Friend wants to start WoW, few questions

[SarelSeemonster]

Hi guys,

A friend of mine has been convinced to join the dark side and he wants to start WoW on a 10-day trial account. I'm currently on a WotLK account and I know I can just copy my game dir for him, but he wants to play under WINE so I'm not sure whether that would work.

Assuming it would not, what would be the most painless way for him to get up to the latest patch level without having to download 10-gazillion gigs of updates?

Once upon a time on some forums I read that you can just buy and install the WotLK retail DVD as that also includes the vanilla and TBC game clients as well as all updates/patches up until 3.0.0 (I think), so then he would only need to download a few updates to bring him up to 3.2.2.10505, right?

So my questions are:

1. If he buys a WotLK retail DVD, can he install that directly or does he still need to install vanilla first, then TBC, and then WotLK?

2. Can his WotLK retail DVD then can also be used to upgrade his account to WotLK (later), but only after he's upgraded his account from trial to vanilla first, and then from vanilla to TBC (by purchasing a CD key online or whatever)?

So basically my thinking is:

Buy WotLK retail CD; Install WotLK directly; Update to latest patch level; Go on Blizz website, signup for trial account; Play for 10 days; Go on Blizz website, buy vanilla CD key, upgrade account; Continue playing.

Would that work?

[DjStyles]

Yep, you can clean install from the WotLK disk up to 3.0.

So he would just have to by the Vanilla & TBC keys to get going.

[Endev8003]

First off, you will need all the dvd's. Install order is Vanilla -> TBC -> WotLK. TBC and WotLK are expansion packs, and only contains the content for that.

If he buys from the retail dvd's from the shops, he will get a full account, but with 30 days included. The 30 days is only with Vanilla, so getting all 3 wont give you 3 months free playing.

If he just want to play the 10 day trial, the easiest way would be to copy the WoW folder from someone, register for a 10 day trial online, and then play the trial.

[Voicy]

Keeping in mind that in order to move from 10-day trial to subscription based, he needs to tie a box serial # (vanilla/TBC and wotlk) to his account, so he actually has to buy the disks even though you already gave him the updated client.

[avert]

give him your directory. it works.

[diabolus]

I played WoW under WINE, nothing fancy you need to do with the client. You can give him your client copy and he can run it directly [under WINE]. In fact i can't remember i even "installed" WoW under WINE, i literally just executed the client.

It might actually be harder to install WoW under WINE than copying the client and executing the .exe directly ;). So before going through all that trouble, copy client, run it and see.

[SarelSeemonster]

Getting some conflicting answers :)

If I understand correctly, then according to Endev8003 he would need to buy the vanilla DVD, install that, buy the TBC DVD, install that, buy the WotLK DVD, install that, download the rest of the updates, sign up for the trial, play for 10 days, use vanilla CD key found on CD case to upgrade account on Blizz website to vanilla level, and then later (much later) he can upgrade to TBC and WotLK (using CD keys on TBC/WotLK CD cases) if he survives that long and feels like it.

According to DjStyles though, he can just buy the WotLK DVD, install that (no need to install vanilla/TBC first, as that will automagically get him up to 3.0.0), download updates, signup for trial, play 10 days...and then buy the physical vanilla CD (which also gets him a vanilla CD key), upgrade account to vanilla, and play.

Let's say that installing WotLK also gets him the game content for vanilla and TBC, like DjStyles said... can't he then just upgrade his account on the Blizzard website by doing a credit card payment, or is that no longer possible? Or buy a CD key from one of those "you-pay-we-email-you-cd-key-only" websites, without having to buy the physical CD/DVD as well?

I'm asking because that's the way I did it, although that was about 2 years ago...

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for all the replies so far :)

[AcidRaZor]

Also, WINE = Linux

It doesn't always work, but see if it does with his graphics card etc... just give him your entire directory

[SarelSeemonster]

I played WoW under WINE, nothing fancy you need to do with the client. You can give him your client copy and he can run it directly [under WINE]. In fact i can't remember i even "installed" WoW under WINE, i literally just executed the client.

It might actually be harder to install WoW under WINE than copying the client and executing the .exe directly ;). So before going through all that trouble, copy client, run it and see.

Awesome, I think I'll do that then - thanks for letting me know. I'm a bit of an addon-whore and with him being completely new to the game, which folders would I need to delete so he ends up with at least a semi-clean, default install of the game's interface?

I think it's everything under Interface/Addons (except the Blizzard_* ones), as well as WTF/Account/<my_acc_name>/SavedVariables/*, right?

