New Player, few questionsFollow

Ok I just recently started playing, I have leveled up to 20, enjoy the game immensly but am curious about a few things.

1. Gryphons. I haven't traveled far in the world, I try to get and complete as many quests in one area as I possibly can, before moving on to the next area. So far I have only visited Dun Morogh, Lock Modan, Elwynn Forest, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, and Duskwood (only went there to get some ale for the Dry Times quest).

So I haven't had much reason to use the gryphons, much less go to flight paths away. Anyway I have only done it twice, but I flew from Stormwind to Lock Modan, and I noticed as it flew by Iron Forge I head the ca-chin sound of money, the first time I did it almost simultaneously an auction item sold, the second time nothing sold so I am curious, if it says 1s 30c from Elwyn Forest to Ironforge, and then when you click on Lock Modan and it shows 1s 50c does it first charge you the 1s 30c to go to Ironforge and then the other charge of 1s 50c to continue on to Lock Modan?

2. I am playing as a Dwarf Warrior, somewhat decent gear (not the best but it's doing good for me), but I have noticed that it is getting harder to complete the quests and am strating to think about getting into parties. Now I have realized that essentially I will be a tanking character, and as such put all my talent points into protection. However, up to this point I have only been using two-handed axes and swords, and now going to convert to one-handed weapons and shields. Now the question is, will I easily max out the new weapon I choose, and at any point will it be terribly difficult to max out the skill of the weapon I choose.

I am concerned that right now it may be easy for me to max out a one-handed sword, but along the lines at later levels I may come across a one-handed mace or something that either has better power or better stats that I would like to equip will it be easy to gain the appropriate skill level for that weapon, or will it be impossible to max out the skill level, and would be better off just sticking to one weapon type throughout the game.

3. Is there a way to transfer characters over to another server? I play in the normal server, and would like to convert to to a PvP server. I was questioning joining a PvP server because I had some bad experiences with that in another game, where basically low level areas would be camped by high levels of oposing force and it really wasn't enjoyable at all. Here though it seems that the areas (low level at least) are pretty segregated from each other in that I have seen 2 horde characters in the alliance area. So I think in PvP I would be ok starting out and not have to worry to much about the camping until farther along in the game.

I'm sorry for the long post, I am at work and figured I would get all my questions out there in one lump to make it easier than having to keep going back and asking new questions.

1) The gryphons and the 'kaching' money sound - If you look closely at the little map you use to choose where you want to fly, you will see that some flight paths are 'direct' and some seem to link through another stop. When you fly to Loch Modan from Stormwind, the cost is based on the cost from Stormwind to Ironforge plus the cost of Ironforge to Loch Modan. It appears that only the money for the first leg is deducted when you take off and the money for the second leg of the flight is deducted when you reach the start point of that second leg. It might be a safty measure in case you get disconnected midflight as I did have something like that happen on a long three-leg flight and I actually got landed in one of the 'in-between' cities of my flight instead of the endpoint (and I assume I didn't lose money - didn't actually check.)


2) Weapon skills - I have found it fairly easy to switch weapons and skill up on new ones. My advice is to take a little time to whack at some lower level (gray) mobs a bit to get the skill up to the point where you seem to be doing decent damage before taking your new weapon up against mobs your level or higher. Another little tip is to spend a little time fighting with no weapons at all now and then to get your unarmed skill up otherwise you will find yourself fighting an enemy that disarms you and suddenly find yourself hitting for 1-2 HP for several seconds.

My main is a warrior and I have two others (of different races) and I typically carry a one-hander, a shield and then either a two-hander or a second one-hander to dual-wield and just switch depending on the situation.


3) You can not transfer from a PVE server to a PVP server. Transfers between PVP servers is possible. Transfers between PVE servers is possible. Transfers from PVP servers to PVE servers is allowed but they can never transfer back to PVP after that.

On a PVP server, the faction controlled zones are only semi-PVP in that a lowbie would have to flag himself for PVP before he could be attacked by an opposing faction player. The true PVP areas are the contested zones that are generally for levels 15 and up.

Edited, Dec 8th 2006 10:57am by morghast

1) As jpaugh said, you only pay the cost that is listed when you mount your bird. The explination calls for a bit of history. When the game first came out the flight paths were a lot more restricted. You could only fly from point A to point B. And if you wanted to get to point D you would have to remember/look up which flight mater offered that destination. So you might have to pay a flight master to get from point A to point B. Then you’d land and have to pay a flight master to get from point B to point C. Then you’d land and have to pay again to get from point C to point D. In other words it was a pain in the backside.

Not too terribly long ago Blizzard combined most of the flight paths. So as long as your destination is on the same continent you can hop a bird and reach any destination you like in one flight. But as a leftover from the old system, as you fly over other flight masters you hear old portion of the payment drop into the bucket. Rather like passing through several tollbooths.

2) Weapon skills are a lot more forgiving in this game than in most others I’ve played. You can pick up a new weapon skill at level 60 and learn to use that weapon at a decent level very quickly. Just find some low level mobs and start whacking away. The first points will come with every swing. As your skill increases you will gain points more slowly. The last ten points will come at a slow pace, but you can pick up any weapon and learn to use it competently enough with just a couple hours effort, or less depending on your level.

If you have a lot of skill to make up for, my suggestion is to buy the fastest weapon of that type you can find. The level doesn’t mater. I’ve had level 50 characters use level 5 weapons for this purpose. The faster the weapon swings the more chances you have for a skill up. And as a warrior, you get duel wield. You can train a new 1H weapon in your off hand while still doing damage with your main hand if you so desire.

3) There is a system for transferring from server to server. But as already stated, there are restrictions. There is a fee for such moves, so unless you have a level 60 character you really like you may as well create a new character on the server of your choice.

Edit: Dohh! I typed too slowly and others have already done a good job of explaining things. Oh well, sometimes redundancy isn’t a bad thing. *smiles*


Edited, Dec 8th 2006 7:17pm by Calabar

As highRfrequenC suggested, just roll a toon on PvP if you want to start there. Up to 20 you really won't notice any difference and after you have leveled once, the second time goes much faster. But do it now before you get too attached to your toon :)