N00b (again) help- so much has changed!

[WayAbvPar]

OK. so trotski the ratfucker got me back into WoW with a shiny new account (old one was banned for some reason or another about 2 years after I had last played...tried to go through the steps to recover it, but not one @ Blizzard seemed to be able to find the info I faxed no less than 5 times to at least 3 different numbers, so I gave up). I have leveled a frost mage to 40 now (old mains were rogue and mage). I am playing Alliance for the first time, so I am extra confused about how to get around, find things in the capital cities (god Orgrimmar is so much better than every other city), etc.

I am stumbling through mostly blind, but since WoW does such a good job of hand-holding for questing, I haven't had any trouble leveling. I am still confused by a ton of changes though. I skimmed/read the Cataclysm thread and was totally fucking lost. Can someone help a brother out?

 What are the major changes from TBC to now (last time I played)? I haven't purchased the expansions yet, but did buy the vanilla game.

Is AoE leveling still viable for mages now that Blizzard is such a high level?

What add ons should I be using? I have Curse installed and about 20 add ons, but don't really know how to use many of them yet.

Any decent strategies/guides for efficiently leveling crafting? I am currently tailoring (about 175) and enchanting (about 103). I seem to have come to kind of a deadend with enchanting- I started off with inscription, but leveled to 25 without doing it at all and then realizing I basically needed herbalism along with it, and so switched to enchanting, which means all the greens and blues I sold from the first couple of days of play when my guildies ran me through Deadmines and SFK came back to haunt me- not enough low level stuff for enchanting mats. Now I have a bank full of mats but very few recipes that match my mats. 

Any sekret places to buy the expansions on the cheap? Battle.net is still charging $30 for fucking TBC (which I have already bought once, ffs), and Wrath and obviously Cat are full price still. After buying vanilla for $20, I discovered I could have bought the Battle Chest with TBC and vanilla for $40 (it might even have another D2 copy included).

How do all the new guild mechanics work? Things like my rep within my own guild, the guild levels, etc?

Also- my new guild is very cloth-wearer DPS and tiny, so I might need to level a healer or tank at some point. Any suggestions? I would like something solo-friendly, and something a bit more complex than a mage (which are just about the easiest leveler I have seen so far).

My newfound enthusiasm for WoW is about 99% due to having some people to play with and voice chat with as I level. If/when they start disappearing I won' t be far behind, unless there is a robust F13 guild going somewhere (or maybe I will catch on with the goons or something).

Anyway- any advice is welcome.

[Kail]

What are the major changes from TBC to now (last time I played)? I haven't purchased the expansions yet, but did buy the vanilla game.

Major major changes:
-New races/classes with the expansions.  If you grab BC, you get Blood Elves and Draenei, If you grab Cataclysm you get Goblins and Worgen.  If you get Lich King, you get Death Knights, the game's only Hero Class so far, which unlocks once you get a character to level 55 (I think, might be 58) and then allows you to roll one Death Knight per server who starts at level 55.

-New leveling cap/zones with the expansions, in vanilla the cap is 60, in BC it's 70, Lich King is 80, and Cataclysm is 85.  New zones in each expansion, and BC adds flying mounts.

Without any expansions:

-All the vanilla content has been redone.  The questing is WAY better (as in, more fun) now than in vanilla, levelling is crazy fast until 60, and gold and items are a lot better, too.

-Tons of balance changes.  For example, hybrids can now perform multiple roles instead of just healing.  Paladins and druids can tank or heal or DPS depending on spec, Shamans can DPS or heal, etc.

-Blizzard added a "Looking for Dungeon" system, which is cross server and puts you into a pool of random people who want to do a dungeon and tries to find a group for you.  Works really well for easy dungeons (most levelling content), but has some issues with difficult dungeons (heroics currently) where random PUGer number ten million and one might not know how to do the fight well enough to win.

