Since Mom's still in Dun Morogh, she's asked if it's winter all the time in Warcraft. I explained that each zone has its own climate, and I've been trying to figure out a way to demonstrate this to her without putting her low-level character in danger. (Since mobs in high-level areas go out of their way to attack lowbies, physically taking her to different zones is out, for now.)
Then I remembered this great video, which as well as showing some different areas in the game, also demonstrates why players don't own flying mounts in old Azeroth. This will all change with the Cataclysm expansion, of course -- but right now it's a good demonstration of both the scope of the game and the way Azeroth is currently designed. To save both design time and computer resources, the game doesn't display areas that your character can't approach on foot. This video shows what's behind the curtain -- the vast blank areas that players don't see.
Hope you enjoy this video as much as I do.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Lesson #5a: Serious Damage
Just a little addendum to the last lesson...
_________________________
Say you've been fighting for a long time and you've died a couple of times. You might see something new appear on the far right side of your screen, under the mini-map. It will look like a little suit of armour, and parts of it will be coloured yellow or red.
This indicates that your character has suffered some serious damage to one or more pieces of equipment. The parts that are coloured are the worst damaged pieces. Yellow is better than red, but none of it is very good. Just the fact that you're seeing it is a warning. It means you should hightail it to the nearest blacksmith or weapon vendor, and get repaired. Hover over a vendor to see if he or she makes repairs. If your cursor turns into a little grey anvil, then that NPC does repairs. Right-click to open their window, and look at the bottom to find another little anvil. It will probably have a small yellow cross on it. Right-click it to automatically repair everything. Some money will disappear from your bag, but I gave you over 10 gold so you should have plenty. The more damaged your equipment, the higher the cost to repair.
It's best to keep your equipment in good shape, so that you hardly ever see that suit of armour. Just get in the habit of visiting the repair guys often and repairing whenever you have a chance. It'll save you money too. Once that suit of armour appears, you're in pretty bad shape and it'll cost you... and if you still have a bunch of mobs to kill, then chances are high you'll die before they do. So try not to go too long between repairs and chances are you'll hardly ever see the Armour of Doom.
_________________________
Say you've been fighting for a long time and you've died a couple of times. You might see something new appear on the far right side of your screen, under the mini-map. It will look like a little suit of armour, and parts of it will be coloured yellow or red.
This indicates that your character has suffered some serious damage to one or more pieces of equipment. The parts that are coloured are the worst damaged pieces. Yellow is better than red, but none of it is very good. Just the fact that you're seeing it is a warning. It means you should hightail it to the nearest blacksmith or weapon vendor, and get repaired. Hover over a vendor to see if he or she makes repairs. If your cursor turns into a little grey anvil, then that NPC does repairs. Right-click to open their window, and look at the bottom to find another little anvil. It will probably have a small yellow cross on it. Right-click it to automatically repair everything. Some money will disappear from your bag, but I gave you over 10 gold so you should have plenty. The more damaged your equipment, the higher the cost to repair.
It's best to keep your equipment in good shape, so that you hardly ever see that suit of armour. Just get in the habit of visiting the repair guys often and repairing whenever you have a chance. It'll save you money too. Once that suit of armour appears, you're in pretty bad shape and it'll cost you... and if you still have a bunch of mobs to kill, then chances are high you'll die before they do. So try not to go too long between repairs and chances are you'll hardly ever see the Armour of Doom.
Lesson #5: Combat (as a Hunter).
Another lesson for Mom.
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Hi Mom! This is going to be a pretty important email, as it deals with how to fight, how to deal with combat, and what happens when you die.
As you've likely noticed, combat is an integral part of the game. Many quests send you out to kill stuff, and frequently you are sent to kill more than one monster, pest or enemy (collectively known as mobs). So learning to do this efficiently means you level faster and become more proficient overall.
As a hunter, you're considered a ranged class. This means your most effective method of fighting is to keep your target at range, that is, at a comfortable distance so that you can shoot its face off before it can even reach you. I won't lie, this is a bit tricky to do at first without a pet to help you. Once you get a pet at level 10 though, it becomes much easier. Blizzard designed it that way, I think, so that you can get the hang of ranged combat before you have to deal with the upkeep of a pet. That said, your pet will become your very best friend.
First though, you should learn how to fight at range. Before we even start fighting though, there are things you need to check, such as:
1) Do I have enough ammunition? (Check your ammo bag for that. You can run through an awful lot of ammo pretty fast, and it doesn't come back.)
2) Do I have my gun/bow/crossbow equipped, so I can automatically start shooting? (Check your character sheet, weapons are at the bottom.)
3) Do I have a melee weapon equipped, in case the monster runs up and hits me before I'm done shooting it? (This would be your axe, or dagger, or whatever.)
4) Do I have some healing potions, in case I get into trouble? (You probably don't yet, but you might loot them so keep them handy in your bags. Healing potions look like little vials or flasks of a bright RED liquid. Mana potions are BLUE. Right-click a potion to drink it and watch your health and mana go up instantly.)
The first thing to learn is how to pull. Pulling a mob means you choose your target carefully, and then get its attention, usually by shooting it. This makes it run toward you as if you're pulling it on a string. Pulling is especially important when there is more than one mob in an area, because as a hunter you want to deal with only one mob at a time. Some classes are excellent at fighting multiple mobs at once, such as warriors or mages, but as a hunter you're not one of them. That doesn't mean you can't fight and dispatch multiple mobs, but it's not your specialty and it's easy to lose control of the situation. Your specialty is picking off your targets one by one, and making them dead before they even reach you.
To deal with only one mob at a time when there are a bunch, you want to look for outliers. Check out the perimeter of the area and pick off the stragglers, slowly working your way in to the middle of the group. Be careful because if a mob is too close to another mob, sometimes you end up pulling both. This creates a less-than-ideal situation where your attention is divided and you're trying to fight more than one. When that happens, you can get flustered, and that means you end up dead yourself. So keep your eye on one mob at a time.
Once a mob is engaged, keep shooting it. This seems to be a "duh, no kidding" thing to say, but a surprising number of hunters either stop shooting deliberately to run up and hit it with their weapon, or forget to turn on Autoshot. Both of these are very inefficient for a hunter. You want Autoshot to be up and blinking all the time when you're in combat. If Autoshot stops, click it with your mouse to turn it back on (I think it's a right-click). Autoshot should NOT be turned off unless you click it off by accident. Clicking toggles it on and off. Unless you want it off for very specific reasons, such as pulling a mob into a trap, Autoshot should be ON all the time. It will stop blinking once you're out of combat, but it WILL resume automatically once you engage your next mob, so you don't have to keep clicking it on and off.
Try to keep the mob at range as much as possible. Your best chance of causing a lot of damage is to keep shooting. My advice is to figure out the farthest range at which you can engage a mob, and start shooting from there. That means you can get off two or three shots before it even gets close to you, which means it's significantly weaker when it finally does hit you. Then it's an easy matter to finish it off with your hand-to-hand weapon. Once you get more proficient, you can jump backward to keep it in range, or learn to strafe to one side and keep it at a distance that way. Unfortunately, you can't run and shoot at the same time. You have to stand still to shoot. Be careful when you're running and jumping NOT to engage other mobs. That's usually, y'know, bad.
Once the mob is at low health, it may run away in fear. You might notice that the mob suddenly stops and runs away from you, and a message will come up, something like, "The troll runs in fear!" When this happens, especially in a situation where there's multiple mobs around, pursue and kill it. Or keep shooting till it's dead. If you've stopped shooting you can right-click the mob to resume shooting it. What happens when a mob runs in fear is that it will run away briefly, and then gets its second wind, comes back and tries to kill you again. It will always come back. Sometimes it brings along a friend or six, and then they gang up on you. So your best bet is to make sure it doesn't get very far in the first place.
As you level up and train, you'll get some special attacks and different types of shots. Some shots will stun the mob for a few seconds, which means it just stands there in a daze as you fill it full of holes. Other shots will drain extra health from the mob so that it dies faster, or make the mob move very slowly so that it takes longer to react. You want to do the most damage in the least amount of time, and you want to keep the mob at range for as long as possible. So when you're deciding which shots to use, keep those two points firmly in mind. The order in which you decide to use your special abilities is called your rotation. Everyone's rotation is customizable, but some rotations are better than others. You don't really have to worry about it, though, for a few more levels.
Some mobs also fight at range, especially casters (i.e. mobs that throw magic spells at you). These are extremely annoying for a hunter, because it means that unless you're doing a lot more damage to them with your gun than they are to you, you're pretty much forced to close the distance and hit them with your hand-to-hand weapon. The good news is that caster mobs are typically quite weak, and once you start smacking them directly, they die pretty fast. Once you get a pet at level 10, you can send your pet in and make your pet chew them up while you keep shooting.
If you're losing the fight, you can always run away. This is another reason why it's important to learn how to move effectively. Turning and running is a perfectly viable alternative to, say, dying. Once you turn away from the mob and start running, the interface will start sending you messages like: "The enemy must be in front for you to attack" or "Turn around to start attack." Just ignore all that if you're determined to run like a rabbit. Being a coward beats being dead! Once you're outside of a certain range, the mob will quit chasing you and go back to where it came from. Then you can eat and drink, heal up and try again.
Running doesn't always work though, as sometimes the mob will catch up and kill you anyway. I don't know why, they get insulted when you shoot them or something. Touchy. ;-)
When you die (it'll happen, and probably quite a lot, so get used to the idea):
1) You turn into a ghost and wake up in the graveyard. This means that everything goes grey, the sky is swirling with weird loopy spirals (which looks pretty cool actually), and you're, well, transparent. The good news is that you can travel much faster and you can walk straight through some barriers. Not all though.
2) You'll see two new arrows on your mini-map in the corner. One is labeled "Your Corpse" when you hover over it. The other is labeled "Spirit Healer".
3) You want to travel to your corpse. The Spirit Healer is a last resort. I know, the Spirit Healer is right there in the graveyard, has big poofy wings and looks all spiritual and angelic. However, if you use her to revive, she will cause 25% more damage to your gear, and/or she will give you a nasty debuff called Resurrection Sickness. That means all your stats go down by a lot, and you're weaker after you revive. (You can see this for yourself if you click your Character button -- all your main stats will be reduced and in red.) The Sickness takes 10 minutes to wear off, so usually it will take you far less time to track down your corpse. Sometimes your corpse is unreachable though, so in that case, use the Spirit Healer and take the penalty.
4) When you get close to your corpse, the arrow will turn into a little tombstone on your mini-map. You will also start to see mobs gradually reappear around you, so you want to wait for the mobs to move away before you revive so they don't kill you again. Cuz that's just really annoying.
5) After you revive, you'll be at low health. Dying takes a lot out of a person. You'll have to head somewhere reasonably safe to eat, drink, and regain your strength. Dying's hard on equipment too, so if you've been fighting for a long time and/or you've died more than once, chances are you'll want to find a repair NPC back in town and repair your gear.
