Expansion Twinking In Mists of Pandaria
The playfield has recently changed completely in a specific twinking specialization bracket: Expansion Twinks. Catering to PvP Twinks of all brackets can be very lucrative, especially if you have a large Twink community on your WoW server. So with the recent major change to the Expansion Twink bracket, some auction house tactics need to be adjusted.
What Is Expansion Twinking?
Expansion Twinking is a specific style of Twinking that requires the lack of the more recent expansions. With the current PvP Battleground System, a Twink character must turn off their experience level in order to prevent leveling out of their chosen PvP Battleground level bracket. If a player has a WoW account that does not have all of the WoW expansion upgrades, then their character is capped at a certain level based on which expansion upgrades have been applied to their account. That's where Expansion Twinking comes in. An Expansion Twink is simply a Twink character that is on an account that does not have all of the WoW expansions. This results in a Twink character that cannot gain XP (due to the level cap for not having an expansion), which means the character also does not have to turn off XP in the battlegrounds. The Expansion Twinks are able to reek havoc on the battlefields due to being able to join regular battlegrounds instead of the XP off battlegrounds that other Twinks are forced to join.
Until just recently, the World of Warcraft Battle Chest only included WoW plus Burning Crusade, which left level 70 as the most common Expansion Twink Bracket. Since the last WoW patch, some players in that bracket were unexpectedly leveling out of their level 70 and forced to abandon the level 70 twinking career. What went wrong? Blizzard changed up the standard WoW Battle Chest. The current MoP Era WoW Battle Chest now includes WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King. While a level 70 character can remain twinking at level 70, that character must now pay to turn off their XP to do so, thus they are no longer an Expansion Twink. The new Expansion Twink Bracket will be at Level 80, since players without any WoW expansions will be able to play through Wrath of the Lich King, since it is now part of the standard WoW Battle Chest.
Profiting From The New Expansion Twink Bracket
The biggest change I would make regarding profiting from this change to Expansion Twinking is in regards to selling level 77-80 Cata Greens. This change instantly increases the value of any of the 77-80 Cataclysm gear pieces. Due to the increased amount of stats on these pieces, they are no longer just for leveling characters. Expansion Twinks will also be seeking out the best pieces to wear as they continue leveling within the battlegrounds. Once the Expansion Twinks hit level 80, they can continue their gear acquisation, but most of the level 80 green gear from Cata drops are going to be better than the top end Wrath gear, including most epics.
So if you are already in the market of flipping level 77-80 Cata greens, then it's time to raise the prices on the best gear, especially any lvl 80 BoE Cata gear with +Stamina and +Primary Stat. Don't sell yourself short, bump the prices up and make more gold per sale. Now level 80 blue gear with great stats combos, especially gear with gem slots, will be able to sold for a premium price as Expansion Twinks can use that Blue Cata gear and add Cata gems as well. There will also continue to be a niche market for the level 80 useable Enchants, Gems, and Belt Buckles, etc.
Twinking.Net
If you are into Twinking or are looking to get started, be sure to check out the newer site Twinking.net, which is a twinking dedicated site ran by Inkobah, an old guest poster and friend of the site here at Cold's Gold Factory.
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| MoP Era WoW Battle Chest |
The playfield has recently changed completely in a specific twinking specialization bracket: Expansion Twinks. Catering to PvP Twinks of all brackets can be very lucrative, especially if you have a large Twink community on your WoW server. So with the recent major change to the Expansion Twink bracket, some auction house tactics need to be adjusted.
What Is Expansion Twinking?
Expansion Twinking is a specific style of Twinking that requires the lack of the more recent expansions. With the current PvP Battleground System, a Twink character must turn off their experience level in order to prevent leveling out of their chosen PvP Battleground level bracket. If a player has a WoW account that does not have all of the WoW expansion upgrades, then their character is capped at a certain level based on which expansion upgrades have been applied to their account. That's where Expansion Twinking comes in. An Expansion Twink is simply a Twink character that is on an account that does not have all of the WoW expansions. This results in a Twink character that cannot gain XP (due to the level cap for not having an expansion), which means the character also does not have to turn off XP in the battlegrounds. The Expansion Twinks are able to reek havoc on the battlefields due to being able to join regular battlegrounds instead of the XP off battlegrounds that other Twinks are forced to join.
Until just recently, the World of Warcraft Battle Chest only included WoW plus Burning Crusade, which left level 70 as the most common Expansion Twink Bracket. Since the last WoW patch, some players in that bracket were unexpectedly leveling out of their level 70 and forced to abandon the level 70 twinking career. What went wrong? Blizzard changed up the standard WoW Battle Chest. The current MoP Era WoW Battle Chest now includes WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King. While a level 70 character can remain twinking at level 70, that character must now pay to turn off their XP to do so, thus they are no longer an Expansion Twink. The new Expansion Twink Bracket will be at Level 80, since players without any WoW expansions will be able to play through Wrath of the Lich King, since it is now part of the standard WoW Battle Chest.
Profiting From The New Expansion Twink Bracket
The biggest change I would make regarding profiting from this change to Expansion Twinking is in regards to selling level 77-80 Cata Greens. This change instantly increases the value of any of the 77-80 Cataclysm gear pieces. Due to the increased amount of stats on these pieces, they are no longer just for leveling characters. Expansion Twinks will also be seeking out the best pieces to wear as they continue leveling within the battlegrounds. Once the Expansion Twinks hit level 80, they can continue their gear acquisation, but most of the level 80 green gear from Cata drops are going to be better than the top end Wrath gear, including most epics.
So if you are already in the market of flipping level 77-80 Cata greens, then it's time to raise the prices on the best gear, especially any lvl 80 BoE Cata gear with +Stamina and +Primary Stat. Don't sell yourself short, bump the prices up and make more gold per sale. Now level 80 blue gear with great stats combos, especially gear with gem slots, will be able to sold for a premium price as Expansion Twinks can use that Blue Cata gear and add Cata gems as well. There will also continue to be a niche market for the level 80 useable Enchants, Gems, and Belt Buckles, etc.
Twinking.Net
If you are into Twinking or are looking to get started, be sure to check out the newer site Twinking.net, which is a twinking dedicated site ran by Inkobah, an old guest poster and friend of the site here at Cold's Gold Factory.
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I just wanted to mention that I stopped leveling at 84 on my rogue back in Cataclysm. Stopping XP at that level put you in a bracket with level 80s who had stopped, and 84s as well. Believe it or not a majority of the level 80s could stand their ground with the 84s who had ilvls of 333, because unlike the 84s they had resilience. I think with all the changes to resilience in MoP that the gear may not be such a big thing, whereas the epic gems still will be. The blues from Cata will have the same ilvl difference between MoP PvE gear and PvP gear.
ReplyDeleteI can do you one better for expansion twink gear sir, ilvl 409 MoP Blues are equippable at level 80 and should be able to be enchanted by MoP enchants that specify an ilvl of 372 (I don't know off hand if there are any that specify a char level like leg armors do).
ReplyDeletePersonally I think the level requirement is a mistake and it will eventually be changed (it just doesn't make sense to make Cata gear irrelevant), but for now, you can own the hell out of some BGs twinked out in that gear.