-You can dual spec if you visit your trainer.  You can switch between specs at any time which allows you to have a priest who can DPS when he's questing or heal for his guild raids.  Also on the subject of specs, you get serious bonuses now for just picking a tree to spec in, rather than having to wait until level 40 for your tree's defining ability.

-There's a "gear manager" in the character screen you can assign different outfits to if you've got multiple sets of armor.  Usually for high end stuff, so characters can have (for example) a +STR set for their DPS spec paladin and a +INT set for their healing spec paladin.

-Tons of accesibility/convenience changes.  Too many to mention, really.  Everything is super streamlined now.  Guns don't require ammo, wands don't require you to mash the shoot key, you don't have to train new levels of skills (meaning if you know "Fireball" you won't have to go back to the trainer to learn "Fireball rank 2" when you level up), mounts are cheaper and available earlier, more flight paths, that kind of thing.

[koro]

Also, ditch the Curse addon client. It is very very bad juju, and its security is frequently compromised, leading to tons of account hijackings.

[K9]

What are the major changes from TBC to now (last time I played)? I haven't purchased the expansions yet, but did buy the vanilla game.

Pretty much everything has changed in some way; I'd say the major changes are the addition on heroic dungeons (harder versions of regular dungeons with enhanced loot), the streamlining of reputations (many reputations can now be 'championed', whereby you earn rep by running dungeons while wearing their respective tabard), the random dungeon finder tool, battleground experience and heirlooms.

Is AoE leveling still viable for mages now that Blizzard is such a high level?

Mob grinding is dead, gone, irrelevant (with only a couple of tiny, incredibly niche and irrelevant exceptions). The default means of levelling is quests, and the new quest structure is really really well designed (with the exception of Outland). You have alternatives in the form of running dungeons and winning battlegrounds. Random Dungeons give you a cash and xp (or JP at level 85) reward for completing the first one, and you also get a sack which has an 85% chance to give you an item which is utterly useless to you, but is a nice touch nonetheless. Winning battlegrounds nets you quite a lot of XP, but it's a bit hit-and miss, and you may not enjoy getting destroyed by twinks in heirloom gear.

What add ons should I be using? I have Curse installed and about 20 add ons, but don't really know how to use many of them yet.

Addons vary hugely by preference. Personally I need five as a minimum: Unit Frames (I use Pitbull 4.0), Action Bars (I use Bartender), Recount (Damage, Healing and Activity Meter), Raid Frames (Grid, vital for healing) and a cooldown monitor (I use CoolLine). A lot of old addons are now baked into the UI by default, such as scrolling combat text, power auras and questing addons. A lot of people use Auction mods, gathering mods and chat mods (spam blockers are pretty handy). As a DPS you probably want to pick up Omen, or some other threat meter. Otherwise there are so many mods you could go for, yet in my experience most are crap. When you get past 70 you'll probably want to pick up Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) which gives timers and alerts for abilities used by bosses in Raids and Dungeons.

My suggestion is to get your UI to the state that you are happy, and then only add mods where you feel you need them.

Any decent strategies/guides for efficiently leveling crafting? I am currently tailoring (about 175) and enchanting (about 103). I seem to have come to kind of a deadend with enchanting- I started off with inscription, but leveled to 25 without doing it at all and then realizing I basically needed herbalism along with it, and so switched to enchanting, which means all the greens and blues I sold from the first couple of days of play when my guildies ran me through Deadmines and SFK came back to haunt me- not enough low level stuff for enchanting mats. Now I have a bank full of mats but very few recipes that match my mats. 

