I have just recently within the last week got into WOW retail. Have not decided to buy the expansion yet, but do plan on it with next paycheck. I got the subscription and so far have been having a blast even though I have only had a short time to play and managed to reach level 15. I am looking for a few friends to level with and maybe newer players themselves because I know veteran players don’t like new players too much. I am a dad and so I would like some people that understand that and maybe even deal with the same things. I try to play every evening and night but doesn’t always work out that way. Would love to meet some new friends to play with from now and into the future. I have zero friends that are interested in WOW so I guess the forums were my last hope. I appreciate anyone that takes the time!
Welcome to Azeroth! I’m really happy to hear thatyou’re having a blast!
You have set yourself the hardest challenge in WoW - finding friends as a new adult player who has no real-life friends in the game.
And I’m sorry to say that “Help Me, Forums. You’re My Only Hope!” is a slim chance. 
You are better off going where the action is.
Most of the social side of WoW actually happens outside of WoW these days, on Discord.
If you don’t know Discord, it’s a real-time chat that can be done in a browser or with a dedicated client. It supports both text and voice comms.
WoWNoob would be a good first place to start.
You can find the WoWNoob Reddit at https://old.reddit.com/r/wownoob/
and the WoWNoob Discord at
It’s a huge and loose community, but a great place to get your bearings about what’s what and what people are looking for.
Once you buy Dragonflight, get your Azeroth Citizenship, and hit level 70, that will be the time to start genuinely looking for Guilds and Communities where you might fit in.
DON’T be in a hurry to join and commit to anything yet. You have a massive back-catalog of content to explore.
While you’re enjoying the world, try out lots of different Classes and Specializations and Races. Most Specs start to feel like themselves at Level 40 or so, so that’s when you will know is this is a spec you want to continue with.
Create some characters on the large servers, where there are lots more people (and lots more spam, but you can turn it off). List of servers by relative size here: https://www.wowprogress.com/realms/rank/us and notice that most servers are HEAVILY one-faction between Alliance and Horde, so make Horde characters on a Horde server and Alliance ones on an Alliance server.
WoW is EXPECTED to be played with the help of external references. Here are a few bookmarks
https://www.wowhead.com/ the motherlode of information about quests, items, and everything. Always read the Comments! The comments are usually the most informative part.
https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/ for all about how to build and play your class and spec, though it is aimed Level 70s - just take what you can from it for now
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Wowpedia for background on the stories and zones and characters. You can start with the Timeline https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline for an extended hiostory of the world
This YouTube video is AMAZING!
It’s huge, at 2 and a half hours long, but broken up into 37 2-4 minute chapters you can jump to in the Timestamps part of the description. It is out of date in that it doesn’t cover Chromie Time or the Dragonflight expansion, but it still has masses of stuff you can use.
In fact, if you are curious about ANYTHING in the game, a search on YouTube will probably show it, though much of that will be beyond your needs for now. Just be conscious that things do change with every expansion, and older videos may be out of date (though most of what you are likely to look for will still be valid)
Now, why is it hard to make friends in WoW? It’s complicated.
People have different play schedules.
People have different play focuses and mixes. Some people are here for the PvP - killing opposing players. Some are here for 5-player dungeons, which climb to infinite difficulty at level 70. Some go for the OG 10-30 man Raids at level 70. Those who are serious need people who can play at their level, whatever that may be, to make sure they succeed.
And about half of all players barely do any of these three, but just quest around the world and do aa few dungeons and battlegrouds and queued raids with random people. And these player really don’t NEED anyone else to play with. Many will be quite friendly, but just not very … sticky.
So for now just enhoy exploring, and don’t put any pressure on yourself. Get comfortable before you jump in.
I am always up for making new friends in WoW. I am more of a veteran player but also don’t have any IRL friends that want to play.
I enjoy all the differnt types of content and like making new toons to level so if you are still looking for people to play with my btag is: Grim #17752
a veteran player here. with the change of my work schedule all my friends can’t play when i am on. plus i like to help out new players when i can kinda of a way for me to give back for all the people who helped me when i was new.
Hay man. I’m new to WoW as well. I understand family work and so on. I also have no friends that are into WoW. I’d like to talk to you some more about it. You on discord or something. I dont want to put to much info on the forum. Let me know if you are interested in chatting some more. If not no worrie and enjoy the game.
@Metasia hey message me if still looking for Fri/Sat Morning Raiding guild (Area52), BloodElfBrie#1778
also a new player would love to meet some people to play with
new player as well would love to have someone to play with
Hey, I’m a returning player and would be more than willing to game with new people. Discord is Lejinga
You can also add me, pm me in game 
I am an absolute noob at this game! Finding some friends to play with and chat with would be awesome and find out what helped others play as well and what the best tips that I can get in order on how to better understand the game! Happy Gaming!
Same started wow with sod classic in februray 24 and just moved to retail. So would love to have a few other noobs with me to learn and laugh together! My discord is @speciez34 feel free to add/invite.
Am new to this game but I like to have more people to play with in game and learn am play for free to try it and I sub to it once I hit lv20