What's the cheapest, fastest way to get back into WoW?

[CKent]

I'm not interested in going to the store and hearing a 15 minute spiel about how Monster Cables will enhance my gaming experience. I'm also not down with waiting up to a week for the CDs to arrive in the mail. Is the recruit-a-friend worth it if I wouldn't be playing with said friend? (I understand much of the beifeit is an experience bonus if you play together). Can i pay online by CC, upgrade a trial account and digitally download the rest? I'm looking for WoW + TBC + WoLK.

Or would it be best to wait until they include WOLK in the batte chest? And on that note, any word on when it'll be happening.

Lastly... is it worth it? I quit a little over a year ago. My guild died over (what else) teenage drama, and I was sick of getting raped in PvP due to people in much better arena gear dancing behind pillars until I got bored, fell asleep and died. Any changes for the better? I was thinking of rolling a rogue, are they still ludicrously overpowered?

 

[nanobreath]

Yes all the games are available as a digital download from blizz. You can pay and download everything directly from them. However, I seriously doubt that is the cheapest way to go. The recruit a friend thing still gives them a free month (I think) if you pay to keep playing so I doubt anybody would be upset with doing it for you. If the battle chest with only vanilla and BC is cheaper, that would most likely be the best way to go, would take a little time before you even need WotLK.


Worth it? That is a whole nother can of worms. If you enjoyed the game before, chances are you would enjoy it again. If you're really worried about enjoying it still, play the trial, upgrade to vanilla if you're having fun. Play until you need BC content and if you still enjoy it upgrade. And do the same again for WotLK. Probably not the cheapest way of doing it, but you're not making a large investment before you know it is worth it. Probably talking about a difference of 10-20 bucks.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I think it's worth a monthly fee even if you're only going to do the new Northrend zones. They are fantastic. However, leveling from 1-80 with no assets at this point... knowing what I know now I would probably not do it... but that's just my opinion.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Your old account would still be available if you just wanted to resubscribe. Then at least you're not starting from scratch (unless you deleted all your characters). The major benefit of RAF is to be able to both level quickly. The recruiter does get a special mount and free game time if you sign up for a month of playtime.

 

[smackababy]

I believe it is 2 months for the mount. Regardless, there is no point outright buying WotLK if you're starting over from scratch. You chould spread the purchase out, as unless you want to make a paladin on horde or a shaman on alliance, BC content isn't touched until 60. You never touch Northrend until 70 anyway as well, so might go ahead and forgo those purchases to begin with.

 

[brblx]

can't you get wow discs from best buy or such for like five bucks?

edit- i checked, 14 day trial is 1.99. i've been under the impression that's the full game. all they care about are your monthly fees and hawking copies of lich king.

 

[smackababy]

you have to buy the CD key. The client is free, you can download it from the website.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: smackababy
I believe it is 2 months for the mount.

Yes, as long as you pay for two months, you're fine. The easiest way to do this is just using a WoW game card as game cards are non-refundable, so you get your mount immediately. Subscribing does not work, because the player gets a free month and will not be billed until that is over. So even if you sign up for a 3 month cycle, you will still have to wait for a month unless you use the game card.

 

[Denithor]

Three things.

1) If you still have your old account - reactivate. That is the fastest way to get into end-game content.

2) If not - use the RAF. I'm willing to help if you want to level on either of the servers I have toons (Horde on Darrowmere and Alliance on Crushridge). With RAF you get 300% experience for kills & quests. Seriously - you will level 3x faster than without the program. I've heard of one guy leveling to 80 in like 12 hours of game time. Plus if you want to RAF with me I'll get both our noob toons set up with large capacity bags & plenty of gold so we won't have to slow down for anything.

3) If neither of those work - wait a little while. Patch 3.2 is supposed to bring several new things, such as a mount at level 20, that will seriously reduce the leveling grind time.

 

[smackababy]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: smackababy
I believe it is 2 months for the mount.

Yes, as long as you pay for two months, you're fine. The easiest way to do this is just using a WoW game card as game cards are non-refundable, so you get your mount immediately. Subscribing does not work, because the player gets a free month and will not be billed until that is over. So even if you sign up for a 3 month cycle, you will still have to wait for a month unless you use the game card.