Ditching Incription was probably a smart move, since it is a fairly lacklustre profession right now. As a fellow Tailor/Enchanter I can say that the best source of cloth is dungeons, and the best source of enchanting mats are disenchanting what you make from tailoring and all your quest rewards and spare drops. You will end up with a lot of left over dusts and essences, but they do sell on the AH, so they are not a total dead end. Crafting while you level is hard though, and due to the way the economy is, most people rely on max-level mains to either farm or buy mats to powerlevel professions. My main advice is not to spend ANY money on your professions bar buying thread, training new levels and skills, and buying the base rods for enchanting (since those have to be crafted, buying the mats is often cheaper). Professions are a huge gold sink, and really won't make any money until you are max or near-max level. If the cloth you are getting from your quest mobs and dungeons is right for your level of tailoring (Mageweave I guess?) then keep on collecting it and levelling; otherwise you might want to go back and farm some at some point at your leisure. I wouldn't make it a priority.

If you only want easy max-level professions take a combo of skinning, mining or herbalism, since they are piss easy to level. Otherwise stick with what you have; tailoring and enchanting have nice benefits that start to kick in around 350 skill and make the professions worth having.

Any sekret places to buy the expansions on the cheap? Battle.net is still charging $30 for fucking TBC (which I have already bought once, ffs), and Wrath and obviously Cat are full price still. After buying vanilla for $20, I discovered I could have bought the Battle Chest with TBC and vanilla for $40 (it might even have another D2 copy included).

No idea, sorry

How do all the new guild mechanics work? Things like my rep within my own guild, the guild levels, etc?

You gain rep with your guild by completing quests, guild achievements; really a lot of things in fact. Until you are max level you shouldn't have to go out of your way to find activities to raise it. Guild rep allows you to access guld rewards which are variously earned from guild levels and guild achievements. Guild experience is earned by people in the guild doing almost anything, but there is a daily cap which prevents you from grinding it rapidly to the max. There are 25 guild levels, and each has some perk of varying usefulness.

Also- my new guild is very cloth-wearer DPS and tiny, so I might need to level a healer or tank at some point. Any suggestions? I would like something solo-friendly, and something a bit more complex than a mage (which are just about the easiest leveler I have seen so far).

Paladins are probably the most solo-friendly class, and they tank, heal and DPS well. The downside is that paladins are the most common class in the game, and they are not the most interesting to play. From my experience playing Priest, Shaman and DK, they are all fun to play, but I'd say the Shaman was the easiest and most fun to level, and offers varying degrees of complexity (Elemental is one of the easiest specs in the game, Enhance is one of the most complex, and resto is a nice and fun, varied healer). Priest is the most satisfying healer, and DKs have a lot of fun abilities, but they are common as dirt and generally played by utter morons.

My newfound enthusiasm for WoW is about 99% due to having some people to play with and voice chat with as I level. If/when they start disappearing I won' t be far behind, unless there is a robust F13 guild going somewhere (or maybe I will catch on with the goons or something).

Ingmar's guild seems to have a lot of F13 people in it, and seems like a fairly casual-friendly guild.

[Ingmar]

Yeah we're on Alliance/Doomhammer if you get the urge to de-orc.

[kildorn]

Yeah we're on Alliance/Doomhammer if you get the urge to de-orc.

There's a minecraft server called Doomhammer? What a coincidence!

[Ingmar]

[Shrike]

First thing you should do is get an authenticator and use it.

Second is ditch the Curse client updating thingum. It is bad juju.

After that, everything else in this thread is golden. Well, mostly. Mage? Seriously?  

[apocrypha]

Curse client is fine. Been using it for years. As has everyone in my guild. Not a single hacking. People posting on assorted forums "I got hax0red after installing Curse client!!" are just the usual retards who click on phishing email links and don't use an authenticator.

I can second the paladin advice - they're versatile, fun to play and pretty much immortal while levelling, especially as Protection. You get a quest that says "Kill 20 foozles" and do it in one pull if you can find 20 close enough together. 

If you're not hot for a pally then warriors are fun, although I wouldn't level as Prot, and it's hard to go wrong with druids.

Professions... ugh, well, personally I think professions are a bit fucked. The gains to the character from professions are minimal and the cost of levelling them is huge. 2 gathering profs is the way to go while levelling (any 2 - you can show both herbs and mineral veins on your map at the same time now) and if you decide when you get to level cap that you want an extra +90 whatever or a BoP crafted epic then you can level a prof fairly easily. WoW-Professions has a bunch of good guides.

