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I have a trial account. If I upgrade it online so that I'm now a subscriber, does that mean I still have to pay for WoW, BC and WotLK? Or is it just a one off thing to subscribe, and I can jump straight into WoTLK?

If you upgrade yes, you will have to pay for "vanilla" WoW and the two expansion packs. Even then, you can't jump straight to WotLK. Well, alright, a level 1 character could take the zepplin to Northrend but you'd get slaughtered as soon as you stepped outside the landing zone.

Really, not much point to buying the expansions until you get at least one character to level 58 and can go through the Dark Portal to Outland (that's Burning Crusade) and no reason to buy WotLK until you're ready for Northrend around level 68. You will still be able to buy, use, and sell items from the expansions until then.

The exception would be if you could get a price break buying the whole thing in a bundle.

Broomstick wrote:If you upgrade yes, you will have to pay for "vanilla" WoW and the two expansion packs. Even then, you can't jump straight to WotLK. Well, alright, a level 1 character could take the zepplin to Northrend but you'd get slaughtered as soon as you stepped outside the landing zone.

Really, not much point to buying the expansions until you get at least one character to level 58 and can go through the Dark Portal to Outland (that's Burning Crusade) and no reason to buy WotLK until you're ready for Northrend around level 68. You will still be able to buy, use, and sell items from the expansions until then.

The exception would be if you could get a price break buying the whole thing in a bundle.

Well, that's annoying. I'll fork out the cash for WoW and cross the expansion bridge when I come to it. Money-sucking evil game *grumble*.

Yes, yes it is. They do a whole lot of different things to keep you sending in that monthly check. The upside is that they do manage to make it fun enough to keep 12 million people interested (give or take some gold farmers), the question is, are you one of those fools?

You'll need Burning Crusade if you want your character to take up jewelcrafting, since that'll give you access to the Blood Elf and Draenei capitals (the only place with jewelcrafting trainers before Outland).

If not, then just get the expansions whenever you want.

I'd get Burning Crusade right away - the levelling areas added in it are a LOT better than the old ones.

Also, see if you can get someone to sponsor you (or you sponsor someone else) - that way you get something like a 300% XP boost and additional free levels and stuff like that. This of course is moot if you like to take your levelling slower, but thats up to you.

If you really want to speed up the leveling process, buy up to WOTLK, and you can start a Death Knight character. It starts at level 55, the opening questline gives you a full set of blue gear thats better than any gear you get until Northrend, you get a free mount and free First Aid leveled. Biggest bonus is you skip most of the boring Vanilla wow questlines and zones, downside is you're playing a very overpopulated class.

you have to have a character at 55 on the server to start a DK though, so it doesn't really matter till you get one that far.

I would go with the buying the expansions shortly before you need to go there to level idea personally.

phred wrote:I would go with the buying the expansions shortly before you need to go there to level idea personally.

That really only applies with WotLK since there's no content available to you from it until you're at least 55. Like Turtle said, the Burning Crusade starting zones are far superior for levelling early on than other places like Silverpine and Darkshore, plus without tBC you're limiting your class, race and profession options a bit.

phred wrote:you have to have a character at 55 on the server to start a DK though, so it doesn't really matter till you get one that far.

They have fixed it recently where you can start a Death Knight on any server as long as you have at least one level 55+ character on your account.

But yeah, hongi would need to get to level 55 first before that becomes an option

Bleh, I haven't played since July and haven't gotten WoTLK either obviously, would be nice to have WoW to fall back upon if I'm bored.

Oh well, there's still the addicting-as-hell Paradox Entertainment strategy games I have...

The other uses I can think of for getting the other expansions right now all involve professions, like going to Dalaran to get Grand Master in a prof.
That's pretty irrelevant though - now that I think about it, those require certain levels anyways.
Basically, it doesn't matter when you buy the expansions as long as you have the cash handy.

I would recomend making sure you have someone to play with. I started playing when my server was realativily new, and it was fun to run around with people who were learning it at the same time as me. These days my alts are often the only person in the entire zone, and the grindiness really shows when you dont have anyone to talk with while you do it.

Also, I would echo that the new starting zones atted with the Burning Crusade expansion are heads and shoulders above the original starting areas.

I gotta admit that Ghostlands and Eversong are nice nice for the horde, but I really like Elwynn Forest and Westfall for the alliance.

I just don't care for the Dranei areas. Especially Exodar

phred wrote:I gotta admit that Ghostlands and Eversong are nice nice for the horde, but I really like Elwynn Forest and Westfall for the alliance.

I just don't care for the Dranei areas. Especially Exodar

Probably the quickest leveling areas are belf and human (going by hearsay - it still took me like 10 hours to get to 20, so not going by personal experience XD)
That probably isn't really a factor at this point, because hongi has been playing the trial version...
That reminds me. If hongi made a belf/draenei, then BC is required to play it.

Memnon wrote:

phred wrote:I gotta admit that Ghostlands and Eversong are nice nice for the horde, but I really like Elwynn Forest and Westfall for the alliance.

I just don't care for the Dranei areas. Especially Exodar

Probably the quickest leveling areas are belf and human (going by hearsay - it still took me like 10 hours to get to 20, so not going by personal experience XD)
That probably isn't really a factor at this point, because hongi has been playing the trial version...
That reminds me. If hongi made a belf/draenei, then BC is required to play it.

the belf/draenei 1-20 zone rewards are slightly better then vanilla equilevants (they're TBC standard for those lvls)

Minischoles wrote:Biggest bonus is you skip most of the boring Vanilla wow questlines and zones

Those become boring when you have to go through them for the umpteenth time, but for a first time into WoW, I'd recommend trying to get into the quests and storylines, and let them ease you into the PvE content. Even if you want to level quickly, the increased XP gain makes it really fast, even on pre-TBC content.

Also, and very importantly, starting from level 1 and taking your time to learn is a better way to understand how to use your character in the long run. Going too fast (or starting a DK, or worse yet, doing like those twats who buy a fully-levelled character from the get go) can become really confusing, and make things hard as high level content requires a lot more mastery over your role in the party than the starting content.

Of course, the best advice is to have someone to play with. Firstly, it's a multiplayer game, and secondly, finding a pick-up group for the pre-WotLK content is hard nowadays (frustratingly so for pre-TBC content).

Also, if you like Blood-Elves or Draenei, you'll have to get TBC from the get go.

Ahhh ... If you've paid for the subscription and updated your character then just grab the discs off some mates no?

You actually pay for the CD-Keys. And yes, you need them to activate your account.

Well, he could do that or just download the game as Blizz offers once you pay for the upgrade.