case you can go back when you are done with both Loch Modan and Darkshore, and finish the Van Cleef line of quests and be at a good level to run the instance.

Level 20-22:
- Redridge Mountains [Lakeshire, Tower of Azora in Elwynn]

Again, do the easy quests in Redridge, which should take you up to level 21 or 22. Skip the more difficult quests unless you have a group for them. I'd skip the entire Stonewatch Keep area of quests just simply because that entire area itself is crap.

Level 22-30:
- Redridge Mountains [Lakeshire, Tower of Azora in Elwynn]
- Duskwood [Darkshire, Sven's Camp, Abercrombie]
- Wetlands [Menethil Harbor, Greenwarden, N. Loch Modan (The Algaz Gauntlet)]
- Ashenvale [Astranaar ?]
- Stonetalon Mountains [?]
- Elite Area: Dun Modr (Wetlands)
- Instance: The Stockades
- Instance: Shadowfang Keep
- Instance: Blackfathom Deeps
- Happy Loot: Naraxis' Fang (Duskwood)
- Happy Loot: Tiny Crimson Whelpling (Wetlands)
- Grind Area [26]: Dragonmaw Encampment (Wetlands)
- Grind Area [26]: Whelgar's Excavation Site (Wetlands)
- Grind Area [28]: Rotting Orchard (Duskwood)
- Grind Area [28]: Raven Hill Cemetary (Duskwood)
- Grind Area [29]: Vul'Gol Ogre Mound (Duskwood)

Preparation: Purchase Bronze Tube.

Start at either Duskwood or Wetlands. This is where "quest stacking" can come in really handy if you want to be efficient. There are many, many quests that send you to the same areas, and if you get all of the quests at once, you can knock all of them out without having to run back and forth. Considering Wetlands and Duskwood are fairly bad for having their towns on one side of the map and the quest mobs/areas on the other side, this saves a lot of time. A lot of these are parts of quest chains, so honestly it's hard to know if you don't have prior knowledge or do a lot of quest research beforehand - so don't worry about it too much, but try to be as efficient as you can. Once you finish one of the two new areas, you should be about level 25 and can go finish the harder parts of Redridge, and then finish the last zone.

Note for Stockades : There are 6 quests you can obtain for this instance. Lakeshire, Darkshire, Wetlands, Van Cleef note continuation (Bazil Thredd), and two from Stormwind.

Level 31-37:
- Stranglethorn Vale [Rebel Camp, Nesingwary's Expedition, Booty Bay]
- Hillsbrad Foothills [Southshore]
- Arathi Highlands [Refuge Pointe]
- Desolace [32]
- Thousand Needles [31]
- Instance: Gnomeregan
- Happy Loot: Howling Blade (Skhowl, Alterac Mountains)
- Happy Loot: Toxic Revenger (Gnomeregan)
- Happy Loot: Tiny Emerald Whelpling (Swamp of Sorrows)
- Grind Area [31]: Kurzen Encampment [!NOTE!] (Stranglethorn Vale) -- [Test needed]
- Grind Area [33]: Stranglethorn Raptors (Stranglethorn Vale)
- Grind Area [33]: Growless Cave (Alterac Mountains)
- Grind Area [34]: Gallow's Corner (Crushridge Ogres - Altarac Mountains)
- Grind Area [36]: Venture Co. Base Camp (Lake Nazferiti - Stranglethorn Vale)

Preparation: Purchase all 15 pages of The Green Hills of Stranglethorn, 4 Bloodstone Ore.

Start at Stranglethorn Vale. Quest stacking here is also godly, since you don't want to have to run all the way to the northern end of the zone, do one or two quests and turn them back in at Booty Bay. Rebel Camp's quests are largely independent of the rest, though, so you can do those first. Then, head to Booty Bay, where you can pick up two main quests for the northern area: Investigate the Camp and the start of the Excelsior chain, both of which takes you to Nesingwary's Expedition, where you obtain all of the nice happy quests there.

Hillsbrad is only good starting at about level 33, at which point you can actually *do* all of the quests that you could obtain at level 30... Arathi only has one or two quests that you can actually do right now, but it's listed anyways.

Kurzen Cave has been fixed, which perhaps means that Jungle Fighters and Headshrinkers have as well, so someone test that out please.