I did not know that. As I did RaF with myself, I could easily buy two months of game time with the game card and get the mount imediately. That gives my main account a free month and a mount. =) I know it takes up to 72hours for the trial account limitations to be lifted when you upgrade digitally due to cancelations of payments and such.

 

[Cuular]

The mount is a level 60 mount, so it's pretty useless for a newb character. Now if you have a level 60, who doesn't currently have a mount, then it will save you about 200gold for the mount. You still have to pay the 600gold for the riding training.

 

[smackababy]

I heard it scales, but regardless I am leveling the characters to at least 60, so I'd use it no matter. Plus, I have 2 80s already.

 

[CKent]

Hrm, well... I was -really- high when I made that post. I apologize for the confusion it caused. Let me try to clarify:

1) I can't reinstate my old account. I made 4 figures off it ^_^

2) I am a power gamer. I would be lvl 80 within 2 weeks. I would -not- be playing with my friend who's willing to recruit-a-friend, since he plays on the shittiest server in WoW. I'm not interested in buying vanilla wow, playing it for 6 months, then buying bc, playing it for another 6, etc.

3) Is the cheapest way the battlechest + wolk? I'm not poor, I just suffer from cheapness to the point that it is a sickness rather than a virtue or even trait.

4) What I basically got sick of was Arenas. I don't think dueling for the best gear in the game is the best way to go about it. Some fucking little god damn 12 year old destined for a career in fast food would "pwn" me in battlegrounds because he liked arenas while I refused to do them on general principle, and so his gear was better than mine. Is this still the case?

 

[Bushwicktrini]

Hrm, well... I was -really- high when I made that post. I apologize for the confusion it caused. Let me try to clarify:

1) I can't reinstate my old account. I made 4 figures off it ^_^

OK so you cant do that

2) I am a power gamer. I would be lvl 80 within 2 weeks. I would -not- be playing with my friend who's willing to recruit-a-friend, since he plays on the shittiest server in WoW. I'm not interested in buying vanilla wow, playing it for 6 months, then buying bc, playing it for another 6, etc.

Then the D/L if for you

3) Is the cheapest way the battlechest + wolk? I'm not poor, I just suffer from cheapness to the point that it is a sickness rather than a virtue or even trait.

No word on the Battle chest so see point 2

4) What I basically got sick of was Arenas. I don't think dueling for the best gear in the game is the best way to go about it. Some fucking little god damn 12 year old destined for a career in fast food would "pwn" me in battlegrounds because he liked arenas while I refused to do them on general principle, and so his gear was better than mine. Is this still the case?

PVP in WoW is still about Arenas but the 2v2 bracket will no longer get you points (as of 3.2) so BG's might be safe as the 3v3 and 5v5 brackets are the only way to get points for that gear. And they rasie the ratings on the weapons and stuff so not everyone will have the weapons and some of the other gear so again BG's might be safe plus they added a raid that drops pvp gear (non weapons)

 

[gizbug]

AVOID WOW.
Game was fun 3 years ago, same old hack and slash/grind/raid/repeat.
Spend your time doing something more constructive. This game should be avoided, once you quit, STAY AWAY FROM IT

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: Bushwicktrini
PVP in WoW is still about Arenas but the 2v2 bracket will no longer get you points (as of 3.2) so BG's might be safe as the 3v3 and 5v5 brackets are the only way to get points for that gear. And they rasie the ratings on the weapons and stuff so not everyone will have the weapons and some of the other gear so again BG's might be safe plus they added a raid that drops pvp gear (non weapons)

Meh, so I would imagine there are still arena teams going around BGs, picking off soloists and patting themselves on the back about it, and dancing around a pole for 15 minutes if you happen to catch one of them alone?

Which brings me to my next question, since the only way to deal with that was to pick your battles, something rogues can do: Are rogues still unkillable gods? I was thinking it would be the most likely class if I came back, with maybe a druid alt on the side for pve.

 

[Anubis]

i told you you would be back

 

[rh71]

Rogues: First, I don't arena anymore, I really hate the weekly thing so even at mediocre brackets it wasn't fun. So I BG for my pvp kicks, and I enjoy group tasks in them anyway. I read that the goal is to kill fast and get out. And in WOTLK, your PVE gear did the best damage while still providing high health so rogues stuck with that instead of stacking resilience gear.

