Breakfast Topic: Are twinks an endangered species?
by Amanda Rivera 
Sep 12th 2007 at 7:59AM
Reader Stalzar is worried about twinks. With the announcement of experience gain acceleration between levels 1 and 58 coming down the pike, he is concerned that this means an end of his beloved PvP characters. I have never like twinking much, that process where players maxed out the gear on a low level (mostly level 19) character for the sole purpose of living as gods in Warsong Gulch. I used to be nothing but irritated that when I attempted to get into the battlegrounds my characters were instantly trounced simply because they were not completely dedicated to PvP. I was frustrated, I was bitter.Now that I have grown up a little Warcraft-wise, I realize that this is in a way an adaptation to the battleground system. I do think that the twinks might do better at least as far as their reputation goes, if they played in their own battlegrounds, where they would have equal footing with other twinks.
The current experience system allows a character to stay at level 19 for a very long time, enabling them to get the most out of their PvP-ness before sliding into the next bracket. Does this mean that when experience gain is boosted in a future patch the world of the twink will die out? I don't think so. This sub-culture arose because of the desire to be the best at one specific aspect of the game. Will this change things for them? Sure, but I expect that the same inventiveness that went into the creating of twinks in the first place will also spur them to adapt to whatever affect accelerated exp. would have on them.
What do you think? Will the twinks survive, or be lost to the annals of WoW history?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
lucifer.cross Sep 12th 2007 9:13AM
Oh, they'll still be around, for sure. Unfortunately. Haha. (Yeah, I'm a little bitter too. lol)
Vestras Sep 12th 2007 8:47AM
I remember when you could only twink for so long since you turned in marks for rep and XP. If you hit 100 marks with no turn ins, youd be loosing a lotta rep.
Personally, I frown on PVP twinking, but what ya gonna do. I remember a NE rogue twink named Scientist who kept me in terror of returning to WSG for a while.
I do hope that PVP twinking dies out though so that more players will try out BGs early on, L2P them so that when they hit 0 they actually know what they are doing at last!
jpn Sep 12th 2007 8:52AM
twinks + rainbows = gayest wowinsider article ever seen on wowinsider!
Bart Sep 12th 2007 8:57AM
Good riddance. Twink tears sustain me
Matt Sep 12th 2007 8:56AM
Get your gear, stay in Org.
I see nothing here.
p3ngu11 Sep 12th 2007 9:08AM
lvl 39 bracket is where it's at anyways...
ThorinII Sep 12th 2007 9:10AM
Most who had twinks when the marks were turned in for rep and XP didn't bother with rep. The rewards weren't worth having to lvl your toon. So we destroyed our marks and collected more. The twink rogue I had then stayed 29 for a VERY long time before I finally got bored and started questing with him.
The current system is very twink-friendly, though. I used my marks to buy a couple of twink-ish trinkets and a necklace from the Silverwing she-elf to twink out my 19 NE Hunter even more. And his purple skin with his purple hair and purple Leggings of the Fang looks pretty good with the purple Silverwing Battle Tabard. (I like purple)
I think Blizz would have to go to great extremes to eliminate twinks.I doubt they ever will, though. Players like having them too much.
Candina@WH Sep 12th 2007 9:47AM
No, twinks are like cockroaches - nothing short of nuking the servers will remove them.
twinks = cheats. The char didn't earn the 1000g spent to equip it. In the table top RPG days, we called them rules lawyers, and I didn't like playing with them then.
The only way to end the twinks, or at least reduce their presence is:
1.) Enchants like mongoose must have minimum level requirements.
2.) BGs must give XP. 33 BG runs should average 1 level of XP. (100 marks for 33 victories = 1 level).
3.) Get rid of twink items - the fishing hat, engineer goggles, etc that are over powered vs other items of the equivelent level.
4.) Make all sub 20 blues BOP. If the twink wants it, he had better be willing to grind it.
5.) Make all loot tables skew low when the average level of the group exceeds the instance level. This will also, unfortunatly, end instance grinding for cash.
