[GUIDE] How to Stay Safe and be Successful in World of Warcraft

[x Royal x]

Royal's ULTIMATE Guide to World of Warcraft and How to Be Successful in It.

This will be a big wall of text. Get over it. Read it all and reap the benefits!

Lately, I've gotten a lot of requests from my friends in real life about how I'm able to stay virus free, secure, and be successful in World of Warcraft.
A good amount of them have fallen for keyloggers/phishing... etc.
So, I shared with them the basic knowledge of the interwebz! And this knowledge I'm going to share with you guys

First things first, how to be safe.
One of the most common way a "hacker" will "hack" your WoW account is via Keyloggers/Malicious programs that you either download off of youtube or you click a link on the WoW forums. The simplest way to combat this is to have an excellent AV (Anti-Virus).
Most people go "Oh! My computer has Norton I'm safe!"... not.
The best AV I've come across is ESET NOD32. The best part about it is it's free, for the most part

Head over to their download link: Eset - Trial version
And download their Anti-Virus. You could get their Smart Security pack also, but it comes with a Firewall that's a pain to deal with. I'd just stick with the Anti-Virus download.
After you've downloaded ESET, you've got 30 days before you have to pay. However, you can just go to this site: NOD32 Antivirus Software
And get free keys for eternity. The best AV for free.
You can enter your key here:


So now we're pretty much safe from the scammers (hackers if you will) and their programs. There still is phishing which you have to worry about, but if you're dumb enough to fall for a fake e-mail and put your information in on WOWACCOUNTVERIFY.110MB.COM then you deserve to have your account cleaned out.

Next, how to be successful in World of Warcraft. There are multiple ways to be successful in WoW. Do you want to be that rich guy that owns the server's economy and runs around in that Traveler's Mammoth? Perhaps you want to be the Gladiator of the realm and have your Gladiator mount to show off. Or maybe you want to be the realm renowned Healer/Tank/DPS that everyone looks to for advice on how to kill a boss or pass a certain phase (and have a sick proto-drake to fly around on).

I can help you, for the most part, begin your journey to either one of these fantastic goals.

I. Getting Gold and How to Do It
There's plenty of guides on MMOwned on how to make gold. I'll show you the method I use personally to make a DECENT amount of gold. This will not be the best method, nor the only method, you can use to make gold but it got me rich and allowed me to make over 50k gold in a matter of 1 month and I barely laid a finger on my keyboard.

So, what's the key to becoming rich in WoW? Botting. What? I'm telling you to bot? Yes, that's correct. Gatherbuddy is probably your best bet as the best gathering bot out there. It is not free but is absolutely wonderful at what it does, gather. Best of all, you don't even have to have 450 mining/herbing as it'll level them for you.

Where can you get it? Follow this link: Gatherbuddy
The sad part is, with MMOTotus down, you have to pay for this service
It's very, very worth it and according to some secret sources you may be able to find it for "free"; I recommend buying it.

But, it's not as simple as that. You can't just use your main account to bot on 24/7. YOU WILL GET BANNED! First of all, most bans don't come from the bot itself, until it gets detected. And trust me, you'll know if it gets detected. Most bans come from the user flooding the AH with ore/herbs and leaving their account on for days at a time. It's stupid!

What I did to become successful money-wise is I played WoW every day for a good 30 minutes. I have homework (High school sucks Jr. year) or I'd play a bit more. Then, I log off for about 2 hours and go on at 10 pm. From 10 pm until 7 am my bot is on. That's 9 hours of pure farming. I just use mining btw as it's made me the most gold.
After that 9 hours I log off for a good 12. Then repeat the process all over again putting time in between to sell my ore/eternals, etc. I made about 3k+ a day off of this and took full days off in between to lower the ban chance. This successfully made me 50,000 gold and I am not banned. All this took was 1 month and I'll never need gold again on that account.

