Step-by-step guide on setting up World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King

What to expect

This guide will enable a blind person to set up and play World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King (WoW WotLK) autonomously. We've developed an ingame addon called Sku for that.

Setting everything up should require 30 minutes to 1 hour (depending on your internet connection, machine, etc.). Upon completing all the steps in this guide, you'll be in the game and ready to go. There's no sighted help required. But it might be helpful or speed up the process.

Our community is there to support you on your first steps. Contact us via Discord:
https://discord.gg/AzFwTDmpbk
You will find voice channels as well as text channels for questions and contacts.

There are already Sku users (blind and sighted) in different realms. Many of them are happy to support you on your first steps.
U.S. realms:
No recommended realms or guilds at the moment. Please ask on our Discord server.
EU realms:

• Alliance: Lakeshire (Deutsch/German), Gilde "Flügel an Flügel)

• Horde: Everlook (Deutsch/German)

• Alliance: Pyrewood Village (English)

• Horde: Mirage Raceway (English)

What we expect

Keep in mind that the Sku addon was build with a lot of effort from awesome people. Up to this point, developers, route creators and test players have spent 12 months to bring World of Warcraft to blind players. It will take several more months to finish the project.

We are happy to hear your feedback. If you would like to test the game and report bugs or problems, you are welcome to do so. However, please do not expect all content to be available. Some specific parts of the game, like PvP, will most likely not be available to you.

Please try to provide an adequate feedback. We are really looking forward to active contributions!

Installation and setup

To play WoW TBC as a blind person, the following steps are required. They are detailed in the next sections:

• Create a Battlenet account

• Sign up for a WoW subscription

• Download and install WoW

• Install the addons and scripts

• Select a realm and create a character

• Configure the game

• Play

Create a Battlenet account

Battlenet is a general service provided by Blizzard (the developer of WoW). It is required to play WoW. So you need to create a free Battlenet account. Proceed as follows:

• Open the account creation page:
  https://account.battle.net/creation/flow/creation-full

• Follow the steps on that page to create an account.
  Tip: The site may check if you are a bot. You need to solve a captcha, There is an audio version for that challenge. Look for a "Use an audio challenge" button.

• After you've created an account, you are automatically logged in to Battlenet and redirected to the "ACCOUNT OVERVIEW" page, showing your profile.

• After account creation you are automatically logged in to Battlenet and redirected to the "ACCOUNT OVERVIEW" page, showing your profile.
  (https://account.battle.net/overview)

Subscribe to WoW

Now, on that page (https://account.battle.net/overview) you need to sign up for a subscription to the game. This is how it works:

• There is a menu on the left. Select "GAMES & SUBSCRIPTIONS" or navigate to the following URL:
  https://account.battle.net/games

• First of all, you need a WoW account. It's not the same as the Battlenet account you've created earlier. The Battlenet account is for all Blizzard games and services. The WoW account is for WoW only. Select "CREATE STARTER ACCOUNT".

• Select "Europe" or "Americas & Oceania" for the region. The region depends on where you are located. Be aware that you can't change that region later on. You are bound to that region. The regions are fully separated. You can't play on EU realms if your subscription is for the "Americas & Oceania" region and vice versa. The appropiate region for your location should be selected by default.

• Once you've selected the region, click on "Create account".

• At the top of the page you will find a new section named "GAME ACCOUNTS" with a section labeled "World of Warcraft (WoW1)", "Europe" or "Americas & Oceania" (depending on your region), "Starter Edition". Select "ADD SUBSCRIPTION" to the right of that section.

• Select "Continue" to agree to the privacy policy. (That step may or may not be required, depending on your location.)

• You are automatically redirected to a page showing the available subscriptions. There are "1 month - $12.99 / month" and 3 or 6 months. If you choose 3 or 6 months, you will prepay for 3 or 6 month and save a total of three or six dollars. If you would like to give WoW a try, you probably want to choose "1 month - $12.99 / month". That subscription can be cancelled on a monthly basis.
  It seems to be challenging to find the correct option using a screen reader. Therefore, you may need sighted assistance for that step. But it definitely is doable without help.
  Tip: Google Chrome seams to be the best for this. If you're using NVDA; go into focus mode by pressing NVDA plus space, then tab to the subscription you want, you may have to press your NVDA and left mouse button to rute the mouse then click it, do this by pressing the left mouse button on the keyboard. You then have to tab to the link and press enter.

