World of Warcraft Photo TR

Not only is WoW one of the best games available on the PC, it's also one of the largest. With about 50 huge zones on the main world of Azeroth (and seven zones on the Outland) to explore, it's pretty easy to feel overwhelmed.

To document my experiences, I'll be posting some "photo TRs". Now, I'm not going to show you how to beat every quest that I beat while I play the game. That would take away all of the fun. Instead, I'm going to touch on some of my favorite aspects of the game, as I go along.

My character's name is Encendedor (based on a Plastilina Mosh song and my perception of it's magical-sounding), and he is a human warlock. I'll show you just what he goes through during his training. Don't forget that you can also unlock quests by reading dropped notes from certain monsters or from items such as wanted posters.

Okay, enough with the chatter, let's play some WoW!!!

Warsong Gulch is on the border of Ashenvale and the Barrens, and is a major battlefield for the Alliance and the Horde. Here the objective is to capture the enemy's flag and return it to your base three times before the opposite faction does. The team members are allowed to use their attacks to prevent the other army from scoring.

Ashenvale is similar to Teldrassil, and is one of the more beautiful zones in the game.

Inside the Defias-controlled town of Moonbrook, you'll enter a bonus round with a lot of Defias members and goblins. Just take it slow and careful, and you won't have much of a problem. Remember, you will be working in a group of up to five players, so you'll have to be extra vareful with your actions and preparations.

Encendedor has wandered into Durotar, the home of his mortal rivals the Orcs and Trolls. He better watch his back!

Every once in awhile, a weather change will occur in certain zones. These weather effects are quite random as to when they happen, and certain effects only appear in certain zones (snow can appear in icy areas like Dun Morogh and the upcoming Northrend expansion, while sandstorms can rake desert areas like Tanaris, Durotar, and the Hellfire Peninsula in Outland). Rain, pictured above, is the most common weather effect. I've heard rumors that rain reduces the power of fire spells, but I haven't confirmed this yet.

Mining is a profession that doesn't cost money, it MAKES money. (You still have to pay for equipment and training, but it'll soon be rakin' in the dough for you!) Basically, you dig ore out of veins and smelt it into bars. You can also find gems that sell for money. As you gain skills, you can mine more valuable ore, that is, the Copper Bars you first smelt will sell for a measly 10 Copper, but this will go all the way up to 10 Gold for the legendary Elementium Bars!

Fishing is one of the professions that you can learn. As you get better at it, you'll be able to fish in better areas and catch better fish. The profession is necessary to complete certain quests.

Here, Encendedor locates the mysterious red crystal that is drawing Moonkins into the area.

Darnassus, an echanted colony built on the forested island of Teldrassil, is what the Night Elf race calls home. The temples here resonate with mystic history.

You don't have to run, Encendedor. The monster in front of you is an ancient protector of Darnassus. Hostile giants like this will attack in higher-level zones.

Getting to Outland is a bit more complicated. Talk to other players, and, unless they're lying, the only way to get to Outland is through the Dark Portal, located in the Blasted Lands. Unfortunately, the portal won't be open for a long while, although you won't know that right away. Use of it is restricted to players with the Burning Crusade expansion pak who are Level 58 or higher. Installing the Burning Crusade is easy enough once you get to purchasing it. But you still have to get to Level 58, and that is still a long way off.

These boats run anytime you want to ride them, and they make travelling between Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor very easy.

A boat, now where does it go?

There's only one way to cross the continents in minutes...hop on a griffon and fly away!

Diseases exist in WoW, but function slightly differently than in the real world. Tetanus for example lowers your Stamina by 2 points for 20 minutes.

The Frostmane trolls reside inside an ice cave and attack from a distance, so you'll want a spell such as Shadow Bolt ready.

Ironforge, a city built inside a mountain and around a massive forge for blacksmithing, is home to dwarves and gnomes of all races and a thriving tourist trade. The Tinker Town has the craftiest engineers for miles around.

Between Dun Morogh and Elwynn Forest lies several high-level zones such as Searing Gorge. Ignore them for now, because the enemies there are much too strong for you at this point. You won't have to worry about those places until the end of the game. Instead, take the subway for now.

The next area you will do quests in will probably be Dun Morogh, land of the dwarves, as it is lower-level than the areas adjacent to Elwynn.

"Elite" enemies are indicated by a gold dragon frame, however all they really are is an enemy a fair bit stronger than you that requires strategy and often a group to defeat. Hogger is the first Elite many Alliance players will face.

