Just wishing

Guides New Player Help and Guides
1

It would be so cool to be able to sit down with another and more experienced WoW player. I would like to observe them playing, so I could learn how to play the right way or more effectively. I have a local friend that could do it, but he works constantly and he and his wife just had a baby.

I haven’t really explored all of the cool things to do in this game. I don’t gather plants or fish because I want to spend that time questing and leveling up. Sometimes while learning its best to SEE someone do something instead of just reading how to do it.

I hate to admit that I am impatient and haven’t taken the time to create marcros or add the add-ons; but this weekend, I am going to add some add ons. I am intimidated by macros because they seem like formulas to me. Maybe I have it all wrong. I want to just point my cross bow and shoot ! LOL That is the fun part.

When you all were a newbie, what did you focus on more? Questing, gathering etc??? How did you learn? Any secrets? LOL

2

The short answer? Trial and error. Many… many errors.

By asking questions to us here, you’re already giving yourself a head start over anything I did when I first started. The game was a very different place when I started in 2006 and even if I had thought to look, the pool of knowledge available on the internet was a lot shallower than it is these days. Even to this day I think it’s safe to say we’re all still constantly learning new things however. The game is always evolving and you never truly know everything about it.

When I was a true noob first beginning though, there weren’t as many options for leveling as there are now. There was really only one path, and that was questing, grinding mobs, and trying to find random people in general chat who wanted to do a dungeon with you. Everything I did was trial by fire, and there was more time spent running back to my body than I could even venture a guess at.

My advice as you’re learning is to remember that every time you die, every time you mess something up, every time you regret a decision, everything you do in the game, good or bad… you learned something. Never stop asking questions, and if something looks interesting to you, don’t skip out on it because it might also seem intimidating. It might just become your new favorite thing.

In the meantime, I know it’s not looking over my shoulder, but feel free to add me on btag, Tethmes#1322. Any time I’m on feel free to get in touch with questions or issues. A discord meeting is also a possibility if you want to flesh out multiple issues and hit me with a bunch of questions at once.

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3

Thank you Zipster !

4

Macros are simple to make if your not designing them. All you have to do is go into macros from the main menu. Click new, type the name, select the icon, copy and paste the text shown here. Save. Drag the macro icon to your hot bar it replaces the spell book one. Try making these macros they are mandatory for BM hunter to increase dps. It takes like 30 seconds to do this.

#showtooltip Cobra shot
/petattack
/use Claw
/use Bite
/use Smack
/cast Cobra shot

#showtooltip Kill Command
/petattack
/use Claw
/use Bite
/use Smack
/cast Kill Command

#showtooltip Multi-Shot
/petattack
/use Claw
/use Bite
/use Smack
/cast Multi-Shot

1 Like
5

thank you Astryss ! I really appreciate all of your help and advice. are Macros like a short cut? or a way to do more than one thing at once to save time?

6

These specific macros are telling your pet to attack immediately when you click cobra, multi, and kill command. They are also telling him to use his signature attack ASAP, claw, bite, or smack. If you don’t use the macros the pet will do a lot less dps because he will be slower at using attacks. I’m off to lunch but later I’ll give you another macro try these first.

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7

great ! thanks !! :slight_smile:

8

Generally speaking, macros will give you a bit more control over how you cast a spell. They can’t be used to make decisions for you, but they can have a button press do different things depending on context. A common example would be that if your target is friendly, it will cast a heal spell, or if your target is hostile it will cast a damage spell.

Occasionally, you can combine several actions into a macro to have them all go off at once. This only works when stuff isn’t on the Global Cooldown. Most stuff is on the global cooldown, so it’s use is limited. (The main stuff that is off the global cooldown are trinkets and some racial abilities.)

In the case of the macros Astryss posted, it’s combining having your pet do stuff at the same time you do your own stuff, as those actions can be done simultaneously. (Having the 3 different pet attack types in the macro just means it will work for whatever pet you have out — each pet will only be using one of them.) Those type of pet macros are useful because your pet is supposed to do attack your target and use their abilities, but sometimes they are dumb and those macros force the pet to attack your target if for some reason they get “distracted.”

There’s a guide in the UI and macro forum that give a good overview.

9

thank you for the link Udiza; and your help. I can’t wait to get home today and try some things !

