World of Warcraft is one of the most successful MMORPG games of all time. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of its original release, Blizzard made the World of Warcraft Classic version of the adventure available to all WoW subscribers in automatic download. Based on WoW build 1.12, the title can be a bit confusing for beginners, as it takes the game back to one of its first versions. Check out in our complete tutorial everything you need to start playing and adventuring around Azeroth.
How to install and play
The upgrade to World of Warcraft Classic is done automatically and free of charge by the Blizzard launcher application, the Blizzard App. If you don’t have it already, you can safely download it through this official link. In the application, select the World of Warcraft tab then click on the big blue button with the text “install”, which will start the download of the game and all its updates.
At the end of the download, the button will change its text to “play”. Note that, just above the “play” button, you can click on the tab to choose between the World of Warcraft versions, the full game in its current version, or the World of Warcraft Classic, the relaunch made available on August 26, 2019. Select World of Warcraft Classic and confirm by clicking Play to launch the application.
What it takes to play
World of Warcraft is a free downloadable game, but it requires an active subscription in order to connect to the servers and start playing. It can be purchased through the official Battle.net store by clicking here. The monthly fee is $14.99, but quarterly ($41.97) or semiannual ($77.94) plans can also be contracted.
Payments can be made by Paypal, credit card or your Blizzard account balance via prepaid cards. With the active subscription, open the game normally and enter your login and password of the account where the subscription was made in order to start playing.
WoW Classic: you need to sign the monthly fee to be able to play – Photo: Reproduction/Tarun Bhardwaj
Choose a kingdom
As soon as you enter WoW Classic you need to connect to a Kingdom, the place where you will connect to meet and interact with other players. Keep an eye on the “population” tab, as it indicates how many people are playing there at the moment. In the week of the game’s release, the servers are overcrowded and it can take many minutes before you can connect.
When the dust settles and the game is more stable, it is more worthwhile to connect to populous servers, because there you will find more people to negotiate, exchange items and form groups for adventures. If you want to play with your friends, take care to enter the same Kingdom as them, because only then can you play together. Also note the tab “type” of server, as it determines whether you will be in a normal game or PvP. After successfully connecting to a realm, you will arrive at the character creation screen.
Create your character
The struggle between the Alliance and the Horde is one of the greatest video game classics, and each faction has its own character types to use. Through the Alliance, it is possible to create a Human, Dwarf, Night Elf and Gnome. The Horde has Orc, Living Dead, Tauren and Troll.
Whatever your species, you can choose between male or female characters, and then determine your class from the options available to each hero. Wizards, wizards and druids are best suited for players who enjoy using a lot of magic, while Warriors are the standard option for close-range battles.
WoW Classic: choose your favorite class, gender and race to defend the Horde or Alliance – Photo: Reproduction/Tarun Bhardwaj
Useful and fun commands
Regardless of the character chosen and from which point on the map your adventure began, it is important to remember that the heroes’ skills in WoW Classic are activated by a cooldown system, that is, each blow has its own period of time until it can be reused. At the bottom of the screen you can see what your currently equipped skills are, and you need to click on them to activate them in combat.
Rotate your camera and field of view by holding the left mouse button and moving the cursor wherever you want to look. To start a fight, click on an enemy with the right mouse button, but make sure you are at an angle where the blows can hit you, with one character facing the other. In moments of calm, you can also have fun by pressing enter to open the chat, and then typing classic commands like “/dance” to do a funny little dance, or else “/flirt” to court other characters.
WoW Classic: hold the left mouse button to rotate the camera – Photo: Reproduction/Tarun Bhardwaj
Tips for leveling up quickly
Like all good MMORPGs, WoW Classic has a lot of grinding and you have to spend dozens of hours leveling up to be able to enable the most challenging missions and explore the most inhospitable environments. The good news is that almost all of your actions in the game are converted into experience points, from killing enemies to discovering new areas on the map. When it comes time for big wanderings, press the “num lock” key to make your character walk automatically.
Talk to all characters who have a yellow exclamation point over their heads, as they can enable new missions. Accept the quests, as completing them yields valuable rewards. Don’t be afraid to walk to places not yet explored, and remember that you can press M to open your map at any second. It’s a good idea to run away from beasts far above your level, but you can relatively easily beat enemies with one or two levels above yours, so take the opportunity to gain a lot of experience at your expense.
Harvest a lot of loot
Enemies fallen on the map shine when they are carrying items that can be harvested by your character. Get closer to their bodies and click on them with the right mouse button to open a new window, which will show you what items can be obtained. You need to click on the item icons in the new window to place them in your inventory manually, so don’t forget to do that.
Over time, your inventory will naturally be full. At these times, visit any city you have encountered on your adventures and interact with the vendors in the stores. There, you can open your inventory and select the items you want to sell to make wow classic gold by pressing the right mouse button. Use your money to buy items and equipment even better than your arsenal.