26 Mar 2009

Creating a Character

. 26 Mar 2009

The character you create is something who's butt your are going to look at for hours, every day, given how you are going to get addicted by WoW. So it's important what you choose here.

The Name
Your character's name would better be typable. If you want to be SuperNinja and that is already taken, do not go for SúperNínja, because people will not be able to type that on a normal day and therefore will not chat with you.

Also, try to pick something that you will not be ashamed of in two months or which could get you banned. If you are successful at this game, you may get titles appended to your name, such as 'Conqueror of Naxxramas' and such. Make sure your name doesn't sound ridiculous when next to such grandious titles. Keep it simple and make it not a description (that is Aerie is good, IrockU is bad).

The Faction
There are two: Horde and Alliance. You need to think of two things:

  1. Horde are 'bad', Alliance are 'good'. If it matters choose based on that.

  2. You cannot play or even communicate with players of the different faction, so if you have friends on one faction already in the game, chose their faction instead.
The Class
This is the most important choice for your character on the character creation screen. Because.. what class you choose will affect how you play the game. There are flavour things that you cannot decide until you play and see for yourself, but there are two things that you can and should decide at this point, before you invest months into your character.

  • Distance - some classes do everything from a distance. They are called range classes. Some go in to the fight with swords and stuff, they are called melee. You need to choose between those (look at the class descriptions to see which class is range, which melee).
  • Role - there are 3: tank, healer and dps. Tanks are tough guys who take damage and distract monsters from others. Healers are guys who heal the tanks. Dps are guys who just shoot at the monsters until the monsters are dead. It's actually more complex than that, but in a nutshell it's true. As a beginner it's easiest to choose a class than can dps well, because tanking and healing are harder. Which means, unless you are a very fast learner, do not choose Priest (they suck at dpsing until higher levels).

Do not buy to much into the description Blizzard gives about what each class can do. Here are some realistic tips:

  • Hunter - easy for beginners, got a pet, kill at range with arrows, can easily escape death (they feign it and monsters leave them alone), arrows may be expensive for a starter
  • Mage - moderately hard to play, but cheap for a beginner as they can conjure water and food for free (major cost for starters).
  • Paladin - can play any role they want, with adequate equipment. Can resurrect dead players, get first horse for free, which is a money saver for beginners.
  • Warlock - requires above average skill and needs adaption in play style as you level. Probably not a good choice, although they are kinda cool.
  • Druid - very versatile, just like the paladin they can fulfill all roles and get some free horses that others have to pay for.

The Race
The race you pick is not going to affect that much anything in your career as a player. Just pick what you like most in terms of how it looks. The only other thing you should keep in mind is that some races cannot chose certain classes (see above for classes) and that night elves have a cool spell called 'Shadowmeld' that allows them to become invisible if they are losing a fight and thus save their asses. That however, is not by itself a reason to be a night elf.

The Sex
You cannot have it WoW, but you can choose it. Up to you really what you choose. Some males pick females as they prefer to look at female behinds as they adventure. Whatever you pick, do not assume female characters are played by female players, as you will be very wrong.

Visual Appearance
You really don't need advice on that. But you need to know you can change hair style, facial hair style and colour later on, by paying in-game currency. You can also change your other visual traits by paying Blizzard real money for a 'character recustomization'. But better choose something you will like and save some money.

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