/shrug. These changes won't happen. Twinks are a fact of life, much like genital herpes. And about as welcome.
Gadai Sep 12th 2007 9:51AM
I think most people who twink now (I have 29 Paladin + 29 Mage) are doing it as a competitive thing with each other. There's no fun in demolishing a level 26 undergeared hunter who's wandered in to explore battelgrounds for the first time. To face into a rogue with 2.5-3k hp and who has spent months playing the class at that level, experimenting and tweaking their build to their playstyle, now that's fun! Unlike the lvl 70 battlegrounds you can't be 1-2 shotted by a T5+ Mage, or kept stunlocked to death - everyone can survive the initial burst forcing people to think beyond being 1 trick ponies. Personally I find the lowbie battlegrounds much more inventive (some of the tricks people pull amaze me) and less grind then the lvl70 equivilent. I've done the lvl 70 BG's (have 3 lvl 70 chars for a total of 115k kills or thereabouts) and doing this brings me alot more fun :)
Ted Sep 12th 2007 10:17AM
Yet another WoWinsider article that I am dumber for having read.
Why would XP change have any consequence to someone who doesnt gain XP??
I hope you guys are hiring so you can get rid of this and about every other columnist there.
Erica Olson Sep 12th 2007 9:59AM
To refer to another article about the rouge stealth run of chests in Mechanar. Twinks are an exploit and should be eliminated. Cheating the system to get uber gear and lots of money for a toon that didn't earn it him/herself.
Arras Sep 12th 2007 10:16AM
Twinks tend to annoy me, mostly because they get so rabid about any change or perceived threat to their little way of life. I tend to stay away from PvP anyways, so it's not that big a deal for me.
In general, though, Twinks tend to be willing to shell out money for overpriced enchants and crafted items, so I can't hate them too much. It was pretty much the twinks on my server that helped me grind up to 300 enchanting and make a nice pile of gold, so while they annoy me, they do help pay the bills
Gadai Sep 12th 2007 10:18AM
Sorry - have to respond, I'm pedantic - a trait of all the old hand RPG players.
"twinks = cheats. The char didn't earn the 1000g spent to equip it. In the table top RPG days, we called them rules lawyers, and I didn't like playing with them then."
Rules lawyers aren't analygous to twinks - Rules lawyers were people who never understood that story > then guidelines. The majority of the old RPG heads (especially anyone who struggled with Roelmaster's products or the horrors of mega armor and mega damage) will agree I think. A rules lawyer would spend 20 minutes explaining in detail why his last swing should have killed the important exposition NPC instead of listening to what the character had to say.
Describing twinks as cheats is equally untrue. Two friends of mine have played the AH on their twink alts server to finanace all their twinking. Neither of them have a character over lvl 29 on the server in question.
"The only way to end the twinks, or at least reduce their presence is:
1.) Enchants like mongoose must have minimum level requirements."
Mongoose already has a minimum ilevel requirement of 35.
"3.) Get rid of twink items - the fishing hat, engineer goggles, etc that are over powered vs other items of the equivelent level."
Equally these are items that any player can obtain - well, possibly not the fishing hat but the other profession objects like the parachute cloak and spellpower goggles are well within the range of a character in that level range if they're patient.
"4.) Make all sub 20 blues BOP. If the twink wants it, he had better be willing to grind it."
Many of the best ones are - you don't, however, need to be alive to be on the loot table which eliminates gaining exp from the equation.
"5.) Make all loot tables skew low when the average level of the group exceeds the instance level. This will also, unfortunatly, end instance grinding for cash."
And it would end people helping guildmates/friends levelling their nth alt. By your own standards a lvl 70 in a level 40 instance would be 'cheating' surely since the instance is obviously not intended for characters of that level?
"/shrug. These changes won't happen. Twinks are a fact of life, much like genital herpes. And about as welcome."
And your witticism is about as polite as, well a not terribly polite thing. To quote an old friend of mine "An argument which necessitates the use of insults is already flawed". While you obviously have a right to your opinion and a right to argue your case, to do so in that manner just makes you seem immature, something I'm sure you're not.
idahoe.cenarion Sep 12th 2007 10:58AM
If you go into BGs and get dominated by a twink once and never play again, so be it.