Level 37-43:
- Stranglethorn Vale [Booty Bay, Nesingwary's Expedition, Rebel Camp]
- Arathi Mountains [Refuge Pointe, Faldir's Cove]
- Badlands [Various camps around the zone]
- Desolace [37]
- Elite Area: Stromgarde
- Elite Area: Mosh'ogg Mound
- Instance: Scarlet Monastery
- Instance: Uldaman
- Instance: Razorfen Downs
- Happy Loot: Tiny Black Whelpling (Badlands)
- Grind Area [37]: Lashtail Raptors (Stranglethorn Vale)
- Grind Area [37]: Water Elementals (Stranglethorn Vale)
- Grind Area [37]: Theramore Coast (Dustwallow Marsh) - Turtle Scales & Leathers
- Grind Area [39]: The spider cave north of Brackenwall (Swamp of Sorrows)
- Grind Area [39]: Rock Elementals (Badlands)
- Grind Area [39]: Elder Crag Coyotes (Badlands)
- Grind Area [41]: Scalding Whelps (Badlands)
- Grind Area [41]: Agmond's End (Badlands)
- Grind Area [41]: Ziata'jai Ruins (Venture Co. Stuff, Stranglethorn Vale)
- Grind Area [43]: Naga Explorers (Stranglethorn Vale)

Preparation: Purchase 9 Blue Pearls, 1 Frost Oil, 1 Gyrochronatom, 4 Buzzard Wings, 1 Elixir of Water Breathing.

37 is where you obtain your next batch of quests from Stranglethorn Vale. Arathi Highlands has fairly decent quests in Faldir's Cove, or if you're feeling group-friendly, knock out the ones in Stromgarde. Badlands has a lot of nice quests, but you have to actually find them. This is where supplementing experience by grinding becomes more efficient at times, and at 42-43 you should be closing the last of your Stranglethorn quests, and be finished with Badlands and Arathi both, as well.

Scarlet Monastery. Black Menace or Sword of Serenity. Nothing more needs to be said - except where to obtain the quest: Desolace.

Level 43-46:
- Feralas [Feathermoon Stronghold]
- Tanaris [Gadgetzan, Steamwheedle Port]
- Instance: Zul'Farrak
- Grind Area [43]: Wastewander Bandits (Tanaris)
- Grind Area [44]: Isle of Dread (Feralas - Inside Cave; South of Feathermoon Stronghold)
- Grind Area [45]: Feral Scar Vale (Feralas)
- Happy Loot: 14slot bag! Cortello's Riddle quest, starts in one of the ships in Stranglethorn Vale for the end of the Bloodsail Buccaneers line of quests.

Fairly self explanatory, I guess. Not much going on here, really.

Level 46-50:
- Tanaris [Gadgetzan, Steamwheedle Port]
- The Hinterlands [Aerie Peak]
- Instance: Zul'Farrak
- Instance: Maraudon [49]
- Instance: Temple of Atal'Hakkar [50]
- Grind Area [47]: Undead in Western Ashzara (Azshara)
- Grind Area [47]: Dunemaul Compound (Tanaris)
- Grind Area [47]: Elementals/Golems around The Cauldron + N of it (Searing Gorge) - Elemental Leatherworking Supplies


At this point, you more than likely have a bunch of quests saved up for The Hinterlands - including but not limited to, the quest to gather Wildkin Feathers (from Rutheran Village), the quest to obtain a snapshot of Gammerita, the quest to obtain Violet Trajan, the last part of Cortello's Riddle, etc. Feel free to knock them all out at once.

Level 50-55:
- Searing Gorge [Kalaran Windblade]
- Blasted Lands [Blood Elf camp]
- Un'Goro Crater [Marshal's Refuge]
- Felwood [Emerald Sanctuary]
- Burning Steppes [Morgan's Vigil]
- Instance: Temple of Atal'Hakkar
- Grind Area [49]: The Overlook Cliffs (The Hinterlands) - Turtle Scales & Rugged Leathers
- Grind Area [50]: Deadwood Village (Felwood)
- Grind Area [51]: Ruins of Eldarath (Azshara)
- Grind Area [52]: Dreadmaul Rock (Firegut Ogres - Burning Steppes)
- Grind Area [52]: Legash Encampment, Thalassian Base Camp, Ursolan (Azshara)
- Grind Area [52]: Jaedenar (Felwood)
- Grind Area [52]: Sorrow Hill (Western Plaguelands)
- Grind Area [54]: Temple of Arkkoran (Azshara)
- Grind Area [55]: Jadefire Run, Felpaw Village (Felwood)

The quests in Blasted Lands all stack on top of each other. Five in total, one for each stat; they give 4700 experience per turn-in, along with always the chance of obtaining a Draenethyst Sphere for Kumi'sha the Collector with every mob you kill. Un'Goro Crater has the biggest collection of quests out of all of these zones.

Level 55-60:
- Winterspring [Everlook, Starfall Village]
- Western Plaguelands [Chillwind Point]
- Eastern Plaguelands [Light's Hope Chapel]
- Instance: Blackrock Depths
- Instance: Blackrock Spire [60]
- Instance: Stratholme [60]
- Instance: Scholomance [60]
- Grind Area [55]: Felstone Field, Dalson's Tears, The Writhing Haunt, Gahrron's Withering (Western Plaguelands)
- Grind Area [56]: Northridge Lumber Camp (Western Plaguelands)
- Grind Area [56]: Corin's Crossing (Eastern Plaguelands)
- Grind Area [56]: The Pillar of Ash (Burning Steppes)
- Grind Area [56]: Winterfall Village (Winterspring)
- Grind Area [57]: Blackrock Stronghold (Burning Steppes) [NOTE]
- Grind Area [57]: Ice Thistle Hills (Wintespring) - Rugged Leathers

Notes: Blackrock Stronghold is probably the best place to grind for a rogue; however, you do have to get used to how the roamers work. You'll probably die a few times along the way while learning them. Also, this might likely be another area where they're increasing the armor on the mobs, but two of the four kinds of orcs that spawn are casters, anyway. Ice Thistle Hills is not the best place to grind for experience, but it's probably one of the better places to get a nice quiet grind going and also leave with a few backpacks full of Rugged Leather.

