World of Warcraft for new players

By Herlehos Updated: 2025/09/22

World of Warcraft, or WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). You can play as different characters, each with unique abilities and powers.

You’ll adventure in the fantasy world of Azeroth, a world filled with monsters, magic and secrets.

Two factions are in constant conflict: the Horde and the Alliance. They wage fierce battles to expand their dominance over Azeroth.

Join a faction, choose your race and class, and fight alongside the powerful leaders of either the Horde or the Alliance!

Released in 2004, the game is developed by Blizzard Entertainment and currently features 11 expansions:

Burning Crusade (2007)

Wrath of the Lich King (2008)

Cataclysm (2010)

Mists of Pandaria (2012)

Warlords of Draenor (2014)

Legion (2016)

Battle for Azeroth (2018)

Shadowlands (2020)

Dragonflight (2022)

The War Within (2024)

Midnight (2026)

Creating an account and downloading the game

Before you begin your adventure, you’ll need to create an account and download the game !

Create an account here

Download the client here

Expansions and Subscription

The previous step showed you how to download the game. Now, it’s time to take out your credit card !

First, note that you can play for free up to level 20, with as many characters as you like. Don’t hesitate to use this limit to try out different classes until you find the one you enjoy most.

After that, you’ll need two things: a subscription and the latest expansion.

Buying a subscription alone gives you access to all content from Vanilla through Dragonflight, which is already huge! A subscription costs 13€ per month or 11€ per month if you take the 6-month renewable subscription.

And if you’re enjoying the game, you can purchase the current expansion: The War Within! The expansion costs 50€ for the base edition, up to 90€ for the epic edition, which includes lots of in-game bonuses and a character boost (more on that later).

Game Versions and Licenses
World of Warcraft has been around for over 20 years, so many different versions have been released over time.

Let’s keep it simple:

Retail: This is the standard version of WoW. It’s where most players are, and it receives a new expansion every two years.

Classic: A version of WoW as it was between 2004–2006. Released in 2019, with content added gradually, just like in the original timeline.

Classic - Mists of Pandaria: Following the success of Classic, Blizzard re-released Burning Crusade Classic, then Wrath of the Lich King Classic… and now we’re at Mists of Pandaria Classic. Every two years, Blizzard updates this version, just like Retail, but with a 12-year throwback.

Classic - Anniversary: To bring back the Vanilla experience alongside other Classic versions, Blizzard re-released Classic Vanilla servers.

Classic - Hardcore: A hardcore mode for Classic Vanilla. The rules are simple: if you die, your character is permanently deleted!

Season of Discovery: A special Classic mode with new mechanics, talent trees, and rewards.

Mists of Pandaria / Legion Remix: A limited-time Retail mode that lets you revisit MoP (and soon Legion) with fresh rewards, while keeping Retail gameplay.

Plunderstorm: A temporary battle royale–style mode, available from the main menu or Retail queues.

Public Test Realm (PTR): Special servers to try upcoming content patches before they go live.

Alpha / Beta: Test servers for upcoming expansions. Access is invite-only at first, then opened more broadly later.

The Recruit-a-Friend Program

There’s also a “Recruit-a-Friend” program! Just find a sponsor who can give you in-game benefits.

Your sponsor will help guide you at the start of your adventure, and you’ll both gain bonuses while playing together. Level boosts, XP bonuses, in-game perks… having a sponsor is awesome!

To take part, your sponsor must log in, open the “Social” tab, and go to “Recruit a Friend”. Share the email address linked to your Battle.net account so they can send you an invite.

Once linked, you’ll enjoy lots of perks together!

Shared Benefits:

Can summon your partner anywhere once every 30 minutes

30% bonus experience while grouped

Receives a reward for each month of game time purchased by their recruit, ranging from game time to exclusive cosmetics.

Only accounts less than 7 days old OR inactive for at least 2 years can be recruited.

You can generate one referral link per month, usable by up to 4 recruits.

Owning the latest expansion is not required for either recruiter or recruit.

Being someone’s recruit doesn’t stop you from being a recruiter for another player.

Servers and Warband

Finally! Your game is installed! After long hours of waiting, you are now in the game! Accept the terms of use after carefully reading them, and you’ll arrive at the character selection screen!

World of Warcraft is divided into multiple servers, called Realms, and the game has assigned one to you by default. You can manually select any server you like by clicking "Realms" in the top menu.

Each of your characters is tied to the realm in which it was created. But don’t worry: apart from a few features, you can play just fine with all players across other European realms!

The population of a server shows how many players are currently online. If it says “Full”, you will need to wait until a slot opens up (though this is quite rare).

Since the The War Within expansion, all your characters are displayed on a single screen, no need to switch servers manually. This is called the Warband.

