Getting into WoW - 2 newbie questions

Alex53 · 16 Feb 2010 at 15:05

I have played LotRO for 2 years, and while I dont plan to stop playing, I think its time to play a little less and give something else a go 2 or 3 nights a week. The chosen game is WoW. I tried it for 2 weeks before I started on LotRO 2 years ago, but got into the latter instead because I had friends that already played it.

I ordered the WoW Battlechest, and while that is on the way, I have 2 questions 2.

1. What server do you recommend (and why)? Having played a mostly PvE game for 2 years I think I want to give a more PvP oriented environment a go.

2. Since I will probably have to spend ages downloading patches, are there stand alone patches I can start downloading already to minimise waiting time once I get the Battle Chest and install the game?

Apok · 16 Feb 2010 at 15:12

1.) It really depends on the server, you could always roll up on horde karazhan (it's a pvp server), there's a bit of a ocuk guild project going on there so i cant imagine you'd have a problem finding a friendly face or two.
2.) you should be able to either download the client upto wotlk or just install straight upto without needing to patch anything other than 3.x patchs, haven't done it for a while myself mind so im not sure, there may be a standalone collection of patch's but the best bet to get them all speeding along at a nice speed would be to pop over to wowwiki and have a look at the patch-mirrors section.

G-Man · 16 Feb 2010 at 15:20

By the looks of it the Battlechest doesn't include Wrath which makes it a bit more hassle to fresh install.

Unless you internet connection is slow the fastest way is to download the full client which saves you having to disc swap for hours with the vanilla and bc discs.
Downloadable client is version 3.0.1 so to catch up after that you'd need the 3.2.0 patch then the 3.2.0 > 3.3.0 patch, after that its small enough stuff to just let the game download them.

Links can be found here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_mirrors
For the client download its probably best to use the offical one: http://www.wow-europe.com/shared/downloads/InstallWoW_enGB/InstallWoW.exe

On the other hand, if my information is out of date and the battlechest has wrath, you can just install from the wrath dvd (ignore the other discs) then patch up the same way.

Alex53 · 16 Feb 2010 at 16:06

Thanks for the replies. I will start looking at those links.

Glad to see an OCuk guild too. It creates a hard choice for me. I had my heart set on rolling Alliance.

Does that influence server choice too? I dont want to end up on a server where Alliance is just getting its arse kicked all the time. Can servers be very unbalanced that way? Would that make levelling very hard on such a PvP server? Damn I havent started playing yet and I am already chickening out into considering PvE instead lol.

caz32 · 16 Feb 2010 at 16:11

Well I can only tell you (IF you roll Alliance) Don't go to Al'Akir, I used to be Horde on there and changed to Alliance when the faction changed came and about mid January we had a Free migration and all the major Alliance guilds have left and some horde ones to,

There's a command in the game to see where people are in the world and if you type /who Iron Forge, Dalaran, Stormwind etc there's no more then 30 in each and the limit you can see in the window that pop's up is 49

Me, My brother and IRL mate are migrating away soon because its just going to end up dead

And the ratio is 1:10, for every 1 Alliance created, 10 Horde are.

That's some info about Al'Akir an English PVP Realm

Naff8000 · 16 Feb 2010 at 16:50

Yes stay away from servers with very unbalanced populations. I was on Magtheridon when SK and Nihilum joined forces....all the Ally guilds left. Most times you'd find more Horde in Ironforge than alliance

Also check out server lag. I'm on Sylvanas at the moment and I certainly cannot recommend it. Stay away.

I definetly recommend playing a pvp server though since it adds a whole new element to the game. The time you lose through ganking isn't that much especially if you have some level 80 friends who can help you out.

Squink · 16 Feb 2010 at 17:07

Alex53 said:
Having played a mostly PvE game for 2 years I think I want to give a more PvP oriented environment a go.

A lot of people love playing on PvP servers and would never dream of playing on a PvE one, but don't for a moment think world PvP is ever remotely fair. You'll probably not get ganked too much when levelling (as most people are in the new continent), but if you're the sort of person who's looking for the thrill of PvP, but not the sort of person to actively seek it out, then I wouldn't bother. The frustration will eventually bore you.

You can always pay to transfer servers later of course

neoboy · 16 Feb 2010 at 17:10

Well I couldn't be bothered swapping CDs back and fourth with all the editions particularly since it takes ages anyway. So I just did the whole installation the lazy way man and registered games with my account and simply let the downloader download and install everything overnight.

carlazai · 16 Feb 2010 at 20:05

Just get the downloader from Blizz, its a lot easier.