6) You can log out when you're a ghost, but that means you'll log back in as one too so you'll have to revive anyway. However, you're pretty darn safe as a ghost since you can't be killed again!
Here's a webpage on Spirit Healers with a little more information:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Spirit_healer
I think that's about it. Hope that helps, and if you have questions please ask!
________________________
Hi Mom! This is going to be a pretty important email, as it deals with how to fight, how to deal with combat, and what happens when you die.
As you've likely noticed, combat is an integral part of the game. Many quests send you out to kill stuff, and frequently you are sent to kill more than one monster, pest or enemy (collectively known as mobs). So learning to do this efficiently means you level faster and become more proficient overall.
As a hunter, you're considered a ranged class. This means your most effective method of fighting is to keep your target at range, that is, at a comfortable distance so that you can shoot its face off before it can even reach you. I won't lie, this is a bit tricky to do at first without a pet to help you. Once you get a pet at level 10 though, it becomes much easier. Blizzard designed it that way, I think, so that you can get the hang of ranged combat before you have to deal with the upkeep of a pet. That said, your pet will become your very best friend.
First though, you should learn how to fight at range. Before we even start fighting though, there are things you need to check, such as:
1) Do I have enough ammunition? (Check your ammo bag for that. You can run through an awful lot of ammo pretty fast, and it doesn't come back.)
2) Do I have my gun/bow/crossbow equipped, so I can automatically start shooting? (Check your character sheet, weapons are at the bottom.)
3) Do I have a melee weapon equipped, in case the monster runs up and hits me before I'm done shooting it? (This would be your axe, or dagger, or whatever.)
4) Do I have some healing potions, in case I get into trouble? (You probably don't yet, but you might loot them so keep them handy in your bags. Healing potions look like little vials or flasks of a bright RED liquid. Mana potions are BLUE. Right-click a potion to drink it and watch your health and mana go up instantly.)
The first thing to learn is how to pull. Pulling a mob means you choose your target carefully, and then get its attention, usually by shooting it. This makes it run toward you as if you're pulling it on a string. Pulling is especially important when there is more than one mob in an area, because as a hunter you want to deal with only one mob at a time. Some classes are excellent at fighting multiple mobs at once, such as warriors or mages, but as a hunter you're not one of them. That doesn't mean you can't fight and dispatch multiple mobs, but it's not your specialty and it's easy to lose control of the situation. Your specialty is picking off your targets one by one, and making them dead before they even reach you.
To deal with only one mob at a time when there are a bunch, you want to look for outliers. Check out the perimeter of the area and pick off the stragglers, slowly working your way in to the middle of the group. Be careful because if a mob is too close to another mob, sometimes you end up pulling both. This creates a less-than-ideal situation where your attention is divided and you're trying to fight more than one. When that happens, you can get flustered, and that means you end up dead yourself. So keep your eye on one mob at a time.
Once a mob is engaged, keep shooting it. This seems to be a "duh, no kidding" thing to say, but a surprising number of hunters either stop shooting deliberately to run up and hit it with their weapon, or forget to turn on Autoshot. Both of these are very inefficient for a hunter. You want Autoshot to be up and blinking all the time when you're in combat. If Autoshot stops, click it with your mouse to turn it back on (I think it's a right-click). Autoshot should NOT be turned off unless you click it off by accident. Clicking toggles it on and off. Unless you want it off for very specific reasons, such as pulling a mob into a trap, Autoshot should be ON all the time. It will stop blinking once you're out of combat, but it WILL resume automatically once you engage your next mob, so you don't have to keep clicking it on and off.
Try to keep the mob at range as much as possible. Your best chance of causing a lot of damage is to keep shooting. My advice is to figure out the farthest range at which you can engage a mob, and start shooting from there. That means you can get off two or three shots before it even gets close to you, which means it's significantly weaker when it finally does hit you. Then it's an easy matter to finish it off with your hand-to-hand weapon. Once you get more proficient, you can jump backward to keep it in range, or learn to strafe to one side and keep it at a distance that way. Unfortunately, you can't run and shoot at the same time. You have to stand still to shoot. Be careful when you're running and jumping NOT to engage other mobs. That's usually, y'know, bad.
Once the mob is at low health, it may run away in fear. You might notice that the mob suddenly stops and runs away from you, and a message will come up, something like, "The troll runs in fear!" When this happens, especially in a situation where there's multiple mobs around, pursue and kill it. Or keep shooting till it's dead. If you've stopped shooting you can right-click the mob to resume shooting it. What happens when a mob runs in fear is that it will run away briefly, and then gets its second wind, comes back and tries to kill you again. It will always come back. Sometimes it brings along a friend or six, and then they gang up on you. So your best bet is to make sure it doesn't get very far in the first place.
As you level up and train, you'll get some special attacks and different types of shots. Some shots will stun the mob for a few seconds, which means it just stands there in a daze as you fill it full of holes. Other shots will drain extra health from the mob so that it dies faster, or make the mob move very slowly so that it takes longer to react. You want to do the most damage in the least amount of time, and you want to keep the mob at range for as long as possible. So when you're deciding which shots to use, keep those two points firmly in mind. The order in which you decide to use your special abilities is called your rotation. Everyone's rotation is customizable, but some rotations are better than others. You don't really have to worry about it, though, for a few more levels.
Some mobs also fight at range, especially casters (i.e. mobs that throw magic spells at you). These are extremely annoying for a hunter, because it means that unless you're doing a lot more damage to them with your gun than they are to you, you're pretty much forced to close the distance and hit them with your hand-to-hand weapon. The good news is that caster mobs are typically quite weak, and once you start smacking them directly, they die pretty fast. Once you get a pet at level 10, you can send your pet in and make your pet chew them up while you keep shooting.
If you're losing the fight, you can always run away. This is another reason why it's important to learn how to move effectively. Turning and running is a perfectly viable alternative to, say, dying. Once you turn away from the mob and start running, the interface will start sending you messages like: "The enemy must be in front for you to attack" or "Turn around to start attack." Just ignore all that if you're determined to run like a rabbit. Being a coward beats being dead! Once you're outside of a certain range, the mob will quit chasing you and go back to where it came from. Then you can eat and drink, heal up and try again.
Running doesn't always work though, as sometimes the mob will catch up and kill you anyway. I don't know why, they get insulted when you shoot them or something. Touchy. ;-)
When you die (it'll happen, and probably quite a lot, so get used to the idea):
1) You turn into a ghost and wake up in the graveyard. This means that everything goes grey, the sky is swirling with weird loopy spirals (which looks pretty cool actually), and you're, well, transparent. The good news is that you can travel much faster and you can walk straight through some barriers. Not all though.
2) You'll see two new arrows on your mini-map in the corner. One is labeled "Your Corpse" when you hover over it. The other is labeled "Spirit Healer".
3) You want to travel to your corpse. The Spirit Healer is a last resort. I know, the Spirit Healer is right there in the graveyard, has big poofy wings and looks all spiritual and angelic. However, if you use her to revive, she will cause 25% more damage to your gear, and/or she will give you a nasty debuff called Resurrection Sickness. That means all your stats go down by a lot, and you're weaker after you revive. (You can see this for yourself if you click your Character button -- all your main stats will be reduced and in red.) The Sickness takes 10 minutes to wear off, so usually it will take you far less time to track down your corpse. Sometimes your corpse is unreachable though, so in that case, use the Spirit Healer and take the penalty.
4) When you get close to your corpse, the arrow will turn into a little tombstone on your mini-map. You will also start to see mobs gradually reappear around you, so you want to wait for the mobs to move away before you revive so they don't kill you again. Cuz that's just really annoying.
5) After you revive, you'll be at low health. Dying takes a lot out of a person. You'll have to head somewhere reasonably safe to eat, drink, and regain your strength. Dying's hard on equipment too, so if you've been fighting for a long time and/or you've died more than once, chances are you'll want to find a repair NPC back in town and repair your gear.
6) You can log out when you're a ghost, but that means you'll log back in as one too so you'll have to revive anyway. However, you're pretty darn safe as a ghost since you can't be killed again!
Here's a webpage on Spirit Healers with a little more information:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Spirit_healer
I think that's about it. Hope that helps, and if you have questions please ask!
Lesson #4: Movement.
Mom's been having a little trouble moving around effectively, so I dedicated the next lesson to explaining a bit more about movement.
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Hi Mom! You've mentioned a couple times that you're having trouble getting Jolynne to move smoothly, so I'm going to explain a bit about general movement and about moving as it relates to playing a hunter.
First, to review: whenever you log into the game, it automatically resets Jolynne to running forward. So if you want to slow her down, hit your NumLock key, which is on the top of your number pad on the far right side of your keyboard. NumLock makes your character walk. Hit NumLock again to make her resume running.
The keys WASD are your basic movement keys.
W makes her go forward (if she isn't already -- see F4 below).
S makes her go backward. She always goes backward more slowly than forward, so don't rely on it as an escape tactic.
A makes her turn left.
D makes her turn right.
If she's standing in one spot and you press and hold either A or D, she'll simply turn in circles on the spot.
If you want to keep Jolynne moving forward, then hit F4 -- remember, "F4 for Forward." (I think we keybound it for you.) The F4 key can be found at the top of your keyboard, just over the line of number keys, typically over the numbers 4 and 5. Then you can just steer her using the WASD keys. Hit F4 again to get her to stop, or hit the W key a couple of times. Pressing both mouse keys at the same time will also stop her.
Space bar makes your character jump (you already know that one). Practice keeping her going at a steady clip and learn to turn and jump without stopping her forward movement. You can even make her jump backward (I personally do this all the time when fighting.) You want to be able to produce smooth turns, which is very useful in combat. Once you get proficient at that, you can practice strafing.
There are two keys to make Jolynne strafe. (Pronounced "STRAYF".) Strafing means you make your character run off to the side at an angle. This is really handy if you have to get out of the way of a monster quickly! Hunters in particular find this move handy, especially when they are learning how to kite.
The strafe keys are Q and E. Q strafes to the left, E to the right. Practice these a few times because they're pretty cool moves, and they could just save your character's life someday!
To kite something means that you first irritate a monster by shooting it once, and then run like crazy to get the monster to follow you in a certain pre-planned direction, like into a trap. (You will learn the ability to set traps later on.) It's called kiting because you're deliberately pulling it along as if it's on a kite string, staying ahead of it just enough to keep it interested and not die in the process. It's an advanced technique though, and requires a lot of practice. I'm only moderately good at it myself, but some players are master kiters and can drag a monster through an entire zone.
