Returning to WoW after 18~24 months...

Just a couple things:

1) WoW thread is basically dead, you should've probably just posted this here (not trying to be a dick, I bet it gets merged)

2) Levelling with a guild is best, especially a max level guild. They offer perks like extra exp, rep, some nice rewards, etc. Also with enough rep you can buy the heirloom stuff only available to guilds.

3) Levelling is piss-easy. You don't really need to buy new gear. Just go to the first Panda zone (I forget the name) and begin questing. You'll have enough gear halfway through your first level that you won't know what to do with it all. Seriously it's really easy, you could just take a dump on your keyboard and you'd be 90 in 3 days.

4) Add-ons. I prefer ElvUI. It's a pretty nice package that actually looks and functions really well. They always keep it updated, and I've used it since the beginning of WOTLK. Not sure how it looks on a shitty resolution, but I play at 1600x900 and it looks good.

http://www.tukui.org/dl.php

5) People hate on this game a lot, so don't expect a mountain of advice. The game has turned into a very casual affair, and Looking For Raid makes it really easy to jump right in and go when you hit 90.

6) No idea what to spec as a mage, I'd assume any spec is viable now as I'm sure you've noticed that the talent overhaul significantly ez-moded up the talent trees.?

Just play the shit it's fool proof.

Don't worry about gold for gear. Like noodle said, once you hit up Pandaria, the quest rewards will exceed anything you had in cata unless you raided. If you're a tailor, they can make some decent starter cloth armor (green quality panda recipes will proc as rare versions sometimes when you craft). Join a "leveling guild" that is 25 for the perks...bonus xp+rep is always a bonus. They should be easy to find and usually there is no catch: members, for every kill of a mob, create bonus gold which goes straight into the guild coffers. Guild leader gets gold, you get perks.

You'll gain plenty of gold while questing. Also keep your eyes peeled while leveling in Pandaria...sometimes you can find groundspawns that vendor for 100g or so. Also take the Blingtron daily quest everytime you see one, as sometimes the gift boxes can contain vendor trash that sells for a good amount.

There always used to be a few WOW threads back on FOH. So this thread stays for people "coming back". It'll probably be the last one ever, which is kind of sad.

I look forward to the day where the majority of the board plays one game for longer than 3 months before quitting. Here's to hoping.

Just go to Panda land. Get through the first few areas. You will struggle a little until you get some gear. At the first "town" you get to there is an Adventuring vendor. Just buy all the green gear that is better than yours. You will replace most of you gear which is fine. Get your ilevel up to queue for the Mist dungeons. Replace your gear you bought with the blue quest and dungeon gear.

Popular Mage build until very high ilevel is Frost.

Here is a decent guide:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8414572302

Also you can go here:
http://www.icy-veins.com/frost-mage-wow-pve-dps-guide

There are plenty of sites. Mostly I use the WoW forum post above to max out my DPS rotations.

Download magenuggets addon if you don't already have it.

Read the WoW forum post. All the way through it.
I stayed with the left side of the talent window:
Presence of Mind
Temporal Shield
Ring of Frost
Greater Invisibility (you will use this more than you think)
Nether Tempest (awesome)

I am only 86

Well if you played WoW for years, left, then came back post-revamp, you can be excused for being slightly confused since they completely changed a lot of the classes.

bad idea

Here's what's important to know about WoW today:
Everyone is a god damn prick.

Draegan_sl said:

There always used to be a few WOW threads back on FOH. So this thread stays for people "coming back". It'll probably be the last one ever, which is kind of sad.

I look forward to the day where the majority of the board plays one game for longer than 3 months before quitting. Here's to hoping.

Click to expand...

There'll be plenty of WoW threads for years, come 2015-2020 everyone playing now will bring it up in each new game thread and tell you how much better it was back in 2004-2013 in the golden days of WoW. Hell it already started with the rose-colored glasses not only bringing up EQ but also a so-called WoW-vanilla. Can this thread now be about WoW nostalgia instead of explaining panda land?

(guilty myself, sue me)

Although I do look forward to an MMO that engages me enough to play it longer without breaks, too.

Introduce yourself to the game slowly, don't worry about guilds, UIs, gear or specs. All that shit will come naturally. Assuming you have Pandaria, head to your home town and follow the bread crumb quest to get in. That's the ONLY thing you will need to know.

I did the same thing about 8 months ago, I just played and got the grips with the game again treating myself like a bit of a newbie. The odd kind of newbie that's a veteran at learning new games. When you're ready to take the next steps like knowing the best DPS rotation, the best gear stats, raids, you'll know where to go to find it.

The pet battle system was one of the most enjoyable things to sit down and just play, explore and have fun with, without resorting to a EJ style spreadsheet to know what pet was the uberest. Was also a blast to just run around old zones, battling new pets and soloing MC/Naxx for a few of them as well.

I can't open it at work but does the link just say "Dailies" and that's it?

No.

should be a thread for old WoW screenshots !

I did this during cataclysm. Didn't work out. Go play star wars or wait for world of starcraft

I have thought about resubbing for a month just to do the new Warlock greenfire quest.

Beware, that quest is hardcore.