Note: One of the best ways to keep your bags from filling prematurely is by placing this macro to your mounting key.
For example, MMOTotus wants you to places your mount on Bar 3 Place 1. You can place anything there as all it'll do is spam Key 1.
So, add this macro and it'll auto use your Crystallized items and keep your bag from filling earlier than it should (I'm not sure as to where GB wants you to place your mount key, it may be the same):

/use Crystallized Earth
/use Crystallized Fire
/use Crystallized Shadow
/use Crystallized Water
/use Crystallized Air
/use *Epic Flyer Name Here*

Thanks Crysto!

One night:


II. How To Be Successful in PvE

PvE is probably the simplest aspect of the game. Seriously. You know what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. PvE requires very, very little skill. If it's so simple, then why isn't everybody decked out in T9.5? The player base that's able to do these raids at a specific time with the same 25 people is extremely small. So, how do you fix this?

First, let's take a look at realms in the US. There's a Western, Mountain, and Eastern realm sector. If you're on the East you should probably stick to an Eastern realm unless you like late night raiding. Most raids begin around 6-8pm. So plan accordingly! Don't be on a realm where your raid starts at 6pm realm time on an Eastern realm and you live in the West if you know you won't be available until 4 or 5 PST. It's stupid! The first step to becoming successful in PvE is finding a good guild that has raid times when you can meet them at a constant basis.

Secondly, you can't be blind in PvE. No tunnel vision! If you're able to stay out of that fire, get out of that void zone, run away from the flaming chickens, you'll be fine! Play smart, be smart.

Lastly, maintain an average or above average DPS/HPS/TPS.
If you're a DPS type character, do your job! Don't pull aggro and remain in the middle or higher of the DPS meters. Sure that's easy for me to say. What if you aren't geared? All you have to do is run heroics. Run your ass of on heroics and buy tier gear, legs, hands etc to match that of your guild's best DPS. The same goes for healing! It's not hard to get gear anymore. Go to elitistjerks.com and read up on their rotations for your class in either healing or DPS. It will make you a better player, I promise.

This has all been obtained by following these simple steps:


If you follow all of these steps and are in a guild that matches your availability you will be that golden PvE-er. You will get geared fast and people will look up to you! I've done it, it's extremely simple and anyone can do it. It's going to take time and effort. The harder you work, the luckier you'll be.

Here is a list of the AddOns I use for PvE as a healer/dps. If you're a tank I recommend getting a threat meter as it will substantially help you.
General Raid Addons:
KEY:

H= Healer Only Addon
D= DPS Only Addon
T= Tank Only Addon
A= Usable by all roles

Healbot [H] - Clique - Addons - Curse
Grid [H] - Grid - Addons - Curse
Clique [A] - Clique - Addons - Curse
Decursive [A] - Decursive - Addons - Curse
Pitbull (UF Addon) [A] - PitBull Unit Frames 3.0 - Addons - Curse
Deadly Boss Mods [A] - Deadly Boss Mods - Addons - Curse
Bartender 4 (For Dualspec) [A] - Bartender4_Dualspec - Addons - Curse
Recount [A] - Recount - Addons - Curse
Omen ThreatMete [T/D] - Omen Threat Meter - Addons - Curse
OmniCC [A] - OmniCC - Addons - Curse


III. How to Be Successful in PvP

PvP is the hardest aspect of WoW in my opinion. It is an ever changing environment. There are so many unexpected things that can happen at anytime. How is it going to be possible for simple you to become the top among your Battlegroup?! Simple. You become a lowlife, cheap bastard.
That's right, you don't have to be nice to win arenas. I got most of my titles by being just that, a cheap bastard.

Things you'll need:
A class that is decent in arena (Rogue, Mage, Pally, etc.) with a decent spec.
VENT.
A band of non-idiots.

Step 1, find the cheapest, easiest 3v3 or 5v5 combo for your class and RUN IT! Find a good crew of members from your realm that are geared and SKILLED! Skill, skill, skill! Skill> Gear for ever and always. Try them out in skirmishes and make sure they aren't retards. You will go nowhere if even one of your members isn't skilled.

Step 2, obtain gear. Getting PvP gear is stupid easy. All you have to do is sit in the center of Arathi Basin at the BS and get 1900 honor per round. You can watch pr0n, babysit your little brother, or even read a book while pressing spacebar every 4 minutes or so. Once you've obtained a decent amount of honor, purchase that gear.