One rather famous example occurred a few years ago, when a relay team of kiters dragged a giant level 60 monster through several zones and let it loose in the human city of Stormwind (which is similar in size to Ironforge). The monster then ran amok and killed dozens of characters and NPCs over and over and over, causing massive chaos. Eventually the entire server had to be shut down and restarted. It was a pretty mean trick, but everyone had to hand it to the players who pulled it off because that's a really expert maneuver. They even recorded it for Youtube! After that, Blizzard made it impossible for any monster to be kited out of its original zone, although you can still kite it anywhere within the zone if you're good enough.
So if you see players talking about strafing and kiting, that's what they're talking about.
These movement techniques are especially important for you as hunter. Hunters want to keep all enemies at range, that is, at a comfortable distance away so that you can keep shooting at them. Hunters are fantastic at ranged combat, but significantly weaker in close combat. So the more you can keep your distance from a monster while shooting it full of holes, the better. The best possible situation is to keep the monster at range while you shoot it dead before it even gets close enough to hit you.
This will become much easier when you're level 10 and learn to tame your first pet. A hunter's pet is their closest companion and friend. Typically, you will send in your pet FIRST to engage an enemy at close combat. Then, while the monster is busy attacking your pet (and your pet is busy ripping the monster's face off), you stand back and shoot till the monster is dead. Then your pet comes back to you and you give it a pat on the head for being such a good guard dog. (Or guard lion, or guard bear, or guard wolf, or whatever pet you've decided to tame.) Hunters have a wide, wonderful variety of pets to choose from, and each type of pet has its own special abilities to assist the hunter.
This brings me to combat, which I'll explain next. Love you Mom!
___________________
Hi Mom! You've mentioned a couple times that you're having trouble getting Jolynne to move smoothly, so I'm going to explain a bit about general movement and about moving as it relates to playing a hunter.
First, to review: whenever you log into the game, it automatically resets Jolynne to running forward. So if you want to slow her down, hit your NumLock key, which is on the top of your number pad on the far right side of your keyboard. NumLock makes your character walk. Hit NumLock again to make her resume running.
The keys WASD are your basic movement keys.
W makes her go forward (if she isn't already -- see F4 below).
S makes her go backward. She always goes backward more slowly than forward, so don't rely on it as an escape tactic.
A makes her turn left.
D makes her turn right.
If she's standing in one spot and you press and hold either A or D, she'll simply turn in circles on the spot.
If you want to keep Jolynne moving forward, then hit F4 -- remember, "F4 for Forward." (I think we keybound it for you.) The F4 key can be found at the top of your keyboard, just over the line of number keys, typically over the numbers 4 and 5. Then you can just steer her using the WASD keys. Hit F4 again to get her to stop, or hit the W key a couple of times. Pressing both mouse keys at the same time will also stop her.
Space bar makes your character jump (you already know that one). Practice keeping her going at a steady clip and learn to turn and jump without stopping her forward movement. You can even make her jump backward (I personally do this all the time when fighting.) You want to be able to produce smooth turns, which is very useful in combat. Once you get proficient at that, you can practice strafing.
There are two keys to make Jolynne strafe. (Pronounced "STRAYF".) Strafing means you make your character run off to the side at an angle. This is really handy if you have to get out of the way of a monster quickly! Hunters in particular find this move handy, especially when they are learning how to kite.
The strafe keys are Q and E. Q strafes to the left, E to the right. Practice these a few times because they're pretty cool moves, and they could just save your character's life someday!
To kite something means that you first irritate a monster by shooting it once, and then run like crazy to get the monster to follow you in a certain pre-planned direction, like into a trap. (You will learn the ability to set traps later on.) It's called kiting because you're deliberately pulling it along as if it's on a kite string, staying ahead of it just enough to keep it interested and not die in the process. It's an advanced technique though, and requires a lot of practice. I'm only moderately good at it myself, but some players are master kiters and can drag a monster through an entire zone.
One rather famous example occurred a few years ago, when a relay team of kiters dragged a giant level 60 monster through several zones and let it loose in the human city of Stormwind (which is similar in size to Ironforge). The monster then ran amok and killed dozens of characters and NPCs over and over and over, causing massive chaos. Eventually the entire server had to be shut down and restarted. It was a pretty mean trick, but everyone had to hand it to the players who pulled it off because that's a really expert maneuver. They even recorded it for Youtube! After that, Blizzard made it impossible for any monster to be kited out of its original zone, although you can still kite it anywhere within the zone if you're good enough.
So if you see players talking about strafing and kiting, that's what they're talking about.
These movement techniques are especially important for you as hunter. Hunters want to keep all enemies at range, that is, at a comfortable distance away so that you can keep shooting at them. Hunters are fantastic at ranged combat, but significantly weaker in close combat. So the more you can keep your distance from a monster while shooting it full of holes, the better. The best possible situation is to keep the monster at range while you shoot it dead before it even gets close enough to hit you.
This will become much easier when you're level 10 and learn to tame your first pet. A hunter's pet is their closest companion and friend. Typically, you will send in your pet FIRST to engage an enemy at close combat. Then, while the monster is busy attacking your pet (and your pet is busy ripping the monster's face off), you stand back and shoot till the monster is dead. Then your pet comes back to you and you give it a pat on the head for being such a good guard dog. (Or guard lion, or guard bear, or guard wolf, or whatever pet you've decided to tame.) Hunters have a wide, wonderful variety of pets to choose from, and each type of pet has its own special abilities to assist the hunter.
This brings me to combat, which I'll explain next. Love you Mom!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Mom the Explorer Strikes Again!
Last night I received an email from Mom, entitled "Help". Knowing this was probably to do with Warcraft, I opened it up right away. She was having some trouble with a new quest called Beer Basted Boar Ribs and wasn't sure where to find the items the quest required. Unfortunately I was scheduled to run a 25-man raid on Onyxia, so I wasn't able to log on to my paladin and help her. I linked her the Wowhead page, explained what I could over email, and wished her luck.
Today I received another email and I am very proud of Mom. The quest still remains unfinished, however, she has figured out how to read signposts and found her way to Ironforge! And that's not all! She also remembered how to use her hearthstone when she wanted to get back to the Thunderbrew Distillery. Exploring is much better when you don't get lost, and looks like Mom is defintely getting the hang of it. Congratulations Mom!
Today I received another email and I am very proud of Mom. The quest still remains unfinished, however, she has figured out how to read signposts and found her way to Ironforge! And that's not all! She also remembered how to use her hearthstone when she wanted to get back to the Thunderbrew Distillery. Exploring is much better when you don't get lost, and looks like Mom is defintely getting the hang of it. Congratulations Mom!
When Worlds Collide, It's a Little Confusing
Well, if I wasn't sure how well Mom was getting into the game, my doubts were erased with one of her latest emails. Mom lives in the north woods, which definitely has a certain resemblance to Dun Morogh. She was driving into town (this is in real life, folks, not the game) and found herself having a rather surreal experience. In her own words:
...all along the route I expected Jolynne to jump out of the forest, or to see big !'s above people's heads. Surprisingly none of this happened. The forest looked much like it did in former, before Warcraft, years.
She also had her dog with her because her Sheltie likes to walk in the town park, but her dog
...did not turn into a cute penguin. Neither did anyone in the park for that matter.
(Yes, she's received her Mr. Chilly penguin pet. She likes him very much.)
She ended her email with:
So if I am somewhat confused from time to time, and begin speaking about Inns or mailboxes or exclamation points above heads you will understand I hope. You will but no-one else will I am sure.
No problem Mom! Just don't be too surprised if you start dreaming about Warcraft -- that's probably next on the agenda. It's all part of the grand adventure, and gamers all over the world sympathize.
...all along the route I expected Jolynne to jump out of the forest, or to see big !'s above people's heads. Surprisingly none of this happened. The forest looked much like it did in former, before Warcraft, years.
She also had her dog with her because her Sheltie likes to walk in the town park, but her dog
...did not turn into a cute penguin. Neither did anyone in the park for that matter.
(Yes, she's received her Mr. Chilly penguin pet. She likes him very much.)
She ended her email with:
So if I am somewhat confused from time to time, and begin speaking about Inns or mailboxes or exclamation points above heads you will understand I hope. You will but no-one else will I am sure.
No problem Mom! Just don't be too surprised if you start dreaming about Warcraft -- that's probably next on the agenda. It's all part of the grand adventure, and gamers all over the world sympathize.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
More Great Questions
Does the Innkeeper charge money for Jolynne to sleep in a bed?
Again, perfectly logical question, since that's what happens in the real world. Now that I think about it, it strikes me as odd that characters can sleep in inns for free. It's nice, but definitely not normal.
Does the Innkeeper supply cats that will sleep on your bed with you?
Pretty sure this last one was a joke, but since there are cats in the game, that would be pretty cool!
Again, perfectly logical question, since that's what happens in the real world. Now that I think about it, it strikes me as odd that characters can sleep in inns for free. It's nice, but definitely not normal.
Does the Innkeeper supply cats that will sleep on your bed with you?
Pretty sure this last one was a joke, but since there are cats in the game, that would be pretty cool!
Still At Large: The Cook and His Drinking Buddy
Mom is still having some trouble locating two NPC's in the Thunderbrew Distillery Inn -- the Cooking Trainer and Jarven Thunderbrew. After speaking with her on the phone, I discovered that she was running around the main room of the inn, and wasn't aware more was available to her. This was also the reason she was having problems finding the exit. Not that I blame her, the exit of that inn is not obvious unless you remember where you came in.
After giving her directions she found her way outside and to the mailbox. I've given her a couple more hints on how to find the Cook and Mr. Thunderbrew so she can complete her prior homework assignment. We'll see how she does!
If she still has trouble, I'll log onto my level 10 paladin and give her the grand tour.
After giving her directions she found her way outside and to the mailbox. I've given her a couple more hints on how to find the Cook and Mr. Thunderbrew so she can complete her prior homework assignment. We'll see how she does!
If she still has trouble, I'll log onto my level 10 paladin and give her the grand tour.
Flying Colours
Mom passed her quiz with a perfect score! She impressed my husband, who read over the quiz before I sent it and declared I was "being mean" with some of my "tricky questions". But I wasn't too worried -- Mom's a pretty smart cookie! Congratulations Mom!
I'm copying the quiz with Mom's answers here, because they're worth reading!
____________________
Mom's Answers for Lesson #3 Quiz.
1) You're questing and you find an item that has its name in grey letters. Do you:
a) Leave it
b) Take it and sell to a vendor Name in Grey - Vendor Junk, maybe a vendor would buy it for a little amount?
c) Use it
d) Give it away to another player -- maybe they can use it
2) You've just finished a long quest and the questgiver offers you the choice of two items as a reward. One of the items is a staff, and the other item is a wand. Do you:
a) Punch the questgiver in the nose because you can't use either one Don't know how to punch!
b) Take the prettiest item and keep it until you can figure out how to use it
c) Take the wand and sell it to a vendor
d) Take the staff and sell it to a vendor Take the staff, it is likely more valuable, if it were a sword it likely would get more money.
