One month to go until WoW Classic launches, folks! My brother and I are pretty darn psyched about this and have already spent hours discussing what we’re going to do.
As we enter the final month, I wanted to share some possibly useful advice for starting out in Classic. Now, please do bear in mind that I’m not in the Classic beta, nor was I around at the launch of WoW back in 2004. As such, my advice may not be applicable to what eventually happens a month from now, but I’m going to give it a shot.
Vendor All The (Grey/Soulbound) Things
As you level, you’ll invariably get a bunch of greys. Vendor all of them. Don’t not pick them up. Don’t destroy them. Vendor them. Every copper matters in the early days. Additionally, if you’re not an enchanter, vendor your old gear when you replace it (unless it’s gear that would work for another spec). If you are an enchanter, obviously disenchant that stuff!
Hot tip: If all your choices for a quest reward are all things you won’t use (or can’t use), then pick the one that vendors for the most. If you don’t have an add-on that’ll tell you what something sells for, a loose guide is: plate sells for more than mail, mail more than leather, leather more than cloth. Helms and chests are generally worth more than shoulders and legs, which, in turn, are generally worth more than boots and gloves, which are usually more than belts and bracers. Of course, a cloth helm might be worth less than plate shoulders, so definitely try to get an add-on.
Level Professions As You Go
There is little worse than being max level and having to go back to, say, Hillsbrad Foothills to mine Silver Ore. Seriously, it’s a pain to go back and pick herbs or skin leather or mine ore of a level that’s way lower than yours. I have done this at least four times on Kurn when I’ve dropped skinning for mining, then dropped mining for skinning, then picked mining back up and then, yes, picked skinning back up. (I’m done with that nonsense, I swear.)
This also includes fishing! You should have one toon who fishes. This isn’t as hard as it used to be Way Back In The Day, because fishing schools exist in the patch we’re getting. There should be bodies of water around the levelling areas, so take 10-15 minutes to fish for a bit and level that as you wait for an herb or a mining node to respawn.
It also includes cooking. Do not underestimate the importance of food buffs when you get to level 55-60.
And, of course, it includes first aid! Killing mobs that are designated as “humanoid” will generally drop cloth, so make sure you keep on top of your first aid. It’s no fun to have to go around killing Defias Bandits to collect linen. When you’ve maxed out bandages of a certain cloth, you can go ahead and start selling that cloth on the auction house.
Fun fact: Cooking and fishing go hand-in-hand together and both professions are great ways to make more money.
Level Those Weapon Skills!
Weapon skills are a Thing. Sorry. They are. You should note that if you’re a night elf hunter, you’ll start with a bow, while a dwarf will start with a gun. Both should endeavour to pick up the opposite (as well as a crossbow) with cheap ammo to level up the skills in case you get a new weapon to drop. Less important are the melee weapons, but not wholly insignificant! Wing Clip requires you to, you know, actually land the attack to wing clip something. And that needs a weapon skill. I don’t like to let my primary weapon skills in other weapons drop more than 15-20 points from my max possible.
Train Your Spells & Use Your Talent Points!
Oh God, please, please, please train your spells. And please train new ranks of your spells. Please. Is it cheap? No. That’s why you need to vendor things and pick up fishing and cooking and level your professions.
As to talents, in almost all cases, you want to go straight for your 31 point talent as soon as possible so that you’ve got Trueshot Aura, Holy Shock, Swiftmend, Shield Slam, Ice Barrier, whatever it is, as soon as possible. Take the time to play with the talent calculators at Wowhead! Marksmanship hunters, this is what I’m aiming for, for my first 31 points:
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/hunter/-05251030513051
Holy paladins, this is what I’d recommend if you’re levelling holy (which, btw, I do not particularly recommend unless you’re chain-running dungeons):
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/paladin/05503020521251
There’s some wiggle room there, as the two points in Lasting Judgment are optional. Feel free to put them into Consecration and something else if you like.
Remember, it costs money to respec! That’s why I don’t really recommend going holy unless you’re doing dungeons because it takes F O R E V E R to kill things. Trust me. I did it. It was dumb. It took me 12 minutes apiece to kill the Kurzen Medicine Men in Stranglethorn Vale.
I’m planning on going holy at about level 50 or thereabouts. My talent tree will look something like this:
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/paladin/05503020521251
What’s your advice?
Any thoughts to share? Any plans you’ve got on how to tackle Classic? Let me know in the comments below!
Coming up next time, all kinds of holy paladin stuff. :)
Nice post, it definitely upped my hype for classic and I’m already pretty hyped ^^ think you covered some good basic stuff, it’s easy to forget/underestimate how hard it was to get money in classic. I remember often having to leave skills untrained when I got a new level because I was short on money. And yeah, I did actually frequently forget to even buy them 😅
Zinn – Oops, sorry for letting this comment linger in pending-approval forever!
So pleased you’re looking forward to Classic and thought this post was helpful. :) I, too, definitely ran out of money to train on more than one occasion! Hence my desire to be prepared to have money for those moments, I guess! :)