First Time playing WOW, a lot to ask and a lot to discover :)

[Okrim]

Hi everyone, as it says above it's my first time playing WoW and I'm really enjoying it. I played MMOs since I was a kid, games like Lineage, Metin2, etc, but never played this game and since I've been reading some posts I figured that the community is very newbiee friendly, I hope someone could at least answer one of the questions that I've been doing to myself:

* Which Server should I be playing on? I'm actually on Onyxia

* Are the guides from Wowhead useful here or just for the official classic?

* Is there any page that I should consider looking into for my walkthrough or that it is very helpful now at my fresh start or for later?

* What settings should I de/activate that will be important for my gameplay?

* Are addOns that big of a deal? I'm not sure if I would be doing pvp in the short run and most of them are for that purpose, am I wrong?

* I did a quick run of the first hour of the game but didn't think a lot about my character so I would make a new one to start the game seriously, is a Hunter or a Warlock a good choice?


I want to thank everyone in advance that replies in case this post doesn't go unnoticed, as it is said in the title I have more things to ask but more to discover, so if you have any piece of advice that you would had really appreciated when started playing your fist time and it isn't asked above, please add it to your answer, again, thank you.
I hope to play this game with you all for a long time!

[jmsvanbuskirk]

My advice is just to experience it and figure it out as you go. I could tell you exactly what to do step by step and it would just rob you of the experience of the game I think.

Onyxia is a great place to start. It will turn into the next expansion in a couple months or so which is where it will get really good. The grand majority of Wowhead is applicable to this content. Youtube is your best friend I think so you can actually see it.

For settings, activating the action bars is helpful. Displaying aggro percentages. Target of target. Combat text options you can mess around with to your liking. Projected textures under your video options can be important.

Addons become important particularly in end game for PvE. An addon called Deadly Boss Mods especially. Then you have DPS meters, Threat meters, Healing addons. For leveling some people use quest helper addons. Beyond that some players use addons to modify their user interface and move things around on their screen. There are an infinite number of guides on those things and much of it is player preference. Just keep in mind this is patch 3.3.5 and addons only work from that patch basically.

There's utility for any character you pick. Whatever sounds interesting to you. You're able to have different specializations so some characters you can be a healer, tank or dps. So that is one thing to think about. Warriors/Paladins/Druids can tank. Priests/Shamans/Druids/Paladins can heal. All characters can dps.

[Darwally]

1) I don't know if starting in the progressive server would be the best option, but I don't know what kind of people are playing in it. If you can find a casual/friendly guild that's not going to be speedrunning through the content as fast as they can as most of them probably are, maybe you'll be okay. If not, I'd probably go Lordaeron.
2) Wowhead should be good, I don't think I've run into anything that differs too much from retail asides from the occassional ingame bug.
3) Even though you could probably use Wowhead for it, sometimes simply googling the question with "WoW WotLK- whatever" brings up okay-ish sites. You could google "WoW WotLK leveling zones/guide" to give you at least an idea of which zones to go to.
4) Can't really say, just make sure you put up extra action bars and assign them hotkeys in your interface.
5) Personally, unless you're doing the most hardcore stuff with a timer on it or decently rated arenas... no. I've run dungeons, raids, mythics, rated bgs and arenas to decent ratings without any addon... so again, personally? I don't think they're needed if you're not going to be tryharding and are a good gamer. When it comes to "people"? Yes. People will not bring you to a raid if you don't use X addons to please them, because the average person seems to not be able to notice a dispellable debuff without an addon that'll make it "easier" for them to see and get rid of it (healbot), or to move from a spot the boss is looking at while he charges or weaves his weapon in the most obvious way without a bigg red alert in your screen (DBM), etc... You'll be forced into it, most likely.
6) Go with what you'd like to try. I remember making a Paladin back when WotLK released in retail back in the day and then regretting it after seeing everybody with a paladin, so I ended up leveling a shaman instead. Hunters and Warlocks are pretty easy to level up as because your pet can basically tank for you. Elite quests that'd usually take 2-3 people to be done are relatively easy to be done with either of them, so that's a plus. But you have to make sure you'd like their playstyles in the endgame, since leveling isn't the entire game.

[Mitzen]

If Onyxia has more casual friendly guilds, I could recommend that. You get to experience some progression at least.
As an alternative, I recommend Icecrown over Lordaeron. Icecrown may have higher rates (exp can be turned to be lower), but it doesn't feature custom tuned more difficult end-game content like how Lordaeron does. I wouldn't recommend Lordaeron for a beginner. If people recommend it due to slower leveling rate, you can put x1 exp rate in Icecrown and don't have to worry about tuned end-game content when you get there.

Some WoWhead guides might be good, but I'd be careful of those (classic mixing things there a bit). There are many guides here on forums that I recommend over many of the WoWhead ones.

There's probably some leveling guide here as well.

I wouldn't touch settings that much. For an FPS boost, you could reduce viewing distance a bit lower.
Settings -> Video -> Effects -> Projected Textures -> ON.

DBM - for boss stuff/timers.
Bagnon - Inventory management.
Action bar addon might be good, or just go enable extra ones from Interface settings.

Hunter is a solid choice. Beginner friendly and strong end-game DPS.

[IcarNS]

You don't need addons till level 80 tbh. A couple QoL settings that I always tweak:
- press V to see enemy nameplates. Keep that always turned on
- rebind A and D for strafe left / right. I recommend getting used to it, it's helpful overall for how the game works
- rebind B to Open All Bags (by default Shift B). you'll never need to open just one bag

[Okrim]

Hey so it's been a while, sorry for not answering before, all of your responses were useful and helped me get through the first days, I am lvl 72 with my rogue now and have a few pair of other characters that I play with a group of friends when we are all online.
Thanks to all of you I'm a little bit more oriented and my time playing to this moment has been extremely wonderful (despite a few gankers at low lvl xD), thanks again, this is a great community and I hope to be part of it someday.