Minimap

The minimap, or mini map, is a circular, zoom-able overhead view of the area around your character (represented as silver arrow pointing the direction your character is facing).

Besides being able to zoom the view in and out, the minimap has a variety of informational UI features.

Minimap features

Location name

• The name of the current location of your character appears at the top of the minimap.

Terrain and buildings

• A reasonable shadowed, textured view of the surrounding terrain appears in the minimap.
• Rough silhouettes of buildings (mostly to scale) also appear on the minimap.

Character locations

• Your character (File:MinimapArrow up 18x18.png): Your character will appear as silver arrow pointing the direction your character is facing always at the center of the minimap.
• Your corpse (): If you die, your corpse will appear and a small tombstone on the minimap and an arrow () on the edge of the minimap circle will point to it if it is out of view.
• Your Graveyard: If you die, but don't press the "Release Spirit" button, there will be a golden arrow (File:GuideMinimapArrow up 16x16.png) pointing towards the nearest available Graveyard.
• Party members: If your character is in a party, any party members will appear on the map as white-outlined, colored blips. Arrows (File:GroupMinimapArrow up 16x16.png) on the edge of the minimap circle will point to party members out of view.
• Raid members: If your character is in a raid, any raid members, not directly in your party, will appear as a fully colored blip with a black dot in the middle. Arrows (File:GroupMinimapArrow up 16x16.png) on the edge of the minimap circle will point to raid members out of view.

Flight masters

Flight masters that you have not yet gotten the flight point for will display on the minimap as a light green exclamation point ().

Detected creatures or resources

Moving the pointer over the blip will give the creatures name.

• A small circular indicator at the top-left of the minimap shows the current detection method ability (like Hunter's [Track Beasts], Herbalism profession's [Find Herbs], or Mining's [Find Minerals]). You can right-click on this indicator to change the kind of tracking that is active.
• Any detectable hostile creatures appear as gold-outlined red blips ( File:Mob blip 16x12.png ; like with the Hunter ability, Track Beasts).
• Detectable neutral creatures would appear as gold blips ( File:Resource blip 16x12.png ).
• Detectable friendly creatures appear as gold-outlined green blips ( File:In-faction NPC blip 16x10.png ).
• Any detectable minerals appear as gold blips ( File:Resource blip 16x12.png ; like with the Herbalism ability, Find Herbs or the Mining ability, Find Minerals). Moving the pointer over the blip will give the type of herb or mineral (usually a vein or deposit). If the color of the blip is slightly dimmed ( File:Under rsrc blip 16x12.png ), it means that the resource is on a different level (underground if you are above ground and vice versa).

Quest givers and enders

• Quest NPCs will show up on the minimap as gold exclamation marks (), or as a question mark () when you have a completed quest to turn in to them, and the tooltip will give the NPC name when you mouse over it. If the color of the indicator is slightly dimmed (File:Quest Avail Inside 16x16.png or File:Quest Complete Inside 16x16.png), it means that the questgiver is inside a building, or on another level. Repeatable quest giver NPCs show up as a blue mark ( or ) instead of gold.

Guard Directions

When you talk to a guard and ask for directions, minimap features will help you find your target.

• A golden guide arrow (File:GuideMinimapArrow up 16x16.png) will appear on the edge of the minimap pointing in the direction of your target.
• A red marker flag () will appear on the minimap roughly where your target is located.

City/Town Directions

When your character is near a city or town a silver edge arrow (File:EdgeMinimapArrow up 16x16.png) will appear on the edge of the minimap indicating the direction of the settlement.

Detecting other players

Usually only applies to Druids and Hunters with Track Humanoids.

• Any detectable friendly players appear as white-outlined green blips ( File:In-faction blip 16x10.png ).
• Enemy players, when you're not flagged appear as white-outlined gold blips ( File:Out-faction blip 16x10.png ).
• Enemy players, when you are flagged appear as white-outlined red blips ( File:Enemy player blip 16x10.png )

Pinging a location

If you click on the minimap, you can ping a location that is visible to other members of your party.

Day/Night and time

• A small circular indicator at the top-right of the minimap shows a sun or crescent moon depending on whether it is day or night in game time.

  day          night

• Moving the pointer over this indicator shows the current in-game time.

Mail status

• A smaller circular indicator () under the day/night indicator shows an envelope if your character has unread mail.

  you have mail!

• Moving the pointer over the icon will let you know who sent the recent unopened mail.

Time clock

This can be turned off through the interface display options.

• A small clock () at the bottom of the minimap shows the server time.
• Moving the pointer over the clock will show you server time and local time.

Minimap UI

The minimap only has zoom in and zoom out buttons at the bottom-right:

• Click the gold + button () to zoom in the minimap view. If the button is a gray + (), that means the view is zoomed in as much as possible.
• Click the gold - button () to zoom out the minimap view. If the button is a gray - (), that means the view is zoomed out as much as possible.

Cataclysm

File:Mini-map-cataclysm.jpg

This section concerns content related to Cataclysm.

In the upcoming expansion World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, you will be able to track multiple things at once, instead of just one.

Patch Changes

• Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Some of the arrow icons used have changed to make it easier to tell them apart.
  
• Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Party/Raid blips changed to fully colored based on class.
  
• Patch 3.0.3 (2008-11-04): Day/night indicator removed and replaced with calendar.
  
• Patch 2.4.3 (2008-07-15): A clock was added to the bottom of the minimap.
  
• Patch 2.3.2 (2008-01-08): Quest givers with blue question marks () no longer show up on the minimap.
  
• Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): New color blips were added for more user friendly tracking.
  
• Patch 2.0.1 (2006-12-05): A golden arrow pointing towards the nearest graveyard was added, if you died.
  
• Patch 1.2.0 (2004-12-18): The Minimap arrows that point to locations/players/etc. are now easier to see.