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.

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 .

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 A historical reference, Arthas's sword, Frostmourne, would be an example of a soulbound item.

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...