World of Warcraft Official Strategy Guide Review

Azeroth's Dwarves hail from the snowy Khaz Modan region. They have staunch friends in their Gnomish cousins; the races have become even closer since the latter were driven from their techno-city, Gnomeregan. Both are on excellent terms with the Humans of Stormwind, the last bastion of that species' civilization. Honorable and just, the Night Elves are nonetheless hesitant to trust the 'lesser races' within the faction known as the Alliance. The Tauren are normally peaceful, nomadic creatures devoted to the balance of nature. In the Horde, they are aligned with the fierce Orcs, brought to Azeroth unwillingly from their world, Draenor. The Trolls of the Darkspear tribe joined this coalition after an Orcish leader saved them from extermination. All three share a common enemy, the Lich King, with the Undead, although there aren't many feelings of goodwill in either direction.


Blizzard's World of Warcraft, which launched about three weeks ago, affords us the opportunity to explore Azeroth with characters from these eight playable races. Each offers a selection of up to six classes from an overall total of nine that includes Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Shaman, Priest and Druid. The gameworld includes two continents made up of almost 40 regions and a handful of large cities plus numerous other locations such as smaller communities and dungeons. Upon starting to find your way around, you'll discover the gameplay incorporates a considerable quest component, a wide assortment of enemies to overcome, lots of different weapons, armor and other items, and much more to learn. If you're looking for help in this regard, one option is our popular World of Warcraft Vault. Another is BradyGames' World of Warcraft Official Strategy Guide.

The latter is available in two versions. The standard one is a hefty 8.5- by 11-inch paperback tome with a total of 432 full-color pages. It carries a list price of $24.99 US. Of interest here is the fact it's co-written by Vault Network alumna Danielle "Sachant" Vanderlip. The same volume is part of a Limited Edition offering that also includes a three-ring binder plus the opportunity to access online updates. This alternative runs $29.99. In both cases, a 10-percent discount is currently available if you are or become a BradyGames member, which is free, and order from its online store. In such case, there is also no charge at this time for ground shipment within the US. Naturally, other retailers may differ.

The first chapter of the guide is called An Introduction to MMORPGs. It's actually not as generic as the title might suggest. The information included is a mix of general and game-specific. As an example, the Glossary has terms like AFK, camp, lag spike and nuke mixed in with abbreviations for particular locations and NPCs. A short segment of guidelines and tips on naming characters is pretty straightforward and unremarkable except for showing the first of quite a few Penny Arcade cartoons. Next is a section on etiquette that seems mainly intended for newbies but might serve as a good reminder for experienced ones as well. Then comes an annotated list of 10 Things Worth Knowing. These are also fairly basic such as selecting a class that suits your mentality and investing in creating friends and skilled allies.

The section on Understanding Equipment, Enemies and Levels introduces information such as the game's seven quality levels for equipment, the eight for reputation, how aggro works, and how elite enemies differ from standard ones. After that, there are comments on the party system, including some words on when not to group and how the looting system functions. The Quests portion outlines basics of this important aspect and the various types available. The death system is explained, and then come tips for players new to massively multiplayer gaming, including those coming from the Warcraft standalone titles, plus some words for immigrants from other online worlds. The last few pages of the chapter cover macros, slash commands, the keyboard layout and emotes.

Of necessity, the strategy guide has to provide fundamental types of information that, no matter how well presented, won't be of great interest to veteran virtual world gamers. That done, Chapter II, Learning Your Place in the World, starts to get somewhat meatier. It begins with an overview of the gameworld and its main regions, then continues with a condensed history of Azeroth. After a bit on the factions and reputation system, the five major cities and their respective backgrounds are presented. Each race has its own section with a description, starting statistics, racial traits and role-playing tips. The last portion provides some background on the nine classes.

Chapter III is called Your First Day, although your actual time may vary considerably depending on how you choose to play and the degree to which you focus on advancing rapidly. This part begins to get much more detailed. It covers the six starting regions; there aren't eight because dwarves and gnomes share one, as do orcs and trolls. For each area, there's a map showing its locations and landmarks, a full walkthrough of the quests you can undertake, and a few tips regarding specific creatures, tasks or locales.
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