World Of Warcraft question

Toxin01

I'm sure this is common knowledge but I can't seem to find it. I'm wanting to get into WoW with my girlfriend, but I'm really only looking to buy the vanilla WoW to start with, just in case she doesn't like it as much as she did the trial. However, I heard that since we tried it and the new Xpac came out, they completely redid all the low level questing and areas. Do I have to buy Cataclysm to get all this new stuff, or is t there for free, ripe for the questing?

Thanks.

Darkewolfe

All the redone stuff is available in vanilla. The only thing you'll be missing is any expansion races.

Steev

You should be fine with just vanilla. Just keep in mind that in order to play past 60 (if you both end up deciding to go forward), you need to buy The Burning Crusade, and to play past 70, you need Wrath of the Lich King. You can't bypass it all with just Cataclysm.

jeepinryan

Blizzard offers a "battlechest" package also, which includes vanilla and the Burning Crusade expansion in one box. It usually goes for about $40, but I saw it on Amazon for $33 a couple days ago.

As previous people have mentioned, you do get all the fancy new cataclysm content for free, minus the new races and new level 80-85 zones.

There is rumored to be a new battlechest coming in the future that includes the Wrath of the Lich King expansion too, but there are no details about it yet.

Darkewolfe

There was a great deal right around Christmas where the base game plus all expansions minus Cata went for $20. I don't think they'll repeat that sale again too soon, but they might.

Thundyrkatz

I recently (last few months) got the battle chest and played a Hunter up to level 70, and a few alts to the 30's. My game time runs out tomorrow and it was a lot of fun to play. As I only just got the hunter to 70, I never needed or missed the LK expansion. Also, all the Cata stuff came out last month, and it was a cool to see the world all changed up.

W/o Cata & LK you will not be able to get flying mounts in old world zones, (not an issue for your first 40 levels or so) Also, you will not be able to get Archeology, which might have been cool to have from the get go. lastly, your skill in your professions will cap out at Master, which i think was 350 or something.

If you both get up to level 60, and still like the game go and grab the next expansion.

Figgy

Darkewolfe wrote: »

There was a great deal right around Christmas where the base game plus all expansions minus Cata went for $20. I don't think they'll repeat that sale again too soon, but they might.

If I were you, I'd grab a couple copies of vanilla and keep my ear to the ground for another deal like this.

cabsy

Figgy wrote: »

Darkewolfe wrote: »

There was a great deal right around Christmas where the base game plus all expansions minus Cata went for $20. I don't think they'll repeat that sale again too soon, but they might.

If I were you, I'd grab a couple copies of vanilla and keep my ear to the ground for another deal like this.

Not that most people think this far ahead but for the past few years Blizz's Black Friday sale has been Vanilla for $5 and BC for $cheap (5-10) and it generally lasts from before US Thanksgiving until almost Christmas.

The Crowing One

You'll be fine just buying Vanilla/the Battlechest.

If, at any point, you want access to the other expansions (most likely for professions, races, zones or hitting the level cap) it's a pretty simple thing to pick them up.

When I first started back in early BC, ended up grabbing BC to fool about with the other races/areas once I knew I was hooked in. That was nearly four years ago (I think).

If you want to keep playing once you get started there is plenty of time to grab the expansions while you slog to 60.

And to my understanding (I believe) most of the old world changes are reflected in Vanilla. Including the ability for flying mounts in the vanilla zones. Don't take my word, but I believe that is the case. Now is actually a great time to start playing as the whole 1-60 has been re-worked, leaving only BC 61-67 as the painful part of leveling.

Steev

You definitely need Cataclysm to fly in the old world areas. I couldn't buy the flight license until I registered my Cata key. I was mildly disappointed because I couldn't fly around the world while I waited half a day for UPS to deliver it to me, but it was not a big deal.

StrifeRaZoR

Also, if you're into it more than her (Which is what I gathered from the OP), then consider doing a linked account. Basically, you start your account up, then refer her. She receives an email containing a new trial key. She starts a new account with that key. For the next 90 days, you're both linked. When grouped together, you gain 300% experience from kills and quests, making leveling up really really easy.

This benefits you the most, as there are other perks to this. If she decides to level up without you (Sometimes that happens), for every 2 levels that she gains above you, she can instantly grant any of your characters a free level. A quick example is what I did with my old account. I referred my secondary email, started a new account, and dual-logged both accounts and leveled them together. I used the second account to level a bunch of alternate characters up to 30, then continued on to 60 with the second account and left the main account at level 30.

In about 2-3 weeks, I had two accounts with a level 60 of every class (Except Deathknight). If she does continue to play and purchases a month of the game, you gain a free month and a free 2-person flying mount!

815165

I'd actually recommend against linking account, purely because the triple experience boost from levels 1-60 speeds you through the most fun content in the game right now at a pace where you never really get to feel like you've experienced it. 1-60 probably already goes too fast without any bonuses right now.

Nocren

I'm starting to see that. Even though I solo about 99% of the time in MMOs, WoW now seems to cruise by at a decent pace. Almost like I'm missing something because I took a left turn and followed that road instead of going right.

Jimmy King

1-60 is crazy fast. Hell, it was stupidly fast 6 months to a year ago. I leveled a fresh character just to see all the old content one more time before they changed everything and felt like I hit 60 way before I wanted to be done with it all. I'm sure it's even faster now.

You'll almost certainly want to level a few characters up with making different choices as to where to start and where to go next when you have a choice if you care about seeing all of the content.

Al_wat

Nocren wrote: »

I'm starting to see that. Even though I solo about 99% of the time in MMOs, WoW now seems to cruise by at a decent pace. Almost like I'm missing something because I took a left turn and followed that road instead of going right.

You have something on your back.



Yeah you don't need to buy Cata to play. All the changes that they made the old world, zone geometries, new towns, new quests, you'll have full (to my knowledge) access to that.

Like others have said, you need BC for lvls 61-70, WotLK for 71-80, and Cata for 81-85.