WoWGrrl's World

As an Orc or Troll on World of Warcraft, you're fortunate to start your adventures in the game right in the middle of the small town that supplies the Valley of Trials adventurers with quests, class training and vendors who buy and sell basic supplies.

Introducing Kaltunk

The first view of Azeroth you get when you start as an Orc or Troll demands your attention immediately: A solid male Orc ("NPC", non-player character, computer player) by the name of Kaltunk stands in front of you with a yellow exclamation mark hovering above his head. This signifies that Kaltunk has a quest to offer you. Once you've figured out how to move around a little bit, walk up to Kaltunk and hover your mouse pointer over him. Your pointer will change into a "chat bubble" to let you know that you can talk to this particular NPC. Right click on Kaltunk to initiate your first conversation.

Note: With a fresh install of World of Warcraft, the conversation with Kaltunk will appear in a "scrolling" fashion in the in-game window that pops up after you've right-clicked on a quest NPC. You can modify your User Interface configuration to change this. Stay tuned for additional entries on the topic of basic configuration changes for Warcraft users.

The very first quest for Orcs and Trolls is generally called "Your Place In The World". Once you click "Accept" at the bottom left side of the quest window, you'll see the following text appear in your General chat window: "Quest accepted: Your Place In The World", and a sound will be played. Kaltunk no longer has any symbols hovering over his head.

Using The Minimap To Turn In Quests

This first quest isn't really much of a quest - more of a basic assignment designed to get you into contact with another NPC who will give you an actual go-out-and-kill-something quest to get you started into the actual game. But, this quick assignment is perfect to introduce the Minimap's usefulness when it comes to turning in quests as a whole.

In the top right corner of your World of Warcraft window, there's a circular view of the nearby landscape, with an arrow in the middle, representing where you stand. The top of the circular view is North, and you can tell what direction you're facing by looking at what direction the You-Arrow is pointing. Since we're in Valley of Trials, the circular Minimap has a heading of "Valley of Trials". If you click the X beside the location name, you can hide the Minimap. If you click it again, the Minimap will re-appear.

The view you see in the Minimap doesn't reach very far, but it increases your vision beyond what you can see from your toon's view quite a bit. For example, if you've accepted Kaltunk's quest, you should see a small faded yellow circle to the west of your You-Arrow's location. This yellow circle represents a quest NPC waiting for your arrival. It's faded because the NPC is indoors and you are outdoors, but if you were both indoors or both outdoors, the yellow circle would be bright.

So, head towards the faded yellow circle on your minimap! You'll know you've found the right quest NPC when you are faced with an NPC with a yellow question mark hovering above it!

Quest Rewards

Quests are in place for many, many reasons in Warcraft. Different players enjoy different pieces of the rewards, but here are an example of some of the rewards for completing quests:

• Bonus experience points, money, armor and weapons beyond what are supplied by those things you've killed during quests (great for your own equipment needs especially when you're brand new and have very little cash to buy new things!)
• Motivation to explore into new areas and find new mob/enemy types
• Visual cues as to whether quests or new areas of the game are good for your level or if they're way out of your league
• Quests tend to be "chained" together, where a quest in one area leads into quests in another area, and without finishing the first quest, the second quest cannot be picked up or shared by other players. At the end of "quest chains" there are generally pretty cool rewards in the form of cash, experience or equipment, especially as your level gets higher.

Upon talking to Gornek in The Den, the yellow ? immediately turns into a yellow ! and you're presented with a quest window for the quest "Cutting Teeth". Too bad, Kaltunk's quest wasn't worth any experience, gold or equipment! But this next one will be - you can see from the Cutting Teeth details that once you kill 10 Mottled Boars and return to Gornek, you'll be able to choose between a pair of boots and a pair of gloves. Your first Quest Loot!

Stay Tuned For Part II

There's lots to introduce a new player to! Check back for "Intro To Valley of Trials, Part 2: Warcraft Home of Orcs, Trolls" which will cover the following topics:

• Heading Out To Quest ("Cutting Teeth")
• Boar-killing Tips
• Choosing Between Quest Rewards
• Cash For Training

Related posts:

1. Intro To Valley of Trials, Part 2: Warcraft home of Orcs, Trolls
2. Intro To Deathknell: Warcraft Home of the Undead
3. Intro To Deathknell, Part 2: Warcraft Home of the Undead