Mysterious twink rends worlds [UPDATED]
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 2nd 2009 at 5:30PM
A lot of people have called 'hax' on it, but how it went down was probably more innocent than that. Not completely, entirely innocent, but more innocent than hacking Blizzard's Gibson. Our first instinct when looking at the items is that he must have simply completed a few bugged quests that had no minimum level requirement. Looking at his achievements killed that theory pretty quickly, though. The sword he's wielding, the Combatant Greatsword, is from a quest in the Borean Tundra. According to his achievements, he's never been to the Borean Tundra.
What actually happened (we assume) is he probably used a bug/exploit with mailboxes to make this happen. A GM probably restored a few items for him on his main for whatever reason, and he drag-and-dropped the items into a new letter, using a portable mailbox. The Gruul achievement is likely from an item transferred in this way, and not from actually witnessing a kill. As far as I know, this exploit doesn't work anymore, so we probably won't see anymore twinks like this until a similar bug crops up one day.
In the world of twinking, I think there are legends written about people like this guy. My only question is... Improved Rend? Really?
Update: It seems the items were either taken away already, or the character unequipped them for the latest Armory update. The Gruul achievement is still there, though.
Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Helgado Feb 2nd 2009 5:34PM
ZOMG WTF BBQ HAX!?!?!?
Holgar Feb 2nd 2009 5:36PM
You just MADE my day!
Nindle Feb 2nd 2009 5:47PM
..Dairy Queen?..
swalters Feb 2nd 2009 5:40PM
Hmph. I always miss the fun stuff. Looks like it's already been de-haxxed...
brucimus Feb 2nd 2009 5:41PM
twinks = cheaters
why are you surprised?
Vaeevictiss Feb 2nd 2009 5:54PM
how is a twink a cheater? Aside from any exploits, the gear is obtainable by anyone. You just need to have a main with enuff gold to buy the best in slot gear for the twink.
unethical against people in that battleground who cant afford it or that toon IS their main...maybe
cheating...no
fun...very lol
two shotting plate wearers with my 49 enhancement shaman...priceless :p
Deadlock Feb 2nd 2009 5:57PM
"Aside from any exploits, the gear is obtainable by anyone. You just need to have a main with enuff gold to buy the best in slot gear for the twink. "
Are you actually thinking what you write? Those two sentences are a contradiction.
Punjab Feb 2nd 2009 6:42PM
Er... no, Deadlock.
Exploiting is using game mechanics in a way that the developers didn't intend to benefit yourself. What twinks do is fine because it is entirely lawful within the confines of the game's rules. The devs put the ability to mail items to other characters in the game intentionally. So buying items on a main character and mailing them to a twink is not an exploit whatsoever.
Dave Feb 2nd 2009 7:20PM
Twinking isn't cheating.
Cite examples of how it's cheating, and I'll agree with you, but I guarantee if you start writing things down you'll find that you sound really, really silly when you try and claim that any bit of it is cheating.
Hacking mail from a GM, that's cheating.
Running SFK with your main 100 times until a sword drops? I'm not sure I see the cheating.
Daniel Zandian Feb 3rd 2009 3:16AM
It's not cheating per se, they way aren't breaking any rules that Blizzard set up.
But I suppose it's how you define cheating. Are you fighting at equal terms as the ones who's leveling their first character on that realm? Hardly.
But, I suppose that's what the twinkers want, failing at equal opportunity PvPing they go back buff a char and fight lesser geared players. Suppose that's only way for them to win :-P
Alanid Feb 3rd 2009 11:34AM
It may be a bit unfair on new players, when they get owned by a lvl*insert number*9 player decked out in the best gear for that level range in bg's, but it is not cheating by any means.
Liel Feb 2nd 2009 5:41PM
Yeah it would appear he removed the stuff
zinx Feb 2nd 2009 5:44PM
Improved Rend probably was a hold over from the Enti sword that just got nerfed in the last patch. That talent along with the rend glyph caused warriors to get insane dps.
The rest, I don't know...since he has quickly removed all his gear.
Cataca Feb 2nd 2009 5:44PM
Bold much, Alex?
Alex Ziebart Feb 2nd 2009 5:47PM
Sigh, sorry about that. It decided to bold the entire post when I added the little bold Update text at the bottom. Beats me why it did that.
Fixed now, though.
Ownt Feb 4th 2009 12:18PM
Ownt!
Gauje Feb 2nd 2009 5:45PM
Rend scales on weapon damage. Imagine the terror that would cause in that bracket. Makes imp rend a little more attractive.
Teaspoon Feb 2nd 2009 5:48PM
What's so bad about improved rend, Alex? It's the only talent available at 10 that improves something he'd actually be using. Besides, Rend's always been useful at low levels and these days it's even useful (for Arms warriors, at least) at the top end.
In the 10-19 bracket he can probably dart from enemy to enemy in the Horde base dropping a rend on each, then laugh as they all drop dead from the 450+ damage that creeps up on them while they're trying to chase his flag-carrying butt down the hallway. That's a huge undispellable dot right there, and hitting as hard as he would be at level 10 probably gives him a full rage bar every hit to make sure he's got plenty to spend on the rending.
Saelorn Feb 2nd 2009 5:50PM
"The player in question had his account hacked and main deleted.
He created a new character with the same name to petition a GM. The items were mistakenly awarded to the lowbie character."
According to a comment on wowhead. Seems as reasonable an explanation as any.
Castigere Feb 2nd 2009 5:55PM
I clicked through on the link to the sword. According to the notes on WoWhead, this guy had his account hacked and his main deleted. He created a new character with the same name to file a ticket with a GM, and the GM accidentally restored the gear to the new character instead of restoring the old character.