Step 3, watch how your comp is done. Go on Arenajunkies/Warcraft Movies and find clips of your 3v3 or 5v5 team. Watch what they do and emulate them. Watching PvP videos has helped me greatly in becoming an excellent PvP-er.

Step 4, step into the arena. So you got your team, you've watched videos, and you've got the gear/skill. Put this all into motion and you'll climb the rankings like it's nothing. Most people aren't skilled in arena and base completely off gear. By watching those movies you've gained the knowledge of what to do in what situation and by having that you've gained leverage over your enemies.

An example of what was done at the beginning of WotLK in one night with a Mage/Rogue combo. The title.


Step 5, be the cheap bastards and get Glad! Most PvP-ers are not good! They just aren't. So, how do they have high ratings? By being cheap bastards! Blizzard has made arena extremely unbalanced so exploit it! By taking advantage of Blizzard's errors, you can achieve a high rating very quickly. You've got the skill, you've got the gear, and you're being a cheap bastard. That's all you need to be successful in arena. Sure, it sounds simple right here in the guide but trust me, log in to the game right now, find some good players, create the cheapest comp available for your bracket and I guarantee you you'll reach Glad.

I did it on my paladin, and you can too! Just don't get frustrated with your team and learn when it's time to call it quits for a night. Raising 100 rating per night is an excellent goal until you reach 1800 or so. At that point, 50 a night is fine until 2000. At 2000, 15-25 is perfectly fine to gain each day in the 5v5 bracket. If at any point you lose 3 games straight to different teams, call it quits and bring it back the next day. Arena is patience with the rating system, once you learn how your team works it's just a matter of time before you hit the top.

Proof:


These are the AddOns I use for PvP (ALL CLASSES CAN USE THESE):

Gladius: Gladius - Addons - Curse
Scrolling Combat Text: ScrollingCombatText - Addons - Curse OR Parrot: Parrot - Addons - Curse
Quartz: Quartz - Addons - Curse
X-Perl: X-Perl UnitFrames - Addons - Curse
NECB (Takes time to setup/get used to but it's AMAZING!):Natur EnemyCastBar - Addons - Curse
Afflicted: Afflicted 3 - Addons - Curse

Note: There are plenty of other class-specific PvP addons. This is just the general PvP addons that I use on my Paladin/Mage. If you check out PvP videos like I told you to, most players leave their Class-Specific addons there

That concludes this guide of How to Stay Safe and be Successful in World of Warcraft! PM me any questions that you may have at all. Post all suggestions below in the comment area. If you're going to flame, then go ahead and flame. You'll get your infraction points and I'll always be better at you at WoW

[Obama]

Nice job. Will help people out who are just starting the game. +8

[x Royal x]

Thanks Obama
FYI your money-making guide gave me inspiration to make this guide.

[Hilner]

This sure does look like a nice guide, I'll rep you since I didnt know about the bot

[tifaz]

great guide:
edit the fact that in arena when u face countercomps dont go emo rage. its fustrating and gay but learn to deal with it. arena is unfair

[BaboonX]

Nice effort into the guide, very well done. But I have to say, it's all reposts and common sense.

[Crysto]

/use Crystallized Earth
/use Crystallized Fire
/use Crystallized Shadow
/use Crystallized Water
/use Crystallized Air
/use Blue Riding Nether Ray

A simple macro like this will ensure your bags don't become full prematurely.

[xylon]

Great guide
+rep from me

[Bara]

belligerent?

[Devitt]

Very nice guide! I've been playing for a while and still learnt something. Thank you

[duling]

Why would you even tell people to bot...

[x Royal x]

Duling, botting is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Yes, it's against the ToS, but me and the rest of my Gladiator friends all used Pirox to get honor. So does much of the WoW player base. You bot for one month and get 50k gold then never bot again.

And thanks Crysto, I'll add that to my main post

[Overaggro]

Seems good

[Kykyske]

This is a stupid question, but which version of MMOtotus is the best? I've heard different people say different things.

[x Royal x]

I'd go with the latest version. The second most stable one I believe is v0.17 which works extremely well still. However, 0.17.7 is probably your best bet.