• After you have selected "1 month - $12.99 / month", select "Subscribe now", enter your payment details, and follow the remaining steps of the subscription process.

Download and install WoW

Once you have created your Battlenet account, and your WoW account, and subscribed to WoW, you need to download and install the game:

• Open the Blizzard game download page:
  https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/download/

• Download "World of Warcraft". That will start the download of the file "World-of-Warcraft-Setup.exe".

• Run "World-of-Warcraft-Setup.exe" to start the installation. That will start the installation of the Battlenet client. Using that client, you will install and start the game later on.

• Wait for the Battlenet client to be installed and launched. Then log in using your Battlenet account.

• The installation of the WoW game client will start automatically. Select "Start installation". There might be some popups. Just confirm them until you are in the Battlenet app.

• The Battlenet app has automatically started installing the regular WoW version (retail). However, we are playing the Classic TBC version of WoW. You need to start the installation of the Classic version manually. In the Battlenet app, select the dropdown menu below "Game Version". That dropdown currently has "World of Warcraft" selected. Select "Wrath of the Lich King Classic" instead. Do this by pressing enter on the sub menu and arrowing down to WOW TBC and press enter. Then select the "Install" button right below the dropdown.

• Review the installation options, and select "Start Installation".

• The "Install" button in the Battlenet app will change to "Installing". The installation is about 7 GB and may take some time. At some point the button in the Battlenet app will change from "Installing" to "Play". At that point select "Play" and the game will launch.

• Wait for the game to be launched (as soon as you hear music it is launched). Then quit the game (with ALT + F4). You need to complete some more steps in order to play!

Install addons and script

To play the game you need several addons and scripts. Those addons and scripts will add accessibility features to the game. Here's how to set them up:

• You need the tool Autohotkey to move the mouse to certain positions in the game by pressing a key. You need to download and install Autohotkey using the following URL:
  https://www.autohotkey.com/download/ahk-install.exe

• Then download all required addons. We have bundled them in a starter package. You will find the starter packages at the following URLs:
  

  • For Wrath of the Lich King: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqgp3J_s6MM7iMR6QhSlgyOrv4z1yw?e=JLMDse

  • OR for Classic Era and SoD: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqgp3J_s6MM7iMRTY_GYsbIRPuKs0Q?e=sEnSX2

  
  That download is quite big too (about 573 MB). It may take quite a while.

• After downloading the starter package, open the installation directory of the "World of Warcraft" game client on your machine.
  Assuming you accepted the default settings during installation, the directory most probably is "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft". Otherwise, you'll have to manually find it.

• Open the folder "_classic_" (or _Classic_era_ for Era and SoD) in that directory. Then open the folder "Interface" and then "AddOns".

• Unzip all the folders and files from the downloaded starter package to that folder ("AddOns").
  The starter package contains many, many, many files. Therefore, and depending on your machine, extracting them may take quite a lot of time. That only happens during the initial setup and is expected.

• After extracting the files you will find many new folders in that AddOns folder. One of them is named WoW Login Tool. Open the folder WoW Login Tool.

• Then complete the following steps:

  1. Go to the folder "CopyTheContentOfThisFolderToInterface" in you WoW Login Tool folder. There should be 5 folders in there.

  2. Copy all 3 folders ("DialogFrame", "GLUES", "HELPFRAME", etc.).

  3. Go to the "Interface" folder ("C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\_classic_\Interface").

  4. Insert the just copied 5 folders in that "Interface" folder.

  Caution: You need to really carefully follow the instructions above. Do NOT just copy the full WoW Login Tool folder from the downloaded .zip file to "Interface". That won't work.

  Caution: The next steps below are important too. You still need to do them if you're a Mac user and can't use the scripts!

  1. Go to the Addons-Folder again (..\World of Warcraft_classic\Interface\AddOns).

  2. Cut out the WoW Login Tool folder containing the login tool. (Don't just copy the folder. Cut it. It needs to be removed from the Addons folder!)

  3. Go to some other folder of your choice (outside of the "World of Warcraft" folder structure) or to the desktop.

  4. Paste that WoW Login Tool folder there.

  5. In the WoW Login Tool folder you will find the START.ahk script.
     You need to start that script later to play the game. It will support you with character selection, looting and other things. Therefore it might be helpful if you create a shortcut to that script on your desktop.
     Attention: The script needs to stay in the folder. Don't move it to the desktop. Create a shortcut instead!

