On Knowing It All

WoW is a pretty rich game in terms of things to know. 55 different factions, 121 distinct zones, thousands of quests, tens of thousands of mobs & npcs, over 20,000 items and well over 30,000 different player abilities (spells, racials, trade skills, etc.). add in less tangible things like strategies, theory crafting and out-of-game info (upcoming releases, patch notes, etc.) and you end up with an overwhelming amount of information to keep track of and digest. many players will embrace blissful ignorance in the face of all this, but some of us like to know it all... or at least convince everyone else that we do ;)

over to the right, under the Resources header, I've posted a short list of links to sites that I use to help me make sense of it all. it is by no means a complete list (google is your friend), but these are the sites I use most frequently. here's what each site is good for:

Wowhead: this is *the* site for looking up info on how to do a quest, where to find an item, how a spell works (and opinions on whether it's good or bad), what crafting patterns are available at your level, etc. if you're looking for info related to a quest, npc, mob, item or ability in the game you'll find it here. Wowhead also has some handy tools, such as a talent calculator (I find this one a bit less clunky then the official calculator found on www.worldofwarcraft.com). there are a few other sites out there that provide similar info (Thottbot, Allakhazam), but I prefer Wowhead.

WoW Wiki: just what it sounds like; a wiki for all things WoW. while it does have some quest, item and class info I use wowwiki for two things: faction info and instance guides. they have easily digestible rep grinding guides for most of the factions in the game; very helpful towards the end game. for almost all of the instances, they have a page detailing where to find it, how to get attuned/keyed for entry, what kind of trash mobs to expect, what the bosses are and some basic strategies for defeating them. it makes a handy reference if you've never been to a particular instance before or when no one in your group can remember what abilities the next boss has.

Armory: this is a service provide by Blizzard where you can find info on items (Wowhead does a better job), characters, guilds and arena teams. character info is what I use it for. ever see someone run past you wearing some sexy gear and wonder what it was? ever get stomped by someone from the other faction and want to know what their gear/spec was? Armory has the answers. look up characters by name and server and you can see what gear they have on, what their talents are, professions, reputation, guild and arena team affiliations and more. in addition to looking up someone else, it's also handy to look up your own characters if you need some info about them and can't log into wow... like, when you're at work and writing a blog about WoW... >.> note that although the armory data comes direct from the game servers, it's not always up-to-the-minute fresh. sometimes it might be a day or three behind.

Petopia: for you hunters out there, this is the place to learn about all things pet related. what pets are available, where and how to tame new pets, how to train your pet, what all the pet skills do and so on.

Evertras' Mage Page: back when I was playing my mage I used to cruise the mage forums looking for tips on specs, spells and how to use them with a focus on pvp (I was on a pvp server). Evertras' name popped up again and again. he's got some great info for mages on his site (talent builds, macros, add-on recommendations), but what earns him his place in my list are his series of mage pvp videos. more than your typical ZOMG POM-PYRO CRITZ NUB FOR 1000000!!1! crap, his videos are very well-edited how-to vids that show you how to make the most of your mage in solo and small-group pvp encounters. fun to watch and educational to boot.

Elitist Jerks: this is the place to go if you want to understand the game mechanics at a really deep level. want to know much +hit you need to never miss? want to know if dual-wielding with WF/WF does more dps than dual-wielding with WF/FT? want to know how damage mitigation works? you'll find it all here. it's not always the easiest info to digest and you won't always find concrete answers (some mechanics are still hotly debated), but in general the info here is very high quality. do you need to know all this stuff to play the game? not at all. will knowing even some of this stuff make you a better player? absolutely.

you'll also notice some (woefully few) links to blogs on the right. these are sites I visit frequently and often learn things from, but not necessarily places you can go to look up answers to specific questions. BRK is the outspoken, self-appointed patron saint of Beast Mastery hunters everywhere. he's opinionated, often witty and knows his shit. Harl, my own BM hunter (41/20, baby!), owes an awful lot of his success to various bits of wisdom gleaned from BRK's writings. his blog is also a great place to discover other cool wow blogs, such as Out of Mana. Megan's posts on Out of Mana are usually pvp oriented, with a focus on arena. even though I don't play anywhere remotely near her level pvp-wise I still find the tips, tricks, strategies and observations she writes up to be stuff I can learn from. both blogs are literate, intelligent, not entirely humble... my kind of players, in other words ;)