This your first time twinking? Maybe you are getting bored with high level raids in World of Warcraft and looking for something else to do while waiting for WotLK? Maybe you are tired of getting owned in battlegrounds and want some payback? Hell maybe this isn’t your first time and you are like me, a twink addict. Or maybe you just landed here by accident, either way stick around! We’re going to show you how to have some fun with WoW and put some spark back into your game!
Whether this is your first or you’re just looking to add another twink to your WoW resume, the level 10-19 battleground bracket is a good place to be. Why? Well, for starters it’s the fastest, easiest and cheapest battleground bracket to twink in. For that same reason, don’t expect to be the only other twink out there in this bracket! That’s why rogue is a good choice here. We all know rogues can do massive amounts of damage, but the biggest reason to twink a rogue in this bracket is survivability. Rogues have the innate ability to stealth themselves - rendering themselves all but invisible to the enemy until it is time to strike. This allows the rogue to choose his fights carefully and greatly extend his life expectancy. To add to that, the twink build we’ll be designing today is going to give us a ton of extra health to be able to take on larger groups of players and live to tell the tale.
The following is a list of the equipment you are going to want to acquire, where to get it and what enchantments to place on said equipment. Some of these enchants are harder to get than others, especially the head enchant - which is the same as you would use on even a higher level twink. The rest should be fairly inexpensive and easy to find.
Head: [Lucky Fishing Hat]
This is a bind on pickup item, meaning you won’t be finding this on the auction house. To get this item, you’ll need to compete in the fishing tournament in Stranglethorn Vale, held every Sunday from 14:00 to 16:00 game time. To get this item you will first need to build up your fishing to 125. I would also seriously consider building up your engineering to 150 so you can build a Aquadynamic Fish Attractor to boost your fishing by 100 for the competition. During the tournament, you will be trying to catch a fish called Keefer’s Angelfish. If you are lucky enough to catch it, hand it over to Fishbot 5000 to receive a the hat.
This hat adds +15 to stamina which translates into 150 extra health for you twink. Let’s build on that and add a Lesser Arcane Amalgamation enchant to add +100 health to the hat as well, giving you a total bonus of 250 health from this one item.
Neck: [Sentinel's Medallion] or [Scout's Medallion]
This is a rather easy to acquire item for a twink, though you may not get it right away. You’ll need to play battlegrounds and become honored with your particular battleground faction in Warsong Gulch to get this item. Sentinel’s Medallion for the Alliance and the Scout’s Medallion for the horde. Both have the same attributes and requirements. This will give you a bonus of 20 more health and +8 agility, giving you more survivability with a plus to dodge chance and the godly critical strike chance of a twink rogue. There are no enchants for this slot.
Shoulders: [Serpent's Shoulders]
You will see a lot of other twinks rogues running around with the [Talbar Mantle], which adds +3 stamina and +6 intellect. The +3 stamina translates into 30 health for your rogue, which is nice but the intellect is utterly useless. Better to go with the Serpent’s Shoulders and get the much larger +9 agility boost that comes along with them. This is another slot that you cannot enchant.
Back: [Sentry Cloak]
This is a rare drop item off of several bosses in the Barrens. One boss in particular, a 20 elite named Qiraji Officer Zod is your best chance for this drop. However, this is a bind on equip item, meaning you do stand a chance of finding it on the auction house! Keep an eye out for this one, it will sell quickly and expensively so be prepared to buy it up if you see it - unless it’s really overpriced I wouldn’t waste your time and risk losing it by bidding. You can add an inexpensive lesser agility enchant to this item to boost it’s agility by 3. Giving you a total of +7 agility and +5 stamina from this item.
Chest: [Blackened Defias Armor]
This is a drop of the last boss in the Deadmines. By far the superior choice for a twink rogue, adding +4 strength, +3 agility and a whopping +11 stamina. This is a bind on pickup item, so you’ll be needing to venture out to get this baby yourself. You can add to the real strength of this item with a +100 health enchant giving you a total boost to your health of 210 from this one item.
Wrist: [Forest Leather Bracers]
I know I know, “But Black..these are only green items”. Ya, but don’t let that discourage you. These are the most widely used and best choice for a rogue twink. They are simple to acquire as they are a PVP reward like the necklace. They add a bonus of +5 to your agility maximizing your damage output and you can add a +9 stamina enchant to give you an extra 90 health out of this item.
Gloves: [Scouting Gloves]
These are going to be found on the auction house, but you want to choose carefully the gloves you buy. Even if they carry the name ‘of the Monkey’ they do come in several different flavors. You will find some that add +4 to agility and only +3 to stamina or vise versa. If you search long enough you will find a pair that offers +4 to both stats, so keep that in mind when buying these gloves. Add onto these a +15 agility enchant, these are going to be your big hitters in terms of critical chance bonus for damage and dodge chance for survivability.