[Endev8003]

I think you're misunderstanding me.

If he just wants to play the 10-day trial first, let him copy the game folder from you and then sign up for the trial on the website.

He only needs to buy the DVD's if he decides to continue and need to upgrade to a full account. He can also buy the serials online, but then he won't get the disks.

If he decides to upgrade to full, he will need all three serials, Vanilla, TBC and WotLK.

[Crowley]

You can delete everything in your addons folder, even the Blizzard ones. Also delete your cache and the WTF\account folders.

[SarelSeemonster]

He only needs to buy the DVD's if he decides to continue and need to upgrade to a full account. He can also buy the serials online, but then he won't get the disks.

If he decides to upgrade to full, he will need all three serials, Vanilla, TBC and WotLK.

Sorry, yes, I did misunderstand.

My main concern was whether the installer on the WotLK DVD also requires the vanilla and TBC discs to be present. I wanted to get him up to the latest patch level with the minimum amount of downloading so we can start playing ASAP, and if the vanilla & TBC discs' contents are included on the WotLK DVD anyway, it wouldn't make sense to buy those as well as I can just buy a key and upgrade his account on Blizzard's website directly with no need for the discs.

I'll think I'll just copy my install dir though as others have recommended, since it sounds like it should work just fine under WINE. That way he'll be up to the latest version and would just need the CD keys in order to upgrade his account.

Thanks everyone for your replies :)

[Abn0rm4l]

You need all the DVD's if you want to install the game from fresh, plus around 2.5GB's of patches to get from 3.0 to 3.2.2a.

However if all you want to do is trial the game then all you need to do is copy the game client and sign up for a 10day trial account.

If your friend then decides he wants to continue playing then he can buy classic/tbc/wotlk when appropriate and upgrade his account. He also doesn't need to buy all three at once, he can simple buy classic play till 60, upgrade to tbc, play till 70, etc...

There is no real need to do a clean install unless you are experiencing problems, so he can keep your original copied wow dir and just play from that.

[bradrap]

I was under the impression that the LK DVD has everything from Vanilla to 3.0 on it, and that you only needed the first 2 games for their cdkeys?

[Skurm]

Simplest is, get the WoW Battlechest, which includes everything you need. Try a CNA.

Technically you only need vanilla wow to start playing, but you wont be able to roll up a blood elf or draenei. Then when/if you hit 60, you'll need BC to go to Outlands/level 70, and WotLK to go to Northrend/80/roll a Death Knight.

[Endev8003]

I was under the impression that the LK DVD has everything from Vanilla to 3.0 on it, and that you only needed the first 2 games for their cdkeys?
No. You have to have all of the DVD's for a fresh install. The expansions DVD's only have that expansion's content.


Simplest is, get the WoW Battlechest, which includes everything you need. Try a CNA.

Technically you only need vanilla wow to start playing, but you wont be able to roll up a blood elf or draenei. Then when/if you hit 60, you'll need BC to go to Outlands/level 70, and WotLK to go to Northrend/80/roll a Death Knight.
The battlechest doesn't include WotLK. I've checked on both Take2 and Amazon and the battlechests there have only Vanilla and TBC.

[dal2000]

I was under the impression that the LK DVD has everything from Vanilla to 3.0 on it, and that you only needed the first 2 games for their cdkeys?

That is correct.

[dal2000]

No. You have to have all of the DVD's for a fresh install. The expansions DVD's only have that expansion's content.


The battlechest doesn't include WotLK. I've checked on both Take2 and Amazon and the battlechests there have only Vanilla and TBC.

A month ago I installed and played WoW with only using the Wotlk DVD.

[Endev8003]

A month ago I installed and played WoW with only using the Wotlk DVD.

I didn't know that. I just checked on my laptop and it is installing with only the WotLK DVD. :o

Still need a boatload of patches though :p

[dal2000]

I didn't know that. I just checked on my laptop and it is installing with only the WotLK DVD. :o

Still need a boatload of patches though :p

Could you let me know how many in size? I'm considering playing WoW again since life sucks:erm:

[Endev8003]

About 2.2Gb

[dal2000]

About 2.2Gb

Including the upcoming patch or not?

[Endev8003]

Nope

[zippy]

A month ago I installed and played WoW with only using the Wotlk DVD.

Makes sense. Why would Blizzard not include the whole client ?

However, the Wotlk key would probably only work if your account was already upgraded to TBC.