World of Warcraft Classic is a game where the community is very valuable; no player can do it alone and communication is key. That's why it's so weird that the game never really explains how all of the chat channels outside of the basics work.
There are 14 different chat channels, each accessible using the / key and any command in the chat window. Here is a quick list.
World of Warcraft Classic: Chat Channels and Their Uses
/ 1: The general channel, seen by everyone in the current world zone (eg Durotar, Stormwind, Loch Modan).
/ 2: The commercial channel. Visible to everyone in an area, similar to General, but generally only available in towns and used exclusively for trades.
/ 3: The local defense channel. Typically used for alerts in a specific area. Sends automatic alerts if a player from an opposing faction invades your current area (if they have typically killed an NPC Guardian). Can be used by players to give similar warnings.
/ 4: The group search channel. Seen by everyone in the global zone you are in, with the same settings as the general channel.
/ s: the Say channel. Only heard by people very close (25 meters or less). Can also be used with / dire.
/ y: the Yell channel. Heard by everyone within 300 yards of you. It colors the text in bright red for better visibility. Great for hawking goods through market places or shouting at the opposing faction. / yell also works.
/ g: The guild channel only forwards the message to guild members. / guild also works.
/ o: the officer's channel. like / g, but only seen by guild officers. / officer is the complete order.
/ ra: the raid channel. Seen by people in the current Raid. / raid also works for this.
/ rw: puts the message in the foreground during a raid to facilitate the communication of very important commands and instructions.
/ w: the Whisper string. Private messages. / w, / whisper, / t, and / tell are all the same channel, and a player's name must follow the entire message, for the message to work properly. For example. / w BarleyBoy "Do you want to buy some beer?"
/ r: Replies to Whispers sent by other players. Also works if you type r (no /) outside of the chat box.
Almost all of them will be used regularly by gamers for different purposes, with / ra and / rw by default being a bit rarer (but no less important). If you stick to the right chats, your chances of receiving messages and getting noticed are greater. So this is especially important for network chat in many cases.