Okay -- So this isn't really a "complete" grind area list, because honestly, you only have to sit down and grind at one or two places for a few levels before you can move onto the next tier of zones, and that's typically what I did. Just sit down and grind at one place, don't move around everywhere and you'll be out of there in a few hours or days. I've tried my best to list the best quest areas and zones as well for those that would rather try to quest and not grind their way through the game, too, but that's also somewhat incomplete, especially at later stages since I don't have much knowledge of the various new quests they implemented in Winterspring and the Plaguelands.

Anyway, hope it helps to answer some of the "where can I go at level X?" questions.

The promised Horde section. Implemented from various posts in this thread by Horde players that have contributed. Some of these spots were also taken from Ratama of Nurfed.

14-16: Pirates south of Ratchet (Barrens)
16-19: Various wildlife, especially cats, in Barrens. Note that if you're using a dagger crit build, then exp for this is insane.
19-22: Bramblescar (Barrens) on lizards and quillboars. Unless you're doing leatherworking, just leave the lizards alone.
22-24: Tarren Mill (Hillsbrad) on bears and spiders. Dagger crit chain heaven.
24-26: Across the road from Tarren Mill on tougher bears and cats. Dagger crit chain heaven.
26-28: Spiders/Bears in back of Syndicate tower (Hillsbrad)
28-30: Cats and Spiders around Nethander Stead (Hillsbrad)
30-32: Harpies inside cave (Thousand Needles)

NE of Brackenwall (2 min run there)- Raptor den
36-37 raptors there - lots of them

40-42 Skeletons in Desolace. They're about the only squishies I could find to grind on. It's part of an Alliance quest, so the usual PvP warnings apply.

42-45 Jungle Stalkers in SV. The loot drop isn't nearly as good as the Lashtails, but they're as squishy as ever. Also, they don't seem to have the knockdown attack that the lashtails do. Virtually no one kills these guys on my server, and they're easily chainable.
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Allakhazam.com: World of Warcraft

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FRAPS benchmark fps, record video games, screen capture software

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Windows XP: Movie Maker 2.1 Download

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Little things you find amusing and enjoyable
WoW Gameplay Discussion -: "967333"

Viewer for WoW screenshots
XnView

Hmmmmmmm

5. Re: Tips for getting more cash? | 1/21/2005 6:21:40 PM PST

lol ye coulda just asked me in game.. (in same guild and all... actually, i was just out hunting with you.. O_O) use the auction house.. buy low, sell high ^_^ ive done multiple trades that i buy a blue item for 4g.. turn around put on AH for 10g and buyout 14g, its baughtout immediently :D nice and easy 10g profit for somebody else doin the huntin :D

Eyonix

6. Re: Tips for getting more cash? | 1/21/2005 6:25:37 PM PST

I'm with Genki on this one. If you take the time to learn the economy of your server and are willing to lose a little bit of money through the trial and error learning process of buying and selling at the auction house, your money troubles are sure to end. In any case, good luck to you!
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World of Warcraft Performance Guide | 1/21/2005 3:54:16 PM PST


Have you ever gotten stuck on a zeppelin or boat because it arrived and left its destination before you could get off? Does it take longer for your computer to load a windrider flight than it does to actually get there? Do you constantly fall off of Freewind Post to your death? Has a person 20 levels lower than you killed you because you couldn’t move to fight back?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, or if you just want to get the most out of your computer, then read on.

This article is aimed at optimizing your system to get the best performance and visual quality out of World of Warcraft. I have been programming for six years and working with Direct3D and OpenGL for three, and it surprises me how many misconceptions about performance there are out there. I hope to clear some of them up.

Before I get into some technical details, there are some things everyone should do.

Software Things

1) Check for spyware. Even if you think you don’t have it, it’s good to be sure. This stuff is absolutely insidious. Two free programs that work great are:

Adaware Personal: http://www.lavasoft.com/software/adaware/
Spybot Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

It may help to run Windows in safe mode when doing the scans. Reboot your computer and hold F8 while it starts up. This will bring up a choice of launch configurations. Select Safe Mode. If safe mode without networking is available, pick that. Some spyware comes in packages. From what I’ve seen, if one program from the package realizes its friends are gone, it goes ahead and downloads them again. Disabling networking temporarily will stop this. Once you are done scanning just reboot and let your computer start normally.