3) Your backpack is full and you haven't equipped the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you. Do you:
a) Start dumping items out of your backpack at random
b) Sell all the items in your backpack to a vendor, every single one, so there's lots of room
c) Sell only the items written in grey letters to a vendor Sell all gray items to the vendor. And try to find out how to get out of the Inn so you can get the Netherweave Bags my daughter sent me.
d) Buy a new satchel from a vendor standing in the inn
4) You remember that the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you are sitting in a mailbox. You:
a) Walk around the inn until you see an NPC dwarf with a "Postman" label
b) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a big brown and grey box Try to find the doorway out of the Inn, which no doubt is hiding under a table, and if successful, go out of the Inn to the Big Brown and Grey Box, that says mail. First however we must find our way out of the Inn.
c) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a small blue and green box
d) Walk outside the inn, go down the road and ask a Trade Vendor, then trade him a grey item to get your mail
5) You aren't sure whether to use an item and when you right-click, a box comes up informing you the item will be soulbound. Do you:
a) Think about it some more before you click Accept, because after that you're stuck with it Yes except your bags.
b) Click Accept because if it doesn't work out you can always sell it later
c) Find a character who's playing a Warlock and ask him for a Soulstone, so you can bind it to the item
d) Click Accept and sign the accompanying in-game document promising to sell your soul
6) A "blue item" means:
a) The item is coloured blue, and therefore rare No
I'm copying the quiz with Mom's answers here, because they're worth reading!
____________________
Mom's Answers for Lesson #3 Quiz.
1) You're questing and you find an item that has its name in grey letters. Do you:
a) Leave it
b) Take it and sell to a vendor Name in Grey - Vendor Junk, maybe a vendor would buy it for a little amount?
c) Use it
d) Give it away to another player -- maybe they can use it
2) You've just finished a long quest and the questgiver offers you the choice of two items as a reward. One of the items is a staff, and the other item is a wand. Do you:
a) Punch the questgiver in the nose because you can't use either one Don't know how to punch!
b) Take the prettiest item and keep it until you can figure out how to use it
c) Take the wand and sell it to a vendor
d) Take the staff and sell it to a vendor Take the staff, it is likely more valuable, if it were a sword it likely would get more money.
3) Your backpack is full and you haven't equipped the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you. Do you:
a) Start dumping items out of your backpack at random
b) Sell all the items in your backpack to a vendor, every single one, so there's lots of room
c) Sell only the items written in grey letters to a vendor Sell all gray items to the vendor. And try to find out how to get out of the Inn so you can get the Netherweave Bags my daughter sent me.
d) Buy a new satchel from a vendor standing in the inn
4) You remember that the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you are sitting in a mailbox. You:
a) Walk around the inn until you see an NPC dwarf with a "Postman" label
b) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a big brown and grey box Try to find the doorway out of the Inn, which no doubt is hiding under a table, and if successful, go out of the Inn to the Big Brown and Grey Box, that says mail. First however we must find our way out of the Inn.
c) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a small blue and green box
d) Walk outside the inn, go down the road and ask a Trade Vendor, then trade him a grey item to get your mail
5) You aren't sure whether to use an item and when you right-click, a box comes up informing you the item will be soulbound. Do you:
a) Think about it some more before you click Accept, because after that you're stuck with it Yes except your bags.
b) Click Accept because if it doesn't work out you can always sell it later
c) Find a character who's playing a Warlock and ask him for a Soulstone, so you can bind it to the item
d) Click Accept and sign the accompanying in-game document promising to sell your soul
6) A "blue item" means:
a) The item is coloured blue, and therefore rare No
b) The item's name is in blue letters, and therefore common No
c) The item's name is in blue letters, and therefore rare Yes and since I am a lowly level 5 I likely will not see this
d) The item is coloured blue, and therefore junk No
7) You are selling a lot of stuff to a vendor, and by mistake you sell an item you want to keep. Do you:
a) Cry. Yes
b) Challenge the vendor to a duel -- winner gets the item. No
c) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item for the same amount you sold it for Do this
d) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item, but you have to pay more for it because the vendor is a cheat. No Buy it back for the extra, because poor Vendor he has to make money as well.
8) You have a lot of items in your bag that you want to sell to make some money. You:
a) Sell all the items to one vendor Find a vendor any vendor and sell to him.
b) Sell the food to the food vendor, the armour to the armour vendor, etc. We have enough trouble finding a vendor, please do not have to go to a lot of vendors, just one.
c) Set up an Auction House by right-clicking on the Trade Vendor and selling the items to other players
d) Yell out to the entire zone that you have a lot of fantastic grey items for sale. First come, first served!
c) The item's name is in blue letters, and therefore rare Yes and since I am a lowly level 5 I likely will not see this
d) The item is coloured blue, and therefore junk No
7) You are selling a lot of stuff to a vendor, and by mistake you sell an item you want to keep. Do you:
a) Cry. Yes
b) Challenge the vendor to a duel -- winner gets the item. No
c) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item for the same amount you sold it for Do this
d) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item, but you have to pay more for it because the vendor is a cheat. No Buy it back for the extra, because poor Vendor he has to make money as well.
8) You have a lot of items in your bag that you want to sell to make some money. You:
a) Sell all the items to one vendor Find a vendor any vendor and sell to him.
b) Sell the food to the food vendor, the armour to the armour vendor, etc. We have enough trouble finding a vendor, please do not have to go to a lot of vendors, just one.
c) Set up an Auction House by right-clicking on the Trade Vendor and selling the items to other players
d) Yell out to the entire zone that you have a lot of fantastic grey items for sale. First come, first served!
I like this one, I know it is wrong but I like it. How do I make Jolynne yell?
Thanks I need good luck!
Mom
Thanks I need good luck!
Mom
Testing... testing...
I figured since there was so much important content in the last lesson, I should make sure Mom understood it. So I decided to give her a little quiz. Open-book of course.
_________________________
Quiz for Lesson #3.
1) You're questing and you find an item that has its name in grey letters. Do you:
a) Leave it
b) Take it and sell to a vendor
c) Use it
d) Give it away to another player -- maybe they can use it
2) You've just finished a long quest and the questgiver offers you the choice of two items as a reward. One of the items is a staff, and the other item is a wand. Do you:
a) Punch the questgiver in the nose because you can't use either one
b) Take the prettiest item and keep it until you can figure out how to use it
c) Take the wand and sell it to a vendor
d) Take the staff and sell it to a vendor
3) Your backpack is full and you haven't equipped the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you. Do you:
a) Start dumping items out of your backpack at random
b) Sell all the items in your backpack to a vendor, every single one, so there's lots of room
c) Sell only the items written in grey letters to a vendor
d) Buy a new satchel from a vendor standing in the inn
4) You remember that the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you are sitting in a mailbox. You:
a) Walk around the inn until you see an NPC dwarf with a "Postman" label
b) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a big brown and grey box
c) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a small blue and green box
d) Walk outside the inn, go down the road and ask a Trade Vendor, then trade him a grey item to get your mail
5) You aren't sure whether to use an item and when you right-click, a box comes up informing you the item will be soulbound. Do you:
a) Think about it some more before you click Accept, because after that you're stuck with it
b) Click Accept because if it doesn't work out you can always sell it later
c) Find a character who's playing a Warlock and ask him for a Soulstone, so you can bind it to the item
d) Click Accept and sign the accompanying in-game document promising to sell your soul
6) A "blue item" means:
a) The item is coloured blue, and therefore rare
b) The item's name is in blue letters, and therefore common
c) The item's name is in blue letters, and therefore rare
d) The item is coloured blue, and therefore junk
7) You are selling a lot of stuff to a vendor, and by mistake you sell an item you want to keep. Do you:
a) Cry.
b) Challenge the vendor to a duel -- winner gets the item.
c) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item for the same amount you sold it for
d) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item, but you have to pay more for it because the vendor is a cheat.
8) You have a lot of items in your bag that you want to sell to make some money. You:
a) Sell all the items to one vendor
b) Sell the food to the food vendor, the armour to the armour vendor, etc.
c) Set up an Auction House by right-clicking on the Trade Vendor and selling the items to other players
d) Yell out to the entire zone that you have a lot of fantastic grey items for sale. First come, first served!
Good luck, Mom!
_________________________
Quiz for Lesson #3.
1) You're questing and you find an item that has its name in grey letters. Do you:
a) Leave it
b) Take it and sell to a vendor
c) Use it
d) Give it away to another player -- maybe they can use it
2) You've just finished a long quest and the questgiver offers you the choice of two items as a reward. One of the items is a staff, and the other item is a wand. Do you:
a) Punch the questgiver in the nose because you can't use either one
b) Take the prettiest item and keep it until you can figure out how to use it
c) Take the wand and sell it to a vendor
d) Take the staff and sell it to a vendor
3) Your backpack is full and you haven't equipped the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you. Do you:
a) Start dumping items out of your backpack at random
b) Sell all the items in your backpack to a vendor, every single one, so there's lots of room
c) Sell only the items written in grey letters to a vendor
d) Buy a new satchel from a vendor standing in the inn
4) You remember that the nice Netherweave Bags your daughter sent you are sitting in a mailbox. You:
a) Walk around the inn until you see an NPC dwarf with a "Postman" label
b) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a big brown and grey box
c) Walk outside the inn and right-click on a small blue and green box
d) Walk outside the inn, go down the road and ask a Trade Vendor, then trade him a grey item to get your mail
5) You aren't sure whether to use an item and when you right-click, a box comes up informing you the item will be soulbound. Do you:
a) Think about it some more before you click Accept, because after that you're stuck with it
b) Click Accept because if it doesn't work out you can always sell it later
c) Find a character who's playing a Warlock and ask him for a Soulstone, so you can bind it to the item
d) Click Accept and sign the accompanying in-game document promising to sell your soul
6) A "blue item" means:
a) The item is coloured blue, and therefore rare
b) The item's name is in blue letters, and therefore common
c) The item's name is in blue letters, and therefore rare
d) The item is coloured blue, and therefore junk
7) You are selling a lot of stuff to a vendor, and by mistake you sell an item you want to keep. Do you:
a) Cry.
b) Challenge the vendor to a duel -- winner gets the item.
c) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item for the same amount you sold it for
d) Find the tab marked Buyback and get the item, but you have to pay more for it because the vendor is a cheat.
8) You have a lot of items in your bag that you want to sell to make some money. You:
a) Sell all the items to one vendor
b) Sell the food to the food vendor, the armour to the armour vendor, etc.
c) Set up an Auction House by right-clicking on the Trade Vendor and selling the items to other players
d) Yell out to the entire zone that you have a lot of fantastic grey items for sale. First come, first served!
Good luck, Mom!
Lesson #3: Trash to Treasure
Hi Mom! You asked about how to prevent Jolynne going broke, so I decided to tailor this next lesson to answering your question.