Waist: [Deviate Scale Belt]
Easy to acquire item - just buy it off the auction house. These are usually fairly cheap as many leveling leatherworkers will make and sell these for some quick coin. These will give you a bonus of +5 agility, +6 stamina and +3 spirit. Don’t waste your time looking for it, there is no enchant for this slot.
Feet: [Feet of the Lynx]
You’ll be able to find these for sale on the auction house - for a price. You have two good choices here for your enchant, a +7 stamina enchant for 70 extra health or a PVP favorite, slight speed increase enchant. In my opinion the boost to speed outweighs the 70 extra health but I’ll leave that up to you.
Legs: [Shimmering Trousers]
At first glance, these are not the best twink leggings because of their initial stats. What makes these great are that they are bind on equip. Why? Because of the enchant. The pants themselves will only add +5 agility and +5 stamina. But when you add Nethercleft Leg Armor to the mix, you get 40 more stamina and 12 more agility out of them. By far the biggest bonus of any of your other enchants. Giving you a total of 450 health when combined with the leg armor enchant. The reason you have to have BOE legs is you have to hand these over to a higher level player to imbue the enchant for you. You can’t trade BOP items.
Finger: [Seal of Sylvanas] or [Seal of Wrynn]
The Seal of Sylvanas for the Horde or the Seal of Wrynn for the Alliance are quest rewards for a long chain quest starting either in Westfall Keep for the Alliance or Undercity for the Horde. These beauties add +3 strength and +8 stamina. Yep, 80 more health.
Finger: Protector’s Band or Legionnaire’s Band
Both the Protector’s Band (Alliance) and Legionnaire’s Band (Horde) are PVP reward items - you get them for doing what a twink does. Battlegrounds. They both have the same stat bonus of +4 strength, +4 agility and +2 stamina.
Trinket: Your factions Insignia Trinket
This is another PVP reward item but you need to build up honor points to get this, not marks of honor. So world PVP or battleground PVP will suffice to build up enough honor to buy this trinket. This will help to free you of fear or polymorph effects. A big upset for Warlocks and Mages who get lucky enough to get a spell off on you.
Trinket: [Arena Grand Master]
This baby is a real beauty. A little bit of a pain to get but I think you’ll find it was worth the effort. This baby adds +12 to your dodge rating, which in and of itself is going to seriously increase your survivability in battlegrounds when coupled with your advanced agility as a twink. But this item also comes with a use that when activated absorbs 750 to 1250 damage for up to 20 seconds. Great for attacking large groups of players, effectively almost doubling your health, even as a twink.
This is by far the least known and the most difficult twink item to get, you must get 12 “Arena Master” trinkets from the chest in the Gurubashi arena. These chests only drop every 3 hours and you won’t be the only one always looking, so be prepared to spend some time on gathering up for this item. But you’ll be glad you did!
Main Hand: [Shadowfang]
You could try to get this weapon from Shadowfang Keep to save yourself some coin, but I wouldn’t bother and just grab it off of the auction house. It is usually pretty commonly available for a price, due to it being an obviously popular twink weapon, but sometimes you can find it for a real steal. Once you have it, pop the Crusader enchant on it for some serious damage.
Off Hand: [Assassin's Blade] or the [Cruel Barb]
Either weapon can be used in your off hand and both have nice bonuses and damage output. The Cruel Barb is a bit better in my opinion but it’s also harder to get as it is a bind on pickup item out of the Deadmines. The Assassin’s Blade is usually commonly available on the auction house. Either of these weapons would be great with a +15 agility enchant, now that’s cruel!
Sidearm: [Venomstrike]
Nice for those rare occasions your target is getting away from you and you need to get in that finishing blow. This bow gives a nice damage output on it’s own and also has a chance to proc for 31 to 45 nature damage, adding a nice touch to this twink.
All said and done, you stand to gain an extra 1,370 health from these items and enchants. Not counting all the extra dodge chance you’ll get from the agility and plus to dodge items. Couple that with an extra 1,250 damage mitigated from the Arena Master Trinket and you’ll have up to five enemy players trying in vein to chop you down with a bonus to health up to 2,620. That’s not counting your base health at all. If you get lucky and get buffs from priests, druids and warlocks your health can easily increase into the mid 3,000 range. Making even other twinks just give up at the mere sight of you.
Remember to keep on hand plenty of high level bandages, healing even the highest stamina twinks fully in four to five seconds. Keep a good amount of healing potions on hand as well - for this level they’ll only heal up to 300 health but if it’s done to the wire between you and another twink that could be enough to be the victor in a battle of titans.
As far as talents, you really don’t have a lot to play with in the low level brackets so use them wisely. There is a bunch of talent builds that you could go with that are good to have but my personal favorite in terms of a mix of damage and survivability is 3/3 Improved Gouge for stun locks, 2/2 Sinister Strike and 5/5 Lightning Relfexes, giving you an additional 5% chance to dodge. Don’t forget to keep your evasion ability on standby for those hard to get to targets like Hunters that will try to kill you from a distance. The extra dodge will buy you the time you need to get to them and kill them quickly. Good luck!