And stay the fuck away from Archaeology, it's fucking terrible.

[Sjofn]

Leveling as a protection warrior is fine now.

[Shrike]

Protection has been fine since LK.

Arch isn't that bad. It's fluff, but there are a ton of pets and clicky gadgets to find, if you're into that. A couple of fairly decent BoA items are in there to help leveling. It's dull, but what else is there to do while waiting on 50 minute queues? Fishing? 

Generally, I can fly around mining or fly around digging up old bones. Half a dozen of one, six of another.

[Reg]

When you hit 60 you're going to want ALL of the expansions, unfortunately.  Burning Crusade alone won't let you buy the flight license you need to fly around in the old world. You need vanilla + TBC + wrath + Cataclysm for that.

[WayAbvPar]

When you hit 60 you're going to want ALL of the expansions, unfortunately.  Burning Crusade alone won't let you buy the flight license you need to fly around in the old world. You need vanilla + TBC + wrath + Cataclysm for that.

Naturally.

Gonna stop by Fry's and see if I can find some old boxes to mitigate the upgrade costs a bit. If not, I might be out $100 or so. 

I would like to play a druid, but the Alliance races just aren't an option. I will never play a Night Elf (I am having enough trouble being on the same side!), and Worgens look stupid and require further expansions.

Does no one buy stuff on the AH anymore? I have gotten some really decent BOE drops that are just rotting on the AH.

[Rendakor]

Low level BoE gear often has competition for BoAs and thus doesn't sell too well. Also with the faster 1-60 leveling, some people aren't even bothering to buy anything as you'll replace it with a quest reward in a few minutes anyway.

[Reg]

Most low level greens just get bought to be disenchanted as far as I can tell. You can still get a better price than what a vendor will pay though.

[WayAbvPar]

Yeah that is kinda what I figured. Got two really nice blues- one sold (which financed my purchase of all my bank slots  ), but the other hasn't yet, and very few of the greens.

Spent 30 minutes on Sentinel hill to and gathered a couple of hundred linen and a few greens to D/E- just set my pet on aggressive and hit and AoE every few seconds, and they died faster than I could loot- that took care of linen bandages  Might need a few more minutes to get enough for heavy linen, then it is on to wool. Any suggestions for that?

[Xanthippe]

You can sell the enchant mats you don't need to buy the ones you do (maybe) - prices get better as you go up in level.

Wool cloth - worgens or ogres in Duskwood or Thistlefur in Ashenvale.  Basically humanoid mobs between 20 and 30.

[K9]

I can't say for sure (since the option didn't exist back when I did sub-375 enchanting levelling) but I'd guess too that stuffing enchants onto scrolls (rather than serially re-enchanting some bit of kit, which used to be the norm) and trying to sell them might not be a bad idea. There are several low-level enchants which will sell to an extent as they can be placed on heirlooms. If you check wowhead for the best chest and weapon enchants that don't require a minimum item level then you'll find them.

Most of them are impractical for levelling (crusader, +15 agility etc) but I think the +stats, +hp and +mana to chest enchants are viable to skill off.

[WayAbvPar]

Ugh I totally forgot about scroll enchanting. Dammit. Will try a few of those to supplement what I need, as well as selling some of the midgrade mats I have now.

[Lantyssa]

Any decent strategies/guides for efficiently leveling crafting? I am currently tailoring (about 175) and enchanting (about 103). I seem to have come to kind of a deadend with enchanting- I started off with inscription, but leveled to 25 without doing it at all and then realizing I basically needed herbalism along with it, and so switched to enchanting, which means all the greens and blues I sold from the first couple of days of play when my guildies ran me through Deadmines and SFK came back to haunt me- not enough low level stuff for enchanting mats. Now I have a bank full of mats but very few recipes that match my mats. 

