How to get started in World of Warcraft in 2023

World of Warcraft is one of the biggest MMOs in the world, and new players try it out every day. While it may not have the same free trial as Final Fantasy XIV, it’s still a very easy game to get into this year.

Today, I’m going to go over some advice and things to be aware of if you’re a new player or even someone who hasn’t played in many years. From picking a character, where to start your leveling, and how to get to the new content, I’ve got you covered.

I have played World of Warcraft on and off since the early days of Vanilla and have seen new mechanics and ways to play the MMO come and go. It’s never been easier to get into the game, which is to the detriment of some modern players.

With your subscription to WoW, you also get access to Classic WoW, which is designed similarly to the way things were “in the old days.” But we’re here to talk about Retail.

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All you need to know about playing World of Warcraft

Before you can do anything in World of Warcraft, you need to pick a server and a character. Gone are the days of PVP and RP PVP servers. Now, you have RP (Roleplay) servers and Normal servers. This isn’t to say you can’t roleplay on a normal server, but you’ll likely find more guilds that have RP nights and require their members to stay in character.

This varies from guild to guild, but if that seriousness isn’t for you and you just want to play the game, I recommend Normal servers. You can still flag yourself for PVP if you want to kill other PVPers in the world on Normal servers.

Should you play Horde or Alliance in World of Warcraft? Back in the old days, it mattered which faction you played on. Certain classes were restricted to Horde and Alliance, but those days are also gone.

If you’re going to be playing with friends, I recommend picking the same faction, though cross-faction guilds will be arriving in 10.1.

Each race has its own special abilities and specific starting area. However, those abilities aren’t especially game-breaking. Some are especially useful (EG: Undead’s removal of Fear/Charm/Sleep effects), but pick the World of Warcraft race that you think fits you the best.

Alliance races

• Human
• Gnome
• Night Elf
• Dwarf
• Dranei (Burning Crusade)
• Worgen (Cataclysm)
• Pandaren (Mists of Pandaria)
• Mechagnome (Shadowlands)
• Dracthyr (Dragonflight)

Horde races

• Orc
• Undead
• Troll
• Blood Elf (Burning Crusade)
• Tauren
• Goblin (Cataclysm)
• Pandaren (Mists of Pandaria)
• Vulpera (Shadowlands)
• Dracthyr (Dragonflight)

There are also Allied Races, which have specific requirements to unlock. However, this will take some time and exploration of the game.

The next important step is picking a character class in World of Warcraft. Each class has three builds (styles of gameplay), and each fits into one of three roles. You have DPS (Damage Dealers), Healers, and Tanks. Some classes can do everything (Tanks and Druids, for example). Others, such as Rogues and Mages, specialize.

Below is a list of all classes, with the talent trees that you can use. You can freely swap loadouts in World of Warcraft now, so there’s no worrying about having to spend tons of gold anytime you want to change.

Any class with an asterisk is a Hero Class, which has a unique starting experience, starting level, and gameplay styles. They are not better than the normal classes, though. If there are specific requirements, the game will tell you.

All classes in WoW

• Death Knight (Blood, Frost, Unholy)*
• Demon Hunter (Vengeance, Havoc)*
• Druid (Restoration, Guardian, Feral, Balance)
• Evoker (Devastation, Preservation)
• Hunter (Beast Mastery, Marksman, Survival)
• Mage (Arcane, Fire, Frost)
• Monk (Brewmaster, Mistweaver, Windwalker)
• Paladin (Holy, Protection, Retribution)
• Priest (Shadow, Disciple, Holy)
• Rogue (Assassination, Outlaw, Subtlety)
• Shaman (Elemental, Enhancement, Restoration)
• Warlock (Affliction, Demonology, Destruction)
• Warrior (Arms, Fury, Protection)

When creating a character in World of Warcraft, you can see what roles a class fills and a brief description of each of them. Most of the classes are very easy to play, but if you want to master them, there’s room to grow. Pick whichever class feels right for you and for how you want to play the game.

When you hit level 10, you’ll unlock the new talent system in WoW. Each talent tree has a loadout of skills you can pick from, as well as a more generic skill tree for that class. You can unlock new skills or enhance current abilities through this system.

You can easily save builds and swap them out as desired or even import one from your friends or off the internet. Professions are also available upon reaching bigger towns after the starting area. Each character can have two primary professions, alongside the minor professions of Cooking, Fishing, and First Aid.

These professions have undergone major changes in Dragonflight, which you can learn more about here.

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Starting Areas and exploration

Each race has its own unique starting areas, as do the hero classes. They will guide you through taking on quests, fighting enemies, and the basics of the game. As you unlock new features, you will be introduced to them without having to stress about missing something important.

