Reddit mentions of World of Warcraft: Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames)

It was not a little manual, it was a huge book

5 seconds on Google = https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Warcraft-Official-Strategy-Guides/dp/0744004055

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So yeah, guides have been a thing since launch (and before - I'm sure many vanilla WOW players had D&D guidebooks on broad class fantasy and such).

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The game has been out for 15 yrs, to pretend otherwise is daft. Even if you've never played WOW, if you've played any other rpg-esque game you'll see influences from WOW and certain conventions (that were novel in 2004) will be familiar.

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Will some people follow a step-by-step guide to the letter; possibly. Will they have fun; I hope so. Is wandering around Barrens for hours in-game because you missed a subtle reference to a quest direction fun; not for me.

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Have I read guides, yes, many. Most contradict each other to some extent, that's part of the fun of discovery. Most reference pservers which we know to be flawed instances of what will come in Aug. So they're useful at best rather than canonical.

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Will I be following my own path; yes, but rather than blindly putting all my talent points into Arcane and wondering why I'm hitting like a wet noodle, I'll use my knowledge to build a better mage. I'm not min-maxing and I'm not no-life raiding, so I won't be using a cookie-cutter build.

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But I'm also not 12 and know the value of good research.