Use your tailoring to make clothing you can DE for mats.  Farm cloth and look for super cheap cloth/bolts/greens on the AH.  Run yourself the through lower level instances to get both.

Also- my new guild is very cloth-wearer DPS and tiny, so I might need to level a healer or tank at some point. Any suggestions? I would like something solo-friendly, and something a bit more complex than a mage (which are just about the easiest leveler I have seen so far).

Get to 55 (or 60?) with your Mage, buy the expansions, then make a DK.  Otherwise make a Warrior.

[WayAbvPar]

Just bent over and bought all the expansions. I blame Lantyssa- her advice about making a DK after 55 made way too much sense.

I also figured that I am going to spend nearly that much on hockey and beer tonight, so it makes sense in an entertainment hours/$ way. Just don't tell my wife!

[Sjofn]

I would've made a warrior, personally, and leveled through a different newbie experience. DKs get shoved into shitty Outland right away. 

[Lantyssa]

Just bent over and bought all the expansions. I blame Lantyssa- her advice about making a DK after 55 made way too much sense.

Muahahahaha.

Save your DK starter set.  You'll never get as cool looking gear again.  Maybe one day they'll add an appearance tab.  (Yeah, right.)

[Azazel]

Is AoE leveling still viable for mages now that Blizzard is such a high level?

Not sure. I always used (and use) direct fire. It just feels more efficient when soloing, unless you seriously outgear the mobs you're killing.

What add ons should I be using? I have Curse installed and about 20 add ons, but don't really know how to use many of them yet.

You honestly don't need any. I haven't used any since 4.0 which broke several of the old ones, but I do intend to redownload:
TomTom
Lightheaded
An aggro/recount mod

Any decent strategies/guides for efficiently leveling crafting? I am currently tailoring (about 175) and enchanting (about 103). I seem to have come to kind of a deadend with enchanting- I started off with inscription, but leveled to 25 without doing it at all and then realizing I basically needed herbalism along with it, and so switched to enchanting, which means all the greens and blues I sold from the first couple of days of play when my guildies ran me through Deadmines and SFK came back to haunt me- not enough low level stuff for enchanting mats. Now I have a bank full of mats but very few recipes that match my mats. 

Enchanting is a huge money sink without a lot of payoff unless you plan to catass your way to the top. Blacksmithing is much the same. Engineering always has some cool toys but is never top of the line. Tailoring is only really useful in terms of making your own bags and leg enchants. Gemcrafting seems to be a middle ground. Inscription seems to be something that can actually make money on the AH with some consistency without being the highest level or catassing it.

If you start a tank, go for Herbalism/Mining. The buffs they give you will help you as a tank, and you can sell metals/gems/herbs, or supply a crafter character.

Any sekret places to buy the expansions on the cheap? Battle.net is still charging $30 for fucking TBC (which I have already bought once, ffs), and Wrath and obviously Cat are full price still. After buying vanilla for $20, I discovered I could have bought the Battle Chest with TBC and vanilla for $40 (it might even have another D2 copy included).

WoW battle chest doesn't have D2 in it. Aside from the cheap sale they had briefly, $5 TBC/LK, Blizz are keeping up the prices on the expacks, and haven't even announced a new Battle Chest with all-in-one, which is a bit fucked.

How do all the new guild mechanics work? Things like my rep within my own guild, the guild levels, etc?

Guilds level up via members questing and killing. You also rep up within your guild (very slowly) by questing. As the guild levels up it unlocks perks, and eventually, items that you can buy which require a certain guild rep to purchase.

Also- my new guild is very cloth-wearer DPS and tiny, so I might need to level a healer or tank at some point. Any suggestions? I would like something solo-friendly, and something a bit more complex than a mage (which are just about the easiest leveler I have seen so far).