10

Also learn to use keybinds to cast all your abilities instead of clicking on them. It can be hard and annoying at first but you will be much better off learning to do it over clicking.

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11

I’m glad you mentioned this as it’s the most important out of everything. Any player who regularly clicks skills on the hot bar with their mouse will always be bad.

If you are looking at keys on your bar and a moving mouse pointer, it takes your eyes off the mechanics, enemies, and the rest of your UI. In addition, while you are moving your mouse to click skills you can’t turn properly! Holding the right mouse button to turn is mandatory for dps and tanks, much faster, and far superior to using turn keys.

This leads to the next point. Every DPS and tank should re-assign strafe left and right to the turn keys a and d. You don’t need turn keys. Strafe lets you move left and right while facing the same direction. You turn with mouse and strafe with keys.

I would never click any skills with my mouse, but if you were tight on keys limit it to skills with long 4 min + CD’s.

Ideally you want an MMO mouse with lots of side buttons it will drastically boost your performance because you won’t have to stop moving to cast instant skills. The popular Logitech G600 is excellent and cheap on amazon. I’ve been using mine for 6 years with no issues. If you don’t have an mmo mouse, you need to use shift + keys and Alt + keys to make more hot keys.

In regards to key assignment, you want the skills you use most on Q,e,r,f,c,x,z, 1,2,3,4, Assign your instant skills to the mouse so you don’t have to stop moving to use them, which kills your performance. Some instants will be skills you use all the time. Proper Key assignment Is critical to performance. The less distance your fingers travel the faster and easier you hit keys with less or no miskeys.

Lastly, you should experiment and change your hot keys until you find a set up that is smooth and the most efficient. There are almost always better set ups that you haven’t tried yet.

1 Like
12

I have a simple macro for your traps. This macro allows you to drop a trap with one click, and it lands at the location of your mouse pointer. If you don’t use the macro, you have to click, move green circle, and click again which slows you down. Make one for freezing trap too. I use these @cursor macros for all my classes for any skills that target an area on the ground. No more green circles!

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] tar trap

1 Like
13

do you all use a special gaming keyboard? or just standard//

14

I use a mechanical keyboard for longevity and feel of the keys, but it’s not specifically a gaming keyboard with macro keys. Keyboards are subjective though. Ask 10 people and i’m sure you’ll get 10 different answers. Use what you’re comfortable with, and if you decide you need to upgrade, do your research before just buying one on a whim. A gaming or mechanical keyboard is a peripheral you’ll have for a long time, make sure it’s the right one for you.

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15

I upgraded to a mechanical keyboard (nothing fancy — no macro keys) not to long ago, but I played for years on cheap membrane keyboards. While I like the feel of the mechanical better in general, I don’t think it’s had any impact on my performance in game.

When it comes to peripherals, your mouse is probably the bigger deal for WoW. (Although there are people out there playing on laptop trackpads, so you can make anything work.) I use a Logitech G600, which is a reasonably priced MMO mouse. Even if you’re like me and don’t have the dexterity to use most of the side buttons in clutch situations, they are still great for more utility oriented stuff like mounts.

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16

In my previous post I forgot to mention on the G600 it’s also easy to use shift + mouse buttons, and you don’t have to take a finger off a movement key to use shift. In total, I use 9/12 side buttons + 6/12 shift side buttons + mouse wheel pull left or right for 2 more, and mouse wheel click. So that’s a total of 18 regularly and easily used skills on the G600 mouse. I’ve always used ergonomic split keyboards for the increased comfort.

Note: small hands probably won’t be able to reach as many side buttons as average/large hands. For someone with small hands, there are smaller mice than the G600. I bought a razor naga about 6 years ago and it was too small so I returned and got the G600, which is a perfect fit.

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17

I have long fingers, so I bet I could use the G600. I hate the keyboard I have for my home computer. I need to get a better one.

18

Just wanted to stop in and say, when I started playing in the Burning Crusade, I did every races starting area to see the quests and piece together how the world worked, I also had a level 70 raider show me how to play my Hunter, teaching me how to stutter step when kiting NPCs, something I might not have learned otherwise for quite awhile, it took me forever to hit 70 but I loved seeing all the different dungeons and quests.

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