Twink From Scratch - An Alliance Experiment.

My hubby has reinstated his WoW account, so he suggested a project we can work on together. This is a great project in that I get to explore twinking after Lich King, after the option to do away with experience gains, and after the looking for group dungeon overhaul. I think the last thing is one of the great random things that could help make twinking great, giving people non-cookie cutter gear options for their new character.

Here I am at the starting phase. The character selection screen has changed for the better. It tells the new player just what they need to know to start with their chosen class and race. I have labeled this picture to show how it helps.

1. Racial Awareness. Everything speial you have or get to do because of your race is listed here.
2. Your background as a member of this race is here. Just enough to start you off in elementary role play.
3. The role you play in a group setting is here. Roles available are tank, damage, and healing, and you can be more than one, depending on your class.
4. Did you want to wear a pretty dressie? Than a warlock is a good choice. Not many pretty dressies in the leather, mail, or plate categories.
5. What you can expect to be able to do in your chosen class is here. Pets, damage over time spells, and specials that require imprisoned sols. Fantastic!
6. Yes, your main power source is mana. Deal with it. If it weren't you'd be an enraged warrior, an energetic rogue, even a runed death knight. Or you'd be confused and be a druid.
7. Here you find everything you wanted to know about warlocks. What kind of damage they do, how society feels about them, and what general stats your gear should be sporting.
   

Now, the picture is not entirely indicative of what I plan to play. The gnome was just cute! Next we have to decide what Race and class combo suits your style of play. Lately, I have been better at casting and ranged combat than I have been at melee, so I want a caster or a hunter. I like to heal, even in PvP, so my choices are down to druid, paladin, priest, or shaman. I like to twink the 19 bracket, just because it is the easiest to get to, with the least spells, and only one battleground. That, and if I decide that the 19 bracket is too slow, I can always turn experience gains back on and start working toward the next bracket.

Here is a breakdown, by class, of healing spells available to the level 19.

Druids have Healing Touch, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Cure Poison, Revive, and Mark of the Wild as their restorative skills. Other helpful skills include Hibernate (to get rid of nasty hunter pets), Entangling Roots, Nature's Grasp, and Travel Form (or any form to morph out of traps and snares).

Paladin have Holy Light, Purify, Redemption, and Lay On Hands as their holy spells. In the protection tree, they have some mitigation in Divine Protection, Hand of Protection, and Hand of Freedom. Other helpful skills are Devotion Aura, Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Might, and Hammer of Justice.

Priests have Lesser Heal, Heal, Renew, Dispel Magic, Cure Disease, and Resurrection in the holy tree. Power Word: Fortitude, Power Word: Shield, and Inner Fire in the discipline tree are also great tools. Other helpful spells are Psychic Scream (for when they found out you were healing), and Fade (to get the random hunter pet off you when it was running around uncontrolled).

Shaman have Healing Wave, Cure Toxins, Ancestral Spirit , and Tremor Totem as their restorative spells. Other helpful spells and totems are Ghost Wolf, Earth Shock, Wind Shear, Purge, and Stoneclaw Totem.

I have to admit I am biased toward the priest. I know priests because I play them. The paladin and shaman with only one useful healing spell apiece at 19 really don't interest me much, even if they have many other abilities. It's probably the melee feel they have with their heavier armor and weapons that turn me off. The druid, however, might win out for the difference of its healing (heals over time dominate their skills, even at 19).

Here comes the hard part. As I mentioned in this post, racial traits do matter! As a druid, I would only be able to be a night elf, with Shadowmeld, a higher chance to dodge, and a boost to nature magic resistance (plu the get out of snare free by shapeshifting). As a priest, the only race I wouldn't be able to choose (until Cataclysm) would be gnome. The benefits of certain races can be found in that post I linked earlier in this paragraph, for those who want to research. For me, I'm going to skip to professions.

At 19, the profession to have has always been and may always be Engineering. Engineering, throughout the levels, is known for its head gear and fun toys. There are 3 pairs of goggles a level 19 can wear if you have chosen engineering, Flying Tiger Goggles, Shadow Goggles, and Green Tinted Goggles. Since the twink profession, enchant and enhancement nerf of mid '09, these goggles will be the only head pieces with stats available to the 19 twink population, unless you fish, and even then, you cannot slap an arcanum on them. The Lucky Fishing Hat still wins for style and the extra stamina. I still recommend the goggles to at least start with. Better to have something than nothing. There are plenty of hats out there with a few armor with no level requirement, but as a healer, I skip them every time. Those kind of hats are only good for role play or your bank character. This is war!

What to choose for profession number two? At 19, there are no other crafting professions that you must have the profession to get the item, so my choice will be a gathering profession. Mining pairs nicely with engineering, giving another 5 stamina at 150 mining. Skinning is easy to level and grants 6 critical strike rating at 150. Herbalism is by far my favorite, giving a heal over time that you can use only on yourself, even in stealth or while invisible. Since it scales with Maximum health, this is a great twink spell to have.

To sum things up, I have chosen my intended race, class and professions for my twink experiment. Her name is Lostariel (means blooming), and she is on the Shadowsong server. She is a Night Elf Druid and will have Engineering and Herbalism, and level Fishing and Cooking. I chose Shadowsong because I have high level characters there that can help fund her growth, and help hubby with his project. Next article about her will be about planned gear and quests, and things bought to help with leveling.