Choosing Your Race and Class

It’s time to choose your race and class! First things first: don’t pick based on “what’s strong” or “what’s the best composition” Instead, pick the race and class that you enjoy the most :)

In Azeroth, two major factions oppose each other: the noble Alliance and the fearsome Horde! Each faction has different playable races, and each race has access to certain classes.

In WoW, classes define your gameplay, while races matter less for a beginner :)

Here is a small table listing the different races in the game:




Alliance Races  
Alliance Allied Races  
Horde Races  
Horde Allied Races  




Human  
Kul Tiran  
Orc  
Mag'har Orc  




Dwarf  
Dark Iron Dwarf  
Tauren  
Highmountain Tauren  




Night Elf  
Void Elf  
Troll  
Zandalari Troll  




Gnome  
Mechagnome  
Undead  
-  




Draenei  
Lightforged Draenei  
Blood Elf  
Nightborne  




Worgen  
-  
Goblin  
Vulpera  




Pandaren  
-  
Pandaren  
-  




Dracthyr  
Earthen  
Dracthyr  
Earthen  




*Allied races are special races that require a character at level 50 or higher to unlock.

Once you’ve chosen your race, it’s time to select your class!

There are 13 classes:


Each class has 3 specializations (except Druids, which have 4). Each specialization belongs to one of three roles: Damage, Tank or Healer.

The Damage role (DPS) is for those who love fighting. Your goal is to cast spells or strike enemies to defeat them as quickly as possible.

The Tank role is for protecting your allies. Your goal is to draw enemy attention and safeguard your team.

The Healer role is for pacifists who prefer healing their allies’ wounds.

Customizing Your Character

Now it’s time for customization! You have a wide range of options to personalize your character: skin color, hairstyles, tattoos, eye color, posture, accessories…

You can even create a character that looks like you! Well, in that case, it might be better not to make an undead…

Finally, you need to give your character a name!

Note that you will be able to fully customize your character later by visiting the barber!

Once your character is confirmed, you will return to the character selection screen. All that’s left is to click "Enter the Game" and you’re ready to go!

What's the Character Boost

The character boost is a very special item! Valued at €60, it allows you to instantly boost a character to the maximum level of the previous expansion!

You can use anytime you want and on any character. However, if you are new, I recommend NOT using it, and instead exploring the game with a character from level 1 up to the maximum level.

If you use it right at the start, there’s a good chance you’ll feel lost. And in a universe like WoW, that’s not very enjoyable!

Controls
Welcome to Azeroth, friends! At first glance, the game may seem a bit overwhelming with these buttons everywhere and this complex interface. But don’t worry, by following this guide you’ll soon master everything!

You can find all the controls and their assigned keys in the settings (Esc → Interface → Keybindings), but here are the default ones:

Move: Arrow keys or W A S D

Jump: Spacebar

Use spells: Click on the spell with your mouse or use the keys 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =

Unsheathe weapon: Z

Sit: X

Open all bags: B

Open chat: Enter

Target an enemy: Tab

Zoom: Mouse wheel

Change camera angle: Left click + move mouse

Change camera angle and turn your character: Right click + move mouse

Open settings: ESC

The Game Interface
At first glance, the interface may look very complex and detailed. Not so easy to figure out with all these buttons!

The interface is divided into 3 main parts: the player portrait at the top left, the action bar and toolbar at the bottom, and the mini-map at the top right.

The player portrait:

Right-clicking on your portrait will give you a list of options:

Target marker icon: lets you add an icon above your head. Only visible to you and your group members.

Set focus: creates a small portrait of yourself that you can click on more easily.

Player vs. Player: no longer used today.

Loot Specialization: lets you choose which specialization you want to receive gear for.

Dungeon Difficulty: lets you select the difficulty of dungeons when you enter them.

Raid Difficulty: lets you select the difficulty of raids when you enter them.

Reset all instances: lets you reset certain dungeons and raids.

The action bar and toolbar:
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll find a huge bar full of useful things!

On the left, we have spells, which unlock as you progress. To place spells, pick them up with a left click from the spellbook (N) and place them where you want. To move spells, unlock your action bars in the settings: "interface" then "action bars".

You can also add more action bars on the right side of the screen or above the main bar, which is super useful given the number of spells!

And finally, on the right, we have the toolbar. Here’s a detailed look at how each of these tools works:

Image 1: In this tab, you’ll find your character, gear, and detailed stats. Item level corresponds to the average level of each piece of your equipment. The two other sub-tabs contain your titles and equipment sets.

Image 2: Here you’ll see all your reputations. You can choose to track one (so it shows under your XP bar) or organize them into categories.

Image 3: Finally, here you’ll find all your currencies, sorted by expansion or feature. You can track up to 3 currencies, which will show next to your gold when you open your bag.

Image 1: This is the professions tab. You get an overview of your current professions, and you can click the icons for full access (recipes, crafting...).