Druid can do a bit of everything, but I'd recommend a Warrior. Something I'd always avoided because it seemed like a boring class to play, but it's actually kind of awesome. I was initially Fury, but it turns out that Protection kicks all kinds of arse these days, solo or in groups. You also have 3 stances within each of the 2/3 specs you choose, so there's a lot of ways you can play.

My newfound enthusiasm for WoW is about 99% due to having some people to play with and voice chat with as I level. If/when they start disappearing I won' t be far behind, unless there is a robust F13 guild going somewhere

Good luck with that. Your best bet seems to be playing with Ingmar and Sjofn and friends from the f13 crowd.

[Azazel]

Just bent over and bought all the expansions. I blame Lantyssa- her advice about making a DK after 55 made way too much sense.

Muahahahaha.

Save your DK starter set.  You'll never get as cool looking gear again.  Maybe one day they'll add an appearance tab.  (Yeah, right.)

The first 2 sets of DK armour are both pretty good. The starter set, and the full upgrade you get from playing through the noob experience. FWIW, I've seen some nice looking LK-era plate gear as well.

[Lantyssa]

Enchanting is a huge money sink without a lot of payoff unless you plan to catass your way to the top. Blacksmithing is much the same. Engineering always has some cool toys but is never top of the line. Tailoring is only really useful in terms of making your own bags and leg enchants. Gemcrafting seems to be a middle ground. Inscription seems to be something that can actually make money on the AH with some consistency without being the highest level or catassing it.

This isn't true anymore. My Warlock is level 37, Tailoring 230-ish, Enchanting 251.  By DE'ing all my tailoring goods, dropped items, and gear once no longer using it I've bought at most a full stack of materials and the rods.  I've spent far more on Tailoring with thread than Enchanting.  (And feeding cloth from alts.)

[koro]

Enchanting isn't too bad of a moneymaker at 85, provided you are able to reliably obtain the materials for the semi-common enchants that sell well (Hurricane sells for about 800-1000g per enchant on a good day on my server, and if I have to buy materials I still make between 300 and 500 gold profit).

Tailoring isn't bad either with selling spellthread to the suckers who will buy it. The tailored epic pants/belts never, ever sell on my server.

[Redgiant]

I'm like you, I hadn't played seriously since BC (did all of that though) and had skipped WotLK when it was shiny and new. Then I jumped back in 2-boxing a mage and priest in mid-2010.

So ... some of the negative things a returning person like me notiiced. Something defintely was missing this time around, and part of it is the overall feeling that they really dumbed the game down. Way down.

1. Mage + priest was awesome AE combo (mage nova, blizzard + priest holy fire or whatever the ones is that dmgs and heals party). Even though questing has always been the main way to level, AE was at least speedign up the kill tasks and could also be used for faction grinds. Now it ... is ... gone as far as frost goes. A frost mage gets like NO AE forever, unless you try to count nova, arcane explosion and (haha) cone of cold as AE. I suspect maybe fire has more of it still since they may have rationalized to give better AE to the spec that can't cc as much. Priests can't heal for shit any mroe compared to before, but that won't matter since I don't play him.

2. The spec trees just suck to me. SUCK. Goddamnit do they have to continue to make this game for 10 year old retards? There is zero variety in specs now. Absolute zero. You only get like 31 points now, not 1 each level (every 2-3 levels now). Same with spells. No spell ranks, no down ranking, they even tell you exactly which spell you just got (notiice I said spell singular). I'm sure they don't want to fry your sensitive little brain with more than one spell at a time. And you cannot even spend points at all in the other 2 specs for a looong time; they force you to just max out the one tree.

3. Strange decisions like: take away mages refreshments PRECEDING that which you can buy, and make them LAG the store bought ones. Why the fuck do we even have those spells then?

4. You will just love Gear Score. For someone returning and with a giant disadvantage with knowledge, guildies, and gear - good luck.

5. I actually had a blast leveling on my own, then at end game I parked my two level 80 mage and priest never to touch them again before Cata came out. At all. Becuase it just isn't interesting enough to try to wade through (or even figureout) where to start again at end game when no one wants to bother.