• Return to the "AddOns" folder (it should be "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\_classic_\Interface\"). In that folder you will find a file named "Config.wtf". Copy that file.
  In the WoW installation directory, navigate to the folder named "_classic_" (probably under "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\". From there navigate to the folder named "WTF". Paste the copied file "config.wtf" there. Overwrite the existing file.

• That's it. You are ready to play.

Select a realm and create a character

Start the game

You need to start the game again.

• The Battlenet app probably still is open. If not, launch it.

• Check if Wrath of the Lich King Classic is selected in the dropdown menu below "Game version" in the Battlenet app.

• Select "Play" right below the dropdown. The game will be launched.

Start the mouse script

• To select a realm and create a character you need the WoW Login Tool START.ahk script. Start the script by pressing enter on it.

• The WoW Login Tool has a voice prompt. On first start it will do a quick set up. You need to choose voice, language, region and game. Then is says Paused. It silently waits for the game to be started and launched. If it detects the WoW game window the WoW Login Tool automatically switches to Login mode.
  

• It says, Login Mode. That means that the tool is now in login mode, and will assist you with logging into the game, realm selection, and character creation.
  Note: It would be helpful to read/listen to the next steps on another device (tablet, smartphone, whatever is available). The WoW Login Tool will be activated every time the WoW window gets focused upon. It pauses whenever the WoW window loses focus (for example, if you're switching to this page to listen to the next step). On every new activation (if you're switching back to the WoW window) it needs to be reanitialized and starts with the main menu again. All your previously completed steps in that script will be lost every time you switch to another window and back. Reading/listening to the steps on another device would avoid that. Alternatively just read all the steps and complete them without leaving the WoW window.

• The tool performs an initialization and automatically gets you to the character selection screen of the game. While the tool is processing, you will hear a sound. Wait for that sound to stop. Do not move the mouse, press any key or switch to other windows until processing is completed.

• After a while the sound stops and the script says "Main menu". Then you can use the tool to select a realm.
  Tip: If something goes wrong, then the tool will try for 60 seconds to recognize the WoW window (you'll hear a sound indicating the script is doing something.). Then the tool stops (the sound stops) and asks you to restart the client and try again. On some machines such issues were solved by starting the WoW client first and then starting the script.
  There are more information and troubleshoting steps in the readme.txt file in the WoW Login Tool folder.

Select a realm

• Press RIGHT to enter the submenus of the audio menu. There use the up and down arrow keys to browse through the submenus. The submenus are: Select character, Log in with selected character, Create character and Change realm.

• You need to select a realm first. Go to Change realm and press RIGHT to enter the submenu of Change realm. There you will find a list of languages (these are the languages for available realms). Select a language and move right to the submenu of the selected language. That submenu contains a list of all realms in that language. Select a realm. Then press ENTER to choose it.

• The WoW Login Tool gets active and selects the new realm. You will hear the sound again. Don't do anything until the tool has completed the process. Do not move the mouse. Do not press any key. Just put your hands in the air. :)

Create a character

• Once the tool has changed your realm, you are back in the menu at Select character. You don't have a character yet and have to create one first. Press DOWN to get to the menu item Create character.

• Go right to the submenu. There you need to select the gender. Then go right again to select a race.

• Select a race and go right again to the submenu. Now select your class. The available classes depend on the selected race. Browse through the available classes with your up and down arrows. If you want, press LEFT to go back one menu level, select another race, and check out the classes for that race. Browse around to see what classes are available with each race. Then select a race and a class and press ENTER.

  Tips for selecting races and classes:

  • For the beginner, a casting healer is very helpful. That would be Priest or Druid.

  • Melee classes like Warrior, Rogue and Paladin are not that suitable for a beginner.

  • You can't change the race and class of the character later, but you can always create more characters with other races and classes.

• Again, wait for the tool. It will create the character and ask you to enter a character name. Type your desired name and press ENTER. The script will check if that name is available and valid. If it is not, you will have to enter a new name and press ENTER again. That continues until the name is available and valid. Then the tool actually creates the character and you end up back in the audio menu.
  Tips on character names:

  • They must not contain the same letter three times or more consecutively.