Image 1: Here you get a quick overview of your class specializations. You can switch specs by clicking "activate".

Image 2: Until level 70, you’ll earn one talent point per level to assign to your class tree or specialization tree. The middle tree is reserved for level 70–80 players. You can also toggle War Mode and select up to 3 PvP talents here.

Image 3: This is where all your abilities are: base spells, learned spells, passives...

Image 1: This is where you can admire your collection of achievements. Click categories to see specific ones. Next tab shows guild achievements, which work similarly but belong to your guild (you lose them if you leave).

Image 2: This tab shows various stats like fish caught, enemies killed, deaths from falling off cliffs...

Image 1: Here is your quest list. You can click a quest to read its details, abandon it, or track it.

Image 1: The guild tab gives you all the info about your guild. More details in my guild guide. The communities tab lets you chat, form groups, and more.

Image 1: This lets you queue for normal dungeons, heroic dungeons, or LFR raids. You don’t need to make your own group, though rewards are lower than higher difficulties.

Image 2: Use this tab to find or create groups for quests, achievements, dungeons...

Image 3: This is the PvP "quick match" tab for random battlegrounds, skirmishes, and special event battlegrounds. You can also see your honor level and conquest bar here.

Image 4: Same thing, but for rated arenas and battlegrounds. Here you’ll need to make your own group.

Image 5: This shows your Mythic+ progress, available only to max-level players!

Image 1: This tab shows your collected mounts, usable across all characters (faction/profession restrictions apply).

Image 2: This is for battle pets. Manage your team, summon pets, or find PvP matches. Pets are account-wide.

Image 3: The toy tab gathers all toys you’ve collected in Azeroth.

Image 4: Heirlooms can be bought by high-level characters and sent to low-level alts to boost their XP gains.

Image 5: This tab collects armor appearances since patch 7.2 (not before). These count toward achievements and can be transmogrified.

Image 6: Complements the previous one by grouping appearances into sets (raids, dungeons, PvP seasons).

Image 1: The traveler’s log lists monthly activities that earn Trader’s Tenders, which can be exchanged for rewards at the Trading Post.

Image 2: Suggested content shows you where to go and what to do if you feel lost.

Image 3: This is the dungeon journal. Select an expansion to see maps, boss abilities, and loot tables.

Image 4: Same thing, but for raids.

Image 1: If you ever want to strengthen your collection of pets and mounts!

Image 1: The last tab, giving you access to support requests, game options, the shop, interface settings, and more.

The mini-map:
At the top right of your screen is the mini-map, with various small tools.

The mini-map shows your position in the world, as well as rare enemies, NPCs, resources... You can configure this by clicking the small magnifying glass.

Around the mini-map, you’ll also find tools like the calendar, a stopwatch (click the clock), and your addons.

Your First Quest
It’s time to complete your very first quest! Some characters (called NPCs) can offer you quests. You can easily recognize them thanks to the exclamation point above their heads.

When you speak to an NPC, a window will open showing you the quest or quests they have available.

The main quests in each zone are indicated on the map by a large exclamation point.

There are several types of quests: kill X monsters, talk to X NPC, collect X items, defeat X boss, and many more.

Many quests come with detailed tracking: you’ll be able to see on your map where to go, and on your mini-map, the items you need to collect or the bosses you need to defeat will also be highlighted!

There’s also a color code for quests:

A yellow ! means the quest is available for your character.

A gray ! means you need to reach a higher level before unlocking this quest, usually 1–3 levels more.

A blue ! means the quest is repeatable, or a daily quest that can only be completed once per day.

An orange ! means it’s a legendary quest, but that’s not for right now!

A green ! means a flight path is available (explained in the “Traveling Efficiently” section).

Enemies and Monsters
In general, your first quest will consist of collecting certain items or killing monsters. I won’t go into detail about collecting items, since a simple click on them when you’re nearby is enough, and this applies to all “collecting” quests in the game (tip: you can automatically loot enemies by checking the “auto loot” option in your interface settings).

Let’s talk about enemies. When you place your cursor over an enemy, a tooltip will appear at the bottom right of your screen:
It shows the enemy’s name, its “type” (demon, humanoid, player…), whether a quest is linked to it (loot, kill, weaken…), and more.

Once again, there’s a color code (on the enemy’s name):

Red: This monster is far too strong for you. It will spot you from a distance, and your chances of survival are very low.

Orange: This monster is dangerous. You can kill it, but be careful.

Yellow: This monster is your level. You can kill it fairly easily, but be cautious not to pull multiple enemies at once!

Green: This monster is a few levels below you, killing it will be safe.

Gray: This monster is much weaker than you. Killing it will be easy, but it won’t give you any experience points.

Interacting with a Player
We’ve just learned a lot about monsters and how to interact with them.