2) Close all running programs (except for maybe your instant messenger). Blizzard always says to do this first and for good reason. You might think it’s all closed, but in reality there are probably many things going on.

For Windows 98 and XP, go to start > run > type in “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK. Go to the Startup tab. Uncheck everything, especially if you don’t know what it is. This will prevent all programs from launching at startup. If you find you stopped something that you wanted then you can go back an add it, but first start with nothing.

If you are on Windows XP, it can also be a good idea to stop all unneeded services. See http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm for a guide on how to do it and some recommended settings.

3) Get the latest video drivers for your video card.

ATI: http://www.ati.com
NVIDIA: http://www.nvidia.com

If you aren’t sure what type of video card you have, go to start > run > type in “dxdiag” (without the quotes) and click OK. Go to the Display tab. In the top left corner under the Device group it will say under Manufacturer. If your manufacturer is Intel, then it is strongly recommended you read the video card section.

4) Defragment. This will make it so that files aren’t in many places on the harddrive at once, making the game faster to load. It is a good idea to run in safe mode while you do this.

I actually reformatted and then installed World of Warcraft before anything else. This not only makes it so individual files are kept together, but all of the World of Warcraft files are kept together. It also gets a spot closer to the center of the disc, creating a smaller rotation radius for the head. What I did probably had no effect, but whatever =). Defragmenting is really all you need to do.

To defragment: Open My Computer, right click on the C: drive, and click Properties. Go to the Tools tab and click Defragment Now...

The truly paranoid might consider creating an entire partition for World of Warcraft.

Into the Actual Hardware

In order to understand how each part of your computer contributes to (or hinders) performance it is important to understand the concept of bottlenecks. It’s actually quite simple: your computer will only run as fast as its slowest part.

This little statement is more important than it seems. I see a lot of people automatically jump to upgrading their video card. This can lead to little or no improvement if the rest of your computer is outdated as well. As an extreme example, it would be absurd to run a GeForce 6800 with a Pentium 2 400 MHz. Likewise, it would be equally absurd to pair a Pentium 4 3.46 GHz with hyperthreading with a GeForce 1.

On to the parts…

The Videocard

The videocard is in charge of rendering everything you see on the screen. (Before I go on it is important to note that this only applies to 3D applications, and even then not all of the time. Fancy designs like you see in Windows Media Player are actually processed by the CPU.) The videocard is optimized for matrix math and is able to do 16 or more operations per pipeline in a single instruction. However, it gains this speed at the loss of flexibility. There are different pipelines (vertex processing, pixel processing, etc.) that work (mostly) independently of each other. The next generation of video cards is actually blurring the lines between these, so it will be very interesting to see what effects developers come up with in the near future.

Before the videocard can do anything, however, it must receive its instructions from the CPU. This is why you don’t want to go overkill on the videocard. An upgrade can never hurt, but it may not be cost effective to go for the best. I went from a Radeon 8500 to a Radeon 9600 XT and noticed a fairly large improvement.

The improvement you see from upgrading your video card will be in overall frame rate. If you lag when entering towns you will still probably lag when entering towns. If you constantly suffer from a bad frame rate wherever you go, the video card is most likely the thing to blame.

Before upgrading your video card I strongly recommend reading some reviews reviews. Two good sites are:

PC Stats: http://www.pcstats.com/
Tom’s Hardware: http://tomshardware.com/

I would recommend the GeForce 6600, provided you have the processor to match it with. I would steer people away from the GeForce FX line, and force them into solitary confinement for considering the GeForce FX 5200. Stay away from the lower end Radeon 9x00 series as well. Video memory is something to keep in mind, but it isn’t necessarily crucial. More is only better if the game actually uses it, and when it doesn’t, it can actually lead to a small slowdown. Either 128 MB or 256 MB will get you through World of Warcraft just fine, but for future games, you might feel safer with 256 MB.

Rember earlier when I said to see this section if your video card manufacturer was Intel? This means you have an integrated chip. Intel isn’t the only manufacturer of them but they are the most common. While extremely cheap and adequate for normal use and internet surfing, they can cause you nightmares in games. The main reason is that they only do pixel processing, leaving the CPU to do vertex processing. Even their pixel processing is subpar. If you have one and can’t upgrade it’s not too much to fret about. Turning down all of the options and decreasing the resolution should get you to at least a playable level, but a true video card will make your experience much more enjoyable.

A note about PCI Express: Don’t worry about it. PCI Express improves the bandwidth available to video cards, but since games don’t even use up the bandwidth available to AGP 4x, upgrading a motherboard just for PCI Express is a waste. It would be like changing a four lane highway to a sixteen lane highway when only two lanes are in use at any given time.

The CPU

Many people underestimate the role the CPU plays in games. Every little physics calculation is done here, as well as shuffling instructions to the video card, sound card, and everything else. It can also be in charge of doing all of the animations in the game if your video card does not support vertex animation (more on that later).

