What kind of items can I find in World of Warcraft?
Items can be found throughout the world of Azeroth and beyond. They can be taken from enemies both large and small, received as quest rewards, found in chests, and crafted with professions. They range in quality and power from simple non-magical loot that is meant to be sold to vendors, to impressive epic items of legendary power. Your character will acquire and upgrade his or her equipped items throughout his or her adventuring career.

Where can I normally find magic items?
Magic items can be acquired in a variety of ways. Enemy bosses, quests, crafting, reputation rewards, and player vs. player rewards are the main avenues for obtaining magic items. Additionally, you can shop for a wide array of magic items at the auction house.

Are items found from certain sources, such as bosses, generally better than those from other sources, such as crafted items?
Not necessarily. While it is true that many of the most powerful items are acquired from the most difficult bosses, this should be taken as more of a reflection of matching the power of a reward to the difficulty of obtaining it, and not as a general rule that boss monsters drop all the best items. In the case of crafted items, some crafted items are among the best items of their particular type. PvP rewards, particularly arena rewards, are also very powerful and rank with the very best items in the game. Lastly, many "epic" quests grant powerful epic rewards befitting their difficulty. The bottom line is there is no one way to obtain powerful magic items, and players with different playstyles will always have options available to them as a result.

Are there class restrictions on items?
Yes. Not every class can use a given weapon or item. In fact, some items can only be used or worn by a single class or several specific classes.

Are there race restrictions on items, such as a gnome not being able to wear the same piece of armor as a tauren?
There are no items that are restricted based on race.

What is a "soulbound" item?
A soulbound item is essentially an item that cannot be traded to other players, as it has become linked to a particular character. Once soulbound, a character can use the item as he or she wishes, including equipping, storing in a bag/bank slot, selling to a vendor, and disenchanting or destroying it. The item simply cannot be transferred to any other player by any means. Soulbound items are typically weapons and armor of uncommon (green) quality and above. The great majority of materials needed for crafted items are not soulbound, as they are intended to be easily sold or traded to other players. Your soulbound item will display the descriptor "Soulbound" in its tooltip.

How does an item become soulbound?
An item becomes soulbound by one of two means. Either the item became soulbound the instant it was acquired by the player, whether created by that player or taken from a slain boss, or it became soulbound when the player actually equipped the item after acquiring it. These two methods are reflected in the item's tooltip, which indicates whether the item either "binds when picked up" or "binds when equipped." If an item's tooltip is lacking either of these two descriptors, it is not considered a soulbound item.

Is there item durability, and can items be destroyed from durability loss?
Armor and weapons of most types have durability states that are indicated on the item's tooltip. Some equippable item types, such as necklaces, rings, cloaks, and trinkets, do not have durability states. An item's durability will degrade from normal use, including damage taken in combat, environmental damage, and death. If an item's durability falls to zero, it becomes "broken" and no longer conveys any of its benefits to the wearer until repaired. Items can be repaired by certain NPCs, such as armor and weapons vendors. Characters cannot lose their items permanently due to durability loss.

What kind of items can I create in World of Warcraft?
With the crafting professions of Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Alchemy, Tailoring, and Jewelcrafting, players can create items of both temporary and lasting value. The permanent items range from crafted weapons to armor of all types. As a player's crafting level increases, he or she can gain access to increasingly powerful item recipes. Players can also create consumable items that convey temporary benefits, such as potions. However, consumable items can also convey permanent benefits. For example, armor patches created with Leatherworking are single-use items that permanently increase the armor rating of a piece of armor. Most crafted items can be traded and sold to other players, with the exception of rare crafted items which bind to the crafter immediately upon creation.

How does the trading interface work?
You must be standing in close proximity to the player you wish to trade with. Then, select the option from the menu that appears when right-clicking his or her character portrait to open the trade window. Alternately, you can drag an item you wish to trade directly onto the target character on the main screen. Each character will have his or her own section of the trading window, with empty slots where items can be placed. Place an item (or amount of gold) that you wish to trade in the window. When satisfied with the trade, each party must accept the trade by pushing the appropriate button for the items to change hands. If at any time you wish to cancel the trade you can do so by pushing the appropriate button. In addition, items placed in the bottom slot of each character's window will not be traded - instead, the other character can perform a skill such as Enchanting or Lockpicking on the item.

Can you add cool effects and glows to your weapons in World of Warcraft to make them appear like the Hero weapons in Warcraft III?
Yes. There are many ways to modify your weapons, and some of these modifications change the appearance of your weapon. As an example, you can add a fire enchantment to your weapon (with the Enchanting profession) that makes it glow red and deal bonus fire damage. Shamans have spells that cause glowing orbs to circle their equipped weapon, much like a similar effect in Warcraft III.

How are item drops from monsters determined?
Monsters have a chance to randomly drop items from their loot table, which is a predetermined grab bag of possible items that it could drop. Some monsters always drop an item, such as rare elite monsters and instance bosses. Boss monsters found in instances have a fixed loot table of powerful rare or epic items, and in most cases the items on a boss loot table are unique to that boss.

What are "unique" items?
Unique items come in two varieties. The first is simply known as "unique." A Unique item means that you may only possess a maximum of one of that particular item in your character's inventory at any given time. The second variety is known as "unique-equipped". The restriction on these items is slightly different, in that you are not limited to how many of them you may have in your inventory, but rather, how many you may have equipped. You may only have one of that particular unique-equipped item equipped on your character at any given time.

What do the colors of an item name's text mean?
Every item in the World of Warcraft is attributed a color to represent its quality. A grey item represents a poor quality item, and you can safely sell these items to vendors. A white item represents common quality. Typically, common quality items are used for spell reagents, quest items, consumables such as food and water, and materials for professions. An item of uncommon quality is represented by green text. Usually, items of this quality include less common items from random world drops which may be useful to the player, or sold on the auction house for a profit. Rare items, as indicated by blue text, are items which are far more likely to come across as world drops, or may be far more difficult to obtain, such as from bosses in instanced dungeons. A purple item represents an epic quality item. Epic items are far more difficult to obtain than any other quality and typically have better stats than a different quality item with the same level requirements. While not limited to drop in any particular area, items of rare quality are usually found in raid and heroic mode instances. Finally, legendary items, displayed in orange, are exceptional items which are extremely rare and incredibly difficult to obtain. Seeking out legendary items is a true adventure and is not for the faint of heart, as the pursuit will undoubtedly require much time and patience.