brand new

Howdy all,

So i am brand new to not only WoW but the mmo genre in general. i started a druid and am up to level 16 so far and enjoying it. I do have a question or two though:

1. The plan is to play to the end of the trial, purchase plain ol' regular WoW, and reach the max level for that, then move to the expansions one by one. However i know the regular wow box comes with a 30 day subscription, but does each expansion also include a subscription? Does the battle chest come with a subscription?

2. What's all this jazz about UI's and Macros? any advice would be nice as i'm quite clueless as to what these are for? or which ones would be recomended. (sorry if this is the wrong forum for this but i figured i'd add it in here since i'm a newcomer)

3. can the game be enjoyed on a casual level? I probably won't have as much time as i'd like to play, but is it possible to still have fun and only be able to play 5-10 hours a week?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice. If you have anything else you think i should know please feel free to add it!|||1. iirc the expansions don't come with extra game time. i'm pretty sure the battle chest would have some since you get the original game iwth it.

2. best thing to do is just play the game with the default UI until your comfortable with changing things around.

3. totally doable, raids atm take a bit of time, but in cataclysm, which will be out soon, you shouldn't have too much of a problem|||Anything with WoW Classic in it has a subscription (incl one-time 1 month free).|||I had two posts ready last night but lost them both to me browser. In addition to the above posts, wowwiki.com is a great place to look for information.

Some useful terms to search are newb (this leads to a whole section on the basics of being new to the game.

and getting your feet wet so to speak), it also branches off into several different guide type pages designed to get the newcomer into the game.

You can also search UI, Macro, Add on, and so forth to give an explanation of them.|||1. Santhe covered the important stuff. Unless there is a large price difference, I'd get the Battle Chest now.

There are several things that you might want access to at low levels that you need the BC expansion to have access to. Without BC you can't play Blood Elves or Draenai. You also won't have access to their starting or 10-20 zones. (Since those zones are newer, many people prefer questing in them since they offer better rewards and have more efficient quest flow.) You also need the BC expansion to have access to the Jewelcrafting profession.

Wrath you can wait on, as you won't miss anything from it until level 55. (And that's only if you want to play a DK.)

When Cataclysm comes out, it will affect all accounts. I'm not sure if there will be any low level stuff you will be locked out of if you don't have it. You obviously won't have access to Goblins or Worgens, but I don't know about the other new race/class combos.

2. Blizzard allows a ton of customization in their user interface. You can completely change the style of your UI, or just add some nice functionality. The default UI works just fine for most applications.

I would say that the only real current place the default UI fails is for raid healing. So, if you are playing a healer and plan on doing battlegrounds as you level (that's the only place a lower level is likely to find themselves in a raid) then you will want to get some raid frames. Healbot, Vuhdo, and Grid are the most popular choices. Keep in mind that Blizzard has made some significant improvements to their raid frames for Cataclysm, so in a month or two, even that won't be an issue.

I'd recommend staying with the default for now, but visit the official forum's UI and Macro forum. You can get lots of ideas about what you can do with mods, and then when you get to a point where you want to start using mods, you'll have an idea of what is out there.

3. It depends on what your goals are. If you want to do end game raiding, or hardcore PvP your limited schedule will make it pretty much impossible. If you are okay with not doing those things, there is still lots to do. For group activities, there's 5 mans, casual PvP, and even limited non-progression raiding options. There are also about a million achievements you can work towards at your own pace.|||as for question 2 : dont bother with it yet, enjoy the game. You will discover it over time, when you need to.|||Wow everyone,

Thank you for the excellent response to my questions and the advice about BC. I think as soon as i hit 20, i'll be off to purchase the battle chest. Thanks again for the info. off to join a random dungeon!|||Welcome to the game also. Hope you find as much pleasure in it as I do.