Need some tips & advice!

Hi! I'm a fairly new wow player and I need to hear what your thoughts are...

I'm an undead fire mage at around lvl 40'ish at the moment and I mainly aim for PvE, is that a good choice or a bad choice?
Do you just follow the quest line and do dungeons all the way to 85 or what do people do?
Sometimes you get quests you need to do in group since the boss is quite difficult to do alone, how do you find people to do those quests?
Which realm do you recommend? What's the Pro's and Cons for a populated realm?
How do you manage to use your upper action bar with hotkeys? I seem to not be able to use the upper / side action bar(s) what are they called in the key binding options?
Are there any good addons for PvE to see clearly HP aggro mana etc, a better one than the default?

I would really appreciate if someone could help me out here and give me some advice.

P.S I'm still in the early lvls so to you who are lvl 85's etc, what makes you play the game as much as you do? What is beyond getting to 85?

Thanks!

 

I guess I'm a little late, but all these questions are fairly easy to help with. As far as what spec you are, go frost. It's a lot easier to survive, and fight multiple mobs at once. Plus you get a nifty water elemental to help you out. As for HOW to level, that's up to you. You can quest, do dungeons, PVP, it's all up to you. There is no best or right or wrong way. As for group questing, you SHOULD be able to solo MOST of them as a frost mage. As far as populated realms, the pros would be more people to help you out, and a greater market to sell your stuff. Cons would be, obviously, more people also selling goods. As for the keybinding the upper left and right action bars, just find those sections in the keybinds. I can't remember exactly what it's called at the moment. And finally, as for displaying important information like health and mana, there are a lot of good ones. A quick look on CURSE shows that iceHUD is a popular one. Never tried it myself though.

Good luck on your WoW adventures, and sorry for my wall of text ;p

 

Similar response to above but I'll give my views on things.

Ways to 85 -

Recommended: Questing, do a battle ground if it is on 'Call to Arms' it's great exp then, do each dungeon suitable for your level at least once - dungeon quests give really nice gear/exp rewards.

Alternate routes: Battlegrounds (Slower, may get repetitive)
Dungeons (If you're a tank/healer you can usually get instant queues, which when you're in a group can provide really nice exp/hour. Although this is boring imo/dps queues are a bit too long for this to be a viable way to level for everyone.)

As for your question about add-ons:

visit: www.Curse.com it's a massive database of all popular add-ons with a handy easy install client.

Recommended:

1) Recount (Damage meter, allows you to view the damage you're doing compared with other players in real time, make sure you're competent. (Also shows healing and various other things)

2) Bartender 4 - This allows you to move your action bars anywhere you like

Example:



This isn't my UI, although this is purely an example of what the add-on can do - with the default UI you couldn't get your abilitys in that area. I find it pretty useful to get all of my things easily accessible. This add-on isn't for everyone nor is it essential, but I thought I'd show you it because I like it

I use so many add-ons in-game, but the majority of them are only really necessary once you reach level 85 and get into raiding.

Hope I helped you out,

PM me if you need anything explaining, I'd be more than happy to help you out.

~ Aidan.

 

Don't be too concerned about addons. You don't really need any untill you hit 85 and start raiding. I'd start by keybinding all of your abilities and learning how to squeeze the most dps out of your spell rotation from the get go