Character Creation

Your race sets your character's looks and voice, starting area, available classes, racial traits and the side it fights for, Alliance or Horde. Most players simply pick the race whose look, story or style they like best; a few pick one for a small edge in top-level competitive play.

The faction choice matters most while leveling: quests in the open world can only be done together with your own side. If you want to level with a friend, both of you should make characters on the same side. At the level cap it matters less, because dungeons and raids can be run together. See Alliance and Horde and Playable Races.

Allied races have everything a core race has, but you cannot pick one for your first character. Once any character on your account reaches level 40, go to your faction's embassy (the Stormwind Embassy or the Orgrimmar Embassy) and complete The Call for Allies and A Choice of Allies. These open one recruitment questline per race; finishing it lets you create that race. New allied race characters start at level 10, and those that reach level 50 without a boost earn a heritage armor set.

Racial traits are the main gameplay difference between races. Every race knows at least three from the moment it is created: several passive ones and at least one active ability. A few examples:

• Human: Will to Survive and The Human Spirit.
• Night Elf: Shadowmeld and Quickness.
• Orc: Blood Fury and Hardiness.
• Tauren: War Stomp and Endurance.
• Goblin: Rocket Jump and Best Deals Anywhere.
• Dracthyr: Soar and Glide.

Your class shapes how you play far more than your race does, but not every race can be every class: there are 230 race and class combinations in the modern game. The best advice is to pick the class you find most fun, by look or by playstyle. You can make as many characters as you like and try them; the free trial goes up to level 20. If you plan to do dungeons or raids, also think about the role you want. See Classes Overview.

• Evoker can only be played by Dracthyr, and Dracthyr Evokers start at level 10.
• Demon Hunter is limited to Night Elf, Void Elf and Blood Elf, and starts at level 8 in Mardum.
• Death Knights also start at level 8, in Ebon Hold in the Eastern Plaguelands.

You then shape your character's appearance and choose a body type, called One or Two. Shadowlands improved the customization options. Last comes the name: Blizzard's naming policy bans inappropriate names and can force a rename, and role-play realms add stricter naming rules of their own (see Realms).

Each core race has its own starting area. Since Shadowlands there is also Exile's Reach, an island that serves as a new starting experience for levels 1 to 10. Allied races and hero classes skip these zones and begin at a higher level. From level 10 you can pick which expansion's story to level through with Chromie Time (see Leveling and Experience).