Colors ( COLO123 )

Understand World of Warcraft item, skill, and quest colors: gray, white, green, yellow, orange, red, blue, purple. Learn what each color signifies for your progression.

Skills operate on a gray, green, yellow, and orange scale. Gray skills are easy and award no skillup points. Green skills should be easy, leading to rare skillups. Yellow skills offer a 60% chance to skillup. Orange skills always result in a skillup. Your skills typically progress in increments of 5 or 10 points to advance.

NOTE: Weapon skills and lockpicking maxes only increase by five as you level.

Items are categorized by gray, white, green, blue, purple, and the rare end-game orange. Gray items are considered broken and can be discarded. White items are normal and not very good. Green items are generally recommended, offering better stats and buffs. Blue items are the next tier, harder to obtain, found at the auction house, as quest rewards, or rare drops. Purple items are very difficult to find but may be acquired in the end game, including as rewards for battleground success at level 60. Orange items are extremely rare and have not been observed by the source.

NOTE: If you engage in battlegrounds, you can purchase items and mounts from a reward house, separate from zone quartermasters. For example, at level 60, you can buy an epic mount in Alterac Valley.

Quests use a gray, green, yellow, and red scale. Gray quests provide only a fraction of experience. Green quests have a limited time window before your level becomes too high, making them almost not worth completing, but an effort should be made to finish them. Yellow quests are likely doable solo and provide proper experience. Red quests are not recommended but offer more experience than normal upon completion.

Enemies also have color designations: gray, green, yellow, red, skull, and ??. Gray enemies yield no experience. Green enemies give a little. Yellow enemies provide the standard amount. Red enemies give more. Skull and ?? enemies likely require a raid or are not killable through normal means.

Gray does not mean an item, thing, or skill is useless; it simply means you are not maximizing its potential. Some gray quests should be completed to maintain quest links. Gray items can be sold, and at higher levels, they are worth at least a couple of flights worth of silver. Many gray skills remain useful beyond just skilling up.