Starter Edition

Not to be confused with 10-day Free Trial.

Starter Edition is a trial version of World of Warcraft, with certain limitations but otherwise free to play.

Limitations

When you sign up to a trial account, you may not do the following:

• Create or join a guild.
• Whisper someone who has not added you to their friends list.
• Trade, either via the auction house, mailbox or player-to-player trading.
• Use ingame chat channels other than say, whisper, party, etc.
• Level above level 20.
• Send/Receive any mail other than from Game Masters.
• Have more than 10 gold.
• Level higher than 100 in professions.
  • While not documented on the site, this limit only applies to production and gathering professions at this time. A warning and a lock will display on secondary professions such as Fishing and Cooking, but they can still be leveled as high as physically possible, provided the player can continue to find appropriate resources.
• Use voice chat.
• Be eligible for the paid character transfer service.
• Invite other players to a party.
• Yell.
• Use RealID features.

Realms with login queues will also give priority to customers with retail accounts.

Progress

Despite its limitations, a Starter Edition player can still be able to make decent progress in the game world. Such a character should be able to complete at least 600 quests, especially if they travel to all low-level areas controlled by their faction and complete their quest chains.

For the Alliance, that would include Elwynn Forest, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, Dun Morogh, Loch Modan, Teldrassil, Darkshore, Azuremyst Isle, and Bloodmyst Isle.

For the Horde - Durotar, Northern Barrens, Azshara, Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, Silverpine Forest, Eversong Woods, and Ghostlands.

A persistent player with good gear can also complete some of the quests in the 20-25 level areas such as Ashenvale, Hillsbrad Foothills, Wetlands, and Duskwood.

A very brave and stubborn player might as well visit higher level areas, though the only thing they could possibly do there is exploration and sightseeing. Exploration usually entails a high number of deaths, yet successful revelation of the entire map will award an Achievement.

Enemy low-level areas can also be explored, as long as players stay away from the roads (to avoid any Alliance/Horde patrols) and popular player gathering areas (e.g. Goldshire, Razor Hill, etc.). Revealing an enemy race's starting zone will inevitably require 1 or 2 deaths (a level 20 character cannot survive against Elite guards for more than 1 second).

Starter Edition players can do cooking and fishing daily quests at capital cities without restrictions. This is a good way to earn some achievements and increase reputation with other factions in order to be able to buy their racial mounts at Exalted.

External links

World of Warcraft: Starter Edition at the official site

World of Warcraft: Starter Edition at the official site