Upgrading the CPU can often be more trouble than it’s worth. You can only go so far before needing to upgrade the motherboard as well. Once you upgrade your motherboard you have to worry about RAM compatabilities. It starts to get sticky. If you want to go from Intel to AMD or AMD to Intel then you are out of luck with your current motherboard.

If you are considering a new computer or processor/motherboard, I would recommend anything from the AMD Athlon 64 series. These are currently the best gaming chips on the market, thanks to their on-die memory controller. If you are going with Intel, don’t be sucked into the hyperthreading bandwagon. Intel tries to imply that it’s like having two processors on one chip. It is and it isn’t: only one is used at a time. Every processor “stalls” every once in a while. Intel’s (rather brute force) solution was a backup processor. I repeat, hyperthreading is not the same thing as parallel processing. Speaking of parallel processing…

Don’t do it. It will not give twice the CPU power to World of Warcraft. Parallel processing requires that the application be designed for it. A thread can only be worked on by one processor at a time, and in most (if not all) games there is only one computationally intensive thread. If you wanted to run two World of Warcraft’s at a time you might notice a different, but it seems silly to me.

RAM

RAM. Every piece of data has to go through it at some point. World of Warcraft loves it. I upgraded from 512 MB to 1024 MB for $75 and noticed an incredible difference. I no longer screech to a halt when hearthstoning to Orgrimmar. I haven’t fallen off of Freewind Post since. I can also alt+tab out of the game without the harddrive spinning around for half a minute.

Adding more RAM will not give the same kind of performance increase as upgrading the video card. You will still get the same frames per second standing around looking at a waterfall. However, should you run into a heavily populated area, or switch zones, your computer will load much, much more quickly.

There are four major types of RAM: SD, RD, DDR, and DDR2. RD, DDR, and DDR2 are faster than SD, but the jury is still out on how much of an improvement DDR2 is. DDR2’s main advantage is that it uses less power, making it useful for future laptops. If you don’t know what type you have you will need to check your motherboard’s manual or manufacturer’s site (or just open up your computer and look inside). There are some programs that supposedly tell you, but I have no experience with them.

There is also unbuffered/registered and non-parity/ECC to keep in mind. Registered RAM is usually only in servers. ECC is a method of correcting for errors when writing to RAM. The chance of one occuring is minutely small and ECC does have a small overhead, so this is usually only in servers as well. Non-parity will be a little faster and save you some extra money as well. Feel free to mix ECC and non-parity, but unbuffered and registered are not compatible with each other.

If you have SD and are worried about a possible performance loss, don’t. As far as World of Warcraft is concerned, quantity > quality.

The Hard Drive

Yes, the hard drive. All of the game files are stored on the harddrive and have to get to RAM one way or another. I wouldn’t upgrade your harddrive just for World of Warcraft, but if you are getting a new one, make sure it has at least 8 MB of cache. This will lead to faster load times, assuming reading is the bottleneck and not the bandwidth available.

The Sound Card

In all honesty, the sound card isn’t something to worry about. Even an integrated sound card is fine here. Just make sure you have the latest drivers and you are set to go.

A few people in Asheron’s Call 2 did have sound card compatibility problems that caused the game to be unbearable. I haven’t heard of any of this in World of Warcraft, but if you have a powerful system that runs horribly, it might be something to look into.

In Game Options

So now you have the latest and greatest hardware and you are staring at the Video Options screen. What does it all mean? Some of it doesn’t matter, but there are some important ones.

Resolution: How many pixels are on the screen. A higher resolution will lead to improved visual quality, but it is limited by the monitor and video card. Monitors can only go so high and video cards start to get bogged down after a while. Experiment with this option, you might be able to increase it with no performance hit at all. If you are using an LCD monitor then try to match the native resolution if your video card can keep up. You will notice a huge difference in crispness.

Refresh Rate: How many times a second the monitor draws the screen. Most people can’t tell the difference, but my eyes can’t stand anything less than 80 Hz. If you get a headache after playing for a while then turn this up. You might have to lower the resolution in order to do so.

World Appearance sliders: Your main performance customization tools. Only experimentation will show you the best combination for your system. It depends on where the bottleneck within the video card is. If it’s in pixel processing then you might be able to increase environment detail or turn off level of detail and not notice the difference. If it’s in vertex processing you might be able to increase the texture detail for free. Anisotropic filtering is a technique for blending a texture as goes off into the distance. If you are annoyed by the lines on textures that appear on the ground when walking around then this is the option to increase.

Level of Detail: World of Warcraft has a terrain engine feature that can render things in the distance with less polygons than things in the front. This can significantly speed things up and lower to middle end video cards. While standing still it’s not noticable, but once you start moving around you will notice a “popping” effect. Turning off this option forces everything to the highest detail and leads to an increase in image quality. I was able to turn this off on my Radeon 9600 XT with no difference in performance. Try it and see, you might be surprised at the difference if you are used to the popping.

