Palalaps guide to RETRO-WOW.
Hi All,
I have been playing on the server for a few weeks now. I'm absolutely hooked. I'm still new but fairly well geared and I have learned from my experiences and my mistakes and would like recommend to other new players what to do and what not to do.
Even if your end goal on the server is PVP with full BIS gear (mine was and still is) you should 100% PVE first. 
PVE
1) Get Pre-raid BIS gear from the vendors. Do NOT get Wildheart etc.
This is REALLY important, I will take starters for my groups (either on my main or alts) but they MUST be pre-raid BIS. If I invite someone and they are decked out in Valor. All that does to me is flag up "This person is inexperienced" and may be a liability or at the very least unable to perform their role to the fullest.
There are tonnes of resources available for every class and selecting your pre-raid BIS. 
2) Get the optimum talent build AND rotation for PVE.
Again another crucial point. Get the -threat talents, get the mana regen while casting talents. Don't get the increased duration on stun talents etc. 
Make sure you are using the correct rotation. (This means you Warlocks, stop putting Siphon life on Tank and Spank fights where there is no movement required). 
Think about the party more than just yourself. (I don't mean to pick on Warlocks). Warlocks the way to boost the party DPS the most is to put Curse of the Elements on the boss initially (Due to Firemage Damage with Ignites being absolutely insane) and switch to curse of Shadow once the Mage is OOM (And evocate is on Coodown - Again communication makes this much easier)
Rogues keep expose armor up for the warrior (+threat) and your own personal damage. etc.
Paladins put blessing of kings on your Mage before he evocates. etc.
Warriors keep up that battle shout and sunder up for your rogue etc.
Mages make sure you put amplify magic up on fights where there is no magical spell damage etc.
Again there are tonnes of resources available for every class.
3) Research all of the boss fights for all of the instances
Another crucial point, the majority of players completed or attempted these encounters during the "Vanilla Era". A number of the boss mechanics are different here (weaker) but if you read the 40-man boss mechanics you will most likely be over prepared for the fight. It's better to be over prepared then to be under prepared.
4) Get all of the Raid Quests
While running the instances make sure everyone in your party has the "Slay XXX" Quests for the instance. Then make sure everyone completes this, you'll be doing 90% of the quest on your normal clear anyway, it's free gold and consumes. Do not miss this opportunity.
5) Make friends
When you first start, you want to make groups for Zul'Gurub, AQ20 and Onyxia first.
I highly recommend making your own group. When you run an instance and spot someone who is good, add them to your friends list, talk to them try and get on a VOIP (voice over IP) chat if possible. Being able to speak in real time will greatly assist your progress. 
When I started playing here I was a holy paladin on my own with no pre-established connections, I made friends with a Prot warrior during an Onyxia run. We then had a binge instance day and ran ZG > BWL > AQ40 in one day in full starter gear except for the upgrades we picked up along the way.
If you're in the making friends mindset. It makes sense to make friends with a good tank.
6) Patience
You are going to wipe. You're going to have difficulties. You're going to have assholes in your party. You need to remain calm at all times and focus on the goal (Clearing the instance). Rise above petty behaviour. 
You can reduce the amount of patience you require if you make friends with some good players. The strongest composition for the 5man instances here (in my opinion) is Prot Warrior, Holy Paladin, Fire Mage, Warlock (SM / Ruin or Demonic Sac / Ruin) and a Combat Sword Rogue. If you make friends with people who are playing these classes and specs correctly. You'll find PVE to be a breeze.
If you are leading the group, use ML for bosses and group loot for trash (Unless you are playing with a solid trustworthy group you can just leave the loot on FFA to improve the speed)
7) Progression and Gearing up (This section will be massive - Apologies for wall of text)
So when you first join the server, you'll probably look at the "Vendors" selling those shiny Naxx weapons and Armor and gasp in awe at the possibilities even with the hefty price tag. DO NOT BUY ANY GEAR YOU CAN GET VIA DROPS.
I see this mistake being made over and over again. Every item in the game is obtainable via normal mechanisms (I.e. you kill the boss and there is a chance the boss will drop the loot) with the exception of the Kel'Thuzad and Ouro items. 
The only items you should be thinking of buying should be the KT items. You want to work from the bottom up while gearing (Running Ony / ZG / AQ20 etc.) but your purchases should work the way other way around, you want to work from the top down (the unobtainable items) then the hardest bosses in Naxx (Gluth, Maex and Thad - If you are unable to kill those bosses) so your gear should "meet up" at some point.
You can clear all of the content up to Naxx EASILY in full starter gear with a strong team (players AND comp). I have seen this and done this myself.
As for Naxx. This is where making friends is again crucial. You want to run Naxx with the same people you have progressed with ideally. You want to aim for Naxx as soon as you have cleared all of the pre-naxx content.
Say for example you rounded up a strong group of 5. Cleared ZG, AQ20, Onyxia, BWL and AQ40 in one day. (I'm talking hardcore grind here but you get the idea). You should farm Argent Dawn rep to honored and get the Naxx attune and the Echoes of War quest and then you should grab your flasks and consumes and head to Naxx. 
Naxx is difficult compared to the other content you have done so far. You will struggle, it will be a challenge but the rewards are yours for the taking.
You want to dedicate 4h+ (2 x Flasks) for your first Naxx run. 