Now, let’s see how to interact with other players. By left-clicking on a player, their portrait will appear next to yours. Then, right-click on their portrait to display various options:

Target Marker Icon: Allows you to place an icon above your target’s head. Visible only to you and your group members.

Set Focus: Creates a small portrait of your target, making it easier to click on them.

Add Friend: Adds the player to your in-game contact list or your Battle.net friends.

Invite: If the target is friendly, sends them an invitation to join your party. A party can include up to 40 players.

Whisper: If the target is friendly, opens the chat window to send them a private message.

Inspect: Allows you to see the targeted player’s equipment and talents.

Compare Achievements: Displays the targeted player’s achievements and compares them with yours.

Trade: Opens the trade window. You can only trade items with players from connected realms, and only items that are not soulbound.

Follow: When activated, your character will automatically follow the targeted player.

Duel: Challenges the target to a duel. Does not work in Sanctuary zones.

Pet Battle: Challenges the target to a pet battle.

Traveling Efficiently
Even though the zones are beautiful, they are still huge. And traveling on foot can be tedious!

To move around within a zone, and even between zones, you have several options:

Flight Paths and Flight Masters:
You may have noticed Winged Boots of different colors on the map: these mark the locations of Flight Masters.

Flight Masters are found all over Azeroth, inside cities, villages, or even lost in the mountains. They are shown on the map as a red boot if you are Horde or a blue boot if you are Alliance. Yellow boots represent neutral flight points.

They are also indicated on the mini-map by a green exclamation mark if it’s a new flight point, or by a winged boot if you’ve already discovered it.

Once there, speak to the Flight Master with the green exclamation mark above their head to discover the flight point.

Now, you can fly to this point from any other flight point on the same continent!

Leveling from level 1 to 80

The maximum level in World of Warcraft is 80. There are several ways to earn experience points:

Completing quests and expeditions

Finishing dungeons

Battling in battlegrounds

Exploring the world

Skills and Talent Trees

Each class has a wide variety of skills that unlock as you level up. You can access your spellbook at any time by pressing "N".

Each class also has three talent trees: a class tree, a specialization tree, and a heroic talent tree.

Up to level 70, you will earn talent points to assign in your class and specialization trees.

From level 70 to 80, you will choose between two heroic talent trees and can assign 10 new points (1 per level) in the selected tree.

Obtaining Gear

Gear can be obtained as quest rewards, from monsters, in chests, or from dungeon and raid bosses.

Equipment is divided into four main types: cloth, leather, mail, and plate. Depending on your class, you will need to choose a specific type of gear:

Plate: Warriors, Paladins, and Death Knights

Mail: Hunters

Leather: Rogues, Demon Hunters, Druids, and Monks

Cloth: Mages, Priests, Shamans, and Warlocks

Introduction to PvE

“PvE” stands for Player versus Environment.

PvE covers all interactions with monsters and NPCs controlled by the game’s AI. Dungeons, raids, quests… all of this is part of PvE!

For quests and exploration, the mechanics are simple to understand. Here, we’ll focus primarily on dungeons and raids.

Dungeons:
Dungeons are 5-player instances that typically last around 20 minutes. They allow you to fight many enemies and bosses to obtain progressively better gear.

Each expansion introduces many new dungeons, all scaled to the max level of that expansion. Difficulty does not always increase, but you cannot enter a dungeon if the enemies inside are above your level.

There are several dungeon difficulty modes: Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+.
o Normal and Heroic modes have existed since Vanilla. You can enter them via the Dungeon Finder tool. During leveling, you can only queue for dungeons from the expansion you chose through Chromie.

o Mythic and Mythic+ modes were introduced in Legion and offer a high-level challenge. Since this content is endgame, we won’t go into too much detail here. Check the “Endgame Features” section for more info.

Raids:
Raids are large-scale instances with a flexible number of players, depending on the raid.

Raid difficulties vary across expansions. Some were removed, modified, or added, without changing older raids.

o Vanilla Raids: 40-player mode
o BC Raids: mostly 25-player mode, Karazhan 10-player, Black Temple 10-30 flexible (since Legion)
o WotLK Raids: mostly 10- and 25-player, some with 10-player normal, 10-player heroic, 25-player normal, 25-player heroic
o Cataclysm Raids: 10-player normal, 10-player heroic, 25-player normal, 25-player heroic, The Bastion of Twilight has LFR
o MoP Raids: LFR, 10-player normal, 10-player heroic, 25-player normal, 25-player heroic, Siege of Orgrimmar also has Mythic
o WoD and later: LFR, flexible 10-30 normal, flexible 10-30 heroic, Mythic

It may seem complicated, but don’t worry, you won’t be running old raids during leveling. You can return later, and regardless of difficulty, you’ll defeat bosses easily with practice.

Remember the four main difficulty modes: LFR, Normal, Heroic, Mythic.

