The 19 Twink: A Tool That Works.

On my last post someone called me out for what amounted to laziness on my part. I wanted all the fun, but I didn't want to do the research. In leaving the research up to a random website with no commenters(!), I was leaving my sad little windwalker in the dust where it came to quality gear planning. Following up on advice, I went to WoWhead and used their item search and comparison tool, just on gloves.

Oops.

The Metalworking Gloves I have been salivating over are not the best for my girl, the Foreman's Gloves are. But wait, where do they drop from?  Foreman Thistlenettle, an undead guy in the depths of the caves near the entrance to the Deadmines instance. WoWhead says he is no longer in the game, but I have news for them, he is.

Proof of undeath.

He spawns near the back corner of the Deadmines caves, behind almost all the undead, and his respawn time is between 5-10 (but usually 6) minutes. On my low pop server, there was only one other in our cross realm zone that was trying to camp him, and either he got what he wanted or gave up.

Right here!

Racy, the patient assassin, was sent to do the job.  9:35:37 AM, Friday the 26th, just one day after starting to farm for the Foreman's Gloves, they dropped, along with at least one valuable blue item. Not enough to justify the time spent, to a goblin, but enough to make it almost OK to this gal. Silly Bryonia was so excited she slapped those gloves on right away, making it impossible for me to enchant them for her! I think it can still be done through the trade window, so I will be employing a guild mate to help.

 Oh well, complain away, why not check the other non-heirloom slots? I checked the wrist slot, and my Black Wolf Bracers are the best I can get. There was a pair a little higher, but the quest to open the vendor requires level 24, even though they had no minimum use level. How about my belt?

Still some farming to do here.

Raw stats win out over secondaries in this comparison. Bryonia is wearing the Vigorous Belt of the Wild, which is third best. Since I can't enchant this slot anyway, she'll have to make do until she finds one. On to the boots!

Not surprised, really.

Feet of the Lynx have been prized by agility twinks since their first drop. Poor Bryonia was wearing third best again. I think I've seen the second best on the auction house, and I lost a roll to someone who oopsed in a dungeon on the best in slot just last week. She was incredibly luck to find them on the auction house tonight. The ring slot is already occupied with the best. For fun, why don't we look at the leg slot? This will give me a chance to compare armor addons. Did you know this tool did that?

The heirlooms are still the winner.

The Smelting Pants look like a solid winner until you look at what enhancements can be added to them. Being soulbound, the highest she can put on herself are only armor modifiers. I believe she can have someone put a Heavy Knothide Armor Kit on them, which adds 3 stamina, but it's not enough. With Shadowleather Leg Armor applied, the heirloom pants win, with the Defias pants coming in second, but not close enough to matter. But look at the set bonus! Would it be enough with the set bonus? Until I can round them up and enhance them, the world may never know (mostly because, math). Bryonia is holding onto the pants, already modified, just in case.

Window shopping.

For the chest slot, there is a better alternative than the heirloom piece. Gloomshroud Armor, a drop in Shadowfang Keep, is the best of the best. WoWhead lists the drop rate at 0%, but there are some confirmed recent sightings in the comments. Guess Racy will be in there next. She might even get lucky and have a Shadowfang to sell for her trouble!

I haven't examined every single slot, but I am exhausted. Bryonia will be set in her best in slot items as soon as can be, and I will share the finished product with you. Until then, here is a picture of her finished transmog. If she can't be perfect in her gearing, at least she can look dangerous!

Snakes!

The 19 Twink: Then and Now.

I used to enjoy the odd level 19 battleground with my bank alt Rowena when I had the time. Battlegrounds are easier when there are less spells to worry about, and the hunt for gear was so fun! Feeling a little nostalgic, I decided to bring Bryonia the savvy businesswoman to 19 and twink her out in the best of the most current gear and enchants. I decided that I wouldn't do the theorycrafting on my own, so I went to Google, and they sent me here.  Looking at their list, I cried a little inside. This was more about how much gold you had and less about what you could farm or quest for. Gone are the days of the fishing twink with engineering and maxed first aid. Say hello to heirlooms and bind on equip blues, with a couple of dungeon quest and random thrillseeker rewards tossed in. There wasn't even the danger of dinging looming over me with the tip I put in Slahtz' pocket. Here, take a look at Bryonia, missing one item (two if you count the Feet of the Lynx I must have).

Just missing her Gloves (of the fang or Metalworkers)

The biggest challenge I had was finding a transmog for such a low level character that covered all the slots. Experience locked, Bryonia did a few quests in Silverpine to cover her shameful heirlooms with something a little less, dirty. She looks ferocious and stylish. Here, for comparison, is sad little Rowena, in her way back machine twink gear.

The profile of the almost perfect 19 rogue twink, with vanilla and BC influences.

