Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsForum post of the day: Try a twinkie
by Amanda Dean 
Jul 3rd 2008 at 2:52AM
Seska of Ysondre has posed the challenge of twinking to players who hate this style of play. She stated that the joy of playing a twink is in planning how to get gear for the effort. To her twinking proves that gear is more important than skill. To do it right, twinking requires considerable time and effort (not to mention cash from higher level characters), but is a valuable experience. Seska is currently a level 16 Shaman, and plans to keep that character as a twink.
She was met with agreement by some other twinks, but also a lot of resistance and resentment. Some people say that they have tried twinking and gotten bored with it soon afterward, like playing any other video game with cheat codes. This practice can also be frustrating for other players who would like to battleground as they level up but become demoralized by twinks.
I've never considered twinking seriously. I have too much fun leveling and playing in Arenas. The lowered level requirements for mounts may be a bane to some in the 30-39 bracket. My feeling on twinks is about the same as it is on multiboxing. Blizzard says its ok, and if this is how you want to spend your wow time, be my guest.
What's your take on battleground twinking? Would you be willing to give it a shot?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Alts, Forums, Battlegrounds, Forum Post of the Day
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Traz Jul 3rd 2008 4:46AM
I have a 29 Hunter twink and it can be really great fun to have a quick blast on WSG or AB if you're feeling a bit fed up. Yes, you'd get bored if you spent hours and hours on a session, which is why I only play on my twink for an hour or so just once or twice a week. It's a brilliant way to unwind!
It really annoys me that people get so upset by twinks. We all want to get the best gear possible and we all want to beat other players - doing that at 29 is no different to doing it at 70. Twink-haters claim that it's too easy to create a twink; "all it takes is plenty of gold". This is NOT true. To create a really good twink takes hours of careful planning and quite a lot of skill to be aware of the xp gained from doing quests / discovering new areas at the appropriate times. And, of course, you also need masses of gold ;)
Gman Jul 3rd 2008 1:47PM
I completely agree. I have a 29 Warrior twink who I play once in a blue moon. For me, the challenge and fun was mostly in planning and gearing him up. I was able to get my warrior to a respectable gear level with only ~200g spent (depends a lot on what class and bracket you pick). There's a lot more effort involved in getting the higher level quest rewards and dungeon drops without leveling out of the bracket (usually requires a high-level friend).
Likening twinks to a blue/green 70 vs. a season 3 70 is a pretty fair comparison. The 10-19 bracket is the only one where the gear difference between twinks and non-twinks is obscenely different. As you get into the later brackets, the high-level enchants and gear start to mean less. I'm leveling a new character who I've gone into BGs with in my late 20s/30s/40s and never felt like it was impossible to compete. If you're queuing in the early half of your level bracket, it's just asking for pain.
Taxis Jul 3rd 2008 5:01AM
A simple cure to the twinking problem would be to make it so that every player who hasn't earned a reasonable amount of experience for time played at that level get placed in a different tier of playing the same battleground or a seperate battlegroup or something. So they only end up doing bg with other twinks, and the non twinks get to have a ballanced battleground.
rock Jul 3rd 2008 6:07AM
Heroic mode battlegrounds! Award extra honour instead of badges. That'll sort out the twinks from the non-twinks (can they be called twonks? Will it catch on?)
Don Jul 3rd 2008 7:26AM
I think blizzard has put forth a lot of effort to make the game fun for everyone, however BG's are not fun in my own opinion.
Why because I have a few maps that I can repeatedly see with no variation. It's the same thing over and over again, add to the fact that if i am just leveling another toon and decide I want a break from the questing and instances. I cannot because the only sanctuary is BG's which are no fun when you get repeatedly steamrolled.
So I avoid BG's like the plague due the frustrating experience that BG's are.
Do I think they need to change BG's maybe for more balance and variation.
Do I think you should be able to twink your character, yes but you should be playing against similarly geared players.
Do i think that it's unfair that you have the time and lack of mental stimulation to sit repeatedly in a BG earning gear that is almost superior to most crafted and regular instanced gear, yes. PVP should only be used in BG's, PVE gear should be used to help you get your PVP gear but in the end it's for PVE.