There is no shortage of random holy churches and towers on the Alliance side. Hey, the librarian here has the same name as my father!

Stormwind City is the heart of the human race. Attractions include Old Town and Stormwind Keep. Unless you're familiar with the city, consult your map or ask a guard for directions as you may find it difficult getting around the place.

The Lion's Pride Inn was the first inn that I discovered, and it has been my main base hotel ever since. If you spend time at an inn after logout, you can gain a Rested state where you will temporarily gain twice as much experience from monsters.

Don't try swimming across the ocean or you'll be stopped in your tracks by the Fatigue bar, which activates if you swim into deep and unchartered waters.

As with most other games, this one too has an underwater breath limit. But Encendedor can learn a spell called Unending Breath that allows him to breathe underwater for 10 minutes!

And Outland, the floating remants of the planet Draneor. Until around Level 8 or so, players will only have done quests in the first area in Eastern Kingdoms so you can see just how much more of the World of Warcraft there is to explore.

As well as the continent of Kalimdor, which has plenty of areas and quests of its own (a third continent, Northrend, will be featured in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion).

As you wander around Elwynn, take the opportunity to view the layout of the game world. Essentially it consists of the Eastern Kingdoms, with about 20 zones...

Elwynn Forest is the starting area for humans such as Encendedor. This lush community of farms and villages is located at the foot of Burning Steppes. Here's what the map of the forest is like.

If your enemies hit you with enough power to reduce your health to 0, you'll die and become a ghost. Ghosts cannot interact with the game except with other ghosts. To return to normal, either talk to the Spirit Healer or (preferably) run to your corpse and ressurect there.

I'll be the first to admit that the battle system in WoW is a bit overwhelming at first. You have to select a target before all else ("I need to target something first!"). After that, you can use either melee attacks with a timed speed and damage rating, or spells which cost Mana to use (but which have very cool effects). Be sure to keep an eye on the Durability of your armor and items; once it reaches 0, they are too far gone and you'll have to pay for repairs.

Here's Encendedor, in all his glory, the way he would have looked at Level 1 upon creation of his account! I'll take another pic of him at Level 80 after beating the final boss in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, so you can see how much more extra features he's gotten.

This reminds me alot of that game Runescape, except Runescape isn't 3D and its cheaper.

Ehh...not really into medieval online games anymore, but this looks interesting...

What server are you on?

I have about 8 toons ranging from my level 70 rogue down to my level 12 hunter (including a 56 Female Human Warlock) on Feathermoon.

As far as getting to outland, apparently you can get a lvl 70 mage to port you there, otherwise, you have to wait till you hit 58.

^^It is now, and it looks kinda similar to WOW too.

^^I play on Silvermoon.

Here's part 2. Part 3 will be posted when I get to about Level 60, just before I start doing quests in Outland. In the meantime, you can check out Encendedor's progress in training at his Magelo profile here: http://wow.magelo.com/profile/41709.

Don't have a seizure when you find out I'm a Guild Master, because that was one of those things that happened by accident. Prior to when I was about Level 25 or 30, I belonged to a guild named Scales of the Dragon. This guy came around and wanted the to join his guild, and he said he'd make me a co-leader. I accepted, thinking of the possiblities, but then he made me the Guild Master and left.

Sadly, this "lords of wow" guild is a sinking ship. It had about 15 members when I joined, and now it has only 5. Although it has potential for expansion, I'm too lazy to do anything with it right now, so I think it's only a matter of time before that guild disbands. When I get to Level 70 I'll probably join a raiding guild. I'm not really a player to lead a guild - I only reap the benefits of being part of one.

If you have a rare gear item that your class cannot equip, you can put it up for auction and see who will pay you money for it. You'll generally get a LOT more money selling gear this way than you would from selling them off to a vendor, and I sure wish I had known this sooner. There is one catch though – items which have been "soulbound" to your character, can't be sold. If you've ever wondered what "binds when picked up" means, now you know. You can also find all sorts of rare items for sale on WoW's version of Ebay.

I enjoyed many of the quests in Dustwallow Marsh (very fun ones, in fact). Here, to power the laser that zaps oozes, killing them almost instantly, you have to stand near the power core fragments of the crashed zeppelin. Pull one ooze, then run towards the power fragment and fire away! Repeat until you have 10 of them dissolved.

