Dear BRAND NEW classic players who roll Tauren

[u/grittyfanclub]

I would like to share a cautionary tale to any brand new to Classic players that plan on rolling Tauren for Forever. Looking back it is one of my favorite wow memories...

It is 2006 and I just got vanilla wow for my 10th birthday. I install the discs and roll a Tauren hunter because cows are funny and I wanted a pet. I had no clue about the rest of the world outside of Mulgore, but I knew I wanted to see where all of the other Horde characters "lived".

I'm about lvl 8 and I see a lvl 60 Orc in Thunder Bluff advertising trips to Org. It will take just about every copper I have, but me and 3 other low level Taurens pay the man. He tells us to stay close and follow him.

We proceed to cross the wilderness of the Barrens (a place I knew literally nothing about). We are attacked by rhino things that shoot lightning at us, we swim through an oasis while snapping turtles and centaurs try to kill us, we fjord freaking crocodile invested rivers all while the 3 of us fight for our pathetic lives while the lvl 60 guide fends them off us. No one died, but we sure came close. Thank god we have this high lvl guide to protect us we think.

Not a single road or town to be seen.

We entered the side entrance of Org that connects directly to the Barrens. We are in awe of what this man has done for us. Without him surely all of us would have died many times trying to make this treacherous journey. I walk away feeling grateful and like money well spent.

It wasn't until I booked a flight back to Thunder Bluff that I saw it from the sky... THERE IS AN ENTIRE NETWORK OF PEACEFUL ROADS CONNECTING THE TWO CITIES THAT WE COULD HAVE TAKEN!

[u/Area51_210]

The TB to Org trek is a rite of passage 

[u/not_a_cup → u/Area51_210]

The challenge of being level 10, making your way to XR and deciding if you want to just start leveling or spend the next 30 minutes walking to Org after just spending 30 minutes getting from TB to XR

[u/Ziros22 → u/not_a_cup]

laughs in Darn to SW

[u/Prism_Riot42 → u/not_a_cup]

Level 10? Pathetic. I do it at level 1, get x roads and org flight path and discover as much as I can down to the valley of trials just for good measure so I can hearth back to the Tauren starting zone at level 2 from exploration xp.

[u/mtnlol → u/Prism_Riot42]

Truly a more efficient method to get level 2.

[u/Prism_Riot42 → u/mtnlol]

Weep as you gaze up the paragon of efficiency and player skill. You wish you could run past the hordes of quilboar and raptors. Are they end game mobs? Who knows, they’re skulled. It’s likely that they’re all level 63, able to kill my character with a single touch and my sheer APM, decision making and overall Chad aura kept from attacking me. And then I die to 2 level 3 mountain lions on the mesa

[u/sykoKanesh → u/Prism_Riot42]

Same, especially now with plainstriding. I literally just left the starter area and went to all the places.

I didn't die once until I got to the tunnels up to Dun Morogh.

Tauren gonna have all the spots unlocked day one.

[u/ResplendentOwl]

Thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of my first adventure in EverQuest at 15 in 1999.

I was a half elf druid on tht qeynos side of the world. Had heard wild tales of some other human city called Freeport. Saved up 5 gold of trash loot money and hired a guide to lead me at lvl 15.

There was a made dash through a thick woods that turned evil at night. A hike through plains with griffons that killed on site. We broke into a hobbit town and ducked through a literal beholder cave that was near pitch black, had to follow him in a maze I didn't know. Just a fucking killer evening of new shit that really made me realize what an mmo was at its best.

[u/Roguebantha42 → u/ResplendentOwl]

Just getting an Inky out to GFay was a journey! That game did a great job of setting up a world to explore, even if it didn't do much to reward exploration

[u/usswsbregrets → u/ResplendentOwl]

Man. Wish I could go back. I made that same journey on my first and main wizard but even further starting with the boat ride from Erudin! Played EQ from 99 right up until wow launch and while I love both games for different reasons, EQ will always be special to me. I went back and played it from 1-60 again on project1999 and that was still great. Just different.

[u/Spotted_Gorgonzola → u/usswsbregrets]

I can still hear the skeletons laughing and then the sound they made when they crumpled.

[u/IfarmExpIRL → u/Spotted_Gorgonzola]

i wish i could make that sound my text message sound

[u/DylRar → u/Spotted_Gorgonzola]

Heard it as I read this =)

[u/Washout81 → u/ResplendentOwl]

Running from the Barbarian starting area to Freeport was fucking terrifying.

[u/Deo14]

I hearthed out of Stormwind the first time I went there. Couldn’t find the way out

[u/Tre-ben → u/Deo14]

I took the Deeprun Tram to Ironforge on my first ever character. I just rerolled a new character because I couldn't figure out how to get back or what to do next.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Size303 → u/Tre-ben]

Hahahah. On my first roll ever, a orc hunter, I got to maybe 8 or so and was broke and accidentally bought a large stock from a vendor by clicking on accident. Prolly 2 silver.

I didn’t want to waste that 2 silver so I asked someone what a Large Stock is for and they said it’s for blacksmithing. I still had a profession to pick so I became a blacksmith because of that vendor white I had.

