Minimap

Old version

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 and World Map button

• The name of the current location of your character appears at the top of the minimap with a button to bring up the World Map ().

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.

Calendar

• In the upper right corner of the minimap appears the calendar icon () with the date inside. Replacing the Day/Night indicator during , this feature allows you to quickly see today's date.

Character locations

• Your character (): Your character will appear as silver arrow pointing the direction your character is facing always at the center of the minimap.
• Your objectives: If you currently have objectives for a quest you're tracking a large golden arrow () will appear along the edge pointing you on where to go.
• 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 () pointing towards the nearest available Graveyard.
• Party members: If your character is in a party, any party members will appear on the map as colored dots (matching the color of their class).^{[citation needed]} Arrows () 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.^{[citation needed]} Arrows () 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 (  ; like with the Hunter ability, Track Beasts) with players have a slightly different gray-outlined red blip (  ).
  • As of Patch 4.1, if a hostile creature is selected, they would appear as red petaled blips (  ).
• Detectable neutral creatures and opposite faction, non-PvP flagged players would appear as gold blips (  ).
  • As of Patch 4.1, if the creature or player is selected, they would appear as gold petaled blips (  ).
• Detectable friendly creatures appear as gold-outlined green blips (  ).
  • As of Patch 4.1, if a friendly creature is selected, they would appear as green petaled blips (  ).
• Any detectable minerals appear as gold blips (  ; 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 (  ), it means that the resource is on a different level (underground if you are above ground and vice versa).

Rare mobs

In Draenor and Pandaria, rare mobs will have a icon on the minimap.

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 ( or ), it means that the questgiver is inside a building, on another level, or the quest level is so low it can be filtered out (see Services). Repeatable quest giver NPCs show up as a blue mark ( or ) instead of gold. Legendary quest giver NPCs show up as an orange 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 () 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.

Services

The tracking options control usually appears on left side of minimap: When you click it, a tracking control menu with checkboxes will appear. For hunters or when other tracking abilities are enabled, will appear.

Similar to tracking creatures or resources, you can also track on the minimap locations of vendors or services that will help you while playing.

• Auctioneers will appear with a stack of gold coins ().
• Bankers will appear with an icon of two sacks ().
• Battlemasters will appear with the Alliance and Horde symbols ().
• Class trainers will appear with a blue book ().
• Profession trainers will appear with a brown book ().
• Flight masters will appear with a winged boot ().
• Food and Drink vendors will appear with a bread/milk icon ().
• Mailboxes will appear with a letter ().
• Reagent vendors will appear with a reagent icon ().
• NPCs that repair gear will appear with an anvil ().
• Stable masters will appear with a horseshoe ().
• Inns will appear with a hearthstone icon ().
• Low Level Quests can be filtered with the dimmed quest ! icon ().
• Points of interest will be pointed to on the edge of the minimal with a silver compact arrow icon ().

Points of Interest

When your character is near a point of interest, often times a city or town, a silver edge arrow () will appear on the edge of the minimap indicating the direction of the settlement. This option can be turned off.

Detecting other players

Usually only applies to Druids and Hunters with Track Humanoids.

• Any detectable friendly players appear as white-outlined green blips (  ).
• Enemy players, when they're not flagged for PvP (or otherwise unattackable, e.g. on a flight taxi) appear as white-outlined gold blips (  ).
• Enemy players, when they are flagged appear as white-outlined red blips (  )

Targeting mobs and NPCs

In Patch 4.1, selected or targeted mobs (hostile ) and NPCs (neutral or friendly ) will show up on the minimap.

Pinging a location

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

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

• 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

Multi-tracking

It has a tracking menu button on the left:

It has a date and new mail indicator on the upper right.

The minimap 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.

Lastly, there is a clock at the bottom.

Removed features

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.
• The DayNight Add-On allows to have the old indicator back in-game.

Patch Changes

• Patch 4.1.0 (26-Apr-2011): Blips for selected mobs and NPCs.
  
• Patch 4.0.3 (15-Nov-2010): Some of the arrow icons used have changed to make it easier to tell them apart. The ability to track more than one thing at a time will also be added.
  
• Patch 3.2.0 (04-Aug-2009): Party/Raid blips changed to fully colored based on class.
  
• Patch 3.0.3 (04-Nov-2008): 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 (13-Nov-2007): New color blips were added for more user friendly tracking.
  
• / Patch 2.0.1 (05-Dec-2006): A golden arrow pointing towards the nearest graveyard was added, if you died.
  
• Patch 1.2.0 (18-Dec-2004): The Minimap arrows that point to locations/players/etc. are now easier to see.