LFR stands for “Looking for Raid.” This tool automatically finds a raid group for you. LFR raids are split into smaller sections for players who cannot complete the full raid in one go.

For Normal, Heroic, and Mythic, you must form your own group and enter the raid manually. Rewards scale with difficulty.

Introduction to PvP

“PvP” stands for Player versus Player.

PvP covers all actions against enemy characters controlled by real players.

Killing enemy players increases your honor rank, granting rewards such as mounts, toys, and titles once certain thresholds are reached.

There are two main types of PvP: Open-World PvP and Instanced PvP.

Open-World PvP:
Open-World PvP occurs across Azeroth, outdoors.
To participate, go to Orgrimmar or Stormwind, open your talents tab, and enable War Mode. Without it, you cannot attack enemy faction players!

Fight alone or with others: attack enemy capitals, defend your own, or compete for treasure and enemy mobs.

Killing players more than 10 levels below you gives no experience or honor points. Avoid farming low-level players during leveling.

Instanced PvP:
Instanced PvP primarily includes battlegrounds and arenas, with some additional special events.

You can access multiple modes via the PvP Group Finder:
o Skirmishes: unranked 2v2 or 3v3 arenas, ideal for practice or small rewards
o Rated Arenas: 2v2 or 3v3 with rankings, seasons, and rewards (you must form your own team)
o Battlegrounds: various battlegrounds with different player counts and objectives (Capture the Flag, Domination, Escort...)
o Rated Battlegrounds: similar to regular battlegrounds, but with rankings and rewards
o PvP Events: temporary events with special rules (15v15 arenas, zero-gravity battlegrounds, multiple flags...)

Participating in these activities grants Conquest points that can be used to buy PvP gear.

Life and Death in Azeroth

The world of Azeroth is full of dangers. Monsters or enemy players... you are never completely safe!

During your learning phase, you will inevitably die from time to time.

When you die, you are teleported to the nearest graveyard, where a Spirit Healer awaits.

You have several ways to return to life:

Returning to your corpse: from the graveyard, simply travel back on foot to your corpse to resurrect. Doing this too frequently increases the time required between each resurrection.

If you don’t want to return to your corpse, you can resurrect directly at the graveyard by speaking to the Spirit Healer. However, this comes with a penalty: your stats are reduced by 75% for 1 minute!

An allied player can cast a resurrection spell on you, reviving you instantly with a portion of your health points.

Socializing with Other Players

Social interaction is one of WoW’s strongest features, and there are several tools to help you become sociable!

Chat Channels:
First, here are the commands that allow you to communicate in different ways (type them into the chat bar):

/s: say - talk “out loud” to nearby players

/w (targeting a player): whisper - send a private message to a single player

/gr: party chat for 2–5 players

/i: raid chat for 5–40 players

/g: guild chat

/officer: officer chat for guild officers

/y: yell - all players in the zone can hear you

/1 /2 /3 /4: various custom channels, such as general or trade

The “Social” Tab:
Press “O” to open the Social tab. Here you can see your BattleTag and all your online friends! To add a friend, ask for their BattleTag and enter it after clicking “Add Friend.”

In the “Who” tab, you can search by zone, character name, level... to see players in the area matching your search.

In the “Chat” tab, you can see all chat channels you are allowed to speak in.

In the “Raid” tab, you can see when upcoming raids and dungeons will reset.

Getting to a Capital City
Once you have finished your starting zone, usually around level 10 for most races, you will finally be able to access a capital city, where all of Azeroth’s points of interest are gathered!

There are several capitals in the game, here they are:

Horde Cities:
Orgrimmar, located in Durotar, Kalimdor. Main capital of the Horde. Home to Orcs, Trolls, Pandaren, Goblins, and recently the Forsaken.

Thunder Bluff, located in Mulgore, Kalimdor. Home to the Tauren.

Undercity, located in the Tirisfal Glades, Eastern Kingdoms. Recently destroyed, it used to be home to the Forsaken. Still accessible for lower-level players, and talk to Zidormi for max-level content.

Silvermoon, located in Eversong Woods, Eastern Kingdoms. Home to the Blood Elves.

Shrine of Two Moons, located in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, Pandaria.

Warspear, located in Ashran, Draenor.

Dazar’alor, located in Zuldazar, Zandalar.

Alliance Cities:

Stormwind, located in Elwynn Forest, Eastern Kingdoms. Main capital of the Alliance. Home to Humans, Pandaren, and recently Night Elves and Worgen.

Ironforge, located in Dun Morogh, Eastern Kingdoms. Home to Dwarves and Gnomes.

Darnassus, located on Teldrassil, Kalimdor. Recently destroyed, it used to be home to Night Elves and Worgen. Still accessible for lower levels, talk to Zidormi for max-level content.

The Exodar, located on Azuremyst Isle, Kalimdor. Home to Draenei.