Trixxy · 17 Feb 2010 at 02:19

caz32 said:
Well I can only tell you (IF you roll Alliance) Don't go to Al'Akir, I used to be Horde on there and changed to Alliance when the faction changed came and about mid January we had a Free migration and all the major Alliance guilds have left and some horde ones to,

There's a command in the game to see where people are in the world and if you type /who Iron Forge, Dalaran, Stormwind etc there's no more then 30 in each and the limit you can see in the window that pop's up is 49

Me, My brother and IRL mate are migrating away soon because its just going to end up dead

And the ratio is 1:10, for every 1 Alliance created, 10 Horde are.

That's some info about Al'Akir an English PVP Realm

Yep totally agree, I transferred 5 characters to Al'Akir from a PvE realm last summer (a couple of my mates rolled new chars there, and when I saw how much fun it was levelling on a PvP server I transferred some of the 30s/40s I had over).

It was always unbalanced, but since about a month ago it's crazy. WG consists of camping/duelling at ally camp against maybe 5 or 6 ally (with 20 tenacity). Even at peak time they have 20 tenacity, fighting against 400k+ HP bear druids is fun. 100% uptime for VoA an Essence of Wintergrasp buff is nice tho.

I have a second account I use for tracking ganking ****heads (lvl 1 ally idling in SW, add a ganker to friends list and go hunting them on an 80 when I'm bored).

I had about 90+ "friends", then about 2 weeks later I logged in and most were gone. Trade/Local chat is practically non-existant.

No logon queues now at least, that was annoying, but still laggy and will transfer somewhere else soon. No point playing on a pvp sever if there's no opposing faction, I saw more world pvp on my old pve server. :/

Tummy · 17 Feb 2010 at 02:31

caz32 said:
Well I can only tell you (IF you roll Alliance) Don't go to Al'Akir, I used to be Horde on there and changed to Alliance when the faction changed came and about mid January we had a Free migration and all the major Alliance guilds have left and some horde ones to,

There's a command in the game to see where people are in the world and if you type /who Iron Forge, Dalaran, Stormwind etc there's no more then 30 in each and the limit you can see in the window that pop's up is 49

Me, My brother and IRL mate are migrating away soon because its just going to end up dead

And the ratio is 1:10, for every 1 Alliance created, 10 Horde are.

That's some info about Al'Akir an English PVP Realm

Leicester?

Where abouts in Leicester?

Darkedge · 17 Feb 2010 at 04:04

Korgath/Horde.

Because the ratio of Horde/Alliance is somewhat even. Plus its a great PVP battlegroup.

And Blizzards patcher is not that bad.

.Lethal · 17 Feb 2010 at 10:48

Darkedge said:
Korgath/Horde.

Because the ratio of Horde/Alliance is somewhat even. Plus its a great PVP battlegroup.

And Blizzards patcher is not that bad.

Aye you really want a server with a good balance of horde and alliance.

If you have your heart set on alliance don't let anyone change your mind. You can at a later point in time always pay to have your alliance char changed to horde.

I was going to suggest Balnazzar server as I played on that briefly, the pvp was even's on the server but the battlegroup was questionable sometimes since Magtheridon is in the group, although because of this the queue times to get into a BG were mostly very short.

Alex53 · 18 Feb 2010 at 08:30

Thanks for the replies. I definitely want to roll Alliance. In fact, call me unimaginative but I generally roll human/male characters as my main. I just find it harder to get into the shoes of female or non-human characters. If at least horde had evil humans...

Are these logon queues common? Coming from LotRO I dont know what to make of logon queues to play a game you are paying a subscription for.

Squink · 18 Feb 2010 at 09:47

Alex53 said:
Are these logon queues common? Coming from LotRO I dont know what to make of logon queues to play a game you are paying a subscription for.

When you first log on to the game it will pick a server for you automatically. This is likely to be a new, low population server. If you decide to select a different server, the list will display relative populations of those servers. You can still choose to create a character on one listed as 'full', but you may experience queues. Most of the servers will be listed as high, medium or low. I imagine the high pop ones may have small queues at peak times (when people return from school/work).

The login queues are because Blizzard won't stop you picking whichever server you want (in case a new player wants to join friends on an existing server). Consequently there are a few very popular servers that a lot of people have gravitated to, but it's mostly their choice.

EDIT - and on the subject of Alliance, there has always been criticism from Horde players that the Alliance early zones are more polished and complete. Certainly I'd agree with that having played both sides. The Alliance cities of (particularly) Ironforge and Stormwind look generally much more grand than their Horde counterparts (though I'm sure some people will disagree).