Making money on Warcraft can be a whole mini-game in itself. I studied it for months (literally) so that I wouldn't be broke all the time, have enough to gear myself up decently, work the Auction House and have enough left over to lend to guildmates and friends. I finally achieved that and now I don't have money problems in-game. But I don't expect you to go through all that -- besides, there's no need at your level.
The first and best thing you can do for yourself is learn to buy and sell, and then sell everything you don't need. Vendors are the first step to not being broke. Get the biggest bags you can afford so you can fill them up when you quest, then sell everything you don't need to the vendors. Any vendor will buy anything from you. You don't have to go to the food vendor to sell food, or to the armour vendor to sell armour, or anything like that.
In lieu of this I've already sent you four Netherweave Bags in the mail. They have 16 slots each, so that's 4 x 16 spaces for you to use. Jolynne will be able to pick them up at the mailbox, which is located just outside the door of the inn. The mailbox looks like a big brown and grey...er...box, with a metal block on top. You see it as you're coming down the outside steps of the inn. Right-click it to retrieve your mail, and then click on the individual items to transfer them into your backpack. You'll have to make sure that you have enough spaces in your backpack, which brings me to my next point.
Keep your bags as empty as possible at all times (which usually means making sure you sell junk you don't need to a vendor as often as possible). Nothing is worse than questing and being unable to get something in your bag because of all the other stuff crammed in there. A good rule of thumb is, when you've completed a series of quests, head back to the inn and empty your bags at the same time as you buy more food. Also, get in the habit of emptying out your bags just before you log out. That way you always have lots of space. Remember: Any vendor will buy anything you want to sell.
Items are colour-coded in order of usefulness. Grey items are junk, period -- they do nothing for you. They're also called "vendor trash" because the only thing they're good for in most cases is to sell to a vendor so you can make a little money. You will collect many grey items as you do quests, and right now that's going to be your main source of income. (Well, besides the extra spending money I'll send you, that is -- which will also be in the mail.)
You can tell if something is a grey item because the name of it will be written in grey. The item itself probably won't be, but the name of it will be in grey letters.
White items can be useful. Notice the word "can". You have to decide if you want to use it or not. If not, sell it to a vendor. Be careful though, as some quest items are white. Like the greys, white items just have their names in white. Most quest items cannot be sold anyway, but some can. More on that later.
Right now, the majority of the items that you find during questing will be grey or white.
Green items are usually good IF you can use them. This is especially true for armor and weapons. As a hunter, you are restricted to only being able to wear cloth and leather gear. Anything that's mail or plate you will not be able to equip, so if you get those, sell them to a vendor. Green items have their names written in bright green. The Netherweave bags I sent you have their names in green. When you go to use them (i.e. right-click on them), you will get a window saying something like "This item will become soulbound. Continue?" Then Accept/Decline.
Soulbound means you can use that item or put it on your character, but when you stop using it you will not be able to sell it. All you can do is replace it. So be careful before you accept a green or higher-level item. You can accept my bags though. ;-)
Sometimes players will pay more than vendors for green items, but not at your level. You don't start making money selling greens to players until you're around level 15 or so. You probably won't see green items through questing for another few levels.
Blue items (name of item written in blue) you won't see for quite awhile yet because they are rare and level-restricted, but if you do, they are very good and are also usually worth a lot of money. These are also soulbound if used. You want to sell these to players rather than vendors, as players will usually offer more money for them. If you get a blue item, let me know and I'll sell it for you.
Purple items you definitely won't see (unless they're on another player), but they are the best items in the entire game and are worth tons of money. For this reason, they are also called "epics". They also become soulbound once used.
Don't ever sell unused blue items or purples to a vendor unless you have no other choice! You want to sell those on the Auction House, because other players will pay premium prices for them, sometimes thousands of gold for one piece of armour. So just let me know if you get any and I'll take care of the transaction for you, since learning the Auction House can be confusing and intimidating for a new player.
So to recap:
Name in Grey = Vendor Junk.
Name in White = Common. Possibly useful. Worth a small amount to either vendors or (maybe) other players.
Name in Green = Unusual. Likely useful. Worth more money to vendors and players. Becomes soulbound (unsellable) if used by a player.
Name in Blue = Rare. Very useful. Worth so much money you do NOT want to sell to a vendor, because players will buy it for more. Becomes soulbound if used.
Name in Purple = Epic. Best items in the game. Never sell to a vendor as players will bankrupt themselves to buy it. Becomes soulbound if used.
Items are usually worth more depending on type. Plate and mail items are worth more than leather or cloth. Swords, staves and maces are worth more than daggers or wands. If you keep this rough guide in mind, then you can exploit questgiver rewards to line your pocketbook faster. Example:
Say you've finished a tough quest and the questgiver offers you a reward of either a sword or a wand. You can't use either of them, but you have to pick one to finish the quest. The smart thing to do is take the sword, because you can then run back to your friendly vendor and sell it for more money than if you chose the wand.
Another trick is to take your mouse and hover over the item. If you look carefully, a little window will pop up that tells you the item's worth in coins. You look for the line that says something like "Sell: 1s 33c" (which means it's worth one silver and 33 copper if you sell it to a vendor). So if you don't know which is the more expensive item, hover over them and it'll tell you. Then just pick the one with the highest sell price.
Finally, if you make a mistake and sell something you didn't intend to, don't panic! If you look at the bottom of the vendor's big window that has all his items, there's a tab marked Buyback. Click that tab and another window opens that shows you the last few items you sold to a vendor. (That's all the items you sold to any vendor, not just the one you're standing in front of.) Right-click the item you didn't mean to sell, and you can buy it back from the vendor at the same price you sold it.
I know that was a lot of info, but save it and refer back to it when needed. Pretty soon this will be all automatic, honest!
Now I'll go online and send you a little spending money, to make up for making you buy all that stuff in the last lesson.
Making money on Warcraft can be a whole mini-game in itself. I studied it for months (literally) so that I wouldn't be broke all the time, have enough to gear myself up decently, work the Auction House and have enough left over to lend to guildmates and friends. I finally achieved that and now I don't have money problems in-game. But I don't expect you to go through all that -- besides, there's no need at your level.
The first and best thing you can do for yourself is learn to buy and sell, and then sell everything you don't need. Vendors are the first step to not being broke. Get the biggest bags you can afford so you can fill them up when you quest, then sell everything you don't need to the vendors. Any vendor will buy anything from you. You don't have to go to the food vendor to sell food, or to the armour vendor to sell armour, or anything like that.
In lieu of this I've already sent you four Netherweave Bags in the mail. They have 16 slots each, so that's 4 x 16 spaces for you to use. Jolynne will be able to pick them up at the mailbox, which is located just outside the door of the inn. The mailbox looks like a big brown and grey...er...box, with a metal block on top. You see it as you're coming down the outside steps of the inn. Right-click it to retrieve your mail, and then click on the individual items to transfer them into your backpack. You'll have to make sure that you have enough spaces in your backpack, which brings me to my next point.
Keep your bags as empty as possible at all times (which usually means making sure you sell junk you don't need to a vendor as often as possible). Nothing is worse than questing and being unable to get something in your bag because of all the other stuff crammed in there. A good rule of thumb is, when you've completed a series of quests, head back to the inn and empty your bags at the same time as you buy more food. Also, get in the habit of emptying out your bags just before you log out. That way you always have lots of space. Remember: Any vendor will buy anything you want to sell.
Items are colour-coded in order of usefulness. Grey items are junk, period -- they do nothing for you. They're also called "vendor trash" because the only thing they're good for in most cases is to sell to a vendor so you can make a little money. You will collect many grey items as you do quests, and right now that's going to be your main source of income. (Well, besides the extra spending money I'll send you, that is -- which will also be in the mail.)
You can tell if something is a grey item because the name of it will be written in grey. The item itself probably won't be, but the name of it will be in grey letters.
White items can be useful. Notice the word "can". You have to decide if you want to use it or not. If not, sell it to a vendor. Be careful though, as some quest items are white. Like the greys, white items just have their names in white. Most quest items cannot be sold anyway, but some can. More on that later.
Right now, the majority of the items that you find during questing will be grey or white.
Green items are usually good IF you can use them. This is especially true for armor and weapons. As a hunter, you are restricted to only being able to wear cloth and leather gear. Anything that's mail or plate you will not be able to equip, so if you get those, sell them to a vendor. Green items have their names written in bright green. The Netherweave bags I sent you have their names in green. When you go to use them (i.e. right-click on them), you will get a window saying something like "This item will become soulbound. Continue?" Then Accept/Decline.
Soulbound means you can use that item or put it on your character, but when you stop using it you will not be able to sell it. All you can do is replace it. So be careful before you accept a green or higher-level item. You can accept my bags though. ;-)
Sometimes players will pay more than vendors for green items, but not at your level. You don't start making money selling greens to players until you're around level 15 or so. You probably won't see green items through questing for another few levels.
Blue items (name of item written in blue) you won't see for quite awhile yet because they are rare and level-restricted, but if you do, they are very good and are also usually worth a lot of money. These are also soulbound if used. You want to sell these to players rather than vendors, as players will usually offer more money for them. If you get a blue item, let me know and I'll sell it for you.
Purple items you definitely won't see (unless they're on another player), but they are the best items in the entire game and are worth tons of money. For this reason, they are also called "epics". They also become soulbound once used.
Don't ever sell unused blue items or purples to a vendor unless you have no other choice! You want to sell those on the Auction House, because other players will pay premium prices for them, sometimes thousands of gold for one piece of armour. So just let me know if you get any and I'll take care of the transaction for you, since learning the Auction House can be confusing and intimidating for a new player.
So to recap:
Name in Grey = Vendor Junk.
Name in White = Common. Possibly useful. Worth a small amount to either vendors or (maybe) other players.
Name in Green = Unusual. Likely useful. Worth more money to vendors and players. Becomes soulbound (unsellable) if used by a player.
Name in Blue = Rare. Very useful. Worth so much money you do NOT want to sell to a vendor, because players will buy it for more. Becomes soulbound if used.
Name in Purple = Epic. Best items in the game. Never sell to a vendor as players will bankrupt themselves to buy it. Becomes soulbound if used.
Items are usually worth more depending on type. Plate and mail items are worth more than leather or cloth. Swords, staves and maces are worth more than daggers or wands. If you keep this rough guide in mind, then you can exploit questgiver rewards to line your pocketbook faster. Example:
Say you've finished a tough quest and the questgiver offers you a reward of either a sword or a wand. You can't use either of them, but you have to pick one to finish the quest. The smart thing to do is take the sword, because you can then run back to your friendly vendor and sell it for more money than if you chose the wand.
Another trick is to take your mouse and hover over the item. If you look carefully, a little window will pop up that tells you the item's worth in coins. You look for the line that says something like "Sell: 1s 33c" (which means it's worth one silver and 33 copper if you sell it to a vendor). So if you don't know which is the more expensive item, hover over them and it'll tell you. Then just pick the one with the highest sell price.