6. No new servers AT ALL for Cata. For someone starting back up or rerolling, why in the hell would I want to be on a server with 10,000 fuckers who already are so far beyond me I will never catch up? I know why THEY want me to do it, but how Blizzard thinks any sane new blood would bother is beyond me. And I tried.

7. World PvP is (and has been) dead. Just wanted to point that out too, since even moreso than when you last played BGs, Arenas, instanced stuff is all there is. You can't even intimidate someone into ganking you for free any more. Sad.

Okay, a positive just to show I'm not too mad :)

1. The goblins areas are very funny and clever, worth a look at just leveling oneup to see it. Heard the worgen is good too but didn't play it. But again, the fact that there is no new server where you feel like all that new content and rerolls are on a brand new world basis alongside you just blows for me.

2. The needles underwater stuff is well done. You move fast under and over water, with your own ship and such. It is one of the few mechanics I wish had been in the game all along.

3. The nostalgia and explanations in the quests and lore for what has happened and all the inside jokes are funny and a sad reminder of how much you will miss the old things. They play off the world changes well but it is kind of sad, since you will remember every single inch of what used to be where.

4. As someone said, they did streamline quests a lot, hubs pop up a lot more frequently with flight paths, and the running back and forth is almost gone - to the point it starts becoming a negative that it is too easy. Remember Amee and the mithril casing you need to get? Now you just pick up a coconut on the ground next to her and break it on a rock. And she is standing outside the gorilla cave to begin with. There a lot of that sort of thing. I know they did it to make 1-Outland really fast, but it wasn't even hard as it was.

[Sheepherder]

1. Mage + priest was awesome AE combo (mage nova, blizzard + priest holy fire or whatever the ones is that dmgs and heals party). Even though questing has always been the main way to level, AE was at least speedign up the kill tasks and could also be used for faction grinds. Now it ... is ... gone as far as frost goes. A frost mage gets like NO AE forever, unless you try to count nova, arcane explosion and (haha) cone of cold as AE. I suspect maybe fire has more of it still since they may have rationalized to give better AE to the spec that can't cc as much. Priests can't heal for shit any mroe compared to before, but that won't matter since I don't play him.

All AoE damage and healing has been nerfed, read the damn patch notes.  Your multi-boxing duo is not viable because they don't want it to be viable.

2. The spec trees just suck to me. SUCK. Goddamnit do they have to continue to make this game for 10 year old retards? There is zero variety in specs now. Absolute zero. You only get like 31 points now, not 1 each level (every 2-3 levels now). Same with spells. No spell ranks, no down ranking, they even tell you exactly which spell you just got (notiice I said spell singular). I'm sure they don't want to fry your sensitive little brain with more than one spell at a time. And you cannot even spend points at all in the other 2 specs for a looong time; they force you to just max out the one tree.

Absolute zero is a pretty retarded statement, I don't even have to refute that, because it is patently absurd.  The number is 41 points - exactly the same as vanilla.  Downranking was beaten with an ugly stick in TBC, and made completely non-viable in Wrath.  In the vanilla game you never got more than one new spell every two levels.  Now it's staggered: a new skill or talent point every level to start with, every other level later on, and all of the useless shit degined to make you run back to the trainer is just fucking gone.  I'm sorry you prefer masochism, most of us don't.

3. Strange decisions like: take away mages refreshments PRECEDING that which you can buy, and make them LAG the store bought ones. Why the fuck do we even have those spells then?

a) is a side-effect of the rank thing.  b) was literally always in the game, maybe they should add an animated pop-up into the conjure refreshments tooltip telling newbies like you this.  Or maybe the dumbing-down shit you're railing against is designed to prevent stupid mistakes you have apparently been committing since you first played.

4. You will just love Gear Score. For someone returning and with a giant disadvantage with knowledge, guildies, and gear - good luck.

I had this exact same problem in 2005.

