Updated Add-On List

Should have for most players (PVE):

• Auctioneer
• Bagnon
• Bartender4 (type /bar to config)
• eCastingBar (type /ecb to config)
• Elkano's BuffBars
• Omen Threat Meter
• Outfitter
• PitBull (type /pit to config)
• Prat
• Quartz
• RatingBuster
• TinyTip

Ones less relevant than they used to be:

• Cartographer
• Cartographer_QuestInfo
• FuBar
• FuBar_DurabilityFu
• FuBar_ExperienceFu
• FuBar_LocationFu
• FuBar_PerformanceFu
• InQuest (formerly bEQL)
• QuestHelper (type /qh to config)

For "heavy" instancing, focused on heroics and raiding:

• Clique
• DBM (required in most raiding guilds; helpful in all raids)
• EasyMail
• Recount (type /recount to use or config)
• VisualHeal (for healers; shows other pending heals in your group)

Optionally:

• ButtonFacade (visual appeal)
• ChocolateBar Broker Display (helps some add-ons talk to each other)
• CowTip
• Enchantrix (for enchanters; describes mats from disenchanting)
• FishermansFriend
• Gatherer (for gathering profs; used to share locations with guildies)
• LightHeaded (not from Curse; shows quest info from wowhead.com)
• Scrap (helps you sell junk)
• SexyMap (visual appeal)
• TinyTip

Game Changers (Or Reasons To Stick It Out)

These are just some points along the way that affected my idea of the game or the way I played it:

• Around level 12: getting a run-through of RFC and looting a boss. Just a very pleasant rush seeing "elites" dropping "blues"
• Hitting level 30 and getting a mount! Yep, it used to be level 40.
• Level 40 has some nice training that goes along with it. Most classes are finally able to finally use all the gear types they're allowed to use.
• Hitting 60 and getting to enter Outlands, BC was very well done. Epic riding mounts remind you of what fast means.
• Hitting 70: being able to fight in lvl 70 heroic instances, getting a flying mount and heading to Northrend. There's epic flying too, but I haven't ever scraped up the gold for it.
• Hitting 77 and getting cold-weather flight training
• Hitting 80 and starting 80 heroics and raids
• Completing your first serious raid and rolling on good loot!
• Having the gear to not get kicked out of all the end-game raids
• Completing all the end-game raids

A Basic WoW Glossary For New Players

A quick list of frequently used terms and acronyms new players might encounter

• Azeroth - The world in which most of WoW takes place


• Bank - The place in nearly every friendly city where you can visit and deposit or withdraw items using bags in bank slots


• BC(or TBC) - The Burning Crusade, the first WoW expansion pack which brought us The Outlands continent, flying mounts and a player max level of 70


• BFD - Blackfathom Deeps, 5-man instance recommended for levels 20-27 in northwestern Ashenvale


• BG (or Battleground) - A PVP-oriented instance that normally has 10-40 players from both factions


• CD (or "cooldown") - The amount of time before you can use something after using it


• Eastern Kingdoms - One of the two "vanilla" continents in Azeroth


• Dungeon - A 5-man PVE-oriented instance


• Hearth (or Hearthstone) - To use the item by the same name which can teleport you "home" with a cooldown of 60 minutesNote: You can replace a lost hearthstone by talking to an innkeeper.


• FP (or Flight Path) - The place where a flight master hangs out. You can pay this dude to fly you to any another "known" FP


• Instance - A part of the world that is spawned or created when you enter it, so all or most of it is identical each time you enter


• Kalimdor - One of the two "vanilla" continents in Azeroth


• Mailbox - The way players typically send and receive items, messages or goldNote: These are typically found in front of a town's Inn or Bank


• NPC - Non-Player Character


• Org (or Orgrimmar) - a relatively large Horde capital city in Durator (on Kalimdor) near where a few races have starting zones


• PUG (or Pick Up Group) - an ad-hoc group of players bound together by a shared purpose


• PVE (or Player Versus Environment) - On a PVE server, you generally will only be required to fight NPCs, since you normally aren't "flagged" for PVP combat.


• PVP (or Player Versus Player) - On a PVP server, you may often find yourself dealing with players of the other faction. You can duel players of the same faction outdoors, play in battlegrounds (a special faction-versus-faction instance with certain goals for victory) or participate in arena matches (where you and friends compete against 2, 3 or 5 other arena players)


• Raid (Group) - a group of players typically greater than 5 people which typically enter a raid instance together or participate in some other nefarious activity like a city "PVP" raid


• Raid (Instance) - an instance typically designed for 10 or more players


• RFC - Ragefire Chasm, the 5-man instance in Orgrimmar


• SFK - Shadowfang Keep, 5-man instance recommended for levels 18-25 in the Silverpine Forest


• Toon - A character


• Vanilla - How some players refer to WoW before the expansion packs


• WC - Wailing Caverns, 5-man instance recommended for levels 15-21 in the Barrens


• WOTLK (or "Wrath") - Wrath Of The Lich King, the second WoW expansion pack which brought us the Northrend continent and a player max level of 80

What am I missing? Feel free to comment.

Your First Day

So, there you are in your starting zone ready to kill pigs (or another level 1 creature). Here's a couple tips.

• You'll be level 10 in no time. Head to a capital city and set your hearth by talking to the innkeeper.
• Fill empty equipment slots whenever you can, but don't stress about it. Also, don't waste money on upgrades. People tend to take advantage of other players when they sell low level goods in the AH.
• Pick up flight paths early and often. You'll be happy about this later.

Web Sites

Useful web sites for new WoW players include:

Wowhead.com has a clean search interface for all WoW objects (items, NPCs, quests) and a rating system for comments provided by registered users.

Thottbot.com is older than Wowhead, has a more "raw" approach to the information with lots of input from many people.

Curse.com has lots discussions and news from the WoW player community.

WoW.com (formerly WoWInsider.com) has a great collection of columns covering many WoW topics.

WowWiki.com is a web site that generally has information that is useful, fairly authoritive and technical

My Recommended First Steps

After you've played with the vanilla interface for a bit, there's limitations and things you'll notice. Luckily there's a whole community of users and developers on our side. Many of them use Curse to host these add-ons. Here's what I'd recommend for a new player:

Note: These recommendations are based on the experiences of a casual, raiding PVE player. I only PVP when I have to.

• Create an account at http://www.curse.com/login.aspx.
• Download and install the Curse Client. It's a useful windows app that keeps track of installed add-ons and their revisions.
• Install add-ons. Check out our latest add-ons post.