World of Warcraft Addict?

I was warned World of Warcraft can be addicting, but I jumped in with eyes wide open anyway. Yup, hooked. So, what is it that makes the game so addicting? What do I mean by addiction? Perhaps that's too strong a term. I play pretty much 5 ish times a week, and that can range from a quick mail/ AH check to a 5 hour marathon. If you don't know what AH is, congratulations, you're probably not addicted to WOW yet. Save yourself! Run. (AH stands for auction house.)

I've played for a few years now and have yet to get a character to level 80. The reason for that madness is that there are a lot of main professions to level and of couse, being the completionist I am, I had to have them all. They're all still in the baby range but getting materials to level is a pain in the behind. Anyone else run into this problem?

I think the main appeal is leveling. Whether actual character levels or leveling a profession, there's something satisfying about improving skill. Still, it's a wonder the game's still so appealing after a few years, I mean it's the same darn thing over and over. You kill things to get money to buy better weapons to kill bigger and badder things that drop better loot for better equiment... anyone else feel like a hampster-on-wheel here? There are PVP realms, but I didn't relish getting clobbered every time I try to do a quest so I chose PVE environment.

WOW or World of Warcraft is a MMORPG, I think. I'm not even sure people call it that anymore. Basically, that's geek-speak for a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It's a subscription based game that will set you back about $15 a month and $35-70 for initial setup. Amazon sells the regular game bundled with the Burning Crusade expansion pack, but now there's Wrath of the Lich King, which lets you got up to Northrend.

You'll have months of fun if you just buy up to the Burning Crusade though, even if you concentrate on only one character. That is unless you really want to devote all day every day to the game, then by all means, go grab WOTLK as well.

It's published by Blizzard Entertainment. Apparently, they have a lot of other games, but I've limited myself to this one obsession. I don't think there are enough hours in a day to be devoted to more than one of these types of games. I'd love to hear someone's thoughts on the other big online games.

Anyway, WOW can suck you in real fast because you baby-level-up about 5 times in the first hour of play. Most quests are extremely easy. Hi-name- blah blah blah kill 10 of this or go fetch 9 of those, etc. The most annoying quests tend to be escort quests, where you have to babysit a character from point A to point B. Occasionally, Blizzard just gets really evil and has a quest like Frumping where you have to hit a drum and things pop out to beat on you and after you kill each they maybe drop the thing you're trying to collect. The drop rates on several quests have improved, but there are still a few evil ones out there that it might just be better for your sanity to skip.

The secondary skills of cooking, fishing, and first aid are all helpful and all characters can aquire all three of these. Fishing's fun but very very very tedious. Try reading a novel while you level that one. Cooking and fishing are good to level together. First aid is handy to have for the classes like rogue and warrior that can't just pray away their wounds.

The primary skills are fun. There are money-makers like Mining, Skinning, and Herbalism. Then there are ones that will make money later but set you back a whole heap in the meantime, such as: Enchanting, Tailoring, Blacksmithing, Engineering, Leatherworking,  Jewelcrafting, and Inscription.

If you're just starting out it might be good to get professions that go together like Mining and Engineering-Blacksmithing-or Jewelcrafting. Skinning mainly goes with Leatherworking. You could do enchanting- tailoring but that will be a very expensive combo, either time wise from bashing a lot or gold-wise in spending on overpriced AH materials. If you're just in it for the money, Mining and herbalism seem to be the most highly paid ones. Leather sells too, but the prices seem to be more fickle and really only leatherworking uses it in large quantities. Some of the midrange herbs can sell fairly decently.

When choosing the two professions you're allowed, it really comes down to your goals. Do you want to make lots of money or do you want to be able to make really cool things and charge people lots later?

When choosing a Race, I always went Alliance so I don't know much about the Horde. Death Knights are neat but you have to have one character already at 50-something to be able to start one. Humans are cool, they have a race ability to get more reputation, which comes in handy later.

There's an advantage to playing more than one character class in World of Warcraft. I certainly haven't tried them all and probably never will, but I'll give you my general impressions. Again, choosing a class will greatly affect how you play the game.

Mages - (frost) good for distance damage and solo questing. Do decent DPS (damage per second). Downfall - can't take all that much damage. When you get high enough in the frost talent tree though you can summon a water elemental to do some extra damage to enemies. This pet has a decent cool down time, so basically you can bring him out every other fight you get into.

Death Knights - Way overpowered, but that's cool. Nice to be able to solo quest things, especially lowbie quests and kill things with one swat. Apparently they're pretty cool in PVP, but I haven't tried it yet.

Paladin - durable. If you're just starting out the Pally is a great class. You can heal or do decent amounts of damage. It's nice because you can take some solid smacks, dish out some healthy amounts of damage, and heal yourself mid-battle. Good for solo questing. Haven't done much PVP, but the blood elf pallys that were beating on me did fairly well for themselves. Healing touch rocks, btw.

Warrior - also durable, but doesn't have that extra advantage of healing midbattle. Of course you can always use a potion and these guys get more health than other classes. Still, standard hack and slash would pretty much be your style throughout the game.

Rogue - picking pockets is totally addictive. You get twice as much as loot as other people, well more loot than others because of the ability to pick pockets. This is also a nice class for solo questing because you can sap one enemy at a time, limiting the amount of players you have to face at once. This is also handy in a dungeon. If your party is well-coordinated, you can effectively neutralize one enemy and likely turn the time for your party.

Shaman - A bit on the weaker side, but then again, I haven't gotten all that high with mine, so it could improve later. Some classes, you just need to get high enough before you can start taking some damage. I wouldn't recommend it for a first time player though I'm sure there are those who disagree. Chain lightning is decent, but generally speaking, questing alone with a Shammy is a bit hard.

Druid - You can turn yourself into a bird later on, what's not to like about that. Well, the first 20 levels or so definitely killed me a lot. After that, it's been smooth sailing, but those first few levels were tough to quest alone because my character just couldn't take too many hits before dying. So sad, but after level 20, different story, you can solo quest just fine.

Warlock - Cloth armor definitely not helping, but the warlock class does have that added advantage of a summoned demon. If you choose to go with the class that gets you Felguard, you've got it made in the higher levels. You can't take too many hits, but your pet will usually draw all the enemies to themselves and you can just add your damage from a safe distance. Drain Life is lovely too because it can heal you and damage the enemy. I haven't respeced my character, so I don't know about the other talent trees, but the one that gives you Felguard is definitely recommended.

Hunter - Also a class that will give you a pet at a very low level. Hunters can use guns or bows, usually depending on which race you choose, though certain ones can use either and then it's just a personal preference. Personally, there's something very satisfying about a good solid crack of a gun.  I've kept my same pet, a cat, from the very beginning, but you can tame some pretty neat critters at higher levels.

Priest - Always needed for doing dungeons. A little on the tough side to level solo, but still a fun class. Priests are definitely weaker than paladins, but their healing is generally more effective in parties. You've got a better variety and generally quicker casting times than the Paladin spells. Cloth armor - no fun. Shadow priests heal themselves as they do damage, so with a little skill, they can be effective at questing.