Finally, if you make a mistake and sell something you didn't intend to, don't panic! If you look at the bottom of the vendor's big window that has all his items, there's a tab marked Buyback. Click that tab and another window opens that shows you the last few items you sold to a vendor. (That's all the items you sold to any vendor, not just the one you're standing in front of.) Right-click the item you didn't mean to sell, and you can buy it back from the vendor at the same price you sold it.
I know that was a lot of info, but save it and refer back to it when needed. Pretty soon this will be all automatic, honest!
Now I'll go online and send you a little spending money, to make up for making you buy all that stuff in the last lesson.
At Least a B, Maybe a B-plus
Mom is definitely increasing her knowledge base (in other words, she's learning stuff). She didn't quite complete her homework assignment, as the Cooking Trainer and the quest NPC are eluding her. But she did figure out how to buy and sell to vendors, which is a big step!
She went a little overboard purchasing bread and water, though, as she forgot that both come in sets of 5 each. So instead of buying 5 bread she wound up with 25. Easy mistake to make, but she nearly bankrupted her character. At least Jolynne won't be going hungry anytime soon!
I've tailored the next lesson to further explain the intricacies of buying and selling, and also give her a little quiz. I want to make sure that she understands it all pretty thoroughly, so that Jolynne won't run around with a full backpack and an empty wallet. Good luck Mom!
She went a little overboard purchasing bread and water, though, as she forgot that both come in sets of 5 each. So instead of buying 5 bread she wound up with 25. Easy mistake to make, but she nearly bankrupted her character. At least Jolynne won't be going hungry anytime soon!
I've tailored the next lesson to further explain the intricacies of buying and selling, and also give her a little quiz. I want to make sure that she understands it all pretty thoroughly, so that Jolynne won't run around with a full backpack and an empty wallet. Good luck Mom!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Someone Hire a Bodyguard?
I decided tonight to raise my paladin to level 10. Mom's hunter character Jolynne is currently at level 5, so this ensures that my pally can provide lots of muscle and useful buffs for her. Also this is a good way to remind me what the next few quests are, so we can tackle them fairly quickly when we get around to grouping up.
Mom hasn't been able to play for the past couple of days, but she's planning to do so soon.
Mom hasn't been able to play for the past couple of days, but she's planning to do so soon.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Lesson #2: Show Me The Money
Next lesson for Mom -- all about vendors, and (oh noes!) homework!
______________________
Hi Mom! So now you've been introduced to your Hearthstone and know to keep it always accessible in your bag. You also know how to set your Hearthstone to any new inn, and to basically take very good care of it because it even might save your character's life!
So now we move on to Vendors.
Vendors are NPC's (Non-Player Characters) who want to sell you stuff. We like them because if we didn't have food, water, and useful items, then this game would be a lot harder! Occasionally vendors also sell you stuff you need for quests. So get to know your local vendors!
The best way to learn about vendors is to interact with them. So this lesson has some homework attached.
Right now Jolynne should be in Thunderbrew Distillery Inn, because you were a good mother and set your Hearthstone there before you logged out. So what I want you to do is wander around and interact with the vendors at the inn.
For your homework:
Find the Innkeeper. Right-click on him. After some standard greeting text, he will give you the following options:
-Make this Inn your home.
-Let me browse your goods. (You're saying that to him. He's not getting fresh. It's okay.)
-What can I do at an inn?
Click the second option (Let me browse your goods). This brings up a table with a list of stuff you can buy and at what prices. To buy something, right-click on the item you want. That puts it in your bag and automatically subtracts the cost from your available coins.
Don't know how much money you're carrying? Just open your bag and look at the very bottom. You will see some numbers beside a silver-grey dot and a brown dot. The silver dot stands for silver coins, and the number in front of it tells you how much silver you have. The number in front of the brown dot tells you how much copper (pennies) you have. Later on you will get gold coins, represented by a yellow dot. If you can't find a silver dot, it means you have no silver yet. (100 copper is equal to 1 silver, and 100 silver is equal to 1 gold. The game automatically "trades up" for you, so if you get your 100th copper coin then it simply exchanges it for 1 silver coin right in your bag.)
All the items listed by the Innkeeper have a similar set-up to tell you how much any item is. For example:
The innkeeper has something for sale called Rhapsody Malt. This is a fancy name for a type of beer (dwarves all love their beer!). The price is 48 copper for one mug. Below that is a waterskin of Refreshing Spring Water. The price for that is 24 copper for FIVE waterskins. You can tell it's for five because there is the numeral 5 right on the waterskin in the picture. So now you know that if you want to quench your thirst, water costs a whole lot less than Rhapsody Malt!
The drinks are at the top of the list, food is at the bottom. Right-click on any item to buy it. In general, food restores your hit points (health) when you eat it, and drinks restore your mana (the ability to do magic or, in Jolynne's case, aim her gun and do some fancy fighting moves). Run out of health and you die, run out of mana and you can't fight. So you want to keep them topped up. They are represented by the green health bar and the blue mana bar beside your character's portrait. If the whole bar is green or blue, then you are topped up.
Any item in RED you CANNOT buy yet. These items scale by level, or in some cases, by abilities. For instance, you would not be able to buy a sword because you have not yet learned how to use one.
Sometimes different vendors sell some of the same stuff. This is just for convenience.
Homework:
Please log on to Jolynne and do the following:
1) Check your bags. Tell me how much coin you are carrying.
2) Buy at least 5 of Refreshing Spring Water from the Innkeeper.
3) Buy at least 5 of Tough Hunk of Bread from the Innkeeper.
4) Click the option "What can I do at an inn?" and read it. It's mostly what I said but it's good for review.
5) Find the General Supplies vendor (also at the inn). Tell me the FIRST item he has for sale on his list.
6) From the same vendor, buy a stack of 200 Light Shot (these are bullets for your gun).
7) Also in the same inn, find the Cooking Trainer. Tell me where he is.
Bonus Question: What is the NPC named Jarven Thunderbrew holding in his hand? He is not a vendor but he will show up in a quest later on. (HINT: There is a basement in the inn, accessible by a set of stairs behind a large table.)
Good luck Mom! :)
______________________
Hi Mom! So now you've been introduced to your Hearthstone and know to keep it always accessible in your bag. You also know how to set your Hearthstone to any new inn, and to basically take very good care of it because it even might save your character's life!
So now we move on to Vendors.
Vendors are NPC's (Non-Player Characters) who want to sell you stuff. We like them because if we didn't have food, water, and useful items, then this game would be a lot harder! Occasionally vendors also sell you stuff you need for quests. So get to know your local vendors!
The best way to learn about vendors is to interact with them. So this lesson has some homework attached.
Right now Jolynne should be in Thunderbrew Distillery Inn, because you were a good mother and set your Hearthstone there before you logged out. So what I want you to do is wander around and interact with the vendors at the inn.
For your homework:
Find the Innkeeper. Right-click on him. After some standard greeting text, he will give you the following options:
-Make this Inn your home.
-Let me browse your goods. (You're saying that to him. He's not getting fresh. It's okay.)
-What can I do at an inn?
Click the second option (Let me browse your goods). This brings up a table with a list of stuff you can buy and at what prices. To buy something, right-click on the item you want. That puts it in your bag and automatically subtracts the cost from your available coins.
Don't know how much money you're carrying? Just open your bag and look at the very bottom. You will see some numbers beside a silver-grey dot and a brown dot. The silver dot stands for silver coins, and the number in front of it tells you how much silver you have. The number in front of the brown dot tells you how much copper (pennies) you have. Later on you will get gold coins, represented by a yellow dot. If you can't find a silver dot, it means you have no silver yet. (100 copper is equal to 1 silver, and 100 silver is equal to 1 gold. The game automatically "trades up" for you, so if you get your 100th copper coin then it simply exchanges it for 1 silver coin right in your bag.)
All the items listed by the Innkeeper have a similar set-up to tell you how much any item is. For example:
The innkeeper has something for sale called Rhapsody Malt. This is a fancy name for a type of beer (dwarves all love their beer!). The price is 48 copper for one mug. Below that is a waterskin of Refreshing Spring Water. The price for that is 24 copper for FIVE waterskins. You can tell it's for five because there is the numeral 5 right on the waterskin in the picture. So now you know that if you want to quench your thirst, water costs a whole lot less than Rhapsody Malt!
The drinks are at the top of the list, food is at the bottom. Right-click on any item to buy it. In general, food restores your hit points (health) when you eat it, and drinks restore your mana (the ability to do magic or, in Jolynne's case, aim her gun and do some fancy fighting moves). Run out of health and you die, run out of mana and you can't fight. So you want to keep them topped up. They are represented by the green health bar and the blue mana bar beside your character's portrait. If the whole bar is green or blue, then you are topped up.
Any item in RED you CANNOT buy yet. These items scale by level, or in some cases, by abilities. For instance, you would not be able to buy a sword because you have not yet learned how to use one.
Sometimes different vendors sell some of the same stuff. This is just for convenience.
Homework:
Please log on to Jolynne and do the following:
1) Check your bags. Tell me how much coin you are carrying.
2) Buy at least 5 of Refreshing Spring Water from the Innkeeper.
3) Buy at least 5 of Tough Hunk of Bread from the Innkeeper.
4) Click the option "What can I do at an inn?" and read it. It's mostly what I said but it's good for review.
5) Find the General Supplies vendor (also at the inn). Tell me the FIRST item he has for sale on his list.
6) From the same vendor, buy a stack of 200 Light Shot (these are bullets for your gun).
7) Also in the same inn, find the Cooking Trainer. Tell me where he is.
Bonus Question: What is the NPC named Jarven Thunderbrew holding in his hand? He is not a vendor but he will show up in a quest later on. (HINT: There is a basement in the inn, accessible by a set of stairs behind a large table.)
Good luck Mom! :)
Lesson #1: Safe As Houses... er, Inns
For posterity's sake, I'll be posting Mom's lessons here as well as sending them to her over email. These posts I'll tag "Lessons" to make them easier to find.
The first and second lessons were written after she got lost in Dun Morogh.
_____________________
Okay Mom, congrats! You have successfully set your Hearthstone (the big white round rock in your bag) to instantly zap you back to that inn from wherever you are. This is incredibly handy for when you get lost.
I want to explain about hearthstones, inns, and how they work. So bear with me.
Inns:
Inns are, well, inns. They are safe places for your character to log in and out of, so you don't have to worry about logging Jolynne out in the middle of the woods, then getting attacked by a wandering monster when you log back in. Very handy.
Always remember, when reaching a new inn in a new zone, to find the innkeeper and set your hearthstone. You do this by:
1) Right-clicking the innkeeper.
2) Choosing "Make this inn your home."
If you forget to do this while in a new area, and you click your hearthstone, it will take you to the LAST inn you were at. This is usually a bad thing since you might be far away from where you want to be. So always, ALWAYS remember to set your hearthstone at EVERY new inn.