BOSS: Tethyr

HP: 150,000

After a long chain of quests in Dustwallow Marsh, an event will begin where the massive Tethyr will attack Thereamore Isle. This sea monster is too big to fight one on one, so you’ll employ the help of 12 marksmen and a few cannons around the docks, which will become operational after Major Mills says "FIRE AT WILL!" The fire cannon command inflicts about 10,000 points of damage, so use that and keep moving around to the different cannons. When you’re not firing a cannon, the marksmen will take his health down gradually, and if any other players are around while this encounter is happening, chances are they'll try to help too. Try to avoid his ice breath, as that will knock you back and freeze you for a couple of seconds. You'll lose if all of the marksmen die, but it shouldn't happen.

In the battle for Warsong Gulch (covered in Part 1), the factions have a simple task of capturing the enemy flag, and the Alliance managed to blow it most of the times I played. In Arathi Basin, the task is larger. The first faction to score 2000 points by controlling the various resource bases on the map will win the mini-game. To capture a base, a player must spend about 10 seconds using the command to either capture, or tear an enemy flag down if it is already there. If you have mounts, they are very useful here. If a faction manages to control all five bases at once, they will gain points VERY rapidly, virtually clinching the match, so don't let it happen.

This is a pretty funny quest chain. The deserters, an operation of traitors hidden amongst the guards, are spreading false advertising around Theramore, and your job is to find their stash of propaganda, and then one of the guards will alter it so that the wording will embarrass the deserters, and you can give it to the guards. It's kind of like Bart's prank when he switched the church music!

"Can't we all just get along?!" screams Yaztip as he is ordered to attack, as may well some players of WoW at times.

Encendedor's Enslave Demon spell is pretty cool, and it turns a "Demon" type enemy, up to a certain level depending on the spell's rank, into his pet for 5 minutes. When the spell wears off the demon will revert to an enemy and attack. Since it only works on demons, and the demons I've enslaved (so far) have turned out to be not as useful as his minions, it has limited uses. Still, it's pretty cool!

This is a neat quest with a good reward from the treasure chest. I got lucky and found the monsters that had the keys quickly, but you can't get to the chest until you fight off a bunch of Level 36 sea serpent monsters.

This whole chain of quests is an absolute terror to try to complete. In the final phase, shown here, you have to protect this night elf from the SWARMS of Orcs guarding the fortress. If she dies, the quest fails, and must be restarted. It's actually quite similar to the van rescue part of Sly Cooper 3 with Murray. I got lucky and another player was trying to do this same quest, so I joined up with him and we beat it together.

Lucky for Encendedor, warlocks have their own Felsteed mounts which come complete with training at a MUCH lower cost (85 Silver I think)! I don't think he gets a freebie "epic" mount at Level 60, though, so when I reach that level, I'll have to report to Amberstill Ranch to buy that mount I've always dreamed of. Too bad I don't show you what it is. Yet.

You can receive mail from NPCs as well as other players through the in-game mail system. I haven't friended any other players yet, but this was a letter from a riding trainer that I got after the level limit for riding mounts was lowered to 30 in Patch 2.4.3. He suggests that I buy a horse, my own race's mount which does not require max reputation, for faster movement. Good idea. But 35 Gold for training and 10 Gold for the mount?! My God, I just want the horse, not your whole stable!

This is a cool quest where you use tinder to burn Orc catapults threatening Menethil Harbor.

Lots of real-life animals make appearances in WoW, such as spiders, wolves, bears, and even cougars (pictured above), the mascot of my old High School who I have yet to see in any other game.

At first glance, Encendedor's Eye of Kilgrogg spell looked hecka confusing and mostly worthless ("Creates an eye and binds your vision to it. The eye moves quickly but is very fragile."), but it turns out it has some potential. Basically it creates an eye that works much like a Grapple Cam (see Sly Cooper). Useful for when you need to locate an item in an area and don't want to be battling tons of enemies as you look for it!

In a neutrally-alligned city (like Booty Bay, pictured above) you're pretty much safe from random PvP combat, even if Horde players are around. A battle can still be initiated, but be warned: if a fight does break out, the city guards will do a little more than ask you to take it outside…

Lower level players will be relatively unexposed to the "war" between the Alliance and the Horde due to the segregated low-level zones where players begin their journeys. But starting at around Level 30 that will no longer be the case, as the mid and high level zones are "Contested", that is, they are not controlled by either faction and therefore you will find players and cities belonging to both factions within them. It's always fun to kill a Horde character when you know it'll make some guy in Mississippi start shouting out profanities, but at the same time it can be annoying to get ambushed by another player when you're trying to do quests. Here I am in Stranglethorn Vale, a notoriously contested jungle zone, in the middle of being "ganked" (killed by a Horde that is much higher level).