It's my choice and mine alone to avoid BG's, I enjoy the thrill of compiling a group run a raid or dungeon. I think the group dynamic is more important in PVE, where as in BG's your basically on your own, with the exception of Arena's.
Warhead Jul 3rd 2008 7:56AM
I agree that twinking has destroyed the fun in lower level BGs for anyone who doesn't twink. I used to very much enjoy hitting lower level BGs on my way up, but back then, twinks were much less common. The average player could go into a BG and have a chance to contribute.
Nowadays it's a pure waste of time to go into a 10-19 or 20-29 WSG. With all the twinks, it's like being level 29, but in the 30-39 bracket.
To those who say "it's no different than at 70 with S3 players vs. fresh 70s," yes, it is different. At 70, you're EXPECTED to have high level gear, and, as previously pointed out, the gap between high 60s blues and S3 gear is not so great that three blue-geared players cannot take down a S3-geared player.
In lower level BGs, you're not supposed to be sporting gear ridiculously over your level, stat-wise, hence the balance is annihilated and the regular player sporting greens and maybe a couple of blues, with appropriate-level enchants vs Level 60 enchants, is essentially shut out of the game.
It's unfortunate, in my view. You either have to twink to be able to contribute, or forego that part of the game during your leveling process.
Kitty Jul 3rd 2008 8:33AM
www.twinkwow.com
Twinking is really alot of hard work but the rewards are sweet. Because so much thought and effort go into a Twink you usually get a better player controlling that char which makes for fun battles. I hated twinks when I first started WoW but eventually I realized that if I couldn't beat them I should try joining them and I haven't looked back!
stroodle Jul 3rd 2008 7:57AM
I outranked twinks in damage output and killing blows for a week straight in BG's on a 37 hunter in mostly greens from leveling after listening to them brag to each other about how much gold they spent on gear. That's when I formed my opinion of twinks.
OrganismX Jul 10th 2008 2:46PM
They aren't twinks, they just suck.
Zanzi Jul 3rd 2008 11:58AM
nerf hunters!11!11!1!
;-) Just kidding.
stroodle Jul 3rd 2008 8:03AM
Oh, and I'm serious also.
SimpleSurvival Jul 3rd 2008 8:26AM
On the latest server I'm playing on I got my first 70 (swapped factions) and geared myself as best I could with my own time. All thats left is for me to do is raid with the guild to gear up.
So, I made a new character... Worried about my pally's utility as an offtank in later raids, I rolled a druid to make another offtank. I like that roll.
He's been a spoiled child, getting all the gear he wants for his lowbie self, leveling quickly, etc. But then it got me thinking.... I have to WSG to get a blue amulet and to get my first trinket.
I was nearly a twink myself, only thing I really lacked were the chants needed for disgusting pwnage and a few items that weren't worth a day or two worth of dailies to buy off the AH just to replace shortly after.
Twinks still gave me a hard time, not because they were killing me, but because it seemed that our twinks just wanted to frag everyone in the middle and they always had more twinks than us.
It was a frustrating 20 losses to get my amulet. I ding'd 20 shortly after, giving up on the idea of getting the trinket too.
Yes, twinking is a challenge and can be very fun to some players. But, to everyone else who decides to queue up for some BG action, the act of playing a twink basically griefing the rest of the BG.
Go twinks go! play all you like, but be more organized about it. You claim that its only fun when you face other twinks, so get more organized and stay outta our lowbie bgs.
But, there is salvation coming in a very interesting form. A great deal of the Twink Guilds I encountered horde side on my server didn't understand even the most basic concepts of twinking and looked more like poorly itemized hybrids than fine tuned killing machines.
With luck, the alli are suffering the same problem with twink popularity, diluting the twink pool and leveling the BG.
nosedive51 Jul 3rd 2008 8:28AM
WoWs entire PvP system is broke and pointless.
Lvl 70's can come down and kill low lvl characters with one hit.
BGs is a joke. There's no form of balancing at all. One team is always over powered then the other. A person that has never played BGs before can take a lvl 11 character and be tossed in with lvl 19 twinks that have 500 round under their belt.
And in the grand scheme of things the PvP is pointless other than a way to get more crap... er gear and don't we already have enough ways to do that.