If you go into BGs and get dominated by a twink twice, thrice, four times and get so annoyed that you are willing to twink out your toon to go kick some arse next time you play, you have realized the spirit of PvP.
Being good at PvP takes as much work as PvE.
I do agree that Twink builds should be limited such that fully geared players cant perform more then 5 levels above their current level. This could be done with item scoring and limiting enchants as stated elsewhere.
It is part of the game. If you get your items from instances before you start your PvP career, you should never have to leave your respective cap city.
XP acceleration is a non-issue.
renegadeofunk Sep 12th 2007 11:10AM
^^^^^^^
pwned
Krick Sep 12th 2007 11:40AM
I used to be against twinks until I realized that twinks drive the Warcraft economy. I can make a lot of money farming for certain BoE twink items at various twinking levels. Plus as an enchanter, I always stand to profit form more twinking.
For a lot of people, building a twink is as much of a game as questing and raiding is for other players. It takes careful planning and strategy, as well as a lot of luck.
Personally, I think that Blizzard should go back add more twink items for each bracket to each of the Azeroth instances as quest rewards, rare BoE drops, and rare boss drops. This would also have the side effect of keeping old content alive. Add a few new level 59 twink items to the level 60 dungeons and raids and people will have a reason to go back.
However, with that said, I think that every enchant and other enhancement should have a level cap. The way it is now, most of my lower level enchants are useless because people always go for the highest level they can. With more level caps, I could actually sell lower level enchants. And people would farm and sell materials for them on the auction house, again driving the economy.
Leshrac Sep 12th 2007 12:03PM
I remember when I first set foot in a BG with my 29 Orc Hunter, he had about 600 hps and I amazed that the players I was facing had around 2k-2,500 hps. Well, that was the day my desire to twink was born. I've burned out on the lvl 70 rep/raid grind. But I love to PVP and kill Alliance, its almost better then sex.
Alliance outnumbers Horde prolly 3:1, 4:1 - well, its the same deal with twinks - they have an easier path to twinking due to more items on their AH and 3x more PVE opportunities to obtain gear.
Now, those same people that used to kill me and /lol now have my arrows up their ass and now they /spit on me because I'm no longer a free HK.
F Alliance, F Alliance Twinks - HORDE4LIFE.
ThorinII Sep 12th 2007 12:03PM
Um, how does my toon not having the money to finance its' own gear have anything to do with why twinking is "wrong?"
My main finances all my alts. If my main buys an alt a mount, does that mean I am exploiting because that toon didn't earn the mount? NO! It's the same thing. It isn't an exploit, it isn't cheating, it isn't wrong.
I have a 19 twink because I like playing Capture the Flag. Having the twink is the best way I can do that regularly and be competitive. Mine doesn't have a bunch of enchants either. He has all the best gear he can possibly have at 19 and a speed boost on his boots. That's it.
Which, by the way, 90% of the best gear possible for a 19 twink hunter comes from Wailing Caverns, a HORDE instance, and the best pet (pre-BC) was the Rake (also on the HORDE side of the world), but that's a topic for another day. :0P
Leshrac Sep 12th 2007 12:21PM
@ ThorinII
All Hunter pets were normalized quite a while ago, so that statement is false and does not affect PVP nor has it for quite some time.
RE: WC - What about Deadmines, Stockades? WC is not impossible for Alliance to reach - its not like its inside Orgrimmar. Quest reward item in Duskwood for Alliance has a 2h sword called the Archeus and it will take the 35+ BC enchants.
Don't even go there, if you're trying to make it sound like Horde has any slight advantage in twink BG PVP, you're wrong - or come up with better reasons because the ones you spoke of are thin and vapid at best.
olhado Sep 12th 2007 12:40PM
What's the point of twinking if you're just going to fight other twinks? If you can't beat down on the little guy, it's just like you're all the little guy. Poor twinks. :(