Newbie guide/Character creation
Character creation
While your class will dictate how you play the game more than your race does, only certain races can play as particular classes. See the Race and Class pages for discussions of the different race and class options.
Race
- Main article: choosing a race
The race you choose for your character determines their looks, voice, starting area, available class, racial traits, and the faction they will belong to (
Horde or 
Alliance).
There are many reasons to choose one race over another. While some dedicated players may select their race purely in order to gain a slight advantage in high-end competitive play, the vast majority choose their race based on their looks, lore, or style.
From tiny gnomes to towering tauren, the way each race looks, feels, moves, and sounds is quite unique, and it's worth taking the time to find one you really enjoy.
One important note: The Alliance vs. Horde choice has an important gameplay distinction; you can only complete quests in the world with other members of the same faction. If you plan on leveling-up with your friends, make sure you both make characters on the same faction. At the level cap, this distinction is lessened as you are able to party together to complete dungeons and raids.
Playable races:
- Allied Races
Allied races have all the same features of a core race, but instead of a unique starting area, you are required to complete a recruitment questline, which becomes available at level 40. As such, you aren't able to make an Allied race as your first character. These questlines start in different places depending on your faction, either the Orgrimmar Embassy for Horde or the Stormwind Embassy for the Alliance. You can visit whenever you like to revisit the requirements for unlocking the Allied races, and learn more about their history.
- Alliance
- Horde
Either
Class
| Classes | 
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| Class races | DK | DH | Dr | Ev | Hu | Ma | Mo | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Quests | DK | DH | Dr | Ev | Hu | Ma | Mo | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Abilities | DK | DH | Dr | Ev | Hu | Ma | Mo | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Trainers | DK | DH | Dr | - | Hu | Ma | Mo | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Armor sets | DK | DH | Dr | Ev | Hu | Ma | Mo | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Useful macros | DK | DH | Dr | - | Hu | Ma | Mo | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Class Halls | DK | DH | Dr | - | Hu | Ma | Mo | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
- Main article: Choosing a class
Can't decide what class to play? Make as many as you like and try them out! You can reach up to level 20 during your Free Trial, and with each level you'll get new abilities and talents to help you get an idea of how that class works and what you prefer. You can also read the description of each class to have a general idea of them.
The most important thing is that you pick whichever class you find the most interesting, be it their aesthetics or gameplay, as that is a surefire way to have the most fun. However, if you plan on doing group content, like dungeons or raids, there are other things you might consider.
Class roles
- Main article: Class role
Generally, those playing in the tank or healing role are in higher demand than damage dealers (commonly referred to as "DPS" classes). Players playing these roles will usually have quicker Dungeon Finder queues and will be able to jump into the action on-demand. While they are still very important to a group's success, the DPS characters tend to carry less responsibility, and with it less blame in the event that a group is struggling to progress.
Tank
For those who want to be the tank in instances, warrior, paladin, druid, death knight, monk, and Demon hunter are your choices. With the right gear and weapons, you will have higher health and survivability than anyone else in the party. You'll use your abilities to reduce the damage you take and ensure that the enemies are focusing you instead of your weaker party mates. Players playing this role will usually be expected to know the layout of a dungeon, and as the tank represents the steepest learning curve for new players.
Iconic tank abilities
Vengeance Demon Hunter's 
[Metamorphosis], Blood Death Knight's 
[Bonestorm], Brewmaster Monk's 
[Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox], Guardian Druid's 
[Rage of the Sleeper]
Healer
If you want to heal others, priest, druid, paladin, shaman, monk and evoker can all switch into a healing specialization. You'll have at your command a plethora of abilities to heal away damage dealt to your party, reduce their incoming damage, and dispel afflictions put upon them. In addition, all of them provide useful buffs to the other members of the party. Paladins and Shamans have auras and Totems respectively that buff their allies in a certain radius, while the others have many hour-long buffs that increase their group member's attributes.
Iconic healer abilities
Holy Priest's 
[Apotheosis], Restoration Druid's 
[Flourish], Restoration Shaman's 
[Healing Tide Totem], Preservation Evoker's 
[Rewind]
Damage Dealer
All classes switch into a damage dealing specialization. However, there are four classes that are pure damage dealers: mage, warlock, rogue, and hunter, sacrificing role flexibility for more different damage-dealing playstyles.
Iconic damage dealer abilities
Fire Mage's 
[Combustion], Outlaw Rogue's 
[Roll the Bones], Druid's 
[Convoke the Spirits], Beast Mastery Hunter's 
[Bestial Wrath], Shadow Priest's 
[Voidform], Warlock's 
[Summon Infernal]
Name
Picking a name can be tricky. Nearly everyone wants something unique, awe-inspiring and/or "cool". However, the name you pick does tell others something about you.
Keep in mind that your name needs to be easily typable in conversations, and that it probably shouldn't clash too much with the warcraft/medieval themed environment. Names that you probably shouldn't pick include:
- Legolas - Wrong universe. Too unoriginal. Far too commonly used already than you may expect.
- Mrcoolguy / Iownyousohard - More than anything, this suggests to other people that you're immature. Maybe you are, but not making it quite so obvious makes it a tad easier to earn the respect of other players.
- Agsdjasgd - People will assume that you don't take the game seriously and/or that you're a gold farmer, a loot ninja, or a bot. Neither is good for you.
- Lukeskywalker - Wrong time, wrong universe.
- Onyxia / Illidan / Arthas - No, you are not these lore characters. Picking names like these is a sure-fire way of having a GM enforce a name change on your character.
- Joë / Jôe / Jœ - If you use special characters in your name, expect to find that most people do not know how to type your name (which means a lot of trouble later in the game), and you may encounter error on your armory page as well as when you try to link to it. See below.
- A number of types of name are considered 'inappropriate' by Blizzard, and may leave you liable to a forced name change. Full details can be found on Blizzard's official Naming Policy page.
On Roleplaying (RP) realms there are additional naming policies active at the official Roleplaying Realms Policy page. If your name is considered inappropriate (even if it would be okay on a non-RP server), you may be forced to change it.
Picking something unobtrusive that actually sounds like a name is usually your best bet. Your name doesn't have to be cool to make you cool. You make your name cool by who you are and what you do; WoW may be massively multi-player, but you may run into the same people more often than you think. Rumors, names and stories of feats do travel quickly.
Can't decide on a name? Try BehindTheName.com.
Body Type
Lastly, you can choose your body type, One or Two, when creating a new character. There is no functional difference between these choices - they only effect appearance, animation and speech. (As a rule of thumb of playing WoW as well as any other MMORPG, do not assume the gender of anyone by the look of them!)