Level 1: Monday, January 28, 2011

You don't even like going outside anyway.

This screen is the first thing that a player sees when creating a new character. The choices made on this screen will determine a great number of things, including the character's faction, class, and combat type.

There are two factions to choose from, Alliance and Horde, and each one has a completely different leveling path, economy, and leadership. A player who chooses to level a character through both factions

will experience almost a completely different game for each one.

In contested areas on PvP servers, your character will also be vulnerable to attack from the opposing faction, which can either make for a quick shot of adrenaline

as you fight off an evenly matched foe during a questing session...or some pretty graphic profanity if your little Level 25 warlock gets curb stomped by a pack of Level 85 rogues.

They're moving in herds. They DO move in herds.

Class choice dictates whether a player will be running into combat with daggers and swords flying, sniping enemies with magic (or arrows) from afar, or healing allies with spells. Some classes are purely designed to do damage (mages, rogues, warlocks, hunters) and some others (warriors, paladins, druids, death knights, shaman, and priests) can fill multiple roles. Due to their arrangement with Satan, druids can serve as tanks, healers, ranged DPS, and melee DPS!

We can also turn into birds at will. Bow down, bitches.

Since this is a broad look at WoW, I am not going to walk one individual character all the way to 85. Also, since the only Horde character I've ever created only made it to Level 14, this will be a heavily Alliance-biased journey. I apologize to the Horde.

Once the player has decided on a class, they get a short cinematic intro, and are dropped off at Northshire Abbey, a small building located close to the outskirts of the human capital city, Stormwind.

Nothing says comfort like building next to a wolf lair and mole people-infested mine.

Right off the bat, your character is ordered to perform a series of menial tasks by a quest giver with a misplaced authority complex.

Oh, did I miss the song? Sing it again, rookie biotch!

Your early responsibilities range from gathering wolf fur for a pair of gloves to clearing out the nearby vineyard, which has been overwhelmed by Defias thieves. Post-Cataclysm, the vineyard has been burnt to ash, and the Abbey is being invaded by Twilight Cultists, who want to bring about the end of the world. Like all of the WoW starting zones, this area sets the stage for a good portion of the human experience; the thugs that you are killing now are just underlings, and you will face their superiors as you get stronger.