There was a time when many of Rowena's enchants were in red text, not even counting to her total. They worked when they were applied, but there was the nerf bat, then they removed the problem recently when they made enchants level appropriate. Is dodge even a stat anymore? I looted a cloak with dodge, and Rowena has her dodge ring, which I remember spending quite a large chunk of change on. I wonder what it would take to fix Rowena? Here's the link. I'm sure this site isn't the end all of twinking, and I am sure Rowena is still competitive, but let's face it, even her awesome Shadowfang can't compete with a Venerable Dal'Rends Sacred Charge. The difference with wearing what she has and switching to heirlooms would mean a large boost to her secondary stats of critical strike and haste. Here, I will post the extended stat weights for Bryonia first, then Rowena.

Bryonia is FAST! 75% haste?!

Rowena is slooooow. Almost 2% haste :(

The raw stats are comparable. They are both agility based classes, and their agility levels are practically the same. Rowena's attack power is higher, but look at all the fun critical strike chance and haste she is missing out on! Let me see if I can find the armory for a current level 19 rogue twink.

Just the stats, ma'am. You can find Unholytterro on Youtube.

The enchants this guy has are not what I would have thought to use, and means that he has put some thought into this character. His spec is Assassination, which is different from Rowena. That big chunk of critical strike chance looks like fun, doesn't it? I think Rowena may be up for a makeover. Some enchants can be done by Delgada, thanks to heirlooms. The hard ones will be the non heirloom slots, where I may have to make do with lesser enchants. Her look will remain unchanged. I plan on using her current gear to cover those nasty heirlooms.

I get an itch every once in a while to play the PvP side of the game, and this is the only way I want to play it, at low levels so that I have less spells to twiddle with. Did you know there is a tournament coming up for this bracket? I'm not competitive in the slightest, but I plan on watching this! What do you think? To me, this helps refresh my love for World of Warcraft, changing things up, making things new again. Tell me, what do you do when WoW starts to get a little stale? I'd love to hear from you!

Is This The Real Life? June Update.

No, it's just fantasy. I've been caught in a landslide, with no escape from reality. The whole song the last few sentences come from really are my life right now. I seem to be playing a lot of fantasy , but I am pulled away more by life. I want to be here, but reality keeps pulling me back in. It's summer break. Where's my "me" time?

OK, it's not me, but one of them is closely related. 

In the real world, there has been swimming and taxi service. That pretty much sums up the whole of my busyness in the real world. In my fantasy worlds, there has been a dab of WoW, a splash of Hearthstone, and a hefty scoop of Minecraft. I did manage to play about an hour of Fallout:New Vegas a couple of days ago and I plan to get into Fallout 3 as well, just to ready myself for the story of Fallout 4 when it hits. It sounds like a lot of escaping, right? I'd say roughly a third of my gaming time is actually spent away from my computer, checking on chore progress or tending to the needs of one of the other residents of this cracker box. Summer break is really only a break from the paid job of feeding kids. I'm still doing all the same stuff here, on a smaller, more demanding scale.

Stopping to smell the flowers.

In WoW, the pace has been rather slow. During the year I have little time to raid, and that leaves me behind everyone else. Sure, my garrison kept me in gear, but I've lost out on practicing fights, so I haven't asked to join in the raiding fun yet. Delgada has been lazily running dungeons for transmog and mounts. I have found a new project, which I will be posting about at length (2-3 posts) after this post. I've been slowly working on my newest 100, Racy, and Carlatta is still sitting at 98, collecting experience points from garrison missions when I remember to log her in. Bryonia is still raking in the gold, and I have bought one token, extending my current subscription to October. I figure that I will invest in one a month, that way I stay way ahead of my paid end date, leaving me a cushion in case my gold supply dwindles.

Angry chicken!

In Hearthstone, I have hit rank 13, but keep falling back below 15. I'm about halfway to having a golden hunter. I've managed to collect all the common and rare cards, and am slowly working my way to having the rest. I was crafting the epics as I had the dust, but I decided I might as well save my dust until I could make a legendary.  I crafted Ysera about a week or so ago. Which one should I craft next? I still don't have a Dr Boom, Ragnaros, Alexstrasza or a Sylvanas. I have collected all the monthly card backs, and the next one I need to get is the one from Heroes of the Storm. That would mean I would have to actually play, though.

A rollercoaster. My kids have been busy.

In Minecraft, I have rented a server. The kids and a few guild friends and I have been building a village and exploring. Too much fun! Well, until I go off on my own, get lost and die to a million zombies and a creeper. Then, lost and confused, I cannot find my things, like that cool diamond sword I crafted, and I cry for all the lost experience points. Then, I get to level 35 with a new sword, and someone opens a pit into hell in my yard and I lose everything, again. I am so frustrated, but I'm having fun! This game is brutal.

That is what I have been up to. I hope your summer is less hectic than mine! Tell me, have you explored new worlds lately? I'd love to hear of your travels!