Help for the New Kids on the Block: A bit of a Start Me Up

I've recently made a new alt (Berniemadof - a Rogue, of course) so that I could create a bank/guild of my own. I now have my own personal guild: Ponzi Scheme. In the process, I had to chat up a bunch of very low level characters. Many of them were completely lost. I'd explain a few things, point out a few things and explain what some of the acronyms mean.

But enough of the history of HOW I came to this decision, but here it is: many of the guys running around have NO CLUE what to do, since they are starting out on their own, with no RL friends or anything to help them out.

So, from now on, every few posts or so, I'm going to dedicate a post to the newest of the new guys. I'll delve into some topics in fair detail, others in deep detail, and some in just passing. But the point will be to answer some of the most basic questions. Yes, many questions are easily searched for, but some players may not even realize it. I may not have my nominal musical pun in the titles of these, but we shall see... Regardless, it seems that so many websites & blogs focus of the "end game" or top level players (how do I gem, theorycrafting, dailies, etc) so I want to put together some basic info for folks new here.

First & foremost is a list of places to get information, as well as what types of information you can get. (note, I will embed links in many areas, so look for funny colored bits for links to click)

1. Google - Google is the friend of almost everyone in WoW. Chances are you will never think of a question that one of the other 12,000,000 players hasn't thought of, and posted about. Anything from "How do I equip new armor WoW?" or "How do I kill Hogger WoW". Just type in your question, (it may help to include the word "WoW" or "warcraft") and keep tinkering with your wording, and you will probably find the answer.
2. The WoW "blogosphere". Go to WoWheadlines.com, AzerothUnited.com, BlogAzeroth.com and look around for some blogs that fit your interest. Then, once you find a couple/few blogs you like, look to see what THOSE bloggers read. Before you know it, you'll find a plethora of places to go.
3. The WoW online databases & wikis: Thottbot.com, wowwiki.com, wowhead.com, Alakazam.com are the biggies for general (and some very specific) info, and places like Elitistjerks.com for more advanced info.

Between these 3 groups of sources of info, you should be able to get a LOT of needed information.

The other "HUGE" topic I think beginners need to become familiar with are the "addons". These are pieces of software that are used INSIDE of warcraft to make the game easier, more accessible, and just plain PLAYABLE. The big ones (In my opinion - if others have better/other suggestions, please reply!!!!) are:

• Carbonite - This does a TON of things: tells you where your quests need to be done, where they need to be turned in, as well as providing MUCH better maps than the standard ones that ship. It also lets you add notes, and "waypoints" on your maps.
• Quest Helper - Similar to Carbonite, but a bit less functional. They can work together. The one thing this has that Carbonite doesn't is a flight time timer. It tells you how long you will be on the flight path.
• Gatherer - It tells you where ore, plants and chests are. It puts these on your minimap, as well as showing them on your world map.
• Cartographer - Along with Carbonite, it gives you better/more usable maps.

There are a bunch of others, but for the basics, I think these are the ones you need to start with.

They can be downloaded at the following places:

• http://www.curse.com/
• http://www.wowmatrix.com/
• http://www.wowinterface.com/

I'm not the best with installing these, so I'll leave that for another day, or you can dig around. They aren't HARD, but it's just not something I do regularly, so I can't remember...