World of Warcraft MEGA-FAQ

There are many different types of items, all with their own usefulness. Of  course you have your equips, such as weapons and armor, but also jewelry  and shirts. Then you have your support items, such as your hearthstone,  skinning knife, poisons, and so on, the things you will keep no matter what. Next are the foods and waters to replenish health and mana. You’ll also collect mats (materials) of both directly useable items like leather as well as the  stuff you don’t need, such as for cooking, other professions, or just gray  items that are meant to be sold for a small amount of coin.

If you hit a dungeon and get blues, for the most part, those will be sold. I know that very rarely have I even used dungeon drops or even quest rewards  beyond a few levels as sometimes drop are more useful. The first quests in Hellfire at level 58 and the Northrend quests at level 68 were the only times I recall rewards being very useful. Even the dungeon drops in Hellfire didn’t  last as long as some of the quest rewards.

There are also a lot of quest items you’ll gather that will take up space.  These can either be used during the quest or collected items to fulfill the quest, but since they take up space you will want to hold onto these and get them finished as soon as possible.

Item Bindings

There are 4 types of item bindings in this game:

• None – Usually all white quality items, mats, potions, and poor equipment will have no restrictions.
• Bind On Equip (BoE) – These are usually all greens you find in the wild. Any BoE can be sold at the AH, given to your guild, or traded. Once you put it on you cannot put in the AH or give to anyone else. Basically your only option after you find better equipment is to sell your old gear, unless maybe you want to hold onto them for options.
• Bind On Pickup (BoP) – These are the worst because they are the rewards from for killing bosses or completing quests and you cannot give them to  anyone else. If you can’t use them then all you can do is sell them to a vendor.
• Soulbound – Similar to BoP’s, only these are soulbound items from quests or found in the wild. Usually just unique or quest-specific items. Items also turn Soulbound once you put on a BoE.

There are also unique items, of which you can only equip one. I believe you can equip multiple items such as two weapons or two rings of green quality, but I don’t think you can have two blues of the same name equipped, but for sure you can’t equip two of the same uniques.

The purpose of bindings is so that you can’t do two things: have a hand-me- down system for any alternates, and to prevent players from farming boss  drops for gold. All dungeons usually have one boss drop that can be sold and is always there, but the rest of the assured boss drops are either to be used or sold to a vendor.

Item Management

Bags —-

Through your early quests you’ll get your 6-8 slot bags. One thing to keep in mind is that only hunters need a quiver or ammo bag. NONE of the other classes should waste a bag slot on an ammo container.

Early on it may also be cheaper to buy your bags from vendors. And from 10 to 14 slot bags you should be able to get them cheaper from the AH than vendors. 16 slot bags are found rarely in the wild, so you those and up are bought  only at the AH. I depends on your realm the prices of these, but perhaps it  would be cheaper to ask a guildie to make one for you. Sometimes you can pick up 10+ bags from a guild bank.

Tossing Items ————-

The general rule of thumb is to sell anything you find that is gray. If in the field you can just toss it if your bags are full. But if you are collecting  things from enemies and you get a lot of the same items then perhaps it’s best to toss something else so you aren’t constantly tossing the same items, though that may be the best. It’s always wise to drop gray equipment before  gray weapons.

Late in the game it may be wise to drop white items, even of your professions if in small quantities and below what you’re using. It may even be good to  drop potions and bandages before anything else.
Sharing the Wealth ——————

If in a guild then anything white can probably be given to your guild bank, such as water if you don’t need mana, or extra food and potions that no longer help you. This does not mean white equipment or weapons.

As for green items, or greens or uncommons, those need to be handled much  differently. All greens you collect in the field should make it back to town  with you. Now I’m not saying run to town when you get a green, unless you  somehow get in that position, but when full packs appear you really need to do all in your power to keep all your greens. The reason is not only to possibly make fair trades with your guild bank and use yourself, but to also sell at the auction house. Very rarely is it best to sell a green directly to a vendor. It is interesting at high levels when the deposit at the AH for items is near the  price you would sell it for, and possibly less than the gold you make with a  vendor.

*NOTE: After level 40 if your item is common and not going for much gold in the AH, auction house, then perhaps it’s going for a respectable sell price with the vendors.*
Banking It ———-

You will also find your way to the bank in a city where you can store any  items you can. These banks are expensive beyond the default slots because you must purchase a bag slot and have a spare bag.

A recipe or anything for your profession that you can’t use any time soon goes in the bank. Same with any mats you find that you can’t use, such as pulling  some leather from a guild bank for later. If there are things you can use after a level or two then you should hold onto those. In what can only be described  as a bad idea you can also store items in the bank you just don’t want to let go, although you will never use them.

*NOTE: For those mindful of alternates, consider holding onto all recipes. Of course this may be costly, but it shouldn’t be if you actually have alts to use or hold those recipes.*

White items not weapons or armors are most likely needed by someone as a mat. It’s very tricky, but most mats can be used by you, if not for a direct  recipe then perhaps as a mat for something you want that someone else can  make, such as an enchanter or alchemist. Anything green that you don’t know  what it’s used for needs to be kept until you find its use, probably on the internet.

A bad idea is to store other weapon and armor “options.” This is because for only a few reasons would you need to swap weapons; so it’s usually best to just sell something once you’ve chosen something else, unless you’re unsure which item benefits you more, then maybe hold onto both.

Maybe tanks need to hold onto extra pieces of gear for dungeons as you will take a beating. It is nice if all damage dealers keep at least one spare weapon in case a dungeon drags on forever.

For items you will never use, don’t want to sell, don’t want to toss, and  things you want to keep probably need to be given to a mule. I like to write  down their names, check the internet, and then decide if it’s best to toss such items.

Mule

No, I did not title a section by a random mammal. A mule in WoW is a character you make on a server with the purpose of holding extra items from your main character. You can make 10 characters on a server, so you can abuse that as  you wish, but I can safely say that for a level 60 main I only needed one  mule, with “needed” being purely subjective.

*NOTE: Upon thinking about it, I think with three characters and knowing what items I have no use for I don’t think I really have a mule, just an enchanter holding items to disenchant for later and holding tons of runecloth.*

From a gameplay point of view it’s wise to get your mule to at least level 15 so you can see how another class or race plays, but if you want to make a  character and run it to a city for muling then that is fine too. This is easier for humans on Alliance.

All you need is the mule to be in a major city, receive mail sent from your main character, and then deposit the items in the mule’s bank. Of course gold is used for extra bank space, so bags and gold need to be sent to a mule for heavy storage.

Another cool thing is if your main is off in the wild and not ready to  return to civilization, but by a mailbox, then it’s possible for the mule to receive money and either buy materials or keep in touch with the auction  house. This is not a very effective way of playing, but a nice option if you want to keep your main in Northrend or Outland for an extended period with a home point in that region.

And yes, you can have a level 1 in a one person guild for extra storage, but that’s a little too much abuse for my liking. You also need 100G for a bank tab anyway. It may be a wise idea once you have a nice collection of toons and they can all share a guild bank.

I do not encourage you to bypass buying more bags just because you can mule. You need your own bags and space when entering higher level dungeons, mainly because the dungeons are long and you will need as much space as possible.

Don’t let muling turn into the next disease though.