Shader Effects: These improve the the visual quality of the game. I recommend turning them on if you can, they are quite nice. Note that you won’t be able to use antialiasing with the Full-Screen Glow Effect. Antialiasing blends the jagged lines that appear because of the nature of monitors. I prefer antialiasing over the glow effect, but it is quite fillrate (pixel processing) intensive. If you want to see what antialiasing looks like, go to start > settings > control panel > display > settings tab > advanced. Where the option is in there depends on your video card driver.

Trilinear Filtering: Improves the look of textures when they are shrunken or enlarged. I recommend turning this on.

Vertex Animation Shaders: Turn this on if you can! This makes all of the character animations be calculated on the video card itself, taking the load of the processor. In almost every case this will improve performance. Smooth Shading is up to you, but I prefer to have it on.

Vertical Sync: Eliminates the “tearing” effect caused by the screen drawing at a different rate than the monitor. In most cases this is done by slowing down the rendering speed to something that divides evenly into the refresh rate. Unless you have a lower than average frames per second, I recommend turning this on.

Triple Buffering: By default, World of Warcraft uses double buffering. This means that it will be rendering to an offscreen buffer while the previous frame’s buffer is presented to the screen. Adding another buffer allows the game to keep rendering if it gets a little behind, at the cost of video memory. This is something you will have to experiment with.

Hardware Cursor: Some people have had a problem with abnormally low frame rates with this option on. Technically it’s faster to have it on, but the difference is probably so small it’s unnoticable.

Whew, that was longer than I expected. Hopefully you now have a better idea of what everything does for your World of Warcraft experience.

If anyone wants to compare, here are my system specs:

CPU: Pentium 4 2.00 GHz
Video Card: Radeon 9600 XT 128 MB
RAM: 1024 MB
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy
Hard Drive: Maxtor 40 GB with 2 MB cache
Operating System: Windows XP

I’m running just fine with all of the options turned up and 6x FSAA.

Happy WoWing!


WoW Gameplay Discussion -

Skankiest Armour?
WoW Gameplay Discussion -

Blizz: Why do Yeti have genitalia?
WoW Gameplay Discussion -

Forum has failed, Blizz
WoW Gameplay Discussion -

Welcome to Warcraft Trades! This site has been created to provide World of Warcraft players with a visual representation of player made items via the various in-game professions. Many players wonder what an item will look like prior to gathering the supplies to create or purchase a "bind on equip" item. Some might find it useful if going for a certain look for special occasions like in-game weddings or perhaps wondering what a certain enchantment glow looks like! Players from all realms, both Horde and Alliance, will be able to submit screenshots to be added to the photo database and this site will continue to be an ongoing and updated project. The more submissions the better the site will be for the resource it provides. Enjoy your visit and thanks for coming!
Warcraft Trades

Thottbot World of Warcraft: Leatherworking

Thottbot World of Warcraft: Leatherworking

World of Warcraft Vault -- WoW - The Ultimate Resource

World of Warcraft Vault -- WoW - The Ultimate Resource

Windspire Entertainment

Ra Patter

Positive Tips for newbie role-players
WoW Role-Playing -

Eejit's Glasgow Patter: "nae nae kiddin "

The Dwarf's Guide to Roleplaying a Dwarf

WoW Gameplay Discussion -

18. Re: Silly in-game stuff that makes you laugh | 1/7/2005 4:47:49 PM PST


Crystal Lake in Elwyn Forest
Location of countless Friday the 13th movies.

The Slaughtered Lamb in Stormwind
Pub in American Werewolf in London.

The rogue guild of Stormwind is SI:7
James Bond works for MI:6 the british version of the CIA.

The bank tellers in Undercity are named, Ophelia, Randolph, and Mortimer.
These are the characters from the Eddie Murphy/Dan Akroyd movie Trading Places

The bank tellers in IronForge are named, Barnum, Bailey, and Soliel.
Circus names.

The bank tellers in Stormwind are named, Olivia, Newton, and John.
Olivia Newton John star of the film Xanadu and rock star from the 80s

Blubber Gump is the fisherman in Auberdine who talks about all the ways to cook crab
In the movie Forest Gump, Bubba talked about all the ways to cook shrimp

Woo Ping is the weapons trainer in Stormwind
Woo Ping is the legendary Hong Kong fight choreagrapher that choregraphed The Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Biggs and Wedge are watchers in the Swamp of Sorrows
Biggs and Wedge were both secondary characters that flew alongside Luke Skywalker

Return of the Ring is a quest stared by finding a gold ring in Gnomeragan that, "Fills you with great power and compells you to wear it"
Lord of the Rings humor

The One Ring is a treasure that can be found in Teldrassil, it adds one to every stat, "Not as good as the two ring."
More Lord of the Rings humor

Hin Denburg is an NPC on the Undercity zepplin platform
Hindlinburg was a zepplin that caught fire ending the riegn of the sky boats

Gnoam a Gnome in IronForge
Just a play on the spelling of Gnome.

