Getting things done

Once you've gotten your game loaded, your server picked, and your character made, Azeroth awaits. Some things that may confuse a new player is second nature to more experienced players, such as movement, quests, and killing monsters.

Movement itself isn't complicated, though the methods used by the player can be at times. There several ways to get your hero from point A to B. Note, this information is for the base interface and does not include information on any changes made to key bindings by the user or third party add on.

1) Arrow keys: This is most likely the easiest to remember. You use the up arrow key on your key board to move forward, while the down arrow moves you backwards. The left and right arrow keys turn you in the chosen direction.

2) W,A,S,D: These work just like the arrow keys, with W moving you forward, S backwards, A turning you left, and D turning you to the right. The Q and E keys can be used with these to make you strafe to the left, with the Q key, or to the right, with the E key.

3) The mouse: The mouse can also be used to help get you around by pressing both the left and right mouse keys together and moving the mouse to guide your character's direction.

4) Num Lock: This key can be used to toggle into or out of autorun. You must still manually turn your character to get around obstacles. If you press both mouse keys, the W, A, Up arrow, or down arrow while this is toggled on, you will automatically be toggled out of it.

5)Auto-Follow: This method simply has you following another player, turning as they turn. To put yourself on follow, you click the player to bring up their icon. Once their icon is up, you can right click on this to bring up a list of options. Follow will appear on this list as white if you are within a close enough range to use the option. If you're too far away, it will be grayed out.
If you are auto-following someone who is faster than you due to an ability or having a faster mount, they can get out of range quite easily.
Also, note that it is very rude to auto-follow through a dungeon or battle ground. It is needed at times, but if you go through out the entire thing with this engaged, you are not contributing.

Attacking: Since you know how to get from enemy to enemy, now you have to know what to do once you get there. How you attack is based on the class you play. But here are some things to keep in mind.

1) Right-click. When you right click an enemy, it puts you into auto-attack mode. This basically means that once they get into range, your character will start swinging away with whatever weapon they have equipped. In the case of hunters, which have an autoshot ability, they will start firing arrows or bullets into the target. While auto-attack does damage your enemy, it will not be the only thing you used to kill them.

2) User Interface. The basic game interface is quite simple and gives you the information you need. In the top left of your screen, you will see a circle with a picture of your character in it. Coming off the right of that will be two bars. The top bar will let you know how many hit points you have and how much health you have left. The second bar shows different information depending on what class you play. For magic users and hunters, this bar will be blue and show how much mana, or magical power you have. For warriors, the second bar starts out empty but will eventually start filling up as red for rage, which is what they use for their abilities. Rogues have a yellow bar which shows how much energy they've used.
On the upper right portion of your screen will be a round mini-map with a few icons around it. On the bottom right of this will be a + and a - sign, used to zoom your mini-map in and out. At the bottom of the map, you will see a clock that shows realm or server time. Other icons do not appear initially but will show up in certain circumstances, such as when you choose to join a battleground or whenever you have mail. At the very top of the minimap will be a name. This tells you what area you are in.
At the bottom left of your screen, you will see a row of boxes with different icons. This is called an action bar and the icons represent different abilities or spells your character can use. To figure out if the ability/spell is harmful to enemies or helpful to you and friends, mouse over it for a brief description of it.
On the bottom right you will see some other boxes with grayed-out picture resembling bags. The one on the furthest right you will see what looks like a brown leather bag. This is your inventory. Any time you want to see what you have, you can click on any bag you have equipped or simply hit the "B" button.
There is much more to the interface, but this info will help you along for the time being.

Interacting with objects/friendly NPCS. The basic rule of thumb when wanting to know how to pick up a quest item or simply talk to a quest giver is that the right mouse button gets it done. When you first log in, you should see an NPC, a Non-Player or computer-controlled character, in front of you. You also should see a yellow exclamation point, or !, over their heads. This lets you know that they have that's available to you. When you get close enough to them and right click them, they will display a dialog box with information about the quest, such as what they want you to do and where you should go to get it done.
Quest objects. Sometimes, a quest giver will want you to collect something for them. These will often "drop" off a certain kind of enemy. The way to pick things off mobs is to right click their corpse once you've killed them. A box will pop up show what items are on the body. You then click on the items you want to pick up. This is called looting.
Every now and then, the quest objects will be in the environment and something you must interact with. You can tell what kind of objects you can interact with fairly simply. They will sparkle and cause your pointer to turn from a pointing finger to a gear when you mouse over them. If you're close enough, the gear will be gold. If not, it will be gray.

Equipping gear. Sometimes, a quest will reward you with, or an enemy will drop, a piece of gear that is better than what you currently have equipped. Like most things in World of Warcraft, right clicking is the way to get it on .

These tips should help you out when you first step into the Azeroth and get you started in the right direction.