You’ll notice in the above World of Warcraft video that I created a bunch of gear before getting started. That is Heirloom Gear, which can be unlocked in your capital city of choice (Orgrimmar or Stormwind) in time. It will make leveling subsequent characters easier, thanks to increased stats, but it’s less necessary these days.

Leveling is much smoother in the days of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. By the time you finish this area, you’ll be around level 10 or 11. At level 11, you get the Adventure Guide, which can advise you on content to take part in based on your current experience.

World of Warcraft is no longer a linear experience. You can play through whichever expansions’ content you want to get to level 60. After your starting area, you’ll begin working towards the capital of your faction and find the Hero Board/Warchief’s Command Board. These will give you three choices — each a different area or even expansion.

Once you’ve hit level 60 once in World of Warcraft, you can access Chromie Time by speaking to her in your capital city. This is for leveling alts. You can head to her and jump right into the expansion of your choice.

That’s one of the significant changes to World of Warcraft, though. In the early days, you would have to go through each expansion’s content, and getting there could feel incredibly tedious. But now, the leveling experience is smoother. Once you’ve hit 58, you can dive into the Dragonflight content, which is easily the best expansion the MMO has had to date.

Since World of Warcraft now scales with your level, it doesn’t matter which part of the world you explore. You’re free to go anywhere without worrying about being too weak. However, you can’t out-level areas anymore either, which has disappointed some players.

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Grouping in Dungeons/Guilds

World of Warcraft gives you access to the Group Finder at level 15. This will let you automatically queue for a variety of dungeons or pick specific ones. Just select the roles you can/will fill and queue up. Simply hit “H” on your keyboard to pull up this menu.

When your dungeon queue pops, you will get a prompt to join, and this will teleport you directly to the dungeon. Nowadays, you will also likely find your dungeon quests here at the beginning of an area, so it will be easy to pick these up and complete them in one go.

This is also where you can access the PVP menu (whether you want to join Rated Battlegrounds or simply a quick bout of PVP). You gain significant experience gains in dungeons, thanks to quests and boss kills. PVP is also a solid way to get some extra EXP if you’d like.

If you’re playing with friends, it should likely be a simple enough matter to join a guild in World of Warcraft. If not, you can press J on the keyboard to pull up the Guild Search menu. You can create or find a place to call your own this way.

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What are add-ons, and which are important?

You don’t have to use add-ons in World of Warcraft, but they certainly make your life easier. There are a few places to get these online, and simply Googling WoW add-ons will take you to whichever site currently hosts them.

This has changed a few times over the years. If you’re using Windows 11 and are a part of the preview system, you cannot use CurseForge to install these automatically. You’ll have to download the files to your install folder of World of Warcraft and put them in the Retail folder (as seen above).

You’ll want to use WinRar and select “Extract Here.” These addons get updated regularly, so keep this in mind every time the game has a patch rollout. Below is a list of useful addons, but it’s not exhaustive. You can find virtually anything you need to make WoW easier.

Addon list

• Bartender: Customize virtually everything about your hotbars
• DBM: Deadly Boss Mods - warns you of important boss functions
• Details!: Damage meter
• HandyNotes: Helps keep track of important in-game activities
• GatherMate: Makes gathering easier
• Postal: Open all mail at once
• World Quest Tracker: Track WQs much easier
• Bagnon: Sort and organize your banks/bags (Has been giving some players brief lag)
• RareTracker: Tracks rare spawns
• Weak Aura: Can track virtually anything in the game
• All The Things: Achievement tracker
• Healbot: Makes healing easier for beginners

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Should you play Retail or Classic World of Warcraft?

Though this guide focuses on Retail, some players might be coming back fresh to the game after many years and miss “the way things were.” If you’re one of those players, you may want to try Classic instead, which comes with your subscription to the retail iteration of World of Warcraft.

Classic WoW features only a sampling of quality-of-life changes but is otherwise unchanged from the original versions of the game. Right now, only Vanilla, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King content is available. However, if you like the QoL changes the game has brought, updated graphics, and vast amounts of content, you’re better off playing in Retail for now.

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In Conclusion

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has honestly never been easier to start. You don’t need fancy add-ons or the current, highest-dps build to play. Play the game however you want, but keep in mind that for high-level raiding, Mythic+ content, and things of that nature, you will need a lot more information.

There’s plenty of content to tackle, solo and in groups. When you’re at level cap, you can solo many of the classic raids if you want to get transmog gear to show off new looks. The game is far more alt-friendly now, so it’s easy to get those leveled up and into new content to do whatever you feel like.