Old Man Hemming in Booty Bay who sells the expert fishing book
Hemmingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea

The Samophlange qeust
Thundercats blooper video

"Fear the power of the dark iron dwarves!" said by Dark Iron Dwarves
Star Wars play on words

"Your a Mean One..." Quest where you fight the Abominal Greench
The Grinch that Stole Christmas and theme song.

"Gnogaine" quest where giver lamments his lost afro
Rogaine is a hair restoritive

Captain Vimes in Theramore
Character from Terry Prachett novels

Norman and Bates innkeepers in Undercity and Sepulture
Norman Bates was the lead charcter in movie Phycho

Terry Palin a lumberjack in Eastvale Loggin Camp
Monty Python team Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin sang, "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK!"

Clarice Foster in the Thunderbluff Pools of Vision quest
Jodie Foster played Clarice Starling in movie Silence of the Lambs

Fooly and Cooly in Undercity Apothecarium
Fooly Cooly anime series

Red Mushrooms with white spots on caps purchased as food have two black dots on the stalks
Super Mario fought red mushrooms with white spots and eyes on their stalks.

Blue Punch Card in Gnomeragan reads "Do NOT let this information get into enemy hands!"
The binary code on bottom translates to, "The gnome king wears night elf underwear"

White Punch Card in Gnomeragan reads "Super Secret Triple Encoded Data Card!"
The binary code on bottom translates to, "Thrall and Jaina sing in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G"

Yellow Punch Card in Gnomeragan reads "Ulta Vital Data! Security Rating 5122!"
The binary code on bottom translates to, "If you can read this, you're standing too close"

Gaz'rilla, a named dinosaur in Tanaris (need instance name).
Godzilla a giant fire breathing dinosaur that terrorized tokoyo in a long series of movies.

Gamoo Rah, a named turtle in Blackfathoms Deep
Gamera is a japanese turtle monster similiar to Godzilla.

Tyler and Edwards are two undead NPCs that fight in the Undercity
Tyler Durden was played by Brad Pitt alter ego of Edward Norton as Narrator in the movie Fight Club.

In the NE corner of Golden Plains in Mulgore is a Monolith with some hand painting on it.
The paintings are Tauren influenced copies of ancient bull paintings of Altamira cave in Spain (12,000bc, and handprints from the Grotte de Chauvet in France (100,000+bc).

XXX (need NPC name) in Stormwind wanders around saying, "I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today."
Blimpy from the Popeye cartoon often said this.

"A Tailor to Cities" clothing shop in Booty Bay
"A tale of Two Cities" written by Charles %@$%enson.

Klannoc Macleod "The Islander" is an NPC in the Barrrens
Connor Macleod was the Highlander in the movie of same name.

"Chasing A-Me" is a quest given by the robot A-Me 01 in Un'goro
"Chasing Amy" is a Kevin Smith movie.

Spraggle Frock is an NPC in Un'goro
Fraggle Rock was a Jim Henson muppet series on HBO in the late 80's.

Horde characters typing "hehe" will be translated as "keke" to Alliance players
I dont't get the whole keke thing, some japanese nerdish thing i think

Seaforium is an engineer created explosive to blow open locked chests and doors.
C-4 is an explosive used to blow open just about everything.

Emrul is a cooking trainer in IronForge
Emeril is a popular television cook.

Daniel Ulfman and Steven Bharteck are NPCs in the Undead newbie lands
Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek were members of the still influential 80's band Oingo Boingo, one of their biggest hits was Dead Man's Party (Danny Elfman still composes movie scores having done, Batman, the Simpsons, Edward Scissorhands, Spider Man, Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Tales From the Crypt, and a lot more)

Chief Engineer Scooty is a goblin standing near what appears to be a teleporter in Booty Bay
Star Trek, theres also supposed to be a Spork goblin with the Away Team on the other side.

Dextren Ward is an NPC tossed into the Storwind Stockades for selling corpses to the Undead
"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is a story by HP Lovecraft

Rand is a Blacksmith in Deathknell
Rand is the hero of Wheel of Time, his friend Perrin is an apprentice blacksmith

Algernon is an NPC alchamist in Undercity, he is holding a flower
"Folwers for Algernon" is a short story by Daniel Keyes

Lister and Zimmer are two gaurds in the Undecity
Lister and Zimmer were two of the main characters in the Red Dwarf TV show.

When clicked on orc peons will occasionally say "Zug Zug"
Not only a reference to Warcraft but also a refrence to the movie Caveman.


Wirt's Third Leg
Binds when equipped
One-Hand Mace
49 - 91 Damage Speed 2.30
(30.4 damage per second)
+9 Agility
+4 Stamina
Requires Level 40
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My post is on what page after 2 minutes!?


WoW Gameplay Discussion -

World of Warcraft Comics - by Jeff Whiting

WoW Hunter Discussion -: "155"

WoW Hunter Discussion -

Beasts by Family
Allakhazam.com: World of Warcraft

Hunter Pet Abilities

WoW Hunter Discussion -

1. Pet FAQ | 11/23/2004 9:42:09 AM PST


I posted this in the Hunter forums during Open Beta, so I saved it. Here it is.