Is this still true? I'm sure arena rogues still want resilience since good battles are longer battles. I ask because I get facerolled so quickly if it's not a simple 1v1.

 

[evident]

i had more fun ganking idle horde players in gadgetzan w/ my mage and portaling away than i did playing any end game content...

 

[Bushwicktrini]

Originally posted by: CKent

Originally posted by: Bushwicktrini
PVP in WoW is still about Arenas but the 2v2 bracket will no longer get you points (as of 3.2) so BG's might be safe as the 3v3 and 5v5 brackets are the only way to get points for that gear. And they rasie the ratings on the weapons and stuff so not everyone will have the weapons and some of the other gear so again BG's might be safe plus they added a raid that drops pvp gear (non weapons)

Meh, so I would imagine there are still arena teams going around BGs, picking off soloists and patting themselves on the back about it, and dancing around a pole for 15 minutes if you happen to catch one of them alone?

Which brings me to my next question, since the only way to deal with that was to pick your battles, something rogues can do: Are rogues still unkillable gods? I was thinking it would be the most likely class if I came back, with maybe a druid alt on the side for pve.

Top Arena com is RMP in the 3v3 bracket. I hate pvp and my rogue is only 67 so i cant tell you if they are op but i will tell you DK's good Ret pallys ( which I am not one of) are what everyone seems to be crying about now. After 3.2 it's anybodies guess

 

[Denithor]

I play a lock on Crushridge (great server - very active) and I can say with certainty - rogues are clothies' worst nightmare come true. If one gets the jump on me and my trinket is on cooldown - I die. Even if my trinket is available at best I have 20-30% chance of surviving a rogue attack. They have so many ways to stunlock and then just dps you down (lack of armor makes it a ridiculously easy task).

If you're interested in a RaF I'd like to help - I play most nights so we could get toons to 60 very quickly. I've got Alliance toons on Crushridge and a couple of Horde lowbies on Darrowmere (which is a kinda slow server from what little I've seen). But I've got resources on both of those to get large capacity bags etc to get things rolling right. And if you don't like the server, after leveling up you could always transfer the toon(s) to a different one.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: CKent
Hrm, well... I was -really- high when I made that post. I apologize for the confusion it caused. Let me try to clarify:

1) I can't reinstate my old account. I made 4 figures off it ^_^

2) I am a power gamer. I would be lvl 80 within 2 weeks. I would -not- be playing with my friend who's willing to recruit-a-friend, since he plays on the shittiest server in WoW. I'm not interested in buying vanilla wow, playing it for 6 months, then buying bc, playing it for another 6, etc.

3) Is the cheapest way the battlechest + wolk? I'm not poor, I just suffer from cheapness to the point that it is a sickness rather than a virtue or even trait.

4) What I basically got sick of was Arenas. I don't think dueling for the best gear in the game is the best way to go about it. Some fucking little god damn 12 year old destined for a career in fast food would "pwn" me in battlegrounds because he liked arenas while I refused to do them on general principle, and so his gear was better than mine. Is this still the case?

2. You trying for a Horde character on Magtheridon EU? Last time I checked a month or so ago Ensidia was recruiting I think. If you dedicate that much time and effort on WoW, something like that may be right up your alley.

3. Probably. I actually always just bought just the CD keys from ebay seller and downloaded the clients. Instant WoW FTW.

4. Always depended on what you do. PvP gear wasn't the best from what I have experience in if you PvE. It's insanity to use PvP gear to raid as a man regen based healer (Priest, Druid), and for the same itemlevel, PvP gear is really below average for DPS and decently bad for tanking.

Just as an example for cat druids(since I play a dual spec feral/resto druid), the S6 and T8 sets compared (since they are within 6ilevels of each other (232 for S6, 226 for T8)

Furious Gladiator Dragonhide Robes
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41661

596 Armor
+105 Agility
+138 Stamina
Red Socket
Yellow Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Resilience Rating
Durability 120 / 120
Classes: Druid
Requires Level 80
Requires personal and team arena rating of 1750
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 64 (1.39% @ L80).
Equip: Improves your resilience rating by 80 (0.98% @ L80).
Equip: Increases attack power by 120.

