Tuesday, October 03, 2006

I Twink, Therefore I Am

(With apologies to Descartes.)

Actually I should clarify. I consider myself a "generic" twinker (is that a word?) rather than a "battlegrounds" twinker. I've actually never been in a battleground.

Generic Version of Twink:
Twinking used to be thought of as the limited practice of giving a newbie character hand-me-downs from a higher level character. Thus the lower level character quickly has access to equipment that he/she might otherwise take longer to earn for him/herself.

New Version of Twink:
As I read the posts out there it seems that Twinking has developed into the narrower practice of gearing up a character specifically for use in Battlegrounds(which are level based).

More Reading:

  • Live Journal Post discussing various meanings of Twink
  • Wowinsider Post that asks "Should Blizzared End Twinking for Good?" (Lots of comments)
  • WoWWiki
  • Wikipedia

  • (In some of the World of Warcraft forum posts you might see the word "muffin" used in place of the word Twink.)

    My Version - Self Sufficiency
    To me, this game is about the conquering, balancing and optimizing of all there is in WoW. Where other players may use their friends and their guildmates, I try it just with myself (and the Auction House). Here's my way:

    I enjoy learning the different professions. For example, I'll have an alchemist on a server who will make and send potions to all my other characters. I have a skinner who supplies leather as needed, a leatherworker who can supply armor kits, a tailor who can supply bags (all the cloth gets sent to her), a chef, an enchanter, a blacksmith, etc... Yup. I always have a full mailbox.

    I also like to stagger levels on the server. This way, as equipment is dropped, more senior characters can donate their armor and weapon drops to the lower level characters.

    I try to make money. That challenge in and of itself is fun. The results get shifted to whichever character needs it.

    So my point? Not all twinking is about Battlegrounds or getting the edge over another player. For me it's part of the solo game.

    Changes that others considered game altering - New Honor/PVP systems, flying mounts, Paladin/Shaman switches... none of that changes anything for me. But if one day everything were say, suddenly Bind on Pickup... then I'd have to reconsider the game. Would it still be enjoyable for me? Probably not.

    Update 8/20/2007:
    Patch 2.1.3 Improves Mailing Between Alts at wowgrrl.com says that:
    Mailing between your own alts is instant for both cash and items now.

    8 comments:

    Doeg said...

    I agree with your post.

    I'm currently doing the same thing on the server I started on, with the "main" farming and handing down equipment and materials to the alts. Quite often it gives me a use for otherwise useless items.

    My current config:
    Warrior, Miner / Blacksmith
    Druid, Skinner / Leatherworker
    Priest, Tailor / Enchanter
    Shaman, Herbalist / Alchemist

    The only profession not covered is Engineering.

    I am fortunate to have a couple of family / guildies on the server who are also sharing in the process. That helps because, for example, my high-level main can run a guildie's alt through an instance to get a drop.

    I find that these four characters on one server more than fill up my time.
    I have begun the same process with Alliance characters on another server, but they mainly get played when My Server Is Down.

    Delaney said...

    That's a nice tight, well planned group.

    Is your Shaman a Tauren (for the + to Herbalism Racial talent)?

    Ooh, and you know what - I don't have an engineer either! Two reasons - Gnomes (+ To Engineering Racial) can't be priests or paladins (my two favorite classes) and Engineering items can only be used by other Engineers. Nothing to really email anyone.

    Maybe on that mage I've been thinking of making... she could be a gnome engineer.... /ponder...

    Doeg said...

    Yes, you guessed correctly - the Shaman Tauren is the Herbalist to take advantage of the racial benefit.
    Quite by random noob-ness I started with the Warrior as Undead (if I was starting now I'd probably go Tauren for the +5% hp).
    The group in the first post is Undead (warrior, priest) and Tauren (druid, shaman). Fortunately I enjoy the low-level storyline and quest line for both races (especially the American-Indian-themed Tauren).

    Engineering looks to me, upon outside inspection (I've not tried it yet), to be a strong PvP profession. I've begun to dabble in PvP (AB), and a lot of PvP / battleground guides talk about using this-or-that engineering creation. The problem is that most of the best engineering items seem to require a certain engineering skill level, which defeats a one-engineer-for-many-player plan. So I don't think you've missed anything major by not taking engineering -- except maybe the Mechanical Squirrel, which is a kinda cool pet, especially for an Undead (a guildie sent me one).

    But I do want to try engineering eventually, and the higher-level gatherers should make skill-up pretty easy. Mage might be a good fit with engineering... I don't know enough to make a suggestion have played neither... :P

    Doeg said...

    I think I tried to comment yesterday... ?
    I have trouble with the comment interface sometimes.

    Anyway, yes, the Tauren Shaman is the Herbalist/Alchemist, and gets the +15 Herbalism bonus -- it fits nicely. And since a Shaman is often meleeing, the racial hit point bonus is really nice too. But he's also the 'weak link' in the profession 'supply chain', though, because he's too low level to farm some of the herbs he needs, and unlike tailoring and enchanting, the higher levels are very limited in what they can do to help -- they're pretty much restricted to purchasing herbs at vendors or the AH.

    I'm intrigued by engineering, but from what I read it seems to best benefit PvP, and many of the best items require engineering skill to use (thus you have a limited market). I *really* like my Undead warrior's Mechanical Squirrel, though (sent by a guildie engineer). It's pretty cool.

    Finally, all of them are working on cooking, first aid, and fishing (fishing to the least extent since it's such a time sink). With cooking and first aid, more mob drops can be turned into useful items. I will add that fishing helps supply cooking by filling some skill-up 'dead spots' with recipes.

    Doeg said...

    Sorry about the duplicate comment!

    Delaney said...

    No problemo. I published them all. Delete extras as you see fit.

    I'm also considering lightening up the comment requirements. Maybe allowing anonymous posters, hopefully it won't result in too much spam.

    Anonymous said...

    Random thought: if you are trying to optimize your gathering professions and are starting from scratch - make your highest level characters dual gatherers.

    It is much easier to have a miner/skinner and a herbalist/enchanter as your high level characters - they can reach hard-to-get items from high level zones. I tossed in enchanter as a 'gathering' profession for disenchanting high level BoP items you pick up on the way.

    Your crafting characters can now be much lower level and still skill up to 300 (or 375 with BC...).

    Anyhow, fun site. Take care.

    Delaney said...

    I agree. When I started on a new realm (again) I made my first character a miner/skinner. Although admittedly it was mostly to earn gold.