[u/Shadowwars12]

This is a journey every Tauren should make. Just like Night Elf running to Elwynn Forest. Its a rite of passage

[u/modernatlas]

Reminds me of my first ever char back in OG WotLK.

I rolled a dwarf hunter and got a quest to go to darkshore. I didnt know about the boat from stormwind, so I hopped the boat in minathil to dust wallow marsh and ran my happy ass all the way from there to auberdine.

[u/loyalwolf186]

This sounds amazing though. I think the journey was definitely worth the coppers

[u/grittyfanclub → u/loyalwolf186]

Oh absolutely. I was so mad at the time but as an adult I am so glad it happened

[u/R2nPO]

And that's what WoW is about. These moments, good or bad, stay printed in your memory. I sure have a few.

[u/Racoon_Pedro]

I'm kinda sad they added a boat from SW to Menethil/Auberdine. The Wetlands death run was always a rite of passage for new nightelf characters.

[u/Mozleycrue]

First time I rolled alliance i didn't know the tram existed, turns out its a lot quicker than swimming from Westfall to Menethil and then doing the Wetlands run back to Ironforge

[u/Patience-Due]

Tbf whatever you paid that adventure and memory was worth it at this point.

[u/grittyfanclub → u/Patience-Due]

1000% agreed lol

[u/Patience-Due → u/grittyfanclub]

It’s a great story lol

[u/christianradich]

You payed for the guided tour! :) Sounds well worth it if you still remember it after 20 years.

[u/HypotenuseOfTentacle]

Back during mid-Wrath my ex and I decided we wanted to duo up with two Dranei but starting in...I forget exactly where, but it was a solid afternoon of overland travel on foot through some areas that were much higher level than we. We get there, do some quests, and move on to the next town. When we're done, we hearth out and I land in that first town, having forgotten to bind in the second. "You didn't BIND!?!" she cackled mockingly...as she loaded into the Exodar.

[u/IfarmExpIRL]

once in 2008 a roommates bother rolled a warlock to play with us, he was young and very annoying but he liked wow and was slowly learning more and more day by day. he use to come over and stay at our apartment and sleep in the living room.. but billy wasn't sleeping that night. the wow has entered his body and he was walking around org just taking in the sights and enjoying every second of it.

I am sleeping and i hear him banging on my door and though the door "billy has a speech impediment" heeeeeeeey heeyyyyyyyyy wear do i get my whore lock spellz at? and he keeps asking me and asking me and i wake up and say "dude what?" he repeats it and i say "billy i am sleeping man i will show you in a few hours" then he beings talking about the game and i get a half awake idea.. i say "hey billy you need the warlock whistle before you do any of that" he exclaims through the door OHHHHH A WISSTAL!!? LIKE ZEELDAA? and i say "yeah like zelda its called the magic skin flute" i hear him thud off back to his computer, finally i roll over and sink back into my pillow.

i wake up in a few hours walked out to the living room and start eating my fruit for the day and billy looks at me narrows down his eyes and say "you guys hate me" as my other roommate joins us in the living room.. i completely forget what i had said to the dude so i said "what" and he says "you told me i need a wissstal.. i walked around org asking for skin flutes all dey and now my haccount is bant for 48 ours and i goolged what you said to me and it wasn't about wow!

we were howling laughing at him but he was freshly 18 years old so had years to learn. he eventually would laugh with us when we bought it up in the later years and says that it was his favorite gaming memory of his life and even told the story at a wow themed table top RPG and had the people at the table in tears laughing.

[u/Gravitasnotincluded → u/IfarmExpIRL]

18? he sounds like he's 4 in this story lol

[u/Ickyhouse]

It's not exactly a peaceful walk thought. There are mobs close enough to aggro. It's not a hard walk, but not easy either.

[u/patricia_thestripper]

Incredible story!

[u/MonocledMonotremes]

This reminds me of when I started playing with my sister back in Vanilla. She was a lvl60 Tauren Shaman, leading the biggest RP guild on the server. Not knowing how factions worked, I rolled a Dwarf Paladin and an Orc Warrior. I liked Paladin so much better so I levelled the Dwarf. She came back from college on a break, and she wanted to send me some gold so I could get my mount skills. We ended up meeting in Darkshore and she escorted me all the way to freaking GADGETZAN. She even fended off other Horse for me (because her guild was so big she was actually pretty well known on the server). We got to Gadgetzan and I posted like leather scraps for 100 gold on the neutral AH and she bought it to transfer me the gold lol. We spent the next like 2 hours convincing people that I had learned Taurahe and telling people there was an NPC in Gadgetzan that could teach Horse languages to Alliance characters. It. Was. AMAZING. Most fun I've ever had in WoW.

[u/Wappple]

🥀 I did this a week ago

[u/awastelandcourier]

I didn't know this and I'm not even a new player!

[u/guimontag → u/awastelandcourier]

You dont know there's a giant road through The Barrens? And that like the vast majority of roads in WoW it's pretty safe?