Shrine of Seven Stars, located in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, Pandaria.

Stormshield, located in A'shran, Draenor.

Boralus, located in the Tiragarde Sound, Kul Tiras.

Neutral Cities:

Shattrath, located in Terokkar Forest, Outland.

Old Dalaran, located in Crystalsong Forest, Northrend.

Dalaran, floating above the Great Sea, on the Broken Isles.

Oribos, located in the Shadowlands.

Valdrakken, located on the Dragon Isles.

Dornogal, located in Khaz Algar.

The different Banks
There are 4 types of banks: the personal bank, the guild bank, the account-wide bank, and the void storage.

Let’s take a closer look at each type of bank:

The Personal Bank:
You can deposit items you are not using at the moment such as armors, legendary items, gadgets... You can even deposit gold!

However, you will notice there is very limited space. There is also a “Profession Bank” tab to store all crafting-related items.

Still not enough space? Don’t worry! You can also purchase additional bag slots (which are very cheap). Each bag adds more space. For example, if you place a 26-slot bag in the bank, you can store 26 additional items!

The Warband Bank:
This bank works just like your personal bank, but it is shared across all characters on your account.

One little difference… the tabs are very expensive!

The Guild Bank:
To access the guild bank, you will need… a guild!

The guild bank works similarly to your personal bank. You can deposit items and gold. It has much more space! You can have up to 8 bank tabs, providing 784 slots to store your items.

But be careful… you share this bank with all guild members, so not all the space is for you alone. Only the guild master and officers can manage guild bank permissions, which affects how many items you can deposit or withdraw.

Void Storage:
If your personal bank and guild bank still aren’t enough, the Ethereals have a solution!

You can purchase access to the Void Storage, available only in certain capitals. Ask a guard for directions to find it!

Void Storage costs a one-time fee of 1,000 gold to acquire, but you must pay 25 gold to deposit each item. Withdrawals are free.

This special bank has 80 slots and is useful for storing equipment, enchantments, and archaeological finds.

The Auction House
Now, without wasting any more time, let’s talk money, because as Gallywix so wisely says, time is money!

Auction Houses are where the population of Azeroth gathers to trade. You can find an Auction House in every capital city in the game.

When speaking to an auctioneer, a new panel opens with 3 different tabs:

Buy: In this tab, you can type the name of the item you are looking for. If it is being sold by another player on your server, it will appear and you can buy it if you can afford it! You can also filter search results by selecting a specific category or by clicking “Filters” at the top-right of the window.

Sell: This tab is used to sell your own items. You can set a starting price for an auction, a buyout price, and a duration for the sale. Be careful, not all items can be sold. For example, if an item is soulbound to you, it cannot be sold.

Auctions: In this last tab, you can view all your current auctions.

Auction Houses are neutral, meaning both Alliance and Horde can buy items from the other faction.

You cannot buy items listed by other characters on your own account.

You will be charged a 15% cut of your sale price by our dear goblin friends.

Once a purchase is made, the item is immediately sent to your mailbox.

Once an item is sold, you will receive a chat message and your gold will arrive in your mailbox within an hour.

If your item does not sell within 48 hours, it will automatically be returned to your mailbox.

Mailboxes
Speaking of mailboxes! You will find them everywhere in cities, at least one in every village, and often near flight points. Impossible to miss!

When you receive mail, a small envelope icon appears to the right of your mini-map.

Several sources can send you mail:

Players: they can send you items, gold, or just a short message

NPCs: like players, they can leave you a little something after a quest or an achievement

The Postmaster: delivers by mail all the items you forgot to pick up from monsters in dungeons and raids

Game Masters: can send you items, either automatically (events, item restoration...) or manually

Profession Trainers
Blacksmith, Herbalist, Alchemist, or even Cook... you can become whoever you want!

Profession trainers are present in all capitals. By talking to them, you can learn various skills as well as recipes or plans to craft new items.

For more information on professions, see the section Professions and Crafting.

Other Points of Interest
Several other points of interest await you in the capitals:

Portals: In Orgrimmar and Stormwind, you can find around fifteen portals that allow you to travel all across Azeroth. In the other capitals, there are also several portals, letting you travel to many different locations.

Transmogrifier: Transmogrifiers allow you to change the appearance of your equipment. To apply the appearance of an item to your current gear, you must first obtain it. For example: you see a beautiful sword that drops from Garrosh in the Siege of Orgrimmar. It’s an old raid, so the stats of the sword are outdated, but you like its appearance. Simply collect the sword to add its appearance to your collection, allowing you to use it on your current weapon!

Class Trainers: Class trainers have become almost obsolete over time. Their only purpose today is to allow you to access the Proving Grounds scenario.

The Embassy: Once you reach level 50, you will have the opportunity to recruit Allied Races. The scenarios and quests for these races start in the embassies in Orgrimmar and Stormwind.