Now that you have set your hearthstone to this one (Thunderbrew Distillery in the town of Kharanos), it will remain set until you change it at a new inn. If you aren't sure what inn you'll be taken to, then hover over your Hearthstone with your mouse and it will tell you.
Inns also give you rest. Rest is a term in the game which means that your character is not only safe, but also storing up energy. When you log back on to Jolynne after you have rested, you will be earning double the experience points when you kill stuff. This means you will level up faster! So because of this, you always want to end your sessions by going back to an inn and logging out there.
These are the steps you take when you want to log out:
1) Find a relatively safe spot.
2) Look in your bag to find your Hearthstone.
3) Right-click your Hearthstone. Always keep it in your bag where it is easily accessible.
4) The Hearthstone will zap you back to the inn you last set it at. Zapping you back is not quite instant. It will take a few seconds, and during that time Jolynne's hands will glow green.
5) If you move, or if something attacks you during the process, then the Hearthstone will instantly turn off and you won't go anywhere. So before you use your Hearthstone, make sure you are not being attacked and that you can stand still while the hearthstone is working.
6) Zap back to the Inn.
7) Hit the ESC key on your keyboard. That will bring up the Options menu.
8) Hit Logout near the bottom to logout. (Exit Game also works.)
When you get more familiar with it, you can even use your Hearthstone as an "OH SHIT!" button. For example, say you wander around and get lost, and find yourself very close to some big, nasty-looking creatures who want to eat your head. Fortunately the creatures haven't noticed you yet, but they might shortly. You have no earthly clue where you are and you don't want to move in case those big bad creatures see you.
Aha, but you have your Hearthstone! Look in your bag, give it a click, wait a few seconds and ZAP! You're back home safely, in one piece.
Once you use your Hearthstone, you can't use it again for 30 minutes. Your Hearthstone will appear grey once it's used, and will slowly become white again over the 30 minutes. This is called a "cooldown". Many things in Warcraft, once used, have to go through a cooldown before they can be used again. So remember this when you want to use your Hearthstone -- you won't be able to use it again for half an hour.
The cooldown will pass whether you're logged in or not. So if you use your Hearthstone and log out, then wait an hour and log back in, the cooldown will have finished and you can use it again.
If you lose your Hearthstone (which by the way is pretty hard to do), you can always get a new one at any innkeeper. Just right-click the Innkeeper at any inn, choose "Make this inn your home", and voila! A brand-new Hearthstone will appear in your bag.
Very, very handy. :)
The first and second lessons were written after she got lost in Dun Morogh.
_____________________
Okay Mom, congrats! You have successfully set your Hearthstone (the big white round rock in your bag) to instantly zap you back to that inn from wherever you are. This is incredibly handy for when you get lost.
I want to explain about hearthstones, inns, and how they work. So bear with me.
Inns:
Inns are, well, inns. They are safe places for your character to log in and out of, so you don't have to worry about logging Jolynne out in the middle of the woods, then getting attacked by a wandering monster when you log back in. Very handy.
Always remember, when reaching a new inn in a new zone, to find the innkeeper and set your hearthstone. You do this by:
1) Right-clicking the innkeeper.
2) Choosing "Make this inn your home."
If you forget to do this while in a new area, and you click your hearthstone, it will take you to the LAST inn you were at. This is usually a bad thing since you might be far away from where you want to be. So always, ALWAYS remember to set your hearthstone at EVERY new inn.
Now that you have set your hearthstone to this one (Thunderbrew Distillery in the town of Kharanos), it will remain set until you change it at a new inn. If you aren't sure what inn you'll be taken to, then hover over your Hearthstone with your mouse and it will tell you.
Inns also give you rest. Rest is a term in the game which means that your character is not only safe, but also storing up energy. When you log back on to Jolynne after you have rested, you will be earning double the experience points when you kill stuff. This means you will level up faster! So because of this, you always want to end your sessions by going back to an inn and logging out there.
These are the steps you take when you want to log out:
1) Find a relatively safe spot.
2) Look in your bag to find your Hearthstone.
3) Right-click your Hearthstone. Always keep it in your bag where it is easily accessible.
4) The Hearthstone will zap you back to the inn you last set it at. Zapping you back is not quite instant. It will take a few seconds, and during that time Jolynne's hands will glow green.
5) If you move, or if something attacks you during the process, then the Hearthstone will instantly turn off and you won't go anywhere. So before you use your Hearthstone, make sure you are not being attacked and that you can stand still while the hearthstone is working.
6) Zap back to the Inn.
7) Hit the ESC key on your keyboard. That will bring up the Options menu.
8) Hit Logout near the bottom to logout. (Exit Game also works.)
When you get more familiar with it, you can even use your Hearthstone as an "OH SHIT!" button. For example, say you wander around and get lost, and find yourself very close to some big, nasty-looking creatures who want to eat your head. Fortunately the creatures haven't noticed you yet, but they might shortly. You have no earthly clue where you are and you don't want to move in case those big bad creatures see you.
Aha, but you have your Hearthstone! Look in your bag, give it a click, wait a few seconds and ZAP! You're back home safely, in one piece.
Once you use your Hearthstone, you can't use it again for 30 minutes. Your Hearthstone will appear grey once it's used, and will slowly become white again over the 30 minutes. This is called a "cooldown". Many things in Warcraft, once used, have to go through a cooldown before they can be used again. So remember this when you want to use your Hearthstone -- you won't be able to use it again for half an hour.
The cooldown will pass whether you're logged in or not. So if you use your Hearthstone and log out, then wait an hour and log back in, the cooldown will have finished and you can use it again.
If you lose your Hearthstone (which by the way is pretty hard to do), you can always get a new one at any innkeeper. Just right-click the Innkeeper at any inn, choose "Make this inn your home", and voila! A brand-new Hearthstone will appear in your bag.
Very, very handy. :)
Mom the Explorer.
Mom and I have been having some trouble "meeting" in game recently, so she's been doing some solo questing and general running around. Her learning curve is steep, but she's interested and wants to keep going. Which is great!
Anyway, in a phone conversation she admitted to me that she had gotten Jolynne lost. "Whereabouts is she?" I asked. "Uh... some place with a guy in green and a fiery chimney," she replied. This didn't ring a bell (yeah okay, recognition fail, but I usually play Horde and I don't know the dwarf lands off the top of my head). So I asked her to log in, take a look around, and send me an email telling me the place name of her location, and any NPC names nearby. The plan was that I would look them up, locate her and tell her where to go next.
Today I got the email. Somehow, she'd managed to get herself from Coldridge Valley to Amberstill Ranch in Dun Morogh. Don't tell me how she did it -- I still don't know, but I'm kinda impressed with her exploration ability!
Fortunately she didn't run into any trouble on her epic journey, which was good, as I'm not sure she'd know how to resurrect from her corpse yet...
Seeing as she was way the heck out there, I logged onto another Alliance alt I'd made to help her quest. This one is only level 6 (so far) but she's a paladin, which is handy in case Mom needs heals. Also my baby pally can buff her and tank for her if needed.
I ran my pally out to Mom, explained how to put me on Follow, and led her back to the safety of Kharanos. On the way I explained about the friendly Mountaineer patrols, the safety of sticking to the road, and how to read a signpost. Yep, today was a big learning day!
I showed her the Thunderbrew Distillery Inn and explained how to set her hearthstone. She had to log out right away because she had to take a phone call and wasn't sure how long it would be, so I explained how to log out properly. Before this, she'd simply been closing WoW and leaving poor Jolynne out in the snow.
Based on this, I decided Mom needed to learn some basics that I might not have the opportunity to explain properly while we're busy on the game. So after getting her permission, I'll be writing her some lessons and sending them through email. Some will simply be explanations, others will have "homework" so that even if I'm not online, she can log in and familiarize herself with how the game works. I'll post these on the blog as well.
And with the hearthstone set, hopefully she won't get lost. Handy things, hearthstones!
By the way... the "guy in green" was a passing Mountaineer guard, and the "fiery chimney" was the light in a stone fence at the side of the road. Yeah, that wouldn't have helped much. ;)
Anyway, in a phone conversation she admitted to me that she had gotten Jolynne lost. "Whereabouts is she?" I asked. "Uh... some place with a guy in green and a fiery chimney," she replied. This didn't ring a bell (yeah okay, recognition fail, but I usually play Horde and I don't know the dwarf lands off the top of my head). So I asked her to log in, take a look around, and send me an email telling me the place name of her location, and any NPC names nearby. The plan was that I would look them up, locate her and tell her where to go next.
Today I got the email. Somehow, she'd managed to get herself from Coldridge Valley to Amberstill Ranch in Dun Morogh. Don't tell me how she did it -- I still don't know, but I'm kinda impressed with her exploration ability!
Fortunately she didn't run into any trouble on her epic journey, which was good, as I'm not sure she'd know how to resurrect from her corpse yet...
Seeing as she was way the heck out there, I logged onto another Alliance alt I'd made to help her quest. This one is only level 6 (so far) but she's a paladin, which is handy in case Mom needs heals. Also my baby pally can buff her and tank for her if needed.
I ran my pally out to Mom, explained how to put me on Follow, and led her back to the safety of Kharanos. On the way I explained about the friendly Mountaineer patrols, the safety of sticking to the road, and how to read a signpost. Yep, today was a big learning day!
I showed her the Thunderbrew Distillery Inn and explained how to set her hearthstone. She had to log out right away because she had to take a phone call and wasn't sure how long it would be, so I explained how to log out properly. Before this, she'd simply been closing WoW and leaving poor Jolynne out in the snow.
Based on this, I decided Mom needed to learn some basics that I might not have the opportunity to explain properly while we're busy on the game. So after getting her permission, I'll be writing her some lessons and sending them through email. Some will simply be explanations, others will have "homework" so that even if I'm not online, she can log in and familiarize herself with how the game works. I'll post these on the blog as well.
And with the hearthstone set, hopefully she won't get lost. Handy things, hearthstones!
By the way... the "guy in green" was a passing Mountaineer guard, and the "fiery chimney" was the light in a stone fence at the side of the road. Yeah, that wouldn't have helped much. ;)
Awesome Inquiries.
For convenience's sake, I'm going to list the unpredictable questions that Mom has asked me, the ones that are completely logical and show the differences in our gaming perspectives. I'll tag these posts "Questions".
Where'd your horse go when you got on that gryphon? You can't carry a horse with you.
Will Jolynne be all right? She's in the snow and her clothes aren't very warm. Won't she lose health?
This questgiver told me to get three items for him. I got one but he's not accepting it. Why not?
Does the innkeeper want me to give him money since I'm staying the night?
Where'd your horse go when you got on that gryphon? You can't carry a horse with you.
Will Jolynne be all right? She's in the snow and her clothes aren't very warm. Won't she lose health?
This questgiver told me to get three items for him. I got one but he's not accepting it. Why not?