  • They must not contain spaces.

  • They are not case sensitive. The first letter automatically is uppercase, all others are lowercase.

• Once you have created your character, it will automatically be placed in slot #1 of your character list. There are 10 slots for characters. New characters are automatically placed on the next free slot. So the next one you create would be slot #2 and so on.

• If you have more than one character, you might want to write down the name, race, class and slot # of the created character. The tool only works with the slot numbers, not with the names of the characters.

• Once you have created your first character, you can enter the game world with that character.

• In order to enter the world with your first character in slot #1, you first need to select that character. Go to Select character, then right, and then select Slot #1. Then press ENTER.

• The script will select the character in slot #1, and automatically switches to the Log in with selected character menu item. That is what you want to do. Just press ENTER to select the option.

• Now you are entering the game world with your new character. The tool says Play Mode, and will now be in play mode. If that doesn't happen, you can always press ALT + F1 to switch between login and play mode.

• There will be an introduction video playing, and you should hear a narrator. As soon as the narrator ends, you will find yourself in the game world at the starting location of your race.

Configure the game

Before you start playing, you need to configure the game settings listed below. You need to set up the default key bindings for the game via the Sku addon. This is how you do it:

• Press SHIFT + F1 to open the Sku audio menu.

• That main audio menu is your go-to place for all the important activities in the game. All the things that only sighted people can do are available to you via that audio menu. So you will need SHIFT + F1 for the Sku audio menu all the time.

• The Sku audio menu works the same way as the audio menu you've used to create your character a few minutes ago. You can use DOWN and UP to move around in the current menu level, RIGHT to go down one menu level, and LEFT to go up one menu level. Use ENTER to select/activate/use the current menu item.

• Press DOWN to move to Sku Core and use RIGHT to enter its submenu.

• Press DOWN to move to Game Key Bindings and RIGHT to enter its submenu.

• Navigate to Reset All, (it should be the first item in the submenu) and enter the submenu with RIGHT.

• There select the option Really reset? (no further warning) with ENTER.

• Then close the sku audio menu with SHIFT + F1 or ESCAPE.

Now your key bindings are set to the standard Sku key bindings. More information on the audio menu and the key bindings can be found in the next chapter.

As a last step, you can personalize settings in the Sku addon. The most important one is the volume:

• Open the audio menu with SHIFT + F1.

• Navigate down to Sku Options and enter the submenu.

• Navigate to the Options submenu.

• Move down to Audio Channels and enter the submenu.

• Move down to Total Volume and enter the submenu.

• In that submenu you can set the overall volume of the game from 0 to 100. Go up and down to a suitable volume. Then press ENTER to set the volume to that value. Change the overall volume to a level where you can easily hear the audio menu.

• Then go down one menu item to Sound Effects Volume, and set the volume so that you can still hear the audio from Sku. If there are no sound effects (for example spell effects and combat sounds), you can return to the menu later and adjust the setting.

• Navigate down to Environment Volume, Music Volume and Dialog Volume and adjust them too. (You can turn the music on and off with CTRL + M).

• Then close the audio menu with ESCAPE.

You are done. Now you are truly ready to play.

Play

Here is a first steps video tutorial from Nils. It shows how to play the game and use the Sku addon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3SZoQeOZ7M&list=PLcLfgUsgZkMjVqBI1z_vtITlOelGDf0Aq

Help, I don't know what to do

If you have questions or problems, please join our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/AzFwTDmpbk
There is almost always someone to help and answer questions.

Here is a first steps video tutorial from Nils. It shows how to play the game and use the Sku addon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3SZoQeOZ7M&list=PLcLfgUsgZkMjVqBI1z_vtITlOelGDf0Aq

Key bindings

WoW

Movement

• Forward: W and UP

• Backward: S and DOWN

• Rotate left/right: A and D or LEFT/RIGHT

• Move left/right: , (comma) and . (period)