Achievements

Achievements are one of the most beloved features of the game. They were introduced at the very end of Burning Crusade.

Achievements can be earned in dozens of different ways: dungeons, raids, player versus player, exploration, quests, professions... there’s something for everyone!

Most achievements can be completed solo, but some will require a group or even a raid group.

You can check out this guide listing around 6,000 achievements in the game: https://www.wowhead.com/fr/guide/le-guide-ultime-des-hauts-faits-exploration-5964 (soon in english too)

The “Feats of Strength” category is a special one, made up of very difficult achievements or ones that have been removed from the game.

Collections
A wide variety of collectible items await you:

Guilds and Communities
Guilds:
Joining a guild allows you to build connections with other players, go on adventures together, and take on objectives that require a united group (Mythic raids, rated PvP...).

But that’s not all! Many guilds are also open to anyone who simply wants to chat and have a good time with friends :)

Learn more here: Le guide des guildes

Communities:
Communities are large social spaces where players can gather around a shared passion or common goals.

Unlike guilds, you can join multiple communities at the same time.

Pet Battles
There are several thousand pets in Azeroth: aquatic, flying, machines, undead...

Pets are small creatures that you can capture in the world. Once caught, you can make them fight against other pets (PvE) or against another player’s team (PvP).

Each pet has a total of 6 abilities, but only 3 can be used in battle at the same time.

Pet Masters and legendary pets await you, along with a tournament on the Timeless Isle and even pet battle dungeons!

If you want to learn more, check out these guides: https://www.wowhead.com/guides/battle-pets

Professions and Crafting

There are many different professions in World of Warcraft. Professions can be used to earn gold, craft gear, complete achievements, and more.

You can level up to two primary professions at a time, along with three secondary professions.

Primary professions include Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Herbalism, Inscription, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Mining, Skinning, and Tailoring.

Secondary professions include Archaeology, Cooking, and Fishing.

Each profession is divided into several categories, one per expansion.

Performing actions (gathering, crafting, fishing...) with items from a specific expansion will grant points in that expansion’s category. For example, if you are an Herbalist, picking a plant in Outland will increase your skill in the "Outland" category. Or if you are an Engineer, crafting an item whose recipe comes from Pandaria will grant points in the "Pandaria" category of that profession.

You can purchase supplies for your professions from various NPCs or from the Auction House.

The Dragonflight expansion also introduced a new feature: crafting orders! With this system, you can now create items of varying quality, add bonus components to your crafts and place item orders with and for other players.

Reputations

Over 200 factions populate Azeroth. By earning reputation with them, you unlock a variety of rewards: quests, mounts, pets, transmog and more.

There are two main categories of reputation: classic reputations and renown reputations, introduced in Shadowlands.

Classic reputations have 8 ranks:

Exalted (1000): Unlocks all faction-related rewards and quests. Maximum points: 999/1000. 20% discount on faction items.

Revered (21,000): Unlocks additional quests and rewards for this faction. 15% discount on faction items.

Honored (12,000): Can unlock new quests and rewards. 10% discount on faction items.

Friendly (6,000): Can unlock new quests and rewards. 5% discount on faction items.

Neutral (3,000): Can unlock new quests and rewards.

Unfriendly (3,000): Cannot buy, sell, or interact with this faction. They will only attack if provoked.

Hostile (3,000): Will attack on sight.

Hated (36,000): Will attack on sight.

World Events

Even during times of war, the inhabitants of Azeroth enjoy some entertainment through world events.

During these events, numerous new quests and rewards are available. Here is a list of recurring events in Azeroth:







There are also micro-events that occur several times a year, lasting about two to three days, such as Guard Day or Murloc Day… but these events do not provide in-game rewards :)

Endgame Features
Expansion Content

Each expansion introduces its own set of new features and unique content.

Most of these features remain accessible even after the expansion ends, although they are not usually updated in the next expansions.

This includes content like Torghast, Warfronts, Invasions...

To find out everything you may have missed, feel free to follow this guide: https://www.wowhead.com/fr/guide/whats-up-since-last-time-17029

Quest Campaigns

Once you reach level 80, you’ll unlock many new questlines.

You will be led to explore three new zones: Siren Isle, Undermine, and K’aresh (the most recent one).

Major quests are always marked on your map.

Mythic Dungeons

It’s important to distinguish between two things: Mythic mode and Mythic+ mode.

Mythic mode is a difficulty level available in all dungeons released after Legion and can be accessed at any time.

Mythic+ mode is a competitive mode: each season, the dungeons available for this mode rotate.

To enter a Mythic+ dungeon, you need a Mythic Key. Each key corresponds to a specific dungeon and has a unique level, which determines the dungeon’s difficulty. The higher the key level, the tougher the enemies, but the better the rewards.

