Power Friends are waiting for YOU!

Right about now seems like a good opportunity for some guild recruiting. People join Guilds in WoW in order to be associated with a group of people. The best guilds (like mine) have a lot of player interaction. We all help each other with dungeons, arena and we play battlegrounds together. We also have a guild bank that basically works as a storage for all the stuff we don't need, which gives other guildies the opportunity to get stuff they need without having to work or pay for it. All guilds have a guild chat and all good guilds (like mine) chat with many of the guild members, even those that are not 'offline' friends.

Our guild is called Power Friends, we're at level 25 which means all perks such as mass resurrection, instant mail, and much more are all unlocked to us. Joining a guild gives you extra perks that you can't get any other way (like increased experience, speed, and reputation).

Power friends started with a group of family and friends and has expanded to make way for new online friends. We have an awesome banner that we enjoy rubbing in the hordes face when we clobber them. If you're interested in joining, anyone is welcome, come find us on Firetree.

Now to leave you with Power Friends January 2013 Guild Picture. United as One, Join Us. 

My First Raid

Yes surprisingly, I have two level 90's and still have not yet done a raid - until today. For those of you who don't know a raid is like a dungeon but with more people (i did a 25 man raid) and more (and much stronger) bosses. So I got a few goodies from this adventure. The first was basically a 'thanks for coming here's 28 gold' gift, the second was [Imperial Ghostbinder's Robes], and the third was [Circuit of the Frail Soul] two pretty awesome upgrades.

 The Raid itself was pretty fun. I played with my friend Kiel (Silorian - Priest) who told me what to do at each boss (or I'd be totally confused). There was so many things happening the screen was covered in yellow! At one Point I was 5th in damage but by the end I finished 10th, pretty good for a Shadow Priest who doesn't know what she's doing and has no PvE gear. Guardians of Mogu'shan Complete, the Vault of Mysteries is next on my to do list!

Making Your First Character

Alright by now your probably getting bored of hearing how to play, so don't worry this will be my last informational post. After today ill start giving you some of the inside scoop of my day to day game play.

Since WoW has such a large population (just over 500,000), in order to run without lag people are split up into different servers, or realms. Each server has the same content and game play. Certain servers, mine for instance, is Firetree, a PvP (player vs. player) server. Meaning that although we do PvE (player vs. environment, or in simple terms, against a computer) our main focus is playing against real people. 

Before beginning the game you'll be prompted to this screen to make a character:

The two factions are horde and alliance, underneath this you can see the different races available to each side. All races have a racial ability unlike any other. If you choose to be Pandaren you remain neutral until level 10 when you are forced to join the horde or the alliance. Along the right side of the screen you can see the classes available. As you can see, if you choose to be a human, you cannot be a shaman or a druid, and the same limits apply for other races and classes.  By clicking'more info' you will be able to see the details about the race you choose as well as the class. There are 3 different roles each character can play. Tanks have alot of health and lead the battles, their job is to take all the damage while the DPS does damage to the enemies and the healer keeps everyone alive. In the beginning tanks usually do the most damage but this changes the higher level you become. When you choose your character make sure to check the additional infor to see highlights for each class. Do you want to be a leader and tank? Keep people alive and heal? Or kill kill kill as damage?

Enter the world, Dunnoe what anything means.

Wanna play WoW but don't know what to expect? I've created my first Panda Monk today to show you what the game looks like and how to get started.

So I enter the world (as a panda) and this is what i see...

What does it mean you wonder? Let me explain with this awesomely colourful picture.

• This will always show your portrait, name, level and health (green bar). The yellow bar is my energy which is the 'cost' to use your ablities, different classes/specs have different secondary bars.
• This is the player you are targeting/selecting.  
• These are free add ons, they don't come with the game but you can download them at www.curse.com.
• Your friends list, you can add friends here.
• Chat. Click the speech bubble to the left to chat to particular channels/groups and use emotes.
• Mini Map, the blue highlighted area on the map is where a quest item can be found. The number 20 button is a calendar where you can see what events are occurring and when. The first grey circle to the left of the map where you can click to track or untrack items.
• Your Location, you can also press M for bigger map and a better idea. If you right click while on 'M' you continuously zoom out until you cannot zoom out anymore.
• Quest Objectives. Press  'L' too see all current quests. If any are grey it means you don't benefit from them and you should abandon even if its complete. If the quests is complete the 1 (or whatever number quest is it) will turn into a question mark and the map will tell you where you have to go to hand it in.
• Action bar (spells/abilities) - must be expanded in the interface menu at some point (you will have more abilities than you have space for at some point).  To the right of your abilities is (in order from left to right) character log, spell book, spec and talents, achievements, quest log, guild, pvp, dungeon finder, mounts and pets, dungeon journal, game menu, customer support, and 5 bag slots (some tabs are unlocked atm). The lined bar just above the action bar is your experience bar. The bubbles will fill up with purple experience or blue (rested XP).
• Quest Box

When you first enter the world you'll see a question mark (hand in a quest) or exclamation mark (get a quest). Either hand it in or accept your first quest and follow the steps it takes. If your close to your quest you should see the area in the mini map, if not the 'M' button will show the area to find your quest.

At level ten, if you wish you can now take a break from questing and gain experience by playing Battlegrounds. A battleground (BG) is a player vs player (PvP) game with the Alliance facing off against the Horde. By level 90 all BG's are unlocked to your player but in the beginning you only have the choice of two. 

By level 15 everything opens up to you. You can now gain experience by questing, BG's and Dungeons. Dungeons are about half an hour long following a story line where you and 4 other people kill different computer mobs (PvE). To play a dungeon (or instance) you need 3 dps (damage), 1 tank, and 1 healer. What you choose to do in WoW is all up to you. I like dungeons for leveling because you gain experience fast, especially if its your first time doing the same dungeon. However, I also like PvP which takes up 90% of my time with my lvl 90's. So feel around for what you like best.  

I shall now leave you with an image of this cute little guy i saw today in Valley of the Four Winds, Pandaria.

Welcome To The Stormwind Recruiter!

For those of you who don't know, I'm a bit of a nerd and I love video games. For the last year, World of Warcraft or 'WoW' as I shall probably call it from here on in, has been my game of choice. WoW is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) which in English basically means you create a character (toon), or many, and level up in a made up world (Azeroth) while surrounded by (and interacting with) real people.

I play WoW everyday with a handful of real friends and a group of online friends. My intention for this blog is to explain all or any aspects of the game from my perspective. I'll start off with a basic intro of how to get started, how the game progresses, and specifics from my day to day game play. I am a casual WoW player and I hope that some of my explanations and gaming adventures will inspire my readers to join the Alliance and defend Azeroth from the Horde in World of Warcraft.