William Jul 3rd 2008 8:32AM
I skip BG's until i get to 70 because of twinks. At 70 I can start getting gear that is comparable and I can live long enough to have a chance of competing. I never start a character with plans of it not making it to 70, either, so I guess that's why I don't bother to twink. I like raiding too much, i guess.
Jessierockeron Jul 3rd 2008 8:41AM
I believe the effort in making a twink character is worthwhile.
Dyermaker Jul 3rd 2008 8:56AM
I did not read the article, but came immediately to comment just so I could say...
"Beedee-beedee-beedee... OK Buck!"
Set my mood for the day!
ernest Jul 3rd 2008 9:08AM
meh I hate twinks
spineless newbies who won't man up and admit they like the feeling of power. if they liked fighting other twinks, they would fight equally geared people at 70, where they are in abundance.
they ruin the game for any non twink who enters the battleground. I've seen one semi logical argument that s3 people outgear fresh 70s in greens and blues but how long exactly are they going to stay like that? not for long. twinks will ALWAYS have an advantage in battlegrounds and the normal players will NEVER be able to kill them. they have no interest in gearing up for low lvl battlegrounds and they just move on. it's frustrating and pointless for everybody involved but the twinks. we all know why they do it and if anybody says it's the "skill" of checking out a spreadsheet with your best in slot item for your lvl range (because it NEVER changes) I'll personally /point and /lol in your face.
Tseran Jul 3rd 2008 9:22AM
For all the twinks out there who have some honor and only want to fight against other twinks, there are way more twinks who do it just because they love the satisfaction of being able to beat the hell out of someone the same level with little or no effort. Their fragile egos need something to keep from crumbling, and beating someone up is all they can do to get their kick.
Don't kid yourself twinks, it takes no skill to be one. All the 'planning and research' that you claim is hard work has been done by someone else, and all you have to do is a google search or two to find the information. On top of that, you ruin low level gear economy by inflating prices. You do no good at all, and ruin the BGs to lower levels.
Personally, I think at low levels, PvP should give XP as well as honor, making twinks HAVE to level, and rendering them into the next bracket eventually, where they have to start all over .
Makoto99 Jul 3rd 2008 9:31AM
To paraphrase my friend's take on it:
"I had a lot of fun the other day playing a twink in the BG. I beat everyone up and faced no resistance. It was awesome. After that, I shut off the computer, went down to the playground, and totally beat a bunch of kids at tee-ball. It was awesome."
She can be bitter. That said, it's fun to see people complain about AFK'ers in the BGs. I think there might be a direct connection between twinking and people just not giving a rat's behind? If I keep getting 2-shotted by someone in twinked-out gear, I'll go afk, play SuDoKu, and just wait for my medal too.
Not to say there aren't people who go in with the idea of leeching honor and medals in the first place... but heck, if I'm just going to chain-die just because I'm not "skilled" or "dedicated" enough to twink my character, I'm not going to bother trying either.
Oh well, Blizzard doesn't really concern themselves with PVP or BGs beyond token mentions anyway. :(
Also to the guy who said he disliked BGs and PVP "because I have a few maps that I can repeatedly see with no variation."... that sounds suspiciously like raiding or doing instances over and over. Ho hum.
Ilnara Jul 3rd 2008 10:14AM
This is Seska's Main on Ysondre. Never thought that would make a post of the day here, but it's funny it did because it was in part inspired by a couple PvP posts here on WoWinsider, which I might add, I enjoy greatly. So thank you for the Nod. :)
I'll again reiterate my base position on this matter. Those that say this "breaks" BG's and PvP at low levels are forgetting that this is exactly what this game is like from top to bottom in both PvE and PvP play.
Better gear = better results, in PvP or your Raid. If you want to short yourself by trying T3 instances in Greens, well, how useful are you truly going to be to your raid party?
Likewise, if your intent (important word there) is to play on a PvP server and actively PvP why would you short yourself by not actually taking time to get gear?
Anyways, please read the whole post, because my thoughts are all there. Thanks to everyone who goes there from here. I do enjoy WoW Insider and commenting, and the comments of others I read here.
Thanks again!