Mythic+ dungeons are also timed. Dying slightly reduces the remaining time.

Learn more about this feature: https://www.wowhead.com/guide/mythic-keystones-and-dungeons

Raids

As previously mentioned, raids have 4 difficulty levels: LFR, accessible at any time via the automatic group finder, Normal, Heroic and Mythic.

The higher the difficulty, the tougher the bosses, but the greater the loot you’ll get.

Mythic mode is generally out of reach for most players. Only the biggest guilds have the time and gear necessary to complete the current raid tier.

Unlike LFR, you need to physically go to the raid location to play in these modes.

Rated PvP

Battlegrounds and arenas have a normal mode as well as a rated mode.

There’s no difference between the two, except for the presence of a ranking system!

Winning matches allows you to climb the ranks and unlock various rewards, such as titles or mounts.

You can access the queues through the Group Finder tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I buy and in what order?
To access World of Warcraft content, it’s very simple: you’ll need a subscription to enjoy content from Vanilla to Dragonflight, and then the expansion The War Within if you decide to go further!
When Midnight releases in 2026, The War Within will be included in the subscription.

Can I cancel my character boost to use it on another character?
Unfortunately, no. Once a boost is used, it cannot be reverted. Make sure to carefully choose the class you want to boost before using it!

I can’t enter any dungeon, what can I do?
Usually, after using a character boost, you must wait 24–48 hours before accessing this type of content.

I want to play on a server from a different region, how do I do it?
If you’re playing on European servers, you cannot play on servers from other regions. You also cannot transfer your account or characters to another region. The only way is to purchase a new license, which will not retain your previous progress (like a new account).

Can I pause my subscription?
No, subscriptions cannot be paused. A purchased month must be used consecutively.

I haven’t received my recruit-a-friend bonuses, is that normal?
Recruit-a-friend rewards are granted shortly after the referred player’s subscription month begins. If they purchase a 6-month subscription, you won’t receive all 6 rewards at once, they come monthly as each month starts.

I bought something from the Auction House but didn’t receive it?
Purchased items do not appear directly in your inventory, they are sent to your mailbox. Check your mailbox to claim your purchase.

I lost my Hearthstone, how can I get another?
If you accidentally discarded your Hearthstone, don’t worry! Find an inn (marked on the map with a Hearthstone icon), then speak to the innkeeper to receive a new one.

Servers are “incompatible”, my "character can not be found" or “world server has stopped”. What do these messages mean?
These messages appear if your version of WoW differs from the server. If you launch the game too quickly while an update is available, this can happen. Close the game to update, and the issue should be resolved.

What is illegal in WoW?
Actions that can result in a ban:
o Buying or selling gold on non-official sites outside of tokens
o Selling or buying raid, dungeon, or PvP progress for real money
o Using any type of bot
o Selling, buying, or sharing a Blizzard account (sharing is only allowed in parent-child relationships)
o Exploiting bugs or glitches
o Using hacks of any kind (obviously)

Note: It is forbidden to report a player for these activities on the forums, you risk a ban. You must report the player in-game by left-clicking their character, right-clicking their player frame, and selecting “Report Player”.

Is multiboxing allowed?
Since the release of Shadowlands, multiboxing is no longer permitted if you use key replication software. However, playing multiple accounts is still allowed as long as each character is controlled individually.

What is the PTR and how do I access it?
The PTR (Public Test Realm) is a public test server, usually ahead of the live server in updates. You can download it via the launcher. Its purpose is to test new features and identify bugs. Progress on the PTR is not transferred to the live server, and vice versa.

Protecting Your World of Warcraft Account

To play World of Warcraft safely, follow these tips:

Avoid scams:

Never give out your password, email, or any other personal information, whether to a stranger or even your best friend! Account sharing is illegal and can result in a ban.

When a Game Master contacts you, a special window opens. Game Masters have a blue Blizzard logo next to their name, and never write in the regular chat window! If a player contacts you with pink text in the regular chat pretending to be a Game Master or asks for personal information, it’s a scam, do not respond and report the player!

Official Blizzard email addresses include: @blizzard.com, @em.blizzard.com, @overwatchleague.com, @email.blizzard.com and @battle.net. If the domain is different, it’s a scam! Do not reply, do not click any links, and block the sender!

External sites not affiliated with Blizzard that offer codes, mounts, gold... in exchange for real money are illegal! Using them can result in account bans!

Sites like G2A or other discount key sellers are allowed, but scams and issues are common. Blizzard will not be responsible for faulty or already-used keys and cannot refund! Use with caution!

Add a valid email to recover your password if lost

Add a valid phone number to receive SMS alerts in case of suspicious activity

Create a complex password: at least 10 characters including uppercase, lowercase, numbers, special characters... The longer and more complex, the harder it is for someone else to guess.

Useful Links