Armor is very important in the world of warcraft, the type of armor you wear and the stats you have on it can make every fight you engage easier or much harder than it should be. When first starting a new character, the armor you're given is very minimal although it is sufficient to get you started.
Throughout your adventures you will be given armor as quest rewards quite often, sometimes there will even be several options of armor as a reward and knowing which to choose for your class can make a big difference. Below is a list of the type of armor each class can wear, the highest available type of armor your char can wear is usually considered the best choice, for example if you're a paladin, you should choose mail armor where possible until level 40, then start switching your gear to plate. There are exceptions, but this is usually the rule. * = Learned at level 40
Death knight: Cloth, leather, mail, plate
Druid: Cloth, leather
Hunter: Cloth, leather, mail*
Mage: Cloth
Paladin: Cloth, leather, mail, plate*
Priest: Cloth
Warlock: Cloth
Warrior: Cloth, leather, mail, plate*
Rogue: cloth, leather
Lets say your char is a warrior, just because he can wear all kinds of armor doesn’t mean he should, you need to learn the right stats to choose for your class, a lot of new players don’t understand the stats and think an upgrade is just whatever has the highest armor count! While armor is important for some characters (mostly melee chars) its actually not the best way to choose your gear.
Below is a list of ideal stat choices for each class, this guide is meant for low level players without much room for specific specs yet, obviously as your char goes further in one tree or another your pref stats may change, druids in particular will differ greatly depending on how they spec, casters generally want spell power and/or crit and high level for example, but its quite difficult to get gear with bonus spell power on it at low levels so your next best choice is often intellect to give more mana to cast more spells before running out.
DK: N/A Death knight characters begin at level 55 after leveling at least one other char to 55
Druid: Intellect Stamina
Mage: Intellect Spirit Stamina
Hunter: Agility Stamina
Paladin: Intellect Strength Stamina
Priest: Intellect Spirit Stamina
Warlock: Stamina Intellect Spirit
Warrior: Strength Stamina Agility
Rogue: Agility Stamina
Weapons are another important piece of your gear, a weapon can be a source of additional stats as well as something to physically damage your enemy with. If you're a caster (someone who casts spells more often than they attack with a weapon) you will just need to look at the stats since you wont be actually hitting anyone with your weapon. If you're a melee class, you will want to look at both the stats AND 'damage per second' of the weapon.
Some weapons have whats called a 'chance on hit'. You will see it written in green writing someone on the weapons tooltip, usually at the bottom. What it means is that that particular weapon has a chance on melee strike to produce a special ability (eg; additional fire damage) or buff (eg: increase your haste for a short period). These weapons are good for melee classes only, since a caster/or ranged attacker isn't going to be striking their targets with their weapon very often, it is surprising how many hunters seem to think using a melee weapon with 'chance on hit' is a good idea. You will often find them with firey or icy enchants on the same weapons /facepalm.
Repairing your armor.....
Your weapons and armor have durability, think of it like health, if your die, your gear takes 10% damage on its durability. Even without dying, it will take damage in smaller bits over time from being attacked or just from attacking/casting yourself. You need to repair this damage before it 'breaks' if you take a lot of durability damage without repairing you will notice a 'doll' appear on your screen under your minimap, it will show pieces of your armor in yellow.. and if left long enough, red. This shows which pieces are in dire need of repair.
A piece shown in Yellow is close to broken, a piece in red IS broken. Broken armor isn't literally broken, it does not disappear and its not broken forever, it just means that it is so damaged that you are not gaining the additional stats or armor that it has on it, if your armor is yellow you are still receiving its stats. If your weapon becomes red, it will disappear from your hand or back or wherever its sheathed and you will have to attack with your bare hands until you repair it!
Finding somewhere to repair can be a challenge all of its own, you wont find any armorers out in the middle of the wild, instead you should head to the nearest town, left-click the magnifying glass that's on your minimap and select 'repair' then look for a yellow dot on the minimap, that will be somewhere you can get your armor fixed, click the hammer with a + on it down the bottom of his shop window. If you cannot find a yellow dot on your minimap, run around a little, you just may not be close enough. I cant think of any towns that don't have a place to repair, but there may well be one or two, so if you've covered the whole town with no dot.. perhaps try another town.
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