You are unlikely to clear Naxx on your first try. Your goal on your first Naxx run is to kill as many bosses as you can, get as much T3 or Naxx weapons / items as you can and then create the T3 items during the downtime (When your not raiding)
You want to start with the Death Knight wing. A full clear of this is very easy compared with the other wings, you can get some really nice items on the way T3 Chest from 4hm etc.
Then you want to do Patchwerk and Grobbulus (Abomination Wing)
Then you want to do the Plague Wing
Then you want to do the Spider Wing (This is where we got stuck on our first Naxx run and this was actually due to my error of not anticipating the insect swarm damage from Anub correctly and not focus healing the tank (keeping him topped up and ignoring the rest of your party - they will survive, I learnt from that mistake)
If you clear the spider wing you then want to swim / run to Thad and if you get him down slay the mighty Saphiron!
This is the path you should take for a full clear, if you get stuck at any of the bosses due to a gear cap (Grobb could be a possibility due to party wide damage) you want to move onto the next wing (Plague) and progress as far as you can.
The goal during your first run as already stated is not a full clear though, if you can get a few bosses down you have achieved your goal and can prepare for the next run.
After you've finished your first run and obtained some T3 tokens. (Ideally the tank because the 4-set bonus is a life safer) you then want to get the BIS enchants on your gear. Hopefully during you ZG runs you've got an idol or two or perhaps even exalted with Zandalar. You want to fully enchant any of your "BIS" gear. (You shouldn't be enchanting anything that isn't BIS as you will eventually replace it.)
Learn from your tactical mistakes and learn from your consumable mistakes (You can always use more - a major mana pot earlier can pay dividends etc.). 
PVP - Will be considerably less detailed. 
I personally don't like to PVP until I have the BIS PVP gear (or very close to it) it's simply not fun playing against someone with better gear and thinking "If only I had that 8/8 redemption bonus for the heal on cleanse". Obviously some of the BIS PVP gear you will get through pvp (R12 / 13 gear for some classes).
That's my personal preference, if you are playing a lot and are saved to all of the raids, you may aswell pvp if you want to continue on that character.
1) Gear
You want the best gear you have available to you for PVP this is obvious and explained above.
2) Talent Build
Gold is readily available on this server, you should be respeccing for PVP. You will just have more fun being able to effectively pvp.
3) Complete the attunement quest ASAP.
Every Battleground completed will either be 100g or 300g. When turning in the marks for gold.
When I first started playing here I didn't realise there was an attunement quest, I turned in my WSG marks for rep. About 100 of them. RIP.
Learn from my mistake.
Play to win. Play hard.
4) Make Friends.
I see a lot of complaints about premades. Complaining about something that can be changed is really silly. It's like when people complain about being fat, you can change that. If you don't like facing premades - You can't change that but you can make your own and level the playing field. Vanilla PVP isn't balanced, we all know this and we should all come to terms and accept this instead of complaining about it. Everyone knew what they were in for when they played on a vanilla server.
I join "premades", however there was a time when I didn't. What I used to do was solo queue in a battleground healing random terrible players, but every so often someone would surprise me (in a good way) Either a team mate or an enemy player. Instead of bitching about them, do you know what I did? I would whisper them and ask them if they wanted to team up after the game.
9/10 People want to play with other competent people. If you see someone competent befriend them. There is no wall between factions, if you see an elemental shaman who is instantly purging freedom and protection, befriend them.
The other thing about befriending people who are good and inviting them to party up. You wont' have to play against them again! If you're playing WSG a lot and let's be honest AB is not popping often enough and having 30 players participating in it you should make friends with a couple of druids.
Eventually (if you are good) you will create a "name" for yourself and when you log on people will be begging you to come play in their WSG group.
The most fun you have when pvp'ing is when two geared good premades bump heads. It would be great if we could organise something here. Rated Battlegrounds perhaps? Maybe something in the future for Retro-wow.
Sorry for the ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE POST. I hope anyone who reads this may at least take away something useful from this.
Kind Regards, Palalap / Shotz + Others
Great guide, it should be put in the important thread section so that people can see it easier, otherwise it will just disapear in the others threads.
Edit :
Here are the custum commands you can use in game :
.maxskill : make all your skill to the maximum, you must target yourself or nothing to make it work
.st to come back to Hyjal (The command got 5min cd)
.rep : Repair your stuff for free, you need to target nothing or yourself to make it work
.duelmod on : Once this command done, the next duel you do will reset your reset of 15min or less as soon as your opponent accepted the duel. The cost of it is 1 pvp token.
.duelmod off : Cancel the reset cd and allows you to make duel without resetting your cd and therefor not using pvp token
Yoooooo!

THIS GUY GETS IT
+1 for sticky
Two thumbs up.
-Melty aka Finitude
Pls make itles like 1) Gear bolt etc gives nice overview
Nice guide
:-)
Good guide buddy, pretty much explains the basics very good.
+1 for sticky, indeed!
Prob bzt guide ever

Thanks for the guide. Im a noob here. Thought maxskills was /maxskills. Thanks for the clarification on how to use that. I'd hate to learn skills one at a time




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