BOSS: Mekgineer Thermaplugg

HP: 6,900

At the end of the Gnomeregan bonus round, you'll face your first real boss fight. He's pretty easy if you know how to fight him, but make sure you have at least one player to deactivate the machines around his room. It's a neat trick, but if you don't attack the bombs that come out of them before they explode, you'll take a lot of damage.

After dealing with the leper gnomes at the entrance of Gnomeregan, you'll be able to enter a bonus round. In this round, there are loads of gnomish robots. Just keep battling them and upgrade your punch card at each computer.

Hey, Encendedor gets to talk to someone named Dawn too! I'm so jealous!

Here he is, the evil Mor'Ladim. Crystal was right to warn me about this guy – beating him on your first visit to Duskwood is almost impossible, even if you should want to try. This skeleton's a Level 30 Elite, capable of killing off a cloth-armored warlock in a couple of moves. Needless to say, after my first encounter with him pictured above, I got wiped out quickly and had to run my ghost back to my corpse after he left.

The Stormwind Stockade is a jail in Stormwind City filled with Defias members and other criminals that have been captured by the guards of Stormwind. Inside the jail is a bonus round. To get through here, you'll need to master forming a team with other players. It's a tricky skill, but a very valuable one to learn.

Carryla is a succubus, Encendedor's next minion. Far from the ugly machinery of the Succubuses on the Starship Titanic, this one is a very hot demon that Encendedor can learn to summon at around Level 25. Unfortunately, during the first phase of the quest, you'll have to survive a trek through The Barrens, which is Horde territory. This means – you guessed it – random Player vs Player (PvP) combat! Long before you find them, the Horde players in this zone will know you're there, thanks to their Local Defense channel. The Horde guards placed around the cities don't help, either. I found it best to just run like crazy through this area – with luck, you'll eventually make it to the trainer.

It's also an opportunity to do some repeatable quests for Reputation if you need some.

The Darkmoon Faire seems to be one of many events in WoW. Here you can do many fun things like take a personality test that gives you a stat boost for 2 hours in a certain stat.

The Legend of Stalvan is a lengthy chain of quests involving many places and events. During the first few phases you'll fight a few Forlorn Spirits, this one has a funny polymorph ability that turns Encendedor into a sheep that runs around aimlessly for a time, thank goodness Thokgore is still able to fight!

The Zoram Strand also contains a bonus round that's partially underwater. Encendedor's unending breath spell will be invaluable to a party here, to avoid being handicapped Breath-wise. Aku'mai might take awhile to go down with 6,500 HP, but you should have no problems with it if your team had no problems with the rest of the elites in this round.

The Zoram Strand is a temple built on the coast of northwestern Ashenvale. It is populated with Wrathtails, powerful serpent-like water demon creatures who are wanted dead by the Night Elves.

Bloodmyst Isle is the eastern portion of the island, contaminated by a curse that turns the land red with blood and causes animals to mutate and become hostile. Although it is not the home of the Blood Elf race that has joined the Horde in the Burning Crusade, it is home to many renegade Blood Elves that Alliance players fight in quests here.

The Exodar is actually a crashed dreneai ship, and now serves as the home base of Azuremyst Isle. The place is very strange with all its crystals to me, but it must be some kind of cultural difference. Like the difference between Del the funky Homosapien and Erika from Poke'mon.

Azuremyst Isle is the home of the draneai. It is a mystical place with arcane energy.

As an avid WoW player...I went through this wondering how in the HELL did you manage to get to some of those zones on such a low level...

Nice little intro to WoW though...I am still amazed to this day how much the game has to offer, and looking forward to the upcoming expansion..

As for your guild...kick everyone out, and keep it as a 1-man guild...when you get enough gold you will be able to buy a tab in the bank, and have more storage..

If you need any tips on earning money..let me know..at the level you seem to be, you should have a LOT more money than you do.

Lucky for Encendedor, warlocks have their own Felsteed mounts which come complete with training at a MUCH lower cost (85 Silver I think)! I don't think he gets a freebie "epic" mount at Level 60, though, so when I reach that level, I'll have to report to Amberstill Ranch to buy that mount I've always dreamed of. Too bad I don't show you what it is. Yet.