Conqueror's Nightsong Raiments
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46159

591 Armor
+97 Agility
+119 Stamina
Red Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +6 Agility
Durability 120 / 120
Classes: Druid
Requires Level 80
Equip: Improves hit rating by 49 (1.49% @ L80).
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 66 (1.44% @ L80).
Equip: Increases attack power by 162.

What we see is the PvE gear actually provides slightly more dps at the expense of less resilience (which if you are DPS doesnt matter much[me, a little less DoT damage, yippie], and if you are Bear, again, doesn't matter all all due to crit immunity talent). That on top of the better socket and socket bonus (Red for agility, blue for a purple Agility/stam gem)

Also, the T8 set bonus actually helps your DPS while the Arena S5 set has resilience and movspeed bonuses (again pretty close to useless in PvE).

So really, PvE gear is best for PvE and PvP gear is best for pvp, it has not been the case where PvP gear outshone PvE gear since WoW 1.x. S2 gear though tradable for T5 badges was ridiculously bad for PvE, purely PvE statwise, being worse than T4 by quite a bit, it didn't really get to parity until S4 gear, at which point there was no Tier gear to compare it to item level wise so it was competitive with good PvE Gear. With the release of WoTLK, PvP gear has gained ground, become decent for DPS/Tank feral druids but still not as good as equal level PvE gear.

As a raid healer, its crazy to rely on something with 0+spirit and very low +mp5 as found on PvP gear. Sure you'll have creay +spellpower, but it doesn't mean anything if you run OOM and the guild cant rely on you to pull your weight in healing. Of course spirit got nerfed in 3.1, which means less mana regen (40% less) when out of 5 second rule and the same amount in 5 second rule, but as a main healer druid, I'm rarely out of 5 second rule so spirit still applies to me, that on top of the +heal bonus from spirit and it'd be crazy to go for 0+spirit gear, especially when at higher intellect, per item level point, spirit becomes fairly equal to pure +mp5 inside 5 second rule mana regen and still beats it outside 5 sec rule.

Of course my experiences are as I'm usually OT(so I prioritize Tank stats, don't get me started ranting about how the continuous bear nerfs have destroyed my toon, leaving all druids fairly worthless as the MT I used to be) and Main raid healer(so I went mana regen over +heal bonus) so your experiences may vary.

 

[I Saw OJ]

I recently started all over after selling my account and taking about a 3 month break.

Downloaded the vanilla WoW free trial and got to level 10 in about 45 minutes and so I upgraded online. Figured the grind from 1-60 would take me a bit of time since I didnt have any money for anything and no one to help me out. Got to level 60 in a little over 4 days /played and wanted to continue so I was kinda forced into buying TBC. Looking back I totally should have done the battlechest thingy.

Making money this time around is a hell of a lot easier, did mining/herbalism and have plenty of money to by my epic land mount at 60 with tons left over.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: Anubis
i told you you would be back

To be honest, what I'm reading here has me thinking I'm not going to go through with it. I enjoyed battlegrounds, which were ruined by resilience and superior arena gear - still in place. I enjoyed challenging pve, but my buddy says it's all been nerfed to hell, in his words "the opposite of a heroic", even in 10 & 25 man modes. Something about all tanks now having automatic aoe aggro. I'd still like to see the new content just for the sake of seeing it, but that isn't reason enough for me to make the time investment.

Actually I kinda want to try EQ2... but I'd cut my own balls off sooner than I'd ever pay Sony more money :laugh:

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[mwmorph]

Raids are easier. It's no longer Naxx or Sunwell hard so more people can get into it. They're not "easy", you'll still wipe but it's no longer agonizingly difficult like the Sunwell was. Heroics are a challenge.

As for your complaint that Arena gear ruins BGs, well I mean take any RPG game, the more effort and the better you get at a game, the better gear you are rewarded with. Arena is more difficult than BGs to be successful so the superior players get superior equipment. That's like saying I dont like how a a player that has Heroic Udular on farm status has better gear than me when I only do Naxx 10 man non heroics.

Every game has a gear progression curve from Battlefield 2 to WoW, on the basis that you should be awarded for the time and effort you spend playing and the skill you accrue along the way.