By items, we are going to refer to all pieces of equipment that can be placed on your character. World of Warcraft will not be completely item-driven like its Blizzard cousin, Diablo II. Whereas the quality of your character was determined almost solely by your equipment in Diablo II, World of Warcraft items won't be as essential. Granted, as in any RPG, they will make a significant difference.

Inventory In order for an item to be of use to you, it must fit in a slot in your inventory. The available slots available on World of Warcraft characters are: Image Slot Description
Helm Anything you can wear on your head. This could be anything ranging from a Skullcap to a ancient Helm.
Neck A slot for Amulets and necklaces.
Shoulder Armor for the shoulders. It appears Armor in WoW will be in multiple pieces.
Cloak Slots of capes and cloaks.
Armor Chestplate that covers the middle section of your character.
Vest Extra protection to wear beneath your chestplate.
Tabard/Tunic Guild Tabards would be put in this slot.
Wrists Armored cufflinks.
Gloves To keep the Night Elven ladies from breaking their nails.
Waist A belt.
Trousers Leggings to cover your bottom half, and keep you warm on those cold Khaz Modan nights.
Boots Pretty self explanatory I think.
Rings/Trinkets There will be 4 slots for these.
Weapon Equipment used to arm yourself.
Shield To protect yourself from attacks. To find out more about slots for equipment, and the "paper doll" interface that you can use to change what you are wearing, check out our interfaces page .

Types of Items There will be 5 different types of items (that we know so far): Normal Items (mainly for low level characters)
Magical Items (most items)
Set items (A group of items that fit in different slots on your character. They have similar appearance, and completing a set can increase the overall effectiveness of all the items in that set.)
Unique items (Very rare, some could be limited to one per server)
Merged items (Items that have been crafted.)
In addition, there are a special kind of item called soulbound items . These items are bound to your character, you cannot drop them, or trade them. Super-Unique items are commonly soulbound. A historical reference, Arthas's sword, Frostmourne, would be an example of a soulbound item.

More Item Information While items in WoW won't "wear down", they will have a quality rating. Each type of item, normal through unique, can have different quality levels. The quality ratings as of the E3 2003 build were: Standard quality (grey), Good quality (green), Superior quality (blue) and Epic quality (blue violet).Monsters will drop equipment when killed. However, the drop will be drawn randomly from a specific item class for that monster type. If you recieved a "Super Sword of Fire" the first time you killed a monster, it wouldn't necessarily be the same loot the second time. This was designed to discourage camping. There is ample storage space in World of Warcaft, and players will not need to create "mule" characters to store extra items and equipment. In addition to the 5 bags and backpacks you will be able to carry, there is also a top-notch banking system for you to store your treasures. Want to go knock some skulls with a powerful Mace or a strong Pole-Arm? How about shoot from afar with a Dwarven Blunderbuss Rifle or a sturdy Night Elven Bow? Perhaps you will master the art of magic, and fight with a Wand or Staff? In World of Warcraft, the choice is yours...Item Type Rarity
This section explains when you will come across items for certain slots on your character. At level 1: Chest, Shirt, Hands, Legs, Feet, Waist, Wrist
At higher levels (not revealed), listed in the order at which you will find them: Shoulder/Finger, Head/Neck, Trinket. Item Bound Types Not Bound - Items can be equipped, removed, or traded at any time and in any order.
Bind on Equip - You can trade this item if you haven't equipped it. Once you equip it, you can no longer trade it with other players.
Bind on Use - Once you have used this item, you can no longer trade it.
Bind on Acquire - Once you pick up the item, you will no longer be able to trade it with other players. Be very careful not to loot this item if you're not supposed to have it permanently.
Quest Items - Quest Items are bound to your character. You cannot trade them. Durability
Item durability is an important aspect of World of Warcraft that works to stabilize the economy, decrease inflation specifically in the high end game, and in general keep prices of player sold items lower than normally would occur without such a feature. Durability should also add additional depth to the game since players will have more variety in their items and more abilities will be added over time to interact with durability. Item durability is different from item decay in that players will never lose items through item durability. On death, all equipped items will lose 10% durability.

Durability key points

• All armor and weapons have durability, but not trinkets, cloaks, shirts, guild tabards, necklaces and rings. Items remain at full effectiveness until they have no durability. Their power does not degrade. Items cannot permanently break. All armor/weapon vendors can repair durability in exchange for cash. When an item reaches zero durability, it no longer gives the player any benefit; it acts as though it does not exist until repaired.
• Professions cannot repair durability, but we will discuss ways for the professions to interact with them in the future.

Armor Swapping
Armor can't be swapped out (changed) while in combat. Other equipment such as weapons and accessories can be swapped out. Linking Item Stats to Chat Text
You can create a link to your item in chat text, which is useful for showing it to people for trading purposes or just to share information about your item. Hold down "Shift" and left-click on the item while having your chat text typing box open. This will insert a link to that item. Whenever you see [itemname], you can click on that text to see the stats of the item. Trade channels are the only general chat channels that allow item links. You can also link to items in the auction house to show items for sale to your friends =]. Stacking
Some items are stackable. They will stack/combine automatically when you drag them over to your backpack. You can break up a stack of items by holding "Shift" and then left-clicking on the item. This will bring up a number box, which you can use to indicate how many items you want to take out of the stack. "Made By <Playername>"
This is an item that was created using a trade skill. The name on the item is the name of the person that created the item. +Damage vs. +Mana
Using Fireball as an example, you can cast more fireballs with the INT item, but the damage you do is greater with the DMG item. Overall you deal slightly less damage on a full mana bar but at an increased DPS using the DMG item. +Chance Hit
Items which provide +hit chance counteracts the increased miss chance penalty of dual-wielding. Instant Melee Attacks
The attack power bonus is multiplied by a fixed number pulled from the following table:

• Two-handed weapons: 3.3 Daggers: 1.7
• All other one-handed weapons: 2.4