Could Twinking be coming back? Well with the upcoming release of Cataclysm it appears that Blizzard will be implementing cross-battlegroup battlegrounds (of course for those of who pleaded for this with the release of the 3.2 patch we might remember that Blizzard told us this was technically impossible). This should dramatically increase the available pool of xp-off twinks...so it might be time to dust off our old twinks and get ready to battle! We're currently expecting both normal and rated battlegrounds to be cross-battlegroup (within a region) for the launch of Cataclysm. So, players queueing from anywhere in north america (for example) could play vs players on any north american battlegroup, etc. This applies to all regions, not just north america. SOURCE Another Twist in the Path! Well after giving this some more thought, Brogrann (now named KaberKat) and Kaberdog have done what was previously unthinkable...we switched Factions to Horde and we've leveled to 50! So 49 twinking is now a historical footnote for both of us. We decided on switching to Horde since our mains Horo and Shogue are the same character classes...so it wouldn't really make a lot of sense having two Prot Warriors and Disc Priests. We 'might' move them back to Emerald Dream but at this point it doesn't make sense until we determine if we're actually going to get them to level 80. On other news, Twinkalicious continues to languish, there aren't a lot of people interested in leveling through the BGs apparently and hardly anyone has logged on for the last month. At this point we'll probably just make this a private guild since its too much of a headache to try and recruit and manage the guild particularly since the aspect of the game we know the best has changed. Twinking is Dead but not BGing! The transfer to Ruin has turned into a bust. Although the first few weeks were fine, slowly the number of games (which were only ever WSG) started to dwindle and now there are basically no games. To make matters worse the games that we did get weren't much different than playing in a regular BG and you essentially end up playing with the exact same group of people every game. Twinking is basically dead for anyone outside of 19s and end game players. So what next? Well Brogann and I are moving back to Emerald Dream so we can rejoin our mains. We've been playing our level 70s and leveling them through the xp BGs. Although the first few levels are a bit challenging by the time you get to 74 you're pretty competitive. What this means is that strategy and skill becomes much more important, so instead of endlessly looking for that piece of gear that gets you an extra 2 Stamina, its about actively communicating with the rest of the group and coordinating attacks. It's also been fun learning some new BGs, Eye of Storm is a blast, probably better than WSG and AB (or at least a nice change). So we've reinvigorated Twinkalicous and the guild is now about playing in the BGs, not about twinking (although we'll always have a 'tip o the hat' to our roots, plus I can't change ourguild name!). We've started recruiting again although I did clean out many members who haven't logged in for more than a month. So if you're reading this log in and get active. Guild bank with 4 tabs, free repairs, tons of gear and soon I'll be posting guides and information on how to play each BG. State of the Union Well after several months we have a pretty clear picture of where twinking is going and it doesn't look good. Ruin appears to be the only place to get games going for the 49 bracket and over the last month or so it has been getting worse and worse. Major communities like Pwndepot and Twinkinfo have either shut down or on life support. 49twinks.com has minimal activity and Blizzard is clearly not going to do anything to rectify the situation after all of this time. While it's still possible to get games by moving to Ruin, it would be hard for me to recommend to anyone to spend the money. However, if you invested hundreds of hours and months of time in tweaking your twink it's better than never playing at all. You can also get arena games quite easily so competitive PvP is still very much alive. Sadly, Twinkalicious the guild has become a shadow of its former self. Brogann and I now play mainly on our mains (Horo and Shogue) as we grind to level 80. I might start changing our recruiting strategy to get some new members and at least develop a community of players. Twinkalicious on the Move! Brogann (now called Sorryn) and I have now moved over to Azgalor in the Ruin Battlegroup and within minutes of logging in we were playing in WSG! The server itself is decent although nowhere near the population of Emerald Dream, however, there is plenty to buy in the AH and farming for ore/mineral is certainly less competitive! I was able to keep my character name of Kaberdog so if anyone decides to transfer just add me and when you see me online I'll invite you to the Guild. Unfortunately, it appears that non-xp twinking on the Shadowburn battlegroup is over. As a result, Kaberdog and Brogann will be heading over to the Ruin battlegroup which has seen a concentration of 49s. We've selected the Azgalor realm which is a PvP realm, in the CST timezone and part of the Dallas data center. I logged in the server and the economy is decent, there is a predominance of Alliance characters which will make mining and questing a bit easier. We'll be moving at the end of this week probably on Friday, August 28th. We'll be starting a new guild and if possible call it Twinkalicious! --------------------- Well that patch is here but with some big challenges for those of who twink. The biggest problem is that there have been no BGs for anyone playing with no-XP and above level 19 in our battlegroup since the patch went live. There is a big uproar amongst all twinks in the US and EU and Blizzard needs to hear our voices. Go to http://www.tinyurl.com/wowsuggestions and add your voice to the protest. The second challenge is that WSG now has a 20 minute timer which means you can now queue longer than you'll play. This is also causing a lot of discontent, you can sign a petition at twinkinfo to ask Blizzard to change this timer function. -------------------------------- GameZig is now hosting our first warrior prot guide at their site! You can check it out at