Does the innkeeper want me to give him money since I'm staying the night?
Concepts & Perspectives.
My husband and I have played WoW for over two years. Both of us are fairly sophisticated and dedicated gamers (in fact, we originally "met" on a text-based MUD). It's hard for us to imagine what life would be like without some sort of computer game to play.
On the other hand, my Mom (before this experience) has never played anything more complex on the computer than Solitaire and those little games you can send through a single e-mail attachment. Teaching her World of Warcraft, then, is sort of like bringing Marie Curie in a time-machine and showing her the Large Hadron Collider. If nothing else, it showed us just how much we take for granted when we say that a game has an "easy learning curve".
First we showed Mom how to create her character. I had made some assumptions before this, and based on my mother's likes and dislikes, I thought she would prefer playing Alliance. (Besides, everyone always starts with Alliance before they discover the awesomeness of the Horde -- ahem.) I had created an Alliance alt beforehand, a level 40 human mage, to assist Mom in case she needed some heavy artillery. I expected Mom would decide to play a human, or possibly a night elf. Knowing some classes are more difficult to start with than others, I encouraged her to start with a paladin for the self-heals, or a druid for its versatility, or a hunter for the ranged ability and the fun pets.
Instead, Mom chose to play a dwarf. She also looked at the gnomes and pronounced them "really cute", but alas, gnomes cannot be druids, paladins or hunters. So a pretty, redheaded dwarf hunter was born. Mom wanted to name her after an old friend, and with a little tweaking we got a character name that was close enough to the original.
For the purposes of this blog, we'll refer to Mom's avatar as Jolynne.
One of the first things Mom had to tackle was movement. Now, every raider knows that the best (i.e. fastest and most responsive) way to move one's character is with the mouse. I considered this option for about half a minute before abandoning it. My mother has never even used the right-click mouse button before this, and I had visions of Jolynne flailing madly all over Azeroth, or her camera view lurching around like she was smoking really bad Bloodthistle.
So I taught her the basic ADSW configuration, a little about the strafe keys and pressing NumLock to keep going forward. Then I set her loose.
Her avatar, perhaps predictably, did some interesting gyrations before finally settling down into a forward-only motion. Mom learned to "steer" with some trouble as the landscape's changing elevations threw her a bit off-kilter. I pointed her toward her first questgiver, and she managed to approach the sturdy dwarf Sten Stoutarm without running through him and hitting the fence. Given her previous attempts to move around smoothly, this was an achievement.
She was a little worried about having to kill creatures to finish quests. "I'm a healer, not a fighter," she said. By this she didn't mean she wanted to play a priest -- she was referring to her real life career as a nurse.
I explained that she was going to do a lot of killing, so to get used to the idea. I also explained that many creatures were going to try to kill her, so in most cases it was self-defense to kill them first. I also explained nothing in the game stays dead for very long, including her avatar. It's not real dead, it's pretend dead -- so mortality is just a minor inconvenience. Mom laughed at this and I knew we were on our way.
After explaining how to accept the quest, I pointed Mom toward the area with her first victims -- Ragged Young Wolves. This produced a new set of challenges: explaining what ranged combat was, how to initiate combat and how to loot. Mom quickly found out what the right-click button on her mouse was for, at least in game.
I tried to boil it down to one simple rule. "Use left-click to target something, and right-click to interact with it." I explained that interacting included everything from killing a creature to using an item to talking with a questgiver. I made a mental note to explain what a "mob" and an "NPC" were in the near future, because I was so used to those terms that I would slip into saying them without thinking, which understandably produced a look of confusion on Mom's part.
Mom did very well for a beginner, but we had to stop because her back was starting to bother her. (She has lower back problems that flare up occasionally.) After she logged off, I took a minute to introduce her to my level 40 human mage that I'd so lovingly leveled up to help her. As she watched my screen, I showed her my mage's horse mount and demonstrated how to fly on a gryphon from a flight point in Southshore.
As I was flying over the ocean, Mom startled me with her first unpredictable question: "But you were just on a horse! Where did the horse go? Your horse wouldn't fit on that gryphon."
She was perfectly logical. A horse wouldn't fit on a gryphon! It took me completely by surprise. Being so used to computer games, I had never even thought of the impossibility before she said it. It demonstrated the wide gulf between our knowledge sets. I had come to Warcraft with certain expectations and concepts already in place from previous gaming -- Mom was coming at this as a blank slate. I laughed at my own surprise. It took me a few minutes to come up with an answer she could understand -- because really, the concept is fundamentally nonsensical.
I know I'm going to love these questions from Mom, and I intend to tag them separately so we can keep track of them. I hope to hear a lot more of them, because the more I understand her perspective, the better teacher I'll become as we go along. I'll be learning from her just as much as she's learning from me -- and that's pretty cool.
On the other hand, my Mom (before this experience) has never played anything more complex on the computer than Solitaire and those little games you can send through a single e-mail attachment. Teaching her World of Warcraft, then, is sort of like bringing Marie Curie in a time-machine and showing her the Large Hadron Collider. If nothing else, it showed us just how much we take for granted when we say that a game has an "easy learning curve".
First we showed Mom how to create her character. I had made some assumptions before this, and based on my mother's likes and dislikes, I thought she would prefer playing Alliance. (Besides, everyone always starts with Alliance before they discover the awesomeness of the Horde -- ahem.) I had created an Alliance alt beforehand, a level 40 human mage, to assist Mom in case she needed some heavy artillery. I expected Mom would decide to play a human, or possibly a night elf. Knowing some classes are more difficult to start with than others, I encouraged her to start with a paladin for the self-heals, or a druid for its versatility, or a hunter for the ranged ability and the fun pets.
Instead, Mom chose to play a dwarf. She also looked at the gnomes and pronounced them "really cute", but alas, gnomes cannot be druids, paladins or hunters. So a pretty, redheaded dwarf hunter was born. Mom wanted to name her after an old friend, and with a little tweaking we got a character name that was close enough to the original.
For the purposes of this blog, we'll refer to Mom's avatar as Jolynne.
One of the first things Mom had to tackle was movement. Now, every raider knows that the best (i.e. fastest and most responsive) way to move one's character is with the mouse. I considered this option for about half a minute before abandoning it. My mother has never even used the right-click mouse button before this, and I had visions of Jolynne flailing madly all over Azeroth, or her camera view lurching around like she was smoking really bad Bloodthistle.
So I taught her the basic ADSW configuration, a little about the strafe keys and pressing NumLock to keep going forward. Then I set her loose.
Her avatar, perhaps predictably, did some interesting gyrations before finally settling down into a forward-only motion. Mom learned to "steer" with some trouble as the landscape's changing elevations threw her a bit off-kilter. I pointed her toward her first questgiver, and she managed to approach the sturdy dwarf Sten Stoutarm without running through him and hitting the fence. Given her previous attempts to move around smoothly, this was an achievement.
She was a little worried about having to kill creatures to finish quests. "I'm a healer, not a fighter," she said. By this she didn't mean she wanted to play a priest -- she was referring to her real life career as a nurse.
I explained that she was going to do a lot of killing, so to get used to the idea. I also explained that many creatures were going to try to kill her, so in most cases it was self-defense to kill them first. I also explained nothing in the game stays dead for very long, including her avatar. It's not real dead, it's pretend dead -- so mortality is just a minor inconvenience. Mom laughed at this and I knew we were on our way.
After explaining how to accept the quest, I pointed Mom toward the area with her first victims -- Ragged Young Wolves. This produced a new set of challenges: explaining what ranged combat was, how to initiate combat and how to loot. Mom quickly found out what the right-click button on her mouse was for, at least in game.
I tried to boil it down to one simple rule. "Use left-click to target something, and right-click to interact with it." I explained that interacting included everything from killing a creature to using an item to talking with a questgiver. I made a mental note to explain what a "mob" and an "NPC" were in the near future, because I was so used to those terms that I would slip into saying them without thinking, which understandably produced a look of confusion on Mom's part.
Mom did very well for a beginner, but we had to stop because her back was starting to bother her. (She has lower back problems that flare up occasionally.) After she logged off, I took a minute to introduce her to my level 40 human mage that I'd so lovingly leveled up to help her. As she watched my screen, I showed her my mage's horse mount and demonstrated how to fly on a gryphon from a flight point in Southshore.
As I was flying over the ocean, Mom startled me with her first unpredictable question: "But you were just on a horse! Where did the horse go? Your horse wouldn't fit on that gryphon."
She was perfectly logical. A horse wouldn't fit on a gryphon! It took me completely by surprise. Being so used to computer games, I had never even thought of the impossibility before she said it. It demonstrated the wide gulf between our knowledge sets. I had come to Warcraft with certain expectations and concepts already in place from previous gaming -- Mom was coming at this as a blank slate. I laughed at my own surprise. It took me a few minutes to come up with an answer she could understand -- because really, the concept is fundamentally nonsensical.
I know I'm going to love these questions from Mom, and I intend to tag them separately so we can keep track of them. I hope to hear a lot more of them, because the more I understand her perspective, the better teacher I'll become as we go along. I'll be learning from her just as much as she's learning from me -- and that's pretty cool.
To Boldly Go...
Monday, October 26, 2009
A couple of months ago, I had an idea for a daring experiment -- to introduce Mom to gaming through World of Warcraft.What's the big deal, you may ask? Lots of parents play WoW, right? Here's the deal -- for many of us, we learned the rules of D&D in our cribs, been weaned on text-based MUDs, played around on consoles and joined online MMORPGs. We've been trained on concepts that are now second nature to us -- character stats, hit points, mana pools, gear upgrades and damage output. Even LARPs have some of these attributes.
But what would happen if a complete RPG virgin were to be thrust into the world of fantasy MMOs? What if someone without any prior gaming context tried to tackle a game as all-encompassing as World of Warcraft?
My mother is retired and has never played anything except cards and board games, or simple computer games like Pac-Man. She has zero experience with D&D, has never done character creation, has no idea what DPS means. If she were to read the first couple paragraphs of this post, she would likely ask me what all those acronyms mean because I'm pretty sure she's never seen them before.
However, she's intelligent, independent, isn't afraid of new concepts and likes a challenge. Also, she and I are lucky enough to have a relationship where we're not just mother and daughter, but also good friends. So I'm encouraging her to give me plenty of feedback, because I'm certain that some of my well-established gaming assumptions are going to get thrown right out the window. And I'm finding myself very interested to see Mom's take on these concepts, because I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be anything I could have predicted.
I expect this will be pretty uphill for her. This is a way of game-playing that's outside her experience, and she'll be literally thrust into a strange new world. But for me, the reward will be seeing how Mom's mind tackles these challenges, and how easy WoW really is for a new player who has never seen anything -- anything -- like it before.
I'm looking forward to it.
NOTE: The date on my blog post and the date here don't match because I originally posted it on another blog. I've since deleted the old one and started this one, so I just copied it over.
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