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I made a hunter. When do I get my pet?

Once you reach level 10, you may start a quest to learn the art of beast taming.

Who do I get the Taming quest from?

The second hunter trainer you run across will have a grey ‘!’ over his head. This is where you can get the quest.

Is the hunter quest race specific?

It seems to be region specific. You will tame local creatures.

Ok I got my taming quest and this rod. Now what?

Your quest will specify a creature you are to tame. It should also indicate the best location to find the beast. Find the beast. Walk up to it. Right-click the rod in your inventory. The beast will attack you. Stay still while the timer that appears empties. It will tell you whether your tame was successful or not. If not, try again.

What happens if I mess up and use all my rod charges?

Return to the quest giver and retake the quest.

I tamed my first pet on the quest. Now what?

Return to the quest giver. He will give you two more beasts to tame before you receive your skill. You have 10 minutes from the point of taming before the pet disappears. No worries though, it will still count as a completion (Not sure if the same applies if your pet dies).

Do I get to keep the creatures I tame on the quest?

After each phase of the quest, you will lose the creature you just tamed.

I finished all three phases and got my ability to tame. How do I get a pet now?

You can. Same as taming before, except no rod. You walk up and use your Tame ability.

Why can't I feed / revive / train my pet?

Once you have the Taming ability, talk to the trainer that gave you the quest. He will now give you another quest to learn the Revive, Feed, and Train Pet abilities. All you have to do is speak to the trainer he sends you to.

Where do I find the pet trainer?

I found my first pet trainer (as an orc) in Orgrimmar. I would imagine they appear in the major cities. Speak to a information person (city guard) to find out where.

What can I tame?

There is a sticky listing pets that have been reported as untamable. You can’t tame those. Aside from that the only rule is any beast equal or less than your level.

Where do I find (Insert Beast Name here)?

Explore the world, find new pets. Its part of the game. Besides, what makes a good pet is dependent on what you are looking for.

How long do I keep what I tame with my skill?

You keep it until you abandon it (See below)

How do I get my pet to appear?

Use the Call Pet ability. Your character will whistle. Your pet should appear in a few seconds.

How do I name my pet?

Click on your pet to target it. It’s picture and bars will appear at the top of the screen next to your character’s. Right-click on the picture and select Name. Then you type in a name and press Enter.

How do I use my pets abilities?

There will be a small toolbar that appears above yours, when you call your pet. It has basic commands like Attack, Stay, Follow. It will also have the pets abilities (like Growl and Cower in my Durotar Tiger). These are usually set to AutoCast. This means they will be used by the pet AI. To remove them off AutoCast, Right-click the box. Right-click it again to resume AutoCast.

Does my pet get stronger and grow?

Your pet does not grow, but it will level like you.

Can my pet learn new skills?

Just like you, the pet can learn skills. You must first learn them from a Pet Trainer. Once you know them, you can use your Train Pet ability to teach them.

[b]Where do these abilities (like Growl, Cower) come from?

Each pet will teach you its basic abilities to start with. You can then learn higher rank versions of these from a pet trainer, so you can teach them to your pet. Different pets will give you different abilities.

How do I train my pet? (Thanks to Tyramar)

Some pets come with abilities. As far as I can tell, all you have to do to learn that ability is use that pet in battle until you do. You will get a yellow text message saying that you learned a skill. You can then abandon that pet in favor of a new one, and repeat the process. Currently there are only 4-5 pet skills, and not all pets can use each skill.

Once you learn enough skills from different pets, you can have one pet (usually your favorite) learn them using the "Beast Training" skill. Simply click on it, and a list of all the beast skills you've learned will pop up, much like the list for your Hunter at your hunter trainer. You can then use your pets available Training Points on those skills and teach them to that pet.

A pet gets Training Points when its loyalty level goes up. This is easy enough. All you need to do is keep it well fed (Green Happy Face).

How do I feed my pet? What does that do?

You can feed your pet by clicking the Feed Pet ability and selecting a food item, or by dragging a food item onto your pet.

What is the symbol next to my pet when I call him?

The small coloured square with a face in it is an indicator of how happy your pet is. This can be raised by feeding your pet. This status raises or lowers your pets damage output. Green is best (125% damage). Yellow is normal (100% damage). Then orange, then red.

What does my pet eat?

You can find out by looking at the Pet tab on your character sheet.

What happens when I dismiss my pet?

Your pet will go away and await your next Call. This will lower the pets happiness. To get your pet back, just use Call Pet. Dismissing the pet basically stores it.

How do I get another pet?

You can only have one active pet at a time. You can either go to a Stable Master and store a pet, freeing up the room to get a new one. Note that you can only store two pets. Or you can Abandon your pet by selecting him and right-clicking on his name.

------------------------------------------------

I hope this helps. I know there are a lot of pet related questions still. I am just a noob hunter trying to get the Basics out there for everyone to see.


WoW Hunter Discussion -