• Up (e.g. while swimming): INSERT

• Down (e.g. while swimming): DELETE

• Jump: SPACE

Activities

• Interact with target: G

• Attack target: T

• Follow target: F and NUMPAD 0

• Click into the game world at your feet: NUMPAD 7

• Click slightly in front of your feet: NUMPAD 8

• Click a little further in front of your feet: NUMPAD 9

• Make your pet attack: SHIFT + T

Targeting

• Target next friendly target: CTRL + TAB

• Target previous friendly target: CTRL + SHIFT + TAB

• Target next hostile target: TAB

• Target previous hostile target: SHIFT + TAB

• Target last hostile target: H

• Target target of target: R

• Target self: E

• Target group member 1: NUMPAD 2 or Q

• Target group member 2: NUMPAD 3

• Target group member 3: NUMPAD 4

• Target group member 4: NUMPAD 5

• Target focus: NUMPAD 6

• Target focus target: CTRL + NUMPAD 6

Action bars

• Standard action bar, Button 1 to 12: Keys 1 to 0, hyphen (-) and equal (=).

• Bonus action bar, Button 1 to 10: CTRL + Keys 1 to 0, hyphen (-) and equal (=)

• Additional action bar left, Button 1 to 6: F1 to F6

• Additional action bar right, button 1 to 6: F7 to F12

• Left side action bar, Button 1 to 6: CTRL + F1 to F6

• Right side action bar, Button 1 to 6: CTRL + F7 to F12

• Select standard action bar page 1 to 6: SHIFT + 1 to 6

• Select next standard action bar page: SHIFT + DOWN

• Select previous standard action bar page: SHIFT + UP

Chat

• Reply to whisper: SHIFT + R

• Open chat input box: ENTER

Panels

• Character: C

• Quests: L

• Pet: SHIFT + I

• Bags: B

• Talents: N

Target icons

• Remove target icon from target: CTRL + NUMBER BLOCK 0

• Assign skull icon to target: CTRL + NUMBER BLOCK 1

• Assign X to target: CTRL + NUMBER BLOCK 2

• Assign triangle to target: CTRL + NUMPAD 3

• Assign square to target: CTRL + NUMPAD 4

• Assign moon to target: CTRL + NUMPAD 5

Miscellaneous

• Music on/off: CTRL + M

• Sound on/off: CTRL + S

Sku-Addon and audio menu

General

• Alternative method for next friendly target in starting areas: CTRL + SHIFT + TAB

• Repeat the loot that you're rolling on: CTRL + SHIFT + C

• Roll "Need" on loot: CTRL + SHIFT + B

• Roll "Greed" on loot: CTRL + SHIFT + G

• Skip on loot: CTRL + SHIFT + X

Audio menu

• Jump to the first menu item of the current menu level: HOME

• Select the previous/next menu item in the current menu level: UP and DOWN arrows keys.

• Move one menu level down or up (submenus): LEFT or RIGHT arrow keys.

• Jump to the first menu item starting with a letter or number: A to Z and 0 to 9

• Filter the menu: enter two or more characters

• Clear the filter: BACK

• Select the current menu item: ENTER

• Open the tooltip for the current item and read out the first line of tooltip text: SHIFT + UP (hold SHIFT)

• Read the next/previous line: SHIFT + DOWN/UP arrows.

• Next/previous section: CONTROL + SHIFT + DOWN/UP arrows.

• Spell the current menu item: shift + right.

• Close menu: ESCAPE.

• Quick access 1 to 4 on audio menu items: SHIFT + F9 to SHIFT + F12

• Set quick access 1 to 4 to audio menu items to the currently selected audio menu item: CTRL + SHIFT + F9 to CTRL + SHIFT + F12

Chat

• Open/close chat: SHIFT + F2

• Previous chat line: DOWN

• Next chat line: UP

• Close chat: ESCAPE

Quests

• Open/close the quest log: L

• Read the tooltip of the item you are currently rolling on: CTRL + SHIFT + T, keep holding shift and use down arrow

• Cancel the currently selected quest: CTRL + SHIFT + D

Navigation

• Get your direction and distance to the selected waypoint: CTRL + ALT

• Get your global direction (compass): SHIFT + ALT

• Select quick waypoint 1 to 4: SHIFT + F5 to SHIFT + F8

• Set quick waypoint 1 to 4 to your current position: CTRL + SHIFT + F5 to CTRL + SHIFT + F8

• Select next route waypoint: CTRL + SHIFT + W

• Select previous route waypoint: CTRL + SHIFT + S

• Toggle distance for waypoints: CTRL + SHIFT + Q

• Invert current route: CTRL + SHIFT + Z

• Activate panic mode: CTRL + SHIFT + Y