First, an admission. I’ve been playing this game since I launched my first character, a Dwarf Paladin in Kil’jaeden. I learned skinning and herbalism early on, and was immediately sucked into the auction house metagame. The next thing I knew I was at level 20, with a blue BoE mace, shield and boots, and appropriate greens for the rest of my team. I had a blue BoE chest piece on my bench and 30g in my pockets.

I got bored playing my buddy and re-launched a Human Rogue. I followed a similar strategy with him, and kept him in a mix of blues and greens until I ditched him at 33 to roll Stray, who actually started life as Eradicus from Kilrogg’s server (/ wave Girl Scouts of Doom). At this point, I had become a science and comfortably reached level 28 with plenty of gold to spare. That’s when the developers made an addition to the game that would bring young people into the spotlight, for better or for worse. Warsong Gulch was added to the game in patch 1.5, and the twinked and untwinked lowbies began clashing swords regularly.

Before this, the ethics of twinking was never questioned. It was something you had the option to do if you knew how to make gold, plain and simple. It made leveling easy and didn’t really hurt anyone in the process. However, once Warsong Gulch entered the equation, things got a bit more complicated. Many people who were fine with seeing a rogue with 2 Fiery-enchanted blue guns go through a uniform level mob were significantly less okay with having said rogue go through them without breaking a sweat.

Nasty posts began to appear on the forums, claiming that the youngsters were simply players who “couldn’t cut it” at level 60. That accusation has continued ever since, along with many other less relevant ad hominem arguments. Going back to my personal experience, as a level 30 rogue who dominated the WSG (the group was 21-30 back then) I found it quite amusing that people assumed the youngsters were simply level 60 who couldn’t compete. Since that was my highest level character on the server, and indeed my second highest level character, all that was for me was a fun break from leveling up. I wasn’t completely young, my only enchantments were fiery on my swords and a% 2B50 health enchantment that I released from a guy trying to level the enchantment on Crossroads, but he was still more powerful than most thugs there. It was a great moment and, ultimately, it was what motivated me to reach 60 and keep playing.

What I would really like to get into here is the ethical question of twinking. Those who are not young say that young people spoil their early PVP. For someone new to the game, I think that could be a valid point, but for someone who has been here for a while and knows what’s up, I think there are two very strong counterarguments. The first is, plain and simple, that he knew what he was getting into. The existence, and indeed the abundance of youth in the current incarnation of the game is blatantly obvious. You know what a shiny weapon means, and you’ve seen level x9 carry them unless you’re playing blindfolded.

So when you take your level 16 priest to Warsong Gulch for a break from leveling up, you shouldn’t be surprised when you run into the enemy base and are ambushed by 3 rogues in enchanted blues, and you probably shouldn’t waste time posting on the forums about it. You have 3 options, you can go in and accept that you will be nothing but fodder 90% of the time, you can shell out some gold and twink at a reasonable level, or you can just get over it and wait to take a break from leveling until you are at the range of 40, where equipment is much less of a problem.

The second point, and in my opinion the most important, is that the first battlegrounds with their young and non-young essentially represent a microcosm of level 70, with new 70s and veterans. Yes, a level 29 hunter with a master hunter rifle will shoot your fire mage with mission gear. In the same way, a level 70 warrior on the Season 2 or 3 team with a Stunherald will shoot 2 or 3 at my rogue 70 on the mission team. What is the difference? Well, there are some. The first is that players who want PvP as their main method of progression have to “pay their dues” at 70 to get the equipment they need to compete, whereas a humble youngster can wait until he has most of his equipment. to compete. set foot on a BG, if you wish.

Advantage: Twinks. The second is that there is a finite team cap on any given twink group, compared to the soft sand season / pve level cap at 70. This means that for a youngster, there comes a certain point where the Team progression is no longer a problem. factor, and the only reason people play is for fun. The third point, which ties in very well with the previous one, is that because of this team cap, anyone can compete if they want to, and once you get into it, you will find that there is an incredible sense of community, fun, and competition missing from the 70s scene.

There are regular discussion threads on battlegroup forums, challenges cast among other youth guilds, and 90% of the trash talk is friendly, unlike the 70 arena vitriol. Most importantly, on the fields themselves Of battle, usually, you’ll never see a youngster say “Hey, let’s lose this one, it’s a quicker honor.”

I would say that my position on the subject is quite clear. Twinking is a cool and fun part of the game that anyone can be a part of if they want to. In closing, I’d just like to ask the twinking critics to give it a try for themselves before hitting it. You may end up finding that this game is a lot more fun than you thought.