Also, Ingmar and Sjofn are total hardcases and will absolutely not let just any mouthbreathing retard that posts on the same gaming forum as them into their guild.  They have standards, you see.

5. I actually had a blast leveling on my own, then at end game I parked my two level 80 mage and priest never to touch them again before Cata came out. At all. Becuase it just isn't interesting enough to try to wade through (or even figureout) where to start again at end game when no one wants to bother.

LFG.  Two button presses.  Too hard for you?

6. No new servers AT ALL for Cata. For someone starting back up or rerolling, why in the hell would I want to be on a server with 10,000 fuckers who already are so far beyond me I will never catch up? I know why THEY want me to do it, but how Blizzard thinks any sane new blood would bother is beyond me. And I tried.

I also play MMO's because I hate all people I played with last year and wish they would all fuck off and die while I play on a server that will inevitably die of entropy.

7. World PvP is (and has been) dead. Just wanted to point that out too, since even moreso than when you last played BGs, Arenas, instanced stuff is all there is. You can't even intimidate someone into ganking you for free any more. Sad.

ORLY?

I'm so proud of my little sister, now that she's a hardcore STV ganker.

[Paelos]

My simple advice to level at this expansion is to simply enjoy the questing content at your own pace, and make sure to bind yourself to Stormwind. They implemented a dungeon finder for 5 mans, which is long if you are a dps. Just start your queue and do something else until it hits.

Don't rush to the endgame as it's not ready yet.

[Shrike]

I've just taken up fishing and drinking beer. Works about as well in a virtual world as the real one. And draenei fishing animations are more amusing than real ones (haven't got a hook caught in my ear/horns yet anyway).

[Sjofn]

Also, Ingmar and Sjofn are total hardcases and will absolutely not let just any mouthbreathing retard that posts on the same gaming forum as them into their guild.  They have standards, you see.

Ingmar is the jerk, I don't care!

[WayAbvPar]

Hey, I have narrow nostrils...it's not my fault!

Are there any up to date leveling guides that aren't hidden behind some pay add-on? Most of the stuff I find is for pre-Cata, which usually takes me an hour or two of research to discover. Even a map of what zones are appropriate for what levels (since so much of that changed!), and how the fuck to get to them would be nice. I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out how to get to Blackrock (was going t meet some guildies there, but it fell apart and two of us just did a PUG in BRD)...never did figure how to access it. Between the Cataclysm and the fact that this is my first Alliance character I have no goddamned clue how to get around Azeroth anymore.

I made a baby dwarf warrior. Watching him run around is amusing. Not really looking forward to grinding him through 85 levels, but I will just use him when he has blue experience. Ideally I would like to have several high level characters from which to choose so I could do end game stuff as different classes for a change of pace. Be nice to be able to start one of each character at 55 or 60 once you max one character out, but I guess that would completely trivialize all the revamping of the n00b stuff. I have been trying to sell a blue level 25 2H sword on the AH for a week now; finally decided to make a warrior and just put it to use myself.

Need silk. Read a guide saying the SM was a good place to farm it, but the non-elites don't drop it fast enough and the elites still take too long to kill (level 55 mage). Any non-instanced secret spots? I just need 150 or so to get me over the hump in tailoring- I have stacks and stacks of mageweave and am now accumulating runecloth semi-regularly. AH prices are a total non-starter, with a single stack going for like 300 gold or something insane.

[Ingmar]

I seem to recall long long long ago farming silk off of ogres in Duskwood.

[WayAbvPar]

Just thought of some more questions regarding gear.

I vaguely remember that Agility and Stamina was good for rogues, while Intellect and Spirit were for casters. I have since heard conflicting reports regarding spirit's efficacy for mages, locks, etc. So basically- what stats are most important to which classes now? That will help tremendously as I hand out shitty low level enchants like candy to my alts and guildies. A run down on stuff like haste, crit, resilience, etc would be most helpful as well.